coquina

Sorry - I scanned the link about telepathy - didn't read it closely enough. I really don't know what to think about it. The first comment I would make is that the cards were more complicated than they should have been. There should have been only one object that the bird knew the name for, on each card. Instead of a man talking on the telephone, there should have just been a picture of a telephone. That way there would have been no room for interpretation about what the bird perceived its owner saw on the card. As a matter of fact, since speech has nothing to do with telepathy, that part should have been left out. The bird should have been trained to pick up a card in its beak when it heard the name said. Then, it should have been trained to match the card the owner held up with both of them in the room. The parrot's set of cards should have been laid out on a table and it should have been trained to pick up the matching card in its beak by following a very concise instruction that it could understand with its vocabulary - something like "same card". When it was able to match the cards successfully with the owner in the room, then the owner should have been put in a separate room. The owners voice should have been recorded saying "same card" when she was not looking at a card at all. That way, if she had a different inflection in her voice when she was looking at the picture of a telephone, than that of a cat, the parrot wouldn't have the opportunity to pick up on it.

As to the telepathy bit, surely you have seen a big flock of birds all turn instantiously - I think this is because they sense a change in air pressure, but, for whatever reason, they are obviously acutely aware of their surroundings. They probably pick up clues that we aren't, and maybe cannot be, aware of, including minute changes in air pressure. They may be able to hear out of our range, and some organisms can even see into the ultraviolet or infrared spectrums. At one point my daughter had a pair of eclectus parrots. The males are green and the females are red. They were already named "Brocolli" and "Scarlet" when she got them. I thought they should have been called "Port" and "Starboard" after the colors of a ships navigation lights. Anyway - she let them out of their cages frequently. Although she gave them cuttlebones they chewed wood. Brocolli died after he dined on the window sill. After that, we let Scarlet out of her cage when we were in the room and could watch her. Then she learned to open the cage door on her own. Early one morning, she got out, and by the time we got up she had chewed a hole right through the door of one of the bottom kitchen cabinets and was nesting in there. She left the nest, and an inquisitive kitten went in through the hole. It's tail was sticking out, and Scarlet saw it. She grabbed hold of it with her teeth. The cat was trapped, it didn't have room to turn around and come out face first, and it wouldn't back out. You have never heard such a commotion in your life - the cat was yowling, the parrot was screaming. We came running and it took a good bit of effort to dislodge the bird without hurting her. I was beginning to think she was like the old wives tale about snapping turtles - they won't let go til it thunders. Needless to say - that cat learned a hard lesson about parrots - whenever she was out, it ran and hid.

Look here - http://www.aerorocket.com/offer.html They use smoke - they also use very fine filaments.

I had conveniently forgotten about Charles saying that. Lord, I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall to hear what his Mum had to say to him about it. God knows - with her sons' antics, she must feel like she's herding cat's at times --- tom cats at that.

"A woman without her man, is like a boat without a bowling ball!"

With those ears, you wouldn't need a string. OMG! Did I say that??? He certainly can turn a romantic phrase, can he not???

Here's a list of bacteria the the Department of Energy has deemed important for genome research. There are "good" ones and "bad" ones - but there is a section that lists bacteria that might be used for bioremediation. http://www.er.doe.gov/production/ober/mig_cont.html Here's the home page and a Point of Contact. Maybe he could tell you of projects that are being conducted in your area and you could talk to the researchers for leads as to a project that would be "doable" for you. http://www.er.doe.gov/production/ober/mig_top.html

She said that the alliances to produce future kings were more like business deals than love affairs. It was understood that once the job of "Royal Brood Mare" had been fulfilled, both parties often took lovers but it was kept discrete. I doubt seriously that Charles told Diana about Camilla - if he did, she probably had the idea that she could win him over and all would live happily ever after. At any rate - in this day of telephoto lenses and practically instantanious world wide broadcasting, all it took was something to come up on an otherwise slow news day to start the ball rolling. I do think Diana took revenge on Charles by leaking stories to the press, but it hurt her as much or more as it did him. Mom said the royals were inbred too much anyway, and that they should just be allowed to marry for love and be done with it.

The equation would be algae in, fish poop out.

Suggest you look into the "Archaea" http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html Isn't Berkeley in your neighborhood? Personally, I believe that this very primitive group of organisms will be on the cutting edge of biology in the future. Some of them us chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis. When you couple this capability with genetic engineering, the possibility exists that there may be organisms which metabolize toxic substances into nontoxic ones. .... or that we may be able to genetically engineer one of these organisms to metabolize a particularly obnoxious substance.

That was part of Mrs. Ramer's teaching - being able to separate the wheat from the chaff. I always look for .org and .edu sites. If I am looking for research on a particular organism, I type its common name along with the word "taxonomy" - that gives the scientific name, and usually more reliable sources. Libraries are great, but I live in a rural area - we do not have a great selection of books available.

My advanced biology teacher told me 40 years ago, you don't have to know everything, you have to know where to go to acquire the knowledge. She would have loved the internet - a vast treasure trove of information.

Damn, I'm old!!! I don't even remember where the expression got started, whether it was a commercial or what - but it refers to the need to acquire "stuff" because your neighbor has it - "one-upmanship", neighborhood style. Since I was using some of the 10 Commandments as rules for living together, it was a parody on "Thy shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." One thing's sure - I don't covet my neighbor's ass. Mine is quite substantial enough, thank you. These cartoons illustrate the point... http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/k/keeping_up_with_the_jones.asp

but I will have it coming out of my ears - building the machines so you can sit on your ditty boxes. Also - someone will have to be on hand to repair them. I have computer numerical controlled milling machines and lathes, and I swear they are just like mischievious children. They are programmed to run automatically, but the minute you turn your back and walk away, something happens. Most often, a tool (drill or tap for example) breaks. The machine is programmed to drill a series of holes - the drill breaks on hole number 5 and half of it is left in the hole. The machine continues to run and but doesn't drill any holes, since it only has a stub left in the holder. Then it changes tools and gets the tap out of the carousel. It taps (cuts threads in ) holes number 1 thru 4 perfectly - then your $50 tap runs into the remains of the drill stuck in hole number 4, and is immediately busted to bupkuss. The machine doesn't care - it continues to run, happily doing nothing. All of the examples you gave will require human supervisors, programmers, maintenance people, as well as people to build newer, faster machines. I expect it will take more people, performing more technical work to have the world operate in the scenario you suggest.

It used to be that when you went in a department store in the mall cosmetic reps would spray you with their perfume when you walked in the door. I was extremely allergic to some of those smells. My nose would run and I couldn't stop sneezing. Fortunately, they have stopped it, but the store still sends their bill in perfumed envelopes.

What are your thoughts - I suppose the Brits among us have more opinion that the rest, since they do have a "dog in this fight" (no pun intended). You can comment on Royalty in general if you choose to do so.

When I took journalism, we were taught that the job of the journalist was to report, not to judge. One answered the questions "how", "when" and "where". One did not try to ferret out "why". Neither did one use inflammatory verbs or adjectives when one wrote the story. We were taught that the only place for opinion was the editorial page. Now, when some "horrendous" (one of those inflammatory words which would have lowered our grade had we used it) crime occurs, ie the Washington/Northern Virginia snipers, (which was tried just south of here in Virginia Beach), the journalists with their "experts" are relentlessly pontificating whether the alleged criminal is guilty or innocent long before he goes to trial. I believe that the OJ Simpson case was the turning point for this kind of reporting. As far as academics, I haven't had much comment about them recently, but when I took economics in college, I had an extremely liberal professor. Most of the people in the class were just out of high school and had never experienced working for a living. He believed that people should be taxed to the max and that the government should initiate social programs that would take care of everyone. Those students believed every word he said, I wonder how they felt several years later, when they were parents, with mortgages, car payments, and child rearing expenses.

I usually fall asleep quickly, my monkeys are nocturnal and wake me up at 3am, usually about something that is going on at work. I'll wake up thinking I've forgotten to do something, when I get to work, I usually find that I've done it - just forgot in my groggy state of mind. I regard myself as a "plate spinner" - does anyone remember that act - it used to come on the Ed Sullivan show all the time. There are a number of sticks. The guy balances them on the top of the stick by setting it to spinning - pretty soon he will have 5 or 6 spinning at the same time - but then, one by one they start to wobble, and he has to run from one stick to another and give it a spin to keep it from crashing to the floor. That's me, spinning the plates of bookkeeping, filing tax and other reports, programming the CNC's, & bidding jobs. Anyway - wobbling plates wake me at 3 am.

I have a "soundscape" music channel on my cable - no commercials. I leave that on all night - before I go to bed I take a warm shower, then I do some stretching exercises to the music. I don't do enough exercise to increase my heart rate, just enough to stretch out my muscles so they are relaxed.

I still think olivine is your best bets. Here is how you test for minerals: http://www.easternct.edu/personal/faculty/hyattj/learntools/mineraltest/ You work your way down the flow chart to eliminate the minerals that are obviously not what your seeking. Here is are google images of Olivine (with a few stray people thrown in who happen to have that name.) http://images.google.com/images?q=olivine&hl=en&lr=&start=20&sa=N Olivine is varying shades of green - from very light to very dark. Hah! I just found that Hawaii has a greensand beach made entirely of Olivine - are you on the "Big Island"? http://www.sease.com/regina/hawaiibeaches.html a close up of olivine sand: http://www.fotosearch.com/CPH340/390023/ At any rate, the mineral olivine should be fairly easy for you to find, it originates deep with in the earth and comes to the surface with the lava.

If teacher's day 2004 was on a Sunday in January or February, it would be on on a Tuesday in 2005. After that it would be on a Monday. http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2004&country=1 http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2005&country=1

Sometimes in conversation, someone will ask me something I can't recall, for example, listening to an "oldie" on the radio, who sang that"? This has happened time and time again. I'll say, "I don't remember." and the conversation will move on. A few minutes (or maybe hours) later, the name of the vocalist will pop into my brain. I will then blurt out the name, in the middle of someone elses conversation - which is rude and embarassing, but it's not me - it's the curator of my brain who I refer to as the "brain elf" While my active brain is carrying on the current conversation, the elf is rooting through the archives, until he comes up with an answer, ie who sang "These Boots Were Made For Walkin'"? Nancy Sinatra!!! So - there is a lot of "stuff" that is probably useless information, stored in the corners and recesses of your brain - you think you've forgotten it, but if the need arises, you can reach back into the archives, retrieve it, dust it off and use it.

I thought your poem was neat - wish I could sum things up so compactly. Keep 'em coming. I think U2 was referring to my "preaching to the choir" comment, which is a saying common to my area which means, "you don't need to convince me, I'm on your side." One of the very neat things about this forum is that people of all nationalities may participate. One of the unfortunate things is that when we speak idiomatically, people of a different language than ours may not understand the humor. I try to put stuff like that in quotes so that the other reader will know that I'm speaking tongue in cheek. The important thing here is that we all learn from each other, so if you don't "get" what I write, ask for clarification.

As far as batteries go - I think the rechargable kind that are used in power tools would work best. They usually take 2 batteries, which could fit in the bottom part of the handle below the "Y". While you are using two you are charging the other two in their charger. If you keep the shovel inside, where it is warm, the handle will be warm when you take it out and the warmth of your gloved hands should keep it that way. That is, unless you lay the thing down in the snow while you make snow angels or have a snowball fight. A cheaper option would be to wrap the metal handle with a short length of hose insulation and duct tape it in place.