GODZILLA 2014! YEEAAAHHHH!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Where is Romney now?
Not where I wish he was.
Our country, while never perhaps loved around the world, was at least grudgingly respected. By the time our current president leaves office there will be a LOT of work to be done both at home and abroad for the reputation of our gov't to be restored to some marginally acceptable level.
Healthcare is being botched.
International safety is being botched.
International relations are being botched.
Budgeting has been botched.
The current office has been found to have lied or misrepresented data on multiple occasions (I know this is true for any regime to some extent).
Yet STILL there is love for the democratic party and their fearless leader. I don't get it. Then again I don't get why people reject the free gift of eternal life either when there really are more reasons to believe than not. But back to politics...
We REALLY need a Mitt Romney now. A person with business savvy, experience with large corporations, someone who really understands them (and let's face it, Mitt had to based on the role his company played) because a) we need corporate / industry support if there is to be health care reform (among other reforms) and b) our gov't IS a large corporation. We need someone who will be fiscally conservative or fiscally moderate at best, someone who will be more careful of regulations and policies, someone who will be less likely to over commit our military and far less likely to allow things to be run loosely.
Certainly Mitt would not be a perfect president, has there EVER been such a person? I am not trying to say that a Republican president will automatically solve all our issues but certainly conservatives stand a better chance at solving many of our current issues (if they truly are conservative and truly understand the issues at hand).
Finally, we should not loose track that we live in a republic that is dependent on our capitalist way of life. Without allowing capitalism to flourish (that means being in bed with large and small for-profit entities to the extent that we should at the very least listen to what they have to say and understand that they live in that world and while they might be self-serving, some of their concerns are legitimate) WE won't flourish. I feel like I am about to start ranting and raving about supply and demand, taxation and other issues related to businesses versus gov't spending so I will stop here.
Sorry for my rare political rant. And yes I know I am simply raising questions and not providing answers.
Our country, while never perhaps loved around the world, was at least grudgingly respected. By the time our current president leaves office there will be a LOT of work to be done both at home and abroad for the reputation of our gov't to be restored to some marginally acceptable level.
Healthcare is being botched.
International safety is being botched.
International relations are being botched.
Budgeting has been botched.
The current office has been found to have lied or misrepresented data on multiple occasions (I know this is true for any regime to some extent).
Yet STILL there is love for the democratic party and their fearless leader. I don't get it. Then again I don't get why people reject the free gift of eternal life either when there really are more reasons to believe than not. But back to politics...
We REALLY need a Mitt Romney now. A person with business savvy, experience with large corporations, someone who really understands them (and let's face it, Mitt had to based on the role his company played) because a) we need corporate / industry support if there is to be health care reform (among other reforms) and b) our gov't IS a large corporation. We need someone who will be fiscally conservative or fiscally moderate at best, someone who will be more careful of regulations and policies, someone who will be less likely to over commit our military and far less likely to allow things to be run loosely.
Certainly Mitt would not be a perfect president, has there EVER been such a person? I am not trying to say that a Republican president will automatically solve all our issues but certainly conservatives stand a better chance at solving many of our current issues (if they truly are conservative and truly understand the issues at hand).
Finally, we should not loose track that we live in a republic that is dependent on our capitalist way of life. Without allowing capitalism to flourish (that means being in bed with large and small for-profit entities to the extent that we should at the very least listen to what they have to say and understand that they live in that world and while they might be self-serving, some of their concerns are legitimate) WE won't flourish. I feel like I am about to start ranting and raving about supply and demand, taxation and other issues related to businesses versus gov't spending so I will stop here.
Sorry for my rare political rant. And yes I know I am simply raising questions and not providing answers.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Why are arachnids, and tarantulas in particular, so fascinating?
Honestly I am not sure why I am so drawn to them. I like to think I am able to find something to like about every aspect of God's creation, but for some reason I really find spiders and their kin most fascinating.
The reasons are many and varied. For example, motion... tarantulas (spiders and other arachnids - but I will tend to focus on tarantulas here) have ONLY flexor muscle attachments in their limbs. That means that using muscular contraction spiders can only bend their legs inward (they have multiple types at the attachment points to move legs forward / backward in range). So how do tarantulas extend their legs? Blood pressure. They literally use a hydraulic system; they force blood / fluids into the legs under pressure which extends them. Pretty cool! Another example is how they feed. Tarantulas cannot ingest solids. They literally have filters around their mouth and in their hard esophagus that prevent particulates from entering their stomach and intestines. So how do spiders eat? Well, they basically masticate (chew) their prey while regurgitating digestive fluids onto it. They create a nutrient-filled, gooey mash which they then suck on with their little vacuum-like mouth. How do they suck it up? They don't have cheeks or tongues like we do. They have a special "device" that is part of their stomach called a "sucking (or pumping) stomach". It works both ways, it can eject fluids from the spider or suck them into the spider. They have internal cheeks. Pretty smart.
Speaking of smart, tarantulas have relatively large brains but what I think is most interesting is the shape of their brains. Tarantula brains are torus shaped... a donut. The size is necessary to be able to accept sensory input from all the sensory organs all over the spider as well as control the legs and in some spiders with good vision, to be able to judge depth and distances and identify potential prey.
Finally (for now) something that always amazes is me is the fact that the esophagus and sucking stomach run right through the hole in the brain and are part of the exoskeleton. This means when a spider molts, the esophagus and stomach are pulled out of the body and left with the rest of the exoskeleton. You can see them clearly in larger tarantula molts.
A couple other, minor factoids... one of the primary waste elements in spider poo is the same chemical that provides the reflective part of dog and cat eyes (when they shine at night if you point a flashlight at them). Also, not ALL spiders are venemous... there are actually at least two know species that do not have venom. Most do have venom, but in general, spider venom is designed to disable their prey and has little effect (can you say no worse than a bee sting?) on humans and other mammals, assuming they actually do inject you during a bite (venom is precious, they don't want to waste it).
Hope you enjoyed my little spider rant. :)
The reasons are many and varied. For example, motion... tarantulas (spiders and other arachnids - but I will tend to focus on tarantulas here) have ONLY flexor muscle attachments in their limbs. That means that using muscular contraction spiders can only bend their legs inward (they have multiple types at the attachment points to move legs forward / backward in range). So how do tarantulas extend their legs? Blood pressure. They literally use a hydraulic system; they force blood / fluids into the legs under pressure which extends them. Pretty cool! Another example is how they feed. Tarantulas cannot ingest solids. They literally have filters around their mouth and in their hard esophagus that prevent particulates from entering their stomach and intestines. So how do spiders eat? Well, they basically masticate (chew) their prey while regurgitating digestive fluids onto it. They create a nutrient-filled, gooey mash which they then suck on with their little vacuum-like mouth. How do they suck it up? They don't have cheeks or tongues like we do. They have a special "device" that is part of their stomach called a "sucking (or pumping) stomach". It works both ways, it can eject fluids from the spider or suck them into the spider. They have internal cheeks. Pretty smart.
Speaking of smart, tarantulas have relatively large brains but what I think is most interesting is the shape of their brains. Tarantula brains are torus shaped... a donut. The size is necessary to be able to accept sensory input from all the sensory organs all over the spider as well as control the legs and in some spiders with good vision, to be able to judge depth and distances and identify potential prey.
Finally (for now) something that always amazes is me is the fact that the esophagus and sucking stomach run right through the hole in the brain and are part of the exoskeleton. This means when a spider molts, the esophagus and stomach are pulled out of the body and left with the rest of the exoskeleton. You can see them clearly in larger tarantula molts.
A couple other, minor factoids... one of the primary waste elements in spider poo is the same chemical that provides the reflective part of dog and cat eyes (when they shine at night if you point a flashlight at them). Also, not ALL spiders are venemous... there are actually at least two know species that do not have venom. Most do have venom, but in general, spider venom is designed to disable their prey and has little effect (can you say no worse than a bee sting?) on humans and other mammals, assuming they actually do inject you during a bite (venom is precious, they don't want to waste it).
Hope you enjoyed my little spider rant. :)
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