T-t-t-oo Cold t-t-to Type!

Brrr! This cold snap is killing me. I wasn't even going to post tonight. I was sitting on the couch in front of the fire contemplating putting on a second pair of socks when a History Channel special caught my attention. They did this thing on how ancient civilizations had advanced technology. You know, a variation on every History Channel show ever created. Watch long enough and you see the same lame actor footage used forty-seven different ways in three different dynasties. Whatever.

Well they were doing something about how the ancients had steam engines, and how they found the prints for tanks, cars, subs, etc. in Da Vinci's notebooks, etc. The best thing was some little golden 'insects' found in South America that at first glance were representations of bugs. Upon further inspection, they share more features of modern fighter jets than bees. That had some promise, and I was intrigued. But the worst part was saved for last. They wasted all this time on Did the Ancient Egyptians possess flight?

Seems in one of the oldest pyramids a wooden bird on a stick was found. Looked like a child's toy. Perhaps a model of a bird. Oh, no, contended a few 'experts' trotted out by HC. This crudely carved stick (with painted eyes and mouth, no less) wasn't just a bird. It was an aerodynamically designed glider. The Egyptians unlocked flight 2500 years before the Wright brothers.

Yeah, Wright.

Sure, I think the ancients had many things we don't know about. But finding a whittled falcon does not an air force make.

So they spend all this time reconstructing the bird in a larger scale and putting it in a wind tunnel. Gee, turns out the thing had no stability. But wait! Looks like something broke off the artifact. Why, it must be the rudder needed to fly as a glider! Yes, yes, that's it!

If that's not enough to turn you off the HC forever, they had this new age hippy 'expert' Dr. Ruth Hover showing a hieroglyphic of...(are you sitting down?) a helicopter!! Yep. Hand, bird, ankh, helicopter! It's right there! I'm going to bed. See you in spring.

Can a Panda do This?

Not likely! But it would be nice if more endangered species could spontaneously reproduce. Here's a cool blog post about how Flora the Komodo dragon gave birth - never having been exposed to a male dragon. Full story here.

About 70 reptile species including snakes and lizards are known to reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora’s virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon in April at the London Zoo, are the first documented in Komodo dragons.

Bye-Bye Barbaro

2003-2007

PHILADELPHIA, United States (AFP) - Barbaro lost his eight-month battle for life this morning when the Kentucky Derby winner was put down after a major setback in his recovery from a broken leg.

University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center surgical chief Dean Richardson was near tears and choking up as he spoke about Barbaro, who was put down at 10:30 Monday morning.

"I really didn't think it was appropriate to continue with this treatment because the opportunity for recovery was so poor and his condition was not going to improve very much," Richardson said.

"We all recognized this day could come. We got through it and made the decision I'm comfortable with. We're very comfortable we made the right decision... You have to do what's best for the patient."

Welcome Welcome

Help me welcome to the web (and my blog roll) the Shera-Shera Journals! This new Texas blogger has lots to say about life, love and her new home.

Flush With Possibilities

Now I love Indy, the amazing weather indicator fish, very much. But take him to see the vet? I don't think so. Heck, I wouldn't take AL to the doctor if he wasn't insured. But I must admit I was very intrigued by this article. I can certainly understand taking a $10,000 show fish in for a check up, but check out this mom (aka Best Mom Ever):

Three years ago, Joann Mead found her daughter's goldfish, Raven, floating on the surface of the water, but still alive. Fearing her daughter would be upset to find Raven in such a condition, Mead contacted Helen Roberts, a fish veterinarian in Orchard Park, N.Y., and made the six-hour drive to her clinic. Roberts inserted a quartz stone inside Raven's swim bladder, weighing Raven down so she wouldn't float to the surface. The X-rays and surgery cost well over $200. Mead said her friends told her she was crazy for spending so much time and money on a fish. But Mead feels she has a responsibility as a pet owner. "Fin, feather or fur, there is a moral obligation to take care of that pet, no matter what," she explained.



Hmmm. Isn't flushing fish down the toilet an Important Life Lesson? Some toddler rite of passage whereby we learn about death? And how else would parents deny you a puppy, unless they could point to the poor care you gave Spot the Goldfish?

Did you ever see the episode (#50) of Malcolm in the Middle where the parents do just that? They told Dewey if he kept a pet fish alive for a month, he would earn a bigger pet or something. So it shows the parents trying their darnedest to kill the fish, only to have Dewey produce a new one every morning.

Actually, the biggest impact this article had on me was the desire to become a veterinary fish specialist. Now that would be cool. I'd have a swanky office on Lake Shore Drive and treat wealthy ladies' Koi between 'tank calls' at the Shedd. Now that would be the life!

It's a Win(nny)!

Score!!

Achieved my latest shopping obsession, a Barbaro Beanie Baby by Ty. A portion of the profits from this collectible will go to Barbaro Fund University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

In other shopping news, Louise and I went to a jewelry show and spent an entire day buying jewelry and accessories. A low point was when I bought two scarf headbands for $5 only to find another booth selling them 3 for $5. Grrrr!

Finished the audio of Monstrous Regiment by Terry Prachett. Wow! That makes the tally Books 2 and Shoes 0 for 2007! I may be in recovery! That's almost four weeks without a new pair of shoes! Now to stop the clothes buying...

Regiment was good, but not the best I've heard of his. I think Going Postal was even better, and I love the Tiffany Aching series. One of the most memorable lines of this book was when they were eating a 'hearty' stew. It also was 'lung-y' and 'liver-y'. Somehow this is quite hysterical when read with an English accent. Trust me.

Funnier than that State of the Union Address thingy I'm avoiding right now. That's just sad.

I'm In It To Win!!

The way I've been obsessing over the question of how Hillary will bump off Obama, you'd think I was going to help her do it. I'm not! I love Obama. But Hillary will stop at nothing! Just look what happened to cute little JFK Junior.

Be careful Barack! Sleep with one eye open!

If You Had the Money, Who Wouldn't Want It?

...That's what my husband Al said after hearing this little tidbit:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - An 800-horsepower Shelby Cobra, once the personal car of the racing veteran who developed the iconic sports car, has sold for $5.5 million at auction, a record for an American car.

The sale of the 1966 Shelby Cobra "Super Snake" brought a packed house to its feet Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction after a pair of bidders drove the price up.

Carroll Shelby, 84, who created the Cobra in the '60s using Ford engines and a British sport car chassis, said he built the Super Snake — with twin superchargers on a 427 cubic inch V-8 — and drove it for years.

"It's a special car. It would do just over three seconds to 60 (mph), 40 years ago," Shelby told the crowd before the sale.

Don't tell Al, but there's a certain Ron Pratt that will be getting a call from me...

Maytag Sucks! (Except for their Vacuums…)

Just when you thought you had read your last appliance rant here… along comes another breakdown! This time it’s my Hoover Windtunnel bagless vacuum. The brush on the bottom has stopped spinning. Off to the internet, only to be greeted by this cheery logo at the bottom of the Hoover webpage:

“A Division of Maytag”


(Soprano Southern Drawl) I swear, with God as my witness, I will never by a Maytag appliance again…

Oh, I will get you; evil, large corporation. I swear it.

Actual Conversation

Friend: Whatcha doing this weekend?

Me: Going shopping.

Friend: Didn't you do that last weekend?

Me: Helloooo....China exports daily...!

Sylvia Browne Sucks!

Memo to Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne: You suck!

Snow More!

Getalife Girl, ready to battle winter!

Apparently Mother Nature wants to make up for those 40 days of no-snow all at once - by snowing for WEEKS straight. Bleah. Make it stop!

Milk Duds ( Not For the Lactose-Intolerant )

Check out this article about an eco-friendly new fiber: knitted milk! (And silk).

If Dolores Piscotta has her way, milk will soon find its way from your dinner table to your closet. Piscotta is the owner of Piscotta Cashmere, a company in New York that sells clothes and spa accessories derived from the dairy staple.

“I’m always looking for something new,” said Piscotta, who prides herself on her continual quest to discover innovative materials. It was during one of her frequent online searches that she discovered a Chinese company manufacturing fabrics out of milk.

For the past two years, Piscotta has been selling milk cloth T-shirts, pants,camisoles and eye masks to shoppers online and to boutiques across the country. Piscotta isn’t the only one. Magaschoni, a luxury knitwear brand sold at department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, introduced a sweater made of knitted milk and silk last fall.

This soft and creamy fabric is breathable, holds dye well, and feels luxurious to the touch! No word yet if wearers suddenly crave grass. Or take a really long time chewing...

Pros: Babies Love You!
Cons: So do alley cats.

Can this process relieve the strain on the grasslands of China? Will Wisconsin dairy cows put Tibetan goat herders out of work? One can only hope. Click here to to shop. (Please be sitting when looking at prices.) Bet she'd make matching outfits for me and my lizards, too.

Get This Gal a Blog!

Iowa Woman Fired for Journaling at Work

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - An administrative judge has denied unemployment benefits to a woman who was fired from her job for keeping a journal detailing her efforts to avoid work.

Emmalee Bauer, 25, of Elkhart, was employed by the Sheraton hotel company as a sales coordinator in Des Moines. While on the job, she kept a handwritten journal. A supervisor told her to stop writing on company time, but instead, Bauer wrote her journal, all 300 single-spaced pages, on her work computer.

In the journal, portions of which were introduced during a recent hearing regarding Bauer's request for unemployment, Bauer describes her efforts to avoid work.

"This typing thing seems to be doing the trick," she wrote. "It just looks like I am hard at work on something very important."

Bauer also wrote: "I am only here for the money and, lately, for the printer access. I haven't really accomplished anything in a long while ... and I am still getting paid more than I ever have at a job before, with less to do than I have ever had before. It's actually quite nice when I think of it that way. I can shop online, play games and read message boards and still get paid for it."

In her journal she speculated it could someday be published. *

Bauer was fired for misuse of company time after a supervisor discovered the journal late last year.

Administrative Law Judge Susan Ackerman denied Bauer's request for unemployment last week, saying she the journal demonstrated a refusal to work, as well as Bauer's "amusement at getting away with it."

*Yeah, good luck with that sweetie. I thought that too, once upon a time...

Subscribe Now!

Think I'm actually going to fill out that subscription card for National Geographic magazine that I received in the mail today. Why not? There's a free map! Won't that be fun? I'll put little pins in the countries we are actively bombing/at war with and color the ones that hate us varying shades of grey to black. Then at the end of 2007, I can just take scissors and cut out those that don't exist any more...

Yep. I should have a big black snowflake when I'm done. Well, let's hope the U.S. and Britain are still legible...

More Than a Buck

Since I've been so busy doing the 'happy dance' in my not-winter-weight jackets, I guess I didn't post about this little freak of nature that should give us all pause.

See, we just broke a record here in Chicago for most consecutive winter days without measurable snowfall. Heck, I can remember quite a few years when it snowed plenty of OTHER times than just 'winter'. We went like 40 some days between our big Dec 1 snow storm and yesterday's storm. Makes me love all the environmental damage causing global warming so I can bask in its unseasonable warmth. Heck, think I'll go idle my car some more...
Anyhoo...You know Blinky? The three-eyed fish from the Simpsons? He's so cute! But would I eat him? No way! However, a
guy in Fond du Lac Wisconsin doesn't seem to have a problem with it. What with Chronic Wasting Disease and West Nile Virus, he's not going to let a little thing like seven legs or dual sex organs keep him from a good venison dinner.



Seems he hit the deer in his own driveway while driving his truck. Upon examination:

... he noticed three- to four-inch appendages growing from the rear legs and later found a smaller appendage growing from one of the front legs.

“It’s a pretty weird deer. It kind of gives you the creeps when you look at it,” said Lisko, who described the extra legs as looking like “crab pinchers.”

The appendages were moving when he first saw them, Lisko said.

“They were actually functional,” he said.

"And by the way, I did eat it," Lisko said. "It was tasty."

The Heartbreak of Laminitis

From Wire Reports:

Barbaro had another section of his laminitis-stricken left hind hoof removed Saturday, and a cast was placed back on his right hind leg for additional support.

The Kentucky Derby winner had a significant setback this week in his recovery from laminitis — a painful, often fatal disease — in his left hind foot. Chief surgeon Dean Richardson removed more of the hoof Saturday.

After his injury in the Preakness, Barbaro developed severe laminitis, which is caused by uneven weight distribution in the limbs. The result was that 80% of his left hind hoof was removed in mid-July.

"We do not believe that this setback puts him all the way back to where he was in July," said Richardson in a statement. "He has much more healthy tissue on the bottom of the left foot than he had at that time. He spends part of each day in his sling, and he is eating well and acting bright."

Hang in there, buddy, we love you!

Well....!

Many thanks to OnionBoy for his assistance in teaching the html-illterate how to properly size a graphic!! His assistance to the newbie bloger is much appreciated!!

Scorpions on a Plane!!

More from the Nature Gone Wild file:



By DAVID GRAM, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 9, 6:33 PM ET

MONTPELIER, Vt. - The scorpion bit David Sullivan on the back of his right leg, just below the knee, crawled up through his crotch and down his left leg, he thinks, before getting him again in the shin. Not what he was expecting on his flight home from Chicago to Vermont.

Sullivan, a 46-year-old builder from Stowe, was aboard the United Airlines flight as the second leg of his trip home from San Francisco, where he and his wife Helena had been visiting their sons. He awoke from a nap shortly before landing and noticed something strange.

"My right leg felt like it was asleep, but that was isolated to one spot, and it felt like it was being jabbed with a sharp piece of plastic or something."

The second sting came after the plane had landed and the Sullivans were waiting for their bags at the luggage carousel. Sullivan rolled up his cuff to investigate, and the scorpion fell out.

"It felt like a shock, a tingly thing. Someone screamed, 'It's a scorpion,'" Sullivan recalled. Another passenger stepped on the two-inch arachnid. Someone suggested Sullivan seek medical help.

He scooped up the scorpion as a specimen and headed to the hospital in Burlington. Mrs. Sullivan stopped at the United counter and was told the plane they were on had flown from Houston to Chicago. The Sullivans surmised the scorpion boarded in Texas.

"The airlines tell you you can't bring water or shampoo on a plane," Mrs. Sullivan said, referring to recent security restrictions. "All the security we go through" apparently didn't apply to the scorpion, she said.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the incident "is something that we will investigate and look into. We're very sorry for what happened. Our customer safety and security is our No. 1 priority."

Scorpion bites are rarely fatal, most often only to babies and older people with other medical problems, said Dr. Stephen Leffler, director of emergency services at Burlington's Fletcher Allen Health Care hospital.

"We don't see many scorpion bites in Vermont," Leffler said. Last week's prompted him to do some research. To a healthy adult, a scorpion bite can mean numbness or shooting pain extending out from the bite, or flu-like symptoms, which Sullivan said he had the next day.

"You're much more likely to die from an ... allergic reaction to a bee sting," the doctor said.

Sullivan said he was taking the experience in stride. "I've traveled enough in tropical climates, Argentina, South America, to know about the risks from insects and animals and microorganisms. ... It's a dangerous world out there."

He said he hadn't seen the recent movie, "Snakes on a Plane," starring Samuel L. Jackson. "I'm pretty selective about what I see," Sullivan said. "Maybe I have to see it now."

(And you thought I was out of Snakes on a Plane references for the new year! Ha!!)

Would You Like a McJob With That?

Headline: Value of Older Workers Likely Will Increase
Between the Lines: As Demand for Soylent Green Rises

That’s just one of the feel-good articles in the Business section this week. Another detailed the job growth prospects of various occupations in the coming years. Wave good - bye as anything decent boards a slow boat to China…
What's left? Why these hot prospects!

10 hot jobs in Illinois

1. Registered nurses - sick people? I don't think so!

2. Retail salespeople - been there, done that, quit that

3. Business operations specialists - if you can't tell what the job is from the title, good luck!

4. Janitors and cleaners, except maids/housekeepers - huh?

5. Customer service representatives - Customer Clueless

6. Waiters and waitresses - I can so relate

7. Food prep/service workers, fast food - Would you like fries with that?

8. General and operations managers - barely managing now as it is...

9. Cashiers - sorry, I'm over-qualified: I can make change for a $20

10. Truck drivers, heavy/tractor trailer - this is out, I can't parallel park let alone back a trailer

Source: State of Working Illinois Report