Irukandji, Spiderman, and Renegade

If you follow my Twitter feed, you'll know that I've been watching Season 4 of CSI: New York, and that I detect just a whisper of shark-jumping. It was the time travel ep which did it for me, but the one I've just seen features Irukandji jellyfish.

For those of you who don't want the plot spoiled... yeesh, I have no idea what to say to you. Don't read this post, clearly, but also: are you kidding me? 

Okay, so the girl dies because there are microscopic-yet-lethal jellyfish in an inflatable olive.

She does not notice that she is getting pulmonary edema because of the heroine and fentanyl drug cocktail she has taken.

And she dies.

In seconds.

Now, for some reason, this all struck me as weird and unlikely. Do not ask me how I was able to sit through Gary Sinise's character lecturing me on wormhole physics in the time travel episode without catching fire and exploding, and yet was annoyed by this. I cannot tell you. Perhaps it was the resigned, dignified way in which Sinise spoke the lines, as if to say: I have no clue how you're supposed to find this credible, but if you'll invest another twenty minutes of your life, I'll give the best performance I can. And you know what? It was enjoyable, in a weird way. And what else are you going to do with what must be the twentieth season of a CSI show? Honestly? 

So, I looked it up. Irukandji jellyfish. As far as I can tell, no, the plot doesn't work perfectly - opiates and Fentanyl are actually the usual treatment for Irukandji syndrome, and onset isn't as quick as it appears to be in the show. Still, it was actually pretty close.

The truly awful thing? In no sense would heroine be enough to prevent the victim from screaming her head off. For hours. And hours.

Irukundji syndrome, though rarely fatal, is utterly terrifying and vile. To hell with sharks... this little monster is really, really alarming.

Yikes.

So I went off to cheer myself up on teh Interwebs. And lo, I was shown Barack Obama's (do you see how he's always the source of the goodness at the moment?) Secret Service codename:

Renegade.

Michelle is Renaissance.

Better yet, they put the codenames up on some kind of billboard thingy.

Best of all, these codenames are chosen without reference to the person concerned. Yes, yes, they are. It's just coincidence that George W. is Tumbler and his father is Timberwolf. And that Hilary is Evergreen and Bill is Eagle. And, and, and... so on.

Coincidence.

More wonderful even than that - the question the pundits did not ask:

is America ready for a geek president?

Yes. The New Hope collects Spiderman and Conan the Barbarian comics.

Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any better...