Category: Uncategorized
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Signs of Intelligent Life
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Scientists had a 20-minute discussion with a humpback whale in her own language. They say it could help humans chat with aliens one day. While chatting with creatures that share our planet is laudable, even cool, I cannot recall an instance when aliens showed up and it was good for…
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No calamari for me
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I don’t eat calamari anymore. Sy Montgomery’s book, The Soul of An Octopus changed how I think about them. The novel Remarkably Bright Creatures simply reinforced how the species is remarkable. They play with caretakers. They demonstrate memory and preferences for people and toys. Cognition. They are thinking creatures. And…
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Is it safe to sit on a public toilet?
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Catching up on casual reading this am and came across this article in Real Simple, September issue. Is it OK to sit on a public toilet? Most people say absolutely not, but epidemiologist say, go ahead, a public toilet isn’t the dirtiest thing in your (potential) life. The takeaway: “The…
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Dystopian future begins now?
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Did you catch this story in late July? The CDC found an illegal, unregistered laboratory in Fresno County, California. They found 20 potentially infectious agents. Lab mice. Medical waste. Hazardous materials. Xiuquin Yao was identified as the company president through emails included in the court documents. The lab may have…
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I donated my boobs to science
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I donated my boobs to breast cancer research. Last week I had my annual breast exam. For the men following, if the woman in your life has not shared the joys of this, please know that our breasts are mounted onto a machine, twisted and squeezed in plexiglass to look…
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Who Ate the First Oyster?
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Am I the only one who thinks, “Who figured this out?” Like, how did someone reach into a river, pull out a soft rock and think, “I’ll be we could use this as a fertilizer?” (Phosphate) Or, who took a look at flaky, greasy graphite and thought, “I bet this…
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An Octopus’s Garden of Books and Possibilities
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Have you read the book Remarkably Bright Creatures? The narrator is an Octopus. Not normally the kind of book you’d find on my reading list, but it just goes to show you that a well-told story keeps you going. And octopuses are amazing. I just loved the book The Soul…
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What a waste.
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Yesterday I received a massive catalog in the mail at the house. The thing is, I have been receiving these for two decades. Once, 20 years ago, my company bought some rug protectors, and I’m still getting the inch-and-a-half catalogs. First, they went to the company, then to the post…
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Using the Toilet
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When I was young, my mother considered using a replaced toilet as a planter in the front yard. She thought it would be funny. Then again, we both thought it was funny when she’d have a little too much to drink and “trim” the gardenia bush to a nub. Is…
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Rats Dance
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We have a love/hate relationship with rats. Mostly we hate them, but then again, sometimes, they are our pets. They have enough systems reflective of our own that they are used in experiments, physical and behavioral. And sometimes we just study them because their interesting. Like this experiment: in a…