Ants use pedometers to find home
June 30, 2006
Perfect practical news for today. The next time you get lost in the trackless desert, just check your pedometer and start counting.
New Scientist Breaking News - Ants use pedometers to find home
Wolf says that the findings show that ants have an internal system that somehow keeps track of now many the steps they have taken, though he is quick to point out that the insects probably cannot “count” as such.
He suspects that the ants’ automatic step counter is part of their nervous system and that it gets reset each time they return to the nest.
Dave, who thinks some scientists have way too much time on their hands.
Sneerag
June 29, 2006
According to E. P. Evans’s The Criminal Prosecution of Animals (1906), on June 14, 1494, a young pig was arrested for having “defaced a young child in its cradle, the son of Jehan Lenfant, a cowherd on the fee-farm of Clermont [France],” and proceeded against “as justice and reason would desire and require.” Several witnesses testified that “as the father was guarding the cattle, the infant being left alone in its cradle, the said pig entered during the said time, the said house, and disfigured said child.” The judge concluded the porker, “now detained as prisoner and confined in the said abbey, shall be, by the master of high works, hanged and strangled on a gibbet . . . and high place of execution belonging to the said monks.” In all likelihood, the resultant pork chops, pig’s feet, and ham hocks became spoil for the victorious prosecution.
Oh yes — sneerag: a child’s toy, made of the larger bone of a pig’s foot and two worsted strings, and worked so as to give a snoring sound.
–Alexander Warrack’s Scots Dialectic Dictionary, 1911.
Dave, avidly studying his Forgotten English calendar.
Free dragonfly rides!
June 28, 2006
Summertime is not always the best time to come up with informative blog articles, but sometimes imagination comes to the rescue. On Riverside Rambles, following a discussion of blooming mimosa trees in Hannibal, this announcement appeared:
Riverside Rambles: Larry Ayers’ Weblog
Our docile and well-trained dragonfly steeds are outfitted with the ultimate in saddle comfort, and cheery ladybug attendants will bring you nectar and pollen snacks.
Today our journey into the world as seen by our insect friends is an exciting tour of a clump of mimosa flowers. You will be immersed in sheer pinkness! The aroma of the blossoms is intoxicating, I must say. You need not worry about thuggish mosquitoes or sweat bees, as the entire tour takes place within the screened enclosure towards your left.
I’d like to see the dragonfly that carried the camera!
Dave, on a slow day.
Bolton v Gore
June 26, 2006
Hear him!
How to save the world | Bolton v Gore | Economist.com
A question of priorities: hunger and disease or climate change?
TWO years ago, a Danish environmentalist called Bjorn Lomborg had an idea. We all want to make the world a better place but, given finite resources, we should look for the most cost-effective ways of doing so. He persuaded a bunch of economists, including three Nobel laureates, to draw up a list of priorities. They found that efforts to fight malnutrition and disease would save many lives at modest expense, whereas fighting global warming would cost a colossal amount and yield distant and uncertain rewards.
How can anyone disagree with the above? It’s sad that in this flawed world of ours, politics so often overrides common sense.
Dave, saddened, but hopeful.
Ephesians 6:4-9
June 25, 2006
6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
6:5 Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, 6:6 not like those who do their work only when someone is watching–as people-pleasers–but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.
6:7 Obey with enthusiasm, as though serving the Lord and not people 6:8 because you know that each person, whether slave or free, if he does something good, this will be rewarded by the Lord.
6:9 Masters, treat your slaves the same way, giving up the use of threats, because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
Paul says some wise things about how fathers should show their love for their children; at least it seems wise to me, now that our children have their own children. How I wish that I were a better “slave of Christ doing the will of God” a half-century ago, but my faith was very immature at that time.
Some say that the relationship of masters to slaves in Paul’s time is paralleled by employers to employees today. I’m not too sure about that, but in any case, whatever our station in life, our first allegiance must be to our Master in heaven. -sdg-
Summer’s mile marker
June 24, 2006
One of the measuring posts of summer’s progress on my morning walks is at the stop sign at the southwest corner of 22nd and Adams. Shortly before the arrival of the summer solstice, a cluster of red and yellow Tiger Lilies begin climbing their tower of blooms.
I took a couple of shots on June 18 when the short bloom cycle was almost finished, and by the 22nd of June they were finished for this year. I hate to think that it’s all downhill from here, but Tiger Lilies never lie.
Dave, thinking that Tiger Lilies really aren’t that pretty.
Kiva update
June 22, 2006
You may remember that a month or so ago I invested a small amount toward a loan for a small businessman in Ecuador. I received this email update:
Dear David Ayers ,
This is an update on Puero y Asociados written by Luis Crespo:
Boris, es un profesional su sueno es trabajar en la investigación de la electrónica, de redes y hardware de computadores. Agradece a las personas que por este medio le permiten tener acceso a un crédito, nunca pensó que esto ocurriera que por el Internet pudiera tener la posibilidad de fundarse como cliente, en el Ecuador ni siquiera las personas que lo conocen ‘Bancos” le dan un préstamo para trabajar.Esta seguro que el crédito solicitado invertirá para atender sus necesidades de inventarios como discos duros, memoria y repuestos para atender de mejor forma a sus clientes espera poder generar al menos una plaza de trabajo para otra persona que el esta entrenando y pueda ayudar a que la comunidad sepa usar las herramientas tecnologicas y el Internet.Guayaquil, Junio 19/06Luis
Some of our partners choose to write their journal entries in the local language in order to keep their overhead low. If this journal entry is in a foreign language, please feel free to use an online translator such as Altavista’s Babelfish (http://babelfish.altavista.com).
Thanks!
— Kiva Staff
Here is Ms. Babelfish’s translation:
Boris, is a professional his I sound is to work in the investigation of the electronics, of networks and hardware of computers. It thanks for the people who by this means allow him to have access on a credit, never thought that this happened that by the Internet it could have the possibility of being based like client, in Ecuador not even the people who know ‘ Banks “give a loan him for safe trabajar.Esta that the asked for credit will invest to take care of its necessities of inventories like hard disks, memory and spare parts to take care of of better form its clients hope to be able to generate at least one seat of work for another person who this training and can help to that the community knows to use the tecnologicas tools and the Internet.Guayaquil, June 19/06Luis
Makes sense to me, and I will try to respond to his “journal entry.”
Dave, maybe needing to brush up on his Spanish.
Presbyterian pile-up
June 20, 2006
Events have conspired to keep me topside and out of the orlop for a few days. I am serving on a jury in a circuit court criminal case through tomorrow, and what time is left goes to reporting on the Presbyterian General Assembly for my church website. If you are morbidly curious, hop over to here.
Dave, doing a bit of hopping himself.
Clipper ships in the sky
June 17, 2006
Here’s a fascinating survey article from the Economist. During the Age of Sail, the world’s goods moved in slow motion in the holds of clipper ships. Today, goods speed around the world in the cargo containers of giant MD-11 freighter-jets.
The physical internet | Economist.com
21st-century clippers
Frederick Smith, FedEx’s chief executive, compares his company’s jets to clippers, the sailing ships that once carried cargoes on the trade winds. Mr Smith pioneered the air-express business in the early 1970s by delivering a few hundred parcels overnight to a handful of American cities using Falcon aircraft the size of an executive jet. At Memphis airport, the parcels were sorted on a table. Many of his contemporaries thought he was mad: who would pay to send packages by air? He almost went bust. But now FedEx has ordered a fleet of double-deck Airbus A380s to help cope with demand. Rival UPS has also placed orders for the huge new Airbus. Neither company wants any seats inside, just space for lots of cargo. If they were passenger airlines, UPS and FedEx would now rank among the world’s biggest carriers.
Watching a visionary like Frederick Smith create such a change in the world of commerce is fascinating to me. Maybe I dream about life in the Age of Sail, but what’s happening in my own age is much more exciting.
Dave, dreamer.
If you admit to being Presbyterian…
June 14, 2006
you might want to take an occasional peek at this site, otherwise take a break. Most of my time for the next 10 days will be spent trying to make sense of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the members of First Presbyterian Church, Quincy, IL, mostly, but you are welcome to peek.
The purpose of this post is to let you know why my usual sense and nonsense may not be making its (almost) daily appearance from down here on the Orlop. It’s summertime, after all, so the respite should be welcome to most.
If there is anything left of my mind after wrestling with a contentious church conference for ten days, I’ll be back to my more or less regular postings on or around June 22.
Dave, still believing that being Christian and being Presbyterian often overlaps.
