Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
July 14, 2012
You could use a cup of
my famous java.
...It was a street of frustrated hopes and broken dreams...
Music Association: Bob Dylan -
One More Cup of Coffee
It's Still Hot
July 12, 2012
Could someone explain how it can be 90° in Minneapolis and
78° in Memphis?
Music Association: Martha and
the Vandellas - Heatwave
Sunk
July 11, 2012
On December 6, 2006 off the coast of Angola, the Mighty Servant 3 sunk.
Makes you wonder whatever happened to the Mighty Servants one and two.
Music Association: Fleetwood Mac
- Sara "Drowning In The Sea Of Love"
Land of Sky Blue
Water Damage
July 10, 2012
Have you ever felt like everyone else was dry and the rain was
targeting just you?
That may be what parts of northeastern
Minnesota feel like.
Water damage in Minnesota extends from Moose Lake to Duluth
and northward.
Here's what the Gooseberry
Falls looked like recently as photographed by Alexius Deters.
Many events of
the Minneapolis Aquatennial (July 13-21) are free of
charge.
The northeastern
Minnesota clean-up movie association is The Truman Show and...
Freddy:
What a filthy
job!
Igor:
Could
be worse.
Freddy:
How?
Igor:
Could
be raining.
Music Association: Talking Heads
- Take Me To The River
Movie Associations: Truman Show & Young Frankenstein
Sunburn is RNA Damage
July 9, 2012
Sunburn is triggered by ultraviolet
(UV) radiation damage to the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of skin cells.
Lab coat wearing researchers at the University
of California - San Diego
took a field trip to the beach with some field mice. They set up little
tiny lounge chairs for the mice. The researchers and mice soaked up the
sun.
Occasionally, the researchers looked over at the mice with magnifying
glasses in hand. This focused sunlight on the mice and enabled the
sunning scientists to see UV-B radiation
fracturing and tangling RNA fragments, then released by the
irradiated cells, and causing neighboring cells to trigger the
inflammatory response to shed the damaged cells.
The mice yelled, "Hey, do you mind?!?" And everyone laid back to damage
their RNA under the summer San Diego sun.
Music Associations: Blue Oyster
Cult - Burning' For You & Sheryl Crow - Soak Up the Sun
Destruction
July 6, 2012
If a tree falls down in a forest that is closed due to a state
shutdown, does anyone notice?
Trees fell down in the forests of St. Croix State Park a
year ago, and people noticed.
High winds and soggy ground took out more than half the trees in 11,000
acres of the park's 34,000 acres.
When we were there recently, the park ranger said the bugs were bad.
You caught that, right? The park ranger said the bugs were bad. Whoa.
The whole Duluth area has been flooded with rains, so that means
stagnant water, which means huge gangs of mosquitoes and flies the size
of deers.
Bug
Sense
As a Mosquito Scientist
(what a dipterist!),
I know the five ways mosquitoes zero in on me (not you, me):
1.
Motion (I am always in motion, I'm just not hyper)
2. Carbon Dioxide (I breathe)
3. Heat (I am hot. Even when it's
cold, I'm hot)
4. Humidity (I sweat a manly sweat)
5. Cholesterol on my skin surface
(I have efficient HDL)
I am not a deer fly expert. I mean, I wasn't. Now I am.
Driving through St. Croix, the bugs weren't bad. They were awful. They
were horrendous. Or they were amazing, if you could drive through the
park with the air conditioning on and the windows rolled up. The deer
flies follow the moving car as a swarm and land on it. When the car
stops, the deer flies bite the car, get confused, and leave.
Deer
flies go after the motion of the vehicle. Then they bite. They don't
wait around to smell the air or take skin surveys. They bite.
Some logging vehicles were abandoned in the middle of the afternoon. I
never investigated the mystery.
Music Associations: REO
Speedwagon - Time For Me To Fly &
Albert E. Brumley - I'll Fly Away
“Let's Get This Over With”
July 5, 2012
Fireworks Controller:
"Don't push that button. It will start everything."
Impatient San Diego Official: "That's exactly what I want to
do." [push]
Fireworks:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
[silence & ear-ringing]
Last night in San Diego, eighteen minutes of fireworks went off in
about eighteen seconds, five minutes early as if someone were in a
hurry
and pushed the Everything
button.
The debate of today is Fail, Epic Fail, or Win (since if this didn't
happen, we wouldn't be talking about San Diego today).
The San Diego high temperature yesterday was 66° F.
San Diego hurried up the fireworks because they were feeling a little
chilly.
Okay, their eighteen seconds of fireworks fame are up.
Here's a picture of this past weekend's Hmong Sports Tournament
in hot and sunny Saint Paul, Minnesota.
There's a lot to
see. Try not to see it all at once.
Music Association: Katy Perry -
Fireworks
Independence
Day
July 3, 2012
When you send a letter, do you ever date it ahead of the date that you
wrote it?
Not many people write letters any more. But back when penmanship
mattered, sometimes letters were dated ahead so they wouldn't have to
be rewritten due to delays.
The Declaration of Independence was ratified on July 2nd. But it was
dated as July 4th.
John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail:
"The second day of July,
1776, will
be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to
believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the
great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of
deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be
solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns,
bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to
the other, from this time forward forever more."
Yeah, well... about that...
History has not marked the United States Independence Day as July 2nd.
Due to my famous timelines
and calendars, I feel
obligated to list a Declaration
of Independence timeline:
April-June
1776 - Many informal declarations of independence throughout the
colonies (war began in 1775)
June 11, 1776
- Continental Congress appoints committee to draft a resolution
July 1, 1776 - Continental
Congress begins vote on Independence
July 2, 1776 - Continental
Congress concludes vote on Independence [spoiler alert] it
passed
July 4, 1776 - the date on the
document
July 8, 1776 - Public readings of
the Declaration in Philadelphia, Easton, and Trenton
July 9, 1776 - Fourth New York
Provisional Congress declared independence
July 9, 1776 - Declaration read to
General Washington's Continental Army
mid-July 1776 - colonial
newspapers reprint the Declaration, British officials send it to England
July 19, 1776 - Timothy Matlack, a clerk to Secretary Charles
Thomson, engrossed parchment copy
August
2, 1776 - Declaration of Independence signing day
mid-August 1776 - British
newspapers reprint the Declaration
November 4, 1776 - New Hampshire
delegate Matthew
Thornton signed the Declaration (the last signer)
It's
self-evident. Independence Day was yesterday.
Oh and don't get me started about how they lost the
original manuscript of the Declaration of Independence.
Music Association: Carrie
Underwood - Independence Day
Liberty and Justice Connect
July 2, 2012
Liberty and Justice were talking about being national symbols and
always having to carry outdated stuff. "Do you even know what I'm
carrying?" Liberty asked.
"A book and a torch,"
Justice said.
"Who told you?"
Liberty asked while setting her stuff down.
"Nobody told me. This
blindfold
doesn't make me blind. It's a myth that I'm blind. I was
imagining
what it must be like to have to wear a crown all the time,"
Justice wondered.
Liberty took her crown off and noticed, "Hey, I can see your eyes!
That's not much of a blindfold. Here, try on my crown."
"No, thank you,"
Justice replied. "Don't
you think I have enough to carry?"
"You were the one who
wanted to know what it's like," Liberty said while putting
her crown back on her head.
"Yeah. You know, I can
see Guantanamo Bay," Justice said. "Just
because I don't know who they are or what they've done, doesn't mean I
can't see them. I know they're there and there's nothing..." Justice
sniffs, "...nothing I
can do about it. I can't go to Cuba. I can see; I just don't have a
passport."
"I know. I know,"
Liberty said.
Empty green eyes stared, unblinkingly, into empty gold eyes. Liberty
put her arms around Justice and kissed her golden lips.
Music Association: Katharine Lee
Bates - America the Beautiful
Blonded and Insured
July 1, 2012
Went to see Legally
Blonde the
Musical at Tartan High School this weekend. Based on the
movie
based on the novel, the musical had more set changes than many
professional plays. (All this in three weeks? Kudos to director Ryan
DeLaCroix!)
Legally
Blonde, starred Katie-Lynn Brooks as Elle Woods, a UCLA fashion student
who stalks
follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard law school. Ms. Brooks carried
the play amazingly, singing and acting for most of the two and a half
hours.
Rachel Roettger, as Paulette Buonofuonte the hairstylist, was dynamic
with the Ireland song. She had strong stage-presence, looking out and
connecting with the audience.
Brittany Stone as Serena was great as the Bend and Snap
instructor.
Luke Mielke stole the show as Kyle the UPS Guy from the first time he
sauntered through the audience.
Chloe the Chihuahua filled the Bruiser role with limited stage-time and
the hope of future adoption.
Wait. Did I just
review a high school play?!?
Music Association: Laurence
O'Keefe & Nell Benjamin - Omigod You Guys
