THE HUMAN BRAIN SEAWEED AND ZIGZAGGING DINOSAUR VERTEBRA

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4269584/Nutrients-SEAWEED-spurred-human-brain-evolution.html

Changing resources about 2.5-2 million years ago may have caused foraging behaviour to shift, leading early hominoids toward the coasts in search of food.

*

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4268502/Sauropods-ZIGZAGGING-bones-support-long-necks.html

A side view of the 'zigzagging' sauropod vertebra from a species called Spinophorosaurus nigerensis. The zigzagging bones fit together like a puzzle piece to provide better grip to the bones so one part is not pulled off from the other.

Pictured is a 3D rendering of three Alamosaurus (sauropod's) moving as a herd alongside a tree line.

A 3-D rendering of a Diplodocus browsing a selection of trees with two Pteranodons flying overhead.

During one of my health-nut phases, I started to eat kelp.

This health-nut phase also included eating tons of baked potatoes, and drinking gallons of carrot juice.

I wasn't eating much meat or eggs.

I made a lot of cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.

In fact, sandwiches were my mainstay.

Seaweed was added as an added ingredient to boost my health.

Or so I believed.

My seaweed diet didn't last that long.

It's news to me now that if humans had not eaten seaweed, we may not have become who (or what) we are.

And what have we become?

Technological Savages, of course.

Blame it on the seaweed.

*

I've always wondered how dinosaurs with very long necks could have walked and talked (well, not talked).

The mystery appears to have been solved:

Sauropod dinosaurs had long necks and reached up to 50 meters in length. 

• They weighed as much as 77 tons - 14 times the weight of an African elephant

• They had special 'zigzagging' bones that fit together like pieces of a puzzle

• This distributed their body weight over a larger area reducing stress at one point

• The special spinal structure allowed them to have long necks and heavy bodies
  
  They also had an escalator in their necks to help the food move down their long throats.
  Just kidding.
  IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES SEAWEED AND ZIGZAGGING  DINOSAUR VERTEBRA
  

READING BETWEEN THE LINES OF THE RED MENACE DONALD TRUMP'S INAUGURAL SPEECH AND CHAOS RUNNING LIKE A FINE-TUNED MACHINE

"Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans and people of the world, thank you [and especially Vladimir Putin].

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to

rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people. [Buy your gas masks now while they're available.]

Together we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come. [We will watch oceans rise and the carbon footprint expand.]

We will face challenges. [We will challenge faces.] We will confront hardships, but we will get the job done. [And speaking of jobs, we will throw safety regulations out the window!]

Every four years we gather on these steps [as do the pigeons] to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Thank you.

[Forget that I ever questioned your legitimacy or said that you were not an American citizen.]

Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning because, today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people. [And to millionaires and billionaires such as myself.]

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.

[I am just an ego-maniacal, narcissistic billionaire.]

The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. [Just ignored]

Everyone is listening to you now.

[And surveillance cameras are watching you].

You came by the tens of millions to become part of an historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before. At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction that a nation exists to serve its citizens.

[Forget that your Medicare and Social Security benefits will decrease or disappear, or that your public schools may no longer be funded, or that Global Warming will flood your cities.] .

Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities [Let them live on a low minimum wage], rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash [That I will flush down the toilet!]...this American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one nation and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny. [Do I sound like a fuhrer?]

We will shine for everyone to follow. [Buy a lot of aluminum foil.]

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth. [We will also eradicate clean water and clean air, but we will create a lot of jobs.]

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America and, through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. [I do sound like a fuhrer. Who is writing this stuff?]

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action constantly complaining, but never doing anything about it. [Yes, I tweet, and I will continue to do so.]

The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action. Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.

[So says the fuhrer.]

We stand at the birth of a new millennium ready to unlock the histories of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease and to harness the energies, industries, and technologies of tomorrow.

[But in the meantime we will unlock as much coal and petroleum as we can from the earth!]

Thank you. God bless you and god bless America. Thank you. God bless America."

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND CHAOS

FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

I lived in a small cottage in Chautauqua Park, Colorado.

The Park was located just below the Boulder Flatirons.

One afternoon I decided to take a nap on the mountain meadow close to my cabin.

I thought how peaceful and quiet it would be, and how I would relax on my day off from my job as a dishwasher.

I plopped myself down on the dry but soft meadow grass.

“Ahh,” I said to myself. “Peace and quiet.”

Just then I heard sirens down below in the city of Boulder, and I thought to myself:

“Good. I'm up here and the noise is down there.”

But the sirens did not stop.

In fact, the sound of the sirens got closer and closer.

Then fire trucks began steaming up the mountain.

Oh my gosh!

“A fire is up here on the mountain”, I said to myself.

People came running from their cottages.

They were bringing shovels and and other objects to help put out the fire.

I quickly ran to my cottage and got my own shovel.

But by then the fire had been brought under control by the firefighters.

I returned to my cottage to relax from all of the excitement.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES

MY OLDEST ANCESTOR

 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ugly-wrinkled-sea-sack-may-be-oldest-species-ancestor/

I looked into my mirror, and I saw myself as I looked millions of years ago.

Yes, I saw myself.

It was frightening.

I was shocked to learn that way back then I wouldn't have had an anus.

Actually, that's good news.

I wish it were true today.

I'm tired of pooping all of the time.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES

THE HUNGOVER MEXICAN AND THE EXPLODING BEAN POT

I was the dishwasher at a small Mexican restaurant.

This restaurant made excellent cheese enchiladas and chile verde.

The secret was in the sauces.

These “secret” recipes came from the parents of the owner’s wife Suzy.

Rafael was the owner.

Ralph told me that he was once offered a million dollars for these secret recipes.

I began my mornings at the restaurant by shredding a couple boxes of lettuce.

While I shredded lettuce, two of the owner’s cousins and a waitress were doing other things.

Ralph usually arrived an hour or so after our arrival.

Paula was the name of the waitress.

Jesse and Jesus were the two cousins.

Jesse, a former boxer, was the older of the two cousins.

Jesse liked to drink, and he did so every night.

Consequently, he was groggy and slow-moving in the mornings, but always good-humored.

One morning while I was shredding lettuce there was a loud explosion.

I saw red (bean) steam roiling from the kitchen, and cousin Jesse was “roiling” in the same path as the red steam, screaming that he was burning from hot steam that had just issued from the exploding pot.

The larger of two bean pots exploded because its safety valve couldn’t open.

The valve couldn’t open because the exhaust fan hood was not high enough for the tall pot and its safety valve to fit under it.

Cousin Jesus had turned off the burner where the big bean pot was sitting, but cousin Jesse had turned the burner back on.

Jesse thought that he had turned the stove burner off, when in fact he had turned the flame back on.

Pressure continued to build and build until the pot exploded.

The top of the big bean pot is what blew off, and it shot like a missile through the exhaust fan hood and through the two-by-four rafters.

The big bean pot had nearly gone through the roof itself.

The roof of the restaurant was lifted, and all of the windows had shattered.

Fortunately, except for Jesse’s third-degree burns, no one was injured.

Pot pan handles were sticking out of stereo speakers.

All the dishes were broken.

Rice and beans plastered the walls.

Right after I had thrown cold water on Jesse’s steaming back---(I had yelled at him to remove his shirt, and when the water hit him he yelled that it was too cold!)---I started looking for Paula, calling out her name,

“Paula?
Paula?
Where are you?”

I looked up at the ceiling to see if she had gotten stuck there from the explosion, but she was next door at a gas station, calling the fire department.

I talked to a guy who lived next door.  His name was Evil Cheese, and he did stunts on motorcycles.  He said he thought an atom bomb had fallen on his house.

The restaurant was condemned.

I came in the next day to help clean up the mess, but

I stepped on a big nail, and so couldn’t work any longer.

Ralph the owner was kind enough to go with me to sign the unemployment papers that said I was separated from my employment through no fault of my own.

I returned to the restaurant many years later.

It had been rebuilt and was three times larger than the original.

The chile verde and enchiladas were still quite excellent.

I imagine the bean pots were safer, too.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND THE EXPLODING BEAN POT

BREASTS EXTRATERRESTRIALS AND THE END OF THE WORLD

The world could be set to end in October this year, when a giant mysterious planet called Nibiru (artist's impression pictured) collides with our own - according to one conspiracy theorist. Wisconsin-based David Meade, author of the book 'Planet X – The 2017 Arrival', believes a star, which he calls 'a binary twin of our sun' is coming 'at us towards the south pole'. He says the star will bring with it 'seven orbiting bodies', including Nibiru, a large, blue planet that he also refers to as Planet X hurtling towards our planet.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4083926/Will-world-end-October-Conspiracy-theorist-claims-mysterious-planet-Nibiru-smash-Earth.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4073132/Large-round-small-perky-Scientists-reveal-types-breasts-men-REALLY-prefer.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4076194/Will-2017-year-make-contact-ALIENS-Expert-says-good-prospect-finding-life.html

No need to worry about anything or anyone anymore.

The world is going to end this year (AGAIN!) in October.

Hopefully, that's enough time for the e.t.'s to show up and bare their breasts (if the females have breasts.)

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES 

WHIP OUT THAT MEXICAN THING

Whip out that Mexican thing?

What is that?

(No, NOT that)

Burrito?

Taco?

Churro?

Two more “debates” remain between Hillary and Donald.

They're not exactly Lincoln-Douglas debates.

More like cat and dog fights.

Or cock fights.

Hillary, no more coughing and feinting.

Donald, no more mocking and tweeting.

This presidential election year should be called Let's Make A Deal:

You show your emails and I'll show my tax returns.

And forget about the size of your hands and that other thing.

Let's hog tie and gag all surrogates for both candidates.

Oh no, that won't happen, because then CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, etc., would go out of business.

Build the damn wall now so Donald will shut up.

(Actually, I'm not for building the great, beautiful wall.)

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND THAT MEXICAN THING

DREAMS

One night, I dreamed that I flew all the way to Colorado from Kabul to visit my mother.

 

When I came back to Colorado I told her. 

She said, "I know. I saw you!" 

Of course, I know that dreams last for a very short time, but I swear it took me a good twenty-four hours to get to Colorado from Afghanistan. 

I've never had so many lucid and beautiful dreams as I did in Afghanistan.

 I would wake up at anytime and groggily step to my typewriter, just inches away, and start tapping down my dreams in the darkness and silence of my bedroom, not caring about spelling, just getting out the news of my strange dreams. 

Unfortunately, my dreams and other writings were destroyed when I lived in Juarez. 

Not on purpose.

They were inside a metal chest, covered with plastic; but rain, beautiful rain, found its way into the chest, and macerated my thoughts and dreams.

 I recovered only one old notebook, containing notes from books I've read.

 The other notebooks contained only inky blurs.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND DREAMS

JAMES JOYCE AND GIL

One afternoon after my university classes had finished, I drank tea with a volunteer named Gil.

 He didn't socialize much, and I believe it was the only time I spoke with him about anything.

But one time was plenty, and I mean this in a positive sense.

Gil was a very interesting person.

 I found out that he was planning to leave the Peace Corps and head for Turkey.

 He explained the route he would take, mentioning a train up inside Russia.

 I found this amazing. 

Just leave...not say a word to anyone! 

But now I wonder why he told me.

I also thought that he might be a member of an Intelligence agency.

Gil was "translating" Ulysses by James Joyce. 

But the translating was more like interpreting what the heck this novel is about.

 I still haven't finished it.

 I finished Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in a few weeks.

Good luck Gil, wherever you are.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES

THE FUNERAL

One day Touryalai invited me to a funeral.

"Who died?", I asked.

"I don't know," Touryalai replied.

"Then how can we go to the funeral?", I asked.

"It's no problem. Come with me", he said.

And so he and I walked onto an open dirt field of gravesites. 

(Not far from this graveyard there was a private area used only by men when they had to go to the bathroom.)

 I again told Touryalai about how gross it was that men just "pooped and peed" in the open.

 He agreed, and again told me that he wished this custom didn't exist, but it did. 

I could tell that he was tired of my complaints.

 I never mentioned the subject again.

"Look. There is the body." said Touryalai.

People were gathered around the body under a small roofed area. 

On a narrow wooden litter was the corpse of a male covered with a white sheet. 

When some men picked up the stretcher, Touryalai and I followed. 

They carefully stepped over a very short fence-like barrier, walked maybe 100 paces, and then stopped.

 They picked up the corpse and gently laid it inside of a shallow swath of the ground, just large enough to hold one body.

 Some large flat stones were placed on the corpse, and then a thin layer of soil was used to cover the stones.

I turned to Touryalai.

"That's it?"

He smiled and said, "Yes, that's it."

"What about dogs or other animals?” I asked.

Touryalai indicated that the body would be just fine.

How simple.

 How unceremonious. 

How frugal. 

And then, there was the American way of death.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES

BAMIYAN

This was our first vacation.

 I don't know who decided to go to Bamiyan or why, but what a lovely province it turned out to be.

Our bus ride didn't take that long. It was just an all-day drive. 

On our bumpy and dusty bus ride, an Afghan woman kept putting something up to her veiled face. I thought she might be drinking soup or something; but then she put the vase-like container outside the window and emptied it. She had been vomiting. Bus motion sickness. The local population was not accustomed to bus riding.

Jon brought along a case of wine. This wine was made in Afghanistan, and although I didn't know much about wine, I sure knew that I didn't like this wine.

At one stop for prayer, Jon and I got off to stretch. When we returned to the bus, we saw spittle on our water bottle.

 Someone had been offended by the alcohol.

When we arrived in Bamian I first noticed how quiet it was, and then how green and clean it looked.

 We "checked in" to our "hotel", which was a small, dome-shaped and straw-thatched hut. 

Jon and I bunked in one hut with two single beds. We wondered how many scorpions were here.

I woke up the first night and removed a burning cigarette from Jon's hand. He had fallen asleep. I knew that our hut would have been eaten by flames in a flash. I'm glad that I couldn't sleep that first night.

The next day we walked around. Then we rented horses.

 My horse was difficult to control. 

He walked over a large garden.

 I was afraid I would get shot or something, but nothing happened, and then I looked up and saw a little Persian girl, dressed in beautifully embroidered clothing, walking down a small hill and carrying a basket on her head while holding up a small sickle in her left hand. 

Her brightly-colored clothing highlighted the earth colors.

 I wrote my poem Bamian, Afghanistan based on this brief encounter.

Rain had washed out the roads!

 We were "stranded" in beautiful Bamian!

 We were out of money, out of alcohol, but not out of hope! 

We telegraphed Kabul to inform the Peace Corps office of our problem. 

Our message reached the Peace Corps office so that they would know we were safe and sound, although penniless.

Betty had befriended an embassy worker (or maybe he was a businessman) from Germany, and he agreed to loan us some money. 

When we finally left Bamiyan two days later, it was in a plane that could fly over the Himalayas. 

Afghanistan's mountain peaks were large and ominous.

 It was a scary take-off and a scary ride, but we finally reached Kabul airport.

Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Echoes of Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, and Alexander

Were found in turquoise, opal, and amethyst dreams.

Young vagabonds slept on Persian rugs

Beneath heaven's pastures far below tall Buddhas on Bamian's plains.

While bright on Earth

Green grass grew under falling rain

Above the sky lit up dark echoed man's last refrain:

We hail the rains to bring us back to life

We hail the rains to remove this mortal rule of knife;

But thunder shouted and sirens cried

People hurried

They fought and died.

Echoes of Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, and Alexander

Were found in turquoise, opal, and amethyst dreams.

Young vagabonds slept on Persian rugs

Beneath heaven's pastures

Far below tall Buddhas on Bamian's plains.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES