Eat more cookies

I just enjoyed a Nature Valley “Sweet & Salty Nut” granola bar. This particular flavor comes in a nut-brown wrapper with pictures of peanuts on the front. It says in bold lettering “PEANUT Naturally Flavored“, and includes a little banner that says “Dipped in Peanut Butter Coating Bursting with Peanuts!” The first ingredient listed on the back is “ROASTED PEANUTS“.

You can see where I’m going with this . . .

Below the ingredients, in bold letters “CONTAINS PEANUT . . . INGREDIENTS“.

What can one say about the Larry Craig scandal that hasn’t been said already? The lies. The abject hypocrisy of squashing gay rights while yourself being gay. The pseudo-Christian, self righteous nonsense the far right likes to spew. It really ticks me off.

But I do have something to add to the story: I was once “Larry Craiged” in a men’s room at Penn State!

(more…)

On Saturday, Sep. 1st, the Nittany Lions host Florida International University. Back from a serious leg injury last year, head coach Joe Paterno was asked the following in his regularly scheduled pre-game press conferecne today:

Q: Are you planning on running out of the tunnel with the team?

A: Not really. I’ve got a new plan. I’m going to drop from a parachute. (laughter) How do you think I’m going to get on the field? How about if you carry me out? (laughs)

Ah, he’s the best. God bless you JoePa, and go get ‘em Lions!

You’ve no doubt heard of “Yuppies” but do you know about “Uppies”?

I refer to the Upland Sandpiper, a shorebird that needs no shore, but is very much at home in expansive grasslands. We didn’t have these on the farm in Central NY, so I didn’t really start to learn about these birds ’til I had a chance to survey for a tiny remnant population in Northern Virginia. They are also a species of grave conservation concern, having declined precipitously in past decades due to hunting pressure and loss of native grasslands.

(Michael Brown photo.)

Uppies are birds of the Plains - whether those of central Canada or central Argentina - for these are among our champion migrants. The fat they lay down for migration has contributed to the hunting pressure they have endured.

Another Oklahoma native I’ve embraced out here, I’ve found Uppies breeding at two locations in northern Oklahoma over the past few months, and they can be heard passing through fairly reliably. They usually pass over pretty high, so it can be tough to pick them out against our deep blue sky, but their call is diagnostic. To me it sounds like a rapid, whistled “Pitty-pip-pip-pip!” That’s exactly what I heard overhead this morning, right before I watched an Uppie winging its way over my backyard. Another choice species for the backyard list!

Soccer balls dropped from helicopters by U.S. troops as a gift to children in an Afghan town have led to demonstrations by the locals. The balls include flags from countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia whose flag bears the name of Allah. The local Afghanis are thoroughly offended that anyone would “kick the name of Allah”, on the Saudi flag, on the soccer ball.

I can’t decide what’s worse? After all this time, do the people in our military STILL not understand the muslim mindset about things like this? Do we not have any devout muslims working with us on cultural relations? On the other hand, the fact that the Afghanis were offended by this just makes them seem freakin’ crazy to me.

Excellent essay on U.S. dog fighting here.

BTW, if celebrating your “culture” involves abject cruelty to animals for your entertainment, then your culture is dumb.

Some folks know them as “fireflies”, others call them “lightning bugs”. Several years ago, I started a one-man crusade to come up with a better common name for these bioluminescent beetles. They are not flies, and they don’t make fire. They are not bugs, and they don’t make lightning. But they are beetles and they flash, so I started calling them “flash beetles”. C’mon, say it with me: “flash beetle”. It’s accurate, and it’s still just as much fun to say as firefly or lightning bug.

(Mike Lee photo)

With all our weird weather this growing season, I shouldn’t be surprised to see other weird things happening. We are now in our SECOND flash beetle season this year. They emerged and delighted us in May and June as they have every spring we’ve been here. This is about a month ahead of when we enjoyed them in Upstate NY years ago, but it’s been happening at the same time each year. The weird thing this year is that over the past week or so, they’ve COME BACK. WE’ve got them all over the place in the evenings, and it’s a real treat. I need to do some digging now to determine just how unusual this is.

You can learn more about these fascinating creatures here and here, and see some good photos here.

God bless the flash beetles!

I’ve noticed a good number of folks finding us in searches for Tyrannosaurus information. Thanks for coming; I hope you find what you’re looking for here.

Today, there’s a widely circulating story about the top speeds modeled by a British team for theropod dinosaurs with the headline (CNN): Study: T-rex could outrun David Beckham. Apparently, T. rex could pretty easily run down and dispatch a healthy, athletic human - even a dashing young sports idol who dabbles in scientology. In the study, T. rex was modeled to top out at about 18 mph, while chicken-sized Compsognathus could have zipped past at about 40 mph. Not too shabby!

But then I found this story: T. rex was ’slow-turning plodder’. Here, an American team concluded that T. rex was not particularly fast or agile, but still rated its top speed as 15-25 mph.

So, the BBC reported on an American study that estimated speeds of up to 25 mph with the headline “slow-turning plodder.” But CNN reported on a British study that estimated top speeds of 18 mph using the headline “could outrun . . . Beckham.”

I guess that doesn’t say much about consistency and perspective in journalism. Of course either way, T. rex was a force to be reckoned with on the Cretaceous landscape.

The students are back.

My new class begins today.

I have no lecture.

“When I hear my favorite song,
I know that we belong.
You are the music in me.

It’s livin inside of us,
kind of like a virus.
You are the music in me. . . “

Infectious.

It was a little more than a year ago that my 5-year old told me I had to “get my head in the game.” Weeks later, I got to hear the soundtrack from this “high school musical” the kids were on about, and I teased them by feigning confusion with the characters they seemed to know so well. (I still refer to Zac Efron [Troy Bolton] as “Zac-Troy”.) But something did happen during my very first listen. I remembered.

Those wizards at Disney have figured out something in the neural wiring that pumps these songs directly into the brain. You find yourself singing them hours later and after a single listen. Pop magic. I can’t imagine how ingrained these songs become in the far less cluttered minds of little kids, especially after the 100th listen . . .

Now it’s High School Musical 2, and the talented ensemble cast is back with their perfect skin, straight teeth, shiny hair and a soundtrack maybe even more catchy than the first one. Our kids are pretty savvy now. They know how silly it is that everyone knows how to dance, or that drums and guitars can be heard even though all they see is cute little Kelsy at the piano. But it’s still good, clean fun.

For us, we’re now somewhat vested in these characters because they mean so much to the kids. We’re impressed with the talents of the cast, most of whom are much closer to actual high school age than the “kids” we enjoyed in Grease. It’s also fascinating to see the Disney marketing machine in action, for example, the three different showings of the movies this weekend, each with a different “theme” like last night’s sing-along version. But mostly, there is fun to be had in good pop music - it’s light, it’s shallow, and it makes you feel like a kid again.

And now, some advice for all the kids who want to be like Troy and Gabriella:

Boys: At 5′9″, Troy doesn’t have much hope of landing a basketball scholarship. If your dad is pushing you into sports like Troy’s dad, then don’t listen to him. Coach Bolton is a self-centered jerk.

Girls: If you want to be like Gabriella (intelligent and adorable), then study hard and choose your wardrobe carefully. Cute sundresses and ballet flats will flatter you so much more than trashy revealing outfits and those God-forsaken flip-flops.

ps: this is related, and funny!