Our Wonderful Nature

I found a delightful nature documentary video about water shrews that I want to share - please view THIS video.

Happy Birthday, Wacked!

Source

It's FAF time!

FAF (friday afternoon fun). Enjoy this office battle!

A little silliness for your afternoon.

You can't help but smile and laugh watching this. My favorite segment is the one in India.

E. Coli, Evolution, and Eeee-diots

(sorry for the forced alliteration)


photo source

THIS article has an exchange between a microbiologist (whose findings indicate long term evolution of an E. Coli colony to grow on a citrate substrate)and the creationist yahoo who runs Conservapedia. An interesting read (dialogue should not be read if you are having blood pressure issues, have a heart condition, or are experiencing high levels of stress). I found the microbiologist's responses to this cretin to be intelligently composed and an excellent smack down, though I have my doubts about whether the creationist has any idea that he got thoroughly smack-downed. I'm particularly amazed at how restrained the microbiologist managed to stay despite the rudeness and outright slander being spouted off about him by the creationist.

mmmmm Cofffeeeeeeee

I knew I was doing something good for me...

Colorful Coffee Composition Photo by 'Once and Future' / Flickr

"Sure, the commercials love to (show?) people energized by the mere whiff of a steaming pot of coffee -- but new research shows that those commercials may not be far off the mark. Just smelling the aroma of coffee is enough to change the activity of several genes in rats, researchers report this week in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The affected genes appear to help the animals deal with resistance to the stresses caused by sleep deprivation."

Birding my Bedroom (at 5:30am)

I hate them!

The most annoying, obnoxious bird, oh how I hate your screeching!!! Apparently Henry David Thoreau agreed calling it an "unrelenting steel-cold scream,”



Am I the only one waking up at 5:30 due to the Blue Jays in the backyard?

Chants and Cheese

+ =


Who would have figured Gregorian chants would help make spectacular cheese? Apparently these guys discovered it!

Happy Birthday, Sheyl!!!

Today's Lunchtime Birding

Today Ruth and I spotted a beautiful Scarlet Tanager , as identified for us by someone else.

Ruth has suggested the name Roy, but for some reason it just doesn't work for me.

this is funny.

Treadmill Kittens

Solstice Moon

(source)
Tomorrow evening is the solstice moon - one where the moon appears to be gigantic on the horizon. Check out this NASA page that explains some possible theories for this moon illusion.

i posted these...

...on facebook, but i will attempt to stay loyal to the blog and post them here as well.

stories such as this are amazing, but they also break my heart:
http://blog.ted.com/2008/05/unbelievable_ph.php

and, the story she tells in the first two minutes here is amazing, crazy:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/91

Doomsday Watch - stay tuned!

Well, today is supposed to be doomsday, according to the one "expert" I posted about yesterday. I thought perhaps it would be a brilliant idea to keep a blog record of doomsday, at least as long as I have fingers to type and a head on my shoulders to keep observing with (who knows what will be the effects of the horror that will be doomsday).

Some day, some future mutant generation of intelligent cockroaches (the only things likely to survive a doomsday holocaust) may look back at this blog record and say "wow, that is some powerful record keeping of the last day of the world as that strange human population knew it, we should make this blogger famous, posthumously, and perhaps name a national holiday after her."

So here goes.

June 12

10:46 am: world still here, seems to be functioning normally (or as normal as is possible for this wacky wacky world). Note to self: I wonder why he picked this day, it would seem more fitting for it to be tomorrow, Friday the 13th. Oh well, not my place to back-seat organize a doomsday.

11:01 am: Possible portent of the end or is it what will be left of us after the end?



HERE is a depiction of some of our most powerful images in a unique medium.

11:13 am: stumbled across yet another portent of the end:
(source)
A pig that doesn't like to get dirty and will only go in mud with booties on, definitely a sign that the end is near (see video here). Next sign is expected to be snowman found not melting on Caribbean beach.

11:24 pm: still here, no sign of the apocalypse

June 13

10:16 am: well, we have all narrowly escaped yet another doomsday. This day should be a day of rejoicing - I declare today to be known forever more as The Day After The Day We Didn't Die in an Apocalyptic Sized Nuclear Meltdown.

Feel free to abbreviate (TDATDWDDASNM) in your calendars.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die... at least according to this wingnut

Pencil it in your calendars, folks, the doomsday cometh tomorrow, June 12th.

On a totally different note, happy 98th birthday to Jacques Cousteau!

Gotta love newspapers

THIS website has a great collection of odd items from newspapers - from strange police dispatch reports, like the one above, to amusing misprints like the one below of a portable dehumanizer.