Today's medical term

[mellicious]

buffy coat
the light-colored layer of blood that is seen when anticoagulated blood is centrifuged or allowed to stand. It appears as a layer between the plasma and erythrocytes* and is composed of leukocytes and platelets.

*definitions for the definition:
erythrocytes = red blood cells
leukocytes = white blood cells
platelets = the things that make your blood clot


First definition from anatomy class! I had never heard this term before - even in Medical Terminology - and as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan of old, I was amused. (The medical dictionary does not give an origin but I'm guessing it's from "buffer" given the definition.)


In other news, I am as surprised as anybody to report that I liked Terminator: Salvation. Actually I liked it quite a lot more than I expected to, although admittedly this is a low bar since my expectations were practically zero. If I can gather my thoughts sufficiently - always a crapshoot, with me - I may have more to say about this later.

Comments

[ursulahitler.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the Terminator movie, but it seemed obvious to me it was a victim of the fan-pile effect, where fans go in with sky-high expectations and when the thing turns out to be less than they expected - or DIFFERENT than the expected - they spend the next 10 years trying to top each other with how much they HATED(!!!!) it. Eventually, even admitting you liked it while get you funny looks. (See, the Matrix sequels, Heroes from season two onward, et al.)

I heard somebody say that you don't find out until the end of the movie that the guy's a robot. If so, that's a SHITTY ad campaign, because everybody's going into the movie knowing how it ends.

[ursulahitler.livejournal.com]

Damn it. Not while get you funny looks. Will. Me hate typos.

Spoilers ahoy!

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

Nah, they show the guy getting executed at the beginning, and you know that he's giving his body to Cyberdyne (I won't attempt to explain why!), so as soon as he shows up again you know he's got to be some kind of infiltrator or something. And you find out for sure that he's a robot/cyborg thingamajig about... halfway in, I guess? maybe two-thirds of the way at the latest. If anybody thinks he just magically shows up alive again as a normal human, they're just being dense. (Although the guy is a good enough actor to really make you root for him, which may be part of the problem, in a way!)

Re: Spoilers ahoy!

[ursulahitler.livejournal.com]

Oops... I guess my comment could be considered spoiler-y... But then again, it's only based on seeing Christian Bale say, "So, you think you're human," 9000 times in the trailers.

I can't remember if it was K or where I heard it, but I remember some lady calling a particular coat her "Buffy coat."

[anjea.livejournal.com]

Yay! Learned something new!

Re: Spoilers ahoy!

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't saying your comment was spoilery - I don't think it counts as spoilery if it's based on the trailer! But I've seen the movie, so my reply was definitely spoilers. (I have learned to be fairly careful about this, after getting fussed at a few times.)