coquina

Hey - What's this - I didn't get any tongue depressors! I claim age and sex discrimination - I'm gonna sue!!!

I think it is the more simple explanation, because it does not require active thought, it just happens. (Just for the heck of it, and because I like anecdotes, my mother told me about her father taking her to the salmon spawning grounds in Scotland, when she was a small girl. As they approached, mother said the stench was horrible. Her dad showed her the tiny fish feeding on the dead adults and explained the process to her and said, "That, my dear, is life everlasting." - My grandfather was an organist in the Anglican Church).

What about salmon? They don't intentionally kill themselves, but they die after they breed. The males and females swim upstream to spawn, and then die. The salmon fry feed on their parents' bodies. Going all the way to the head of a stream where the water is still, there is an ample food supply, and less predators than the open ocean gives the salmon a better head start at life.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/itic/ What I remember hearing/reading right after the event was that NOAA knew there had been an earthquake - maybe they got that info from USGS, but their monitoring sensors are located in the Pacific, and this tsunami was located in the Indian Ocean. They didn't have enough data to know whether a tsunami would be generated, or what areas of the Indian Ocean basin would be affected if there was one. Here is a map of the area affected by the tsunami: http://worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/tsunami.htm Here is a list of the countries affiliated with the International Tsunami Warning Center: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/itic/more_about/warning_systems.html Australia Canada Chile China Colombia Cook Islands Costa Rica The Democratic People's Republic of Korea Ecuador El Salvador Fiji France Guatemala Indonesia Japan Mexico New Zealand Nicaragua Peru Philippines The Republic of Korea Russian Federation Republic of Singapore Thailand USA Thailand and Indonesia are listed, and they would have been notified if a tsunami had been generated in the Pacific and was headed their way. Also - when you look at the map it is easy to see that the earthquake and subsequent tsunami was very close to land. Since those waves travel at 600 mph there was very little time from generation to impact. Even with the best warning system possible, few people would have had time to flee to safety, and the roads would have been so choked, it might have made things worse, rather than better.

I was posting to this earlier when the wind blew a tree into the power lines and the lights went out. Another way to exercise these muscles is to stand with your feet slightly spread apart in front of a mirror. Put your hands on your ribcage (same way you would put them on your hips, only higher. The idea is to raise your rib cage and move it to the right - without moving your hips - then move it to the left, and back to center. The bottom of your rib cage remains parallel to the floor, you do not bend at the waist. It's not a motion most people are used to doing so you have to get the hang of it. Once you can move from side to side, learn to move from front to back. Finally - go all the way around in a circle. A birds eye view would show your hips staying stationery and your upper body circling around it. You have to be fairly flexible for this one. - Find something that you can use for a barre that is at waist level - the back of the couch works for me. Stand sideways. Put your left foot on the back of the couch, keep your leg straight and parallel to the floor. Raise your left hand and arm over your head and s-l-o-w-l-y bend sideways (not forward) at the waist as far over as you can at least until your head is on the same level as your foot - bend further if you can manage it. At this point your arm is still over your head with your fingers pointing at the floor. Bring your body vertical - again - slowly.Don't move your arm - use the strength in your lats and obliques to pull your upper body including your arm upright Then face the other way and do the same thing on the other side. If you are not flexible, you will have to work on this very slowly. Only stretch until you feel a gentle pull - do not force your body further than it wants to go, and never bounce. This exercise tones your lats, obliques, and a few others - and it helps you have good balance.

I get your point. Of course we can do much more damage with a backhoe, than a bear can with its claws, and I doubt there is any other creature that can transport species to entirely new habitats. Sure - a coconut might migrate on the ocean currents and take root on a different island, but that is nothing compared to a cargo ship sucking up ballast water contaminated with zebra mussel larvae on one side of the ocean and discharging it in our great lakes. On the other hand, from a "devil's advocate" POV - we have evolved the mind to construct tools, so the fact that we use them is part of our evolution too. We may be destroying niches for existing organism, but some other organism will eventually evolve that can thrive in the new niches. Whether that organism is a critter that enhances human survival or deteriorates it is part of the evolutionary cycle. Because we are a part of the process, we can't observe it objectively.

Here is coastal Virginia, we have a lot of marshes and swamps - "tidal" and "non-tidal wetlands". Man has had a hand in making some of it and destroying some of it. When the Jamestown settlers landed, the water was clearer and the creeks were deeper, so you could get boats closer to shore. When the land began to be farmed extensively, rain washed a lot of earth down into the streams. (Tobacco was king, but it strips the soil of nutrients - they farmed the fields a few years and then cleared more land.) The bottom of the rivers became silted in with a lot of alluvium, and marshed began to form. Then people started to fill in the marshes. We also have, "non-tidal wetlands", there is a very interesting ecological community called the "Grafton sink-hole complex". People tried to fill these too - but they kept coming back. In later years, it was determined that they are directly related to the Chesapeake Bay impact crater - there are underground faults that makes the surface unstable. Because the land has subsided, and is sort of "saucer shaped" in many places we have many low areas that don't drain properly. In earlier years, when most people first had privys and later septic tanks, a lot of the ground got contaminated and upper reaches of the river became contaminated with fecal bacteria. This also occurred because of extensive livestock farming - especially pigs. So - when people talk about causing damage to the environment by dredging the river, they are really only attempting to undo what has occurred since 1607 - but what do you do with the dredged material? - filling in marshes only causes more trouble. The sinkhole complex has its own ecosystem, with unique frogs and salamanders - however, roads run between them and the critters can't move about from sinkhole to sinkhole without getting squashed. It is, indeed, very difficult to restore something back to the way it was. The habitats took million of years to form, and one just can't dig a hole with a back hoe, throw in some waterloving plants and critters, and expect the remade ecosystem to thrive. (Especially since a number of very hardy non-native species like Japanese honeysuckle have been established and gone wild - that stuff crops up everywhere and chokes out other plants.) Also - the heads of almost all our creeks were dammed during colonial times to make reservoirs and tidemills. That again cut down the amount of water flowing through the river bottoms. Anyway - this area could not sustain a very large human population at all if we were to try to put things back as they were prior to 1607.

Why can't you keep your bedroom door closed? You said "cats" plural. Some cats won't share a litter box, they each have to have their own personal spot. Ask your mom to provide a separate litter box for each cat. The way to my cat's litterbox is through a narrow area - I inadvertantly blocked it off and was away for a few hours. Would you believe, when he couldn't hold it anymore, he peed in his own bed instead of on my floor?

This link might help you understand the math behind the music: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/music/mussca.html#c4 More about scales here: http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/theory/intervals.htm Sorry - I can't help you with the golden mean - maybe someone else can.

I have a wonderful black lab named Sadie and an 18-1/2 year old neutered male cat named "The Toad" (his real name is Tuffy, but even when he was a kitten, he used to sit like a toad... head down, haunches out, front feet turned in, so he has been "The Toad" ever since.") If you get a dog, you have to remember that they are very social creatures. You can't leave them for an extended length of time, because they need to be walked. And... in my humble opinion, "crate training" a dog and leaving it shut up in a wire cage all day while you are gone to work should be a crime. Cats are much more solitary, and can be left longer. If they have a clean litter box, a self feeder for dry food, and plenty of water, you can leave them for more than a day. I think the ideal companions for you would be 2 adult cats that have been together. Lots of times people have to give up their pets for one reason or another. If you can find 2 young adult cats, you won't have to worry about litter box training, they'll be over the curtain climbing stage, and they'll keep each other company while you are gone. You could get a couple of small dogs, if you can provided them with a fenced in yard and a pet door so they can go in and out. In any case - you have to consider whether you can give the animal the companionship it deserves.

Before you do anything else, go talk to your local SCORE representative. That stands for "Service Corps of Retired Executives". They have a website I just found that is here: http://www.score.org/ You can ask some questions on line, but I suggest you search their site for a rep in your area who can advise you. Their services are FREE.

Yes - Monsanto certainly sounds like they are more interested in their bottom line. Big corporations certainly are capable of the type of actions attributed to Monsanto. Hundreds of shipyard workers here contracted mesothelioma because Johns Mansville knew asbestos was carcinogenic and didn't let on. Philip Morris (they changed their name to Altria BTW) owns Kraft Foods. The way they lied about the harmful effects of tobacco, do you ever wonder what might be in your cheese or ice cream?

I read the reports on the FDA website - the cows had mastitis, which is an infection of the milk producing glands, not the bladder. (You probably meant to write that but just thought I'd clear it up.) I've spent the better part of the afternoon reading about Posilac and bovine somatotropin, including several studies by veterinary schools at various colleges. All of them concluded that milk produced from cows who were injected with Posilac is safe. Monsanto used E. coli, not a staphyloccus bacteria for the source of the recombitant DNA, so, as Skye said, I don't think there is a connection there. However - in general, I don't know whether it is still routine or not, but herd animals and chickens used to be fed prophylactic antibiotics to keep them from getting an infectious disease. This practice creates antibiotic resistant bacteria. I see you live in Idaho - I was trying to think of a source that might have infected everyone with a resistant form of the bacteria. I'm thinking it's more likely to be water-borne that milk borne. Do you get your water from a well? Even if it you have city water, I suppose there's a chance the pipes could be contaminated. Did you all go swimming in the same pool or use a hot tub. If it's inadequately chlorinated, that is another possible source. Some friends of mine had a hot tub party several years ago, they thought it had enough bromine in it - it didn't. Everyone who got in came down with boils all over them - it must have been staph. If there is a source of contamination in your home or immediate surroundings, maybe you are continually re-exposing yourself to it. Is there some place you all went together during the summer that only you access now? You didn't say where your infection is located - but one of the things they tried with mother was to pack the wound with sand sized beads which contained a slow release antibiotic - the beads themself dissolve after the antibiotic has been used up. Has anyone suggested that to you? In any case - I hope you get over it soon. I know what a beast it is.

I searched the FDA website for Posilac and came up with the following pages: http://google.fda.gov/search?restrict=&q=posilac&site=FDA&output=xml_no_dtd&client=FDA&access=p&lr=&ip=68.231.242.18&proxystylesheet=FDA&getfields=*&oe=&start=0 There are pages and pages of letters from people asking that the drug be withdrawn, but I did not find anything in the FDA's literature that indicated there was any problem with it. I'm not saying it's not there - I just didn't find it.

What you wrote about magnetism makes a lot of sense to me.

My mother died from a hospital staph infection. She broke her hip and a prosthesis was installed. A staph infection developed between the inside of the femur and the prosthesis. The best treatment would have been to remove the prosthesis and leave it out for several months so they could get to the infection and have a better chance at curing it. She was 95, and there was no way she was going to survive a disarticulated hip for for months, so it was decided to try IV antibiotic therapy. She was sent to a nursing home for that, and while there, she developed ducubitus ulcers (bedsores) on the backs of her legs. They became infected with MRSA. My mother was the toughest woman I have ever known. In all my 54 years I had never seen her shed a tear or cry out in pain. When her dressings were changed, you could here her scream from one end of the hospital to the other. She fought tooth and toenail for 3 months, but the infection went septic and she died. I tried to sue for wrongful death, but was told by the best and most highly respected malpractice doctor in this part of the state that I could not win. I was told that the hospitals are full of staph infection and they proliferate despite the best efforts at sterilization (I took issue with that on these boards once before) I was told that old people have weakened immune systems, and are more prone to infection than others, I was also told that awards for wrongful death suits are based on the length of time a person could have been expected to live, had the incident not occurred. Mother had already exceeded the actuarial standards by 10 years. My husband died just 3 months before mom's incident. I had an old friend who had once been premed, who I wrote to every night for support. On disk I have every email I wrote him, describing whatever horrifying events were happening during the day, and I have his replies. If it could be proven that what Monsanto did had anything to do with my mother's agonizing illness and death, I am ready and willing to nail the SOB's to the wall.

Financial Statements are composed of two sections - a Balance Sheet, and an Income Statement. The Balance Sheet is composed of Assets - what you own, Liabilities, what you owe, and Equities, your investment in the company. The formula is: Assets = Liabilities + Equities. You start the Company and invest $10,000, and put it in your checking account: (Assets; $10,000) = (Liabilities; 0 + Equities; $10,000) You buy a truck for $5000 and borrow the whole amount. (Assets; $15,000) = (Liabilities; $5000 + Equities; $10,000) The other part is the Income Statement Sales - Cost of Goods Sold - Expenses = Profit At the end of the year, you sold $10,000 worth of widgets. You paid $5,000 for them and had $2500 worth of expenses. Sales; 10,000 - COGS; $5000 - G&A * $2500 = Profit, $2,500 *G&A = "General and Administrative Expenses At the end of the year you close your income and expense account and start over. The $2500 in profit is posted to the Equities account, (It has been posted to the asset account as you made deposits) so now, the balance sheet looks like this: (Assets $17500) = (Liabilities $10000 = Equities $7500) Bookkeeping is called "double entry" because for there are two entries for each transaction. You write a check for something - you subtract the money from the checking account and add the cost of the expense to the Income Statement. It gets tricky, because the additions and subtractions are called "debits" and "credits" and whether they add to or subtract from the balance depend on what kind of account it is. However - once you have made both entries, the total of the transaction is zero. It is not difficult once you get your head around it - it is almost all simple addition and subtraction... but you need a book to learn it. If you don't know the basics, get some basic books from the library and be sure you understand how it all works together. If you get a computer based accounting system, and enter things wrong, you're screwed. That's pretty easy - when it comes to cost accounting it gets more dicy - you have to allocate the expenses to each individual job. If you do work for the government, they may ask you to do this to prove that you charged them equitably. Everything is further sub-categorized - Current Assets = Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventories. Long Term or "Fixed Assets" those held more than one year, and not easily converted to cash = buildings, equipment, motor vehicles. Current Liabilities = Accounts Payable, Taxes, Loans payable within one year Longterm Liabilities = Mortgages and other long term loans. Equities = Retained Earnings (money left in the company) Income = the current profit (or loss) Drawing = In a sole proprietorship, what the owner withdraws for personal use. Ready to hire an accountant???

Do reptiles see in color? Incidentally - we have large canebrake rattlers around here. And the Dismal Swamp - just south of here, has cottonmouth moccasins. People have told me that the latter are territorial and well attack if they think their space has been invaded, even if they are not in immediate danger. Is this true?

Thanks for the link. That is really interesting. One would think that it would be a big disadvantage for the snake to be so colorful - although maybe some of the critters it eats can't see colors. In that case, it might blend in pretty well on a forest floor littered with leaves and splattered with sunlight. Maybe Mokele can shed some light - he's the resident Herp guy, isn't he?

hope this one hasn't been posted before... BLAMESTORMING - Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. SEAGULL MANAGER - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves. ASSMOSIS - The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard. SALMON DAY - The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die. CUBE FARM - An office filled with cubicles. PRAIRIE DOGGING - When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see that's going on. (This also applies to applause from a promotion because there may be cake.) MOUSE POTATO - The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato. SITCOMs - Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business". STRESS PUPPY - A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny. XEROX SUBSIDY - Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again. ADMINISPHERE - The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" needless paperwork and processes. 404 - Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. OHNOSECOND - That minuscule fraction of time in which you realise that you've just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all') WOOFies - Well Off Older Folk. CROP DUSTING - Surreptitiously farting while passing through a CUBE FARM, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust; leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING. TESTICULATING - Waving your arms around and talking Bollocks.

But maybe having a blue penis is linked to another gene that is not obvious, for instance, maybe men with a case of the blues have a higher sperm count. This could not be observed, but "blue penis = more babies" could be. There are a couple of adaptations which have always baffled me. One of them is protective coloration. Here is a study that was done to determine that birds do indeed avoid contact with the colorful coral snake, as opposed to plain brown snakes. http://www.utm.edu/staff/rirwin/391Brodie.htm How is it that the birds avoid coral snakes? Since the bite would certainly be fatal, it couldn't be something that has been passed on in the genes. It has to be that other birds observed the catastrophic results of attacking a coral snake and "taught" their offspring to avoid them. Here is a page about mimicry and protective coloration: http://cgee.hamline.edu/see/questions/dp_transformation/dp_trans_adapt_mimic.htm It makes a little more sense in the coral snake - maybe its bite killed the bird before it killed him, but what about the smaller insects, like the butterfly and the poison dart frogs? They may kill their prey, but they are still dead and can't reproduce. The only way this makes sense is that the predator has to be smart enough to pass the knowledge that is has observed on to its offspring ... I would like to see results of the same experiment done with birds that do not have coral snakes in their environment, and also with species of birds raised in captivity, to see if the avoidance is learned or inherited.

Noshi - Thanks, that is what I remember reading, but you explained it much more thoroughly.