CNN.com – Pre-Incan brewery found in Andes

Ritual drinking!? Sounds like my kind of civilization!

CNN.com – Mercury mission set for launch

Check back in 2011 for details! 😉

Carm’s kitten is sick and we’ve been struggling twice a day to give her liquid antibiotics. How it works is, I essentially tackle and maul the poor animal. Once she’s subdued (aside from yowls of outrage and frustration) Carm pries open her mouth, sticks a syringe inside and shoots the antibiotics in there. Then I let the cat go and she scowls and storms around, shaking her head in displeasure at the taste of the stuff. And it finally dawned on me why this works…

Cats can’t spit!!!!

A baby would just spit the foul tasting stuff out, right? But think about what a cat (or a dog…I also realized that dogs can’t spit either) does when they bite into something they don’t like. They open their mouth wide and point it at the ground and hope gravity does the job. I’ve seen mean people throw a ‘treat’ to a dog that’s something vile. The poor dog can’t get the item out of its mouth at all easily!

So dogs and cats can’t spit. WHY? People can spit. Camels can spit. Spitting cobras can spit.

Can chickens spit? Can cows? What about chimps?

There must be an evolutionary reason why some animals can spit and others can’t. But for the life of me, aside from the spitting cobra example, I can’t figure out what it is…

I’ll no doubt spend my entire weekend contemplating this!

So you think you know everything? – DailyGammon Discussion
A silly but fun post over at the site where I’ve been playing Backgammon.

Apparently the QE II can move 6″ on a gallon of diesel fuel. 🙂

He made it!!!!

CNN.com – Private craft flies into space

Happy Solstice, everyone!

How to Keep Your Brain Young is an encouraging read for an old dog like me, even if it *does* come from Better Homes & Gardens so is scientifically suspect. 🙂

I donated blood today, for the first time in my life. It was such a non-event that I feel guilty for all the blood drives I’ve skipped. I’d heard all the tales of feeling faint and weak after and all that, but I didn’t feel a thing, except a little bored while the bag filled up.

From now on I’ll be doing it every time they have a blood drive at work. You get free juice and cookies, and a nice half-hour break out of your work day. What’s not to like about that!!? 🙂

Seriously, somewhere, sometime, some stranger will be helped out by this donation.

So what the hell? I guess I did a good thing. Go figure.

When I was a boy in the fall I got to watch a process that never failed to fascinate me.

There was an old building in the back of my grandparents lot. The boards were grey with age, twisted and warped so you could see ribbons of daylight from inside.

There was a huge flat table in there, anachronistic in that it was made of steel or something. And rows of shelving for storage.
Continue reading “Scallops”