Water On The Witch

Just like the witch in Wizard of Oz, Mercury is shrinking! The information came from a NASA mission and its photos.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/31/2151241.htm?site=science&topic=latest

2008 Goals

It is close to the beginning of this year so what five things would you like to accomplish this year?

Zelda

To entertain me in my time of sickness, Esh is playing a Zelda game on the Wii. Then I remembered a Zelda video made by Caltech students some years ago. Pure genius.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2967926040995072267&q=caltech+zelda&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Yuck

So I tried to find a poem about cold viruses but couldn't. But Esh remembered the following from one of his books from years ago("Lunch Money.." by Carol Shields http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780140558906&itm=1). I am not sure exactly how close we are remembering the poem but... I will update the poem when I find the book.

"I dibn't go to school today
Mom looked at me and said
No way...
I hab a terrible cold."

All I want to do today is lay in bed with my laptop and play Riven. The fate of a 55 year old woman struck down by life's small scourge.

Negative Attitudes

So it turns out in the world of math, misery does in fact love company. For example, if two negative numbers establish a long-term relationship and multiply, they will gain a much m0re positive outlook on life. However, if they just temporarily add together they will become even more negative; so it is better that, at that point, they separate and try to subtract from one another.

Poem By John Updike

Cosmic Gall

Neutrinos, they are very small.
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.
The earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass,
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.
They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall,
And scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me!
Like tall and painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass.
At night, they enter at Nepal
And pierce the lover and his lass
From underneath the bed-you call
It wonderful; I call it crass.

- Telephone Poles and Other Poems, John Updike, Knopf, 1960

Cool Stanford Videos

I found a site with free videos of public lectures from Stanford University's physics department. All sorts of topics are covered. Enjoy!

http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/lectures/past.htm

More Leno Headlines

* "Deputies responded to a report of a gaggle of elk loitering in a public roadway creating a traffic hazard near...at 1:23 a.m. Deputies spoke with the elk and they agreed to leave the roadway and not return."

* "Election Date Information: Below are dates that most elections will be held on....3) The ninth Tuesday before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November."

* "Voters Vote on Whether to Vote"

* "Four Week Program Offers Help To Quit Smoking in Five Days"

* "Death Is Nation's Top Killer"

* "Eating lunch at 10:30 a.m. was just too early says Superintendent Brent Orr. The revised schedule puts the first lunch at the high school at 10:40 a.m."

Help Me! I Am Locked In A Fortune Cookie Factory.

What sayings can you think of that you have either read or can think of for fortune cookies?

Dentist

Esh and I went to th dentist today. It was a good visit. No cavities for either of us. The next visit is in June. Esh has two upper wisdom teeth coming in but no lower ones are there at all. I had five wisdom teeth that had to be pulled. It is too early to tell on Esh's whether they will be okay or not.

Interesting Links

Gravity sent me some really interesting links today so I thought that I would share them.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uol-ssc050307.php

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S17/80/32S21/index.xml?section=newsreleases

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/uoy-ymp040207.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/miot-mrt032807.php

Isn't science great!

Ha ha...

The picture I just added of the snow bound trees is... a joke for here. Raining again. Many days lately have made it up to 70 degrees. Sad. It is mid-January.

Deadlines

When applying to college, watch those deadlines. There are deadlines for all sorts of things in addition to the application deadline -- financial aid, FAFSA deadline, acceptance deadlines, etc. As a helpful hint, once you have identified the college to which you want to apply go the the Admissions website and immediately locate the applications calendar. The calendar usually includes the financial aid deadlines; but if it doesn't locate that calendar, too. For individual scholarships, check those deadlines, too.

Good luck to all applicants on your trails through Application Land.

Einstein's Brilliance

As a part of Windows Vista on my relatively new laptop, came a Google menu bar. I have a calculator on it, a battery meter for the laptop, a digital clock, links to both Wikipedia and Google, and my favorite, "Einstein Quote of the Day". The quotes cover a wide range of topics; but the one showing today, I think encapsulates a wonderful but simple thought.

"If I give a pfennig*, you will be one pfennig richer and I'll be one pfennig poorer. But if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have it, too."

* [German coin used from late 9th century until the introduction of the euro.]

Battle of the Brains

Esh's first Battle of the Brains tournament airs on TV this Saturday. The team played back in October and they won. Their next TV competition will Be on January 17 but will not air until much later.

Getting Ready

We are getting ready to go home. Some things are already in the cars, we are watching a "House", and a light haze in the air is making the sky pink, blue and lavender -- everywhere -- as the sun sets. A load of laundry leftover from kayaking is in the wash.

We just got back from kayaking in 40 degree weather. It was beautiful and very bracing out on the water. We were only about and hour and one half from high tide but the water levels were very low so we kept getting stuck. While out kayaking we talked Scrabble. Highest two letter word we could think of was "zu"; "zip" was the highest for three letters; "quiz" wins for four letters words. Other high pointers -- "quizzical", "zyzzyva", "whack"........

Tomorrow we will be home.

Water

This country has wonderful water facilities in most places. Even though the water varies from location to location, it is still typically sanitized, clean, fresh water.

We are on Ocracoke. The water public water here has always had a....different scent. We have chosen over the years to purchase battled water for coffee because it tastes better; but we have cooked in Ocarocke's public water.

Not so this trip and the second week last summer when we stayed in this house. The public utilities here on Ocracoke reached maximum capacity some years ago. This means that all new houses must get their water from some other source. Some house have water shipped in and stored in tanks. The owners of this house chose to have non-potable water.

Last summer we got used to it because the house is so spacious and nice. This trip has pretty much been the same except when I opened the dishwasher the first time we wased dishes, it all smelled like fish. Subsequently, the dishwasher broke.

Then one morning Gravity came up and asked if Ian's and my showers smelled like fish. "No, It just had the usual briny smell and soapy feel." But the day before yesterday and yesterday, my shower has had the fish smell. Esh's shower is either still okay or he has lost his sense of smell.

Last night, when doing a load of laundry, I thought I would go down and check on it in the washer. the water in the washing machine was brownish! Yuk. But....our clothes are coming out cleaner! The gray layer that used to be permanently at the bottom of Esh's socks is disappearing......Wonders never cease!

Googling

So "Ocracoke is an unusual name...When I googled for a map of Ocracoke, Google came back with "Did you mean to search for "yourock"?"

Brrrrrr.....

It is cold here and very windy. The low for tonight is predicted for 28; but right now, we have 36 degrees with a windy chill of 24 due to the wind. The wind is steady at 20 mph with gusts higher. This is a big house but it is still swaying in the wind. Wish we would get some flakes of the white stuff.

Today, we stayed here all day. We finished the puzzle that we started yesterday. We read and played Scrabble. The boys are asleep right now on the coaches and there is a fire in the fireplace, with the wind howling outside. Winter.

One Thing Not Told

Okay, so we have painted a near perfect picture of Ocracoke. We left out the bugs. The bugs here are BIG. And the roach type bugs are REALLY BIG! We went ten days with no bugs; and then I was rudely reminded. After our fabulous kayak tip, I was collecting clothes prior to showering and there, amidst my pants, was a bug. I now shake my clothes prior to putting them on.

Finished Another One

Last night, we finished another Nancy Drew puzzle game! This time we were in New Orleans and we switched from between being Nancy Drew and her friend, Bess Meyers. We had been asked to go investigate the death of an uncle of a friend of Ned's (another of Nancy's friends). We played with a pet Iguana, collected false eyes, ate gumbo, went to a secret society meeting, went far too many times through a graveyard, and found the crystal skull! Wow; another family adventure under our belt!

Low Tide Beach

Yesterday, we went out to a Sandy point that has the ocean on one side and the sound on the other. We drove out there at low tide. It was gorgeous. There were beautiful Sand pattens everywhere. There were also many beached carcasses, primarily Sand sharks and one skate. The tide comes in very quickly in this area as it is flat so I suspect that when the tide goes out many sea creatures get stuck with no water. We made sure that we did not get stuck with the tide coming in! After that, we went kayaking in yet another part of the island.

Nature's Recycling

New Year's Eve day we went kayaking to one of our favorite spots. After launching from a creek in one of the marshes, we go out into the sound. Then we go around an island and back into the marshes.

After a storm about five years ago, we found a wrecked paddle boat back on one of the creeks in the second marsh. Over the years, we have watched it slowly disintegrate. This past trip, just two days ago, a family of hermit crabs had made their home in the paddle boat. Slowly, the paddle boat is being turned back into its natural components.