Is that why otters always seem so happy?

A missing link in the evolution of sea otters and seals has evidently been found. The newly found link shows the ancestors of otters and seals walked on land before becoming sea animals. Is that why otters always look like they are playing all day and just having fun with life?

Douglas Adams wrote that the decision of human ancestors to come out of the sea was the big mistake. In one episode of the old Hitchhiker's Guide TV shows Douglas Adams actually appears in the buff walking back into the ocean. Was he right? Darwin thought it was a natural progression - the transition from land to fresh water to the sea.

Did we get it wrong by leaving the ocean, and sea otters got it right by going into the ocean? Have we missed something? Are we supposed to be somewhere... else?

See this link for more information on the progression to the sea: BBC News

If I watch that plant long enough, will I see that flower bloom?

Glorious sunny days are here at last, so I've been sitting in parks, taking pictures of flowers. Well, many flowers are out, but there is a notable lack of tulips flowering. So if I sit there long enough, will I see the tulips bloom? It's been warm and sunny enough that it seems to be possible. Most of the flowers are late this year and they are all coming out at the same time, which is unusual, so maybe they are willing to pop out while someone is looking!

For those who lack the patience to sit and watch flowers come out, there is a solution I've just read about: a Timelapse Garden Video Camera!

You can set this little camera to take pictures of your plants at intervals from every 5 seconds to every 24 hours. It will make a little AVI movie for you. So you can have a little movie of your tulip blooming.

As yet, there have been no signs of plant protests about violated personal - or plant - liberties against this monitoring.

Of course, if it takes time lapse pictures of plants... it could take time lapse pictures of anything really, or anyone. I can see how some people would complain about this surveillance.

There could even be a time lapse video of me sitting and watching the tulips, waiting for them to bloom... thus defining what would be even more boring than sitting and watching plants bloom. I don't think I have anything to worry about, but it does make you think.

April 23 Update: They came out while I was gone! Sneaky little... I've added a photo of one to this post!

Will I ever eat microwave popcorn again?

I'm thinking NO!

It's not that the chemical laden bags of genetically suspicious popcorn kernels are that bad, but we've found a fantastic alternative: organically grown popcorn dried on the cob from our local farmer's market!

It's just the coolest thing! You put a cob of the dried popcorn corn into a paper bag and microwave it on high for about 3 - 4 minutes until the popping slows down. You then get chemical-free lovely bits of popped corn!

Now popping the corn on the cob doesn't pop all of the kernels, but more pops than when we use our hot air popper. And the bits of popped corn are not the genetically enhanced super-size-me bits of tasteless white stuff that you get at a typical movie theatre, but they taste really good! We popped 2 cobs of the corn and had a nice big bowl of popcorn - enough for the two of us.

I highly recommend the on-the-cob organic popping corn! We are looking forward to many cobs from our farmer's market in the future.

Is it better to be in an empty theatre or an over-full one?

Recently we've been to a very well attended movie - Running the Sahara - where the theatre was so full they had to defrag the audience. Groups of people were asked to get up and move down to free up empty seats and some people had to leave their friends and sit in single empty seats. The place was packed.

I haven't seen a theatre that full since Rocky Horror... but in this one they actually served wine! That was definitely a first for me!

And then about a week later we went to see - Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D - in a matinee showing where there were only about 15 people in the entire audience.

Now that was a fun movie! I loved the 3D experience! The story line was pretty much fluff, but the effects were so much fun (trying to avoid meteorites flying off the screen and into your face is quite the giggle)!

So the packed audience was amazingly quiet... and the small audience was talkative. Does the experience of being packed-in make you quiet for the sake of the other people around you, and a lack of people make you act like you are in your own living room?

I do enjoy having my pick of any seat in the theatre, but the other extreme of audience attendance does have its appeal.

Is that rude, or just end-of-term staring into the distance?

I was on the UBC campus yesterday on my way to an appointment when I stopped to have some coffee and lunch. (oooh, she stopped for coffee, that's unusual - I think she may have an addiction going here...) And I was wondering if a woman in the cafe was being rude, or just trying to avoid doing the term paper she was working on.

The front of the cafe had windows that could be fully opened up, and since it was such a gorgeous day they were wide open, so I sat at a table facing outside for the view. There were a few other occupied tables, most with a single person facing outside as well, but there was one woman at a single table who was facing inside.

And she was staring at all the people who were facing the other way. Or was she?

She had a very thick book with her - Don Quixote - and a lot of paper with hand written notes and a computer. Aha! I recognize that, it's a term paper in it's primeval form, on it's way to becoming an end-of-term must... finish... this... damned...paper assignment. I remember those!

So she probably wasn't staring at other people to be rude, she was just desperately trying to avoid the term paper!

I remember being a student. It was great to be able to reduce the world into something to stare at when trying to avoid term papers. But, when you leave school, you have to avoid staring at strangers in case they get upset and think it's a challenge they have to respond to... similar to why you don't stare into the eyes of predatory animals unless you want to be attacked by them.

But for now, in a cafe on campus (right beside a great pub... I love that campus, it would have been so much fun to study there) a student can get away with end-of-term staring into the distance, and at other people.

Life will get more complicated later, so she should enjoy it now! I envy the place she is at in life right now.

Did I just kill off an entire species?

Spring cleaning has started with a vengance in our home.

We have a large couch with feather-stuffed pillows. They can't be cleaned by calling in steam cleaners, the covers must be removed and then washed.

Oh... that's why the typical couch is not made with feathers these days. Removing the pillow cases (10 of them) leaves the place looking like a bird fight was staged here!

There are feathers everywhere!

There will be feathers everywhere for weeks! They worked their way out of the main pillow compartments into the areas between the pillow and the outter covering, which I needed to wash.

The feathers just don't all clean up! And where did that static cling come from?

So I washed the pillow cases in batches, twice. And I think I may have killed off an entire species.

I've seen TV programs that show pictures of microscopic animals that live in beds. They eat dead human skin that naturally comes off and stays on a bed. They look like finger prints with legs.

And I think there must have been some in the couch pillows. They've all been washed away now. I killed them off. I feel kinda guilty.

I've just watched a program on Stephen Hawkings which gave a useful size comparison. If you take a massively huge library stuffed with books, our galaxy would fit nicely inside one period (full stop) in one book. So in that case we're the microscopic ones... lets hope the galaxy doesn't need a wash!