You're welcome.

Must See TV

You simply must:

Go to You Tube.
Search for "Heart House" Austin.
Watch the Healthy Feelings Rap.
Try to not be jealouse of my awesome job.

Those be my students!!

Distant Future Phone Socks

they're Stephen's

Distant Future Camping Trip?

it's Mars

Future summer, fall, and winter camping trips?

guess what showed up mysteriously on my doorstep?

even though comandante phone sock died tragically in the swiss alps (investigation still pending), it appears he fathered some illegitimate children that somehow managed to track me down. the legend lives on, in six amazing new colors!

Pubdate: Wed, 16 Apr 2008
Source: Ann Arbor News (MI)
Copyright: 2008 The Ann Arbor News
Author: Charmie Gholson

INCREASINGLY MILITARIZED 'DRUG WAR' HAS SKEWED POLICE PRIORITIES

In early March, the Michigan State Police and Michigan's multijurisdictional drug teams participated in "Operation Byrne Blitz," a statewide drug sweep that led to 223arrests and the seizure of more than 460 pounds of marijuana.

It was publicized as part of a national effort to interrupt drug trafficking. Personally, I believe it was part of a sensationalistic media ploy, meant to scare citizens and prevent Congress from cutting the federal Byrne grant money - federal money used to fight our U.S.-style war on drugs.

Several weeks ago, the state attorneys general banded together to paint a horrific picture of societal pandemonium if these funds aren't restored. As "Operation Byrne Blitz" proved, there are criminals on the loose.

How much safer is your community because of these busts?

On March 3, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an investigative report authored by Joe Mahr, "Being elusive is easy - Fugitives can run and need not hide." The report details the abject failure of law enforcement to search for and incarcerate federal fugitives.

From the report:

More than one third of felony warrants are not entered into a national database routinely checked by police across the nation.

Few fugitives are hunted, and most states do not screen for criminal warrants before issuing a new license.

When fugitives are found in other states, authorities routinely refuse to pick them up, including those wanted for violent crimes.

Among these missing felons include 40 percent of Michigan's rape warrants.

Yes, you read that correctly. Forty percent of Michigan's rape warrants aren't even entered into the database.

How safe do you feel now?

Here's the real kicker: The primary reason for lack of pursuit (of felony fugitives) is stretched budget and staffing shortages.

Excuse me? We don't have the money or people to follow up on 40 percent of Michigan's rape warrants, but somehow the investigators of "Operation Byrne Blitz" had enough of both to coordinate a statewide sting and carry it out in a spectacular show of force?

According to Dave Doddridge, former Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officer and a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, "In 1991, Washington suddenly began offering lots of protective armor and equipment. We gladly took it, now looking more like military than police, and little realized that we were becoming addicted to our own kind of dope - image and prestige. In their mad dash to prosecute the war on drugs, Washington was sponsoring SWAT teams all across the land with the stipulation that, the more dope you seize, the more M-16s and armored personnel carriers you get.

Doddridge says there are now more than 1,700 SWAT teams across America, many with nothing to do but serve drug warrants. With little to do, they are now unleashed on American citizens in situations foreign in years past. On Jan. 4 of this year, one of these SWAT teams shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson, in front of her six children, while serving a drug warrant for her boyfriend. In fact, according to a Cato policy paper "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids," authored by Radley Balko, "these increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they're sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers.

We should all be asking these questions of our sheriff's department: What's the ratio of narcotics officers compared to those assigned to the warrant squad - and what hours do they work? How about the sex crimes squad? Or the child abuse squad? How about homicide? What are the budgets for these units? What is the budget for the narcotics unit?

It is easily proven that non-violent drug offenses account for a significant number of occupied jail beds in the U.S. And it's costing us ridiculous amounts of money to investigate, prosecute and incarcerate them. Currently we have about 2.3 million in custody.

Why? Why are non-violent drug offenders filling our prisons - building prisons is the fastest growing industry in the country - while the criminals who are a serious threat to society are left to mingle among us? Allowed to continue raping, robbing and killing?

To me the answer is simple, because I'd rather have my sheriff's department chasing psychopathic felons than pot dealers: Refocus our priorities. Shift the funds, manpower and time so you can simply enter the names of rapists into the databases. Then, check the darn thing before you issue a driver's license, and when you find a wanted felon - put him in the jail cell.

How hard can that be?

Obviously, it's much harder than arresting potheads.

Test tube meat... mmm....

pseudo-salmon anyone?
..... I'm sure you guys are way ahead of me on this, but just in case you thought meat could get any less natural to consume.....
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/invitro_meat

P-
if no harm is done to animals, looks like test tube meat could be for you hey? mmm.....

Another long article. Another "that's what he said."

How to Forget Life Sucks.

I'm doing one of these things as I type these very words.

Okey dokey

I've actually wondered about this for awhile which makes me think that you have too. I know this looks long (that's what he said) but I promise it's a fairly quick read.

Top Things to Recycle

If you're anything like the people at HowStuffWorks, then odds are good you've already gone through several of these today. You're probably finishing off another one right now. Drawing a blank? I'm talking about the ubiquitous aluminum can. Sometimes touted as a recycling success story, aluminum cans are not only the most frequently recycled product, but also the most profitable and the most energy efficient.

The recycling of aluminum, which is made from bauxite ore, is a closed-loop process, meaning that no new materials are introduced along the way. Aluminum is infinitely recyclable: Cans can be recycled over and over again without degrading. Because of this efficiency, more than two-thirds of all the aluminum ever produced is still in use today [source: Aluminum Now]. So the next time you're feeling lazy and the recycling bin seems so much farther away than the garbage can, you might want to think about the following:

Recycling aluminum prevents the need to mine for ore to create new aluminum. It requires 4 tons of ore to create 1 ton of aluminum.
Recycling aluminum cans takes 95 percent less energy than creating new ones.
The energy it takes to produce one can could produce 20 recycled cans.
The energy saved from recycling one aluminum can could power a 100-watt light bulb for four hours or a television for three hours [sources: Can Manufacturers Institute, Russell].

Not all recyclable products deserve the bragging rights that aluminum does, but some materials come close.

Steel: another recyclable metal made mainly from mined ore, requires 60 percent less energy to recycle than it does to make anew [source: Economist]. Recycling one ton of steel prevents the mining of 2,500 pounds (1,134 kilograms) of iron ore, 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms) of coal and 120 pounds (54 kilograms) of limestone [source: Scottsdale].

Plastic: usually downcycled, meaning it is recycled into something of lesser value like fleece or lumber, but requires 70 percent less energy to recycle than to produce from virgin materials [source: Economist]. And while some people argue that recycling plastic is a lost cause because of its tendency to weaken during reprocessing, manufacturing plastic from new materials requires the messy business of mining for oil and natural gas. Even if plastic can only be recycled once, that's one time that oil and natural gas can be saved.

Glass: recycling glass is 33 percent more energy efficient (and cheaper) than starting fresh and involves no downcycling [source: Economist].

Rethinking Printer Cartridge and Paper Recycling

Ever wonder what happens to your printer cartridges when you leave them at the office supply store or send them away in the mail? You might be surprised to learn that 80 percent of the e-waste that Americans drop off for recycling ends up in Asia. In 2004, the United States exported $3.1 billion worth of scrap to China, where recycling is largely unregulated and labor is cheap [source: Goldstein]. The demand for recyclables in China makes trash the U.S.'s biggest money-making export to the country, exceeding even electronics and airplane parts [source: Goldstein]. Not only does that transport use up a lot of gas, but it also dumps a lot of pollution into the atmosphere.

Countries like the U.S. might be able to justify sending their recyclables to another country if they were efficiently and responsibly recycled, but according to a report by the Basel Action Network, or BAN, those printer cartridges are only desirable because of the traces of ink they still contain. Once the ink is scraped out, the cartridges are either burned or discarded in the river, making the water unfit to drink. The water in the Lianjiang River in China has 200 times the acceptable amount of acid and 2,400 times the acceptable amount of lead [source: Judge].

While sending recyclable ink cartridges to rest in Chinese rivers is not a good idea, the answer to whether to recycle paper is not so obvious. On the one hand, it takes 40 percent less energy to recycle paper than it does to produce it from virgin stock -- half as much when it's newspaper. Recycling paper also prevents it from lying in a landfill [source: Economist]. On the other hand, paper gradually degrades during the recycling process, so it can only be recycled a few times.

Depending on where the paper is being recycled and how tight the controls are, paper recycling may produce up to 5,000 more gallons of contaminated wastewater per ton of paper than making it new [source: Sheffield]. When companies recycle paper, they mix it with water and usually chemicals to remove the ink. The water picks up traces of cadmium and lead, and if it's not reclaimed (or recovered), the chemicals and ink dyes are released into the watershed.

Critics of paper recycling also argue that trees are planted solely for the purpose of harvesting them for paper, so paper is a renewable resource [source: Sheffield]. Others, however, contend that old-growth forests often are cut down to make room for those tree stands [source: Grabianowski]. In the end, whether you think recycling paper or anything else is worthwhile is based on your priorities. Which is more important? Old-growth forests or clean lakes and streams? Keeping waste out of landfills or keeping chemicals out of the water?

Just as all products aren't created equal, all recycling processes aren't created equal either. Not all paper recycling plants emit contaminated water, and not all ink cartridges end up in the Lianjiang River. If you can ensure that your recyclables are going to a reputable facility, then recycle them. Otherwise, if you toss out the occasional ink cartridge or make a few free throws into the wastebasket, you may not need to beat yourself up. But if you've been throwing away all of your aluminum cans, you may want to think twice. For every case of soda or beer you chug and subsequently dump in the trash, you're essentially pouring an entire gallon of gasoline down the drain [source: Russell].


AND IN CASE YOU'RE THINKING:

Is what we're recycling actually getting recycled?

Recyclables are considered a commodity -- a good that can be sold. Those cans, bottles and boxes you recycle can be broken down into raw materials again and sold to manufacturers. And since consumers like products made from recycled materials, manufacturers buy more recycled materials for their products. This means the prices for these commodities increases, which means recycling programs remain feasible.

So recyclables are valuable. Trash, on the other hand, is not. In fact, waste companies are generally charged fees for the right to dump their waste collections at landfills. And really the only difference between trash and recyclables is what happens after they’re picked up. So ultimately, it would be a terrible business model for a waste management company to pick up your recyclables and simply dump them in a landfill.

Sorting Recycled Material

Since your recyclables will eventually be sold to manufacturers, they must meet certain standards. They can’t have too many impurities, since recycled materials compete with virgin materials for use in manufacturing. So the cleaner the materials you return, the more likely it is they will be recycled.

The Minnesota Recycling Program says this means that a pizza box covered in grease and cheese you toss in your recycling bin will end up in a landfill. So, too, will tiny pieces of broken glass, especially when the pieces are different colors (called mixed-glass cullet). And many recycling programs won't take some products that are very difficult to recycle. Chief among them is PVC. This kind of plastic (which can be identified by the 3 inside the recycling symbol these products bear) contains too many additives to be recycled in most cases, since these additives can affect the purity of a batch of recycled plastic.

The remnants of the materials that can’t be recycled is called residual. The less residual a recycling plant allows, the more money it makes, since residual is simply thrown away at a cost to the recycling outfit.

AND

Why the f isn't there more publicity/attention paid to this:

Why is the world's biggest landfill in the Pacific Ocean?

­In the broad expanse of the northern Pacific Ocean, there exists the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The area is an oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and sailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It's the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

Ummm, did you just read that?? Give it another looksie.

The gyre has actually given birth to two large masses of ever-accumulating trash, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, sometimes collectively called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas (WHAT!?!) [source: LA Times]. The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii. Each swirling mass of refuse is massive and collects trash from all over the world. The patches are connected by a thin 6,000-mile long current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone. Research flights showed that significant amounts of trash also accumulate in the Convergence Zone.

The garbage patches present numerous hazards to marine life, fishing and tourism. But before we discuss those, it's important to look at the role of plastic. Plastic constitutes 90 percent of all trash floating in the world's oceans [source: LA Times]. The United Nations Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic [source: UN Environment Program]. In some areas, the amount of plastic outweighs the amount of plankton by a ratio of six to one. Of the more than 200 billion pounds of plastic the world produces each year, about 10 percent ends up in the ocean [source: Greenpeace]. Seventy percent of that eventually sinks, damaging life on the ocean floor [source: Greenpeace]. The rest floats; much of it ends up in gyres and the massive garbage patches that form there, with some plastic eventually washing up on a distant shore.

The main problem with plastic -- besides there being so much of it -- is that it doesn't biodegrade. No natural process can break it down. (Experts point out that the durability that makes plastic so useful to humans also makes it quite harmful to nature.) Instead, plastic photodegrades. A plastic cigarette lighter cast out to sea will fragment into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic without breaking into simpler compounds, which scientists estimate could take hundreds of years. The small bits of plastic produced by photodegradation are called mermaid tears or nurdles.

These tiny plastic particles can get sucked up by filter feeders and damage their bodies. Other marine animals eat the plastic, which can poison them or lead to deadly blockages. Nurdles also have the insidious property of soaking up toxic chemicals. Over time, even chemicals or poisons that are widely diffused in water can become highly concentrated as they're mopped up by nurdles. These poison-filled masses threaten the entire food chain, especially when eaten by filter feeders that are then consumed by large creatures.

Alrighty then.

Jump to the rhythm jump jump

Decided to skip the connectedness rant for now. It felt a little, "I, I, I, me, me, me".

So with that in mind, let's focus on you!

Meg - 'Bout time homeslice! Welcome to the blogging world; you can check out any time you'd like, but you can never leave. Also, I be ENFJ, meaning I'm most closely related to trailer and goth bloggers. Damn.

Donny - When was the last time you googled your name? Don't be mad.

Stebo - Donde esta la biblioteca?

Leah - Are you an ESFP? That kind of sounds right. If so, Myers-Briggs supports our roommateness.

Will - Last night was great! ;)

Matt - How are your anal warts?

Non-posters - How have you been? What's new in your zoo? Do share because I've placed a hex on you. I suggest you gets to posting.

All - Are we too cool to comment? I know your reading this!! ... maybe.

Maybe I'm easily impressed? Or sleep deprived?

I am currently blown away. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.


No less than 2 hours ago I had a rather in depth discussion about silent retreats. Probably not your "typical" dinner talk, yes? Wellll, no less than 2 minutes ago I decided to make a visit to one of my more favorite websites, Interesting thing of the Day, and wouldn't you know, I came across this.

Silent Retreats
A different way of listening

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, one of the main characters is an alien named Ford Prefect from a planet near Betelgeuse. Although he looks, talks, and acts more or less human, there are many things about earthlings that puzzle him, such as the fact that they seem to talk all the time—even if only to repeat the obvious. Over the course of several months, he comes up with a number of theories for this behavior, one of which I found particularly insightful: “If human beings don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working” (p. 49). I’ve frequently noticed, on the one hand, that many people like to surround themselves with sound all the time (making their own if all else fails); and on the other hand, that contemplation is a foreign and uncomfortable concept to most of us. An increasingly popular way of overcoming the sound habit, at least briefly, is to go on a silent retreat.

All Action and No Talk
The idea of a silent retreat is simple: you go somewhere relatively quiet and don’t talk—for a day, a few days, or even longer. Silent retreats usually involve a group of people, so the significant part is not so much that you yourself aren’t speaking but that others aren’t speaking to you. In addition, most other artificial sounds—radio, TV, music, and so on—are avoided, so that for the most part, participants don’t hear any words for long periods of time.

What exactly is the point of going without words for a few days? You get to hear yourself think. Other people use different language to describe this: meditation, listening to your inner or higher self, hearing the voice of God, and so on. However you wish to think about it, you are avoiding the influences of other voices in order to focus your attention inward. Just as you might step away from a crowd to have a private conversation, a silent retreat provides an extended period of time during which your thoughts can be strictly your own. Silent retreats recall the monastic tradition of vows of silence, which are still practiced today in many contemplative orders. In that context, a period of avoiding speech—which for some monks can last months, years, or even a lifetime—is a sign of humility as well as being an aid to prayer and meditation. Some people participate in silent retreats as a religious exercise or because they have a specific problem to solve or decision to make; for others, it’s more of a relaxing vacation, with no real goal attached. But it’s not uncommon for people to begin a retreat without any particular expectations and later find they’ve had a profoundly moving experience.


Sound Decisions
There are no fixed rules for the way a silent retreat should be structured. Often a group will schedule one or two daily sessions during a retreat with a lecture, group prayer, discussion, or some other ritual, temporarily interrupting the silence to give participants some context or direction for their contemplation. It is also not uncommon to have individual coaches, counselors, or spiritual directors meet with participants occasionally to provide feedback or make suggestions as to where attention might be focused. Even without words, though, silent retreats can have an agenda or theme. In addition to Buddhist meditation and retreats organized by various churches, I’ve seen advertisements for silent yoga and t’ai chi retreats, for example. Retreat centers sometimes offer do-it-yourself personal retreats as well, with or without the services of a counselor.

If you look at the comments made by ordinary people who have been on silent retreats, it’s striking how often they say it was a mind-blowing or life-changing event. That the simple act of going without words can affect someone so profoundly shows how unusual silence has become in ordinary life. Even for those who make an effort to avoid extraneous noise, a silent retreat can provide a more thorough and prolonged period of silence. I participated in a silent retreat myself last spring, and found it very effective in helping me to clear my mind, organize my thoughts, and make sane decisions. I look forward to my next opportunity for an extended time of silence, and heartily recommend the experience to anyone who likes to think. —Joe Kissell

Trippy huh?

As an FYI, both of the people I spoke with had fairly hilarious and kind of psychotic experiences on about the 6th day. One talked to a rabbit. The other recited the times table. In Spanish.

There's also a Radiolab tie in here but I've gone on long enough. Or have I???

Kidding. But I think tomorrow I'm gonna continue my rant on connectedness. Stay tuned.

Let's analyze our fearless blog leader...

I thought it might be useful to have an easy guide to study the habits and mannerisms of the wide range of bloggers that exist in the blogosphere.



Teenie Blogger (Teenoger)
Percentage of blogger population: 22% Hours spent blogging: 28/week Habitat: Suburbia Average Age: 12 (actual age doesn't matter as most of these bloggers tend to emulate a 12 year old.)

Favorite hangout: The mall

Last Book Read: What's a book?

Favorite Offline Activities: Gossip, boy bands, gossip about boy bands, boy bands about gossip.

Mode of Dress: Varies wildly, but you will notice it will have some brand name of some company predominantly displayed.

Psychological profile: ESFP

Typical post: 10/24/02 5:43 p.m. So, like today I was in the cafeteria talking about Shelly's stupid blog, ok, and then Josie like totally walked up in my face and said my blog was trash and I was like, noo way, talk to the blog, ya know, cause i'm cool and I don't play that. So anyway, I need to go eat dinner now. I'll blog on it later.



Techie Blogger (Togger)
Percentage of blogger population: 20% Hours spent blogging: 56/week Habitat: Usually a messy desk type area with lots of caffeine nearby. Techie Bloggers have been known to be nomads, though, with the advent of wireless internet technology. You may see them anywhere as a result, although most tend towards urban areas.

Average Age: 20 something

Favorite hangout: Slashdot

Last Book Read: Understanding the LINUX Kernel: From I/O Ports to Process Management

Favorite Offline Activities: Microsoft jokes, computer swap meets, hacker conventions.

Mode of Dress: Varies wildly, but you will usually notice at least one obscure reference to linux ruling and microsoft sucking.

Psychological profile: INTP

Typical post: select extract('epoch' from now()) as unixtime; Recompiled the kernel from CVS today. Blech. While waiting for it to compile, I worked some on my project to turn GIMP into an auto-dynamic IP range modifier for my Sega Dreamcast box. The boxen are doing ok, but the 486 piece of crap is pulling too much juice and overheating so I'm thinking of rerouting the fan and mounting it inside my refrigerator. Yeah, yeah, I saw the /. article, but mine is going to be way cooler. More later, my Mac is beeping...



War Blogger (Woggler)
Percentage of blogger population: 18% Hours spent blogging: 40/week

Habitat: The warroom, of course.

Average Age: 46 Favorite hangout: The shooting range. NRA meetings. The woods.

Last Book Read: Fascism and Resistance in Portugal: Communists, Liberals and Military Dissidents in the Opposition to Salazar, 1941-1974 Favorite Offline Activities: Survival training for the coming apocalypse.

Mode of Dress: camouflage anything.

Psychological profile: ESTP

Typical post: 4:30:23 p.m. - Stupid right wing commie nuts like X and Y really upset me. This country was founded on the principle of guns and happiness or something, wasn't it? What's all this peace crap? We're the best. Love it or leave it. Semper Fi, my boy, never surrender!



Hippy Blogger (Bippy)
Percentage of blogger population: 2% Hours spent blogging: 3/week

Habitat: Cute little bungalows in low rent districts across the U.S. with picket fences and groovy colored houses.

Average Age: 42

Favorite hangout: Wherever they are, they are.

Last Book Read: Leaves of Grass Favorite Offline Activities: World peace, grooving, hanging, smoking the peace pipe.

Mode of Dress: Hemp anything (including under garments depending on how hardcore of a hippy they are.)

Psychological profile: INFP

Typical post: 4/20/02 at 4:20 - Whoa, dude, it's 420 on 420 that must be like some way groovy cat somewhere making it so synchronistic or something. Gotta go. Peace.



Trailer Blogger (Trogger)
Percentage of blogger population: .5% Hours spent blogging: 25 minutes per week

Habitat: Trailer park. Sometimes a double-wide, sometimes just a pre-fab. Somehow a few AOL disks found their way into the 'park' and some people ended up signing up for the 1,000 free hours and managed to accidentally put a blog together. (come on, it's not that hard. Side note: What would happen if AOL gave everyone a free (so easy to use!) blog with their AOL discs?)

Average Age: 18

Favorite hangout: McDonalds

Last Book Read: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beer

Favorite Offline Activities: Barbecues, drinking Pabst, harrassing the neighbors. Mode of Dress: T-shirt and jeans with frayed ends.

Psychological profile: ESFJ

Typical post: Friday, October 2002 - Had to put the Chrysler up on blocks today. Thing is, I had to use the blocks from the Toyota because I was outta blocks and Tim across the way had no blocks either. I don't think they have a store that sells blocks, so I just took the blocks from uner the other car and now i have to find some blocks for that car. Not running, though, so I guess it's ok there with no wheels for now. I might be back next week to post .. hold on, sounds like Bob's at the door with some beer...


Goth Blogger (Glogger)
Percentage of blogger population: 5% Hours spent blogging: 20/week

Habitat: Somewhere dark, with the shades drawn.

Average Age: 18

Favorite hangout: Coffin in the basement.

Last Book Read: Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark Culture

Favorite Offline Activities: Crying, moping, staring off blankly into space.

Mode of Dress: Black anything (including undergarments and skin depending on how hardcore of a Goth they are.)

Psychological profile: INFJ

Typical post: x1/x1/x2 -- 3:20 a.m. - i want to die. why are there so many happy bright blogs out there? Why do none of my questions get answered? Why does no one leave comments? Why do I even try anymore? Here is some poetry about my situation.Rain, RainingThe rain is raining,Falling into place.Like a small community, Running down my face.


Link Blogger(Blinker)
Percentage of blogger population: 19% Hours spent blogging: 52/week Habitat: A room. Somewhere.

Average Age: 26

Favorite hangout: Library

Last Book Read: Mining the Web: Analysis of Hypertext and Semi Structured Data

Favorite Offline Activities: Thinking of new linking areas to get into. Mode of Dress: Lots of zippers. Not sure why on this one, but lots and lots of zippers. Psychological profile: INTJ

Typical post: post #3455686869-a: Just found a site here, here, and here, regarding what I posted a couple hours ago regarding this. I'll post more links later!



Paloma, what was your psyche profile again?

Things I felt like sharing.

Early Animals in Space

The first living organisms to make it into space and back were actually much smaller than a monkey or a dog -- in 1947, a container full of fruit flies successfully flew 106 miles above the Earth and parachuted back without any apparent damage.

Soon after that, space programs began sending up larger animals. The next year, the Aero Medical Laboratory began conducting animal experiments in White Sands, N.M., and on June 11, 1948, a V-2 Blossom rocket launched into space with Albert I, a rhesus monkey. Because of close quarters, Albert died of suffocation during the flight. By naming the monkey Albert, the scientists started a trend, since every monkey used during the operation was called Albert, and the entire endeavor is now known as the Albert Project. They unfortunately also continued a trend of failure -- most of the launches experienced major technical difficulties and animal fatalities. The best that could be said was that the second monkey, Albert II, survived his entire flight through space, only to die during reentry.

More missions throughout the '50s offered more improvements, but the most famous and beloved of space animals is Laika. A month after the Soviet Union stunned the world with the launch of Sputnik I, the first satellite to enter orbit, the Russians revealed an even more shocking plan. On Nov. 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 launched, but this time a live dog named Laika (Russian for "Barker") was on board. Originally named Kudryavka (or "Little Curly") by the trainers, Laika was a 13-pound, part-Samoyed mongrel female from the streets of Russia -- strays were preferred for spaceflight because of their strength and their ability to survive in cold temperatures.

Unfortunately, the flurry of press over Sputnik I caused Nikita Khrushchev, head of the Communist Party, to rush Sputnik 2 to launch for the one-month "anniversary" of Sputnik I, and designs for the new satellite were very poor. The Soviets even admitted soon after the launch that Laika wouldn't return home, and the satellite itself burned up in reentry. Officials led people to believe the dog survived in orbit for as long as four days before she died from overheating. In 2002, however, evidence revealed Laika actually passed away just a few hours after the launch from a combination of heat and panic. Laika's death encouraged Americans to talk more openly about the treatment of animals, and the Russian people looked down upon Sputnik 2 as an unfortunate attempt at propaganda.


AND


Is honey really bee vomit?
13-Mar-1992


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Cecil:

Is it true honey is really . . . bee vomit? --Lisa, Chicago

Dear Lisa:

Well . . . yeah. This isn't something the Honey Marketing Association is going to make the centerpiece of its next ad campaign, but the fact is that honey is made from nectar the worker bees regurgitate, which is a polite way of saying vomit.

The bees collect the nectar from flowers and store it in their "honey stomachs," separate from their true stomachs. On their way back to the hive they secrete enzymes into it that begin converting the stuff into honey. Once in the hive they yuke up the nectar and either turn it over to other workers for further processing or else dump it directly into the honeycomb. The bees then beat their tiny wings to fan air through the hive to evaporate excess water from the honey. Last they cover the honeycomb cell with wax, figuring hey, we worked like dogs, but at least now we'll be able to get a snack whenever we want. Suckers. The humans steal the honey, pack it in bottles, and there you go--direct from the bees' guts to yours.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, gosh, Unca Cecil, what other fun facts do you know about bees? Well, in my opinion, you can never know too much about an insect's sex life. Did you know that proportionally to its body size, the genitalia of a drone bee are among the largest of any animal on earth? Mention this to the girls over bridge and you'll definitely get the conversation off Tupperware.

The size of its equipment is thought to be directly related to the drone's post-coital fate, namely death. My bee book notes, "[the genitals] are contained in the abdomen and presumably getting them out of the abdomen for the purpose of mating places such a strain on [the bee] that it dies in the process." As I understand it, the proximate cause of the drone's demise is that its privates are (urk) ripped off during the act. One more reason for caution, boys, when we are fumbling in the dark.

One last thing. Despite its status as bee stud, the drone is not itself produced as a result of sex. On the contrary, it develops from an unfertilized egg. (Fertilized eggs become either workers or queens.) My bee book drolly comments, "Thus the queen bee is capable of parthenogenesis and drone bees have no father, only a grandfather." You think your family is dysfunctional, be glad you're not a bee.


AND

I am not making this up.

The wikipedia articles on Terrence McKenna, DMT, and kosher food and slaughter practices are riveting.

Also, fish jerky is totally possible.

And this made me laugh:

Tom Robinson is my hero.

just learned a sweet new trick for youtube too...if you put "&fmt=18" after the url you get a higher res version of the same video.