Taxonomical mnemonics #2

Ok, I'll do one more mnemonic. We found that humor worked best, and ridiculousness. We dialed this last mnemonic in finally the last hour before the test. Sure enough, we had a specimen and had to I.D. it. No way I would have remembered if it weren't for this.

This cute little dude (though I think of them as dudettes) is the Deer Mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus. We didn't have anything to go on. We had to reach, and create another storyline/character to make it stick.

This Dear (deer) mouse (myscus, don't ask me why but it worked) thought she was a dog (perro), so went to go get a manicure (maniculatus). Keeping maniculatus from turning into manipulatus in our heads was key here... that just kept happening.

Somehow, that scored me a few points on the practicum.

Enjoy figuring out what works, no matter how weird,

Bp

Taxonomical mnemonics

Just walked out of my Vertebrate Zoology lab practicum (read: a test with slides and specimens). I can say with confidence that I owned it. Been beating my head around Latinate names for days now, narrowing down the list of what I can remember and what I can't to a few that just wouldn't stick in my brain.

Some names have a memory hook of some kind, like Tamias minimus, the least chipmunk. Least -- minimus -- some connection there. Tamias, well that's just a memorize thing.

But some animals got on the short short list of "how the hell am I going to remember this effing name."
This cute little dude made the list. It's a Northern Flying Squirrel.

Here's the process. Order Rodentia -- ok that makes sense, rodents, squirrels, not a problem. Family Petauristinae -- not much to go on there... I start to sweat a bit as I write up the flash card. Scientific name Glaucomys sabrinus, wow, panic time. There's just nothing that seems to relate to anything in there.

Punchy from going over so many flashcards, my study partner and I (her daughter may be traveling with Paris Hilton soon, WTF -- another story for another time) started just trying to piece anything together that would help us with these last few tough nuts.

In this case: Sabrina has glaucoma, is a taurus, and has a pet flying squirrel = Glaucomys sabrinus, family Petauristinae -- TADA!

We have others, I may or may not subject ya'll to them.

Enjoy it, whatever it is,

Bp

War on Activism and Citizen Journalists

Good read on Piglipstick today: War on Activism and Citizen Journalists. I find myself reading them more and more lately, a good blog find.



Enjoy your growing awareness,

Bp

The water fueled car comes 'round again

Intro video of Stan Meyer and his invention (an excerpt):



Video of the buggy after it had been converted:



Mr. Meyer is no longer with us. I'm tracking down where the info went about his invention post mortem. Have to get to sleep right now, but much is on the web about this invention and about other folks who are beginning to get the same results.

In the past, I had written off this particular energy source as a complicated battery, but I have a better grasp of it now, and I think it's a genuine invention. Me and 44 some-odd patents, I should say.

Regarding his death and the conspiracy theories, I really don't know. Best I can find on the web is he died puking in a parking lock of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, and the autopsy says aneurysm. Sad to have lost him, I hope the information gets out and continues to be worked on.

Enjoy the possibility of release,

Bp

Texting The Wife from a late night study session

There's this game that happens when I'm wearing down and getting tired from studying, where I occasionally try to abash the wife with untoward text messages. Usually, the response is either silence, or "BAH" or "You are SO weird."

Last night, however, she had been drinking wine and watching some medieval religious thriller thingy of a movie. Her response was unprecedented.


"What are you wearing right now?"


"The blood of the heathen gods smeared across my soot blackened loins; brow and small of back oily with citrus, ginger, and gold. You?"



I had been duly, resoundingly, and completely outclassed. I conceded defeat immediately.


Enjoy your study diversions, and celebrate your mate,

Bp

11 - year - old girl Tests Diet Coke/Aspartame degredation

This little girl did an experiment to test how fast Aspartame degraded into Formaldehyde and DKP (Diketopiperazine). Now if you read up on Aspartame, many sources flood the web saying it degrades into neurotoxins and causes all sorts of maladies. I know I sound skeptical, and really I am and I'm not. The thing is, it is nasty stuff I can tell that, and degrades into nastier stuff, I can tell that too. There are plenty of books on the subject, should you choose to delve.

Anyway, this little girl Jennifer Cohen is definitely getting the cold shoulder from the industry and it's mouthpieces. Check out some of their last correspondence. This girl rocks.

What was the point of this post... well, first it wasn't to create the most text-linked blog post I've ever written. I guess just to point out that little kids (read: citizenry) are thinking about things, and asking questions (read: speaking truth) to industry (read: power). It's encouraging.

Enjoy the crazed postings of a not so awake blogger,

Bp

Coming in to the home stretch

Yesterday, woke up from my zombie-like sleep with the word enantiomers stuck in my head. This morning it was Sn1 substitution.

I find myself having to suppress the urge to start every new conversation with a breathless rendition of what I have to prepare for in the next week: "man, I've got a quiz, exam, and a practicum next week. I have to be able to identify like 75 animals by slide or specimen, and every single lecture day I have left in O-Chem has something due and/or a quiz or exam. There's a big exam the last day before finals, and I still need to finish chapter 8, and the class is finishing with chapter nine, and and and..."

I've tipped over the top of the first rise on a big roller coaster, I'm heading down and starting to accelerate, my stomach is lifting a bit from the lack of gravity and the effect is not exactly settling. I can see a couple loops out there, some bumps, and a tight turn or two. I could get all wigged out, but here I sit, and the car is going, and there are no brakes, so what's the use of getting all worked up. So, my practice is to relax and be as productive as I possibly can without raising my blood pressure.

Enjoy the surrender that life sometimes requires,

Bp

Chanterelle-sicles anyone?

Went picking turkey day morning with Jon Schell, founder of the internationally famous Alethea Acupuncture Clinic in Northwest Portland. I had some blue cheese, thyme, chanterelle quiche to deliver tonight at the Foodie Orphan Turkey Day, and was out of yellow mushrooms. Good excuse to get out in the woods.

As you can see from this picture, it was cold. Plenty of frost on the logging roads, and some patches of snow on the ground. The dog didn't care, and we got into the mushrooms regardless. They were, however, frozen solid. It was kind of weird to be picking mushrooms, but not cutting them from the stalk, and every time you grabbed one it was rock hard. This would be the last mushrooming trip at these elevations (approx. 3500 ft., mostly south/southwest hillsides). Freezing really messes the mushrooms up, they're just water logged proteins, so freezing then thawing then freezing pretty much tears them apart. We went to an old faithful spot, crossing the stream at a really pretty spot. The frozen logs with snow weren't very easy to navigate but we got across with little incident. The logging roads took us into prime chanterelle habitat -- big trees, moss, and relatively undisturbed forest. The woods here had been logged of their biggest trees some time in the past, I'd guess the 50's, but it had been a selective logging. So as you worked through the trees, you'd occasionally find huge stumps, 6-7' in diameter. But, the trees they left behind thrived and are now reaing 2-3' in diameter themselves. The mushrooms have grown well in this stretch of forest. Here's a picture showing the disturbed, but highly mushroom-productive forest we were picking through.

The mushrooms being frozen made some extra steps to the cleaning process, affected their texture a little bit, but didn't diminish their flavor a bit. The quiche I brought to the potluck tonight were a huge hit, and I was more than pleased to be serving genuinely wild food that I had gathered myself. I love that shit.

Enjoy your little triumphs,

Bp

Um

An ad popped up on my google targeted advertising, top of my email screen that I had to investigate.

Cornhole Sets, Bags - cornhole4sale.com - Cornhole Sets and Bags Complete Sets Starting at $79.99

You know, where I grew up, "Cornhole" didn't refer to some kind of bag throwing, corporate get together team game.

... depending on how you used it.


Enjoy your double entendres,

Bp

Tommy and The Coens answering questions about No Country

Quick video, I picked it because it was the first one I could find that had Tommy in it.

Oh the hate mail I'm getting backstage for having beaten many of my friends to this movie.

I'm going mushroom picking this morning so I can make quiche for our foodie, orphan turkey day celebration this afternoon. Talk to ya'll soon.



Continue enjoying your media heroes,

Bp

No Country for Old Men -- review of sorts

This movie was a shoe-in for me on many levels. For one, Cormac McCarthy was a revelation to me as a writer. Blood Meridian blew my mind -- it was violent, gorgeous, biblical in sweep. Like nothing I had ever read, except maybe Faulkner.

So, I'm supposed to be talking about the movie. What can I say, it's awesome. The Coen Brothers do a fantastic job in their sincere, dry, in your face way. Their adaptation from the book is excellent, the dialog is just pitch perfect (sorry for the cliche, but it is).

Every actor on the screen just pops, especially Tommy Lee Jones. He's one of my favorites anyway, but he really nails this performance. It's like it was written for him. When he finished the movie with the last few lines of dialog, it was like watching a gold-winning gymnast peg a landing. Ok that's a horrible analogy. It was a dam near perfect confluence of writing and acting.

The movie has multiple oscars written all over it.

It's a violent movie, don't be mistaken. It's about a psychopath -- no bones about it. It is a rough film.

I'm just going to leave it at, if you like the Cohen brothers, or Cormac McCarthy, or modern noir thrillers, or Tommy Lee Jones just go see it. Trust me. If you are squeamish, you probably want to stay home for this one, or be prepared to cover your eyes a few times.



Enjoy your artistic heroes,

Bp

Thanksgiving note from Grandma

[hand written in tight, loopy cursive]

"Dear B & K,

Once again I'm grateful for you, My Family, and then for the awe-inspiring Beauty -- just outside my Patio Door. The ground is slowly being covered as dark red, bronze and gold leaves drift down. Many different kinds of leaves finished for this year.

Golden brown Pin Oak, Red, crinkle edged Crepe Myrtle flutter down, their smooth white trunks and branches left bare. Liquidamber trees with their "maple-shaped" leaves falling to the ground like so many stars - stem upward - red and gold.

They crush under foot.
Fall berries orange-red; left over rosey roses and Camellias; clumps of sharp green lily leaves awaiting spring.

Dark green pines and cedars above the roof tops making a fine backdrop.

A single tall Tulip tree covered with little smooth balls like an early Christmas tree.

A lone dove - or two - search the seed scattered on the patio floor.

All of this is to be seen; to be enjoyed --

Outside my Patio Door
I'm Thankful to be here!
At our Home this year!


Love, Grandma L.
Happy Thanksgiving"


[Grandma rocks, what can I say]
Enjoy the love of relatives,

Bp

Just to drag today's posting further into the gutter

I'll share my latest favorite from I Can Has Cheezburger?

I'll get to real posting soon, probably tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow.



Enjoy your strange and alienating sense of humor,

Bp

Jim Gaffigan -- Hot Pockets skit

I can't believe I haven't posted this video yet. It's 2 am, I'm on a study break, and it's time to laugh (because the other option, as we know, isn't productive). This skit is huge both with The Wife and The Study Group. Always good for a moment away from schoolwork.


Enjoy your comedic mental mini-vacations,

Bp

Island stories over breakfast

After a very dense Organic Chemistry lecture, I went out to breakfast with Big Chocolate. We were talking island ecology, and the ceremonies associated with gathering food, and he began in with a childhood memory.

In October or November, the Palolo swarm. This is cause for staying up all night with nets and buckets, and waiting for them to wash ashore. The timing has to be right, and men row back and forth offshore in canoes and lanterns looking for the swarm. When it happens, folks scoop up the wriggling wormlike things and pack their buckets, many eating the delicacy fresh out of the ocean.

An image that stayed with me, was that he said Leis of a particular yellow fragrant tree orchid were the appropriate offering when the Palolo came in. In the mornings after they gathered, he said the high tide mark was knee deep in fragrant yellow Leis, and you could smell them from far far away.

What a beautiful image. I could listen to island stories all day, I swear.

Off to continue cataloging Texas vertebrate species.

Enjoy your writhing oceanic delicacies,

Bp

New "test your website" site -- are you banned in China?

This one is my favorite yet, test to see if your website (would) be blocked in China.

Mine, of course, came up blocked.

Turns out that it doesn't necessarily mean you really are blocked, so it's a bit of an activist gimick site. Fun nonetheless.

Enjoy the last shreds of your "untrammeled" U.S. internet,

Bp

Morning feline safety tip

When climbing stairs in your robe, in the morning, not quite awake -- make sure to note the activity level, or 'hyperness" of any cats you step over in the stairwell. If the cat impeding your progress is "feeling frisky," burning off calories after breakfast with dilated pupils and a kitten-like energy, and you are a man with only a robe on, do not under any circumstances step over said cat.

[No, Pootie didn't get me in the nana's this morning, he attempted and failed. A warning to us all.]

Enjoy your external genitalia, while they last,

Bp

Follow up on the writer's strike story

The lines of connection get pretty convoluted when you jump around reading blogs linked from blogs. I found this fantastic blog post explaining further about the writer's strike and about Hollywood and how it is not a free market system there and how unions can help. It is from the Kung Fu Monkey blog, which I found via the Pacific Views post regarding the writer's strike, which I found through Orblogs, which is a blog post compiler for local Oregon and Pacific NW blogs. I am a member of Orblogs and get a bit of traffic to the site because of it.

How many degrees of separation? Gets dizzying sometimes.

Oh, and the original link regarding the writer's strike is very well written, I highly recommend it.

Enjoy traveling the intarweb tubes,

Bp

Video explaining a good old-fashioned strike -- you go writers

Having been part of a non-striking unions wage negotiation team, I fully support striking when necessary. Toothless tigers get no meat.

This video is both entertaining and educational, explaining the position of the writers in their current strike. Union membership is at an all-time low right now in the U.S., as low as levels in the 1930's, when the idea was first catching on. Don't buy the hype, support union workers.



[via HinesSight]

Enjoy your OSHA rules, 5-day work week, and overtime,

Bp

Ancient Peruvian suspension bridges investigated by MIT students

[photo credit in article link]

This New York Times article talks about the amazing rope suspension bridges that the Peruvians had made in the Andes before the invasion of the Conquistadors. A group of MIT students worked to replicate the means by which the bridges were made, to study the properties of the structures. Very cool.
[thanks Bentley]

Enjoy your mind-blowing ancient knowledge,

Bp