Pleasant Surprises

OK, the best surprise is that Eve is having a GIRL! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!

The next couple of surprises are about the current president.

I don't feel like going into the terrible things about Obama's presidency right now, but I do want to highlight a couple things that I like.

A post had been simmering in my brain recently about the situation with the Somali pirates. I felt like the French had shown more gumption towards defending their people than we had. I thought we looked weak on the international stage if we couldn't (or wouldn't) rescue our countrymen. That changed when snipers took out 3 of the pirates as they raised a gun to the captain's back. Maybe France's response pushed Obama into a position where he couldn't try to talk to the pirates and he HAD to show some force, but either way, it ended in the best way possible. For us anyway. Good form, Mr. President.

In other news, Obama has opened some communications with Cuba. I think this is a good idea. The trade embargoes haven't been lifted, but families can now travel and talk to one another. I don't care if our govt differs on substantial issues with another country's govt, families should be together. I think this is a wonderful thing that has happened. Castro has done horrific things, and Obama should still take a stand against him politically, but allowing travel is a good thing.

The best news though, is that the Obamas got a dog! What? You don't care either?

So anyway, I didn't vote for Obama. I don't like a lot of his policies. I don't like how he's letting Pelosi run wild. I don't like how's he's handled the bailouts, or that there has been bailouts at all, but rather than be as vicious as possible about those things, I'm trying to be positive.

I probably won't be next time, so take it while you can get it............tomorrow may be a post about how Texas wants to be a sovereign body or how the pirates have taken 4 more ships in retaliation.

Weird News Wednesday (with a 5 grits warning)

I figured since I took the last couple Wednesdays off, I could fulfill your weird news needs today. You can thank me later. If you need any suggestions, I do need a new digital camera.

I get my news from various sources. I like to check a few different international news sites, as well as national and local. This story is a couple days old, so if you've heard about it already, oh well.

Honda has created a robot that is controlled by your thoughts.

I know!

Before your brain goes wild with the possibilities, let me tell you what the article suggested: A car that drives itself.

Big deal. Who cares about a car that can drive itself, when you can have a whole set of minions? I could think about doing laundry, and then my laundry robot would do it for me. I could think about making dinner, and my chef robot could do it.

I would never have to do any of those boring things, like read to my kids, or bathe them, or play outside with them. I could just lie around, thinking about doing all those things. It would be great!

That wasn't very sincere, was it?

You, I'm sure, dear reader, being the extremely astute person that you are, picked up on the sarcasm right away.

This type of technology is very exciting in it's design phases, but how will this make human life better? Will this mean that govts can create robot armies to wipe out other countries that don't have this technology? Because that's what most leaders think about when they have access to new technology. How to apply it to warfare. Brilliant! Let's make nano-robots that can infest an entire enemy's territory!

Or nano-robots, controlled by some geeks at the Pentagon, spying on all of us, Big Brother style?
*An apology to all my Pentagon-employed geek readers, I certainly don't mean you*

I hope this doesn't overload you with conspiracy theories too early in the morning, but that's just sort of where my brain is lately. Maybe it's the weather. It's kind of difficult to be cheery with ominous Midwestern clouds looming overhead. Will we get snow today? Or rain? Or tornadoes with flooding? I don't know!

Maybe we need some robots controlling the weather too...

Weird News Wednesday - Underwater Edition

A few fish tails...


This little guy is see-through. Well, his head is anyway. He can look through his head to see what's above him. I like to think that's kind of how moms see behind them, but in a less creepy way.



Have you ever seen a mermaid? This lady is a double amputee who has prosthetic legs for walking, but wanted something different to swim. This is pretty cool.













I wouldn't mind seeing that lady in the pool, but seeing this fish while swimming in a river would scare the bejeebers out of me. Of course, I'd have to be in the Congo, and darling, I've just been and I simply shan't be able to fit it in again this year...

Weird News Wednesday

Do you have blue eyes? Then we're cousins! Researchers have decided that there was a single mutation bajillions of years ago that turned off a certain gene making someone's eyes brown. So some cavewoman had a blue-eyed baby and that baby probably mated with a relative. Hey! Don't hate on the cavebaby! I'm sure the dating pool wasn't that big back then. And so on, and so on. Which leads to me. Which everything does, right? Well, on this blog anyway.

And when you blue-eyed cousins come to visit, we can hang out in my new invisible tree house! Ok, so I don't have one yet, but when I grow up, I'm totally gonna build me one.

This one is for my mom and dad. The mayor of Snellville, GA, my hometown, has asked for a police escort to go to the bathroom. He's sort of afraid of the automatic hand dryer. No, not really, he's just afraid of a council member. Just remember, the next time you call the police, and it takes a few extra minutes while you're being stabbed/robbed/raped, that the police are busy. Don't worry, the cops will get there, right after Mayor Oberholtzer flushes and washes his hands. To my non-Snellvillian readers - the city's motto is "Everybody's somebody in Snellville." Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Here's a story that actually IS warm and fuzzy. Russian scientists are producing goats who produce human milk. Got that? Let me say that again. Goats will give human milk. I really don't have any thoughts on that now, I have to wrap my mind around it first. But I do know *for a fact* that Victoria Secret has followed suit by coming up with a special line of bras just for goats.

Here's the cool news I tried to post yesterday.

Go here to see truly amazing photos of the earth. They are breathtaking.

Also, many many kudos to the pilot who successfully crash-landed that plane in the Hudson yesterday. What a hero!

Take a look at this

Can you imagine the possibilities? How about an entire knit body? That has removable knit organs? Very cool.

Scientists have also come up with a way to create plastics using wood pulp. Or hemp, which I would prefer. Hemp is an extremely cost effective alternative to wood, but that's a whole other post. The plastics though, would NOT be made from crude oil as they are now, but rather renewable non-toxic materials.

and one more quick note. I plan on getting photos up in the next week so you can all bask in the cuteness that is my kids.

More cool stuff

MORE because I had a very cool post with 3 other things that made my heart fill with blood and stupid blogspot deleted it. It can't possibly be my fault, so it had to be something else. If I get around to finding the links again, I promise I'll repost those awesome, awesome things.

Watch out for flying poop!
If you happen to be in the Tampa Bay Area, you need to watch out for a loose monkey who likes to throw poop. Be careful. I'm just sayin'.

PSA alert. Do NOT stick your tongue to a frozen pole. Or to a door handle (Mom). Didn't this kid learn anything from The Christmas Story? I MAKE my kids watch it for its educational value. It's got multi-culturalism (the dinner scene and Fra-gee-lay). It's got nature (the neighbor's dogs). AND it's got the triumph of good over evil (the Black Bart daydream). I mean, it's got it all!