Beyond the Edge of the Universe

The punchline to a joke that I can't remember the set-up for is "It's turtles all the way down."

/cue Terry Pratchett riffs and allusions.

Hey JA, citation, sorta, on the turtle story by the wondrous and greatly missed Martin Gardner. He reviewed Stephen Hawking's darling book in 1988, opening with the apocryphal stacked turtle story:

BEGIN QUOTE from NYTimes Review of Books
Volume 35, Number 10 · June 16, 1988
The Ultimate Turtle

By Martin Gardner
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
by Stephen W. Hawking, introduction by Carl Sagan
Bantam, 198 pp., $18.95
Stephen Hawking opens his new book with a marvelous old anecdote. A famous astronomer, after a lecture, was told by an elderly lady, who was perhaps under the influence of Hinduism, that his cosmology was all wrong. The world, she said, rests on the back of a giant tortoise. When the astronomer asked what the tortoise stands on, she replied: 'You're very clever, young man, very clever. But it's turtles all the way down.'

JA, I think it was Hans Lipschitz...

Very good, CqP. I knew someone would know the full tale. I just expected it to be one of our geekier boodlers. No offense.

Puzzler for the day, courtesy Martin Gardner:

(from the book of puzzles called Aha!)
Four turtles begin at the corners of a square. Each turtle proceeds to walk at constant speed toward the turtle on his right. Gradually, the square twists and shrinks until the turtles meet at the center of the square. How long does it take for the turtles to meet?

J,Y -- I am fully geekified.

And speaking of the Super Bowl...

Why in the world was Ed Hochuli refereeing a playoff game this weekend?

The phrase "turtles all the way down" is an anti-Googlenope with over 90,000 Google hits even with the quotes.

42 seconds.

Dagnabbit, I just got done posting a three part magnum opus about the NFL play-off picture, likening it to the social scene of early 19th century Bath, when Joel up and posts a new kit. Well, you'll all have to go back and read it; I'm not gonna report it here.

'Morning, Boodle. Yes, missed Dawn Patrol muster. It's tough getting back into the groove, especially when one is not a very groovey person to begin with. And worse, today starts the first five-day workweek in I don't remember when. People work for five straight, consecutive, all-in-a-row days? (he asked, redundantly repeating himself).

Apparently they do. The fools, the mad fools. Ah, well.

Joel, I think part of the reason Galileo got so much PR was the torched his butt at the stake. I think you'll find that throughout history, people who got tied to telephone poles and set on fire tended to hog all the headlines. I recall when I was but a wee tyke there was this mad French girl who got the same deal, trying to incite a war against the Limeys. What did she get for her trouble? Twigs up to her knees and then somebody flicked their Bic. And they had to repeat the process two more times, due to inadequate kindling. Jane? Jan? Janis? Something like that.

Savonarola, William Tyndale (who woul;da thought translating the Bible was grounds for becoming a crispy critter?), Giordano Bruno (another semi-SciTim astronomical type; what is it with torching them stargazers?) all got the stake, as did Maj. Duncan Heyward in "Last of the Mohicans" )Native Americans apparently were fond of the practice). Henry VIII condemned three of his ex's to the stake and/or beheading, and later decided to forego the burney parts. Ditto Mary, Queen of Scots.

The point being, of course, that all these people got a lot of PR out of their demise, though perhaps not especially desired PR.

Just thought that discussion would be a nice way to start off the week and ward off the chill.

I'm sure CqP can do geek-fu with the best of 'em if she wants. Earthworms a la Darwin? Oh my, oh my.

And Wallacesque would be the correct form, I believe.

Or, like with Carolus Linneus (aka Carl von Linne) one could go for the latinized form of his name and come up with Vallaceus, adjectival form, Vallacean.

How far does each turtle travel before the big meeting?

If I don't know who plays in the Kingdome, I clearly don't know NFL referees by name, but I did remark to my wife and brother-in-law that Ed Hochuli calls his penalties like a body builder flexing for the judges. There is an almost ballet-like quality to his signals.

Five tales are split in half and sandwiched between these lopped-off fictions is one uncut story that unfolds in the far future: the structure of Brit author David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas," one of the most creative works I've read.

The far future tale, titled "Sloosha's Crossin" an Ev'rythin' After" is the story of a Prescient or Smart Un' named Meronym from far-off Prescient Island, who lives for six moons among a surviving group after the Fall, the Valleysmen of Waipio Valley on Hawaii's Big Island. Her guide on the trek to the top of Mauna Kea to investigate astronomers' (and Science Tim's) dwellings and observatories there is a Valley boy named Zachry. The Islanders still speak a form of pidgin English. These observatories have not been disturbed or opened since the Fall, the pair discovers.

Excerpts:
I asked Meronym if Abbess spoke true when she said the Hole World flies around the sun, or if the Men o' Hilo was true sayin' the sun flies round the Hole World.

Abbess is quite correct," answered Meronym.

"The the true true is diff'rent to the seemin' true?" said I.

"Yay, an' it usually is." I mem'ry Meronym sayin', "an' that's why true true is presher'n'rarer'n diamonds."

Also:
Sonmi (a local goddess, derived from the fifth story, a tale of the future set in Korea) was a human like you'n'me? I never thinked so nor'd Abbess ever speak such loonsomeness, nay. Sonmi'd been birthed by a god o' Smart named Darwin, that's what we b'liefed.

Perhaps the most important conversation during their pair's trek up Mauna Kea:

"Old Uns tripped their own Fall."

Oh, her words was a rope o' smoke. "But Old Uns'd got the Smart!"

I mem'ry she answered, "Yay, Old Uns' Smart mastered sicks, miles, seeds an' made miracles ord'nary, but it didn't master one thing, nay, a hunger in the hearts o' humans, yay, a hunger for more."

"More what?" O asked. "Old Uns'd got ev'rythin'."

"Oh, more gear, more food, faster speeds, longer lifes, easier lifes, more power, yay. Now the Hole World is big, but it weren't big 'nuff for that hunger what made Old Uns rip out the skies an' boil up the seas an' poison soil with crazed atoms an' donkey 'bout with rotted seeds so new plagues was borned an' babbits was freakbirthed. Fin'ly, bit'ly, then quicksharp, states busted into bar'bric tribes an' the Civ'lize Days ended, 'cept for a few folds'n'pockets here'n'there, where its last embers glimmer."

I asked why Meronym'd never spoke this yarnin' in the Valleys.

"Valleysmen'd not want to hear," she answered. "that human hunger birthed the Civ'lize, but human hunger killed it too. I know it from other tribes offland what I stayed with. Times are you say a person's b'liefs ain't true, they think you're saying' their lifes ain't true an' their truth ain't true."

Yay, she was prob'ly right.

SCC: Then the true true...

Pretty nice gig there Joel, although that time change will nail you big time when you return to this coast.

I always learned that while Galileo didn't actually invent the telescope, he did make a lot of improvements and certainly popularized it. So I think he does deserve some good love.

One of my pet peeves is when academics get all, you know academic over who invented something first. Sometimes the inventing is the easy bit. Prototypes of "working models" are one thing, perfecting something and getting it accepted by the marketplace is way different, and typically much harder.

(See "Marconi")

The Wallace/Darwin thing is a bit trickier. Here I just think Darwin had much better follow through. You know, he did the book tours and went on all the talk shows. Wallace didn't, and this, I think, explains a lot.

I think the correct answer is "never", because the turtles would also shrink and warp with the square. Otherwise, there's no way to tell.

[psst, ja, typo in graf 4]

Scotty, you may have been making a brief trip to the kitchen to replenish precious bodily fluids (or in the loo, doing the opposite) when the announcers explained why Hochuli was reffing that game: he and his crew were voted the Number One spot as the best ref/team in all of the NFL, even despite that one gaff of his. So he and his crew got one of the big games. I 'spect we'll see him some more during the rest of the playoffs.

I kinda like "Wallacestrian."

I thought the guy who invented the telescope was Hans Palomar Obervatori. But what do I know.

SCC: Observatori. Leave it to me to screw up my own joke on a Monday morning. More coffee, warden?

Wallace-Darwin is like Studio 60 vs 30 Rock. Sorkin had Dolphin Girl and thinly veiled autobiography but 30 Rock had Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey (and her thinly veiled autobiography).

And let's not open the Newton-Leibniz can of worms.

FYI, I have capriciously and arbitrarily decided that there will be no awarding of the weekly football tiara this week. Three of us went 2-2, which is not any better than a coin toss, and one went 1-3, all of which are pretty dismal performances. I like to think we need to uphold some kinda standards around this joint.

Jeez, if I knew there were gonna be standards, I never would have signed up for this chicken-stuff outfit.

How about noisemakers all around instead, Mudge? They could be glittery.

That Thomas Harriott sure was a renaissance man (it sure helps to have lived during the Renaissance to become one of those). In addition to astronomy, he learned Algonquian, solved the cannon-ball packing problem and influenced Kepler.

His hotel chain is pretty nice too.

If teams can win the division title with a .500 record, why not the Boodle football tiara? Not that I have a dog in that fight, I'm just instigating.

But yello - the Leibinz notation, like, totally rocks.

SCC: leibniz, of course.

I mean, where would comic strips that need to show equations be without his notation? It just looks way cool.

Truth be told, yello, I had to send the tiara out for some cleaning and minor repairs. Several of the points have been broken off or bent, it was covered in some sort of dried stains that I suspect were a combination of Yuengling and olive oil, and a couple cubic ziconiums (zirconia? zirconiae?) were missing. And there were fuzz balls and what looked like cat or dog hair stuck to it. And it was badly out-of-round.

I don't know what happened to it or who did it, but I suspect that it had also been used sometime over the New Year's weekend or earlier as a bottle opener, a door jam, and possibly as a wheel chock, I dunno fer sure.

Morning all
settling in after a wild football weekend.

I was wondering does anyone know of a link where I can find out info on the goverment home stimulus package,for homeowners with shakey mortgages?

Sadly, "Leibinz notation" was not a Googlenope.

I'm also guessing that the turtles never meet.

Mudge I think it was G. Bruno that got immolated. Galileo just under house arrest. Galileo did, indeed, have the publicity side of things mastered. I think more than Harriott he also saw the deeper significance of the observations.

Mudge, you make it sound as though the tiara might need disenfecting because of its weekend "fun"? Hope not.

On the news there's a story of a little boy found in a rest area that led the police to his home where they found his mother dead. I think this happened in Ohio. Very sad.

And the Obama girls are off to school. They are so cute, and they look so happy. I hope they like their new school, and that all goes well there.

How is your mortgage shaky, GWE? (We can go offline, if you like.)

I don't thinmk the stimulus package has been fully decided, yet.

Cassandra, you just wouldn't believe how the local TV stations here are covering the first day of the Obama girls' school, as well as their arrivals in town over the weekend. It's a cross between the Second Coming and the Super Bowl Warm-up Show-- incredibly excessive and over-the-top. IMHO, not only is it excessive, I think it is also badly misguided to focus so much detail on the school, what time they leave the house, the caravan, etc. Way too much detail for my taste, mainly for security reasons, and secondarily because it ought to be routine and not especially newsworthy. So far I have yet to see a report on whether the girls Twinkies in their lunchboxes, but that's the only thing the reporters have missed, so far as I can see. It's way outta hand.

And Wallace was quite the inventor as well. Although it seems his dog helps out a lot too. And he did finally help catch that criminal penguin.

I agree, Mudge. Chealsea was left fairly alone at the Clintons' request. The only thing I remember knowing was which school she went to, which will be the same school the Obama misses are going to.

The overdrawn coverage of two cute kids going to school is ripe for parody. Again, I leave the execution as an exercise for those with talent in those regards.

Speaking of Barack, this dead trees headline won the No Duh Award today:

Obama Arrives In Style.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/01/05/ST2009010500613.html

How else would he travel?

What bothered me, Wilbrod, was the TV also reported Biden's grandchildren go there, as well as some other prominet kids. That's just maximizing the target. I don't like it at all.

Mudge, the press is only the tip of the iceberg. How about the lookie-loos hanging around the hotel hoping to get a glimpse?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401702.html

There goes my New Year's Resolution of no boodling before noon.

E pur si muove

Fitting on-kit comment for the return to work day.

mudge,lets just say with my 2 mortgages and a very poor credit score,most institutions are turning me down for refinancing.I thought that the goverment passed a housing stimulus package back in July for homeowners with troubled mortgages.But when I inquire about it with mortgage lenders I get the run around.

on a lighter note,i read this on another blog.

2/3 of the earth is covered with water,Ed Reed covers the rest!!

Two books that should be required reading. The first is "Coming of Age in the Milky Way" by Timothy Ferris. This book is amazing. It clearly explains the history of astronomy and physics in a clear and absorbing way. It discusses Galileo in great detail. (And why the guy was his own worst enemy.) I read it every couple of years because it contains far too much great information for my small brain to absorb and hold.

The second is "Krakatoa - the Day the World Exploded" by Simon Winchester. It helps lay the ground work for a better understanding of Wallace (though, sadly, not Gromit) and is a rip-roaring tale in and of itself. (The volcano explodes in the end you know.)

*faxing the link to Babelfish to SofC*

I don't usually go to the AAS meeting, I stick with my own division of the AAS, which is the planetary bunch of us. Joel, please take good notes and let me know if I missed anything important.

Memo to SciTim: they lost a planet. There's only eight now. That should reduce your workload by about 11 percent, more or less. (Although the one they lost was kinda small and obscure, so maybe that 11 percent figure is too high. On the other hand, they found a whole bunch more, but they don't seem to be local. So maybe it's a wash.)

Hope this has been helpful.

I think it's brain-damage Monday, and I think I'm a participant too. Leibinz, Bruno, eternally lonesome turtles, oh my. (The turtles travel the same distance as one side of the square even though they spiral logarthmically while making the trek).

Compacted soil is surprisingly similar in density to poorly packed uniform spheres, even though the soil has multiple sizes and shapes of particles. it took me too long to do some simple math today. yello got me looking at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_close_pack

gwe- a little info from the link Joel added to the kit might shed a little light on your situation
"We should begin by breaking the cycle of deteriorating housing values and resulting foreclosures. Many homeowners realize that it doesn’t make sense to make payments on a mortgage that exceeds the value of their house. As many as 20 million families face the decision of whether to make the payments or turn in the keys. Congress seems to have understood this problem, which is why last year it created a program under the Federal Housing Authority to issue homeowners new government loans based on the current appraised value of their homes.

And yet the program, called Hope Now, seems to have become one more excellent example of the unhappy political influence of Wall Street. As it now stands, banks must initiate any new loan; and they are loath to do so because it requires them to recognize an immediate loss. They prefer to “work with borrowers” through loan modifications and payment plans that present fewer accounting and earnings problems but fail to resolve and, thereby, prolong the underlying issues. It appears that the banking lobby also somehow inserted into the law the dubious requirement that troubled homeowners repay all home equity loans before qualifying. The result: very few loans will be issued through this program."

Maybe Obama should go all Sean Penn on the paparazzi.

Williams and Eichorn go on to propose an alternative-
"THIS could be fixed. Congress might grant qualifying homeowners the ability to get new government loans based on the current appraised values without requiring their bank’s consent. When a corporation gets into trouble, its lenders often accept a partial payment in return for some share in any future recovery. Similarly, homeowners should be permitted to satisfy current first mortgages with a combination of the proceeds of the new government loan and a share in any future recovery from the future sale or refinancing of their homes. Lenders who issued second mortgages should be forced to release their claims on property. The important point is that homeowners, not lenders, be granted the right to obtain new government loans. To work, the program needs to be universal and should not require homeowners to file for bankruptcy."

As JA warned this NYT OpEd is long, but worth every moment spent reading it (IMHO).

Much like Otis, RD... he didn't invent the elevator, but from what I understand, he made it safe enough for folks to actually put them in buildings.

I think Galileo was the first to point the telescope upwards to the heavens. Everyone else was using it to spy and snoop on Earth.

Breaking news- MN Supreme Court denies Norm Coleman's motion requesting the counting of an additional 650 absentee ballots he says were wrongfully rejected.

Hogging. But this is better than Wiki's
http://telescope400.org.uk/harriot.htm

Dag, I wish I were out there at the AAS meeting.

As many have suggested - including me in this here Boodle - if spacetime is curved as Einstein suggests, there may in fact be no "beyond the 'verse," that it's like a big expanding balloon.

This would explain why the Observeable 'verse appears similar in all directions, because the light from Everything might in fact just be travelling around inside it, like a ball bearing rolling around inside said Uni Balloon(ey).

Get a strong enough telescope to see the furthest reaches of the Universe, and - voila - you're looking at the back of your head.

This seems to me to be a lot of effort to find out if the Rogaine's working.

More later.

bc

bc

So God isn't playing dice with the universe, but rather a game of roulette with the universe as the wheel?

Place a bet on 17 black for me.

Thanks Frosti and Joel

Heading out for a haircut before work.

Have a Great Day everyone!!!

I fear John Kelly is coming desperately close to encroaching upon sacred Gene Weingarten territory. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/commons/2009/01/a_mighty_wind.html?hpid=news-col-blog

Dark angry clouds moving eastward. Must be a low over Nevada. But there is hope, some of the clouds are thin and some strange bright thing is making some of them appear white around the edges. Here and there a blue space appears in the clouds that hasn't been seen since last year.

When you figure out what that bright thing is, bh, fax some of it here.

Mudge, here's what's even worse. Somebody in the Kelly comments linked to Dave Barry's column on the subject. I cried.

http://www.miamiherald.com/todaysextras/story/427603-p3.html

I would highly recommend the book Galileo's Daughter. (Dava Sobel puts out a nice read, as she does with Longitude.) Not only does the book cover the usual sciencey and political stuff, but it shows the very human side of him, and provides a glimpse as to what his daughter Maria Celeste (a Poor Clare) could have done had she been born male.

That Dave Barry column was one of the greatest he ever wrote, slyness.

OK, I'm full of (serious) questions today, and I know the Boodle Knows All. So here we go:

1) Has it been definitively concluded which is better, paper or plastic? For a while it was assumed paper, but then there was some pushback. Is there a handy rule of thumb? Is it a crapshoot?

2) Why do so many women wear so much black all the time? I was just in the cafeteria, and it just popped out at me it was like being at a funeral. (I'm not criticizing or complaining, just asking.)

Oh, I love that author. Longitude is a great read, too.

It is said to be slimming. I wear a *lot* of black :)

1. Paper, at least IMHO.

2. Black makes a woman look skinnier, Mudge. Besides, it's chic right now. You can't go wrong wearing black.

Mudge: neither. Use reusuable bags, as in canvas bags or keep reusing the plastic ones by carrying them to the store in a canvas bas.

Black:

1) slims. Really. Does not reflect light.
2) matches most other black items, save for the fading that occurs in cottons and cotton blends.
2) looks fine in cheaper lines of clothing, where say a red or even green would show faulty construction or puckered seems.

The costumer has spoken.

BTW, the breaking news headline on the home page is that Ford sales were down 32.4 percent in December. This prompted one of my officemates to tell me that the Ford F-150 pickups come equipped with WiFi (assume it's an option, not standard). But it occurred to me this would be the ultimate solution to Joel's Carbucks problem: he could take his coffee and his laptop to his scenic overlook and sip his brew AND work all at the same time, right from the convenience of his pick'em-up.

1) Reusable bags.
2) Black is the new black.

And, the iconic effect of Audrey Hepburn who truly made the little black frock her very own:

The world’s most famous little black dress, as worn by Audrey Hepburn's in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, recently sold for a record £410,000, according to the Daily Mail.

Mudge, I always thought that black was a slimming color....no shadows created from any unwanted roll-over spots (I know...not a good mental image). This helps in various trouble spots, but is particularly good if you have a big butt (not my problem. I have no butt. I sit on the back of my legs.)

Also, it contrasts really nicely with a great pair of red FMPs.

"E pur si muove" = "And yet it moves"

Said to be muttered by Galileo before being forced to recant on his theory that "it" (the Earth) moved around the Sun.

I read once that Galileo's telescope was essentially the same magnification as your standard 8x binoculars. It seems right based on his diagrams; you can re-create his experience by looking at Jupiter and Saturn in particular through binoculars and seeing the moons and rings respectively.

1) Wilbrodog votes paper for sheer chewiness.

2) I have no idea, Mudge. I leave the black-wearing to Wilbrodog. Here's some hypotheses:

A) They all own black cats and don't want the hair to show. Or black dogs.
B) They heard black was slimming. 'Nuff said.
C) They want to be chic. New York fashion is black, black, and black-- and not just for women.
D) They're all depressed due to the grey day which washes out most colors. (I think this is why New Yorkers wear black-- too much grey steel).

We can -- and should -- soften the edge of black against the neck and face, with another color. Black emphasizes aging skin. So, a scarf in any color, or jewel-neck tee or classic stand up color in

raspberry or ballet pink
claret or pinot noir
turquoise or robin's egg blue
mint or sage or even limey green
pale or medium yellow if you are not sallow toned

for darker skinned people, the palette includes ambers, rusts, oranges and fully saturated mid-range earth tones.

STOP ME MUDGE!!!!!

Ah, yes, I see. Thank you all.

CP, we do use tote bags when we go shopping (when I'm not too senile to remember to take them into the store). I was thinking more along the lines of paper plates vs. plastic containers (our cafeteria offers both), paper coffee cups at WaWa vs. that horrendous foam stuff, etc. I much prefer paper in just about all cases, but was wondering if that was environmentally correct.

Thank you LiT!!!!

Black is the perfect foil for shoes;

alligator (fake) mules in lizarding green (punny!)
strappy silver sandals from NY eve
dk grey ankle boots with a monk strap
Palin-Ped peek toe pumps
claret satin with ruching flats (ask dbG)

Black matches just about everything and, yes, it makes you look slimmer. It's also dressier and makes for good business wear.

I wondered about the plastic vs. paper bag thing myself. I also wondered about the reusable bags, especially the ones made of plastic like those that were sold at Ikea during the holidays. Great looking, wonderful bags, but they're still made of plastic...

And, are those nylon ones any better? Still man-made petroleum based, right? I guess we really should be using canvas or cotton bags huh.

Neither, Mudge, carry your mug and rinse. Take home once a week for dishwasher time. I carry a plastic mug in my backpack and have Starbucks and imitators pour into that. No one questions me now, but three years ago, I was thought odd.

About the foam -- less energy to produce but also a petrol product that does not degrade and is floating out in the Pacific in a gyre of garbage.

Paper cups for hot beverages are coated and do not degrade as fast as say dixie cups.

And the summer plastic cups, unless they are marked 1 or 2 within the recycle symbol DO NOT RECYCLE.

We are red -- energy wise -- in all tooth and claw experiences.

CqP's point may be the best yet... and while she mentions faulty construction, I'd also mention that cheap, nearly see-through fabrics tend to look more opaque in black.

Still, for me, navy blue or dark brown is my black most of the time. I prefer dark charcoal grey to black, too.

A black dog may go with everything, but black outfits combined with black dogs are just too much.

I think you're mostly seeing the effects of a grey Monday right after the holidays myself. Why wouldn't anybody dress depressed?

Cotton is very water and input intensive, so on the face of it, cotton looks good green-wise but is rather NOT.

Reuse what you already have. By only to use again and again and again. So, bags from the thrift store of any kind are good because the are goods with energy-embodied already in them.

Less is (green)-more.

See this good blog on ethical fashion to learn more about fibers, and etc.

http://nicewhitelady.blogspot.com/

Today's post is Eco-boudoir....contains a link that is NSW, for some. Today's green fashion is way beyond legs and other parts au naturel, and birki-shoes.

Good point about no black next to the face/neck area, CqP.

It's not just because of aging skin. People who are excessively fair should also beware of black as it is too harsh and can make them look corpse-y.

I learned this fact as a child after seeing myself in the mirror at a dance studio, and then on videotape later.

Speaking of cars, anyone else impressed by the new Hyundai offer??

Buy a new Hyundai, and if you lose your "income" in the following 12 months you can just give the car back.

*Spockian eyebrow raise*

My problem is that I have the bags and I invariably FORGET to take them into the store, even when they're in the car! I need to find a way to get into the habit.

I usually get paper bags at the big grocery store because I use them to recycle newspaper and magazines. It keeps the recycle bin more organized and tidy, don't you see.

Mudge the bright thing made a couple appearances in the blue spaces but when I tried to figure out what it was it blinded me. According to the lighter colored clouds it is moving rapidly to the west so it may make an apperance in your part of the woods in 15 or 18 hours.
uh, things in the sky do revolve around the earth, don't they?

Yes, WB on black next to pale skin. The young, with their shining bloom about them can pull this off, as can a young bride in white. However, white next to pale skin is icky, despite that white is a fashion basic blouse item. I have white skin back-lit by blue tones: sharkskin underbelly. Black is second-bad to white, next to that skin.

We already do a pretty fair amount of recycling and re-using. There are just times when one doesn't have a choice (or didn't think/plan ahead). I have days when it's a struggle just to remember my pants, never mind keeping a cup and some canvas bags in my truck. Actually, I really do have all sorts of "be prepared" stuff in my truck and in my man-purse; the problem is I forget what's there (I have advanced out-of-sight-out-of-mind syndrome).

Are you telling me cotton is bad? I always liked the look of it and much preferred it over synthetics. Can't be worse than polyester, can it?

A thought. Maybe MoP or rainforest could spot the bright thing as it goes over their way and identify it.

My rule of thumb for about any decision is that we can always grow more trees, but all the dinosaurs are dead already.

Mudge: bad is relative. cotton's "fabric of our lives" campaign of homespun goodness is just not true. Nylon and lycra do begin with small chain polymers mostly from the petro-industry.

For developed world people, we simply need to stop buying so much stuff in any venue. Our volume of consumption is off the charts. Green choices can and do help, but not against the huge tide of our stuff-stream much of plastic.

No easy answers here. But, the thrift orientation of previous generations is perhaps the ultimate green stance.

(Do not mean to sound like a kill-joy here.)

Mudge --your regular use of the bus is a HUGE. As in, should serve as some indulgences in the bank when St. Peter (Pan) checks your life time carbon footprint.

I think everyone wearing black is just a natural swing of the pendulum. Remember when Nixon went to China and TV news was full of street scenes of wide avenues with streams of black clad bicycle riders? Now you see a picture of a Chinese crowd next to one from NYC and it is the American picture that looks dour and uniformly black.

Off-whites are a bride's friend, CqP. I look best in yellowish creams.

Black-clad bicyclist: that would be me, and sometimes with mud splatters, too.

In the market, the attractive lady ran up to me smiling and shouted "You're so smart!" Which was a big mistake on her part, because I was so surprised I didn't see the obvious, and try to make a date. What she meant, she went on, was that I had my re-useable shopping bag with me. And that I had had the brains to actually remember to put it back in my truck after the last time and USE the thing. This is the only trick involved with using the re-useable bags.

The reward is not having to deal with all the unwanted bags at home. Nasty buggers.

Funny you should mention the bus, CP. For several years now, I have made many observations and have concluded the following (Cassandra, take note): 75 to 80 percent of the ridership are women. Conclusion: women are smarter than men. About 70 or 75 percent of the ridership are black. Conclusion: blacks are smarter than whites. Summary conclusion: black women are smarter than everybody else, and no one's as dumb as white guys. Especially white guys who drive to work everyday when there are alternatives.

I've been over this a thousand times, and still can't see any flaw in it. (Black woman have cars just like white men do; they drive to the park-and-ride lot, so access to vehicles isn't an issue.)

On the plus side, I always figured it's probably a good thing white guys are dumb, because if they got smart the bus would be over-crowded and I'd have to stand in the aisle.

In college, I was unable to schedule the ecology course (it wasn't a popular subject), so was directed to take a plant geography course instead, and to read Alfred Russel Wallace's "Island Life". It's an extraordinary book.

Darwin thrived because
1. He was a gentleman
2. The "Origin" was also extraordinary, aimed at the general reading public rather than at scientists.
3. He went on to a most impressive career working from his country home. Later in life he was arguably England's best botanist, not to mention that he was an expert on barnacles, earthworms, and no slouch at geology.
_____________________

I'm still entangled in home improvements, so no nice new car for me. The industry sales figures look terrible, except for Subaru.

A neighbor's mango tree is busy flowering, as is my avocado. And a big laurel oak nearby is shedding clouds of pollen. It's a bit ahead of it neighbors, so it won't father many acorns on other trees.

mudge,
I'm pretty sure your peg leg would entitle you to one of the 'reserved for mobility challenged' seats.

How not to dress or how to lighten the NYCity serious comrade look:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1105363/Where-did-outfit-Courtney-Love-gets-carried-away-dressing-box-again.html

You decide. Text your vote to Fashion Lines x 3456

Mudge, you are funny and green.

Off to a bike ride....in some blue and some black fleece.

Waitaminit... Green? I thought 'Mudge was blue...

WAUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

*flying into the Gorge of Eternal Peril*

:-)

I love women in black. Specially when fripperies are involved. But of this we shall speak so more lest I go mad.

I used to have this nice black shirt I wore in college until a teacher told me that Italians in Black Shirts made him nervous. But I wore it anyway.

I used to have a "Men in Black" suit that I would wear sometimes just for fun. The shades made the look.

And, although "The List" says Goth is out, we all know that this can never be.

Which reminds me, where is our dear Mo?

I admit that I actually like the plastic grocery bags that are so harmful to our environment. I like them because I can use them to line the 6 little trash cans around my house which makes emptying these guys so much easier and neater. I also like them to put muddy baseball shoes in as well as having my kids use them to carry (and leave) things at school. Does my reuse count for anything? Or am I just being a bad polluting earthling?

Mudge - I'd LOVE to take the bus or train (if we had one) to work everyday. Unfortunately, with the Alohakids' activities I can never be without the car. Schlepping Alohakids to their practices, games, meetings, etc. (which never seem to be at their schools or near our house) requires me to be flexible and mobile. Someday I'll be able to ride mass transit again.

SCC: Speak *no* more.

So much for my New Year's Resolution to avoid typos.

But I really just do typos when I start thinking of ladies and fripperies.

Draw your own conclusion.

When I went to the UK for my 40th birthday, a friend who was living there advised me not to bring anything pink. She was right, if you saw anyone with pink on, she was demonstrably American. My observation from other trips is that European women in general wear lots of black.

I've always worn navy, but it's getting difficult to find navy shoes. Everything I like is available in black and brown, but nothing much in navy. Now finding my size, that's a real challenge with shoes these days.

Jumper's Marxist rule of carbon footprint states that a rough estimate of the carbon footprint of anything can be determined by its cost. Thus a box of cornflakes has a roughly identical carbon footprint as the same dollar amount of corn bought wholesale by the bushel.

This saves lots of time and confusion trying to figure out how much carbon is released by the employees of the company I bought the item from, in making it and then in spending their salaries on other greenhouse-gas-releasing items or activities. I don't have time for that sort of infinite calculation.

Nuclear power complicates the issue, but does not put me off by a factor of more than half. In other words, the carbon footprint of a $20,000 car is not over $20,000 worth of oil or coal. It may be around $10,000 if half of the power upstream gets shifted to nuclear-generated electricity. I think it's more like 40%

All this is not very precise but puts me "in the ballpark" really quickly.

I think the plastic -vs- paper comparison is kind of a wash. Of course, reusable is clearly the way to go, if possible. Besides, this is one of those issues that people fixate on because it is so salient.

Speaking of encouraging public transportation and other conservation measures, Chuckie K has a good idea:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/949rsrgi.asp

I know, I'm as shocked as you are.

I should have said the cost of manufacturing the $20,000 car was not over $20,000. Operating it adds to the amount, obviously.

Howdy! Joel, have fun with the pointy-heads. Bring us back presents.

I wear a lot of black. It is slimming, it sets off the blondeness, it goes with pretty much everything, and looks professional on short notice. Also it is easily accessorized with fripperies.

I mostly remember my reusable grocery bags, and the Boy seems to be over the embarrassment (I told him he, as an eco-conscious child, should be proud). I only wish I could use mass transit. Where I live, there is none. No bus, nothing. To do park-and-ride I'd have to drive several miles farther away from my office, which seems a little wasteful. No school bus either. We do try to coordinate trips.

A funky little art gallery in our St. Paul neighborhood has reusable grocery bags crocheted from strips of plastic grocery bags. Too expensive for my tastes, plus there's that pesky "I could do that" thought, which is true-but when would I?

People with pets can usually reuse those plastic grocery bags, no problemo.

I saw my father freeze up in the checkout line when asked "paper or plastic?" At that moment I realized it also rarely means "cash or credit card?"

It's only my bottom that is blue, Scotty. Above the waterline I'm pretty much olive drab -- without the olives.

I love mass transit, Aloha, always have. Maybe that comes from starting out as a city kid. But to this day I enjoy buses and subways, even when visiting cities I've never been in before. In visits to San Francisco, NOLA, Chicago, and NY, I always study up on the bus and train/subway routes, and happily ride them wherever. In Washington, whenever I have doctor's appointments at Georgetown Hosp. I love taking the Metro and bus out there and back. Riding the bus down Mass. Ave past the embassies and then out Q Street through G-town is great.

I even like living in cities, though I haven't had the option in something like nearly 40 years. But I'd live in a city in a heartbeat if I could. Never cared for suburbia that much (I dearly love "small towns," but the kinds of small towns I'd like to live in are storybook New Englandy, and they hardly exist any more. The normal suburban sprawl is just blech to me.) The one trouble with living in a city is I probably couldn't afford to live in the kind of neighborhood I'd like-- G-town, for example.

fb,
A friend with a couple of golden retrievers swore by plastic grocery store bags. For me, WaPo lawn condoms were fine.

That brings up a more interesting point: Where should pet waste wind up - the land fill, biodegrading into the aquifier, or the public sewage treatment system?

Also, to veer rudely back on kit, as bc pointed out, the question of what happens at the edge of the Universe is nonsensical based on our current understanding.

Space itself is curved, so go far enough and you will end up back where you began. It's like living on a globe and being unable to process the notions of up and down.

I always opt for the optional paper bags at the grocery store because the stand up nice and don't collapse and let the groceries roll all around all over the back of the pickup like the plastic ones do. I do use the free reusable wine caddies to slep home a six pack or two of cheap red wine. But I too have the take back forgetfullness so we have about eight of them to choose from.

Panneta? What kinda crazy name is that.

Oops. Panetta.

Sheesh.

I have a supply of reusable bags that I tend to forget in the car. I no longer need paper bags for recycling newspapers, as we now have one bin for everything in our area, so I always get the plastic bags. This has two valuable benefits: (1) the great majority of these polyethylene wonders are bundled for recycling, not merely trashed; and (2) the modest few that are intact, unholed, "immaculate" you might say, achieve a second life for the containment of feline fecal matter and as trash bag liners. Since we typically fill these bags until their uttermost limit of capacity is reached, I feel no great qualms about consigning these few to the landfill. They are well weighted down and unlikely to blow about the environment and snare things, and I would otherwise likely have obtained some plastic bag especially for the purpose of lining the trash cans, so I am actually conserving.

I am ScienceTim, and I approve this message.

A lot of Ann Telnaes cartoons leave me cold, but today's is pretty funny. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/telnaes/telnaes_main.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

I think Panetta is French, RD, and means "little loaf of bread."

Or maybe not.

French? I know you jest so I will let it pass this time my good friend.

I'm laughing-- there are a dozen Google ads showing on my page--everyone of them for telescopes except one, for an astronomy book.

I just said French cuz I didn't wanna say Italian -- you know how tetchy those folks are, what with their Mafia connections and all. Not like the laid-back, easy-going French.

Hey, Italians are fine people! And the language? Gorgeous.

RD, my paternal grandfather once told me that the only piece of advice his father ever gave him was "Don't trust a woman who wears black next to her skin." He did not tell my grandfather exactly how to determine this before it was too late.

Just saw a short video clip of Obama and Reed photo op. Can't believe the clatter of all the journalist's cameras. Haven't those guys heard of electric cameras?

Yoki, I love Italians; used to have one for a sister-in-law once upon a time. And our two oldest kids (albeit one is a black sheep of the family) are half-Italian (my wife's ex). I was just pulling Padouk's chain.

Always a worthy effort, 'Mudge.

Better to antagonize the Eyetalians than the French. We all know where that leads: Endless discussions of the accuracy of staff-drawn cartoon cars.

It looks like I’ve been sprung from my cyber prison. When the WaPo started requiring commenter registration, the firewalls on my work computer didn’t want to play nice. So, I was reduced to lurkerdom. From time to time, I’d try to figure out what the problem was, but to no avail.

Last week, my machine when utterly amuck. It started acting like that “Wopper” computer in the movie, “War Games”. Screen images were going berserk, various windows popping up on there own, and, short of breaking out a 5 lb. sledge hammer, nothing that I did worked. This beast was truly possessed. The whiz kids from Utah were called in. (Don’t ask me why we have our geek squad based in Utah.)

They did their shaman rituals, uttered various incantations, and finally pronounced my machine healthy again. The dancing part was the weirdest; maybe that’s why they’re squirreled away out west. Anyway, after that nightmare, I thought that I’d try, once again, to post. Well, whadiya know. All this time, I was like a ghost. I could see what was going on, I just couldn’t partake in the action. Now, I’m, what, …. reborn?

Welcome back, Don.

Hey Don, great to have you back! We've missed you.

Anybody catching comments on today's Gene Pool? Subject is goodbye letters to Dubya. My fave:

Don't let the door hit ya, where the good Lord split ya.

Don!!!! Welcome back. How very very very nice to see you.

I can top you though, our geek squad is in Atlanta. So no more complaints from 'murcans about outsourcing tech support to foreign countries.

Oh, I'm a plastic guy, myself.

Zackerly, yello. We need not return to those particular thrilling days of yesteryear.

Um... I don't wanna appear to be too frequent a scold about the WaPo online editors...but...

(1) There's a headline that says "Funeral Held for Trek's Roddenberry. But when you got to the page, it is about the funeral of Gene Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett, who was Nurse Chapel on the show. Yes, her married name was Roddenberry, so the head is technically correct, but misleading. Just like every one of you who read the hed above, my first thought was "Wha...he's been dead for years and they put his ashes in orbit." When you look at the space alloted, there's plenty of room, and the hed "Funeral Held for Trek's Nurse Chapel" is only half a count longer, and is immediately coherent. Or am I too, too picky?

In the reefer block in the middle of the page, there is the color photo of a bride in a wedding veil. It links to a magazine piece about "people" (plural) who have died and led extraordinary lives. When you follow the link, it goes to the obit of a photographer who has no apparent connection to the wedding photo. A box links to two other obits, one for a woman, but the wedding shot is still a mystery.

(3) In the main rotating photo block, there is a photo of a middle-aged woman and two young teen boys. Below it is the photo of some sort of large vessel of some sort. It links to a story about replacement teeth. Huh? (The article is referenced down below yet again, where its photo is of a set of false teeth, which at least makes sense the seond time around.)

(4) There's a piece with the hed, "A Poker Guy Truns to Cards," by Norman Chad. It is about his sudden affection for the Cardinals, which is fine. But I don't know who Norman Chad is, and there's no reference anywhere in the piece to poker of any kind. So...huh?

Hi, Don!

Happy Birthday, dr!

I like paper grocery bags because I use them to collect the recycling stuff in the house before it goes into the container outside. The default for my grocery store is plastic, so I have lots of those too, which get reused before they're thrown away. Seattle was going to impose a 25 cent per bag tax this year, but it was rescinded. I suppose if they do that, I'll go the reusable bag route and figure out another system for the recycling.

As for black - it also doesn't show spills or stains. Light colors are a magnet for that. Yesterday I bought a couple of sweaters - white. Partly because that was all that was available in my size, but also because I like a white, cabled sweater, and because I didn't have any. I should wear a scarf with them - good idea.

On the movie front, I loved In Bruges. So funny, punctuated by extreme violence, and sad, all at once. Then I watched Tess of the d'Urbervilles on PBS - so glad I was born when and where I was.

bh, I'm beginning to think that we may never see a bright blue sky again...sigh...The good news is that the snow is melted off the streets. Still plenty in the yard, despite temps in the 40s. Very resilient snow.

Mudge, the bride story was from yesterday's magazine, eleven people who died in 2008. It wasn't easy to figure out how to go from one story to the next on the magazine page. You had to look for the box in the middle of the first page of the story to see some of them. Not good web design, if you ask me. However, the stories are interesting. Several brought tears to my eyes.

That may be, slyness. But they should have taken the picture down. Or something. A mismatch is a mismatch.

OK, I'll stop whining and go home now.

mudge,
I don't believe you ever stop whining. ;-)

Tom Ricks (one of my favorites that took the WaPo buy-out) has found a new home:

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/

Marc Lynch (Abu Aardvark), fairly recently arrived at George Washington University, has also migrated to foreignpolicy.com. Or will soon.

seasea, Yesterday night when you said you were getting snow, it was also predicted for here. But it just came a ice flakes. In the morning it just warmed enough to melt the edges so they all stuck together on the deck into a slippery film. Fun to get the sliding glass door closed when I take the pup out for her morning business.

All caught up, I also have a collection of reuseable bags, love the Costco ones which came in a package of three or four, big bags and one is a cooler bag to keep your frozen stuff cold during the transport home.

Wore a pale cream/winter white wedding dress as I am too fair for true white. Also try to avoid most pale colours. Like Slyness I have been on a two year hunt for navy shoes, especially difficult currently as I have high arches and cannot wear any of the flats that are so popular.

I like to make market bags. For years, all I could manage to crochet were net market bags - which are nice because you can scrunch them up and stuff them in a purse. I've knit a couple of larger bags. In fact, I did one after Christmas that was fun and turned out well. I suppose I should actually try using it - I picture these more for farmer's market kind of excursions, not the usual grocery run. I also have a bag made from plarn, the "yarn" that's made from cutting plastic bags into strips. Someone else made it - too much work for me.

Couple of quick items here:

I thought "Galileo's Daughter" was a pretty wonderful book. And I'm not just saying that as an official 'Italian in Black' dude with daughters of my own.

Though those things did help me appreciate it more, I believe.

RD, I don't at all think discussion of what's at the possible Edge of the Universe is nonsensical at all. Yes, spacetime is curved, and the universe may indeed curve back on itself as so many have postulated and I made a silly joke about earlier. But it's one of those questions I ponder a lot, and for all I know, there may in fact be an edge of the 'verse, with the spacetime we're familiar with expanding into - what? Heaven? The Aether? The spaces between subatomic particles? Multiple non-Euclidian/Einsteinian dimensions?

Dang if I know, there's evidence so support a lot of theories out there. I think it's worth asking the questions about what happens after we take leave of this mortal coil, what's beyond the farthest star, or if there's a Complaint Box, "Contact Us" email address, FAQ, or Support Center that I can leave a few choice words with for the Creator of this UniMess.

bc

Hello, Don, so good to hear from you.

I've been raking the outside, and now I'm so sore and achey, I'm going to bed fast.

I wear black all the time. I started after my son died and now it's just habit. Sometimes I mix it up with red and white.

I throw the grocery bags, the plastic ones, away. They serve many purposes, but I think they're dangerous too.

I had some help with the raking, but I'm sure I used muscles that haven't been used in awhile. There were so many cigarette butts in my little space, and I don't smoke. And boy, was it warm outside.

I have a captioning telephone now. I haven't got it hooked up yet, but I'm thrilled to have it. It will make conversation so much easier.

Mudge, I saw a news clip of the girls in those big black SUV's, and they looked kind of lost, especially the little one. I hope their school experience is good, and that the media will give them a break. I agree, the media thing can be a bit much.

I'm sure a lot of sadness for the Travolta family and the loss of their son. I wish them peace and love.

Night, boodle. Sweet dreams.

Good night Cassandra. Sleep well.

It has taken me six months, but I have finally started to remember to bring the fabric shopping bag into the store with me, instead of leaving them kicking around in the trunk of my car. Baby steps.

Think I am up to about 50% of the time remembering the bags.

I wonder if *anybody* (other than LiT) can just buy shoes with some assurance that they aren't wasting money on instruments of torment? I used to think it was just me, but maybe not.

The question is who ends up being tortured by the shoes.

If the right person is tormented, where's the waste?

Having said all this, I buy shoes for myself. Cuz I like em.

Clearly.

I too hope the press leaves the Obama girls alone. Brian Williams on NBC just said that they do not intend to cover the girls and I hope the other networks and cable stations make the same decision.

Black is a neutral and therefore lends itself to lots of accessories and colorful sweaters, jackets, etc. I also like brown and camel for pants. Yoki, I’d love to wear fun little high heels but my feet scream at me when I try. Some of us, maybe a lot of us, just don’t have ‘good’ feet, or maybe we used to but they got old and cranky.

I’ve been using cloth grocery bags for about a year now. I remember them 80 percent of the time. You can get a lot more groceries in them and they’re easier to carry so I make less trips from the car to the house. I find it amusing when they ask if I want my meat put in plastic bags. My reply is that if the meat leaks, I can wash the cloth bag.

Did I mention that I love women's shoes?

The tormentier, the better.

bc

You made me laugh, sneaks. I definitely have old cranky feet.

Ha! I've got old cranky everything!

I buy shoes that I like, when I can find ones that I like. With a size 5 and a half foot, that is becoming increasingly difficult. My primary consideration is comfort.

The Universe is a woman in a black dress
impossibly lovely, mysterious, deep --
formidible and dangerous if crossed carelessly

She is ageless, her beauty ethereal
in the Dark fabric she wears
she is impeccable, breathtaking, consuming

Resplendent in strands of galaxies,
Cosmic clusters glistening against her, accenting her graceful movments just so -
the swaying of her skirts marking Time
(Lord, can that woman *accessorize*!)

I could spend all the Time I have
just watching, being in thrall of the Lady in Black,
but I am with her always, as long as I am.

And hopefully longer.

bc

*Sigh* My last was BOOO, sorry. However, I was assisting Mr. T in taking the sixteen artificial Christmas trees and six lighted wreaths to the attic. It was the perfect day to get stuff put away, warm and dry. The long nightmare is over, finally.

On the positive side, I picked three camellia buds showing color this afternoon. They are in a vase on the kitchen table where I can enjoy them. My goal is to have something flowering or decorative from my yard all year long. I don't know what February will bring, but at least I have these buds now!

Thus speaketh the former English-major.

SCC: well, basically, everything. Scoff at will.

Good evening, Boodelaires...

I like to wear black (makes me look cool and mysterious), but that hasn't worked out so well lately since I'm always covered in sawdust. Makes me look like I've got Satan's own dandruff.

As for plastic vs. paper, I opt for paper since it will biodegrade a heck of a lot quicker than the plastic and if I put one over my head, Mrs. M just might give me a kiss. If you *really* want to be eco-friendly with your baggage, choose neither. Balance your groceries on your head like they do in India and pack ten people onto a moped for the ride home.

I've got 'taters frying and chicken fingers in the oven, so gotta run before the smoke detector goes off.

Peace out :-)

Hello boodle. Life approaching normal now, so perhaps I can keep up... I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season.

I loved Galileo's Daughter, wonderful book. Longitude was good as well, but strangely, I liked the British movie Longitude with Michael Gambon and Jeremy Irons better than the book. I almost never prefer the movie over the book.

The hubby and I went to see Marley and Me. Jennifer Aniston is a weak link but we liked it. The end is a killer! Literally had tears streaming down my face and I caught the hubby surreptitiously wiping his eyes, which I have never seen before. We came home and fawned all over the faithful beagle. Now I can't wait to see Slum Dog Millionaire. Everyone I've talked to about it has loved it.

I'm with MotP - plastic makes perfect little trash bags for around the house, but I am remembering my canvas shopping bags about 50% of the time, so I keep running out of them and then have to either force my daughter to pry the dried gum out of every dang trash can in the house or do it myself. These are weighty matters.

Oh and...can the next 15 days go fast enough? I saw a clip the other day where GWB said, "I never compromised my soul". It literally filled me with rage.

frosti - happy to see things looking good for Franken.

Criminy, did I kill the boodle?

I have always had stubby chubby feet even as a child. The last few years, I have had to wear 'wide widths'. Since I started knitting and wearing handmade socks, I now qualify for the 'extra wide width' This should not be too much of a problem, but wide widths also is a euphemism for 'great grandma shoes'. I have a pair of shoes that I wear to work that I am pretty sure were in my grandmas closet in 1968, little daisy like cutouts on the sides and all.

I console myself that if I wear black no one notices the ugly shoes and my feet never are sore no matter how long I am on my feet.

No Kim, you did not. I'm just a slow typer.

Whew! Thanks dr. I went away, chopped up fruit salad, strained the broth for home made chicken noodle soup, cleaned up the kitchen, came back and nobody around. It kind of freaked me out, as if I'd committed some ghastly faux pas and didn't know what it was!

Congrats to all the Canuckistani boodlers on the World Junior win!

I hope Joel is watching the Fiesta Bowl halftime show - the Texas Tech marching band is doing a tribute to Led Zeppelin.

Seriously.

bc

I made and ate dinner, then dozed off on the couch.

I've always liked comfortable shoes. I have the same size feet as slyness and the same problem finding shoes that fit. Sandals and clogs work best - my toes get ever wider with age. I can barely walk in heels these days, and I hate the sound they make. Usually I like men's shoe styles more than women's - I'll see an ad for shoes, then realize it's for men, which would never fit. A shame, really.

Gadzooks, where's that "No Stairway to Heaven" sign?

bc

bc, does that mean we are old?

It is eerie when you're the last to post and there's a long silence, Kim, but you're okay. Just the nature of the boodle. Mudge is obviously busy with football and Yoki is probably at dinner. Some of us will be back later.

Not me, though, I'm going to bed. G'night.

SCC: "Texas Longhorn"
Not Texas Tech. Sheesh.

Don't ask me why I had Tech on my mind, I don't know either.

bc

I'm here, slyness. No football, just TV and reading (when I ought to be writing). The discussion has been about women's shoes, so I pretty much got somewhat less than zero to contribute.

slyness, I don't know if that means we're old.

Though I can't recall any college marching bands doing tributes to Kings of Leon (now that they're on the "Out" list), My Chemical Romance, Against Me!, or even Avenged Sevenfold as their halftime shows.

And no Buck Cherry, nohow.

bc

Oooh! Shoe Envy!

We're all really fine as we are, don't you think?

I have enormous feet, (because I'm tall and would otherwise have to fall down) now clad in lovely boots. Well done me.

My Chemical Romance, bc. The Black Parade.

My wife wouldn't let me watch The L-Word Marathon because Jon and Kate Plus Eight was on, so I just read a bunch of Kingmaker.

'Night, Boodle. Icy Dawn Patrol in seven hours.

Thanks Raysmom, I have really enjoyed the games, something about the youthful exhuberance on the kids if fun to watch. Some what sad to realize I know think of them as kids.

Earlier today I noticed the first of the Olympic commercials are being aired here and was a little puzzled by one of the first choices - one of our female skeleton sliders - not a particularly high profile sport - then I watched, probably doesn't hurt to look like she does - and talented and young - think I need an ego boost about now.

All this talk of shoes has made me remember my lifelong desire to look great in strappy sandals - just not a look that works for me. :-)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090105.wvmellisabelieve0105/VideoStory/Entertainment/home?pid=RTGAM.20090104.wolympic05

Before I go off to bed I will leave you with todays Science Nerd Girl, quite funny and touches on a few favorite kit topics.

http://www.globecampus.ca/blogs/nerd-girl/

You are *fabulous* dmd

Joel asks, a couple of questions, I'm going to attempt to answer: "When you get to the edge of the universe, what's beyond that?" A friend of mine suggested that whatever it is, make sure you dip your toes in first to see how cold it is. Presumably this is a preamble to Skinny Dipping of some sort, where you shed space, time, clothes and modesty.

Also: "Does wishing upon a star actually work?" It worked for Dick Cheney and appears to be doing so for Al Franken.

And finally: "There's a massive black hole in the center of our galaxy with a mass equal to that of millions of stars. Shouldn't Obama do something about that?"
He should, but he can't. This huge Black Hole is actually Karl Rove's Forbidden Zone White House email and document storage facility, and the future site of the Trantor Branch of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. It's a Black Hole with Executive Privilages. Or so they claim.

And if nothing else, President Bush can pardon the Black Hole on January 19th, giving it immunity from laws of physics as well as jurisprudence.

bc

For extreme geeks only. Then again, it might be old news. http://www.occultations.org/maindownload/WhyFlyer2006.pdf

Tongues, cloth or leather
Taking the long laps of lives
Lived on concealed feet;
They wear out their owners' needs:
fetishes, interiews, frostbite...

-Wilbrodog-

Bc, like that poem! One of yours?

SCC: interview. Sorry, my mouth was full for a moment there...

Bunking Tanka...

Pillows and silk sheets
In the best homes never do
Match my own futon.
(So I'm not /allowed/ on silk--
The principle holds. Home's best.)

--Wilbrodog-

bh, can’t spot the bright thing in the sky. It has been nothing but rain, rain, rain the past few days. It’s gloomy now.

Paper or plastic? You won’t hear that in this region. There’s no paper. It’s plastic all the way. Lately, I seen cloth grocery bags on sale. Unfortunately, not many people (including me, I’m ashamed to admit) are not buying them.

Shoes : I like high heels. The only time I didn’t wear heels was when I had pinched sciatica. I was told not to wear heels again after that but I just ignored the advice. Several years back I went shopping for shoes with my brother. Actually he tagged uninvited. I had wanted to buy a pair of 3” heels. My brother won’t let me. (The problem with being the youngest is, you never grow up in your older siblings’ eyes) He told me all kinds of horror stories and nagged me until I changed my mind. I ended up buying a pair which was 1”. 1” is not high enough! I’ll never go shopping for shoes with that man again.

Wall Street and the regulators are to be blamed for this global financial meltdown. Investment firms and rating agencies have breached investors’ trust. From now on, investors will probably view their advice with suspicion. It’s true that before you invest, you should always do your own analysis, but for people who don’t have the time or the stomach for all the ratios, they just look at the ratings.

The way things are right now, I don’t think there’s any thing Treasury can do that won’t be criticized. Nobody knows what works and what don’t. Everybody is an arm-chair economist.

Too icy/rainy/something for Dawn Patrol. I'm scrubbing today's mission.

'Morning, Boodle. 35 degrees, raining here but frozen rain/sleet/wintry mix to the north of town, and half a dozen schools sytems closed in Virginia already. A good day to sleep in, and eat chili or beef stew.

No time for the front page this morning (and I'd only b1tch anyhow).

Let's get 'em flying! Brag, you've got the six, as usual. Somebody will have to fill in for yello; can't leave a gap in the formation, yanno.

dash dash dot dot dot etc

Mudge, I've been flying YJ's position since 4:22; Sorry, I forget to check in. My plane is the slim little black number. And, my silk Snoopy-scarf is lime green with pink polkadots. Not in uniform? Get over it baby-doll Bossman. I am a woman of a certain age.

And, BC is right. Lady Universe wears black: lycra-velvet spangled with seeded stars. I peeked under the frock and my goodness her nether garments are lustrous and fine.

Ha CqP, you reminded me of this one:

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2684

DNAG always rustles up the perfect comic. What is she? A minor deity? Nah. Major, definitely major. Bowing.

Hi Rainy. Meant to say hi. Just needed more coffee.....

Turtle problem and answer, plus bonus google gadget of the turtle pond.

Four turtles begin at the corners of a square. Each turtle proceeds to walk at constant speed toward the turtle on his right. Gradually, the square twists and shrinks until the turtles meet at the center of the square. How long does it take
for the turtles to meet?

ANSWER:: since the turtles are always in the shape of a square, and since each one is always walking perpendicular to the direction of his pursuer's approach, he neither hinders nor helps the pursuer in reaching him. Therefore, the time to the center is the same as the time it takes one turtle to walk across
a side of the square.

Martin Gardner's book Aha! is the source. Go to google books, here, and search on two words:

turtle and pizza. Yes, pizza. Trust me.
http://books.google.com/books?id=EV2y4z95_KQC&pg=RA1-PA43&lpg=RA1-PA43&dq=turtle+martin+gardner+answer&source=web&ots=SwmpRU2X-q&sig=hRKMr3J5pXWevXq-YmfzZjWmaes&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PRA1-PA44,M1

Bonus google gadget on turtles. Fun to install on you home page,etc.

http://abowman.com/google-modules/turtle/

'morning all. This getting to work an hour before sunrise seriously inhales dishwater.
These astronomical discussions give me vertigo, I have no clue about what's beyond the Edge of space, let alone the universe...
The Justice department is across the street and the Supreme Court a 5 minutes walk away. I see all those lawyers with their black toga as so many crows... with excuses to boodle lawyers. Many even have those white lacy frilly bibs as well. What's next, horsehair wigs?

Good morning, everybody!

CqP, good to see you active on dawn patrol this morning. Classes haven't started already, have they? Your 6:37 made me laugh out loud.

No walk for Cassandra and me this morning. There has been rain all night, with no letup in sight.

Today's challenge: to see if I can get from a 10 o'clock appointment for a haircut to a funeral at 11 on time. The mother of a friend died over the weekend. She was 86 and had been in bad health for several years, so it wasn't unexpected. Still, losing a parent is always tough.

The fire chief's mom also died over the weekend, so that's another funeral tomorrow. I hope there won't be a third. This is not a good way to start the new year.

Managed to slide down the runway safely this morning... Wondering about this afternoon, though.

bc, be sure to watch out for glowing eyes after dipping toes in the Extra-Universal Pond.

*spreading-a-little-halite-here-and-there Grover waves* :-)

My condolences, slyness... *HUGS*

My daughter told me last night that at school yesterday her class was faced with a different version of the turtle problem:

They were dissecting them in biology class and "those shells are really hard to crack."

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Morning, friends. Slyness, you are so right, it is raining, and I'm not about to venture out in the water. After yesterday's feat with the rake, I'm happy to stay in.

I love shoes, especially high heel shoes, but I can't wear them. The feet have gotten "old and cranky", plus they swell. My favorite shoe of all time, Jimmy Choos. I know I can't afford a shoe that is almost the total of my income, but they are slick.

Martooni(glad to hear from you)Scotty, Mudge, Yoki, and all, good morning.*waving*

Believe or not, that room that remains is still not finished. My daughter is suppose to show up today to help, but we will have to wait and see on that. I went to visit my dad after raking the yard. Just worry about him being alone, and people are breaking and entering like crazy. Someone was at my door last night trying to sell a jacket. I know she stole it. I did not buy it.

People in Washington think when they make laws and hand down decisions they've done it all, but the real test is out in open society. Do we create a nightmare or do we help the country? It may look good on paper and yet be a nightmare. Of course, if the basis of any of it is greed, we know the outcome, don't we? It does show itself to be what it is.

Have a great day, folks. As Slyness said we're getting rain and more rain. I can't complain.

Time to work.

bc - you are right, as always, that few questions in Physics are ever truly nonsensical. But there are questions that are hard, or impossible, to test, and I fear Physics has become rife with these. Physics is in danger of becoming like mythology, in which explanations are made via stories whose relative worth are evaluated by how pretty they are.

One of the topics at the Super Bowl of Astronomy: the Milky Way is much bigger than we thought it was.

"Scientists mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that it is 15 per cent larger in breadth. More important, it is denser, with 50 per cent more mass."

You just know what that's going to do to property values.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090106.wmilkyway0106/BNStory/Science/home

I am very fond of turtles. They are my favorite reptiles. As a boy I had a box turtle (tortoise actually) who could climb up chicken-wire. This was quite something to behold.

When I first moved to Washington DC I had a red-eared slider that I kept in a large aquarium. We were bachelors together. He lived, quite happily, on a diet of high-quality cat food.

So to me turtles fall in the same category as rabbits. Yes, I know they are considered foodstuffs by many, and I know it is irrational to accept the consumption of some animals and not others, but still.

I never fully forgave my wife's grandfather for serving me "snapper soup" and not telling me what, exactly, was in it.

"And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course… all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be."

by Dr. Seuss

But what if the turtles are fertile?

I am posting purely to try to instigate a new kit. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along, now.

In order to post this stupid throw-away message, I just had to wander for, like, literally a minute through sign-in heck. Never before has "Sign in" actually required me to do so. "Sign In" buttons that received an error message about going to non-existent pages. "Sign In" buttons that took me to mysterious pages of WaPo advertising with no content. Oh, it was harsh, I tell you. Harsh.

I blame the fertile turtles...

Welcome to my world for a number of months, SciTim.

dmd, I can get you all the navy shoes you want. You do mean the ones they wear in the Navy, right? Oh, never mind....

Nobody's talking 'bout plastic any more, but I failed to mention yesterday that I *only* take free-range, grass-fed, organic, non-conflict, 100% pure, extra virgin, vinyl plastic bags for my groceries. Let somebody else use the cheap stuff, like the space shuttle.

Good morning. Turtles, rain, the edge of the Universe - what a start to the day. Here, it is Back to School at last. I think everyone was ready.

The Boy finished his science project yesterday. Many thanks to all who commented or suggested extra steps. He appreciated the thought behind the suggestions although I believe found the idea of doing more somewhat risible. Astonishingly his hypothesis was proved correct. Go figure. Not so astonishingly, there was a significant difference in the dirt from my "garden" (as he put it) and my aunt's very well-cared for and long-established vegetable garden. Mine did not come out well by comparison. He pointed out this is probably why I can't really grow anything in it but blackerries and ancient phlox & chrysanthemum.

Snapping Bunnies!!

The Mystery of the Killer Rabbit is solved!

I was at the edge of the world, beyond Science Tim. No internet all day yesterday.

It seems I am back.
Good morning, Boodle.

Brag

Anyone make the new kit call yet?

Blackberries and phlox? Sounds good to me, Ivansmom. When should we all show up next summer to make jam?

(I remember you get tomatoes from someone else, so that slight addition leads me to declare you Queen of Perfect Produce).

For at least 3 years, I've wanted to put blackberries along a 3" wide strip of land belonging to me, it borders an elderly neighbor's. I made the mistake of telling him, he vehemently opposed it, so I haven't. I still wonder why.

In case yello's hint it too subtle...

NEW KIT!!!

Ivansmom, I'm glad you and the Boy are ready for school to start. I most certainly am not, which is somewhat disconcerting, given that I teach my first class of the semester tomorrow afternoon. But I thrive on last-minute adrenaline--that's what procrastination is for! It'll kick in any minute now. The adrenaline, that is. The procrastination is a constant presence, no kicking required.

Unfortunately, my beautiful streamlined teaching schedule has fallen by the wayside, because one of my courses has failed to make. The one course I get to teach in my specialty, too! But it's not a requirement for anybody (although it should be required for everybody, as far as I'm concerned), and I haven't yet built up my campus-wide reputation as the must-see professor, and I hadn't realized the need to advertise early and often. Next year. So I'll be teaching the intro course again instead. Not a bad solution, though it does throw me in the classroom at odd and scattered times throughout the week. I'll manage.

Slyness, I can commiserate with the funeral attendance. What is it about the new year? My graduate department just lost an important member -- cancer in her 50's, just wrong. And my grandfather the same day -- a much bigger personal loss, but he got a lot more decades than she did, and died as he wanted, with little pain, in his own apartment, and in possession of a current driver's license. I got to see him just a few days earlier.

A new year. Life, death, and school. What else is there?