When I worked at Lockhead, in the early 80s, they had a guard stationed across from the women's bathroom to keep track of the time spent in there. Eventually someone figured out that the cost of full-time guard at each ladies rooms was way more than the cost of time spent in the rooms.

When I worked at NOAA in the mid-80s, someone opened the crate that contained a canister of Ethanethiol (the Natural Gas oderant) - the canister was inside an airtight container inside another airtight container and yet it cleared half the building. Ethanethiol is so nasty it only takes a few molecules to be noticed

Right now I am unemployed - $10k would sure look good to me

Caltrop is the first thing I thought when I saw the opened tool. (I remember and curse the 4-sided die from my D&D days).

When I worked at NOAA, it was all the rage to print your name on a styro-cup and attach it to the outside of one of the submersibles. A 16 oz cup comes back about thimble-sized once all the air is removed. People ask how did you write your name so small?

Mark Twain joked that the Egyptians burned mummies as fuel for their locomotives(Innocents Abroad).

I have not ever been able to tolerate any of p.n. drugs - I fall asleep. They tell me to titrate up until the pain is gone but I never get to a point where i can stay awake long enough to tell if the drugs work (neurontinsa and nortripyline).

Unfortunately drugs do nothing for peripheral neuropathy - well, make that most pain drugs do nothing for p.n. There is a certain amount of associated pain that is dulled by pain drugs but the p.n. pain itself is always there. The only medication that works for me is distraction so I self-medicate with first person…

There is a group of Australian aborigines who do not use words for left and right - they always know what direction they are facing so any reference we would make for left or right would actually be a reference to the direction - eg. your north eye, look over your west shoulder. An ethnographer who worked with them…

And you can make a non-Newtonian fluid with it. You can grab the liquid and make it into a ball in your hand but as soon as you release the pressure on it, it will flow through your fingers

I remember watching the movie THX1138 - all the actors but one (Donald Pleasance, I think) were either blond or gingers. Everyone had their heads shaved and wore white coveralls — anyway, I could never follow the plot because because all I could see were the freckles. If it weren't for the bumps, I probably would…

I read the book at the same age as you and saw the movie when it first came out and could not watch some parts of the movie. Even that poster with Malcolm and his switchblade and his eye still gives me the creeps and yet is strangely compelling.

My first rise is perfect but I can't get the bread to make an acceptable second rise - still damn good bread but...

I vaguely remember a meme floating around about how you could use lasers to read glass bottles that were etched on a lathe. The theory being that guy would be chatting with his neighbor while etching and it would be like an old Edison cylinder recording.

I used this trick to fix a handrail attached to a marble facade - 3 headless matches, some elmer's, and the rail was food for another 10 years. It is a simple compression trick and only takes about 5 minutes.

A local glass shop was selling a mold that you filled with glass frit and put into the microwave - it would fuse the frit into a glass object. We did not have a microwave at the time (1991 or so) - all we had was a kiln so I did not buy or try the m-wave mold.

@Chromeo's name has nothing to do with the band Chromeo: Including moderation

@karlvb: When I worked driller's aid on a seismograph crew, part of my job was assembling the charge. I would screw 3 tubes of blasting 'goo' together, poke a hole in it near an end, and poke a blasting cap into it. With quick twist, I could lower the charge into the hole using the wiring of the cap. The point of…

@Jack: The photocopy allowed me to get a duplicate made in the Paris Consulate after some pickpockets got my fanny pack. The most interesting thing about the process were the questions asked that dig pretty deep into 'low culture' like:

Interesting! my g.friend turned me on to V and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen