"Won't stand my ground, and must back down"

First I really apoligize to anyone reading this blog who is not from America: welcome, and forgive me.
If you are from America, please forgive me for almost assuming that America and the United States are interchangable words.

But, anyone in the Americas is likely affected by what is going on in the U.S. Actually, all the world's nations are probably affected, but to a lesser degree.

Anyway, listening to President Obama's speech today (8/8/11) I heard one item that suprised me, and bothered me. For all his downplay of critical comments (such as "far from constructive, to say the least" rather than a straight-forward criticism).

What he said is that the problem is that "some" people in Washington are "drawing a line in the sand."
Generally, I am not a fan of the way the Tea Party pushes things. But I *am* a stong supporter of standing for your opinions, holding onto your values and your sense of self. I mean, I want people to be open-minded about such things and especially to not be a dick about it all. And I am very unhappy the Tea Party pushed it this close, but the unthinkingly pluralistic view that everyone should conform I cannot condone. And how ironic that pluralism would seek to smother divergent opinions.




I thought this online artcile was interesting (albeit from a partisan website):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2602082/posts

Ecology Today! and Renaissance Explorers, too.

This was a fun story I heard on NPR today:
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/08/138924127/in-1493-columbus-shaped-a-world-to-be
click to play

The author's point, in a circuitous fashion, seems to be one I whole-heartedly agree with, merely from a different understanding. I have added his insights to my own. Basically, he has said that Columbus began a world-wide monumental casscade of changes, perhaps unrivaled since the extiction of the dinosaurs (it has been proposed -- not in this interview -- that global climate change might have similar consequences for the natural world). He says up to 1/5 of the world's human population may have died within the 100 years following, and along with the American/African slave trade and other changes, the worldwide distribution of humanity was altered astonishingly rapidly -- unheardof rapidity in historical terms.
And humanity was a very visible but small part of the whole change in the Earth's lifeforms. He talks about earthworms, potatoes, malaria, and horses.

Anyway, real quick, in my own study of history, this period, loosely termed 'The Renaissance Explorers' is what I have long identified as my personal favorite interest. This term is broader that simply Columbus, and includes the likes of Prince Henry the Navigator, Vasco de Game, Cadamosto, Magellan, and many others.

and for more information on past US malaria:
http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/#eliminationus

and for some cool Emu drumming sounds, 0:25 seconds into the video (unrelated to the post, otherwise)
(please note: the audio here does not catch the bass sounds well, and maybe a person must hear an emu in person to appreciate the full sensation)

Reaganomics is still with us

I, speaking for myself, had thought that Reaganomics had gone the way of the Cold War. Meaning, gone.
However, I have heard recently (and correct me if I am wrong) that before Reagan, the American government taxed the rich and the corporations pretty heavily, and that Reaganomics did away with that. I have further been given to understand that our current tax system has nowhere near approached the pre-Reagan balance (I am sure "balance" is a debatable term to use here); that the top income earners in the U.S. have a relatively weak tax burden, a heritage of the Reagan administration.

Well, I thought it was interesting.

Another thought: I can't see how the massive bailouts of the banks and such went through. I have heard a few people blame all the foreign interventions (wars) for the massive expenditures this country has had. Well, I'd be curious to know what was more expensive, the Iraq war or the idiotic "to big to fail" bailouts.

zoology: "oh, where'd you come from?"

I consider myself pretty knowledgable about zoological matters, and for good reason, but I am thrown offguard regularly with the immense diversity of our third jewel from the sun.

Recently, I met my first tamandua. Basically, a tree anteater.

http://thewebsiteofeverything.com/weblog/pivot/entry.php?id=13

I had no idea such an animal existed. Well, it makes sense (in a way I will describe later). I had always heard (well, read) that xenarthra was made up of armadillos, sloths, and anteaters. Well, I guess that was over-simplified.

This is the most recent (and the most spectacular) of my suprise visitors. The tamandua follows the triops, the solfugids, the chinese paddlefish, and amphiuma.

Perhaps I have been too casual with my terminilogy. Xenarthra is a zoological taxonomic grouping within the larger grouping of mammailia. It is equivalent in heirarchy to cetacea (whales and dolphins, etc.) or to carnivora (tigers and wolves and such). Xenarthans are exclusively South American (plus some Mesoamerica), and one of the older classifications.

The whole reason the tamanduas are especially fascinating is that they represent, to me anyway, a "missing link" between sloths and the rest of xenathra. I never really saw how sloths were closely related to armadillos, but now the tamandua makes things fall into place taxonomically. You see, their hooked claws remind me strikingly of the sloths, even though their body is wholly anteater.

Another cool thing about them is that they are apparantly quite common within their natural range. Which makes it even more suprising they never got on my radar.

"Let's play Chicken," said the Congressman

I really hardly have time to blog today, but jeez, this is incredible.
These people (in the national government) are playing with this country's life.
I am not at all shocked, just ultra dismayed.

I remember hearing stolid people over and over assert that "America is the greatest country on Earth" and moreoever that same faith in democracy.

Such gridlock as we are experiencing now should be a wake up call for that kind of thinking, that what we've got is great and wonderful and flawless.

I'm not anacrchist here, not a hater of the tea party or of liberals or of any group, really, except, well, people my ideals of tolerance fail with. It happens. Generally, hateful people are hard to get along with.

On a happier note, I started the post-Iraqi-Freedom book by John LeCarre, Absolute Friends, and I am appaled at how good it is.

Mee-Shee movie zeuglodon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilosaurus

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WT3PJAM6L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Basically, a zeuglodon is an ancestor of the whale, a pre-whale, and can be thought of in the same sense as a mammoth or sabre-toothed tiger.

Unlike Water Horse and other similar movies, this one made a strong effort to present the "lake monster" as a mammal. I would *love* to read about the thought processes of the movie-makers in the design of the Mee-Shee creature effect, but I have yet to find that information.

I would have said "zeuglodonoid" but I thought adding yet another uncommon word to this mix would only confuse the issue horribly. Case in point, the fossil creature is formally named basilosaurus, a reptile/saurian name, and although the term zeuglodon is more appropriatly mammalian, it failed to be accepted into official taxonomic use. I, however, prefer the mammalian name, and so did Herman Melville.

The Mee-Shee movie creature is most certainly NOT an accurate rendering of the fossil record, and thus my interest in the "-oid" form of the word zeuglodon. From my cursory research thus far, and according to this website, the moviemakers patterned the Mee-Shee story on the Ogopogo, a "lake monster" said to live in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Due to the protestation of some American Indian leaders to whom the Ogopogo represents a spiritual and cultural icon, the creature's name was changed from the original title. Nowhere in the movie is either zeuglodon or basilosaurus mentioned, or even hinted at, but I found it difficult not to draw some fun "romantic zoology" conclusions.

Well, anyway, I saw a movie in the cheapo bin rack at a Rose's, and it caught my eye hugely. Mostly because of the startling zeuglodonoid on the cover, but also Jim Henson muppetry (rather than computer graphics) and Bruce Greenwood, an actor I am familiar with from Thirteen Days. It was a straight to DVD release in the U.S, and thus a surprise to me.

As far as the movie goes, I didn't think it was very well-done, personnally. It comes off remarkably overwrought and slow, the villians are killed vindictively, and the Mee-Shee creature effect is pretty un-loveable at its best. As a kids' movie, it falls flat, and as an adult movie it is too kiddish. Perhaps if Whoopi Goldbreg had been involved, as once planned, things might've been different, haha.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ehrL1Imdc
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/meeshee-the-water-giant-pg-461839.html
http://www.newanimal.org/zeuglodons.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_in_the_Water
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/aug/19/horror.actionandadventure
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000501&slug=4018461
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2004090362_water25.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFeAIBlNexs
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/preview/story.html?id=8a1fa2ab-ce3f-44c5-a4ce-654b48c2d15d

Games: Expedition ***must see***

http://www.history.com/interactives/expedition-game

This game plays for FREE online, and it really suprisingly fun!

It's a dice game, basically, but played on the computer with fun graphics. There is quite a story element to this, which is an improvement over most dice games I know.

The story is set in colonial Africa. Another way in which this game excels is the fun "flavor text" included along the way. "I am plagued with worry" "I can't find my sewing needle."

This would actually make quite a good "stone-and-mortar" dice game (aside from the fact some of the apparently 6-sided dice have 7 faces! haha!)

It reminds me a lot of my Catan Dice Game, but like I said the "immersion" and story factor are greatly improved upon.

I HIGHLY recommend you try it. No downloading involved. I don't know how long this game will be on the website, but I hope it lasts awhile! Beware: addiction.