Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Rubber Side Up!
I flopped my Jeep on to its side yesterday. That was a first.
There are pictures on someone's camera . . . but I don't know whose . . . all I could see out the left window was dirt, and sky out of the right.
No damage to anything or anyone. Hooray for the armor plated Jeep!
I did lose about 3 -4 gallons of fuel out through the filler tube though.
Stay tuned.
(And Scarlet, don't freak. Your daughter was not on this trip. . . . . . she would have been fine though.)
There are pictures on someone's camera . . . but I don't know whose . . . all I could see out the left window was dirt, and sky out of the right.
No damage to anything or anyone. Hooray for the armor plated Jeep!
I did lose about 3 -4 gallons of fuel out through the filler tube though.
Stay tuned.
(And Scarlet, don't freak. Your daughter was not on this trip. . . . . . she would have been fine though.)
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Mew.
Australians cook up wild cat stew
By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney
Australians have come up with a novel solution to the millions of feral cats roaming the outback - eat them.
The felines are the descendants of domestic pets and kill millions of small native animals each year.
A recent Alice Springs contest featured wild cat casserole. The meat is said to taste like a cross between rabbit and, perhaps inevitably, chicken.
But wildlife campaigners have expressed their dismay that Australia's wild cat now finds itself on the nation's menus.
Cat stew recipe
Feral cats are one of the most serious threats to Australia's native fauna.
They eat almost anything that moves, including small marsupials, lizards, birds and spiders.
The woman behind the controversial cat stew recipe has said Australians could do their bit to help the environment by tucking into more feral pests, including pigeons and camels.
But it was a recipe for feline casserole that impressed some of the judges at an outback food competition in Alice Springs.
Preparing this unusual stew seems simple enough.
The meat should be diced and fried until it is brown. Then lemon grass is to be added along with salt and pepper and three cups of quandong, which is a sweet desert fruit.
It is recommended that the dish be left to simmer for five hours before being garnished with bush plums and mistletoe berries.
Marinated moggie was not to everyone's taste. One of the competition judges found the meat impossibly tough and had to politely excuse herself and spit it out in a backroom.
Wild cats are considered good eating by some Aborigines, who roast the animals on an open fire.
This outback cuisine does come with a health warning.
Scientists have said that those eating wild cats could be exposed to harmful bacteria and toxins.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6974687.stmPublished: 2007/09/02 06:28:49 GMT© BBC MMVII
By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney
Australians have come up with a novel solution to the millions of feral cats roaming the outback - eat them.
The felines are the descendants of domestic pets and kill millions of small native animals each year.
A recent Alice Springs contest featured wild cat casserole. The meat is said to taste like a cross between rabbit and, perhaps inevitably, chicken.
But wildlife campaigners have expressed their dismay that Australia's wild cat now finds itself on the nation's menus.
Cat stew recipe
Feral cats are one of the most serious threats to Australia's native fauna.
They eat almost anything that moves, including small marsupials, lizards, birds and spiders.
The woman behind the controversial cat stew recipe has said Australians could do their bit to help the environment by tucking into more feral pests, including pigeons and camels.
But it was a recipe for feline casserole that impressed some of the judges at an outback food competition in Alice Springs.
Preparing this unusual stew seems simple enough.
The meat should be diced and fried until it is brown. Then lemon grass is to be added along with salt and pepper and three cups of quandong, which is a sweet desert fruit.
It is recommended that the dish be left to simmer for five hours before being garnished with bush plums and mistletoe berries.
Marinated moggie was not to everyone's taste. One of the competition judges found the meat impossibly tough and had to politely excuse herself and spit it out in a backroom.
Wild cats are considered good eating by some Aborigines, who roast the animals on an open fire.
This outback cuisine does come with a health warning.
Scientists have said that those eating wild cats could be exposed to harmful bacteria and toxins.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6974687.stmPublished: 2007/09/02 06:28:49 GMT© BBC MMVII
I am shocked . . . shocked I tell you.
Study: Men Men Go for Good Looks
Monday, September 03, 2007
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON — Science is confirming what most women know: When given the choice for a mate, men go for good looks.
And guys won't be surprised to learn that women are much choosier about partners than they are.
"Just because people say they're looking for a particular set of characteristics in a mate, someone like themselves, doesn't mean that is what they'll end up choosing," Peter M. Todd, of the cognitive science program at Indiana University, Bloomington, said in a telephone interview.
Researchers led by Todd report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that their study found humans were similar to most other mammals, "following Darwin's principle of choosy females and competitive males, even if humans say something different."
Their study involved 26 men and 20 women in Munich, Germany.
Participants ranged in age from 26 to their early 40s and took part in "speed dating," short meetings of three to seven minutes in which people chat, then move on to meet another dater. Afterward, participants check off the people they'd like to meet again, and dates can be arranged between pairs who select one another.
Speed dating let researchers look at a lot of mate choices in a short time, Todd said.
In the study, participants were asked before the session to fill out a questionnaire about what they were looking for in a mate, listing such categories as wealth and status, family commitment, physical appearance, healthiness and attractiveness.
After the session, the researchers compared what the participants said they were looking for with the people they actually chose to ask for another date.
Men's choices did not reflect their stated preferences, the researchers concluded. Instead, men appeared to base their decisions mostly on the women's physical attractiveness.
The men also appeared to be much less choosy. Men tended to select nearly every woman above a certain minimum attractiveness threshold, Todd said.
Women's actual choices, like men's, did not reflect their stated preferences, but they made more discriminating choices, the researchers found.
The scientists said women were aware of the importance of their own attractiveness to men, and adjusted their expectations to select the more desirable guys.
"Women made offers to men who had overall qualities that were on a par with the women's self-rated attractiveness. They didn't greatly overshoot their attractiveness," Todd said, "because part of the goal for women is to choose men who would stay with them"
But, he added, "they didn't go lower. They knew what they could get and aimed for that level."
So, it turns out, the women's attractiveness influenced the choices of the men and the women.
Monday, September 03, 2007
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON — Science is confirming what most women know: When given the choice for a mate, men go for good looks.
And guys won't be surprised to learn that women are much choosier about partners than they are.
"Just because people say they're looking for a particular set of characteristics in a mate, someone like themselves, doesn't mean that is what they'll end up choosing," Peter M. Todd, of the cognitive science program at Indiana University, Bloomington, said in a telephone interview.
Researchers led by Todd report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that their study found humans were similar to most other mammals, "following Darwin's principle of choosy females and competitive males, even if humans say something different."
Their study involved 26 men and 20 women in Munich, Germany.
Participants ranged in age from 26 to their early 40s and took part in "speed dating," short meetings of three to seven minutes in which people chat, then move on to meet another dater. Afterward, participants check off the people they'd like to meet again, and dates can be arranged between pairs who select one another.
Speed dating let researchers look at a lot of mate choices in a short time, Todd said.
In the study, participants were asked before the session to fill out a questionnaire about what they were looking for in a mate, listing such categories as wealth and status, family commitment, physical appearance, healthiness and attractiveness.
After the session, the researchers compared what the participants said they were looking for with the people they actually chose to ask for another date.
Men's choices did not reflect their stated preferences, the researchers concluded. Instead, men appeared to base their decisions mostly on the women's physical attractiveness.
The men also appeared to be much less choosy. Men tended to select nearly every woman above a certain minimum attractiveness threshold, Todd said.
Women's actual choices, like men's, did not reflect their stated preferences, but they made more discriminating choices, the researchers found.
The scientists said women were aware of the importance of their own attractiveness to men, and adjusted their expectations to select the more desirable guys.
"Women made offers to men who had overall qualities that were on a par with the women's self-rated attractiveness. They didn't greatly overshoot their attractiveness," Todd said, "because part of the goal for women is to choose men who would stay with them"
But, he added, "they didn't go lower. They knew what they could get and aimed for that level."
So, it turns out, the women's attractiveness influenced the choices of the men and the women.
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About Me
- tjcouch
- Former gigs: Animatronic creature tech for film and live action, production studio manager for USF, film production consultant, cameraman for WTVT, IMAX Theatre director, museum director, harbor cruise ship captain. Current gigs: loan officer, commercial property manager, Vice Chairman of The Life Enrichment Center, Trustee of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Director of the University Area Community Development Center, Director of a private grant-making foundation.