Ponderings of a Scientist

The Country Boy posted an interesting question and it got me thinking about other things I’ve seen people do in unison to save time.  The list below of “double the fun” tasks is this weekish period’s Pet Peeve:

1. Woman that put on make-up while driving - although men putting on make-up while driving is okay, mostly because I would love to see that!
2. People that read the newspaper while sitting in trafffic.  If you want to read the paper consider public transportation!
   
3. People that answer their cell phone’s while doing any of the following:
• Talking to someone in person, specifically sales clerks, waiters, or other service workers.
• Excerising at the gym
• Riding their bikes
• Riding on public transportation
• Hanging out at the bookstore or library
• While calling the cat - Old Man

THE JACKASS PENGUIN

HEADLINE, HEADLINE, Read all about it

So I will write a post with many of these.  Thus you do not understand with out these.  Zipy-esque post complete!  Love the Monkey.

Well thanks to the new sister-in-law you all get to continue enjoying my posts.  She was a bit after the deadline, but I wasn’t up at midnight to check anyway!  Now I guess I have to come up with some interesting things to post about….hum…..well I don’t have anything now and I’m at work so it will have to wait.

Synopsis of weekend:  Saturday, hiking with the want-a-bee Spaniard and the Monkey!  Mt. Osceola - don’t attempt unless you enjoy miles of strenous uphill hiking and rock scrambling and dangerous decents sliding on loose rock!  A decent view at the top of the Presidentials and neighboring mountains, but not enough to justify the hike - unless you want to hike for hiking’s sake.  Sunday, packing, packing and more packing!  Moving starts on Wednesday.  If anyone is interested in hanging out on the deck of an empty condo for a celebatory BBQ and champagne toast on Wednesday p.m let me know.  I need some brave folks to help Zipy drink the champagne, otherwise he will drink the whole bottle, minus my sip, and have a huge headache on Thursday - will he ever learn?  Also started reading “Entanglement” by Tora Johnson - nonfictional account of the conflict between fishing gear, ships, and whales - will review when complete!

I know I’ve been neglecting this blog as of late (see previous bloggy complaints for explaination), however, confounding the problem of my seldom posting, is that I’m not convinced anyone besides Zipy reads this damn thing. Where did all my friends go? Apparently, I have nothing of interest to say. Albeit Tizzom’s complaints it seems I was doing better talking (writing) about politics then talking about science! Well damn you all! I give up. If I don’t received four comments, from four different people, to this post my site will be off air (or wire, cable, dsl) as of midnight Sunday.

Time is ticking (tick, tick, tick)… if only I knew how to insert a count down clock

2 days, 10 hours, 35 minutes

2 days, 10 hours, 34 minutes

2 days, 10 hours, 33 minutes………………………………

Apparently some Mexican fishermen were just rescued from sea after 3-11 months. They were picked up in Taiwan and communication difficulties have prevented more details from coming forth. This could be a new record for days at sea in a survival situation (currently it’s ~150 days); stay tuned for more detail…

Spend less money on books and more time engaged in your community! The Library Look-up Project.

“If your local library uses one of the online catalog systems listed here, you may be able to create a bookmarklet that will help you look up books in your library.

After you’ve “installed” your bookmarklet by dragging it to your browser’s link toolbar, you can use it to look up books at your local library. Let’s say you’re on a book-related site (Amazon, BN, isbn.nu) and your current page’s URL includes an ISBN. (Choose a hardcover edition for best results — see tips below.) You can click your bookmarklet to check if the book is available in your local library. The bookmarklet will invoke your library’s lookup service, feed it the ISBN, and pop up a new window with the result.” - Jon Udell

This week I’m giving props to the Reptiles.  Reptiles ruled the roost, so to speak (they are most closely related to birds), before a catastrophic event (likely a massive meteor hitting Mexico/the Gulf of Mexico) triggered a mass extinction some 65 million years ago.  This extinction event allowed for the lesser mammals, which had been religated to the worst earthy habitats, to take over space and food resources once dominatated by the reptilians.  From their, these rodent sized mammals spread and diversified, eventually covering most of the Earth’s ecosystems and spawning a lineage of prosimians later to evolve the primate destroyer species of the Earth, Homo sapien.  Thank’s reptiles for clearing the path for Mammailian Dominance….

Spotlight:  Alligator Snapping Turtle!  This grumpy looking guy is a walking fossil, like his reptile cousins the Crocs and Alligators, turtles haven’t done much evolving in the last 100+ million years.  Apparently, they figured out this survival of the fittest thing long before Darwin.  (Just think, had the Dinosaurs lived, mammals could still be a minimal family of misfits stuck in the dank and dark places of the world.)  While I personally prefer charismatic sea turtles, I wanted to highlight a lesser known species.  Alligator Snappers have a lure on their tongue that attracts their prey and then snap down the gullet!  How’s that for lazy (genius), sit and let dinner come to you!