Happy 2010!!

End of a decode and beginning of another one. There is also a blue moon tonight!

Muck

We have had so much rain that there are standing puddles everywhere. Even though we have many mature trees, just too much precipitation has fallen. With three dogs, we have set up a drying area by the front door with stacks of towels so the yard muck does not become house yuck! When spring comes, hopefully the yard will dry.

Enjoying The Sun

December Snow

Here in VA we do not get December snows very often but boy did we get a load this weekend. Gorgeous today as the sun is out (and we never lost electricity -- hooray).

Rain and more rain.

Both Gravity and October have lived in VA since 1980, so almost 30 years. With the exception of tropcial storms such as Isabell (where the rain comes in many inches all at once and then quickly disappears), neither of them have seen so much rain before. The last storm dumped over 1.5 inches in only a few hours. Every time it rains now, lakes form all over the acre+ of land. The dogs want it to stop - the humans want it to stop - the cats do not care but they miss the sunshine.

Happiness is a choice.

Fall Leaves

We have only done the leaves twice but each time has been a lot of effort for all of us, even the teenager. Rains keep bringing them down in droves! But soon we will miss the color. Love, love Virginia!

Fright Night

We had fun at Fright Night last night at the local college where Gravity is on the adjunct faculty. Great idea!

Quantum Leap

Now that we have finished "DS 9", we have moved on to "Quantum Leap". What a fun show. We saw the one with Stephen King as a character when he was young tonight. Excellent writing and acting.

Montpelier Art Center Adventure

Last Friday evening, we went to Montpelier Art Center for an opening of a show for three women artists and got a surprise. The art center also had a Bluegrass group playing. It was fun to walk the center (which is an old high school dating back to the 1926), view paintings and listen to Bluegrass.

Art Affair

Go to the Art Affair to see terrific art!

Raktajino Recipes

Raktajino: Klah Version
2 Tbs. Sweet ground chocolate
1/2 cup dark cocoa
3/8 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Dark Roasted Coffee, ground fine (French Roast or Italian Roast)
Pinch of nutmeg

Raktajino: House of Kasara blend
1 1/2 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
6 Tbs. Dark Roasted Coffee, ground fine (French Roast or Italian Roast)
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Note: lightweight Terran friends may prefer a mix made with 3 tablespoons of instant coffee.
Makes approximately 14 servings.For both versions mix all ingredients together, and store in airtight container.To serve, use 3 teaspoons to 3/4 cup not-quite-boiling water. When served, the drink should be thick, much like hot cocoa

Strawberry Kiwi Salad

Super simple and great salad packed with nutrition. Strawberry and kiwis chunks in a bowl; you can add blueberries too. we ate it au naturale but you can put poppy seed dressing on it also.

Yes It Exists

On route 60 here in Virginia. I love buffalo burgers!

Yummy Day

The weather here today is great. It is hot but fairly dry for here; and there is a nice breeze. So Gravity and I went kayaking. Awesome! What a great day.

Weather Patterns

We must be in a "weather pattern". More storms are on their way. Okay by us. It is saving water bill $$$ due to no need to set up the sprinklers for the gardens.

Yuk

All three of us have a bug. Not a "I want to roll up in a corner and die because I feel like crap" bug; but a "I am spending too much time in the bathroom" bug. Ho hum.

VA Economy

Compared to other locations, Virginia's economy is doing really well even though we do have a slump.. During the past month, about six homes inn our neighborhood sold for high prices ($350,000 to $5000,000+) which is really good! I just love Virginia!

Evolution

Years ago, October raised the question "Does evolution change?" This questions was raised again by Gravity -- "does Evolution evolve?" Interesting question and we would love to have your comments. We have opened up comments (with comment moderation -- your comment will not post right away -- in order to prevent the inappropriate comments received in the past.) so please let us know what you think!

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The comments are not showing (not sure what is wrong) so email me. Thanks.

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P wrote in an email:

Yes, I believe evolution evolves. I also believe that evolution can speed up or slow down, depending on environmental stimulus.

I read an article about six months ago. A study had found that, under the right conditions, a mother can pass altered genes to her offspring to help deal with a changing environment in just one generation. I read this article on the Internet (Yahoo science, I think) and I wish I could remember more about it. I think the study was done on humans, but I'm not sure at this point. I'll do some research and send a link if I can find the article again. It definitely provides at least a partial answer to your question.

"Survival of the fittest" should change with time and circumstance, by its very definition. However, this seems to happen more slowly. Our stress response is a good example. At one point, stress chemicals produced by our bodies played an important role in the survival of our species, by making it possible to fight or run away from a dangerous situation. Now, those chemicals are still produced in response to what is perceived as a threatening situation, however, it's often not a situation from which we can run. In this instance, those chemicals and frequent exposure to them seem to do us more harm than good. The question is, will this change with time in our modern society? A behavior that was a good survival mechanism thousands or a million years ago isn't so frequently necessary now, yet we still have it. It really hasn't been that long since we did need it, in evolutionary terms. And it is still necessary at times. Will we evolve a way to deal with that response when we can't run away?
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P also wrote:

I have another thought regarding evolution. If evolution does evolve, and is influenced by environmental factors, how will technology effect our evolution? Technological innovation on a modern scale has been a major influence in our lives for only the last 100 to 150 years. How will this eventually affect us and our evolution?
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October writes:

The need to earn money as a means for survival of our species also changed things; although it is still survival of the fittest. Perhaps it is because we are at the top of the food chain, and our only predators are other humans, that we do not need to worry about things like blending into the environment so predators will not eat us. The characteristics important to our survival are those associated with earning money like brains, looks, creativity, etc. -- this is true worldwide with only a few exceptions. Even in very tribal and rural areas of the World, earning money or whatever means of exchange, is what is important.

Final Season of Monk

Some people can't wait until the final season but we can. When it comes, we will savor each episode, enjoying each funny quip. If the season takes forever to start and then takes forever to end, that is okay. We have enjoyed the journey.

Watermelon Salad

Another recipe from our friend K. Haven't tried it yet but here it is:

Bits of romaine salad, watermelon chunks, cherry tomatoes, chives, and vinaigrette dressing.

DS9

We have begun to watch episodes of DS9 back-to-back. Last night we watched the episode "Crossover" where Kira Nerys and Dr. Bashir find themselves in a parallel universe.

The episodes is very well scripted; and in fact, refers back to the episode from the original Star Trek where Kirk finds himself in a parallel universe.

However, what is the probability that in parallel universes there would be so many people who were so similar? Slim to none. Butterfly effect. Chances are even a tiny difference at the point of divergence would create most things different and not related. Similar people existing would occur one in millions, if that. But, also, however, that would lead to a dull story!!!

Dokapon Kingdom

All three of us have begun to play Dokapon Kingdom on the Wii. Gravity and October began as warriors and Esh began as a magician. Currently, Gravity is a monk, Esh is a cleric and October is a ninja! Almost all of the game, Esh has been ahead as he owns a castle! Fun game!

Billy Mays

I remember the first time I saw Billy Mays on an Oxy-clean commercial -- I turned down the volume. His passing is so sudden. Now we are only left with the barker who states in the "Slappy Chopper" commercial, "You]ll love my nuts!" Ho-hum.

Shock

No one here can believe that Michael Jackson is dead. Such a shock. He was a genius. He gave so much to our culture and yet he never really had freedom. It is hard to be different.

172 Fabulous Shows

We just finished watching all 172 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager show and completely enjoyed it. With many humorous episodes, it is my favorite Star Trek show.

Where In The House Is Our Little Gnomie #1

Greeting guests
I give my best.
Sitting by space time
I feel just fine.

Where in the house is our little Gnomie? [Remember the Hints page listed in the links.]

Where In The House Is Our Little Gnomie?

Well he moves around the house from the bath to the library,
He's a six fingered creature with a red hat and a beard.
He'll take you somewhere dark and then somewhere airy,
Tell me... where in the house is our little gnomie?

We are beginning a new riddle series!

New Break Room

We have finished creating our "break room' and have begun to thoroughly enjoy it. This is where we have our evening meal when we want to relax; and where we play computer games,
and relax at night.

House Shuffle Puzzle

Today, we will continue on our house shuffle puzzle. We are rearranging items in our house so we will have a game room in the downstairs library. In fact, our current upstairs library will partially dissolve into a miscellaneous furniture room. Ho-hum. It will be great to have a "break" room but what a lot of work! Friends will love it though.

25 Years of Tetris

Hurricane Season

Hurricane Season began June 1 and so far, no hurricanes although we have already had Tropical Depression One. Here in Virginia, we truly hope this is a very light season as we are currently living in a monsoon. So far this month, we have had 6 inches of rain. The clay is soggy, with a similar texture to pudding. If strong winds hit, trees will topple, and electricity will go for weeks. The predictions are more hurricanes than normal but they often involve the Gulf and they are often inaccurate. So we will have to wait and see.

It's 40

Yup. It's 40 this year. Sesame Street began in 1969. We are all watching and enjoying it today. We have learned about things that begin with "J", the number 13 and all about our feet!

Swine Flu

We all know that the swine flu virus is man-made and there is a huge cover-up concerning its origin. But what they aren't telling people is it all began as a computer virus that mutated to infect humans! Government keeps such big secrets!

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Further investigation showed that the computer virus started on Apples. Of course pigs eat apples so they got the swine flu. As advertised, eating pork will not give you the swine flu. However, using Apple computers might! Beware!!!!!

New Blog

We have added a new blog! See the links.

Hail To L's Salad

It is warm outside and we do not want to turn on the downstairs air. So we had a barbecue today. We have steaks with rolls (in aluminum foil) cooked on the grill and Grandma L's veggie salad. It had been awhile since we made the salad but it is so tremendously good and so extremely easy. Cut tomatoes, onions, and green pepper into chucks. Pour on Kraft Zesty Italian and stir. Done. Great. Enjoy.

UVA Prof Studies Astroprojections

Professor Edward Kelley, who is a researcher in Psychology and Neurobiology at UVA, is studying disembodied consciousness. UVA is moving into the unknown!

http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/personalitystudies/

Easter Day - Ugh

So, how did we spend our Easter? Doing taxes!!!!! Yuk. We owed more than people on minimum wage make a year! Goodbye savings...........

My Day Is Made

My day has been made. Finally this morning, while Gravity and i were sipping coffee, an add came on TV that i had told Gravity about for months. It is about a slappy chopper and in the middle of the ad, the barker proclaims "You'll love my nuts!"

UVA Capture The Flag

UVA has two large groups of scholars. Echols is the group for its College of Arts and Sciences; and the Engineering school has the Rodman scholars. And they are going to have a Capture the Flag competition. There is a registration fee but the proceeds all go an orphans fund! Great fun and a good cause all rolled into one! College is SO much fun!

Science IQ

We have discovered a new wonderful show on the Science channel called Science IQ. It is great so far. the host is Michio Kaku who is terrific. Everyone save this time slot for this show!

Thank You Google

We must thank Google and Blogger for coming up with the idea of making blogs so easy to have! It is a wonderful way to communicate with others and much faster than emails to groups. It also allows others in your life to control how much they want to know about you or your family. If they are not interested, then they do not have to visit the blog; i.e. it is much less invasive than an email in your face. Thanks so much to Google. [sound of applause]

By the way, if a blog disappears, you can tell if it has been moved or deleted. If the blog has been moved, then its old address becomes available. If it has been deleted, then the address is still in use (blogger never really deletes any material -- see previous post on this). Sometimes it is a good thing to move blogs and give the new address only to those you want to look at the blog.

Kudos and kudos to Google. The founders are truly visionaries. They are making the world a better place.

More Riddles

1) What do you call a zipper on a banana?

2) What do you call a kitten drinking lemonade?

3) When does a boat show affection?

Riddle

Here is a great riddle! Don't forget the hints page (see under links on this blog) if you need it.

Voiceless it cries
Mouthless it mutters
Toothless it bites
Wingless it flutters.

What is it?

Happy Spring

SPRING POOLS
by Robert Frost

These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.

The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods -
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Afterlife

Watching an old episode of Star Trek Voyager that dealt with death and afterlife gave me a thought.
We often wonder if there is something after we die, an afterlife. But what if we are an afterlife?
In other words, what if we are the result of the death of some other life form.
For those who believe in a "judgement day" or life after death. Maybe it happened and we are the result.

Band of Brothers

We finished watching "Band of Brothers" mini-series and it is excellent. War is horrible and it shows just how horrible it is. It wraps up showing very effectively why we did it, and just how awful the concentration camps were. Insane people, like Hitler, like Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts, will unfortunately always exist; so there will always be war. What a pity. But the mini-series is definitely worth watching.

Carnegie Mellon Free Courses

Carnegie Mellon now has several free course. These are very complete including computerized grading. The logic and Proof appears to be a good companion for those who have had little to no proof experience.

http://oli.web.cmu.edu/jcourse/webui/free.do

Square Root Day

In case it totally slipped your mind and you forgot to dress up, yesterday (March, 3, 09) was Square Root Day 3/3/09 (3 is the square root of 9 or 3 times 3 is 9.)

But not to worry, you'll get another chance on 4/4/16. This gives you plenty of time to get prepared. Of course, according to the Mayans, the world is going to end in 2012.

Others:
1/1/01
2/2/04
5/5/25
Hopefully you get the idea.

Don't forget the upcoming PI day, March 14th (3/14 - 3.14) and prepare for the biggy PI day on 3/14/15 when we get 3.1415. I'm sure everyone knows at least a few digits - 3.1415926535897...

Aren't numbers fun?
What could enhance your day more!

Electricity Is Awesome

We were SO COLD that when the heat came on we started to feel ho at 63 degrees! But a meal and lots of water and putting the house back to normal cured that. Now we are at a comfy 68 downstairs (gas heat) and 67 upstairs (heat pump). Feels SOOOOOOOO good.

Sunny Day

After an extremely cold night ( single digits), it is a beautiful sunny day here. Many places are closed. We stayed warm last night by fireplace, space heater and by hugging dogs. Our cable TV came on and then disappeared again, but we were able to watch a few TV shows and 11 o'clock news. Hopefully, the electricity will be on before dinner.

Snow Snow Snow ...and No Power

Wow!! We have TONS of snow. We lost power about 9PM last night but we have the generator going this morning plus a fire in the fireplace. The generator is allowing us to preserve our food in the refrigerator, have DSL, TV, DVD, Nancy Drew, electric fry pan, microwave, and cable when the cable company begins transmitting again. Not all that many people are without power so hopefully we will have it up soon..... Oh, we have a gas water heater so we have nice toasty hot water.

How To tell If Your Cats are Getting Ready

Here is a very helpful site for cat owners!! http://www.catswhothrowupgrass.com/kill.php

Blizzard Here

We are in the middle of a VA blizzard (VA blizzards would not be considered blizzards in Buffalo)! More pictures will follow in the morning as the snow is supposed to continue ALL NIGHT!!!!

Arugula Salad

Tonight, Gravity and I had a great salad (along with game hens and wild rice). It was arugula, apples chunks, dried cranberries, Gorgonzola cheese crumbles and pecans. Gravity did not have any dressing but I had a classic french dressing. It was healthful and delicious!

Yum Yum

Gravity and I cooked this best dinner tonight. Gravity cooked the lamb steak and the Near East brand wheat pilaf; I cooked the pear and date salad and the asparagus. It was really, really delicious! Great combination of flavors. I think the couple that cooks together stays together. It is really nice having both of us cook a meal and then both clean up. Nice equality just as it should be.

Facebook Changes

It was on our local news last night that Facebook has changed its rights and privileges posted content. Just like Blogger and Wordpress and other posting sites, Facebook now owns all rights to any content posted on its site such as photos, poems, videos, etc. Yes. It is legal; and it is retroactive as the original agreement stated that they had the right to change the agreement at any point and time. Such is life on the Internet. It seems private but nothing is. It appears to be honest but often isn't. It is a complex world and must be viewed for what it is not what it should be.

Still Discovering New Life

In a TV show covering caves, towards the end of the show they covered sea caves that are always underwater. In one close to Florida, they discovered a new form of life, another extreme bacteria! It lives off of metals and releases sulphur on which other forms of life in this ecosystem live. Fascinating. We are still find new forms of life right here on Earth. Astrobiologists are also interested in these extreme bacteria because it increases the chance of finding life on other planets such as Mars. Other places where extreme bacteria have been found are deep sea vents and geysers. Wonders never cease! Evolution and species adaptation at work.

Where's The Shade?

Too warm here! Today was 70 and tomorrow is supposed to be higher still. And no shade anywhere. Where's the snow?

February Is Healthy Heart Month

I am doing the mailings again to my neighbors for the American Heart Association. It is such an easy thing to do and it can help so much. Everyone should volunteer. It took me only about two hours total and will take only about one hour when the donations are returned to me. Have a heart.

Beautiful Snow

It is gorgeous outside. The above photo is from one of the upstairs baths, and the one below is from the dining room.. As usual with VA, it is already dripping and melting.

Happy Groundhog Day!

A few minutes ago, I realized that it was Groundhog Day; so happy Groundhog Day to everyone.

Then I became curious about the origins of this odd holiday. According to Wiki, the idea originated in German weather lore where the prognosticator is a bear or badger. I also did not know that several groundhogs and locations are used! I am not even sure which one is closest to us!

Date
Prediction
Groundhog
2009
Early Spring[24]
French Creek Freddie
2009
6 more weeks of winter[25]
Buckeye Chuck
2009
Early Spring[26]
Saskatoon Evan
2009
6 more weeks of winter
Balzac Billy
2009
Early Spring[27]
Malverne Mel
2009
6 more weeks of winter[28]
Woodstock Willie
2009
6 more weeks of winter[29]
Jimmy the Groundhog
2009
6 more weeks of winter[30]
Octoraro Orphie
2009
Early Spring[31]
Staten Island Chuck
2009
6 more weeks of winter[32]
Wiarton Willy
2009
6 more weeks of winter[33]
Shubenacadie Sam
2009
6 more weeks of winter[34]
Punxsutawney Phil
2009
Early Spring[35]
Dunkirk Dave

P.O. Stench

I am not sure if you heard about the post office that had to be closed yesterday because there was an horrendous smell in it. This is true; I do not remember where they said it was but they showed the reason on the night time news here. They held up the dead skunk in front of the cameras. It seems someone mailed the skunk to a taxidermist!

What Is Art

Following is a great YouTube video about what art is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDo_vs3Aip4

Absolutely great!

Ice Here

We do not have the ice nearly as bad as some other areas, but we do have ice. We still have electricity, too. Typical of Virginia, we are supposed to have thunder this afternoon!

Snow?

I am not sure you can call what we have in the yard snow. It is sort of pitiful.I hope this is not it for the year. We are having cinnamon rolls anyway; and a fire in the fireplace!

How to Hack WordPress

I disocovered a great website as follows: Happy hascking into WordPress blogs!

Google Blogsearch Tips (And a Little Wordpress Hack)
7 Jan
Google blogsearch offers some of the default google search operators and other less-known operators. Here they are, with some tips and a wordpress hack. Oh, as always, google is a little nervous when using advanced search strings, so sometimes it returns a 404 not found… it’s just trying to display the well-known 403 because it finds the search a bit suspicious… but the page is missing…window.google_render_ad();link:
this is a standard google operator, but in blogsearch it really works, while in standard google it displays a small percentage of the known inbound links. Finally a way to discover inbound links without using yahoo or technorati!
inpostauthor:
search for the given string in post author.Tip: This is a good reason to use your full name while posting, since google blogsearch indexes your name! If you want to gain visibility you should really avoid using a nickname! (well, I discovered this recently, so my posts can still be found searching for inpostauthor:”fra” … but this is going to change… this post should be found under inpostauthor:”francesco mapelli”)Tip #2:The default wordpress rss-comments module does not use the tag to describe the autor of the comments, so searching for inpostauthor:yourname returns just the blog posts… but if you hack wp-commensrss2.php adding

to the comments loop, for example before the tag, blogsearch will find also your comments.If you want to test it, just write a comment in this post, wait for google blogsearch to read the rss (it’s very fast, something like ten minutes should be enough) an check with blogsearch!.I think I’ll wirte a wordpress plugin for this.
update: since wordpress 2.1, the author is included by default in comments rss… there’s no need for this hack anymore :)
inblogtitle:
search for the given string in blog title: inblogtitle:mapelli
inposttitle:
search for the given string in post title: inposttitle:google search guide
blogurl:
search for blogs with the given url: blogurl:http://www.mapelli.info/or for blogs under the given domaindoughnuts blogurl:wordpress.com searches for blogs talknig about doughnuts on wordpress.com

Gray or Grey

No matter how you spell it, it has been grey here....very grey. Grey skies day after day. Everything looks grey; so we are having daily fires in the fireplace to improve the ambiance.

Usually, Virginia is sunny all winter long. In fact, when I moved from Chicago to the Richmond area more than twenty years ago, I noticed that even when it snows here, the sun appears right away! Gorgeous -- all sparkly world magic stuff. Hmmmm....wish it would snow instead of greyness.

Fans

Everyone in this house is a HUGE Star Trek fan. So for all of the fans, here is a cool photo of the Space Shuttle "Enterprise".

Great Photos

Take a look at this wensite: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/earth_observed.html It has gorgeous and fascinating photos, a few of which are here.

Brrrr.

It is COLD here. So we are having cinnamon rolls with bacon for breakfast; and a fire in the fireplace!

We had a gorgeous sunset two nights ago!!!

Missing Ocracoke

I think all three of us are missing Ocracoke although it is also good to be home. Here are some final photos we took from the roof of the house and the ferry docks.

UVA Third Year

Gravity was doing the FAFSA for this year and had to call UVA about what grade Esh was in. The answer was a surprise. Esh will be automatically classified as a third year (aka "Junior") next year. This will allow him to go through the ring ceremony, etc. that Third Years usually experience. After this semester he will have 51 credits at UVA with a total of 112 total college credits. this means that he it would be possible for him to graduate next year (and apply to graduate school if he wants to. Wow. It is all going by so quickly!

UVA Declared Best Value

Yes, UVA has been ranked number 1 as far as best value in colleges!!!!!! We agree!!!!

Beautiful Sunrise

We have begun to pack to return home. This has been a great stay. we are all going in the pool tonight for one last dip and to stare at the stars. They seem so much closer here!

Here are some more photos of the beautiful rise the other morning. we were all up at 6:00 in order to see it.

Springer's Point Nature Trail

Some years ago, one of the residents left a large tract of land by the ocean to the city of Ocracoke along with an endowment fund to be used to establish and maintain a nature trail. Ocracoke also has National Park Service land which includes a nature trail but the Ocracoke trail is much more natural. It has fences made of twisted wood strapped together by multi-c0lored twine, a small grave yard, and numerous bird houses.