The Amazing Human Body

And the doctor who cataloged it all...



A close friend of mine was covered in the New York Times today. It's actually a story about her father who was a doctor and created one of the most amazing catalogs of images of the human body ever made.

My friend's dad was actually the one who did the dissecting, not the photography. The gallery of images they show in this article is crazy cool. There are 17 images and that last link there will start you at the first image (above). Here is another image from that gallery as a teaser to make sure you know what we're talking about.



Science is cool. This is on Digg already, go enter the article URL and Digg it up!

Snake sitting

If you are at all squeamish about seeing creatures eat each other, move along. This post has circle of life type content...

I snake sit for a friend on occasion. He has a California King Snake named Zebra. Zebra is a pretty good house guest. He(she) is quite quiet, well mannered, and manages to use really good manners, particularly when eating. Meaning, he(she) doesn't play with his food. He spies it, nabs it, squeezes it till it stops arguing, and then scarfs.

Tonight's menu, medium hopper tartár:
I never name these things. Not even for the time it takes to bring it home from the pet store. These are "feeder" mice. That's what you ask for when you go to get them. I never play with them either. I wouldn't want anyone playing with my food... That just seems like good manners to me.

This is Zebra:
Ya, sorry about the focus, you don't get too good a view of his head here. He(she) looks hungry, no? I assumed he(she) was as the 'ol tongue was really going. Of course, the dinner for the night is in the bag just behind my hand, so I'm guessing Zebra knew what was up.

I was coached to let Zebra put the squeeze on the meal before I took to much interest in the process. I usually do enjoy watching. I find the act of a snake eating their prey a fairly amazing thing. Especially the whole dislocating the jaw to get the thing in there and then the muscle movement to move the meal through the digestive tract. Here is Zebra with the meal just about 2/3's consumed:

Ya, I know, I know. White mouse on a white background. If you look to the corner of Zebra's mouth on it's left, you can kind of see the mouse. To the right, if you look closely, you can see some of the fur.

Anyway, just another curious weekend of art, bovine attacks, sunrises, and the circle of life...

I went to worship today at...

The Church of the Sacred Sand and the Holy Brine...

I went to Capitola to surf this morning. Downtown Capitola was a pond. It was still oh-dark:30, so could not get any pictures. I headed to the next break, here is the temp from there:

Oy. I took a look at the surf:
I call this particular low tide a "fin-breaking low tide". I usually avoid this particular combination of tide and reef.

I went further north. The morning was wearing thin as was the surf conditions. Amazingly, this wasn't half bad:
Okay, between sets. The crowd kept growing and the temperature here was a degree lower. Most folks looked to be riding 9'6" boards and above...

Here comes the Sun:
I usually prefer to be in the water to enjoy this view. Today, I was content to enjoy the warmth of the car heater...

This is the set wave:
It was actually a little better than this.

I don't care what anyone says, I have had more moving spiritual experiences in the ocean, including a near-death experience (Blacks...) than most people have in their lifetimes. They usually occur at a session like this one. Well, when I actually get wet. One of those was just 2 weeks ago when at one of these breaks, I was visited by a sea otter.

Now, to be true, I have had one wholly non-spiritual experience while surfing. But that was because I snapped my board. That was at Black's too. Yet, that is one of my all-time favorite breaks.

Raging Bull

Ya, ya, it's a cow. I was able to get up close, which is a lot harder to do than most folks think:


Unfortunately, I came too close:

It took me a while to remove the imprint of flowers from my backside...

Art in the garden

I call it, "Pot puking up posies":

Mick Jagstone and the Rolling Boulders!

10 points to the first person (not Jorge) who can place the title reference (above). :)

I was coring a mess of strawberries for desert and listening to satellite radio on the dish and a Marshall Tucker song (There Goes Another Love Song) came on. While that may not be rock and roll history to most, it is to me.

For reasons not quite known in the moment, hearing that took me back to 1978 where Marshall Tucker opened for the Rolling Stones at Anaheim Stadium. Actually I remember them and Etta James. Possible there was another band but the grey mater runs thin...

Either way, this was for the Some Girls Tour . I went with a few friends and we had an absolute blast. That may be one of the best concerts I have ever seen. I have seen a ton of concerts over the years and actually have pictures from some of them still.

I took to thinking I bet I can find something on the web about that tour. Dood, not only did I find *something*, I found a whole photo album from the show at "Stones Mania". I WAS AT THAT SHOW! Looking through the pictures brought back some excellent memories. I also think it's funny how ahead of the future Mick was. Check his arm sock that Alan Iverson and now Kobe are using.

I have one image in my mind that was not on that album. Ron Woods was playing a solo and Mick gets right in his face and all but French kisses him. He kinda went all Gene Simmons with his tonuge right next to Ronnie's mouth. Ronnie actually wasn't into it and kinda sucked in his lips... Funny.

That was a great concert. What a great show. I hear that the Stones are still a good show. Still, you gotta remember that the show I'm talking about was literally 30 years ago. I can't imagine they are as agile anymore. They're grandfathers! ;)

On Philosophy

I am a novice philosophy student. I believe in philosophy as a way of seeing the world and interpreting that which you see. I am somewhat familiar with some of the big names, the classics, the big Kahuna's, nay, "the originators": Socrates, Plato, Aristotle...

As well I have been introduced to some of the "new-comers" like H.G. Frankfurt. However, think my favorite philosopher of modern time is The Cat In The Hat.

Now, you're probably scratching your head right about now thinking, "dood - that was a little kids book." You would be right of course. "So what?" says I. I don't have a direct quote from the good Msr. Geisel, but I'm sure he'd say, "oh ya, that was always the plan... Start 'em young!".

Still scratching your head? I thought so. In the book, as the Cat goes about creating chaos and fun, he proceeds to make his case by telling the kids, "it's fun to have fun, but you have to know how!"

Perhaps not your textbook definition of philosophy. To that I say, bah! humbug. In the end, the cat is simply letting the kids know, you can have fun in so many ways, it's just how you look at it. Take for example my previous abuse of my brother. That was great fun! Well, for me anyway... And that is my point!

To wit:
Found on Flickr.

Think about it. Some person with a camera was walking along, one may presume, saw this poor deceased squirrel, and said to themselves, "hey... I bet if I took a couple of G.I. Joe's and posed them..." Right? It's fun to have fun! See? Philosophy made easy!

Go out and make some philosophy on your own today! See if you can blow someone's mind in the process. I dare you.

How NOT to drink a shot...

I really hope there is not need for further comment...

I'm speechless

Watch this:



Can you imagine?

btw, ;-)

Round Ball

This makes every guy go...



OOOOOO!

hoops!

One link leads to another...

I saw this link for a guy that does a 720º dunk:



wow. I could do that... ya, in my dreams...

That link lead to this, the absolute worst dunk you will ever see:



Poor guy. Bad enough it was caught on tape. Then he has to live with this on the internets forever...

I can't leave you that way. Kobe clears things up:



It's basketball season!

Brotherly love

This is my older brother Conrado:He is a real estate agent in San Diego. I give him a lot of credit because he is really good about using technology to help him in his efforts.

An example, he sent this this afternoon:

Subject: Need Tech Support

Bro,

There is a powerful tool on Google Maps to embed your Youtube videos - you can see the
obvious application for real estate. I followed the instructions on the below page to the
letter:

http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_youtube.html

Any even though I can see the youtube video where it is supposed to be, i only see it
when i am in My Maps and the public can't see it which is the whole point.

I have scoured Googles' tech pages and search low and wide on the net and can't find an
answer.

What do you suggest?

Thanks,

Bro

--
A little backstory may be useful here. I'm a support geek. I have been doing support in many forms for a long time. I work for a valley company doing support now, so his request is perhaps logical. My initial response:

a bribe.

To which he responded:

In what form?

I sent:

who knows? they are "fraking" google. what do they need? that's like asking bill gates if
he needs a dime.

Realizing I missed an opportunity to really pull his chain, I almost immediately followed that with this further reply to him:

damn. i replied too hastily. a quick check of the ether indicates that the usual and proper bribe for such assistance from such an entity is the sacrifice of a terrabyte of disk space that holds irretrievable data.

let me know how that works out.

I get that he wants me to do his dirty work. I can't help myself and just love to do this with my family when they are less than specific. He hadn't asked me directly for support - he asked what did I suggest? I made a freaking suggestion.

Some days, comedy just grows on trees... His reply to my question about lending bill gates a dime:

I was thinking i could bribe you to figure it out. I mean, that's what you do, no, i mean
you know about all these SW developers and are in a better position to know where they
hide the holy grail.

Holy crap! He really wants me to RTFM for him! Being a bit slow on the uptake and having chosen to do this via back and forth email, instead of coming into the 90's and IM'ing me, he comes back, clearly confused about the sacrifice suggestion:

Bro,

You lost me.

A terrabyte of disk space (Ok, I'm thinking you want an external 1 TB drive, but..) "that
holds irretrievable data" - I'm not sure what makes data "irretrieveable" unless you take
said drive and smash it, so i have no idea what you mean.

How what works out?

Oy... I decide to clue him in (having known me all my life and having been in the short end of my rhythm stick in the past, I certainly would have thought he'd know better..). I reply:

ahhhh. we get to the point after all. i see. you were hoping that since i get paid to while away in the support trenches some 40 to 50 hours a week, i might enjoy a foray into the google mines for another hour or two. in effect, doing more RTFM that perhaps you have not completed. that perhaps, as i am some sort of miscreant that gets his rocks by doing this, day in and day out, week after week, year after year, that more ought to be the way i want to spend my time?

i'm not saying it isn't, i just want to hear you say it...

;)

You're not gonna believe his response:

Hear YEE, Hear YEE, Hear YEE well!

The author doth proclaimith openly that he is in need of assistance that is crucial to
his success in certain technical endeavors that benefit business in the end.

THe author doth proclaimith and admit that one, Sir Daniel of Hinojosa, doth twill and
twain and bang and baing in the deep mines where data, information, and all matter of
knowledge and science is found, hark, yeah, it is legend that even the sword of Arthur
the King lies somewhere down there in these deep deep pits...

The author doth further proclaim that he has great confidence in the efficiency and skill
of Sir Daniel of Hinojosa in finding the holy grail, and besseecheth him to aim his arrow
at said target for the benefit of king, country and his bro.

There! Said it!
:-)

PS WTF IS RTFM?

OMFG - he doesn't know how to use Google after all. I was gonna help him out. Clearly, he just needs to poke, test, read, and think. He's a smart guy. I'm gonna send this and call it a night:

http://google.com - let me know how it works out.

I think I'll include the link to this article too...

RSS 101

I'm relatively new to RSS. I started using it and have been a huge fan, ever since I saw this really well made video that explains RSS and why it's worth the effort:



This is brought to you by the good folks over at Common Craft.

There be squid here Captain!

I have previously commented that I don't worry about being bitten by a shark while surfing. After seeing this video, I'm rethinking what worries me...



Can you imagine getting wrapped up by one of these suckers?