GREATER LOVE HAS NO MAN

Please take a little extra time this Saturday, to pray, meditate, think upon all the young men and women far away from home, in harms way.  Stop and say a word of thanks to someone in uniform.

"Greater Love has no man than this, that to lay down his life for his friends."  John 15:13


USS JASON DUNHAM (DDG-109) TO BE CHRISTENED SATURDAY
by Kathryn Ross, Reporter, Wellsville Daily Reporter

 - BATH, Maine — Saturday is Cpl. Jason Dunham Day in Allegany County, as proclaimed by county Board of Legislators Chairman Curtis Crandall. However, it is only one of several honors given to the fallen hero. Saturday also marks the christening of the USS Jason Dunham DDG 109 in Bath, Maine.






When Cpl. Jason Dunham passed away in April 2004, a new chapter began in his life’s story, albeit a posthumous one. As a result, Dunham’s memory will live on through the Scio library, the post office, and his brothers and sisters serving aboard the USS Jason Dunham.

On Saturday, his mother, Debra Dunham, will break a bottle of champagne over the hull of the USS Jason Dunham, following a long Navy tradition.


Mr. & Mrs Dunham, Jason's parents, tour the USS Dunham

Dunham was awarded the highest honor for an American military man when, on Jan. 11, 2007, President George W. Bush presented the Marine’s family with the Congressional Medal of Honor. It was presented in a special ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. Dunham was the second American to receive the Medal of Honor from service in Iraq, and the first Marine to receive the honor since the Vietnam War.



Corporal Jason Dunham

In his hometown of Scio he has been honored with a room in his name in the new library located on Main Street and by the local post office which, shortly after his death, was officially renamed in his honor.

Now, the men and women who serve aboard the USS Jason Dunham will wear a patch of the ship’s crest on their uniforms which represents the sacrifice made by Dunham.

A press release from the Bath Iron Works restates the facts surrounding Dunham’s act of heroism:
“On April 14, 2004, Squad Leader Cpl. Jason Dunham‘s squad was on patrol in Karabilah, Iraq when they heard the explosions of an ambush on their Battalion Commander’s convoy. ... Jason’s squad boarded Humvees and headed to the rescue. In that hunt they encountered a group of Iraqi vehicles, and stopped to check them out.”

As his Marines approached to search the vehicles, an Iraqi jumped from his vehicle and lunged for Dunham. The two fell to the ground, and within moments the insurgent dropped a grenade. Dunham shouted for his squad mates to clear out. He then removed his helmet and used it and his body to smother the blast, and save the lives of his fellow marines.  He died of his wounds. (This paragraph in italics is from a DoD press release, to fill out the reporters story)


Jim DeMartini, manager of communications for the Bath Iron Works, recently said in a press release, “It was there that his fatal encounter with the attackers occurred. We’re very excited about this ship and very pleased to be honoring the sacrifice of Jason Dunham in this way.”




DeMartini explained the poignant symbolism on the patch:
“In the middle of the crest there is a helmet of antiquity, which symbolizes Dunham’s sacrifice of his life to protect his troops. The helmet of antiquity recalls the incident of enemy attack on Dunham’s squad, during which he used his helmet to contain a grenade and covered it with his body to protect his squad at the cost of his own life.”

The colors, dark blue and gold, represent the United States Navy, while the purple detail on the helmet refers to the Purple Heart medal awarded to Dunham. The eagle, globe and anchor is the insignia of the United States Marine Corps and the inverted mullet symbolizes the Medal of Honor.”

After Saturday’s christening,  the USS Jason Dunham will be moved into drydock and then into the Kennebec River where it will be lowered into the river and tugged to the west bank. It will undergo Builders Trials until March and is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in April 2010 where it is expected to join the fleet and sail to its home port in San Diego, Calif.


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An excerpt from a book on Corporal Dunham, by Michael M. Phillips, a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has done four tours in Iraq with the Third Battalion, Seventh Marines.  An insight into one of America's best. . .

http://www.randomhouse.com/broadway/giftofvalor/excerpt.html

PROOF WE HAVE THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST IN WASHINGTON DC

Is it better for a politician to:

vote on a bill without reading it?

 

 0

read the bill and vote on it?

 

 0

read the bill AND understand it , then vote on it?

 

 12

vote the way your highest paying lobbist wants you to vote?

 

 0

collect your pay, stay away from Washinton, and leave America alone?

 

 8

I do not use the term much, but this guy is an idiot!  He makes a lame reason why politicians should not worry about reading bills before voting, and makes fun of those politicians who are saying, "wait a minute, read the bill before voting on it!"
I was going to play the 3 Stooges theme music, but that would interfer with the audio on  the video, well you can imagine the music. . .  

CROCODILES IN SEARCH OF BREAKFAST

Wild life shows have aways fascinated me.  There can be such beauty, and yet such cruelty. If Nature has not been disturbed, it all seems to have a balance, and a purpose.

CALIFORNIA, AND THEY WONDER WHY WE ARE LEAVING THE GOLDEN STATE

If you know anything about Santa Cruz, CA. this person may or may not need medication.  She may or may not be completely logical in her reality.  She may or may not have hugged one to many trees. She may or may not be so brilliant she is beyond our understanding.

At first I was feeling rather saddened by her speech and wondering where her caretakers were, but then I kept remembering this is Santa Cruz, she is completely normal. I am sure she is a very nice person. And if you have watched any local access channels covering the State Assembly in Sacramento, you would realize she makes more sense than most of our elected politicians.  She has a certain  future in California politics, and perhaps even up to the National level.  There must be a Czar Of Something position open in DC that she would be prefect for.

THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT RAINDROPS

Rain has always been soothing to me, listening to it, seeing it, watching it fall, walking in it.  Well I will make a disclaimer, as long as the rain is falling vertical, and not going horizontal, I find it soothing. . .Wish it was raining, need to sooth this headache away. . .I always enjoy learning something new, or correcting something I had been taught, back when the world was thought to be flat. . .






THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT RAINDROPS

ABC SCIENCE/AUSTRALIA/NEWS IN SCIENCE 

French scientists armed with ultra-fast video footage say raindrops come in such a bewildering array of sizes for reasons much simpler than previously thought.

Dr Emmanuel Villermaux and Benjamin Bossa of the Axi-Marseille University  in southern France, report their findings online in the journal NATURE PHYSICS.

Way back in 1904, scientists noted that raindrops came in different sizes.

For generations, schoolchildren were taught that raindrops start as micro-droplets that then gather together in clouds with their neighbours to become bigger droplets.

The common wisdom was that raindrops come in such a remarkable range of sizes through a complex interaction between droplets as they fall.

Droplets which bump into other droplets coalesce and become bigger, while smaller droplets are those that do not bump into as many other droplets, so the idea went.

But Villermaux and Bossa say the explanation for why raindrops can range from fine droplets to chubby plops, is much simpler than this.

Their movies of falling water droplets shows the diversity of raindrops is caused by fragmentation of individual, non-interacting raindrops.

They have found a raindrop starts to fall as a sphere, but then flattens out into a pancake shape.

Eventually, as the pancake widens and thins, the onrush of air causes it to hollow out, like an upturned bag, they say.

Finally, the bag inflates beyond the ability of the water's tension to hold things together and bursts into lots of smaller droplets.

The whole process takes only several thousands of a second.

But when the droplets hit the ground, the most numerous by far are very small, while large drops are comparatively few.                                                                                                     photo from study

"Rainfall does indeed start through coalescence in the clouds but something quite different happens on the way down, and this explains the diversity of raindrop sizes," says Villermaux.

"Each drop breaks up individually, independently of its neighbours, on its way to earth."

The findings could have practical applications in understanding rainfall patterns and in crop spraying, says Villermaux.

"Take pesticide spraying, for instance. With most sprayers in use today, all it takes is a slight breeze for half of the pesticide to end up in the neighbouring field," he says.

"Understanding how droplets will be distributed can be very important."   

photo from study

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WOMEN WANTED!!! WILL HAVE TO EAT CHOCOLATE FOR A YEAR

Lord this is so unfair, these scientists only want women for this research, to eat massive quantities of chocolate!!  And it seems only British women at that.  I know I can get MJ to do my hair, highlights and makeup, I need someone to teach me to talk like a Brit, I need to borrow some dresses, do they come in size 54 chest?  Should I learn to walk in high heels. Is it hard to learn to act menopausal? Would I have to shave my legs?  I really want into this research project !!!!

(Pictures added by JohnOh)

 WANTED: BRITISH WOMEN TO EAT CHOCOLATE FOR A YEAR  

from Psysorg.com; Research News section

Researchers at the University of East Anglia and a hospital in Norwich, eastern England are trying to find out whether chocolate can cut the risk of heart disease and need 40 women to step forward and help.

Most of the women will have to eat two bars of "super-strength chocolate specially formulated by Belgian chocolatiers" daily for one year and undergo several tests to measure how healthy their hearts are.

 

 

 

The others will have to eat regular chocolate as a placebo.

One possible catch, for chocolate fans spotting an opportunity: volunteers for the research should be menopausal but aged under 75 and have type two diabetes.

 

 

Study coordinator Peter Curtis said: "A successful outcome could be the first step in developing new ways to improve the lives of people at increased risk of heart disease."

(c) 2009 AFP

 

 

  

ELECTROCUTE YOUR FLOWERS FOR ART'S SAKE

I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT THE MUSIC!!!!!  Hey, this is much better than the article about bird eating giants spiders that I was going to post!!  At least with this one you do not have to worry about not wanting to eat lunch or dinner!! 

 

 

ELECTRIFIED FLOWERS MAKE ASTONISHING ARTWORKS

from TELEGRAPH.uk.co; Earth Science Section

Robert Buelteman photographs the plant life while sending electricity through them.

The result shows roses, petunias, and even cannabis in astonishing detail.

 

The process to capture these unique images is so complex it has taken the award winning 55-year-old 10 years... Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

It has taken the award-winning 55-year-old 10 years to produce just 80 photos.

Working in complete darkness, he begins by placing his chosen plant onto a metal board which he then passes the electrical surge through. He can even pinpoint areas where he wants to focus the charge using a wand and a simple car battery.

 

In an astonishing type of photography never used in the world of art before, pioneer Robert Buelteman sends 80,000 volts through flowery subjects and then literally paints photographs of the outcome.   Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

As his subject lights up with the current, and emits radiation invisible to the naked eye, intuitive Buelteman captured the moments by passing a fibre optic cable back-and-forth over the plant.

The cable emits a beam of white light that is just the size of a human hair and whatever the miniscule torch-beam touches, transfers the image onto film. The blue haze that surrounds every leaf, petal and stalk is actually gases ionising around them as the plant is electronically shocked.

...and a gruelling average of 60 hours-per-week, to produce just 80 photos  Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

To explain the baffling process, Buelteman, from Montara, California, USA, uses a trusted analogy.

"You just have to imagine it like a painter creating a picture on canvass," he said. "The plant is the subject just like the painter's bowl of fruit or the person they are capturing. The electrified board I place the plants on is the canvass. The fibre optic cable emitting the light-beam is my paintbrush.

The captivating blue haze that surrounds every leaf, petal and stalk is actually gases ionising around them as the plant is electronically shocked  Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

"Another way to try and understand it is like a normal photograph on a normal camera, except I am manually controlling the exposure by hand. In the same way the image I capture is simply burned onto film."

To give the pictures an added dazzling effect, Buelteman's aluminium canvass actually floats in liquid silicone. And to make sure he doesn't get killed in the process, he erects a protective frame of wood around his easel.

But despite these being the first pictures of their kind in his profession, Buelteman says he has in fact invented nothing and uses a combination of age-old techniques developed decades ago.

Semyon Kirlian - developer of Kirlian photography - accidentally found in 1939 that it was possible to photograph electrical discharges at the edges of objects if that were being shocked on an electrified plate.

(For more information on Kirlian photography:  http://www.imagesco.com/articles/kirlian/kirlian-photography.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography )

To explain the baffling process, Buelteman, from Montara, California, USA, uses a trusted analogy... Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

"When people see my work I want them to feel an awakening. The world is an amazing place and evolution has created some breathtaking things for us to look at. For me, art is about looking at the world and all it's wonder in a new way, seeing something differently."

Buelteman has written about the project and the techniques he uses in his book Signs of Life.

"You just have to imagine it like a painter creating a picture on a canvas," he says  Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

His works are being bought for a phenomenal five figures by art collectors.

 

For more views of Mr. Buelteman's work, the link for his home page follows:

http://www.buelteman.com/home.html

  

POETRY POSSE WEEK 40 ALLITERATION

 

Coffee colored crocodiles creepy crawling closer closer closer

for free floating flashing frolicking feet

sideways swimming swiftly slicing slick swampwater

lunch lithly leaped long landing lightly

lime laced lizards leaving lonely losing lunch.

 

The challenge this week is once again, Alliteration, "the commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter", as in apt alliteration's artful aid.  (borrowed from MJ)

Come and join the fun

Poetry Posse Week 40 ~ Alliteration

BUZZARDS ATTACK 'LIVE' JOGGERS

This article reminded me of THE BIRDS (1963), a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. There was an actual case just up the coast near Capitola in 1961, where sea birds actually dove into houses, and dead and injured birds were in the streets.  Some say this was the inspiration for Hitchcocks film, but there is a Novelette written in 1952 by Dauphne du Maurier titled THE BIRDS.  And her book, unlike Hitchcock's version, takes place in England, like this article does.  Her book is well worth reading, and there are several radio plays based on her book and the movie that are fun to listen too if you enjoy using your imagination.

JOGGERS HURT IN BUZZARD ATTACKS

by  Roya Nikkhah, The Telegraph UK, Earth Section

JOGGERS HAVE BEEN LEFT BLODDIED AND SCARRED FOLLOWING A SPATE OF ATTACKS BY BUZZARDS

It is like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, with unsuspecting victims swooped on by avian attackers.

Stuart Urquhart, a solicitor from Bristol, was on holiday with his wife and two children in Helford, Cornwall, when he suffered three six-inch cuts to his head in a buzzard attack.

Mr Urquhart, 36, was jogging on a quiet lane near a river at around 9am, when he felt a searing pain in the back of his head before turning around to see a buzzard flying away.

He said: "I thought somebody had thrown some heavy sacking or carpet at me but I couldn't see anyone. I carried on a few paces and then saw blood running down me and noticed a buzzard flying off into the trees.

 

"I have brown hair and I wasn't sure if the buzzard had mistaken me for a big, slow rabbit, so I decided not to take any chances, and invested in a hat."

Mr Urquhart, who was given a tetanus injection after the attack earlier this month, spotted the buzzard two days later on a telegraph pole. It swooped down with its talons out but Mr Urquhart managed to dive out of the way.

Last week, Paul Powell, a plasterer from Shurdington, Glos, was also attacked by a buzzard while out jogging.

Mr Powell, 38, suffered four puncture wounds to his scalp after a bird sunk its talons into his head.

 

He said: "I felt an almighty thud at the back of my head. At first I thought someone had hit me... and then I saw this big bird flying just above me. Then I felt a burning sensation and noticed there was blood dripping on to the ground."

Mr Powell ran for cover, but the buzzard attacked him a second time. He was taken to hospital and given a tetanus injection.

Ciaran Nelson of the RSPB said that it was very rare to see a spate of buzzard attacks.

 

"These are the only incidents of buzzards attacking humans we have heard of in the last year, so to have two in such a short period is exceptionally unusual," he said.

"It is most likely that the birds are feeling territorial and are being extra defensive, as July and August is the period when their young will be starting to leave the nests.

"The buzzards won't have seen the joggers as a meal, but they will have been trying to defend their territory and dissuade anyone from coming into contact with their young.

"We would advise anyone who has seen buzzards in one particular area to avoid it as much as possible for the next couple of months until the young have left the nests."

Buzzards have a wing span of more than a yard and can weigh more than 2.2 pounds (1kg). They eat worms and grubs but also prey on rabbits and voles, and pick carrion.

 

 

 

There are between 30,000 and 40,000 pairs of buzzards in the UK. They became a protected species 50 years ago and have recovered from near extinction after being regularly shot for killing game birds.

 

 

 

 

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CAT'S HOME MADE ZUCCHINI PICKLES

The Cat was kind enough to send me a jar of her famous Zucchini Pickles:

 

 

She is a very new resident of Oregon.  I do not have the heart to tell her, the Western Oregon Zucchini Frog is a rare and endangered species.  The pickles sure were good though!!!

 

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NOTE:  No frogs were harmed in the making of this post. 

HOW SOME OF THE POMPOUS ASSES IN WASHINGTON DC SHOULD BE ADDRESSED

 Time to get some of these politicians down from the high ivory pedestal they have put themselves on. . .

The way I would like to see the officer reply to Mrs. Boxer. . .

 

This was wonderful, Mrs. Boxer puts her pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else:

FOR WHAT IT IS WORTH . . .PART DEUX

 

 

 

Easy to confuse us, get your way, sidetrack us, make us forgetful, get what you want, win discussions, receive flowers and gifts,  BUT use them wisely, remember safety first,  they can be dangerous if handled incorrectly.

<

 

 

 

  

 

For What It Is Worth. . .

I Wonder why

I even bothered to wake up.

I should have stayed in bed,

letting  the sweet darkness caress me.

the inky blackness enfold me.

Who cares if the morning doesn't come.

the darkness is better.

One can see in the morning light,

the blackness is better.

one can hear in the morning light,

there is no sound in the blackness beyond black.

only the senselessness of eternity,

somewhere in the black of blackness.

I wait for dark, impatiently,

for the comfort of the night,

to close my eyes one last time,

and wait for the thick embrace of a night

where the stars shine without light. . ..

SPERM TRAVELS FASTER FOR ATTRACTIVE FEMALES

Sometimes, as I peruse through the science sites, an article just makes me shake my head in wonder and ask "Just who comes up with some of this research?  And just who actually does the research?".   Could you keep a straight face when presenting your paper (hopefully not stained) before the Annual Meeting of the Royal Science Society of  Research and Investigation?  "Yes, you see Gentlemen and Gentleladies, we built this small race track and . . ."  

Enjoy, sometimes science is funnier in truth, than any story one could make up.

(Text in Italics added by JohnOh)

SPERM TRAVELS FASTER FOR ATTRACTIVE FEMALES

by Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News, ABC (Australian) Science

New research found that males can adjust the speed and effectiveness of their sperm, based on whether they find their mate attractive.

The study, conducted on red junglefowl, a direct ancestor of chickens, adds to the growing body of evidence that males from promiscuous species, including humans, (Like that excuse will go over big with a girlfriend or wife!!)  increase the chances of fertilisation when the female is deemed to be attractive.

 

(This looks a lot like a Rhode Island Red we had years ago, name Ted The Red)

 

But what makes a desirable female red junglefowl?

"Female attractiveness is determined by the expression of a sexual ornament - the comb -  (JungleFowl pick up lines:  Hey ChickeeBabee, Nice combs!!") which is phenotypically and genetically correlated to the number and mass of eggs females lay," according to study co-authors Dr Charlie Cornwallis of the  University of Oxford and the Royal Veterinary College's  Dr Emily O'Connor.

 

 

(No comb, no little ones, cute but not sexy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Nice set of combs, lots of little ones, very sexy. WOOHOOO)

 

 

 

 

 

For the study, published in the current Proceedings of the Royal Society B,   the researchers collected natural ejaculates from dominate and subordinate red junglefowl males housed at the University of Stockholm. The males had either just mated with attractive or unattractive females.

 

The scientists next separated the sperm from the seminal fluid and analysed the quantity and characteristics of both. (Oh yes, this sure must help his dating success:  "So Harold, what do you do for work?"  "Well Sue, I follow chickens around until they screw themselves silly, and then I collect their ejaculates and count their sperm.  And somedays I even get to time the little sperms' speed around this little race course we built!" )

DOUBLE FIRING

"There was a strong relationship between sperm velocity and the volume of the ejaculate sperm came from," write Cornwallis and O'Connor, adding that males allocated "larger ejaculates to attractive females."

The mechanism behind this remains a mystery for now, but the scientists have an intriguing theory.

 

 

 

"Males may alter the velocity of sperm they allocate to copulations by strategically firing their left and right ejaculatory ducts, which can operate independently," they explain.  (Uh-huh!! Sure, like all guy's, when they make passonate love, they are thinking about:  10mph or should I go for 20mph? Should I do the left duct first?  Nah, think I did that last time, let's go for the right duct.  Not sure if it was the left last time, Oh s**t, I'll just let them both go at once!)

Stimulation from sexy, attractive females, therefore, leads to the double firing.  (Too too strange, I have heard of Premature firing, but Double??)

 

 

 

"Furthermore," they add, "differential firing of left and right ejaculatory ducts may contribute to how males strategically change the number of sperm in their ejaculates, a phenomenon that is widespread, but for which the mechanism remains unknown."  (Here we go again:  "Okay, now that I have decided to let both ducts go at the same time, should I let a couple million go? Hmmm, maybe only 999,999 from the right, and 1 from the left?  Nah, too easy,  hmmm what to do what to do?)

 

 

 

 

SPEEDY SPERM

Similar findings were recently determined for African cichlid fish, whose males produce speedier sperm when females mate with many males in quick succession.  (As if chasing chickens around wasn't enough, now we have a group of scientist following fish!!  Who pays for this?)

Dr John Fitzpatrick of the University of Western Australia  led the fish study while he was a graduate student at McMaster University.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first step in producing more competitive sperm was by influencing how much energy the sperm can produce," says Fitzpatrick. "Just like a mechanic could make a car drive faster by installing a better engine, evolution appears to act first on the engine that drives sperm movement."  (I may never view my mechanice the same again, ever!!)

 

 

 

 

 

While much of this process, including detection of attractive females, can occur on a subliminal basis, human males hoping to improve their fertility would be wise to not smoke marijuana, which University of Buffalo research shows reduces amounts of seminal fluid and lowers total sperm counts.

 

 

At the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, Australian obstetrician and gynecologist Dr David Greening announced his finding that daily sex, or ejaculation, for seven days improves men's sperm quality.  (Now this is whole another area of research that begs for some answers, but I am not even sure how to pose the questions!!)

 

 

 

He suggest it reduces the amount of DNA damage, since lengthy exposure to oxygen in the testicular ducts may harm cells. (I thought oxgen was good for us!!)

 

 

 

Both Greening and the British scientists hope future research will better identify how males adjust the sperm and seminal fluid in their ejaculates, and how this affects fertility rates.   (I think the scientists enjoyed this research a bit too much,  sounds like they cannot wait to start chasing chickens again) 

 

 

 

 

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