Dang Homophones!

Seems a misunderstanding about homophones (those words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently, as you will recall from between snickers in your grade-school English classes) got Apple in a bit of hot water among the online tech community. An article in The Chicago Tribune about iPods breaking included the following paragraph:

An Apple spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris, said iPods have a failure rate of less than 5 percent, which she said is "fairly low" compared with other consumer electronics. "The vast majority of our customers are extremely happy with their iPods," she said, adding that an iPod is designed to last four years.

After the bruhaha began, Ms. Kerris pointed out that what she had in fact said was an iPod is designed to last "for years." What a difference a U makes.

On the Menu

Tonight's dinner is chicken fried rice, or as I prefer to call it, "use up all the odds and ends in the crisper before the vegetables revolt and declare the refrigerator The Sovereign State of Whirlpoolvania."

Reality?

I think we've officially stretched the definition of "reality" to the point of meaninglessness when this is classified as a "reality show."

For the benefit of those who won't click the link, the new show is called "Who Wants to Be a Superhero." From the website:

Each contestant begins with an original idea for a superhero, a self-made costume, and their best superhero mojo. From thousands of hopefuls, Stan Lee chooses 11 lucky finalists who move together into a secret lair. There they will begin their transformations — and their competition for the opportunity to become real-life superheroes. Over the course of the series, they will test their mettle, try to overcome their limitations, and do what it takes to prove that they truly are super.

The finalists will leave their former lives behind and become their brainchild heroes, all under Stan Lee's watchful eye. Each week, our aspiring heroes will be challenged with competitions designed to test their true natures. No one will be asked to perform feats of impossible strength; our superheroes will be tested for courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and resourcefulness — all traits that every true superhero must possess.

In the end, only one aspiring superhero will have the inner strength and nobility to open the gates to comic-book immortality. The winner of this six-week competition will walk away with their character immortalized in a new comic book developed with Stan Lee. And that's not all — the winning character will also appear in an original SCI FI Channel movie!

As someone who has gone out in public, not on Halloween, dressed as a character from a comic book, I would like to say that actual fanboys and fangirls have a much better grasp on the concept of reality than this.

Mystery plant

Out weeding the flower beds recently, I stumbled upon a mystery plant in the middle of my hostas. I've been pulling up all kinds of odd weeds that I can't identify, so another mystery plant, in and of itself, is not that unusual. What is unusual is that this one bears an uncanny resemblance to something in the cucumber/pumpkin/melon family: broad-leafed vines complete with light orange blossoms. Odd thing is, I have not planted anything in the cucumber/pumpkin/melon family there or anywhere on my property. I'm granting it a reprieve from being weeded just so I can see what comes out at the end.

Ha!

A doormat seen in a mail-order catalog I received today:

"Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit. Look who's here."

For the "Duh" File

Headline from the Associated Press:  Farmers use bull semen to inseminate cows

No kidding.  Maybe the AP expected farmers to use tofu?
 

Timmmmmmberrrrrrrrr

The tree service came out today to fix our little tree problem, outlined earlier, and while they had the chainsaws fired up, they took out two other trees that threatened to cause problems in the future. Two maples, an ash and an apple tree are now nothing more than a small pile of firewood and a second Volkswagen-sized pile of mulch. Four trees look like a whole lot more tree when they are vertical and not put through a wood chipper.

And, since the crew did such a great job, I'll put in a shameless plug for Dolce's Tree Service.

Marmota Watch '06

We now have woodchucks, plural. Woodrow and a friend/girlfriend/offspring were out snacking in the grass yesterday. I suspected additional marmota when I saw fresh dirt at the opening of the woodchuck den, as if Woodrow was remodeling the place. Now we know for sure. They're still not chucking any wood though, and it would be nice if they would, since I still have to have half a maple tree next to my deck. We're on the tree service's schedule.

Saga of Pilling a Cat, Part VII: Final Pill

With all the fuss Chakaal put up getting to the vet at the start of our little adventure, I fully expected her to give me better source material by the end of her course of meds. Tonight was her final pill, and other than her attempted run for the border when we tried to reposition her on the bathroom rug, it was entirely uneventful.

Saga of Pilling a Cat, Part VI: Fifth Pill

After last night's fiasco, Chakaal calmed down a bit. We caught her unaware, and managed to get the pill down her throat on the first try. She tried to puke it up, but failed.

Saga of Pilling a Cat, Part V: Fourth Pill

I knew this had been too easy. For three days, she just sat down and took her pills. It's Day Four, and she's figured us out. As soon as she heard the unmistakable sounds of the humans preparing to turn in for the night, she started to nonchalantly saunter toward the relative protection of under the stairwell. She might have succeeded right there, except that her sauntering path took her through the kitchen, where one of the humans was doing the dishes. Her escape stymied, she resorted to refusing to swallow. Three times, we tried, with feline positions ranging from cradled in arms to pinned to floor. We would have tried a fourth time, but the third attempt reduced the pill to powder. We're pretty sure some managed to get into the cat. As for the rest, the hallway carpet is going to have nice, healthy intestines.

Saga of Pilling a Cat, Part IV: Third Pill

Since Chakaal wised up to the carrier trick so fast, I doubted we could get past the second pill before she caught on. We got a reprieve of at least one day. We descended on her in the bathroom, same time and place as before, and though she did not particularly like being confined and forced to swallow a pill, she did not try to make a break for it. We are now halfway through her course of meds, and still managing with minimal fuss. It is most certainly a two-person job, though.

Saga of Pilling a Cat, Part III: Second Day, Second Pill

Friday night, and it was time to work the second pill down her. Did I mention that, even split, these are about the size of a Tic Tac? For a cat, that's huge.

We decided on a slightly more friendly approach than Thursday night's throw-your-body-on-the-cat method of restraint. We caught her in her usual evening haunt of the bathroom rug, and I picked her up. We were so surprised at getting the pill down her on the first try that we followed her around for several minutes to make absolutely sure she wasn't just waiting to spit it out. We've had a cat do that before. Months after we finally had to put him down, we were still finding little pills he had managed to spit out after we thought for sure he had swallowed.

Pilling A Cat, Part II: First Pill

Thursday night, after Chakaal had calmed from her little adventure getting to the vet, we started her course of medication. The vet had conveniently pre-split the pills so we just had to give Chakaal half a pill once a day.

Just. Ha. Nonetheless, we are all in favor of trying the easy way first, and I still had half a can of moist cat food left from the afternoon's adventure. We portioned it out among the three cats, since we can't give moist food to one without giving it to all, and strategically hid the split pill inside the dish we gave to Chakaal. As semi-expected, Chakaal cleaned her plate and left the pill sitting next to it. For the fourth time in a day, I found myself holding her down against her will. Emp. Peng., being more adept at these things, takes point in the cat medicating process and deals with getting the pill into the mouth and down the throat. I provide moral support and bodily restraint. Half of the pill got in, and we declared that good enough for the first try.

Saga of Pilling the Cat, Part I: Getting to the Vet

One of the cats had to go to the vet this week, after we noticed some concerning matter in the litterbox. We narrowed down the culprit to Chakaal after noticing she was showing other signs of intestinal distress or possibly worms. Too bad for us that Chakaal is the most clever of the three cats.

None of our cats like going to the vet, and will run and hide when they see the kitty carrier. Standard operating procedure is to start gradually closing off potential hiding places, starting with under the bed, since that is, by virtue of being the most inaccessible to humans, their preferred hiding place. Before they know it, they are corralled into a room with nowhere to hide. Then we break out the carrier.

Apparently, at less than two years old, Chakaal has caught on to this plan. When I shut the drawers on the bed pedestal, she gave a big "we'll see about that" to the humans and proceeded to open the drawer herself and crawl behind it. No problem. I've lured cats out from under the bed before. I pulled the drawer out and got the pouch of kitty treats. The cats always flock to kitty treats. Soon, I had a second cat at my heels meowing for the treats, and one under the bed who was having none of it. Even when I put the treat morsel under there with her and sat back, she just pawed at it.

Plan B: catnip. Chakaal is a certified nip fiend. I plucked a sprig from the stand outside--they like it fresh--and waved it at her tantalizingly from just outside the drawer opening. Nothing. Even brushing her fur with the nip had no effect. Clearly, she had figured out that the more I wanted her out from under the bed, the less she would want to be out from under the bed.

On to Plan C: the food. Chakaal reliably comes from anywhere in the house when she hears the sound of the scoop in the kitty kibble. I have never made so much noise putting out dry cat food in my life. No dice. She had, however, taken advantage of my brief absence to get the sprig of catnip further in and was contentedly chewing.

After a quick call to the vet to tell them we were running late, it was on to Plan D: Friskies. They get moist food as a treat now and again, and all three know the distinctive clink of the cat dishes coming out of the cupboard. It is the most effective dinner bell one can imagine. In a split, I had two cats clamoring for the moist food. Unfortunately, these were the two that can't stand being in the same room without fighting, and not the one I wanted. After separating the other two out and giving them each a token bit, I took a dish into the bedroom to pull the old "move it a fraction of an inch away between bites trick." That worked right up until the dish got to the edge of the drawer, then Chakaal took a tactical retreat. On the second attempt, I actually managed to lure her completely out from the drawer, grab her, and get her into the bathroom. The wiley one managed to escape when she spotted and took advantage of the one flaw in my plan, namely that I had to open the bathroom door to go get the carrier. Back to square one.

There is no Plan E. With the other two cats, there isn't even a need for a Plan B, much less C-D. Chakaal had figured out what was coming, and she was not going to fall for the moist food gambit twice. Having exhausted all forms of lure and bribery, we were down to forcible removal. Fortunately for me, even if the cat outwits me, I still have the advantage in reach and overall mass. Given another half hour and removal of drawer rails so she has nothing to wedge her body between, that is enough to drag a cat bodily out, over loud objections.

We were almost an hour late for her appointment, and the extra wait for the appointment slot of a pet being even more obstinate did not convince her that things would go a lot easier if she just came out willingly and on time. $35 of poop analysis later, it turns out she has some mild intestinal inflammation, probably caused by eating something that is not officially sanctioned as edible for cats. It is nothing to worry about, but the vet prescribed a six-day course of oral medication to be certain it clears up.

Anyone who has ever given a cat a pill will recognize going through at least fourteen parts of these step-by-step instructions for giving a cat a pill. This is why we eventually moved to giving Felix his medication by transdermal gel.

Stay tuned for Part II, in which we actually start giving Chakaal a pill.

Recommended Reading

The Ten Commandments of cell phones.
I would like to add #11: 
If thine call is dropped, thou shalt wait until thou is in an area with better reception 
to resume thine call, or thine call shall surely be dropped again, and there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth by the recipient.

At Least The Cats Aren't Completely Useless

Stumbling toward the coffeemaker this morning, I passed something in the hallway that bore a striking resemblance to a cat toy, although I didn't remember giving them one with that particular configuration. Leaning closer--holyfreakin' mother of pearl! One or more of the cats had found a new toy, all right. However, the toys I get for them don't normally have paws and a tail. Lucky for us, after they got and killed the mouse, they skipped the offering of the prey to the owners and just left it where it lay. Now, having swept it up and chucked it outside as a warning to other mice, I just have to hope it was a loner.

You are cordially invited

...to my new blog, Household Hacks, where our motto is "better living through tinkering." Household Hacks is full of hints, tips, and easy projects for the domestic sphere.

Return of the Penguin

After a whirlwind trip visiting family, in which I saw five airports in as many days, I am back and can confidently report the secret to good airline service in economy class: combine a small aircraft with a flight attendant who doesn't want to be on it.

Our last leg of the trip was out of Chicago's O'Hare airport, on a regional jet only slightly larger than a turboprop. Between an aircraft shortage and a lightning storm, flights were running about two hours late and the airline was scraping bottom to cobble together flight crews who could still legally work. By the time we got the aircraft loaded, it was apparent that there are few things worse than the wrath of a flight attendant forced to take the 1:30 a.m. flight to Columbus, Ohio. Fortunately, that wrath was directed at the airline, not the passengers, and took the form of clearing out the galley of "snacks available for purchase."

Photo Finish

And here is how it broke. Impressive, no?

More Photos

This is that tree now.

Photos, as Promised

This is the "before" shot. Pay attention to the tallest tree to the left of the house.

Three Bits of Good News

1. The emergency backup generator works.

2. We have enough extension cord to plug the garage door opener into the kitchen.

3. The tree missed the house.

Photos forthcoming.

News Flash

Earth is Surrounded By Giant Fizzy Bubbles

So, we're pretty much the cherry in a cosmic Shirley Temple.

Today's Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Do not combine Fiery Habanero flavored Doritos and Super Colon Cleanse. Don't ask why. Just don't do it. And if you do decide to disregard this and combine the two, don't say I didn't warn you.

You've Got Fan Mail!

Thanks for all the lovely comments to my previous post. Keep 'em coming! It's nice to know I have readers at all. Readers who are so impassioned by my writing to take the time to post such lengthy, well-reasoned rebuttals are more than I could have hoped for when I started this blog. Youreanidiot brings up some very valid points in response to my drivel that only really had one tiny micro-point--that a guy trying to explain an esoteric point of fruit fly physiology brought in what was to me a completely superfluous analogy. Being called out for going on and on about a guy being too verbose is an irony worthy of Penguin Perspectives.

Sports Talk

Now, I understand that sports objects like a football field and olympic-sized swimming pool have become de facto units of measurement, although in the latter case, I don't understand why. How many of us immediately visualize how big an Olympic-sized swimming pool is? At any rate, the use of sports analogies for measurements has officially gotten way out of control. Here is a paragraph from an actual article about a recently-published biology study of fruit flies:

"To put that into perspective, if humans made sperm that long and you took a six-foot man and stood him on the goal line of a football field, his sperm would stretch out to the 40-yard line," said Adam Bjork, a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University in New York.

That is a long way to go to say "120 feet." While we're at it, someone tell that Ph.D. student that only 15% of American men are six feet tall or taller, and most non-American males have a very different idea of what constitutes a football field.

The Emperor's New Sculpture

One of the few things I learned in pursuit of my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree was never to trust any Art or Literature, particularly when they start with a capital letter. Talented people can make beautiful things. This is one of my current favorites. When people try to be Artistic, particularly when they are being Artistic in lieu of being Talented, large volumes of crap almost always follows. The situation then snowballs as people, not wanting to seem crass, start spouting nonsense about how visionary the Artist is.

Case in point: the Royal Academy in Britain recently put on display the pedestal support for a statue, in the mistaken belief that it was a work of art. The actual sculpture that the pedestal was supposed to support was judged not worthy of inclusion in the exhibit.

Laying Odds

I am taking bets in the Battle of the Invasive Weeds '06. In one corner, we have thistles (no, I don't know what kind--they bear a vague resemblance to rhubarb and get to be 5 feet tall or more if left alone). Attempting to occupy the same corner by the barn, we have spearmint. Both are plants that, given a third of a chance, will take over everything. Now, going leaf-to-leaf, which one will come out on top?

Double Whoop-de-do!

First, I finally got rid of the rest of the dead vines growing around the garage door. That had been on my to-do list since we bought the house more than a year ago. At first, the problem was that, having lived in apartments our entire adult lives, we did not own a ladder. Once that was remedied, we ran into problem #2: I won't get up on the ladder. "Heights" is on my short list of absolute fears (below clawed crustaceans, for those of you keeping track--I would climb a ladder to get away from a Dungeness crab). However, today, I managed to talk myself up onto the fourth rung of the ladder and take the loppers to the vines until I could yank them down and chop them into little pieces for composting. Getting eyeball to eyeball with one's gutters without holding on to anything might not count as an accomplishment to most people, but most people would also comfortably go out onto the balcony of their third floor apartment and don't have anxiety attacks on the Sky Ride at Cedar Point. I am not most people.

The second Whoop-de-do is that I spotted three emerging tomatoes on the plants today. This, after a bout of blossom drop that made me think I might have nursed these from seeds for nothing. With luck, these are just the first three of many.

Cats

How is it that cats that are normally comatose all afternoon suddenly get a driving urge to run around after I put a fresh coat of polyurethane on the parquet? It is supposed to dry for 6-12 hours with no one stepping on it, so I erected barriers around all access points. Something about the smell of Orange Glo seems to bring out their inner mountain goat.

Porpoising through the News

Yogurt is evolving. Fortunately, it looks like smoothies are a long way from developing intelligence.

I am Geek

Here's my latest geek project. I am currently on Row #114, of 1556. This one is for Emp. Peng., then I will make one of the Season 15 scarves for myself. Matching ones would be silly.

After I am done with that, I plan to start on a sundial that reads binary.

Legislating the Three Laws

Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics, as outlined in I, Robot, are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Japan is codifying law 1(a). Nothing yet about allowing a human being to come to harm through inaction, but new guidelines being developed by the industry ministry seek to assure that robots will not injure human beings. For the most part, the guidelines seek to minimize robot-human collisions and make the robots less likely to inflict injuries if such a collision occurs. In a blow to sci-fi thriller plots everywhere, the guidelines also call for an emergency shutoff button in case the robot goes rogue.

Here's to hoping the Three Laws work out better for Japan than they did in the book. While often referred to as a novel, I, Robot is in fact a collection of short stories, most involving what happens when robots follow the Three Laws a little too well. What we say we want robots to do and what we actually want from them are not always similar. My personal favorite story from the collection, "Reason," has a robot demonstrating impeccable logic culminating in the conclusion that the humans on the space station where she was assembled have no legally-admissible proof that an Earth full of humans even exists for her to do no harm to.

War Zone

The rookery has turned into a war zone. The primary invasion force landed last night. Emp. Peng. summoned me to the kitchen to identify a strange bug on the countertop. I don't know what the quarter-inch long, skinny, shiny black oblong things are, but the one on the countertop had a cloud of friends swarming around the light fixture. People toss around the phrase "cloud of insects," but these actually dimmed the room. Deploying the bug zapper and the vacuum got most of them. Today, I mounted a perimeter defense. The window most likely to be their main entry point has been shrink-wrapped, and shrink-wrap adhesive has been supplemented with clear packing tape. The tops of the windows with the air conditioners got the same treatment. The a/c units themselves have had borders sealed with duct tape. The look is something I like to call "Early Department of Homeland Security." Well, Early DHS and Star Wars. We put the giant prequel posters up yesterday in the entryway, above the front door. Where the former owners had a large, oak-framed clock, we now have a life-sized, lightsaber-wielding Yoda with the message "Size Matters Not--Except on an IMAX Screen." The first thing people will see upon entering the house is a subtly reflective Darth Maul above "At last, we will have revenge."

DIY

I can never seem to find a wallet I like, so when I noticed mine starting to come apart at the seams, I cringed at the notion of going billfold shopping. The wallets made for ladies are almost always froofy and sized to fit in a handbag rather than a back pocket. The wallets made for men are usually too large for the pockets on ladies' jeans. None ever have nearly enough card pockets.

Once again, duct tape saves the day. 3M Canada has instructions for making a wallet completely out of duct tape. Took me about an hour to make one with a roll of black duct tape we had around, and having gotten the techniques down, about another hour to create a perfect custom billfold by modifying the instructions. That is still less time than driving down to the department store and hunting down a wallet that is merely adequate. Cheaper, too. Between the two, I used about 70 cents worth of tape, including some clear packing tape for an ID holder.

One final step I would recommend that 3M does not include is to deoderize and de-sticky the finished product. Duct tape does have a bit of an adhesive residue and a duct-tapey smell. You need a plastic baggie and the box of baking soda from your refrigerator. Spoon about a tablespoon of baking soda into the bill compartment, then place the wallet in the baggie with another couple tablespoons of baking soda. Shake it around a little and let it sit in the closed baggie for a half hour or so. Then remove the wallet and brush off the excess baking soda with a paintbrush. The powder sticks to any exposed adhesive and dramatically cuts down the odor.

We're Fine

The tornadoes seem to have missed us here.

Penguin News

The penguins that were evacuated from New Orleans last year are back home again. Their home, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, reopens Friday.

Full article

Fun at the Convention

The second most amusing thing I did today at the convention was walking up to Brent Spiner and commending his performance of Bob Wheeler on Nightcourt. The most amusing thing was going to the panel discussion on the 40th anniversary of the Batman TV show, with several cast members from the show. The panel moderator asked everyone on the panel to say a few introductory words before the Q&A session. One of the male villians and Yvonne Craig both said something sentimental about the show and meeting the fans. Then it was Julie Newmar's turn. Without a word, she stood up from her seat, sat on the edge of the table, and in slow motion, swung her legs over the table. May I have gams half that good some day.

Mongolian Hordes of Baby Corn

For some reason, whenever we go to a Mongolian restaurant, I end up eating baby corn. I don't particularly like baby corn, but that is the price one pays for good Mongolian grill. For those unfamiliar with Mongolian grill, which probably resembles the authentic cusine of Mongolia about as much as my cats resemble a rabid puma, you fill a bowl from a salad bar of raw meats and vegetables and concoct a sauce, then a fleet of cooks stir-fry your selection on a circular grill about 6 feet in diameter, alongside a dozen or so other meals. This setup, while making for a great show and some great stir fry, means that tidbits sometimes migrate into your dinner from neighboring piles. For me, that tidbit always seems to be baby corn. Without fail, at least one bit of baby corn always winds up in my dinner when we go for Mongolian.

When we stopped at Blue Pacific Grill tonight on the way home from the comic con, we thought we might finally have baby corn-free stir fry. We arrived right as the restaurant opened at 5 p.m. We were the only people in the place who were not on the payroll. We were first in line at the ingredient bar and avoided baby corn like it was carrying Ebola. Our two dinners were the only thing on the grill. Somehow, we wound up with more baby corn than ever in our dinners. I can only conclude that the baby corn sprouts directly from the grill surface under my pineapple-sweet pepper-seafood teriyaki.

Busted, or Maybe Just Cracked

Day 2 of the Motor City Comic Con, and we were anxious to see the results of yesterday's bust of the video pirates, which you can read more about here. As I got my wristband for the day, I glanced over at toward where one of the most egregious offenders had set up yesterday.

They were still there. Some of the stacks had been replaced by a spread of autographed 8x10 celebrity photos, but there was still quite a selection of bootleg television shows. He even had the "special 7-disc set" of the New Series Doctor Who (ninth Doctor)--a pirated version of the official BBC release of the season, complete with a large notice that the design of the pirated video case is trademarked (new definition of Chutzpah: trademarking your pirated videos). Across the convention center, the video pirates were still selling most of their wares. The only conspicuous absence was the pirated big studio feature films. According to one vendor caught in the raid, eleven of them were rounded up, taken in, and never arrested. They had their inventory confiscated, but were released without further punishment. Most were back in business today, minus the feature films. Apparently, the MPAA doesn't care about the television shows, including pirated Wuzzles.

Busted!

First, let me say that I was not arrested.

We're at the Motor City Comic Con this weekend, and within the first two hours we were there, we found ourselves in the middle of a police bust targeting the movie pirates who also frequent these conventions. Most of their wares are either out-of-production "cult" TV shows or human nature documentaries, but there is also a heavy showing of current or recent movie releases, usually bearing a disclaimer, "This film is presumed to be in the public domain." Now, having been hauled out in handcuffs, the vendors get to explain how someone who knows enough about copyright law to understand public domain can assume a movie still playing in theaters is a public domain work. The one vendor selling legitimately public domain works was sweating bullets during the raid.

Oh, and I also saw another rare sight at the con today: a centerfold model eating a chunk of fudge. On the one hand, it is an amusing sight; on the other hand, she eats fudge and still looks like that. Life is not fair.

What Did You Do This Morning?

I dug a pond--before breakfast.

It's a small pond. Pondlet, really. My morning routine is usually something along the lines of: get dressed, make a cup of coffee that I drink while reading my email and the headlines, then go out and check over the plants in the yard. We put in a lot of fruit this year and rearranged some of the landscaping, so I like to check how everything is doing. The flora inspection was going swimmingly until I got to Marionberry #3. It was under water. The newest cane, about two inches tall now, was barely keeping its tip above the surface. Not good.

It has rained here for just about a week straight. Tomorrow, we're 1/5 of the way toward Noah's Ark. The soil has had just about all it can take, and for some reason, the bit under that marionberry, on one of the highest spots in the yard, was first to give up trying to drain. The rain is coming faster than the soil can find places to put it. Thus, the pondlet and accompanying canal: temporary quarters for excess water until the rain stops. If the rain stops.

Huff and Puff and Burn The House Down

A painting project has turned into a complete remodel for a homeowner who, after taking a smoke break, tried to extinguish his cigarette in a bowl of what he thought was water. In fact, the bowl contained paint thinner, which is somewhat less effective at extinguishing burning materials. On the other hand, it is very effective at turning a house into a smoldering pile of cinders.

Read the AP story.

Yet another reason to be glad you are not a guppy

Sexual harassment among guppies is so bad that female guppies prefer swimming with predators to swimming with male guppies, according to a study by a team of researchers from the University of Leeds. Seems male guppies resort to guppy rape when their mating displays are spurned. Swimming with predators, while risky to the females, provides a measure of protection against the advances of the males. After all, the predators only want a snack.

Eat those words with mayo on the side

The PlayStation 3 will cost $600 if you want most of the features that Sony has been bragging that their new system has. That's just the system, before you plunk down any clams on any games to play on it. In justifying the price, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Kaz Hirai, said, "What we're presenting to consumers is future-proofed. It's not going to fall by the wayside."

Note that a good chunk of what makes the PS3 console so expensive is the Blu-Ray player Sony is including. For those who aren't so techy, the Blu-Ray is a new DVD format. Not the new DVD format. A new DVD format. Blu-Ray and HD DVD are slugging it out, VHS/Betamax style, for supremacy in the high definition video disc format. Sony did so well with Betamax, so we'll see how "future-proofed" the Blu-Ray is when the format wars settle down.

Liars!

The sign on the trailer read "Llama on Board." Not only was there an acute lack of llama on board, but the owners of the llama transport were hauling lumber. If we are to respect the "Llama on Board" signs, the least they can do is have a llama on board.

In the News

Grandma drops baby off at wrong address. That's one way to get out of babysitting duties, I suppose, but the next family get-together is going to be a bit awkward.

Overload

Out of curiosity, I picked up a bottle of Berry Cream Dr Pepper today, and I think I can say with confidence that Cadbury-Schweppes has finally found the maximum number of flavors one can stuff into a soda. What flavor, exactly, Dr Pepper is supposed to be is a trade secret, but by most accounts, it is supposed to have 23 components. Add cream and berry to that, and gustatory sensory overload kicks in.

Gassy Commentary

With gas prices stuck at more than $3 a gallon (I can hear my international readers laughing, "Welcome to MY world!"), the Associated Press put out a variation on the annual Memorial Day high gas prices article, Congress Struggles to Act on Gas Prices. Two bits caught my attention:

Menendez [Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.] proposed a 60-day suspension of the 18.4-cent federal tax on gasoline and 24-cent-a-gallon diesel tax. Revenue lost to the government, as much as $6 billion, would be made up by removing some oil-company tax breaks, he said

Gas hits $3 a gallon, and that's when they consider having the oil companies pay the taxes on gas. I hope there is a dang good explanation why this wasn't considered sooner.

Presumably, oil companies also could pass an additional tax burden onto consumers.

Well, no crap. Do these Senators actually think for one minute that increasing the taxes the oil companies pay is going to help the situation? I barely made it through the required one semester of high school economics and I can tell you that there is no way they'll let higher taxes eat into their record profits. Squeezing more money out of the oil companies may make people feel good, until the oil companies squeeze that and more out of us.

Puzzle Time

This puzzle has a deceptively simple premise: you just have to figure out the logic of how a roll of five 6-sided dice are scored. I know the answer, but I can't tell.

Fact Check

A video circulating around the internet supposedly shows someone spraypainting graffiti on a VC-25A. The VC-25As are two tricked out Boeing 747s that provide transportation for the president, and are only properly called "Air Force One" when the president is on board one of them (for that matter, any Air Force craft carrying the President is designated Air Force One). In reality, the makers of the video rented a Boeing 747, painted one side to match the exterior markings of the official presidential transports, and staged the whole thing.

From the Associated Press article

"We're looking at it, too," said Lt. Col. Bruce Alexander, a spokesman for the Air Mobility Command's 89th Airlift Wing, which operates Air Force One. "It looks very real."

Alexander later confirmed that no such spray-painting had occurred.

How much "later" do you need to call up the 24-hour security detail that you can bet your sweet bippy is on both planes and have someone take a walk 'round to check for unauthorized markings?

And if "it looks very real," shouldn't we be concerned that a guy with a backpack can run up to the official Presidential air transport and stand right next to the plane unmolested for several seconds while discharging the contents of an aerosol can?

News of the Duh

Clinical Web Site May Be Target of Porn Seekers

Seems the operators of a website including a searchable archive of dermatology images have noticed a disproportionate number of inquiries to their database are for genitals, leading them to think that maybe some people who are not clinical dermatologists are using their site for purposes other than clinical dermatology.

Next thing you know, they will be questioning whether the well-worn issues of National Geographic really indicate that their children are curious about the Serengetti.

This is exactly why filtering the internet will never work. Certain segments of society will always want to see nether regions, and they will take it any way they can get it. If all the erotical is sequestered or extracted, people turn to the material intended to be asexual. Frankly, I am more comfortable around people who are turned on by images that are designed to be sexy than those who use clinical dermatology as porn. I am much more confident that the former group knows when a situation is not sexual, even if it may involve some exposed epidermis.

Penguin Suit

We have been invited to a black tie affair at the end of June. Thanks to Emp. Peng.'s former occupation, we happen to already own all parts of a black tie ensemble except for the black tie. The cheesy clip-on that came with the tuxedo doesn't count. It was serviceable when the audience saw his front side for thirty-seven seconds, but now people might have a reasonable opportunity to look at his neck. Which brings us to why we were in Brooks Brothers today, where normally, they would have someone who not only sells bow ties, but can teach you how to tie them. That guy had today off, so we were referred to "some really easy instructions on the web site."

"Easy" my hindquarters. "It's just like tying shoelaces," they said. Double ha. They say that to me not realizing that I still have to put granny knots in the loopy ends of my shoestrings to keep them tied. The photos are not helpful. I would like to have a nice, long chat with the fellow who decided that male formalwear would not be complete without a bit of origami nestled under the adam's apple, and I hope he is having some fun chats with whoever invented pantyhose as they wallow in the circle of hell devoted to the people who have made sure that going to relatives' big blowout weddings is absolutely as uncomfortable as possible.

Now, We Have Proof

In Wisconsin, a man rediscovered a fruitcake he had been given 44 years ago. The cake was in the same condition he had received it in in 1962. And some people still insist on classifying fruitcake as a food.

Around the Rookery

My apologies that the daily Beakful of Knowledge has not been regular of late. I've been working my flippers off in the yard since the thaw. I have added sour cherry, plum and peach trees and blackberry, raspberry, and marionberry vines. In addition, I potted out three tomato, four pepper, and a strawberry plant into containers for a deck garden, dug out a stand of daffodils and moved a pink rhododendron from a raised bed to where the daffodils had been. I still have to plant the blueberry and the grape. And that's just what I have added. I subtracted a dogwood and a maple sapling that apparently died of rodent gnawing, and still have to remove two ugly bushes of indeterminate types, a dead juniper shrub, and a line of hostas.

Yes, the rookery is looking nice; the blog suffers. The head penguin is sore but getting buff arms and back from all the digging. I also have a newfound respect for anyone who manages to bury a body.

Beakful of Bits

Tomorrow marks the 141st anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's assasination. The carriage that Lincoln rode in to the play that night was a Studebaker and is now on display in a sealed, climate-controlled case at the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana. At the time of his assassination, the only money Lincoln had on his person was a $5 Confederate note.

Mars Has Happy Face

The European Space Agency has posted pictures of a crater on Mars which resembles a smiley : ) . Personally, I think it looks a lot more like Pac Man. Judge for yourself here.

Beakful of Marine Animal Knowledge

Sea bass are born female. In the wild, they switch sexes around 2 to 5 years of age. In captivity, they turn male much more quickly, presenting a problem to fish farmers wanting to raise sea bass. It is difficult to get baby sea bass when you can't get them to stay female long enough to breed.

Truth in Advertising?

This man really is running for the U.S. Congress in my district. This is not a joke; a man named Charles W. Weasel is actually on the official candidate list for the May 2 primaries. To top it all off, he's a lawyer. Really. I would not make up something so trite.

If I were him, I would have considered changing my name before law school, but definitely before running for public office. Common sense would dictate that you do not under any circumstances want the last thing people read on your campaign website, or hear on your campaign commercials, to be "Paid for by Weasel for Congress."

Beakful

Ice cubes from automatic icemakers are crescent-shaped because that is the shape that doesn't get stuck in the tray.

Friday Beakful of Wildlife Knowledge

Since the manta ray's eyes are on the top of its body and its mouth is on the underside, it never sees itself eat.

Bonus flat fish tidbit: Flounder come into the world with an eye one each side of their head and swim upright. As they mature, one eye moves over to the other side of the head and they start swimming on their side.

Extra Bonus: Most Flounder are lefties. Their eyes migrate to the left side of their body and they swim left-side up.

Porpoising Through The News

Three Arrested at Massachussetts Baby Shower

The charges stem from a brawl in which one man was shot and several others, including the guest of honor, were beaten with a large stick. (note to self: avoid playing pinyata with these people). And I thought having to play"guess the flavor of baby food" was bad at the last baby shower I attended.

Wednesday Beakful of Metric Amusement

The metric prefix for a one followed by 24 zeroes (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) is "yotta." When supercomputing gets to be about one million times faster than the highest-end stuff being worked on today, we will acheive "yottaflops."

Weekend Beakful of Acronym

It stretches the definition of acronym, but "modem" started life as a shortened version of Modulator-Demodulator.

Thursday Beakful of Acronym Knowledge

Although they are only one letter different, laser and TASER* are completely unrelated acronyms. Laser comes from Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Taser stands for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle.

*Official guidelines on trademark use from TASER International, Inc. maintain that the word be in all caps, and that it is an adjective, not to be used as a noun or a verb. I wish them luck and hope their admin. assistant doesn't xerox the guidelines.

Penguin News

Samuel L. Jackson has signed on to narrate a spoof of March of the Penguins, scheduled for release this summer. By all accounts, Farce of the Penguins will use stock footage of penguins with the narration. The storyline sounds similar to the original March of the Penguins, but with less emphasis on the enduring power of the pair bond in chick rearing and more emphasis on the mating. Just a guess that the family values people won't be all gung-ho for this one.

New trailers are up for the more family-friendly upcoming animated penguin flick, Happy Feet. I still like the first trailer better.

We've all seen the obligatory scene in every submarine movie where the captain takes the sub below the calculated crush depth and the sub comes out OK. Now a Fairy penguin, smallest of all the penguins, has exceeded the calculated penguin crush depth. Scientists calculated that the maximum dive depth a one-kilogram penguin should be capable of reaching is 66 meters. The female Fairy went to 67 meters as recorded by the sensors she was wearing.

Wendesday Beakful of Acronym Knowledge

The polite extended form of "snafu" is Situation Normal, All Fouled Up. It should be noted that the polite form is not the original, which used a different word that begins with F.

General Announcement

If you send me email, click here and pay attention to the cartoon. It's short.

Correction

An alert and knowledgeable reader informs me that "radar" stands for "Radio Aid to Detection And Ranging."

Tuesday Beakful of Knowledge

Radar originally stood for RAdio Detection And Ranging. Similarly, sonar started as an acronym for SOund Navigation And Ranging.

You know you've been playing too much Tetris when...

...you close your eyes and see falling Tetris blocks on the inside of your eyelids. I think I am way beyond that now. I've started mentally dropping Tetris blocks into the ragged right margins of left-justified text to clear lines.

Gotta Get Me One of These

Emp. Peng. reminds me that we have nowhere to put the Blue LED Faucet Light, no matter how cool it is or how useful it might be for illuminating nighttime trips for a glass of water. The bathroom faucet is too short and the kitchen faucet is occupied by the Brita filter. Still, the idea of having blue illuminated water is appealing. Much more appealing than the orange-brown water situation we recently remedied.

Monday Beakful of Knowledge

I'm lightening up this week. The theme will be words that started out as acronyms and what they originally stood for.

Scuba: Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

Weekend Beakful of Knowledge

Most planets don't experience total solar eclipses with the pretty corona shots (like this one). Those are only possible because the moon and the sun appear to be approximately the same size in the sky. The moons of Mars are too small to produce total eclipses on the planet

Also, it helps to have a moon. Mercury and Venus do not experience solar eclipses because they have no moons to get between them and the sun.

Friday Beakful of Knowledge

Yesterday, I promised to explain the astronomical significance of the Tropics.

The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn mark the latitudes where the sun is directly overhead on the June and December solstices, respectively. Between those two latitudes, at some point during the year, the sun is directly overhead. North of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun is never directly overhead; its highest point at noon is something less than 90 degrees from the horizon. In winter, the angle of noon is lower, and in summer, the angle of noon is higher.

The word "tropic" comes from the Greek word "tropikos," meaning "to turn." Because the sun appeared to turn around on the solstices--on the winter solstice, the angle of noon stopped descending and headed back up in the sky, vice versa on the summer solstice--the word also came to be synonymous with "solstice." Hence, the latitudes of the solstices became the Tropics.

The reason they are called the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn brings us back to precession of the equinoxes. The two Tropics were named about 2000 years ago, when the sun appeared to be in the constellation Cancer on the June solstice and in the constellation Capricorn on the December solstice. Because of precession, the sun is now in the constellation Sagittarius on the December solstice and in Gemini or Taurus on the June solstice. The June solstice position crossed the official astronomical boundary into Taurus about 25 years ago, but the official and traditional boundaries differ; according to traditional boundaries, the June solstice is still in Gemini.

Beak Addendum-Sidereal and Tropical

Tropical, in today's Beakful, has nothing to do with pina coladas under a palm tree on a white sandy beach with comely ladies in bikinis. There is an astronomical reason for the latitudes around the equator being called "the tropics," but you will have to wait for tomorrow's Beakful to find out.

To clarify the difference, Tropical is basically solar time, while Sidereal is based on observation of the stars.

The differences add up to about 21 minutes a year, meaning that Tropical and Sidereal observations of the sky sync up on a cycle of about 26,000 years--and we're back to precession of the equinoxes.

Thursday Beakful of Knowledge

Precession also causes the equinox and solstice points to drift across the backdrop of stars, including the constellations that cross the zodiac. The zodiac is a line in the sky that one gets by extending the plane of the solar system (all planets except Pluto orbit on approximately the same plane) into space. Astrologers extend the zodiac zone about 8 degrees above and below that line for purposes of noting planetary alignments and such. That's about 16 times the width of the full moon.

Tropical astrology, the type used in most newspaper horoscopes, uses the solstice points of the first millennium. Since then, precession caused the astronomical solstice points to drift almost a full sign.

The dates of the Sidereal zodiac, practiced by Indian astrologers, adjust to account for precession. This adjustment means that a person’s sign under Sidereal astrology, which may not match the sign of the Tropical zodiac, more closely matches the actual position of the stars.

Both Tropical and Sidereal astrology divide the zodiac into 12 equal segments and assign each segment to a sign based on the constellation that is now or was in that general region of the sky. However, the actual constellations are not uniform sizes, and the amount of space on the zodiac is not equal. While astrology allocates 30 degrees for each sign, the constellations occupy more or less than that. In addition, a thirteenth constellation, Ophiuchus, lies on the band of the zodiac, a fact noted by Ptolemy in the second century and generally ignored by most astrologers.

This link has a handy chart of dates for the signs of the Tropical and Sidereal zodiacs, as well as the dates the sun crosses the official astronomical borders of the constellations on the zodiac.

“Zodiac” is good for 18 points in Scrabble. The word comes from the Greek words for “animal” and “circle.”

Penguin News

The first penguin chick has hatched at Malaysia's Underwater World Langkawi. The African Penguin chick is being kept in an area accessible to only authorized keepers, out of concerns of avian flu. Three other African Penguin eggs are still being incubated at the park.

Ten Gentoo penguins have been named and moved into their new homes at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina. The penguins--now christened Alex, Bosco, Caroline, Hallie, Harmony, Jack, Maddie, Oreo, Orlando and Zoey--originate from Sea World Orlando, and have just recently come out of quarantine to join the rest of the exhibit, which features Rockhoppers and Kings.

Wednesday Beakful of Knowledge

Because of precession (see yesterday's Beakful), pole stars are not permanent. Polaris, the current north star, will eventually lose its navigational usefulness as the direction that the north pole points starts to drift away from it. Our next north star will be Gamma Cephei, aka Errai, a binary star known to have a planet. You have about 900 years to wait before the pole stars change over, and another millennium beyond that before the north pole points most closely to Gamma Cephei.

There is a south star, Sigma Octantis, but it is too dim to be of much practical use in navigation. In a couple millennia, the southern hemisphere will get a better pole star.

Mars currently has a south star, Kappa Velorum.

Tuesday Beakful of Astro-Knowledge

The Earth wobbles slightly (about 23.5 degrees from vertical) on its axis, due to the same forces that make a toy top wobble slightly as it spins. The technical term for the wobble is "precession," and it takes about 25, 800 years for the earth to complete one precession cycle, where the projection of the Earth's axis traces out circle against the backdrop of the stars.

This phenomenon has two practical effects for Earthlings. First, the pole stars change periodically as the axis traces out that circle. Second, the signs of the Tropical Zodiac (the one used for most newspaper horoscopes) drift out of sync with the position of the sun on the Zodiac. Details on both in future Beakfuls. Stay tuned to find out what your actual astrological sign is.

Equinotical Beakful of Knowledge

The vernal equinox occurred at 6:26 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time today, marking the official start of Spring. Astronomically, the equinoxes are when the sun crosses the plane created by extending Earth's equator out into space. The two equinoxes are also the points when the Earth's rotational axis, which is tilted with respect to the plane of Earth's orbit, is perpendicular to the sun, pointing neither toward the sun nor away from it. The practical upshot of that here on the surface of the Earth is that day and night are equal in length. From now until the summer solstice, days will get longer, and until the autumnal equinox in September, there will be more light than dark, at least in the Northern hemisphere. While the equinoxes are often thought of as being days, actually they are only a moment.

Nothing about the vernal equinox makes it any more amenable to standing an egg on end than any other day of the year.

The word "equinox" gets you 23 points in Scrabble.

Random Thought of the Day

The Star Trek series included several examples of Klingon Opera. What do you suppose Klingon Top 40 sounds like?

Weekend Beakful of Knowledge

The Pillsbury Doughboy is, or at least was, married. In the 1970's, Poppin Fresh was joined in advertisements by his wife, Poppy Fresh. Poppin was originally voiced by Paul Frees, who has far too many credits to mention. When Frees died, the voicing was taken over by Jeff Bergman, who also supplied the voice for Charlie the Tuna.

Though there is some disagreement about who at the ad agency actually conceived of the idea of Poppin Fresh, one of the first people to commit Poppin to paper was Martin Nodell, better known as the comic book artist who created The Green Lantern.

Friday Beakful of Trivia

The horse who played Mr. Ed started off life named Bamboo Harvester. He was foaled in 1949 in El Monte, California, a short trail ride from where yours truly was born.

Thursday Double Beakful of Knowledge

"His Master's Voice," the painting that became the RCA Victor logo, featuring Nipper looking into the horn of a phonograph, originally featured an Edison-Bell wax cylinder phonograph and a black bell (contrary to legend, there is no indication that it originally showed Nipper and the phonograph at a funeral). No wax cylinder record company wanted to buy the painting, so Francis Barraud painted a Gramophone with a brass bell over the Edison phonograph when he sold the painting for £100 to the Gramophone Company. The original "His Master's Voice" hangs at EMI's headquarters. Barraud was commissioned to paint 24 copies of the work for the Gramophone Company. The image and the phrase "His Master's Voice" are both trademarked.

As for Nipper, he started off as a stray mutt from Bristol, England. He was owned by Francis Barraud's brother, and Francis inherited the pooch upon the brother's death. Later, Nipper went back to the brother's widow. Nipper is said to have gotten his name from his habit of nipping at ankles. He died in 1895 at age 11 and is buried at Kingston-upon-Thames, in what is now the parking lot of a bank.

Tuesday Beakful of Knowledge

Though the first record to "go gold" was the soundtrack to Oklahoma!, the first Gold Record was given to Chattanooga Choo-Choo by Glenn Miller, and the award was made from one of the masters for the album, lacquered in gold. The official Gold Record award is now given by the RIAA, and the records in the award plaque are often not copies of the album receiving the award. That was true even before the decline in popularity of vinyl records.

Happy Pi Day

...Unless you are a DD/MM/YY date format user, in which case today is 14/3, and you have your choice of celebrating Purim or one week until the vernal equinox (note: Purim has better pastries). However, for those of us on the MM/DD format, today is 3/14. Mark your calendar: in nine years, we get 3/14/15 9:27. Party down with all things circular. The DD/MM folks will have to wait for January 3, 2042, when the date will be 3/1/42. If we go to decimal time in the next 35 years, they can celebrate a year early on 3/1/41 at 5:93.

Monday Beakful of Knowledge

The mountain goat is more closely related to antelope than goats.

Porpoising through Current Events

Don't eat this yellow snow, either. Yellow snow is common enough, but the yellow snow in South Korea was falling that way. Yellow dust regularly blows in from the northern Chinese desert, and this time the dust storm met up with snow flurries. Officials warn that the yellow snow presents a health hazard, being somewhat more toxic than standard yellow snow.

Friday Beakful of Knowledge

The first "bug in the system" was a moth that found its way inside a computer. The moth carcass is now housed in the Smithsonian.

Tuxedo Junction

We went to see the Glenn Miller Orchestra tonight. The band was great. I should have suspected something about the audience, though, when the tickets misspelled "Glenn." About 90% of the audience was of an age to have possibly seen the Glenn Miller Orchestra when it was led by Glenn Miller, so one would think that they would be able to handle a well-cued sing-along to "Pennsylvania 6-5000." Not so. Apparently, the bulk of the audience forgot the words. That's saying a lot, since there are only four words to "Pennsylvania 6-5000," and they are (get ready) "Pennsylvania six five thousand." Well, there are five words if one counts the final line, which is "Pennsylvania six five oh oh oh." The only song with easier lyrics is "Tequila." Nothing contrasts with the authentic acoustic big band sound like 1,200 people not singing along.

Thursday's Beakful of Trivia

Jane Barbe, the voice behind phone messages such as "At the tone, the time will be..." and "Your call cannot be completed as dialed," was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and her normal speaking voice had a southern drawl.

In the Craw: Lime Jelly Beans

I love Easter. Not so much the holiday, which I do not celebrate, but the candy. Easter has the best original candy of any holiday. Later, I will go over the science lesson that can be had microwaving Peeps. Now, there is a much more serious problem plaguing Easter candy: the green jelly bean flavor reassignment. The lime jelly bean appears to be going the way of the dodo. Of a dozen different jelly bean brands and flavor mixes at my local grocery store, only one had not reassigned the green jelly bean to Green Apple flavor.

Penguin News Roundup

As posted previously, March of the Penguins won the Oscar for Best Documentary. The filmmakers accepted carrying life-sized plush Emperor penguins.

A library in Missouri has moved the children's book recounting the true-life tale of male penguins Roy and Silo, residents of the Central Park Zoo, adopting an abandoned egg. Such egg adoptions are known to occur in the wild. In response to complaints by two parents while the juvenile fiction work was shelved in the juvenile fiction section, the book is now shelved in the nonfiction section, where children never go unless they are looking for references for a school report.

Wednesday's Beakful of Trivia

One of the co-inventors of the car radio, William Lear, also invented the eight-track tape player and the Lear Jet. The other co-inventor, Elmer Wavering, developed the automobile alternator, which makes power windows and air conditioning possible.

Tuesday's Beakful of Useless Knowledge

Bubble gum's traditional pink color came about because that was the only color food dye available when the first batch was mixed up.

The Blog, She is A-Changin'

Thanks for bearing with me during the recent lull in posting. I have made a few subtle changes to the design of the page. The most obvious change you will notice is I intend to return to daily blogging with a legitimate publishing schedule. Check back daily for a Beakful of Trivia, and weekly features. Wednesdays will bring you the Penguin News Roundup and Fridays bring Porpoising through Current Events. I am setting Fishing the 'Net, Slender Walk Tips, Stuck in the Craw, and From the Rookery on ice floes to float through the week. Other items of interest will appear at randomly to keep everyone from getting complacent.

Changes

Watch this space for some changes in the coming week.

Penguins in the Arts

Woo-Hoo! March of the Penguins won the Academy Award for best documentary. Not that the news comes as much of a surprise, nor did the penguin/tuxedo joke in the acceptance speech. I did like the life-size stuffed penguins.