Guns

Shooting potatoes in the Nevada desert.

There has been a lot of talk on the news about gun control since the tragic shooting that occurred at Sand Hill Elementary School. I never really thought too much about it before, but it seems like every week now there is some "breaking story" on the news about a mad gunman entering a populated place, whether it be a mall, school, or movie theater, and opening fire. It's frightening.
To many this seems to be all the more reason to get a gun themselves. After all it's one of our rights as American citizens. And what better way to protect yourself from getting shot than shooting someone else first right? I can see their point, I really can, and I understand the fear that makes you want to do whatever you can to protect yourself and those you love.
But I don't think it is a solution. And what I mean by that is I don't think that there will be less school/mall shootings if every American went out and bought a gun. I think in addition to the same amount of tragic public shootings, there will be an increase in accidental deaths, and more tragedies on the news. I think more innocent people will be killed not less.
It might sound like I am totally anti-gun. That's not true though. I don't really have a problem with guns themselves. I just have a problem with some of the people using them, and the fact that those dangerous people somehow keep getting access to them. I go shooting. I am extremely paranoid about safety when I do (i.e. keeping the safety on, making sure the guns are unloaded when we are done, NEVER pointing it in any direction of a person, always announcing when and where I am shooting etc.), but I've actually really enjoyed all the times I've gone (I still go out once a year or so). It's challenging and fun sport to try to hit a target (soda can/ rotten fruit) a hundred feet away. Especially when the gun kicks and you have to adjust your aim to account for it, and distance and wind direction and all of that. And I've used a lot of different guns. Rifles, 22's, various hand guns including a glock, two different revolvers, and a shotgun. (The 22 is my favorite because it's light, doesn't kick, and it the easiest to aim). I've never killed anything with a gun though, nor have I ever even tried hunting. But I don't really have an ethical problem with the idea of hunting or guns, especially when you think about how important they were in the past as a means of providing food for your family.
But while I really enjoy targeting a spray-painted potato on a barren hillside in the middle of the desert, I still think that more active measures of gun control is a good idea. And I'd vote for it. I think I'd be willing to give up my right to fun afternoon of target practice if it meant there was less chance that elementary school kinds would suffer the fate of those at Sandy Hill. It is just my opinion, but I think the less guns there are in the general population the better. Even more strict rules and regulations would help.
I know the Second Amendment of the Constitution says each of us  have a right to bear arms. It was added to ensure that each person would always be provided the opportunity to protect themselves and their family. And I completely agree with that. I just think that "bearing arms" may not be the best way to protect ourselves anymore. I know I have the right to have a gun, but I am choosing not to. Not because of what I would do with it, but because of what others might. Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter.

What's It Worth To You?

One of the victims. (borrowed from LA Times website)

I don't consider myself a "tree hugger", but I am still pretty appalled by the fact that 400 trees are going to be cut down along the streets of LA to make room for the Space Shuttle Endeavour to get from wherever it is now to it's new home at the California Science Center. As if LA isn't ugly enough, now it's going to have 400 fewer trees.
Not 10 or 35, or a hundred even, but 400 trees, many of which are older growth trees. The plan is to plant twice as many more to make up for cutting them down. But I'll tell you, if someone came down my street and told me they were going to cut down the beautiful, shady, gigantic trees in front of my house, and plant two little saplings in place of each one, I would still be devastated. I'd be heart broken. Trees make ugly places pretty, and give a little relief to the endless miles of concrete. I just can't wrap my head around it.
I'm not saying that it wouldn't be awesome to have the shuttle at the Science Center, I'm just saying I feel like there has to be another way, and if there's not that it's not worth cutting down 400 trees. Why not cut the wings off the shuttle (which is not alive and converting CO2 into oxygen) and re-attach them at the science center? I don't think there are any plans to make it fly again, so what would be the big deal? Sure it would be a bunch of labor, but so would planting 800 trees I think.
Anyway, I don't know why this irks me so. It just does.

Playing God

(Photo borrowed from article linked below)

This morning I read an article that I found disturbing. I've seen it many times before with different animals, but the story is basically the same. We (humans) mess up a habitat which causes something to go awry within the ecosystem. Then we try to fix it, but really have no idea of the implications of our actions. Then we think we have the right to eradicate one animal, that we decided is somehow the bad guy and doesn't belong, while going out of our way to protect the one that we claim is unfairly being predated and needs to be saved. We compound one wrong by slapping another one on top of it.
This time it involves whales and seagulls. Apparently in Argentina there was an explosion of seagulls due to copious amounts of trash left exposed in landfills and by humans. These particular seagulls are special in that they discovered (about 10 years ago) that they could snack on right whales when they surfaced to breath. So in addition to eating week old french fries and garbage, they also dine on fresh whale meat. It's called adaption, and it's a remarkable, and beautiful thing that life does. It wasn't so bad (for the whales) when the population was small, the whales could stave off a few birds, and the birds got a good meal. But now it is a different story. The birds are many, and not only do they attack adults they also attack the infant whales, creating open sores that are prone to infections. Now the whales are in trouble. Now the gulls are "bad".
The attacks are so intense that whale watching trade has gone down because people are "horrified" to see the birds converge upon the whales as they breach the surface to take a breath.
So what are they going to do? Shoot the seagulls. Can you believe that? There is actually a plan to spend a hundred days following the whales and shooting every seagull that tries to take a bite.
This makes me angry. Not because I don't feel bad for the whales, but because I do feel bad for the gulls. They aren't doing anything wrong. They are doing exactly what any animal in a position of overabundant food  source and no predation would do. Expand and multiply. For crying out loud WE do it, as can been seen by the 6 billion people that inhabit our planet. Should we start shooting people because we take advantage of other animals? We are worse than the gulls.
And it makes me angry that instead of immediately implementing a plan to cut down on the trash left in the open (which would quickly bring the population back into equilibrium, and which they are planning but not till later), they opt to just shoot a bunch of innocent birds.
I think this is not only irresponsible, but just plain stupid. The article I read made the gulls seem like the villains, and the whales like the victims. But that's not true. WE are the villains. The whales and the gulls are both victims. Maybe the gulls a little more so since they will get no sympathy from those of us who get to play god.

For the full article click HERE.

LOL Cats

I found a slide show on Huffington Post that I found to be super hilarious. It was titled "Cats: They just don't give a F*ck". I'm not sure what is more funny that the cats don't seem to mind, or that the owners thought of doing this in the first place. Either way, I can't help but laugh out loud. They make me almost want a cat. Almost. Here are a few of the more hilarious shots. Enjoy!

NOT Cool: Part 2

(I can't remember if I already posted this or not. If so...sorry for the repeat.)

NOT Cool.

I don't care if the cat was named Orville after one of the Wright brothers. This is so not cool.

Don't Judge a Book...

I just came across this clip from one of the many "talent" shows on TV. It's a good reminder why we shouldn't judge a book by its cover;)

The Agulhas Leakage

Image from NOAA showing Agulhas leakage.

I know I have made a ridiculous number of posts this month, but I have been doing a lot of reading/ and thinking, and have even been catching up on a few subjects that I've been meaning to write about for a while, but didn't have time to.
Anyway something interesting I read in the Book Atlantic by Simon Winchester, was about a thing called the Agulhas leakage. I had never heard of it before, and so I did some searching around on the Internet to learn more. Basically it is warm water from the Indian Ocean that is curling past the tip of South Africa, and entering the Atlantic.
But a little bit of history is needed to really understand why it is referred to as a leakage versus a current.
In the southern hemisphere between the latitudes of 30 and 60 degrees are winds called the "westerlies". (And big surprise they blow from the west!) Anyway, the strength of these winds has declined over the last 30 years and no one really knows why. Some folks think they are moving farther south and filling in where there hole in the ozone was created, but it's still pretty inconclusive at this point. The thing is that the westerlies used to keep the water from the Indian Ocean out of the Atlantic. But with the weakening of the winds, that is no longer the case, and so the warm and extra salty waters are seeping in, and slowly making their way up the west coast of Africa.
No one knows really what the effects of this will be, but since the oceans of the world are run on very strange and sensitive relationships between temperature, salinity and weather, the consequences could be anywhere from negligent to quite severe. I read the abstract of an article published in Nature that links the leakage with the change in the winds, and they say that should the Gulf Stream shut down, the Aguihas leakage could provide Great Britain with an alternative source of warmth.

Awesome!

So the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched today to bring supplies to the International Space Station! It is the first privately owned company launch and attempt docking with the ISS! Isn't that awesome? I am so excited for the future of space flight and exploration. I think this marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Way to go SpaceX! (And nice name for the "Dragon" spacecraft;) For the full article and video of the launch click here.

Saints Scandal

Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and Defensive captain Jonathan Vilma
(Borrowed from www.businesweek.com)

Yesterday NFL commissioner Roger Goodell finally passed judgement on the main New Orleans Saints defensive players involved in the "bounty" scandal. For those of you who don't know what that is, from 2009 to 2011 (I think) the defensive coordinator of the team set up a program that paid defensive players extra money to take key players of the opposing team out of the game. I.e. they were told to specifically target old or healing wounds of specific opponents, and to do whatever they could to injure players to the point that they were no longer able to play in the game. It was totally against the rules of the NFL, and a pretty lousy, unsportsmanlike thing to do by all involved. I mean it's football not war. Those guys should know better.
The Commish didn't go lightly on anyone and I am glad. He shouldn't. We are talking about people's lives here, and that some guys were actually trying to maliciously do bodily harm is really serious. It's no different than jumping an innocent person in the street as far as I am concerned.
Here is how it panned out. The head coach Sean Payton is suspended for a year without pay. The defensive coordinator is suspended indefinitely. A couple other coaches were suspended for a few games. The team as a whole was fined $500,000 and their first two draft picks of this year were revoked. The ring-leader/captain of the defense Jonathan Vilma (who before I actually admired because I thought he was such a good leader for their defense) is suspended a year without pay, and three other players were suspended for several games a piece.
Over all I think the punishment is fair. On the one hand you want to make sure that no one else decides to do something similar so the punishment should be severe, but at the same time, once they pay for their crimes, I think we need to let it go. The main perpetrator is pretty much banned from the NFL and everyone else has, I think, learned their lesson.

San Mateo Cat Burglar

Click on image about for a true "tale" about a REAL cat burglar:)

LOL. Happy National Humor Month!

(P.S. Sorry there is a 30 second commercial at the beginning...not funny.)

Christmas List 2012: White Orca

I just saw a video of the first ever discovered all white Orca. And I want one. I know what you are thinking. How on earth would you get one for me? Well, I don't know. All I know is that if you really care about me you will find a way. Ha ha..OK, just kidding (kind of). But isn't this neat? I tried to find a better picture, but there weren't many that were very clear. His name is "Iceberg" and he was discovered by some Russian scientists off the coast of Kamchatka. I know I say this all the time, but I love nature. To think that I live in a universe that has produced something as beautiful as an all white killer whale makes me feel pretty lucky to be alive in it.

Barbie Girl

So this is an actual woman. A model from the Ukraine or somewhere named Valeria Lukyanova. She is only 21 years old. And apparently she's spend several hundred thousand dollars to look like a "real" Barbie. I am assuming much of the money was spent removing her lower ribs. I find this really disturbing. Sometimes I'm a bit jealous of model types because I've never been a super slender person. But that is definitely not the case here. I actually feel sorry for this girl. (Just for reference, I think my waist is 4-5x larger than hers is.)

Crime at Seaworld

So I just read a short article about 3 Australian guys who got drunk, broke into SEAWORLD (in Australia), swam with the dolphins, and kidnapped a penguin! Apparently they woke up in the morning and found a penguin running around their house and realized that they'd messed up. So they took the penguin and tried to release it into a shark infested waterway. Luckily it survived, and was returned to Seaworld.
I know I should be angry that those guys traumatized a little innocent bird, but I just think the whole thing is hilarious! It's like the scene from the Hangover, when the guys wake up after a night of partying and find a tiger in the bathroom! Ha ha ha....
I know stealing is a crime, and they should be punished, but out of all the stupid things a drunk person could do, breaking into Seaworld and swimming with dolphins has got to be one of the best I've ever heard of. Good one mates!

From One Horse to Another

I can't believe I'm saying this but Peyton Manning will no longer be an Indianapolis Colt. His brief free agency had him interviewing in San Fran, Tennessee and Denver, and for whatever reason he signed with the latter, a horse of a different color if you will. I have no idea why, but if I were him (with several vertebrate in my neck fused together) I'd be going with the team with the best O-line.
I am a little disappointed though because I've never really liked the Broncos. I think the John Elway era was OK, but in the last couple of years there has just been so much drama there, it's annoying. Jeff McDaniels/Brandon Marshall/ Kyle Orton/ Tebow etc. And I don't like Brandon Lloyd either (although now he's a Ram).
Anyway, Peyton seemed to like it just fine, and so he'll be the starting QB come fall. I also heard that Denver is looking to trade Tim Tebow now. I can't blame them there. While I'll admit the kid has enthusiasm, I don't think he's a good football player, and I find him obnoxious. But who will want him? I don't think he'll get a start anywhere, except maybe if he goes to Miami. And that's not because I think he is starter material, rather I think they would use him as a PR stunt to get the Florida fans (remember Tebow went to the University of Florida) back on the Dolphins bandwagon. They have been so terrible the last few years it seems like nobody wants to play there. I heard David Gerrard (used to QB for Jacksonville) signed with the Dolphins already, but I think if they got Tebow too, he'd have a shot at starting. Otherwise, I think he's done, or a back up for the rest of his career.
But WOW, can you believe it? Peyton Manning a Denver Bronco? I always thought he would retire a Colt. And I am really curious why he still wants to play, especially when you consider the severity of his injury. He could be paralyzed if he gets hurt again. Why risk it when he has plenty of money and a family to look after? I love football too, but...not that much. I think he should have stayed with the Colts and become their quarterback coach. Now that would have been something! Train up the new QB in the "Peyton-Style" of play, so the offense could stick to their normal scheme (which was pretty successful the past few years). Oh well. Anyway, hopefully he has more success than Favre did.

Alps Railway Tunnel

I was perusing an issue of National Geographic at the library the other day when I stumbled upon this photo (or one really close to this, I found this one on the internet). I was quite amazed. It looked like something out of the latest Transformers movie. I've never seen such a large drill! And to think it's been tunneling for years, under the Alps, an astonishing 2 km below the surface is even more impressive. I won't go into all the details since the Nat Geo folks are much better writers than I am, but here is the article if you'd like to know more.
It definitely puts a new spin on the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" doesn't it?

Here Higgsy-Higgsy

In the issue of Science (December 2011) I read, there was a tiny blurb on the Higgs-boson. Remember the blog I posted last month about  the book The God Particle?
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting little follow up, especially since the writer claimed (and I sensed a little exasperation between the lines) that "Next year, particle physicists will either find the long-sought Higgs boson, or prove it doesn't exist..." He goes on to claim "It's not so much a prediction as a matter of fact." and concludes that "It's all but a mathematical certainty." (And from what I understand  "mathematical certainty" translates to "pretty damn sure" in the vernacular.)
The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is on the hunt, and producing so much data, so rapidly, that scientists believe if the Higgs is out there, it will soon have no place left to hide.
Either way I think it's exciting. If they do find it, it will vindicate the Standard Model theory and be one of the (maybe the?) greatest achievements in modern physics. If they don't find it, then they will have to start from scratch and come up with a whole new theory. And that would be really interesting too.

Who's Your Great-Great-Grand-Daddy?

The other day at the gym I was surprised to see an issue of the journal Science among the normal fitness/body building ones in a basket in the lobby. I was a little early for yoga, so I sat down for a quick read. As I thumbed through some of the shorter articles I came across one discussing the recently-complicated family tree of we humans that was pretty neat.
For the past 100,000 years or so we have been tooling around the earth doing our "thing" which involved learning, creating culture, reproducing and all that fun stuff. But many of us forget (or maybe never realized to begin with) that we weren't the only folks around at that time. In the past 35,000 years there were Neandertals for one, and archaic humans called the Denisova hominin in addition to ourselves. And if you go back to the beginning of that 100,00 years when Homo sapiens emerged there were probably a few of our older ancestors still running around, like Australopithecus sediba and so on.
Anyway, for almost the entire history of anthropology it was thought that we humans never mated with any of our  early neighbors. But DNA sequencing is turning that idea on it's head. Recent study comparing modern human DNA to Neandertal and Denisovan DNA has produced the following results:

• Eastern Europeans and Asian people have inherited 2%-6% of their DNA from Neadertals.
• Peoples of Southwest Asia have inherited about 5% of their DNA from the Denisovans, and another 4-6% from Neandertals. (Another study found this same distribution in people in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Melanesia.) (That's about 10% total!!!)
• Denisovan DNA was found in Australian aboriginals
• Three isolated African groups inherited DNA from an unknown archaic people, long after modern humans arose.
• It has been discovered that over half of the human genes that code for leukocyte antigen proteins, (i.e.the ones that help detect pathogens in the blood) came from some or another "archaic" human.

I guess maybe I should point out before closing what is meant by archaic humans. They were still Homo but their DNA shows them to be distinct from us modern humans. They appear to have evolved from the same ancestors as Neandertals, but were closely enough related to humans to be able to reproduce.

Note: You may notice that I spell Neandertal with a "t" rather than a "th". I believe the "th" is the American version, but in all of my readings (both in school, and in scientific journals) always uses the "t" version, and I figured if it's good enough for Science it's good enough for me.

You have Beautiful...Eye.

Water flea
http://discovermagazine.com/2012/mar/30-heres-looking-at-you-kid

I saw this photo in the most recent edition of Discover Magazine at the local library, and then I searched it out on their website (which by the was is fantastic,and totally one of my favorite Internet haunts). The image is of a water flea. Yep. Can you believe that? I sat there for at least five minutes trying to figure out if it was some kind of joke or something, but it's not. It's the real deal. And I think this little guy/gal...whatever, is pretty awesome (and I'm invoking the original sense of the word here, not the modern day meaning). The article is short, but definitely worth the one minute it will take to read it. The other highlight the author points out is that these transparent little specks have about 5,000 more genes than we do! I don't know how that's possible, but there you have it. I swear that every single day I am more amazed by what life is, and how life does. It reminds me of that quote by the late Carl Sagan. "I find it elevating and exhilarating to discover that we live in a Universe which permits the evolution of molecular machines as intricate and subtle as we." Although just for today I might replace the "we" with "a water flea".

On a slightly more humorous note for some reason the water flea photo instantly reminded me of this seedy plankton character that I saw on Sponge Bob. I looked it up and his name is Sheldon J. Plankton...LOL...

The second thing I thought of was Mike Wazowski. 

Goodbye Whitney

My Favorite Whitney Houston Album

I was shocked yesterday to read a headline that claimed Whitney Houston drown the bathtub of a Beverly Hills Hotel. I was even more shocked to discover it was true. Never in a million years would I have thought she would die that way.There is always an weird...sense of disbelief when a well known celebrity dies, especially one who was a part of your childhood and you admired as a kid.  I feel sad that she is gone. I feel even more sad that she didn't get to live to be an old woman. I never actually knew her of course, but she was a part of my life just the same. After all, I've never lived in a world that didn't have Whitney Houston in it. It's still sort of impossible to imagine.  I have so many fond memories of her, and as a small tribute from a fan, I thought I'd share a few.

I used to put on dance shows for my parents (totally choreographed by yours truly) to her songs and sing along. I remember jumping and twirling around  their bedroom while they lay in bed trying to look impressed.

We had an album of hers that we listened to over and over on a trip to Hawaii when I was 8 or 9. To this day when I hear any of the songs on it I am reminded of that great family trip, riding in the car, seeing things I'd never seen before like HUGE green mountains, and how excited and happy I was. That album is the soundtrack to one of my "perfect" memories growing up.

 I'm not sure if this should actually be classified as a "fond" memory, but I also sang Where Do Broken Hearts Go in front of my ENTIRE school when I was in 4th or fifth grade. I know it sounds insane, but I had Whitney backing me up. What could go wrong? I thought I was the shit at the time (because she was so awesome and I thought I sounded almost exactly like her), but pretty much ever since then it's been more of a "oh-my-god I can't believe I did that..." kind of feeling. And every time I watch the video those flat notes I repeatedly hit keep getting longer and flatter and....but I digress.

I know Whitney had a rough go of things for a while, and there were probably more than natural causes involved in her death, but I for one will always remember the way she was when I was a little girl. She'll always be a superstar to me.