I have been writing a paper tonight on Sowbug’s aka Rolly Polly’s. There was a time when Rolly Polly’s really interested me. I would entertain myself by poking them and watching them curl up in ball but that time has long past and there is a lot else I would rather be doing.

But having finished the paper, I am amazed at these little creatures. There is a lot more to them then I would have thought. Come to find out, many scientists have spent their careers studying Sowbugs (…and for that I am grateful as one evening is enough for me)

Why are Sowbugs interesting to scientists? Weeelll, they are not actually bugs, they breath through gills. And because they have very simple lungs, evolutionary biologist consider Sowbugs a leap forward in evolutionary development. Of course, the flip side is that Sowbugs are perfectly well designed to live in the environment they have been placed in and don’t need anything more. As our bio prof pointed out, “Why say that a simpler organism is inferior? Many very simple organisms thrive in the environment they are in.”

Something I thought was interesting is how similar Sowbugs look to Pill Millipedes although they are a ways apart on the evolutionary family tree (a Millipede is an insect and a Sowbug is a crustacean) This is what has been termed parallel evolution but it is hard to envisage two organisms evolving identical looking shells (there are other even better examples) .

So I have lost an evening to these little critters and I still think that the best thing about them is that if you poke them, they curl into a ball.

Krajec sent me the specs for this lens. It’d be ideal for nature photography. With a focal length of 1200mm a person could photograph a tick on deers rump from a mile away. At 36 lbs it comes with its very own aluminum carrying case… or trunk. Only 12 have been made in the world so the prestige factor is high and it is on sale at BH Photo for a cool 99,000.

So I got hooked on Hogans Heroes while at school (thanks Jon). In the show, Colonel Klink is notorious for his inability with women (except for the General sister) There is only one time I have ever seen Klink manage to win a girls heart so I thought it might be worth studying his method.

Colonel Klink: You have the most beautiful eyes.

Girl: Danke herr Commandant

Colenel Klink: hahaha you can just call me Commandant

Girl: OK Commandant

Colonel Klink: Now lets see, where were we…

Girl: My eyes.

Colonel Klink: Your eyes sparkle like 33 millimeter anti aircraft shells bursting in the dark night sky…

Girl: ahhh

So here is a bit of Hogans Trivia… What was Shultz’s occupation before he was conscripted?

We have been studying the formation of mountains in geology class. I am impressed by the amazing tectonic forces involved in their uplifting and the complex puzzle they have left behind for us to decipher. Of course in class we are taught a purely naturalistic explanation. Maybe I will write more about that later.

I came across this passage in Job today. In one of Jobs speeches he compares the labor of gold miners who ‘lay bare the roots of the mountains’ in search of treasure with our own pursuit of wisdom and understanding.

Man’s hand assaults the flinty rock and lays bare the roots of the mountains. He tunnels through the rock; his eyes see all its treasures. He searches the sources of the rivers and brings hidden things to light. “But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me’;

…God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord– that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding. Job 28:1-28

We can assault the flinty rock with our hands and tunnel into the depths of the mountains in search of wisdom and understanding but ultimately such precious treasure is found in God alone. He alone sees and knows all things.

The conclusion? Fear God; shun evil. What amazing insight!

I am not in a grocery store very often and don’t compare prices anyway but even I have noticed the rise in food prices. For me that just means that I will buy less of something else (or better yet, eat at my parents) but in some areas these rising costs are really starting to bite. In Mexico back in December 70,000 protested the rise in corn prices. Apparently in Haiti the very poor are resorting to eating a ‘mud cake’ that is mixture of edible clay, shortening and salt.

At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.

Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared to food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy. – MSNBC

I guess I wonder how much of that article is written for effect. I don’t doubt though, that people there are eating these mud pies for food and that is very sad…

And then there are those who pay to eat another kind of dirt. Coming to a cell phone near you…

Pornography has made inroads on cell phones in Europe, where it was a $775 million industry in 2007 that will grow to $1.5 billion by 2012, with the global market reaching $3.5 billion in 2010, according to Britain-based Juniper Research.

In comparison, North America generated just $26 million last year as carriers shied away from porn sales. Canada’s second-largest phone company, Telus Corp, for example, withdrew a mobile porn service last year after complaints from hundreds of customers and criticism from the Catholic Church.

Gartner telecoms analyst Michael King said he expects mobile porn to be more prevalent around 2009, when there will be more phones that can show high-quality graphics.

Porn is “one of the bigger pieces of Web revenue. You would assume the natural extension would be on mobile,” King said. – MSNBC

It is interesting that Telus was forced to withdraw their mobile porn service. Now I can add that to my list of reasons I don’t like Telus.

Correction to Obama posting – Clinton didn’t really cry… but here is her speech next to a few others. I know that Hillary is not addressing the nation at a time of war so maybe its not a very fair comparison… but it makes you wonder how she would do if she had to tell the nation that half of the US Pacific fleet was at the bottom of Pearl Harbor or that 300,000 Allied troops had been evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk.

Franklin Roosevelt – Day of Infamy

Churchill – We will fight

Hillary Clinton – Its not easy

Hillary Clinton is no Margaret Thatcher.

I had an interesting conversation with a native man I picked up today on my way out of Fort Qu’appelle. I was surprised to see him on the side of the road as the temperature gage on my car said that it was -17 C (it felt a lot colder than that) and he was in a wheelchair. He said that his car had been impounded because a signal light didn’t work although I think there might have been more to the story than that. He went on to tell me a little about his life. He hadn’t always lived on the reservation but he was back now that he had lost his legs. Although I didn’t ask him, he said that he had lost his legs one night while he was living in Regina. He could see the light of the locomotive coming at him as he stumbled down a set of railway tracks but he was so drunk that he couldn’t cover the four feet that would have put him out of harms way. He finished his story with a sad commentary, “But what can you do you know, life is like that… Its slowed me down a bit.”

It was just a short drive to his home which was situated on a slight bluff looking over the bald prairies of Saskatchewan – just a little ways out of Qu’appelle Valley. The house was standard gov’n issue typical of the reservations that I have seen. I wheeled his chair up a plywood ramp and past an old door that swung freely in the opening. As we pushed our way inside, the glass window pane in the door fell to the ground. The rest of the house wasn’t in much better shape. There were about 10 people inside, with all 3 generations represented. Although the house was dimly lit and I only had few seconds to look around, it was clear enough that its owners had lost all sense self respect and had given their lives over to drink and sloth (aided no doubt by the foolish policies of our gov’n).

There was a church near Joe’s home so I asked him about it. He chuckled a little and said that nobody went there… and something to the effect that it was just for show. The next day was a Sunday so I decided to go back with the idea that at least a small service must be held there each week. But Joe was right, the church had sat empty for some time. It still seemed to be in decent shape but there was no easy way to get to it.

On my flight over, I came across an article in the National Post about some of the serious problems facing reservations and some urban centers today. The crime rate among native populations is skyrocketing and is a cause for serious concern. Gangs are becoming better organized and far more lethal. In some areas such as Winnepeg and Regina, native populations will make up over half the population in 25 years (growth rates stay the same). Politicians, NGO’s and the like are all wringing their hands and saying that we need to do something before we are hit with ‘a demographic Tsunami’…

Here are a few statistics from the article.

150 number of aboriginal doctors among the 60,000 physicians practicing nationwide

500,000 income, in dollars, in a lifetime, lost by an aboriginal male who drops out of school

21 percentage of aboriginals reporting some form of physical or sexual violence from a spouse between 1999 and 2004

6 percentage of non aboriginals reporting spousal violence in the same time period

8.8 average homicide rate for aboriginal people per 100,000 population

1.3 average homicide rate for nonaboriginals per 100,000 population

10 number of times more likely it is an aboriginal will be charged with homicide, relative to non aboriginals

28,900 number of crimes per 100,000 people on reserves in 2004

8,500 number of crimes per 100,000 people on reserves in 200?

13,500 median income, in dollars, for a Canadian aboriginal in 2000

22,400 median income, in dollars, for non aboriginals that same year

52 percentage of aboriginals who have graduated high school

-taken from National Post

I wonder what would have happened if missionaries and frontier men such as John McDougall could have had their way? And where is the church now in all of this?

So I haven’t been following the US primaries very closely but this article on JPost was a real eye opener to me. I wasn’t aware of some of Obama’s policies and connections. Check it out here

I can’t personally think of a candidate in the US that I would get excited about –

Huckabee – didn’t know about the report released by the CIA on the status of Iran’s nuclear ambiton’s. Something you would expect a presidential candidate to know.

Clinton – claimed in a autobiography that her mother named her after Sir Edmund Hillary even though Sir Edmund Hillary didn’t make his ascent of Everest until 10 year after she was born. Married to a brilliant and well established liar who was a very great discredit to the American presidency. Publicly cried when she lost a primary.

Romney – The Book of Mormon!???

Obama – has connections to a black racist group (his church, Trinity United Church of Christ, believes that blacks are the true chosen people), anti semitic and openly supportive of Odinga in Kenya who is seeking to overthrow the current president and is backed by Islamic extremist’s.

Anyway, I guess it’s always easy to find fault but during these elections it is maybe a little easier than usual.

Came across this photo the other day. This is my good buddy Caspar. You will have to ask him about the fairy costume… : ) – Balthy

The Alpine Club has a great hostel in Canmore with fairly decent rates. This late one night… a little bored and a little too much coffee.