A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
— e. e. cummings
(If you haven’t done so, go read catnip’s Sharing the Rain diary.)
13 Comments
A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
— e. e. cummings
(If you haven’t done so, go read catnip’s Sharing the Rain diary.)
In space, no one can hear you scream… …because of the noise: Excessive noise levels in the service module on the International Space Station have a negative effect on the hearing of astronauts, Russian doctors said Tuesday in a report. So much for the romance of space travel…
Children largely inherit their taste for high-protein food like meat and fish, research suggests. However, Cancer Research UK found a liking for vegetables and puddings was less likely to be fixed, and more the result of the menu provided by parents. The Journal of Physiology and Behaviour study also found girls were more likely to enjoy vegetables than boys. The researchers based their conclusions on a study of more than 200 pairs of same-sex twins.
Researchers at the Southwest Research Institute have proposed an explanation of why gas-giant planets display a consistency in the mass of their moons, and why the satellites of gas planets are so much smaller compared to their planet than the principal satellites of solid planets. In part, moons above a certain size as they form spiral into the planets and are destroyed.
A simplified, compact generator to tap tides for electricity generation has been developed, which does not require gears to turn the device into the current. It is expected to be commercially available in five years.
Contrails from winter night flights may be most responsible for the global warming caused by air traffic, even though they constitute a fraction of commercial flights. Airlines could markedly reduce aviation’s impact on climate by changing schedules to restrict winter night flying, researchers said.
“Let’s change the mood from glad to sadness” – Jim Morrison, L.A. Woman
This story just made me angry and depressed: Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may be turning to cannibalism because of us. Longer seasons without ice – due to global warming – keep them from getting to their natural food, a new study by American and Canadian scientists has found.
Another depressing thought: We may need to revive the “Save the Whales” campaign of the 1980’s, as the 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling may be about to be reversed.
Oooops, I did it again: About 60 tons of coal tar has contaminated a river in northern China and is threatening to pollute a reservoir which supplies water to a city of 10 million, state media reported Wednesday.
The most extensive analysis of organic pollutants in the air of Chinese cities confirms that air pollution levels are much higher than in the developed world. Very high levels of phthalates (used in manufacturing plastics) were found in all cities.
Algae blooms have been on the rise since the mid-1990s in parts of all of the Great Lakes except Lake Superior, whose icy waters are not as hospitable to the slimy aquatic plants.
Parents don’t treat boys and girls alike, at all, even when they are infants and toddlers, those times when most food preferences are developed.
Most foods not liked on the first try have to be presented about three times before very little children will start eating them. Parents are more likely to make little girl infants and toddlers (as opposed to boys) try and eat food they don’t like first. I suspect that accounts a lot for girls liking veggies more than boys later on in life.
Either that, or it’s the much larger Pizza gene on the Y chromosome.
Mrs. K.P. says men are attracted to motorcycles becayse the common sense gene is on the X chromosome, so men only get half as much.
No, she’s wrong. It’s testosterone poisoning.
I think CBtE has a bad case of that this week. Is there an antidote? 🙂
They also inherit their taste for chocolate.
And based on my family, that’s a dominant gene.
😉
Link
SEATTLE — Congress is considering pre-empting laws in 17 states that allow anyone to freeze their own credit and instead restricting the privilege to ID theft victims.
The proposed Financial Data Protection Act of 2006, expected to be voted on by the House as soon as next week, comes on the heels of the recent theft of sensitive data for 26 million veterans and active duty military personnel. If it becomes law, vets and military personnel who live in states that permit unrestricted credit freezes would lose that option.
A credit freeze cuts off access to your credit history. Since most banks and merchants insist on seeing a credit report before issuing credit, identity thieves can’t open bogus accounts using ill-gotten data. Under the bill, backed by the financial services industry, simply having your data lost or stolen isn’t enough. You must file a police report describing a specific instance of it being used to commit a crime.
“It’s like telling someone you can’t put a deadbolt on your front door until after you’ve been burglarized,” says Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna.
While we plot and scheme to take back a little ground in November, the Republican Congress is shamelessly continuing to ruin America one bill at a time.
Somewhere, I envision a cave full of green-shaded tiny-eyed creatures huddled over keyboards, looking at dim spread sheets of figures. They get their rewards by thinking up new ways to take funds from people. . .
like “standardizing” state laws about protecting consumers. The real goal of which is, of course, to end as much consumer protection as possible. And to end, of course, universal sales of consumer access to private financial information.
I predict the bill will allow companies to charge us for any limitation of access to our private information.
The real goal of which is, of course, to end as much consumer protection as possible.
Those little green-shaded tiny-eyed creatures are trying to make Democracy safe for business and in the process are transforming Democracy into somethidng unrecognizable. (I love your imagery.)
Thanks. I almost gave them a switch to press when they thought up a new money-grabbing idea after which a food pellet rolled into their in-basket. But I decided that it was too much like a psych experiment, and this is no experiment!
a cave full of green-shaded tiny-eyed creatures huddled over keyboards
Reminds me of the song “I Wanna Be A Producer” in the movie musical version of “The Producers” with the room full of accountants:
THE ACCOUNTANTS:
Unhappy…unhappy..very unhappy
Unhappy…unhappy…
Very very very very very
Very very unhappy
BLACK ACCOUNTANT:
Oh, I debits all duh mornin’
An’ I credits all duh eb’nin
Until dem ledgers be right
LEO & THE ACCOUNTANTS:
Until dem ledgers be right
LEO:
I spend my life accounting
With figures and such
THE ACCOUNTANTS:
Unhappy
LEO:
To what is my life amounting
It figures, not much
THE ACCOUNTANTS:
Unhappy
LEO:
I have a secret desire
Hiding deep in my soul
It sets my heart afire
To see me in this role
I wanna be a producer
With a hit show on Broadway
I wanna be a producer
Lunch at Sardi’s every day
I wanna be a producer
Sport a top hat and a cane
I wanna be a producer
And drive those chorus girls insane!
I wanna be a producer
And sleep until half-past two
I wanna be a producer
And say, “You, you, you, not you”
I wanna be a producer
Wear a tux on op’ning nights!
I wanna be a producer
And see my name “Leo Bloom” in lights!
CHORUS GIRLS:
He wants to be a producer
LEO:
Sell it, girls!
CHORUS GIRLS:
Of a great big Broadway smash
LEO:
Don’t forget the balcony!
CHORUS GIRLS:
He wants to be a producer
Ev’ry pocket stuffed with cash
He wants to be a producer
Pinch our cheeks ’til we cry
CHORUS GIRL #1:
Ouch!
CHORUS GIRL #2:
Eek!
CHORUS GIRL #3:
Ooh!
CHORUS GIRL #4:
Oh!
CHORUS GIRL #5:
Ahh!
CHORUS GIRL #6:
Yes!
CHORUS GIRLS:
He wants to be a producer
With a great big casting couch!
LEO:
I wanna be…
CHORUS GIRLS:
He wants to be…
LEO:
I wanna be…
CHORUS GIRLS:
He wants to be…
LEO:
I wanna be the greatest, grandest
And most fabulous producer in the world
CHORUS GIRLS:
He wants to be a producer
He wants to dine with a duchess and a duke
LEO:
I just gotta be a producer
Drink champagne until I puke
CHORUS GIRLS:
Drink champagne ’til he pukes!
LEO:
I wanna be a producer
Show the world just what I’ve got
I’m gonna put on shows
That will enthrall ’em
CHORUS GIRLS & LEO:
Read my name in Winchell’s column!
LEO:
I wanna be a producer
‘Cause it’s everything I’m not
THE ACCOUNTANTS:
Unhappy…unhappy…
So unhappy
LEO & THE ACCOUNTANTS:
Very very very very very
very very…
THE ACCOUNTANTS:
…sad
LEO:
I wanna be a producer
Hold everything! What I am I doing here? Mr. Bialystock was right!
There is a lot more to me than there is to me!
Stop the world, I wanna get on!
MARKS:
Bloom, where do you think you’re going?
LEO:
Mr. Marks, I’ve got news for you. I quit!
Here’s my visor…my Dixon Ticonderoga number two pencil… and my big finish!
I’m gonna be a producer
Sound the horn and beat the drum
I’m gonna be a producer
Look out Broadway, here I come!!
CHORUS GIRLS & ACCOUNTANTS:
Broadway, here he comes!
just a big game of charades: WashPo
As if the Boehner memo hadn’t already made this obvious…
And is this really starting to split the Republicans? WashPo puts it that way:
Sorry for the diary-length comment.
They still think there’s political hay in Zarqawi’s death. Is this seperating the really “dumb Republican bastards” from the other “dumb Republican bastards”? They’ll be at each other’s throats on Iraq and drop it all for a vote on another bill that elevates corporate America to sainthood and lines their pockets with kickbacks. The assholes think that they can legislate reality. I’m thinking that the American people are beyond believing in anything this Republican Congress does.
Don’t apologize for the length, it’s a good article and a good post.