Something is BEEPING!!!

And I couldn't find it. Every 30 seconds something was beeping. The Engineer couldn't hear it. The kids were out at a movie. I searched every part of the house and couldn't find it. The Engineer thought I was nuts, but what else is new? I went to bed with earplugs, my sound machine and the covers over my head. Every 30 seconds. Kids got home. I got up and dragged them into the search. Downstairs. Upstairs. Garage. I went out on the deck. GB went out the front door. AH HA! Someone's car, down the street, is beeping every 30 seconds. I wonder if I'm the only one to hear it? GB said close the windows (ak! I MUST have an open window or I'll suffocate!) and they will either have a dead battery or figure it out in the morning.) So here I sit. Waiting for the air to run out in the house......

UPDATE: It is 6.53am PST and it is STILL BEEPING!

Operation Neighborhood Recycling Experiment Update

This week the garbage can, after two weeks, is full, too full. The smell, after two weeks, is awful.
It was 90 to 100 this week. And it is only May!! We have four people in this house, one a teenage boy, and Daughter's friend here half the week. And garbage pick up every two weeks. The other neighborhoods get garbage pick up every week for their version of the experiment.
I'm documenting all this for some lucky city employee. Maybe I'll make an art project out of it. Little fly stamps, smello-stickers - scratch and sniff the smell of rotting garbage!

Hide the Remote!

The Engineer knows he's in trouble when I start watching HGTV on the weekends. He knows there is A Project in the offing...
He's right.
I want to take down the wall paper in our bedroom, take off the popcorn ceiling, rip up the carpet. Then we'll paint the ceiling, put up nice molding around the ceiling and the floor, paint the room and put down hardwood floors. Actually Gorilla Boy will probably do most of the work under supervision from The Engineer.
This house was built in the 70s - no frills, no interest, nothing pretty, everything cheap and basic.
We are slowly changing all that.

more interwebs fun

So I needed to know what time the sun comes up in Texas. In the winter. And compare it with sunrise here in the North.
I found Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day.
And it is courtesy of the United States Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Department.
Is very cool.
Texas gets approximately 30 to 50 minutes more daylight than we do in the North during winter.

book report

Set in, and around, the Southern Ute Reservation in Southern Colorado.

The Shaman Sings is the first of the Charlie Moon series. Interestingly, Charlie Moon does not figure much in his first outing. The author, James D. Doss, an electrical engineer at the Los Alamos Facility in New Mexico, became interested in Native American Ute mysticism. He started out writing about Daisy Perika, an elderly Ute woman and Shaman. Daisy helps solve the crime central to the book, but living alone, with no transportation, or convenient way out on the reservation, she needed some lawmen to do the policing. Doss introduces Scott Parris, a police chief in Colorado and Charlie Moon, her nephew and policeman for the tribe. Interestingly Parris also has a mystical gift, one that spooks him and bothers him, and one he tries to forget. Both men explain away, in their own minds, about 90% of Daisy's premonitions, visions and dreams but there is always that little bit that could have only come via Daisy's gifts and magic.

I started reading the sixth book in the series, Grandmother Spider, Charlie Moon is the central character, and Parris and Aunt Daisy still are key. I think the author found Charlie compelling and centered the series on him. Now I'm starting at the beginning and reading through the series which, happily, has 13 titles right now.

for my teacher friends

Picture from today's paper. We have lots of sage brush around here. It smells wonderful after a rain.

All I know is the story about the poor bat...

Question to student - who would you like to meet most in the world?
Ozzy Osbourne.
Of course.
He's really cool, he snorted red ants.
Dear Gawd.
So we both have homework this weekend. We are going to find out information about Ozzy Osbourne.
Helloooooo Wikipedia!
And Lego - Ozzy is his own Lego figure. I guess he's mainstream.
Wait until student finds out Ozzy is 60 years old. bwa-ha-ha!

Bus Barn Boys

Because of the nature of *The Incident*, our Bus Barn Boys arrive on their own school bus, with an aide who keeps a constant eye on them. They have to sit as far apart as the bus allows. All good humor is grounded in truth.

This may explain why the chicken crossed the road...

From a story in our paper about an organic chicken farmer. Apparently an overriding concern of your basic hen is that someone has a better laying space than she does. Epic battles and Machiavellian plotting go on to secure prime nesting sites.

A new author!

Joy, joy, happy, happy! I found a new author and he has thirteen titles in this series.

>>James D. Doss juxtaposes two extremes of southwestern life to create a dramatic and moving story that is much more than simply a murder mystery. At one end of the spectrum are the Native American Utes in Colorado, many of whom still follow the old ways. At the other are modern scientists working toward the physicists' current Holy Grail--"room temperature" fusion.<<

ping, there goes Fred!

Scientists from one of the companies that works in our area are tracking salmon via little chips implanted just before they are released from hatcheries. The fellow is holding a receiving device. In the background is Mt. Hood in Oregon.

New Gorilla Boy picture. Sunset in South Eastern Washington.

Another important announcement today. President Obama nominates federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. :-)

barrel pond

Balance in a small habitat - the barrel pond.

There are lots of good information on the web about making barrel ponds. Many garden centers sell a pop in liner made for half barrels. Easy!

Plants that thrive in water do so at different depths. Plants come in marginals (like cattails), deep water plants (like water lilies), floating (water hyacinth, frogbit and water lettuce) and underwater (anacharis, hornwort, camboda).

In a barrel you can provide those different depths by stacking up bricks and perching the pots to the right depth. Usually plants like a range - like the crown two to six inches under water. Water lilies from six to twelve inches under water.

When you see a pond that has turned green and scummy there is usually a couple key reasons for the rampant algae growth. Too many fish, too much feeding of those fish, not cleaning up decaying plant matter, allowing too much sludge to gather on the bottom, too much sun and no moving water.

Lots of plants, a couple fish, spare feeding of those fish, keeping dead plant matter trimmed, some shade (in the afternoon), moving water - all make for clear water.

There are all sorts of miniature versions of water plants out there, including lilies that are made to grow in barrels. They come in pots, ready to plunk down into the water. Eventually you will have to divide them but that is easy and then you will have a bunch of new plants.... you'll need to start another barrel pond...

The last thing you need is a fountain of some sorts. Again there are many sold for the barrel pond. Just something to move the water around. It provides more O2 for the fish and helps them get through the night. Plants use a lot of O2 overnight. I've seen fish gasp at the surface of a fountainless pond before the sun comes up. In that pond I removed a lot of the floating plants (easiest to do) and the problem resolved itself.

halp! there's a snake in my pond!

Garter Snake

Water Snake

Copperhead and Cottonmouth

Minnow Trap

Since Sam asked :-)
First off. Realize that my one snake experience is embarrassing.
And the one time I caught a water snake was, over the internet by instant message, with a panicked ponder in Louisiana...

Snakes that hunt in water come in harmless and evil. Sorry, harmless and poisonous. Many times harmless snakes meet their doom because of fear. My rule is, unless you know your snakes, treat them all as potentially harmful - but don't kill them.

Garter snakes will hunt in water. They are easy to spot and are very slender, including their heads. Their pupils are round.

The water snake, unfortunately, looks a lot like cousin cottonmouth. Water snakes have thicker bodies, a slightly spade shaped head but has round pupils in the eye. (WHO could get that CLOSE?!)

Cottonmouths have the thick body, a white mouth that you NEVER want to see, a spade shaped head and vertical slits in the eye. The spade shaped head and vertical slits are signs of poisonous pit vipers in North America. The Copperhead will hang around brackish water and river banks so is attracted to water. The cottonmouth will get right in and swim at you. They, as are water snakes, very aggressive.

So when you see one. RUN. Then calm down and make a plan. Get out your binoculars and see if you can spot the eye. Round or vertical slit? Do you have to be careful or REALLY careful? Can you wait or should you get this done as quickly as possible?

A minnow trap is what we use to catch an unwelcome snake. And a hardened heart. Go to the pet store and buy a couple sacrificial goldfish. You can't get fish out of your pond to use because the damn snake is in there. Also you might like your fish (even though they are being swallowed up by the snake...). Enlarge the opening in the minnow trap to fit the approximate girth of the snake, if needed. Put the goldfish in the trap and lower the trap into the pond. Leave a bit of the trap above water. You don't want the snake to drown. Actually you just might, but snakes are valuable parts of nature. Really. Anchor the rope attached to the trap under a sturdy rock. A trapped snake may thrash around.

The snake will crawl in the trap to get the tasty goldfish but, hopefully, will not figure out how to get out right away. Pull the trap out and dump everything, snake in the trap, into a snap lid box. You should be wearing sturdy boots and thick leather gloves. Maybe all leather. And armor. Have someone with you. Somebody may have to call 911, administer CPR or suck the venom out. Transport the snake in a snap lid box. YOU DO NOT WANT THE SNAKE TO ESCAPE IN THE CAR so keep it in the trap. In a snap lid box. Maybe run a couple lengths of duct tape around it. Drive far away from your home and pond. Let the snake go near a natural body of water. One of you unlatches the minnow trap and the other one throws it as far as they can and then both LEAP onto the top of your car while it slithers away.

Stop by a bar on your way home for a drink. Or two. One of you can be the designated driver. Or call a cab.

Pond 101

For Joy's friend, Jazzy, and anyone else interested in building a pond.

There are many factors in putting in a pond.

The first is safety.
We waited until all three ponder children could swim really well. We also have a raised edge around the pond, about ten inches. This is a good idea for folks who aren't as steady on their feet.
Plan to fall in. We have builders brick in one corner where it is easiest to climb out. Anyone with little children around can put in a rectangular, formal pond with a grid just under the water. Or a barrel pond. Check your city regulations. In our town anything over 18 inches deep has to have a fence around it. Our pond is in the backyard, six foot fence around the yard with locked padlocks on all three gates.

Second consideration - Where, and how, do you live? Some parts of the country your pond will freeze solid, so winter care must be easy to accomplish. Other parts of your country, your pond could boil in the summer. If anyone has these conditions, ask in the comment area and I'll answer. Big trees that dump leaves in the pond, active fertilization program (makes for really green, pea soup water), spraying for bugs and insects (can poison pond critters) aggressive mowing (grass flies into the pond - more pea soup water) all make a difference.

Third consideration - What do you want in a pond?
I have friends who have huge koi. They want to see their fish. Some folks like to provide a habitat for wildlife (moi). Others are really into lilies, lotus and other plants. Most folks want to have all three aspects of the pond.

Third consideration. What predators do you have around the neighborhood?
Build it and they will come. Anywhere you live you can expect herons, egrets, kingfishers, frogs of all sorts, toads, garter snakes, raccoons, skunks, enthusiastic labradors, neighbor cats, and space aliens. Honest. The more rural you are you might get owls, osprey, hawks, muskrats (a real pain) and wildlife stopping by for a drink. If you live in the South and East you can expect water snakes and cotton mouths (we have ways to deal with them).

You can build a pond to, at least, discourage the free fishy buffet you've set up. A pond with straight sides, no plant shelves (which are never deep enough anyway), deeper pond rather than shallow and it will help. Netting will help, but is a hassle and dangerous if you have dogs and cats, so I never recommend it. An attitude of live and let live is better. And don't get too attached to your fish and frogs.

My pond. Everyone is welcome. I have goldfish from the pet store and frogs that hopped in.
I've had painted turtles and salamanders that were dropped off by friends and neighbors. Lots of dragon and damselflies, craneflies, gnats, aquatic snails, fishing spiders, boatman beetles, clams, crawfish, rattatil maggots, leeches (a gift from another friend - I kept him inside and named him Osama Bin Leeche), no mosquitoes (always treat the pond with Mosquito Bits), various worms and creepy crawlies.

Next post - the balance of a healthy pond.

Memorial Day

There's a sight you don't see very often.

Going through the locks at McNary Dam on the Columbia River.

It's all in your mind. And your mouth.

From the review -
>Modern foods have become too palatable, he says. Rich in fat and sugar, they overstimulate the brain's reward pathways, conditioning us to seek more and more. Manufacturers of processed foods and major restaurant chains all exploit this neurological vulnerability by layering fat and sugar into foods to create "craveability". "Where traditional cuisine is made to satisfy, North American industrial food is made to stimulate," Kessler writes. And it gets worse. When we eat these hyperstimulating foods and experience the neural rewards they offer, the foods become even more stimulating the next time around. Eventually, the cues that accompany the foods - location, time of day, emotional state - become triggers that drive food-seeking behaviour.<

This makes sense.
full review here.

pond picture 5-23

Two lilies blooming today, in front of Iris Island. There is the proverbial frog on a lily pad in front of the left flower. A couple others are hidden in the underwater plants.

when your wallet is in danger...

This is interesting. And encouraging. Look at the percentage of people consumed by 'moral values'. Down to 10%. And the economy is at the forefront at a whopping 50%. Maybe our wonky economy might convince folks that mucking around in other people's values is a waste of time, money and energy.
full story here.

It was only a matter of time

until Sir Tim Gunn became a Super Hero! Marvel Comics is producing 'Model's Inc', a super mini series about evil doings in the fashion industry. Will Harvey Weinstein be brought before justice? And is Kenley Collins going to be a Super Villain?
full story here.

one way to deal with the pesky Canadian Geese

Lady Washington fires off a cannon.

Captain! I don't think we are in the Caribbean anymore.

We are being visited by tall ships this week. The ship, on the right, going under the railway bridge, is the Lady Washington. The Lady Washington had a starring role in Pirates of the Caribbean.

So far all we have for the Bus Barn Boys is math. Math x 4 hours and they need help every step of the way. I put in a heart felt plea for anything but Math for next week. Good news is we have a four day weekend!!!!

In today's paper, baby burrowing owls being banded on a chemical weapons storage reservation about 45 miles from here.

teaching in the bus barn

We are so overcrowded with Lost Boys right now that today we start with three in the conference room of the bus barn.

It is one of those days -
when you arrive the classroom door is being broken down by a police officer.
your new student arrives, for his first time, in the middle of this.
the school sent absolutely no materials and you have an hour and a half to fill.
because of the law on the premises you have to work in someone's office.
with no materials.
you have your student teach you how to play poker.

i loves this - cat yodeling

tuesday chortle

47 million year old fossil revealed to be the missing link.

why didn't we get to hang on to the tail?

>When Darwin famously told the Bishop of Worcester's wife about his theory of evolution, she remarked: "Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known."<
story here.

>How to brew beer in a coffee maker, using only materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel.<

I HAD to send this to Eldest. Gorilla Boy isn't old enough to drink beer yet. (And yes, I live in a fantasy land for mothers who aren't ready for their baby to grow up).

This blog looks like a must read. You can learn how to make boat beer here.

do you need to fill some time today?

Go to WOLFRAM/ALPHA
UPDATE - Enter your birthdate, or your name, or your town.

It is where the socks go

Lots of fiction, and now movies, are based on the concept of particle accelerators. Terms like the 'God Particle' shows up in fiction, along with the big bang, moment of creation and black holes.


>Physicists argue, cosmic rays strike particles in the Earth's atmosphere all the time at higher energies than will be generated in the LHC. The Earth is clearly still here, so either these collisions don't make black holes, or if black holes are created, they're harmless.<

Black holes, being created, right here, right now. Cool.
But what if the ones created in the accelerator aren't so harmless?

Well, you can build a Black Hole Trap.


>black holes can carry a charge, depending on the particles they gobble up. So physicists could give the rogue hole a negative charge by firing electrons at it from a cathode ray tube. Then they could trap it within a box lined with negatively charged metal plates - the negatively-charged black hole would be repelled by the negatively-charged walls, leaving it suspended inside. Making sure the box otherwise contained a vacuum would stop the black hole from eating any particles and getting any bigger. Then you could just load the box onto a rocket, and shoot it out of the solar system.<

Aren't we already having a bunch of trouble with space littering? But better than being eaten alive by a black hole.

It could be in a movie theater near you soon. Who gets to play the Mad Scientist? I like Matt Damon. Full story here.

where no frog has gone before

Scientists levitated a frog.
By scrambling its atoms.

>The levitation trick works because giant magnetic fields slightly distort the orbits of electrons in the frog’s atoms. The resulting electric current generates a magnetic field in the opposite direction to that of the magnet. A field of 16 teslas created an attractive force strong enough to make the frog float<

Full story here.

The frog, seemingly, suffered no ill effects.
Yet...
It was green. Its eyes were glowing. It floated out of the tank. Towards the nearest scientist.

excuse me while I get crabby

Working with misbehaving middle school and high school boys like I do I DON'T NEED THIS FROM MY NIGHTLY NEWS.

Dear Mr. Olbermann,
Please stop calling Dick Cheney - "pause DICK pause - did you get that I called him DICK?"
YES, I GOT IT.
Why don't you call him Penis Head, while you are at it.

And your new segment WTF, which you announce "WHAT THE......"
And you want us to supply the 'FUCK'.
OH FOR GAWD'S sake, my students can, at least, say the word and employ it in so any creative ways it makes your head spin - nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives...

Please, if you are an adult, ACT LIKE ONE!
I turned off your newscast. I just can't stand it anymore. I'm watching Rachel from now on.

Life began in a pond

> Creating life in the primordial soup may have been easier than we thought. Two essential elements of RNA have finally been made from scratch, under conditions similar to those that likely prevailed during the dawn of life.<

Article here - the most interesting statement comes at the end -

>The need for UV light suggests life didn't begin in a submarine vent, one possible scenario. Instead, it points towards a warm pond - an idea first mooted by Charles Darwin<

Gorilla Boy at home.

pond picture

Iris blooming on the island. I counted 8 bullfrogs in the pond the other day.

Tagged from Joy (one of the teacher mentors I wish I had when it mattered)...
Some of this I've mentioned before but worth repeating (if only to embarrass myself).
1) I've seen UFOs twice. The same shape. I am more than willing to label them secret US aircraft. 2) I'm related to Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis. 3) The twins are fertility drug babies and thank goodness there were only two! 4) I'm math-lexic but I love to teach math as I am always relearning it. 5) I'm allergic to soy. 6) I was a horse nut as a teenager. 7) My majors in college were animal science, fine arts and communications - which I got my BA in. 8) I've published magazine articles. 9) Written a mystery novel, snagged an agent, decided to withdraw the novel. 10) My only vices are coffee and dark chocolate.

1st Lt. Dan Choi

A friend sent me a link to write the White House about 1st Lt. Dan Choi.
So I went to the White House website. First thing I see a picture of a bunch of people at a conference table. With beverages. Without coasters... Let it go, let it go, let it go. If I send them an email about coasters I'm going to end up on some list with the Secret Service...

I found the right clickity and sent my email. Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Now.

Call from the school district I work for. New students. Time of year and amount of students is unusual. Activate the underground. Oh. My. That's all I am going to say. You can view the illustration I selected to figure out the rest.

>SAN JOSE, CA - An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in...

Authorities said an enterprising office worker had decided to clean it out, placing the food in a conference room while using two cleaning chemicals to scrub down the mess. The mixture of old lunches and disinfectant caused 28 people to need treatment for vomiting and nausea.<

Full story here.

make it work!

From our paper.
A local event benefiting several good causes. The dress pictured was made from folded pages of a book. Project Runway is everywhere!

Forget the professional certification requirements for teachers. Forget whether or not they raised the test scores over last year. Forget if they hit all the state mandated benchmarks.

The true test of a teacher is if your students come back to visit you.

Gorilla Boy heading into the high school to visit favorite teachers.

speaking of Satan

We had a run in, of sorts, with Satan around here.
Eldest Son's band was invited to play in Seattle. Big times. They were on the posters and on flyers. Very cool.
The poster was, as is typical, pushing the envelope of good taste.
One of the boys moms got all bent out of shape over it. And, as usual, called me to complain, worry and speculate that our boys were all going to Hell via rock and roll.
She offered to pay the boys' hotel bill in Seattle if they "Renounced Satan before they opened their set."
Renounce Satan.
The boys all agreed, like the little angels they were, and renounced Satan... but 'we're down with the Anti-Christ'.
Dear Gawd.
In celebration for their creative problem solving I bought them the above 'fish' and they stuck it on one of their huge speakers.
I am so going to Hell for this.

I found a quote from Miss California over on Maybe It's Just Me.

>>I felt as though Satan was trying to tempt me in asking me this question. And then God was in my head and in my heart saying, "Do not compromise this. You need to stand up for me and you need to share with all these people . . . you need to witness to them and you need to show that you're not willing to compromise that for this title of Miss USA."<<

Somehow I think these guys are just too busy to pay much attention to a beauty pageant...

my mother's day present

Part of my tutoring involves 1st and 2nd graders, adorable bundles of energy and charm. I look at them and wonder what their future holds in their teen years. Are we missing something when we shuttle them off into special ed? Are we damaging them? I have my own, very strong opinions, about the whole system (they aren't good) and it reflects in how I deal with my Lost Boys.

Maybe there is an answer in this book.

>How did Einstein, considered a lazy student by early teachers, mature into the powerful mind and mentor who set the course of modern scientific thought in motion? Hakim provides answers to these questions and much, much more. Formatted like a textbook, this impressive volume certainly doesn't read like one. It captures the human drama behind the scientific inquiry and makes it live and breathe.

You can read about the science series HERE.

google vote

Go to google today and vote on kid google-ized logos.

Nasa is set to dispatch seven astronauts on its most dangerous ever shuttle mission as it attempts to rescue the $7 billion Hubble Space Telescope from meltdown...The mission is due to blast off from Florida tomorrow, is considered so perilous that it was once canceled by space agency chiefs who feared that it could cost the astronauts their lives.

FULL STORY HERE

the outer limits channel

We have Dish Network. We have a little satellite dish on our roof. I am still agog at this. I remember being in the backyard as a kid, watching a satellite pass overhead. I remember watching the first moon landing. Now I have my own satellite dish.

And now on our TV we have the Dish Earth channel. I can turn to 212 and see what the Western Hemisphere looks like today from 22,300 miles above Earth via EchoStar11. The picture above is from the channel. I am past agog at this.

Then there is this -- "What's more, from time to time, the DISH Earth camera is able to capture some unique images, including an unidentified flying object last August."

Hello, ET!

FULL STORY HERE

Gorilla Boy is home for the summer! :-)

The twins

Eldest came home, from Seattle, for a couple of days. To see the sunshine. Sent him back with a potted herb garden (he likes to cook), a nebulizer and ER asthma meds (in case the pig flu gets him) and some extra $.

Volcano Surfing

Apparently it is the hot new sport for adrenaline junkies. Surfing down an active volcano...
>In the sport, participants race at speeds of up to 50mph down the side of an active volcano. While wearing protective jump suits, knee-pads and helmets, the boarders visited the foothills of Nicaragua's Cerro Negro mountain, and climbed 726 metres to travel down on specially-constructed plywood boards. < FULL STORY HERE.

ouch

Gorilla Boy's college just raised tuition 28%.

snails are us

Winter is too long so I put together 'pondlets'.
Picture of my kitchen windowsill.
Two aquatic 'pondlets' with a mini cattail, anacharis, duckweed and several generations of aquatic snails.
Snails clean the algae off the rocks and glass sides. I also supplement them with frozen, organic romaine lettuce and a few shards of clean egg shells.
That's a skeleton in the first one. Poor fellow is down there with his ill gotten jewels.
Crime doesn't pay.

with a grain of salt

After dealing with the media, for my past job and volunteer jobs, I learned to distrust them a bit. On the other hand I'm all for a free press. I just don't always believe what they report at times.

Case in point. Famous musician dies. Obits and media reports use a quote from the man. Or not.
The quote, it turns out, was made up and inserted into Wikipedia by a sociology student just to see how often it would show up. And reporters picked it up, without sourcing or double checking. Oopsie, embarrassing that.

INTERESTING FULL STORY HERE.
And doing due diligence - here.

>One of quantum physics' crazier notions is that two particles seem to communicate with each other instantly, even when they're billions of miles apart. Albert Einstein, arguing that nothing travels faster than light, dismissed this as impossible "spooky action at a distance."

The great man may have been wrong. A series of recent mind-bending laboratory experiments has given scientists an unprecedented peek behind the quantum veil, confirming that this realm is as mysterious as imagined....

Last year, Dr. Gisin and colleagues at Geneva University described how they had entangled a pair of photons in their lab. They then fired them, along fiber-optic cables of exactly equal length, to two Swiss villages some 11 miles apart.

During the journey, when one photon switched to a slightly higher energy level, its twin instantly switched to a slightly lower one. But the sum of the energies stayed constant, proving that the photons remained entangled.<

FULL STORY HERE

Tim Gunn spotted in WA DC

And Leann Marshall too!

>"Project Runway" star Tim Gunn, was just in the Rayburn cafeteria eating breakfast, low-key style, with Leanne Marshall (Season 5 winner of the show.) The two are lobbying Congress about intellectual property rights legislation, we're told, and were prepping for long day of hearings.<

See what he has to say about some of the congressional staffers HERE.

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Walter Wellesley Smith

>Reed College President Colin Diver suffered writer's block. Debora Spar, president of Barnard College, wrote quickly but then toiled for hours to cut an essay that was twice as long as it was supposed to be. The assignment loomed over Wesleyan University President Michael Roth's family vacation to Disney World.

The university presidents were struggling with a task that tortures high-school seniors around the country every year: writing the college admissions essay. In a particularly competitive year for college admissions, The Wall Street Journal turned the tables on the presidents of 10 top colleges and universities with an unusual assignment: answer an essay question from their own school's application.<

SEE WHAT THEY WROTE ABOUT HERE.

geeking out over ocean stuff

Half my childhood was spent living next to salt water. I loves this kind of stuff.

>A robotic submarine is undergoing final preparations to dive to the deepest-known part of the oceans.

If successful, Nereus will be the first autonomous vehicle to visit the 11,000m (36,089ft) Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean.<

We've been down there before, for very limited times. If this robot sub works we'll be able to spend more time exploring the whole space.

FULL STORY HERE

good news from Washington state

>>Whatever you may think of Joe Fuiten — the Bothell megachurch pastor and family-values political activist — you gotta give him points for bluntness.

Fuiten put out a revealing memo this week on gay marriage and domestic partnerships. To my eyes, it is the strongest sign yet that sweeping cultural change isn't just someday coming to our state.

It's already here.

Last month the state Legislature passed a bill that extends all the state-given benefits of being married to same-sex couples who register as domestic partners.

It's dubbed the "everything but marriage" law. Its point is: Homosexual marriage may still be illegal here, but in the meantime gay and lesbian couples should have the same legal protections as everyone else.

Fuiten and other conservative Christian leaders opposed the bill, arguing it's a precursor to gay marriage (which it is). Lately they've been debating whether to try to repeal it at the ballot box.

On Monday, Fuiten, pastor at Cedar Park Church, published the frank views of 34 right-leaning political or religious activists on the topic at his blog, franklyfuiten.com.

It's wide-ranging, so you should read it for yourself. My take-away was that our long debate about gay equality seems to be ending. Gays and lesbians have won. Nobody understands this better than the other side.<<

FULL STORY HERE

Ready for take off, sir!

Picture from our paper. Starling nesting inside a vent. A bit of a tight squeeze to get out.

Government trying to kill you?

The way to keep breathing. Co-pay $138. IF your insurance company will help you out. This machine bypasses the inefficient propellant in the rescue inhaler. We're sending it back with GB. That way he can use the rescue inhaler he carries with him 24/7, and they will give him enough relief to get back to his dorm and use this.
THIS is what I fear from any more government meddling in health care. I know there is a problem but I KNOW how they screw up.

is this not an amazing picture?

To learn more, go here.

Many kids who went thru my house were self described band geeks. We had a wonderful band program and the teacher was beloved.
Until he was arrested GB's senior year. For having sex with one student and actively pursuing two others. GB was one of the computer techs who had to clear stuff off the man's school computer. Adults took care of the porn. GB took care of the personal music files.
It hit the band program, and the kids, like a ton of bricks.
The charge of sex with the student was thrown out.
Just this week our legislature passed a bill forbidding what the band teacher did with the 18 year old high school senior. Apparently the wording in the old law was too ambiguous. Now it is not. You may *not* use your students as sex partners. Period.
The kids who trusted and loved this man - that shattered trust will take a longer time to recover.

Here we go again...

Washington state may be the next state to vote on taking away rights from a group of people.

>>Opponents of a measure that passed the Legislature giving same-sex domestic partners all the rights of married people will try to overturn the new law through a citizen referendum.

The Secretary of State's office said it was informed Monday that a referendum would be filed. Those opposed to House Bill 5688 would have until July 25 to gather 120,577 valid voter signatures. If they succeed, the referendum would be placed on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Some rights and responsibilities that would be extended to gay and lesbian families under 5688 are:

• Victims' rights, including the right to receive notifications and benefits allowances.
• Business succession rights.
• Legal process rights, such as the ability to sign certain documents, the requirement to join in certain petitions, rights to cause of action, and ability to transfer licenses without charge.
• The right to use sick leave to care for a spouse.
• The right to wages and benefits when a spouse is injured, and to unpaid wages upon death of spouse.
• The right to unemployment and disability insurance benefits disability insurance issues
• Workers' compensation coverage.
• Insurance rights, including rights under group policies, policy rights after death of spouse, conversion rights, and continuing coverage rights.<<

I dare them to show up outside the grocery store looking for signatures!!
Though I expect they will be skulking around the conservative mega churches.
FULL STORY HERE

another gorilla boy update

He's home for a couple of days now. It is finals week and his first final is on Wednesday. We're going to see his regular doctor if we can get in. The doctor at the ER at college acted like he was abusing his inhaler, wanted to know if it was actually his and was generally hostile. Gorilla Boy should have sat on him. Unfortunately student health was closed yesterday as they had seen him for his asthma before.

UPDATE - Got into his regular asthma doctor. She gave him antibiotics for TWO ear infections and the infection in his lungs. And a cough suppressant. We're going to fire up the nebulizer which is a more efficient way to get medication into the lungs. They gave him another treatment at the office. We'll get him all fixed up and back to school for finals.

update on asthma rant

Gorilla Boy also has asthma and today he ended up in the ER. His two hits with his rescue inhaler didn't work. This stuff is hard on the heart to take too much of it. And two hits in four hours is a lot. He called me from the parking lot of his dorm. He was hard to understand. I gave the phone to The Engineer and tried to get a hold of my niece who lives there. I finally got a hold of her husband who was in the next state and he called a friend he knew who would be in church at the same time as my niece. She got GB to the ER and then called me. They say he has an respiratory infection. They gave him an anti-inflammatory medication and a nebulzier which is a way to take rescue medications without the propellant (see previous post). We used to carry one of these that worked off the cigarette lighter in the car when the kids were little.
All's well that is currently well and we'll see about tomorrow.

I hate environmentalists

I really, really do. And I hate our government right now.

Twice this weekend I watched Daughter dive for her rescue inhaler. WTH?! How often have you had to use your rescue inhaler? The answer was alarming. More and more. This is a BAD SIGN. We call the doctor on Monday.
You may remember my rant on changing out chlorofluorocarbon for hydrofluoroalkane because asthmatics are destroying the planet? Words can't express my contempt for this boneheaded move.

The FDA says, simply 'take a deep breath' when you use the rescue inhaler.
HOW STUPID ARE THESE PEOPLE? THE REASON YOU USE A RESCUE INHALER IS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T TAKE A DEEP BREATH. YOU CAN HARDLY BREATHE AT ALL!!!!

Try running up three flights of stairs breathing through a straw. This is what an asthma attack feels like.

Found a this article for anyone who has asthma or, knows someone, and is having trouble HERE.

white tea

Maybe we should start the first blogger study. All of us who have a *few* pounds to lose.
This article on white tea is worth a look. >An extract of white tea prevents new fat cells from forming and helps to burn off mature ones, according to research.<

I've never been a tea drinker except when we were in England but I'm going to look for it at the store today.

Heidi has a mission

There is a fly in the house.
Heidi has herded it to our bedroom in the back.
Heidi is going to catch it.
This will keep her busy all day.

Just what we need - super spiders

Don't come complaining when some spider wraps you up for a nasty snack.

>>SPIDER silk is already one of the toughest fibers known, and now it can be made even more resilient with an injection of metal. By infiltrating the protein structure of the silk, the metal makes each strand 10 times as hard to snap.

The same technique might beef up other biomaterials for a host of applications such as making artificial tendons from collagen.

The inspiration comes from the many creatures that have tissues in jaws, stingers and claws strengthened and stiffened by metals. For instance, the mandibles of leaf-cutter ants and locusts are peppered with zinc, and some marine worms have copper in the protein matrix that makes up their jaws.

Does that mean biopolymers such as spider silk and collagen could have their tensile strength improved by introducing metals into their organic matrix? That was the question for a team led by Seung-Mo Lee and Mato Knez at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany.<<

FULL STORY HERE

would you like fries with your moon pie?

In the 60s (when I was a mere child), NASA'S Lunar Orbiter program surveyed the moon’s surface. The data was tucked away on 2,500 reels of 2-inch tape, (I remember my Dad working with those). In the 70s, the ancient tapes were slated to be destroyed. One woman refused to order it done. But there was no money to recover the tapes and the quaint machines that could handle it were just so much junk.

Click here to read the story of the woman who found the time, the geeks and the place - an old McDonald's building - and is recovering the data.

Thank you Justice Souter

For taking Swine Flu out of 24/7 coverage.

Gorilla Boy Update

Yesterday, after convincing me he was at death's door, and promising to go to student health, he text-ed me that he was feeling much better and thought it was lack of sleep and dehydration (from too much beer??) and he would let me know tomorrow how he was doing... Maybe I should send Joe Biden after him.