Weather, but also good things
As I feared, unlike yesterday, today we did have black ice and we did have school. ::pouts:: So I'm in class rather than spending the morning wrapped in blankets finishing Watchmen, but I also managed not to get stuck in a ditch somewhere, so that's good. More good things in the world, in case you needed some:
* Very cool creature. "Water bears, also known as tardigrades, can survive boiling, freezing, the vacuum of space and years of dessication." And they're kind of cute!
* You can order owl pellets as teaching tools! I found owl pellets once or twice growing up, and they were even more fun to poke through than the usual wild animal scat. One of them had a mouse skull in it, which was a triumphant find for me, since I collected animal skulls and didn't have anything else nearly that small.
* The Whitehouse's First Celebrity Canine: Laddie Boy, Wilson's airedale. (Dear Obamas, ::fidgets:: A nation eagerly awaits your decision!)
* Psychiatrist knits anatomically correct human brain from yarn One of the humorous aspects of her project, she said, "was simply to undertake such a ridiculously complex, time consuming project for no practical reason." I get that! I really do. Thanks to ejg25 for the link-and the picture.
* For those of you who like linguistics, NPR had an interesting look at Obama's speech and cadence the other day. And if rhetoric is your thing, here's a textual analysis. The crew on the BBC News Quiz had a few things to say about Obama's speech last week as well, and they also mentioned something about Bush that had bothered me for the past several years, the way his speaking style had become - I think the News Quiz people said it basically seemed combative, but to me it came off as whiny. He would raise his intonation at the end of his sentences before dropping off, and it sounded like a teenager who thinks his dad won't give him a break. I wanted to use it in my classes as an example of how intonation is an important part of public (and any) speaking, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without seeming political.
* Hillary Duff ILU.
On a different note, I would like to place 2009 on notice for not being kind to my friends, when I specifically requested it in a polite but strongly worded message. (And by saying "not kind" I'm understating drastically.) It's only January, 2009! You have time to reform!
* Very cool creature. "Water bears, also known as tardigrades, can survive boiling, freezing, the vacuum of space and years of dessication." And they're kind of cute!
* You can order owl pellets as teaching tools! I found owl pellets once or twice growing up, and they were even more fun to poke through than the usual wild animal scat. One of them had a mouse skull in it, which was a triumphant find for me, since I collected animal skulls and didn't have anything else nearly that small.
* The Whitehouse's First Celebrity Canine: Laddie Boy, Wilson's airedale. (Dear Obamas, ::fidgets:: A nation eagerly awaits your decision!)
* Psychiatrist knits anatomically correct human brain from yarn One of the humorous aspects of her project, she said, "was simply to undertake such a ridiculously complex, time consuming project for no practical reason." I get that! I really do. Thanks to ejg25 for the link-and the picture.
* For those of you who like linguistics, NPR had an interesting look at Obama's speech and cadence the other day. And if rhetoric is your thing, here's a textual analysis. The crew on the BBC News Quiz had a few things to say about Obama's speech last week as well, and they also mentioned something about Bush that had bothered me for the past several years, the way his speaking style had become - I think the News Quiz people said it basically seemed combative, but to me it came off as whiny. He would raise his intonation at the end of his sentences before dropping off, and it sounded like a teenager who thinks his dad won't give him a break. I wanted to use it in my classes as an example of how intonation is an important part of public (and any) speaking, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without seeming political.
* Hillary Duff ILU.
On a different note, I would like to place 2009 on notice for not being kind to my friends, when I specifically requested it in a polite but strongly worded message. (And by saying "not kind" I'm understating drastically.) It's only January, 2009! You have time to reform!