The Japanese are far ahead of us in earwax research and development. Last year, they isolated the gene that makes Asian earwax dry, compared with European or African earwax.

How far behind will the U.S. fall before we have to spend billions of dollars in an Apollo-style crash research program to close the earwax gap? I mean, we were the home of the Human Genome Project! It's another example of Japan taking an American achievement and turning it against us! Blah! Blah! Rant! Rant!

Yes, but can they fit Raquel Welch inside it?
(OK, I'm old. I admit it!)

I am curious about the possible fate of the submerged Antarctic lake called Lake Vostok. This lake is under 13,000 feet of ice, and its waters may have been cut off from the rest of the world between one-half and one million years ago. While it is colder than the nominal freezing point of water, the great pressure of the ice sheet allows the lake to remain liquid.

Ice cores show some evidence of microbial life in the lake, and it is fun to imagine what kind of ecosystem may exist under such unearthly and isolated conditions. A major melt-off of Antarctic ice could relieve some of the pressure on this and other subglacial lakes. Since the waters of Lake Vostok are saturated with about 50 times the oxygen of water at sea level, a drop in pressure may make it suddenly release its gases in a manner similar to a shaken soft drink.

Much of the information given here is from the Wikipedia entry on Lake Vostok.

If you don't turn the computer off, you might be put through Chinese "re-education"!

The Washington Post has an article: "In China, Stern Treatment For Young Internet 'Addicts'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022102094.html?nav=hcmodule

I especially like the picture of the trustworthy doctor. Who can harbor doubt when such a man says "Just use a teaspoon of Lysol in a quart of warm water with a pinch of salt."

It makes me cringe just thinking about it, and I'm not a woman!

So *that's* what a "frizzen" is!

Must be useful in a buffet line. Many's the time I've wanted to shoot the person who can't decide which type of gravy to pour over their roast.

My wife tells me that his cast-on is sloppy, and he needs to tighten up the stitching. Knitting is an exacting art, after all.

I had forgotten how it felt to live "under the bomb". Seeing this really brought back memories . . . not necessarily pleasant ones. I had a macabre fascination with the idea of nuclear apocalypse while growing up, but the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed to put those ideas to rest. Thiis reminds me that those weapons are still waiting in their silos.

I have seen a dead opossum with road stripes painted over it in Oregon, and have since found a picture of a similar event in a newspaper. This is not uncommon.