HUGE SNAKES and tiny horses?

“As terrifying as the thought of a gigantic snake might be, or as precious as the thought of a football-size horse might be, don't go looking for them any time soon. These changes take centuries, not years. But you might want to leave your great-great-grandchildren a heads-up note, just in case.”

And so ends a pretty informative article on the relative size of animals as a response to environmental temperature. Warmer favors larger reptiles and smaller mammals and the converse for cooler. So far so good.

Then, is a classic case of total misunderstanding of the evolutionary process, the author makes the classic blunder: “- - - - centuries, not years.” The process would actually take millennia at the least, and more likely millions of years to actually come up with snakes the size of school buses and horses the size of small dogs. But wait, don’t we have mini-horses and gigantic anacondas already? Yup. And the anacondas live in tropical places and the horses live in apartments. How long did it take to get these out sized animals? Millions of years in the case of the snake, and dozens in the case of the miniequines. Problem is that snakes are already at the limit of their size or they would be bigger, and the horses are classic inbred freaks who wouldn’t last 10 minutes in nature.

So don’t worry. No bus-sized snakes for your grand kids or mouse-sized cattle either. Evolution takes longer than that, and besides, the conservatives assure me that there is no such thing as climate change.

Image and quote: http://news.yahoo.com/a-snake-the-size-of-a-school-bus--it-happened-before--and-could-happen-again-153534343.html

Wolf Killing Cowards

 

The photo pretty well says it all: A bunch of northern rednecks just in from a wolf kill and afraid to have their faces seen. Why? I would guess (hope) at least some of them are embarrassed, but somehow I doubt it. More likely they are just afraid to face others in the community who oppose the slaughter of wolves.

Who cares about wolves? You should. As mankind eliminates the top predators the effect on the structure of the ecosystem below them is dramatic. In the case of removing wolves, immediate growth in population of the large animals they cull results in overgrazing of the landscape and a cascade of other ecological changes. Reintroduction of wolves in the west is reestablishing the important balance, and the wholesale slaughter of wolves will simply reverse decades of progress in ecological restoration.

So who are these assholes? Real Men? Oh I don’t think so. Kill a wolf at 300 yards with a 30-06 then pose with the corpse in a mask? No, these are cowards. Plain and simple. For more information look up the Center for Biological Diversity website.

Image:http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/images/campaign_images/2013/Masked_wolf_killers.jpg
Center for Biological Diversity:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Biological_Diversity

More like 30000 Years of Art!!! Classical Gas Discovered!!

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April 25th, 2011. The day the more or less original ( Give or take a few frames, it is nearly identical to the actual video that aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour almost 40 years ago. (1.)) was posted on YouTube. I talked about it on May 8th, 2011, and didn't find it. Bittersweet them but delayed gratification now. What a treasure to stumble upon. I was just reading over a few old posts, making a few spelling corrections and came upon the original blog on Classical Gas (2), listened to a few covers and put a note on Facebook. I mentioned the art montage, actually known as a kinestasis , and lamented that I couldn't find it. A wild hair encouraged me to look again and there is was in a nearly original form. Reconstructed from the original student movie that was used to make the TV production. And even better is the VIMEO version posted much earlier. I have no idea why the search engine didn't pick this up 2 years ago.
It stands still as a seminal moment for anyone who saw it on the Smothers Brothers show. I hope you all watch it and remember it, and pass it on. I will.
VIMEO RECORDING: http://vimeo.com/612081
Image:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFIXyyPiShhK0xHrurnyTlQA7X1ylS2iYc5KQ3y2L7_wIzZiJtMHEkcLqwLZNVCQhzXj96Bx5tNgChfKgno1bkj7WdHT5ww8w5NBTohsvWHxtkoLQafzo0SXfqxPx0ed9iJZn8C2Eqxc/s1600/williams.jpg

What a DAY!!!.

 Got up to a great cool morning, walked then dive into the garage. Massive on-and-off cleaning and dunging. So, came across my old railroad lanterns, played with them, emailed a couple of sites for help and moved on to the Hallicrafters short wave radio. Plugged it in to a buzz. Looked up some info and found an antique radio group, joined and asked for help with the fixing of the WR-600.

Then, the real bonus: I found my copy of “The Great Drake” by Mario Cappelli. What a terrific story of heroism and adventure. I love it. I wish it were made into a movie, and with CIG as good as it is now, I think it would be a block buster. I traveled the cyberworld and couldn’t find anything on the web about him so I looked in Amazon, found the book and a review by his daughter, Dee. I am now in the process of trying to get in touch with her to find out more about her father and the story. Here is what one reviewer on Amazon said:

“If you are hurting because of the trials and tribulations of leadership and/or are doubting your abilities as a leader (or you know someone who is), you truly must read this book.”

You gotta read this classic. You will never be the same again, I promise. Amazon has them. Go Now.

What a DAY!!!! And it is only 1:42.
 
Image: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fR6ngxxSL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg