Peter, Pollen, Merry.

Herr D made this caricature, calling it a

"Whatsit" Bug, on heromachine.com. I

should be clear that its real name trans-

literates mostly to whistles. Good like-

ness, though! Its carapace is a bit thin.

It is the spring, and the young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of--ACK, I just swallowed a bug! 

. . . never wax poetical in a spring breeze wearing an EDGAR suit. Direct transfer for tasting in real time, now that's a feature I might do without on my next go-round. All sense of ecosystem seems to go out the window when talking about bugs. I've seen, relatively recently, a man with a go-green banner use it to swat a bug. The irony did not escape me.

Besides nature and company dynamics, is there another area where competition seems a bit over-the-top?

It's Snot Easy To Understand

One of about a billion pictures of felines on the web. I do not 

have evidence that cultures stopped worshiping cats with the

ancient Egyptians.                                                                            

That picture is of a cat sneezing, according to the caption. I don't understand the fascination with cats, except that I do find it interesting that they hate water and apparently don't live in deserts. (?) Even more confusing is that apparently cat sneezes are amazingly cute, despite the fact that human beings find snot gross. I agree that snot is gross, of course, just don't understand the bit about how it can be cute if it comes out of a cat.

Can anyone explain that to me?

It's All Greek To Me (Or Japanese?)

Plus till the jackrock hour. Photo credit to auction site.

Okay, I screwed up. Yesterday wasn't Sunday. (Do you guys like me to skip Sundays or other days?) I understand it's offensive to many people to work seven days a week, but this isn't so much work, especially if I plan out in advance. I'm pretty sure that's allowed. Believe me, it's just as easy to miscount tides as it is days. So, the question for today is, what day would you rather I skip, if any? The ones who answer get top consideration.

Too Much (Information) On The Plate

I did this one MYSELF! I saw this (approximately)

near a pier in Virginia just recently. Fascinating!

I have to say first that personalized license plates are as much a mystery to me as the randomly designated ones. Where I'm from, there's a part of your family name, business affiliation, or other owner identifier, a symbol that designates parking or driving skill limitations, a part of your home's name, and a sequential number to eliminate duplication.

So, anyway, this one seemed to hold a message. A quick analysis by Shelob indicated 'bwu' to likely stand for 'be with you.'  I asked Herr D what this meant, and he said it was "a blessing invoking unity called 'shallots' to all carrots, lol." I was confused about that until Shelob reminded me that 'carrot tops' are redheads. So the driver likes redheads! Constant sunburns are bound to be bad for people, though. I would suggest using blush on your skin instead--probably better for you.

How many of you have a story about watching bemused as someone declared a preference in mates that you really didn't get? Care to share?

Right For It

Herr D said this picture originated with a simple

puzzle. His wife, 'Sunni D,' had a Medusa costume

and wanted to know what he could be to go with her.

The answer was Keith Richards or a blind snake charmer.

He was kind enough to censor out Medusa's face so none

of us would turn to stone. (Why would they sell those masks?)

I've been fascinated with several bits of related history to the fossil fuel dilemma of today. The idea that fifty thousand dinosaurs and eighty billion tons of plants rotted just so for seventy million years so that an entire industry could spring up and thousands of engineers could out-engineer the inherent problems with the internal combustion engine using those fossil fuels fighting along to the point where globally corporations and nations are fighting to maintain or upset the applecart . . . yecch.

This is one of those historically ironic things. Such a unique pickle to be in to be so dependent on such a poisonous industry. How many of you think of that as ironic? Alternately, how many of you know of such uniquely developed profession as the one depicted above?

It's PERMANENT . . .

Herr D made this on heromachine.com, 

titling it 'A Sudden Doubt.' I think he's 

demonstrated a valid concern . . .            

There's a lot of material on the web about tattooing. I've uncovered some fairly good reasons for tattooing. Religious icons, promises, memorials, are apparently common. There's apparently even a few people out there who tattooed their wedding rings on. Well, they wouldn't need polishing at least, right?

How many people feel as I do that they wouldn't get a tattoo simply because they'd change their minds?

Captain Obvious

Shelob? How did you trim that web address in without showing the curvy edge?

Extrapolation from original picture and study of current net. Have also made discovery of error in construction of device.

Well, that's good work--wait. What error?

Original specs referring to clamshell terminal did not reference shape, but hinging.

Ha. Oops. I forgot to mention that. I've seen regular laptops. Yeah, I knew that. Sorry.

Purpose and question.

Right! Okay, so when I uploaded this picture, I couldn't resist titling the upload, "Duh." It's my understanding that small groups of people might still be trying to assassinate your current president on account of his skin color? [wet noise translates to retching sound]

How are your people going to react to HAVING NO SKIN AT ALL? There are beings with fur, feathers, ciliae, hide, exoskeletons, crystals, scales, follicular [no translation], and if humans can't even accept each other, how are they going to accept anyone else? The odds are pretty good that if humanity makes first contact, it'll be because they're smarter than you. all humanity. 

The article below this picture talked about developing a 'cosmic consciousness' through education. I hope I'm not misreading that when I say that's an unnecessarily fancy term for conscience combined with good practical wisdom. Humanity ISN'T ready, and, I'm sorry, but education through academics is not the way.

Humanity has had classes and academia-related stuff for hundreds of years. Academia has its place, but you can't learn all knowledge and wisdom through one method. Human neurobiology isn't a one-dimensional upptake. Experiential learning is necessary at some point to cement whatever is partially learned to the full range of neural pathways necessary for optimal performance. If all humanity was autistic, it might be that only one learning method would work . . . 

Question.

Oh. Um. What would you like to say about academia? Negativity is encouraged this one time.