Sunday, May 07, 2006
Gross stuff
Bugs are gross (except for butterflies and ladybugs), although they can be fascinating in their alienness; nothing has made this more clear than the advances in photography that have allowed us to see all their creepy details. You've seen super-close-up pics of flies, I'm sure... but have you ever seen one where the fly had GLASSES?
"An entry in a German science-photo competition, this image shows a fly sporting a set of 'designer' lenses crafted and set in place with a cutting-edge laser technique. The glasses fit snuggly on the fly's 0.08-inch-wide (2-millimeter-wide) head."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0328_060328_fly_glasses.html
How did they get those glasses on the fly, and how did they make it hold still long enough to get a photo?
Can you imagine when someone stood up in a meeting and said, "I've got an idea-let's make a pair of really tiny glasses and photograph them on a FLY"? If German geeks are like their American brethren, the response was along the lines of "Wow, what a cool idea!! Let's do it!!"
The grossest all of bugs is the cockroach; if filth had legs, it'd be a roach. If you ever feel like they're outsmarting you, swarming everywhere EXCEPT where you've got traps and baits put out, you may be right; it appears that they're more intelligent than we give them credit for:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060327/cockroach_ani.html
"Cockroaches govern themselves in a very simple democracy where each insect has equal standing and group consultations precede decisions that affect the entire group, indicates a new study."
This requires something closer to thinking and reasoning than I'd ever guessed they were capable of, but that's nothing compared to their MATH abilities:
"Halloy tested cockroach group behavior by placing the insects in a dish that contained three shelters. The test was to see how the cockroaches would divide themselves into the shelters.
After much 'consultation,' through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.
When the researchers altered this setup so that it had three shelters with a capacity for more than 50 insects, all of the cockroaches moved into the first 'house.'"
Could YOU tell by looking at a shelter, with no measuring devices, whether it could hold 50 people or just 40? More impressive than that is something you CAN do; how are the roaches able to divide themselves into 2 identical groups? At the very least, this would seem to require an understanding of what I've seen described in reference to chimps as "pre-mathematical concepts," in this case the ability to grasp the idea of more, less and equal; combined with how they're able to tell how many of them can fit into a given amount of space, it really does look like they're doing simple math... I HOPE there's some other explanation, though, because otherwise it's too much like something out of a horror movie.
This site has something gross in a totally different way:
http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/
It sounds like a porn site, but actually it's owned by Norelco, and exists to advertise a trimmer/shaver meant for a man to use to groom his body hair, called, unoriginally enough, Bodygroom; the guy in the Flash movie on the site discusses such topics as how grooming in the genital area can lead to, er, objects in the area appearing larger... and if you keep watching after the speech has been given, he does various odd things, including scratching his groin. Can you believe that a major company did something like this?
And now, for tales from the grossest thing of all; MARRIAGE.
We got some Chinese takeout, which included fried rice with peas and carrots; since I don't eat veggies, I tossed all of mine on my husband's plate. At one point in the meal, inspiration hit him; he ate one of the peas and announced, "I've got your pea in my mouth"... and I didn't need to hear the resultant snicker to know that he was in fact making the pea/pee pun. A little while later, I was on the floor working on my laptop, and he was half-heartedly wiping the table; as always, he was knocking more stuff onto the floor than he was picking up. When a pea went bouncing onto my keyboard, I returned it with a disgusted protest, to which he replied, "I'm pea-ing on you." He was SO proud.
Later, we were talking in his study, and he interrupted me to say, "You'd better wrap this up quickly... depending on how fast the air currents are flowing..." and I, having known him for over a decade, instantly grasped that a wave of flatulence strong enough to melt the paint off the walls was about to hit. I bolted from the room, slamming the door and yelling through it "You stay in there and breathe it all in!!"; his laughter followed me down the hall.
At least he WARNED me; that, single readers please take note, is what true married love is like.
"An entry in a German science-photo competition, this image shows a fly sporting a set of 'designer' lenses crafted and set in place with a cutting-edge laser technique. The glasses fit snuggly on the fly's 0.08-inch-wide (2-millimeter-wide) head."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0328_060328_fly_glasses.html
How did they get those glasses on the fly, and how did they make it hold still long enough to get a photo?
Can you imagine when someone stood up in a meeting and said, "I've got an idea-let's make a pair of really tiny glasses and photograph them on a FLY"? If German geeks are like their American brethren, the response was along the lines of "Wow, what a cool idea!! Let's do it!!"
The grossest all of bugs is the cockroach; if filth had legs, it'd be a roach. If you ever feel like they're outsmarting you, swarming everywhere EXCEPT where you've got traps and baits put out, you may be right; it appears that they're more intelligent than we give them credit for:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060327/cockroach_ani.html
"Cockroaches govern themselves in a very simple democracy where each insect has equal standing and group consultations precede decisions that affect the entire group, indicates a new study."
This requires something closer to thinking and reasoning than I'd ever guessed they were capable of, but that's nothing compared to their MATH abilities:
"Halloy tested cockroach group behavior by placing the insects in a dish that contained three shelters. The test was to see how the cockroaches would divide themselves into the shelters.
After much 'consultation,' through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.
When the researchers altered this setup so that it had three shelters with a capacity for more than 50 insects, all of the cockroaches moved into the first 'house.'"
Could YOU tell by looking at a shelter, with no measuring devices, whether it could hold 50 people or just 40? More impressive than that is something you CAN do; how are the roaches able to divide themselves into 2 identical groups? At the very least, this would seem to require an understanding of what I've seen described in reference to chimps as "pre-mathematical concepts," in this case the ability to grasp the idea of more, less and equal; combined with how they're able to tell how many of them can fit into a given amount of space, it really does look like they're doing simple math... I HOPE there's some other explanation, though, because otherwise it's too much like something out of a horror movie.
This site has something gross in a totally different way:
http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/
It sounds like a porn site, but actually it's owned by Norelco, and exists to advertise a trimmer/shaver meant for a man to use to groom his body hair, called, unoriginally enough, Bodygroom; the guy in the Flash movie on the site discusses such topics as how grooming in the genital area can lead to, er, objects in the area appearing larger... and if you keep watching after the speech has been given, he does various odd things, including scratching his groin. Can you believe that a major company did something like this?
And now, for tales from the grossest thing of all; MARRIAGE.
We got some Chinese takeout, which included fried rice with peas and carrots; since I don't eat veggies, I tossed all of mine on my husband's plate. At one point in the meal, inspiration hit him; he ate one of the peas and announced, "I've got your pea in my mouth"... and I didn't need to hear the resultant snicker to know that he was in fact making the pea/pee pun. A little while later, I was on the floor working on my laptop, and he was half-heartedly wiping the table; as always, he was knocking more stuff onto the floor than he was picking up. When a pea went bouncing onto my keyboard, I returned it with a disgusted protest, to which he replied, "I'm pea-ing on you." He was SO proud.
Later, we were talking in his study, and he interrupted me to say, "You'd better wrap this up quickly... depending on how fast the air currents are flowing..." and I, having known him for over a decade, instantly grasped that a wave of flatulence strong enough to melt the paint off the walls was about to hit. I bolted from the room, slamming the door and yelling through it "You stay in there and breathe it all in!!"; his laughter followed me down the hall.
At least he WARNED me; that, single readers please take note, is what true married love is like.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Relationship karma
A major spiritual epiphany I've had this year is about how when you influence people with your actions or words, making them think, feel or act differently than they otherwise would, the karma generated by whatever actions they take, or energy they emit, flows back to you, as does karma from whoever those people influence because of YOUR influence, and on and on (see my posts of 2-18-06 and 4-7-06). It occurred to me today that there's another avenue that would connect your karma to other people's; having a relationship with them. I'm not talking about how the karma of those around you overlaps your karmic sphere, which is old news, but about how, just by being someone's friend, lover, or family member, you affect them, and in return receive some of their karma directly.
What do you suppose that means if you persist in maintaining close ties with an EVIL person?
Have you ever known a bad person who DIDN'T have friends, a romantic partner, and family who loved them? Probably not. Why do even decent, intelligent, mature people cling to bad apples? Because no one realizes or admits that someone in THEIR sacred group of loved/liked ones could possibly be anything but wonderful. You know what's coming next, right? Unless you, like me, have made a major lifelong effort to make SURE that only decent people are allowed to have more than distant, formal contact with you, there's a good chance that some unpleasant people are impacting your karma with their ugliness.
We can't expect people to be saints, but we CAN expect basically good behavior and attitudes, and we SHOULD be rejecting people who don't manage that, although for the most part we don't; we say things like, "Well, yeah, (s)he hates gays/cheats on their partner all the time/spreads vicious gossip/takes credit for other people's work/goes on a serial killing spree every week, but (s)he's my friend/lover/sibling, so...", as if the existence of the relationship somehow counteracts the often lengthy list of serious wrongdoings they're guilty of. I don't care how much you love them, how long you've known them, or if you share DNA or a name with them, if they do bad things they're a bad person; the new twist is that withholding your affection and support from them is not only the right thing to do to, it's karmically correct as well.
How do you get karma from the people you have relationships with? When you interact with someone in a chummy way, or, even more meaningfully, in a loving way, you become part of the foundation of their emotional life, one of those from whom they gain strength and confidence... which evil types then use to hurt people. While there are certainly folks who are natural loners, in general we're social creatures who want the approval of, and attention from, those around us; we're quick to use this power to pressure people into wearing the "right" clothes and getting the "right" haircuts, but we're utter failures at using it to make them BEHAVE. The friendship and love that we give bad people emboldens them to MISbehave, and opens up a pipeline through which the bad karma they receive from their victims comes to US; based on their lack of intervention, it's clear that few people care about the harm done to the victims of their nastier buddies, but maybe realizing that staying close to toxic types is in itself harmful will persuade some folks to take off their blinders and stop clasping the vipers to their bosoms.
Rotten people eventually get around to slamming everyone within reach, including those they supposedly like/love; I've warned over and over that this is an ironclad reason to kick any baddies in your life to the curb. We find it hard to be concerned about the vague future, though, especially when we refuse to truly believe that it'll be anything but rosy, so maybe this realization will help you do the necessary kicking; no matter how virtuous you are, you won't have clean karma unless the people in your life are also virtuous, or at the very least NEUTRAL... select your friends and lovers, and which family members to be close to, accordingly.
There are plenty of terrific people in the world, folks who don't hurt or hate; I know they're not as glamorous or exciting or sexy as the baddies are, but you're an adult, and you can get beyond that... cultivate relationships with them, CHOOSE to favor good over evil, and you'll reap the benefits.
Here's the news:
The Christmas tree STILL isn't down, but everything's off of it now, so maybe by the end of the week... or MONTH, sigh...
My grandmother's in her 90's, and she's been losing her mental sharpness in the last few years; in our most recent attempted phone conversation, for the 1st time she couldn't seem to grasp who my husband and I were... she had us confused with my cousin and her fiance despite our best efforts to straighten her out. OUCH. :-(
The alpha male raccoon, who'd had an injured front paw, suddenly stopped coming. The beta male stopped coming too. The gamma male has yet to return after I accidentally scared him off the 1st time he came to eat. The female had stopped coming also, and we thought we'd been completely abandoned by coonish society, or that they were all
(dead)
trapped and relocated, but a few days ago she came back... and SHE has an injured leg/paw (we can't tell which, we just know she tries not to put that paw on the ground), a rear one this time, which makes it VERY hard for her to walk. TWO raccoons that hang out together BOTH with major injuries within a small time frame? If I find out that someone has been pelting them with rocks or doing something else to hurt them...
Don't worry, I'll leave you with a bit of humor; I got a "gun" that fires foam projectiles, which is intended to allow kids to shoot each other without causing injury... but there's ways around the harmlessness of that particular toy. When it came in the mail, my husband got it set up for me and we went to the "firing range" (aka the hallway); he got to the far end and dropped his pants... and he didn't turn his back to me, either, let's say, hehehehehe. I'm an awful shot, but he tells me each time where I hit him so that I can gradually correct my aim; eventually, the shriek of pain tells me that I hit the target... and then we both laugh and laugh.
Does that seem crazy to you? Believe it or not, this was originally my husband's idea; I've been pelting him in the groin with stuff for YEARS, and his explanation for it is that it makes me laugh, and that'll help keep him alive when he screws up. Between you and me, as entertaining as this game is I'd prefer that he pick up after himself instead, or show up on time, or flush the toilet more often; still, I'm the envy of my female friends, and that's gotta count for something.
What do you suppose that means if you persist in maintaining close ties with an EVIL person?
Have you ever known a bad person who DIDN'T have friends, a romantic partner, and family who loved them? Probably not. Why do even decent, intelligent, mature people cling to bad apples? Because no one realizes or admits that someone in THEIR sacred group of loved/liked ones could possibly be anything but wonderful. You know what's coming next, right? Unless you, like me, have made a major lifelong effort to make SURE that only decent people are allowed to have more than distant, formal contact with you, there's a good chance that some unpleasant people are impacting your karma with their ugliness.
We can't expect people to be saints, but we CAN expect basically good behavior and attitudes, and we SHOULD be rejecting people who don't manage that, although for the most part we don't; we say things like, "Well, yeah, (s)he hates gays/cheats on their partner all the time/spreads vicious gossip/takes credit for other people's work/goes on a serial killing spree every week, but (s)he's my friend/lover/sibling, so...", as if the existence of the relationship somehow counteracts the often lengthy list of serious wrongdoings they're guilty of. I don't care how much you love them, how long you've known them, or if you share DNA or a name with them, if they do bad things they're a bad person; the new twist is that withholding your affection and support from them is not only the right thing to do to, it's karmically correct as well.
How do you get karma from the people you have relationships with? When you interact with someone in a chummy way, or, even more meaningfully, in a loving way, you become part of the foundation of their emotional life, one of those from whom they gain strength and confidence... which evil types then use to hurt people. While there are certainly folks who are natural loners, in general we're social creatures who want the approval of, and attention from, those around us; we're quick to use this power to pressure people into wearing the "right" clothes and getting the "right" haircuts, but we're utter failures at using it to make them BEHAVE. The friendship and love that we give bad people emboldens them to MISbehave, and opens up a pipeline through which the bad karma they receive from their victims comes to US; based on their lack of intervention, it's clear that few people care about the harm done to the victims of their nastier buddies, but maybe realizing that staying close to toxic types is in itself harmful will persuade some folks to take off their blinders and stop clasping the vipers to their bosoms.
Rotten people eventually get around to slamming everyone within reach, including those they supposedly like/love; I've warned over and over that this is an ironclad reason to kick any baddies in your life to the curb. We find it hard to be concerned about the vague future, though, especially when we refuse to truly believe that it'll be anything but rosy, so maybe this realization will help you do the necessary kicking; no matter how virtuous you are, you won't have clean karma unless the people in your life are also virtuous, or at the very least NEUTRAL... select your friends and lovers, and which family members to be close to, accordingly.
There are plenty of terrific people in the world, folks who don't hurt or hate; I know they're not as glamorous or exciting or sexy as the baddies are, but you're an adult, and you can get beyond that... cultivate relationships with them, CHOOSE to favor good over evil, and you'll reap the benefits.
Here's the news:
The Christmas tree STILL isn't down, but everything's off of it now, so maybe by the end of the week... or MONTH, sigh...
My grandmother's in her 90's, and she's been losing her mental sharpness in the last few years; in our most recent attempted phone conversation, for the 1st time she couldn't seem to grasp who my husband and I were... she had us confused with my cousin and her fiance despite our best efforts to straighten her out. OUCH. :-(
The alpha male raccoon, who'd had an injured front paw, suddenly stopped coming. The beta male stopped coming too. The gamma male has yet to return after I accidentally scared him off the 1st time he came to eat. The female had stopped coming also, and we thought we'd been completely abandoned by coonish society, or that they were all
(dead)
trapped and relocated, but a few days ago she came back... and SHE has an injured leg/paw (we can't tell which, we just know she tries not to put that paw on the ground), a rear one this time, which makes it VERY hard for her to walk. TWO raccoons that hang out together BOTH with major injuries within a small time frame? If I find out that someone has been pelting them with rocks or doing something else to hurt them...
Don't worry, I'll leave you with a bit of humor; I got a "gun" that fires foam projectiles, which is intended to allow kids to shoot each other without causing injury... but there's ways around the harmlessness of that particular toy. When it came in the mail, my husband got it set up for me and we went to the "firing range" (aka the hallway); he got to the far end and dropped his pants... and he didn't turn his back to me, either, let's say, hehehehehe. I'm an awful shot, but he tells me each time where I hit him so that I can gradually correct my aim; eventually, the shriek of pain tells me that I hit the target... and then we both laugh and laugh.
Does that seem crazy to you? Believe it or not, this was originally my husband's idea; I've been pelting him in the groin with stuff for YEARS, and his explanation for it is that it makes me laugh, and that'll help keep him alive when he screws up. Between you and me, as entertaining as this game is I'd prefer that he pick up after himself instead, or show up on time, or flush the toilet more often; still, I'm the envy of my female friends, and that's gotta count for something.
