01. Wow! That's smart!
Scientific American magazine for July 2011 includes the following article, that I highly recommend:
"The Physics of Intelligence..Evolution has packed 100 billion neurons into our three-pound brain. CAN WE GET ANY SMARTER?"
The author, Douglas Fox doesn't think we can get too much smarter.. but perhaps technology and culture may someday enable us to form a collective human entity (like bees) that would be smarter than the sum of its parts. Could this be where we are heading with Facebook and other social media? Wikipedia? Google?
What about other creatures? It was interesting to hear this week that an elephant has now figured out how to use a tool to gain access to food normally out of his reach. This puts Jumbo in the same brainpower category as dolphins, otters, and chimpanzees.
And.. of course.. whales. Think about a humpback.. it works with its siblings to round up schools of herring, mackrel, and krill for supper.. all the while singing popular whale songs as it glides effortlessly through its environment.. enjoying all of the activity going on in its enormous brain.
02. Hay ride?
Well, the Iowa Straw Poll voting is over and results are in. It is interesting to me that each voter has to have a $30 ticket, that is probably handed to a supporter by one of their candidate's staff.. so, the candidate whose staff is not agressive enough to get many tickets.. logically gets less of the vote.. at least it seems that way to me. Check it all out on Wikipedia. An explanation of the vote and a tabulation of the results by year is shown. Very interesting.
03. Papa Smurf
Last Thursday, I picked up a book at the Westminster Senior Activity Center, called Winters' Tale. No, it wasn't written by Shakespeare. It was a book of short stories by Jonathan Winters. I have liked Mr. Winters for many years and his brand of crazy humor, so I couldn't wait to sit down quietly and read his book. Unfortunately, even though he has been making people laugh for 60 years (He's almost 85 years old), this book was the most unfunny book I have ever read. I got almost all the way through before I threw the book in the recycling bin.
I see by his website ( http://www.jonathanwinters.com/ ) that some signed copies of that book are selling for hundreds of dollars. I wonder why.
However, don't let what I say influence you. If you like Mr. Winters' work, check out the book and form your own opinion. And, by all means, listen to the NPR interview of him on his website. Perhaps this will help you remember when Johnny Carson presented him with a stick and Jonathan did "stick schtick" with it for ten minutes. I certainly have enjoyed all of Mr. Winters' "schtick" for many years, and I wish him many more years of humorous activity.
04. Ow! That smarts!
It was mentioned today on NPR that Leon Trotsky was killed by someone thrusting an ice pick through his eye. Yuk! I know how that feels. Every few weeks I have to have eyeball injections for macular degeneration in my right eye. But it is doing me good. When I started, I saw a round black ball through that eye. Now, there is no black ball at all, but just a picture of reality that is kind of wavy. Someday, I may even be able to read with that eye again. Using both eyes together, my vision is extremely good.
Last month, at the preliminary examination (before the shot), the examiner said: "Even though your right eye ain't too good, your left eye is smokin'!" Hey, man, that's good to hear.
05. Save on savon
It was also mentioned on NPR today that "air baths" are just as good as soaking in a soap filled tub.. probably better, because you don't get all that "unsightly soap film" all over your body. My cousin Charlie enlightened me a few years ago that perspiration per se does not smell. Tell that to the deodorant sellers.
06. Dog-napping
I read where the thefts of dogs has increased in the past year. The most common theft occurs in home invasions.. burglaries.. besides the giant TV, the dog is snatched as well.
The second most common theft is from the car where the dog is sitting while the owner is in a store like WalMart. Having the window cracked is probably a help to the thief.
The next most common theft occurs when the owner ties the dog up outside while they shop inside.
In all of these instances.. why didn't the dogs bite or scare away the thief? Was the dog napping?
Just be aware that these thefts are taking place, and make sure you have a micro chip implanted in Fido.
07. Dog-pooping
The Week magazine mentions that a Taiwanese city has offered dog owners who clean up after their pets, a ticket to a lottery drawing for every bag of dog poop turned in. The prize can go as high as $2,100.
08. Anti-Social Media?
The Week magazine also mentions that a crime fugitive taunted police on his Facebook page. "Catch me if you can. I'm in Brooklyn." Apparently, he didn't do his privacy setting properly, so police shortly popped in on him at his apartment, where he was still interacting with Facebook.
09. Cell phones
I have mentioned this before. One of the most glamorous movie stars of all time was named Hedy Lamarr. However, most people do not know that she and a co-inventor developed "frequency hopping" which is now used in cell phone technology. Check out this website.. it even has a copy of the invention documents.
http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html
10. Pope Joan
A new religious book has been published by Random House: Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich. I haven't read the book yet, but I am intrigued by a review in The Week magazine. May I quote: "Legend has it that there was even a female pontiff. Pope Joan, the story goes, briefly became the leader of the Catholic church during the ninth century by disguising herself. She was purportedly discovered when she gave birth while attempting to mount a horse."
11. Satan triumphs?
The West Memphis 3 were just released from prison. Prosecutors decided not to retry them for the 1993 slaying of three cub scouts. The slaying has been reported as part of a horrible Satanic ritual.
Many felt that they were wrongly convicted. They were allowed to plead "guilty" in exchange for release; thereby, saving the prosecutor from retrying the case and losing because of the lack of original evidence. We will probably now be able to revisit the documentary about the case on TV.
12. Stinkbugs attack!
So far, we have lost our Zuchini and Squash plants to stinkbugs. Now they are eyeing up our tomato plants. Unfortuately, there is no way to get rid of them in a reliable way. We can't use insecticides. We are squirting them with soapy (savon) water. They don't like that, but just fly away in disgust. There are traps that use stinkbug sex hormone... but, as with Japanese Beetle lures, that is exactly what they do.. lure other stinkbugs to join them. At least we have lots of tomatoes this year and can share them, albeit reluctantly, with the bugs. I'm glad they don't like flowers.
2 comments:
Joe, you can't just throw a book you took from a senior center into recycling because you don't like it. Or maaybe "recycling" means you returned it to the center to be reused. Hang in there.
rayblog.. you are right.. I just retrieved the book and will take it back. By the way, the book had a chewed up cover, water damage, torn pages and smelled bad. But still, I must return it.
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