neonvincent

Posted by Pinku-Sensei

http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2017/10/an-accident-in-oregon-for-hagfish-day.html

Happy Hagfish Day! Here's the national day's description from National Day Calendar.

Hagfish Day is observed annually on the third Wednesday in October.

Hagfish are considered to be the ugliest of species. The idea behind Hagfish Day is to encourage everyone to look beyond the exterior of the Hagfish and appreciate how highly evolved they are.

In general, O.K., but in detail, no. I'm sure there are uglier vertebrates. Also, while hagfish are just as evolved as any other organism on this planet, they are the descendants of the first branch off the vertebrate family tree. In fact, they branched off so early that they don't even really have vertebrae! They're the reason why cladists call the group Craniates instead of vertebrates; the most primitive group to have vertebrae are lampreys. See the phylogenetic diagram below.

However, I did not decide to celebrate Hagfish Day to give a lecture. Instead, I'm doing so to note that hagfish got in the news this summer. Watch Sloppy slime eel spill stops traffic from USA Today, which I showed to one of my classes this summer.

Watch on YouTube

All USA Today could muster was "Talk about a traffic jam!" National Geographic had a more informative description, if a less interesting video.

A car accident caused thousands of hagfish to spill on the highway, coating the road—and even a car—with slime. Hagfish, also called slime eels, secrete huge amounts of an extremely slippery mucus when stressed. The Oregon Department of Transportation used firehoses and a bulldozer to clear away the goo. The fish were likely destined for Asia, where many countries consider them a delicacy.

That was a fun video to show my students, but I think I might show The Hagfish Is the Slimy Sea Creature of Your Nightmares from the Smithsonian Channel to next year's class, either instead or in addition.

Watch on YouTube

The hagfish is a slime-emitting ocean-dweller that's remained unchanged for 300 million years--and it shows. It has a skull (but no spine), velvet smooth skin, and a terrifying pit of a mouth that’s lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth.

That shows and tells a lot more about the animal itself and not just how it interacts with humans.

By the way, not only did I write yesterday that I'd celebrate Hagfish Day today, but that I'd feature the Emmy Awards that "The Rachel Maddow Show" won for its coverage of the Flint Water Crisis and its interview of Kellyanne Conway. I've changed my mind. I plan on posting an entry about an Emmy winner that covered the opiate crisis, but it wasn't one of the ones I listed in 'Body Team 12' and 'Extremis' both nominated for Outstanding Short Documentary plus other science, health, and environment nominees; it was one I missed entirely. Stay tuned.

http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2017/10/an-accident-in-oregon-for-hagfish-day.html

cyberghostface posting in

scans_daily

( Story under the cut... )

superboyprime posting in

scans_daily

( Read more... )

andrewducker

Believers in conspiracy theories and the paranormal are more likely to see illusory patterns: (tags: illusion psychology conspiracy belief )
War Plan Red - the 1930s plan for the USA to invade Britain: (tags: history usa uk war )
Harvey Weinstein Accusers List: (tags: abuse movies hollywood )
That Viking textile doesn't actually say "Allah": (tags: islam history viking fail )
Carrie Fisher gave predatory producer a cow's tongue in a box: (tags: abuse Hollywood )
Gun waiting periods prevent hundreds of murders, according to 45-year study: (tags: guns death research )
Britain is facing a terrorist threat as unrelenting as it is unprecedented, MI5 chief warns: (tags: terrorism uk islam )
A day in the life of a Google human resources 'talent channels specialist.': (tags: Google work )
Amazon Studios exec Roy Price resigns after sexual harassment claim: I really am hoping this turns into an avalanche
(tags: abuse amazon )
world's first floating wind farm opens (in Scotland): (tags: Scotland windpower ocean )
Star Wars music with major and minor key reversed (Vader's march delightfully triumphal): (tags: music StarWars )

Crossposts: https://andrewducker.livejournal.com/3626109.html

history79 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more... )

dglenn

"If you want to change the future, start living as if you're already there." -- Lynn Conway, 2013-07-14

[Though I think taking it too far and living as if "I don't have to work toward this because it's already done," might be counterproductive. Still work to make the change you want catch up to you.]

ysabetwordsmith

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do?

Current Mood: busy
Crossposts: https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/4484721.html

fayanora

There's this book Alex has had on his Amazon wishlist for a long time, NATURAL SATANIC WITCHCRAFT - Traditional,Spiritual,Orthodox (Volume 1)" by Kindra Ravenmoon, that he wants mainly for the fact it contains "malevolent uses for gemstones," information we can't find anywhere else.

Well before, this was just a curiosity and not a very high priority thing, but now I'm doing the Dalia Ravenstone story, I now feel this book has become something I NEED, since those malevolent uses for gemstones could come very much in handy for this story at some point along the way. The book is only basically $23 (and trust me, that's pretty much the cheapest I can find it anywhere), so I'll probably get it next month with something else for the free shipping. But man, that feels ages away right now, and $23 is a lot of money for a book. I rarely spend more than about $10 for any book. But that information about malevolent uses for gemstones is just too tempting to resist much longer.

Of course, if anyone else wants to buy it for me now and send it to me in a few days, I would be glad to pay you back plus interest when I get money again November 3rd.

Gah. That reminds me, I also need the first volume of The Crystal Bible. It took me like, a year or more to figure out that I had *volume* 2, not *edition* 2. Only figured it out because it didn't have rose quartz in it. (Though lilac quartz ended up being better for what I wanted than rose quartz was.)

(Yes, I could just make something up, but I'm trying to make magic in the Ravenstone universe as close to real-world magick as possible, just a lot more powerful. And honestly, it's easier to buy this book and see what this list entails than it would be to try to think of things myself, since I don't know much about the *regular* magical uses for gemstones; I keep having to look things up online.)

Crossposts: https://fayanora.livejournal.com/1791874.html

riddler13 posting in

scans_daily

In yesterday's post, we met Sakura, and we saw her getting in trouble by kidnapping an enslaved serving girl in order to set her free.

Part II is the conclusion to her first adventure.

( With your trademark Sakai Twist™ )

Sakura is slated to return, according to Stan Sakai, but I've seen no indication of her comeback so far.

Comments, opinions, requests, all in the little boxes below :)

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: B.B. & Q. Band - On the Beat (Extended Version)

peristaltor

When you find yourself in an uncomfortable waiting room, vomit loudly. You will be whisked to somewhere more private lickety-spit!

(Ooo, maybe not a great word choice to close THAT sentence….)

In other updates, still no diagnosis.

cahighways_feed

Posted by cahwyguy

http://cahighways.org/wordpress/?p=13443

A meme is going around Facebook highlighting a draft HHS Standard that supposedly defines life as beginning at conception. As Snopes notes: “Conservatives and pro-life organizations have welcomed the change as a much-needed corrective to Obama-era policies, but women’s health and pro-choice advocates see it as a harbinger of future federal efforts to restrict access to medical services such as contraceptives and abortion.” As an example, Snopes quotes the document’s second paragraph: “HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of 61 activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception.”

I was thinking about this proposed definition this morning. In many ways, it struck me as lip-service to the notion of life beginning at conception, just as the whole abortion debate is lip-service concern about life (for, after all, if there was real concern about life, then that concern would continue after the child is born — ensuring health care and minimal living standards).

Just like we know that a concert isn’t over until the instruments stay off the stage and the house lights come up, “life begins at conception” won’t be the real until there is elimination of the birthday. After all, why celebrate the day you were born if that isn’t when your life began. Being born becomes just another milestone, like starting kindergarten or going to college. Get rid of the birthday entirely. Put the date of conception on the drivers license. All those age based limits — those are based on birthday, not conception day. You should be able to vote at 18¾. Drink at 21¾. Collect social security at 65¾.

But as long as our society remains centered around the birthday, the whole notion of “life begins at conception” is bullshit. In society, life begins when you are born or able to live independently from your parent’s body. Earlier than that, and you are theirs to do with. You are, pure and simple, a body part. You are like a fingernail, or a finger, or excess belly fat. It sounds crass, but that’s what it is. If you are unable to get a government ID card or a social security number, are you alive?

I’m not saying this all to be silly. There is a reason that the Supreme Court decided as they did in Rowe v. Wade. If the foetus cannot live independently, the mother must have the right to treat it as any other part of their body. Once it can live outside their body, it can apply for a social security number and get a birthdate. Conception date is not a birthday.

http://cahighways.org/wordpress/?p=13443

captainsblog

Oddly, our most annoying companion- Michelle the evil cat- has given us the least to write about over the past few days. Here's the rest of the menagerie news.

I awoke Sunday morning to a Facebook feed full of bad news from near and far. One friend, in Philadelphia, was awakened overnight by gunshots outside, and she soon learned that they had hit a man two doors down from her. (He later died of his wounds.) Another, closer to here in a suburb on the other side of Buffalo, was also awakened overnight- by a drunk driver, who sped down her quiet side street, hit a parked car, came to a brief rest in her front garden and finally gave one more push to crash into her front porch. (He ran away and was caught three doors down; everybody inside the house was fine, but if the parked car and garden hadn't slowed down the idiot, my friend's son on the other side of the porch wall might not have lived.)

So it seemed hardly in that league of news to realize that Zoey, our youngest kitty and perhaps our sweetest-ever furry friend, had gotten out during the night. No sign of her when the bowls went down, but moments later there was mewing at the back door. It hadn't been raining and was stupidly warm that night, so there's no way to tell if she got out on the dog run at 9, midnight or 4, but there she was....

and, after we got back from Eleanor's checkup on Monday afternoon, there the fleas were. It's amazing how quickly she can pick them up out there. We then attempted to hold her down long enough to medicate her for it- and off she went, flying into an unknown corner but not before getting a good bite in on Mommy in the process. She finally turned up under the guest futon, was toweled into submission, and was back to purring a few hours later. (In front of a heat register, which by then was putting heat out instead of the air conditioning of a day earlier. Welcome to Buffalo in October.)

----

Yesterday, the kitty news was from afar: Cameron was at a lumberyard, and a nearly newborn kitten came across his path. Here's how Eleanor reported the conversations about it with Emily:

Clearly abandoned. No one else doing anything about it. He brought her home, where they already have two cats, all their lease will allow them. They called all the local SPCAs, which were closed. Somehow they got in touch with a local rescue person, who promised to pick the little one up [the next] morning, and during the night (the rescue woman works nights) texted Emily with tips on how to care for such a little baby (they think she just opened her eyes shortly before she was found).

Emily kept saying last night and this morning, that she felt sad that she wasn’t “able to do something substantial for her”. I said no, she DID do something substantial for her! If Cam hadn’t picked her up, and the two of them hadn’t done everything they did, she probably would have died without her momma! She stands a better chance of living because of Em and Cam! I sent Em this:

🏆Best Human Beings of the Day Award!

Once I saw her picture, I was sure they were done for, and they (or we) would wind up with her-

-but they made the handoff just fine today, and kitty stands a much better chance of finding a good forever home because of them.

---

That leaves our dear old dog, and I do mean old; she'll be 15 in a couple of months. I'd been putting off Ebony's annual vet visit to the limit just because of how much it stresses her out, but we were out of meds after today and that's when I was able to make the appointment for. As she's done the past several times, she showed her initial displeasure by taking a dump in the waiting room- then panting and pacing the whole time we waited in between the tech and the vet coming in. But when they're actually working with her (and plying her with treats), she's fine- and other than being down a couple of pounds, her vitals were all good and her chronic symptoms- some eye glaze and some puffiness in the hind legs- don't seem to be any worse or causing her any problems. They took her back for her heartworm test draw and a mani-pedi- which reminded me to do the same for Zoey when I got home. Everybody's now home, fed and free of stress and distress.

Even Michelle, who will likely shit in my shoe just because I said nice things about her:P

cahwyguy

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Essay Prompt: How Old are You? by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

cyberghostface posting in

scans_daily

"Ryan explained to me, he wanted it to be done in our style. He likened and wrote Galactus as Garfield and Norin Radd as Jon. That determined what they were going to look like. When you look at the Silver Surfer, he’s 75 percent of the way there anyway with Jon, all we had to do is give him the big eyes. That was a natural. John kind of hangs around Garfield anyway, he’s the straight man to Garfield’s gags and has to get him food. He’s like Garfield’s herald. Galactus was tougher. We were throwing stuff back and forth, and the initial sketches just weren’t working for Galactus. I said okay, we gotta make him fat. The guy eats planets, for god’s sake! Once we do that, it’s a little less Galactus but certainly a lot more Garfield. It looked more natural. Obviously, Galactus has put on a few mega-tons for this strip." -- Jim Davis

( Comic under the cut... )

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #3940 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 25 secrets from Secret Submission Post #564.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

telophase

Posted by Toby from Glamorous in Retrospect | http://wp.me/p5ldry-6A

(Resurrecting a post that’s been sitting in the Drafts folder for almost 2 years now, and testing a new crossposting plugin at the same time.)

We are not social people. Well, okay, we’re selectively social. We have our groups of friends that we see now and then, but we don’t generally seek out new acquaintances. This will become important in a bit.

But we do like to cook. When looking for things to do on this trip, Stephanie found this cooking class that covers several Japanese dishes, and includes a main dish of actual Kobe beef. We figured, “Sounds cool!” and signed up.

( Read more... )

history79 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more... )

alicemacher posting in

scans_daily

"At least my face can't turn out like the Joker's, or a giant red light bulb as in that Richie Rich comic...right?"

Okay, time to bring out the heavy stuff here. This tale of revenge upon revenge is so ridiculously, over-the-top grotesque and brutal it makes EC's "Foul Play" look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar by comparison. Warning for violence/gore.

( 'There! There! There! Suffer! Suffer! Suffer!' )

ysabetwordsmith

Today is sunny and mild to cool.

I planted 6 double early mix tulips around the barrel garden. These put out fluffy flowers in warm colors, some solids and others bicolors.

Later I'm hoping to get back out and move firewood from the yard into the woodbin on the porch.

EDIT 10-17-17: We moved one wheelbarrow of wood from the yard to the porch.

EDIT 10-17-17: I went back out and planted 25 mixed crocus around the row of saplings beside the driveway. These are purple, white, yellow, and white with purple stripes.

Current Mood: busy
Crossposts: https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/4484425.html

history79 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more... )

Profile

neonvincent

October 2017

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Oct. 18th, 2017 02:44 pm

Reading

An accident in Oregon for Hagfish Day

The Window Next Door

Batman: The Drowned #1

Interesting Links for 18-10-2017

Batman #33

QotD

Hard Things

Desire becomes more of a need

Usagi Yojimbo #112 (2008) - "Sakura pt II"

Med Care Pro-Tip!

Essay Prompt: How Old are You?

Animal Houses

Essay Prompt: How Old are You?

Galactus Gags

[ SECRET POST #3940 ]

Cooking class in Kyoto, January 2015

Sh*t My President Says: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump

Beware #6: The Thing from Beyond

Tuesday Yardening

Captain Atom: Armageddon #6

Profile

October 2017

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags