Mutiny on the Bounty

Today is the 219th anniversary of the Bounty mutiny. I am celebrating Bligh's incredible navigational skills and his success in reaching landfall after a journey in an open boat of over 3,000 miles. I don't have much to say about the mutineers. Most of them met a sorry end.

You can tell where my sympathies lie.

World Graphics Day

April 27 was World Graphics Day. It is the anniversary of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. I missed it, but in reading about the events, I was most amused by the "No Graphics" day event. Imagine a world with no graphic design - especially a supermarket with no graphics to illustrate the packaged food. Boring. Go thank a designer.

Punc-, punc-, punc-, punctuation

I remember learning punctuation in school. There were rigid rules for, what it turns out, is a fluid and evolving tool to make written language more understandable. Came across this interesting piece the other day on the subject.

In casual correspondence my rule of thumb has always been, why use a bunch of different punctuation marks, when a dash - (m-dash, please) - will suit so many purposes?

This made me think about the etiquette of letter writing. While it still is used in business, personal letter writing has declined precipitously. It has become so much easier to pick up the phone. But now a whole new world of language usage is evolving through technology. As David Crystal writes above, "The biggest punctuation changes since the Renaissance are about to hit us, because of the Internet."

Celtic Music

I went to see the Chieftains on Saturday night. As they were coming on stage, I saw a drummer, ok, a keyboarder (keyboardist?), right, a harpist in jeans who was female, another girl, this one in a red dress and some strappy, high heeled sandals. Wait a minute - girls? Then came the piper, fiddler and a fellow on guitar - four of them looking much younger (and more female) than I remembered the Chieftains to be. So, it turns out that I saw the Chiefs or the Tains, because only two of the Chieftains were actually on stage that night.

Sigh. It was a good, although somewhat subdued, concert. Some of the good old tunes. Some pretty snappy Irish step dancing - by a very peppy woman from Long Island and a couple of brothers named Pulaski. Ahhh, the Irish are everywhere.

I've got to get me a pair of shoes that make noise like that.

Hawks in the city

I was lucky today and saw two red tail hawks hunting the railroad tracks as I left work. I work in the middle of the city in a medical-educational complex, so this was a treat. There are enough open spaces with a large cemetery near by and a parkway that leads down to Lake Erie, that hawks can also make a living here.

Beelzebufo

This has been reported widely, but I still think it is cool (but mostly creepy.) It is the devil frog that was 16 inches long and weighed 10 pounds. The modern goliath frog is about 12 inches long and weighs about 7.5 pounds. It is found in west Africa. More.

Happy Belated Birthday, Darwin

I thought this was an appropriate posting for Charles Darwin's birthday (Feb. 12, 1809). Researchers have found a 48 million year old skeleton that has proven to be a close relative of whales. The skeleton which is the size of a small deer was found in India. It is a small, even-toed ungulate. The report that I saw in the National Science Foundation news says the whale relative was a plant eater, indicating that the adaptation modern whales have made to become carnivores happened after their adaptation to an aquatic life style. More here.

I thought this was interesting

In this news article from NASA, scientists are on their way to explore an unusual lake in Antarctica. This lake under the ice cap. It is fed by glacial melt. The strangest thing about it, however, is that its pH puts it in the range of Clorox or perhaps even more alkaline than that. People have been poking around our planet for a long time and they have found organisms that live in ice, in boiling temperatures, in methane rich environments, and in other extreme conditions. While exobiologists conjecture about the possibility of life outside our planet, other biologists have found life here on Earth in conditions just about at inhospitable as anything we can imagine being found on other worlds. So, a group of adventurers is going to explore Lake Untersee in Antarctica to see what is there. I liked the description the writer used for the exploration for life outside the "Goldilocks Zone."

Attention Time Travelers

I read here that sometime next week the Large Hadron Collider - the most powerful atom-smasher to date - will be turned on near Geneva, Switzerland. Some researchers speculate that the collisions may generate enough energy to affect the dimension of time. They muse that the interactions may be enough to initiate a worm hole in space-time. Further, if worm holes are indeed possible, this might be the gateway toward which travelers from the future may venture. It would be, in essence, the beginning of time travel, and if any of this is by any chance possible, it will be a landmark worth noting.

Mardi Gras

The day for Pancakes and Paczki (a traditional Polish jelly doughnut that is unpronounceable).
Eat and celebrate for you still have the whole month of February to get through. Punxatawney Phil had the right idea - I'm going back to bed.

Tuesday Haiku

Shadow on the stair.
Velvet nudge soft as snowflakes.
Tiger in the house.

Again with the science . . .

These are some of the most impressive photos I have seen in a long time. In addition to the other science sites/blogs I visit, this one is new to me and terrific. High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment based at the University of Arizona.

Saturday Haiku

A sniff is a kiss,
But a bat is only that
in cat sign language.

The Winter Sky

I went downstairs the other morning. My thoughts were occupied by the things I needed to do to get ready for work, feed the cats, pack a lunch, etc. My attention was suddenly arrested by the view from my dining room windows. From those windows I can see across my neighbors' lawns, across the street, and over the high school's baseball fields. The bare tree trunks on the tree lawns were black silhouettes. The sky was a vibrant raspberry. Over the next few minutes, the dynamics of the sunrise ran through colors from raspberry, to strawberry, to mango, then paled to apricot. I fed the cats and when I looked again steel gray clouds on a faded pale sky had replaced all of those amazing colors. Fleeting, but spectacular.

Welcome New Year

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

My Calendars Are Printed

Every year for the past - I don't know, but there are been many - years, I have designed and printed a calendar. It started out as a way to showcase quotations that took my fancy throughout the year. It became a way to commemorate special holidays and observances.

The calendar grew from a handmade creation printed on a copy machine - the first year I stamped all of the illustrations with hand-carved rubber stamps...and that was the only year that I employed that method. Three years ago I invited my creative friends to submit their drawings, paintings, photographs, etc., for each month's illustration. It has been the most fun to see what everyone submits and the calendar is gorgeous, dynamic and eclectic. Production quality has improved, too, as I have begun using a professional printer, enabling the reproduction of full color pages.

The calendars are my holiday gifts to the contributors and I get to enjoy the end product all year long. Thank you, friends.

Possum the Sequel

I was awakened by a clattering in the back hall. I investigated and found a couple of jars were knocked off the shelves - my back hall has shelving and is my pantry. I figured I had mis-stacked some items and went back to bed. All was quiet. The next night - same thing. This time a jar of marachino cherries was on the floor broken - and some other stuff. The other stuff smelled like cherries and something much less pleasant.

It turns out that sweet little possum that I had found earlier at my back door, was now in my back hall. He apparently snuck in when the cats were out. So how come the cats did not dispatch him. Fifty-one sharp little teeth may be one reason.

Anyway, after dismantling the pantry and judicious use of a broom, the little guy was on his way into the neighbor's yard. He can go be cute over there for a while.

A Surprise

I came home from work pleased to be greeted by the warm glow of the front porch light. I pulled into the driveway and the motion sensor light came on just as it should illuminating the back yard. I walked up the back steps and put my key in the door. I was about to open the door when I looked down an saw that a baby opossum was huddled between the screen door and the back door. He was small and gray and tear drop shaped, but with the characteristic 'possum tail.

I live in the city - an inner-ring suburb to be exact. In the neighborhood there are stretches of golf-course, a stream bed, some ponds with an historic background and park-like areas. But this is not the woods.

I was enchanted by the little creature - a little worried and a little angry that he could not find a more appropriate place to live. In spite of living in the rust belt; in spite of the downward turning economy, more and more building is going on and even the open places I remember as a child have been replaced by concrete and asphalt.

My opossum friend scuttled off into the darkening yard. I wish him well. And I will keep the cats in tonight.

Redheads

I found this on the New Scientist page. News that Neanderthals may have been redheads. They were careful to note that the genetic markers in the Neanderthals are different from those in modern humans, hmmmm.
Ever wonder how come we are so closely related to chimps and/or bonobos (96-98% genetically identical) and yet so different from Neanderthals?

I found this on Dr. Zeus' blog and the thread continues

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)

Silky Contour (Oooooo!)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)

Coffee Oatmeal (kind of crumby)

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)

P-Glo (I like it)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Midnight Cat (Yep)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)

Jane Cleveland

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)

Glopa

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Black Cosmopolitan (interesting . . .)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
William Leon

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)

Shalimar Nonpareil (that's it, that's it!)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )

Just Leslie (my mother did not have a middle name)

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)

Stevens Saskatoon (of the Mounties)

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)

Autumn Lupine.

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + "ie" or "y")

Mango Panty

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)

Bagel Beech

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)

The Clay Wind Tour (on the road again)