EARTHQUAKE!! [Earth-dance]

EARTHQUAKE!! Moderate earthquake rocks northern California

* A magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook northern California on Tuesday
* The quake hit shortly after 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET)
* There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

(CNN) -- A magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook a rural part of northern California on Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The moderate quake hit shortly after 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET) about 11 miles east-southeast of Willow Creek, which is about 190 miles northwest of Sacramento.
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Yup, we got hit by a little quake. I thought it was a 5.1, but it was a 5.2.
Felt like surfing a medium wave. We had a smaller one yesterday, just a hiccup. Willow Creek (home of sasquatch/bigfoot) is a few miles from here.

Now I am repainting the ceiling and gallery walls. Always something to do... scraping, then sweeping, then spackling, then priming, then painting...

update: ok priming the ceiling & window sills all done, and painted all the cube pedestals "old whisper white" color (kind of yellow-pink ivory shade) and spot painted the table and cabinets. Looks lots better than before, definitely. Katy & the ladies are hanging their artworks now for the Gold show. No more quakes for a while hopefully, insyAllah. Shilpa stopped by, namascar. Ok. Had coffee at McD. So what's next? diary entry? nothing. journal? nada. nuther day. nanti tido.

jom !

Dr Taj Hargey, chair of the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford:

"The only requirement is that when women swim they should be modestly clad."

"The Prophet Mohammed pbuh is recorded as saying that it is a Muslim's duty to learn to swim as it could save his or her life".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's right girls, learn to swim, in a safe way. But ... even gorillas and orangutans can swim. (The pygmy chimpanzees seem scared to swim) Only HUMANS can dive and backfloat, so better learn that too! I can teach if u want. Jangan jadi chimpanzee oy.

even the desert camel can swim... and the long tailed macaque and big nose proboscis monkeys can swim better ... pompuan muslimah jom ... dive like the beautiful dolphin, backfloat like the happy sea otter hehe jangan takutleh jom jom

selamat selam jom kita berswimming & berdiving & berbackfloating

Art Gallery painting day

today, i scrape the ceiling of the art gallery, then sweep the floor, then paint the ceiling with latex primer paint (cuz got rainwater stains and loose chips).

I finished the scraping and sweeping, take a break...But feeling sleepy, nak napping dulu.

update: finished half the ceiling, ran out of paint. Maniana.
2nd update: the others didn't paint the walls, so I did.

still got hundreds of newsletters to fold, better get busy...

Human biology

http://anthropology.net/2008/04/24/pardis-sabeti-in-the-most-recent-issue-of-science/

A lady Iranian anthropologist, Pardis Sabeti MD, PhD

http://anthropology.net/2007/07/31/anthropology-and-islam-call-for-paper/
Anthropolgy & Islam conference in China, papers, from Kambiz

squall season

[Jedi grand master Yoda prepare to cut the birthday cake]


epi brpday cik paan taicho chan ! :)

Volcano Kettle

One minute water boiler kettle, for fuel-efficient, quick "coffee or tea or mee" while on a fishing or camping trek.
http://www.eydonkettle.com/stormkettle.html (2 handed, aluminum, L & S, fry kit)
http://www.safariquip.co.uk/i_kelly_kettle.html (2 handed, aluminum, 2 and 2.5 pint)
http://www.thermette.com/thermette_how-to.htm (one handed operation, copper metal)

Just a coincidence, I just came back from McDonalds for a coffee, and happened to walk by a group of teens who stood around a small camp stove, which was actually a coffee can with a side handle, a central grate with wood pieces on fire, and ventilation holes beneath giving a draft, which made the fire flow upwards through the can's chimney. It had a resemblance to the thermette, but did not have a water container, it was just a stove. I had never seen one quite like that, though I've I've seen other "hobo stoves" made from coffee cans before. I like the kettles above, but the prices aren't cheap, the smallest and cheapest is the 1 pint kelly kettle for $75, a good investment for some traveling campers, hunters, fishermen, kayakers etc.

I've been trying to think of possible improvements to the design, but haven't come up with anything practical except possibly to make it a bit shorter, so as to reduce the bulkiness while carrying. Still considering other details. Seems there's a bit of waste heat going out the chimney which could be of practical use, eg. setting a pebble atop it to heat, as a foot warmer at night after evening tea. But then one could simply boil a bit more water and put it in a hot water bottle as well. Anyway, neat concept.

Transformers

Amazing change from owl to peacock to karate cat?. Haiyo!

How about this one?

Hijabgirl "Who is trying to stop her? What is her mission?" Changes from niqab to ninja faster than maggie mee can cook...
hijabgirl
godsninjas




Allah ya'atik al-afyah ~ God give you strength

[couldn't find pic of the pompuan muslimah version of ninja girl]

Brains and Bits (part deux)

Einstein 's Brain, Watson's Genome

follow up from John Hawks: Watson's DNA

home :: topics :: humor :: quotes :: rosalind-franklin-genome-watson-2008

The teaser to this post on Science Blog:

The next generation of genome sequencing has been published using the DNA of James Watson. I'll bet they used Rosalind Franklin's DNA as a test drive and didn't tell us.

(DD: ahaks! Good one JH! Watson & Crick discovered the geometrical structure of DNA, but not without Franklin's research)

Why do humans have big brains?

GEOFFREY MILLER is a man with a theory that, if true, will change the way people think about themselves. His idea is that the human brain is the anthropoid equivalent of the peacock's tail. In other words, it is an organ designed to attract the opposite sex. Of course, brains have many other functions, and the human brain shares those with the brains of other animals. But Dr Miller, who works at the University of New Mexico, thinks that mental processes which are uniquely human, such as language and the ability to make complicated artefacts, evolved originally for sexual display.

One important difference between peacocks' tails and human minds, of course, is that the peahen's accoutrement is a drab affair. No one could say the same of the human female psyche. That, Dr Miller believes, is because people, unlike peafowl, bring up their offspring in families where both sexes are involved in parenting. It thus behoves a man to be as careful about choosing his wife as a woman is about choosing her husband.

Both sexes, therefore, have reason to show off. But men and women will have different criteria for making their choices, and so the sexual-display sides of their minds may differ in detail.

Testing this hypothesis will be a long haul...
[Economist, Aug. 2007]
http://blogs.usatoday.com/techspace/2007/08/coffee-break--2.html?csp=34

(DD: Perhaps, but only if specific nutrients are present in the diet such as Iodine, Selenium, Omega 3 oils, etc. Else, cretinism, hypothyroidism, goitres occur.)

Brain scaling: “what rules differ across orders of mammals, and thus might account for phylogenetic variance across groups?” After doing some calculations, they found that if the same cellular scaling rules for rodents applied to primate brains, “a brain comparable to ours, with approximately 100 billion neurons, would weigh >45 kg and belong to a body of 109 tons, about the mass of the heaviest living mammal, the blue whale!” [Evo Fresno]

Hyper-link: how to make a link in a blog/comment

the link, as a simple word: "how"
Instructions on how to hyper-link. (Click on it)

how old are you

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1145&p=front&a=2


God made hands to hold in love, not to strike in hatred. My hands are empty.

oh nose!

In east Asian countries, many ladies get eyelid surgery, to make extra fold.
http://www.drmeronk.com/asian/asian-eyelid-photos.html

In Thailand, Indonesia many ladies have surgery to make bigger nose.
http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/1101020805/story.html


In Iran, many ladies have surgery to make smaller nose.
http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2008/04/nose_jobs_in_iran.php

In Britain, other cosmetic surgeries are common, in US botox too.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/05/1212258982021.html

European hymen surgery
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/europe/11virgin.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

Female circumcision surgery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_cutting

I hadn't heard of this cosmetic non-surgical botox technique for reducing the protruding north Chinese 'square jaw' to a smoother cheek profile as in pic.
http://www.mirandaplasticsurgery.com/botox_for_jaw_reduction.html?gclid=CMDGlIfbhJQCFSMYagod1DE_XA


Different shapes and sizes. Plastic surgery to correct physical problems is one thing, but if only to make copies of famous people's noses is a bit ridiculous I think. But what do I know, I'm just a guy. Like I said to a friend, a girl is never more beautiful than when she is naked and leaving her mums tummy to join us. There is no makeup necessary, just a breath of fresh air and a little crying. Is she a hollywood model? No, she's a chubby wrinkly little mess, with a funny shaped skull and toothless and almost bald, some vernix and lanugo. Beautiful, eh? :) yup.

insyallah, i will be blessed too with a gift like that. alhamdulillah. peace be with you.

Sacred Biology: brains and bits

" Among the 17 tissues, the highest similarity in gene expression patterns was between human brain and testis, based on DDD and clustering analysis. Genes contributing to the similarity include ribosomal protein (RP) genes as well as genes involved in transcription, translation and cell division. Conclusions: Present results provide evidence to support the proposal that human testis and brain share the highest similarity of gene expression patterns."

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?doi=10.1159/000076290


This surprised me, apparently testes and brains have some strong genetic similarities.


I was aware that during embryogenesis and fetal development IIRC, male gonads (testes) move internally from somewhere around the cephalic-cervical region (head-neck) towards the abdomen to the caudal-urethral region, producing a weak area susceptible to hernias. Is it possible that the testes are comprised of isolated homologous brain tissues, and are thus secondarily affected by bio-chemicals meant for the brain? Do treatments for brain disorders affect the libido? Do female ovaries also have brain-like tissue?

lost and found and lost and found...

"You don't know what you've got til it's gone"


From the song by Joni Mitchell, 'Big Yellow Taxi'

(I just happened to see a blogger's similar quote)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Yellow_Taxi
http://jonimitchell.com/musician/song.cfm?id=BigYellowTaxi
http://jonimitchell.com/research/g_entry.cfm?id=31


Joni is a Canadian Eurasian lady, she also wrote 'Both sides now', nice song.

Finance, sex, social status

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080405/ap_on_sc/finance_and_sex_10

"Stanford psychologist Brian Knutson, a lead author of the study, says it's all about the power of emotion and arousal and our financial decisions. The link between sex and greed goes back hundreds of thousands of years, to men's role as provider or resource gatherer to attract women, said Kevin McCabe, professor of economics, law and neuroscience at George Mason University, who wasn't part of the study."

There's a bit more to it...

a day aside

(I stowed away some posts.)