 | Last login: 15 hours agoEireann is a 34 year old single woman from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. |
- Octopus unearths 900-year-old hidden treasure | Mail Online
 Jul 8, 4:32pm  (5 reviews) history, neat-o, squee, octopi http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...- See? They're even skilled at archaeology. Though I have a mental image of the trawler causing terror and mayhem at the octopus version of Antiques Roadshow.
It is a story that combines all the great mysteries and exciting discoveries of the sea? an octopus hauled onto a fishing boat with valuable ancient pottery attached to its suckers.
Conjuring up visions of ancient mariners and sailing ships laden with fabulous wares, Korean fisherman Kim Yong-Chul pulled up more octopus, most of which had shards of pottery attached to their tentacles.
Now the chance discovery is being hailed as one of the great undersea treasure discoveries of modern times.
Officials at the National Maritime Museumin Seoul say the pottery dates back to 12th century, when the Koryo Dynasty ruled the Korean peninsula.
- Lurking at the Aquarium, Brilliant Houdinis of the Deep - washingtonpost...
- Jul 8, 4:16pm
 (2 reviews) animals, neat-o, squee, octopi http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con... - I'm on an octopus kick, and wore a tremendous grin while reading this article. (The grin appeared even before reading of an octopus nicknamed "Lucretia McEvil".)
Science is now questioning whether these wonderful creatures shouldn't be considered as intelligent as the vertebrate nerds of the animal world. They certainly seem to have highly developed, often petulant personalities to go with their smarts; The stroppy teens of the animal kingdom.
"That was my attitude, too," confesses science writer Eugene Linden, who has written about animal intelligence since the 1970s and had focused, mostly, on the "big-brained" creatures such as apes, dolphins, elephants and whales. "I shared all the prejudices everybody else has."
Then he started hearing octopus stories. Like how they can open screw-top jars and hamster balls and child-proof caps. They can do mazes and learn shapes and distinguish colors and use tools.
"They play," says Jennifer Mather, a psychologist and octopus expert at Canada's University of Lethbridge.
There are even hints that octopuses have a sense of humor, Linden says.
He talks about the finicky octopus who, in a lab in Pennsylvania, was served slightly spoiled shrimp. The octopus refused to finish its dinner, and when the feeding researcher returned to its tank, the octopus made eye contact with her, then meaningfully pushed all the shrimp down the drain.
- Orisinal.com - Winterbells
- Jul 7, 3:42pm (1232 reviews) online-games, games, squee, time-wasters http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/be...
- Proof that games don't have to be loud and obnoxious to be highly, highly addictive.
- Phatic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Jul 6, 11:05am (14 reviews) linguistics, word-ofthe-moment, word-nerd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phatic
- In linguistics, a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task, as opposed to conveying information...
For example, "you're welcome" is not intended to convey the message that the hearer is welcome; it is a phatic response to being thanked, which in turn is a phatic whose function is to be polite in response to a gift.
- judefas review - StumbleUpon
- Jul 6, 10:07am (5 reviews) stumbly, boat-rockers, save-our-stumbleupon http://judefa.stumbleupon.com/review/905...
- Judefa enumerates the many, many problems inherent in the new StumbleUpon. Thanks from one who has exactly the same complaints but a tendency to foam at the mouth when listing them.
The Devs - in their quest to solicit cash from spammers and corporations - have completely ignored the input from the old timers who gave them their start and once made this place a joy to visit. Please, PLEASE, Devs - take a look at this list and understand why the new look is an abject failure from a usability standpoint. I'm sick of seeing my StumblePals abandoning the site simply because of easily-fixed design errors.
- nonzerosums favorite web sites - StumbleUpon
- Jul 6, 9:31am (9 reviews) stumbly http://nonzerosum.stumbleupon.com/
- My lefty streak has been laid bare today, I suppose, so I'm particularly appreciating NonZeroSum's StumbleBlog comments. There are some interesting links to be found here.
"Republicans preach a one-sided capitalism better known as plutocracy. They want private citizens to fend for themselves in the jungles of the "free market," but then provide heavily subsidized corporate welfare for so-called "private industry." The bigger and more powerful the corporation, the more they are protected from the market by their bought-and-paid-for politicians."
it's also interesting to note that many typically republican states receive more money than they give but meanwhile protest against "socialism"
- Obama, a stickler for pronunciation - Yahoo! News
- Jul 6, 9:27am (1 review) hope, word-nerd, grammar-nazi, boat-rockers http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/2009070...
- An article about Obama's predilection for correct pronunciation of foreign names:
From the page: "He rolled his r's in Puerto Rico when discussing Sonia Sotomayor's background during her nomination announcement. He even started out pronouncing Sotomayor's name in Spanish (So-toe-my-YOR), but he'd lapsed into the English pronunciation (So-toe-my-yer) by the time he handed the podium over to her.
Those efforts don't just signal respect to outsiders, but shows employees inside the government, specifically at the State Department, noted Mike McCurry, a former Clinton press secretary, that the president takes detail seriously.
"And that has a positive impact on morale in our own government," McCurry said, "an added benefit to the clear benefit to public diplomacy."
Those who accuse Obama supporters of messianic beliefs will no doubt roll their eyes as Obama rolls his rs, but details like this give me hope for American diplomacy; As one who has studied six languages in her lifetime (I'm counting my pre-teen Chinese lessons), I can attest to the power of even a few words spoken in the local language. When I was travelling the other year, I made a point of learning at least "thank you" in the local tongue, and used it whenever I could. Reactions varied from pleasant shock to full-on smiles and happiness. Any moderately fluent French speaker can attest that making an effort with the locals easily melts away the famous Gallic frost. Politeness opens more doors than you'd expect.
- Rolling Stone Expose Declares Goldman Sachs Behind Every Market Crash...
- Jul 6, 9:13am (4 reviews) business, greed, jerks, earth-shattering-kabooms http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141088...
- Goldman Sachs has played a crucial role in creating every market bubble since the 1920s -- and has profited from not only the bubbles, but from the crash that followed as well, says a new expose in Rolling Stone magazine.
I have a handful of stocks outside my major holding, but after observing what "corporate guidance" gets you in the age of Enron, Lehman Brothers, GM et al, I'm thinking of liquidating what's left of my money. The culture of greed - with fortunes built on the backs of those doing the hard work so the white-collar fiends can afford their summer homes - reminds me too much of pre-Revolutionary France. I'd hoped that the current Global Economic Crisis would've knocked some sense into them, but as usual it's just the "moved and the shaken" who bear the knocks: The repugnant Goldman Sachs sees it as a Global Economic Opportunity, I suppose.
- Dazed and Confused (1993) - Memorable quotes
- Jul 4, 8:32pm (1 review) hee-hee, national-treasures http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106677/quot...
- A happy "glorious Fourth" to my American pals!
I can't think of the Fourth of July without flashing back to this terrific line from Dazed & Confused:
Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes.
- Palins Reasons for Stepping Down | 44 | washingtonpost.com
- Jul 3, 5:07pm (1 review) politics, jerks, buh-bye, election-sneering http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009...
- Sarah Palin's remarks from today's announcements, as taken from her website. I'm surprised someone had the forethought to remove the ;) and LOLs, though the remaining text does give the impression it was written by one of her pre-teen daughters.
In the words of General MacArthur said, "We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction."
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