We decided to have a 'caricature' done of us 3 since no one can figure out my camera. This is the end result. We feel this drawing really does represent the AMCGLTD team. Err..not really. It's a cartoon... well an embarrassing one.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Being in control of a primitive, somewhat tacky time machine, we are pleased to provide the following retrospective of our very own retrospective. So cue the music, dim the lights, and start the silly cross fades...

Was it worth driving nearly 45 minutes to each store? Sure why not. How many places do you know that can afford a full time store just for reptiles?

Not many snakes in large cages. Many in deli cups, which was a disturbing. To me they should have been in racks. At least they would have something around the size of a shoe box to live in. They had a few 'large' snakes. And I mean large. Anacondas and retics to be more precise. Not for the newbie of a first time snake owner.

They had wonderful terrariums, grape wood branches and basically all of the supplies you need. The staff is great too at both locations.

The only thing that bothered me was that both stores were a bit untidy. Not as clean as a reptile place could be, with the threat of salmonella and other fun stuff reptiles carry.

So I give this store a 3.5 out of 5. Check it out if you are in San Diego!

Sorry skink. I cannot buy you either.

The anole is larger than the snake. Perhaps they are just friends. Yeah right.

Believe it or not, this guy was the size of a pencil.

...I do have life insurance. Why do you ask?

No Really, buy me.

I am sorry red monitor, Scott would kill us even though we had our CC ready for you. :/

Today O and I headed out to the Chula Vista Nature Center. You can check their website out here.

Now for the pixes!

Hope you all enjoyed this picture entry!

Thanks to Nina who reminded us about Caturday! We forgot! Hey we are on vacation here! Give us a break!

~ENJOY!

Sulcatta babies

Hermans tortoises

Olivia and I went to check out LLL Reptile in San Diego today. Small, yet neat store! Check it out if you can get there!

And of course...Big Red, the LLL mascot. He is HUGE and has the entire front window display as his home.

40 feet of kelp. I shit you not.

Yes, this is a single leaf of kelp. You have no idea how BIG these things get till you see them wash up on the shore.

It's been a long day O! Say goodnight to the beach!

Olivia will swim on her own now with her jacket on. She won't let you hang on to her anymore.

A view of our hotel from the Lagoon. We are on the 10th floor.

Our hotel's heated pool. Olivia calls it "The Lagoon."

C'mon O! Since when are you shy for a picture?

From Coolpis to cartoned breast milk to fake beer for kids, this top ten list of Japanese soft drinks has it all. I especially liked the kimchee flavored yogurt drink. Well, like is probably too strong a word here.

Looks like "Iwo Jima" will soon be no more. No, they're not nuking the island or anything like that, just changing the name. Sort of, since according to the article "Iwo To" means the same thing as "Iwo Jima."

Mark gets a no-prize that'll puke on his floors for bringing us the laws of cat physics. Now if only they'd find a cure for some of these laws!

Japanese guys looking to fight fat are getting into belly dancing, according to Shukan Bunshun,

Read asinine article here.

Never have liked male belly dancers, never will. Find your own damn thing to do and stop trying to be a woman.

It is now 7:53PM California time. We are totally beat.

We are here! It has been 7 long years since our last visit! And we have a REAL hotel to boot! Enjoy the view!

Ok ok, why African American braids? Let alone Micro Minis? WHY NOT? THEY ARE HOT!

All I have to say is that all of the ladies in the salon thought I was 'da bomb' with them (being the only Caucasian girl there), and actually pull the look off rather well. I am "exotic". I was actually asked if I was part African- American (no...), was I Indian(noo...). I am part Italian, does that help? It's close to those countries? YES YES!! That must be it.

I personally thank my self-tanner.

Rockets do a lot of things well, but bouncing isn't one of them.

Olivia, while watching over my shoulder, "Daddy, what happened?"

"The rocket launched, and then it fell down and crashed."

"Yeah. They're gonna have to fix that."

Micro-mini car maker SMART will soon be offering their cars for sale in the US. With a starting price of around $14,000, it's the first time in decades that a European car costing less than my yearly salary has made its premiere on these shores.

1 determined male dachsund + 1 easygoing female rottweiler = ??? Something similar to this happened to one of my next door neighbors in college, only with him it was a full sized mutt female and a smallish purebred Jack Russell terrier.

Making the rounds: paleontologists have discovered a gigantic bird-like dinosaur in Mongolia. Thought to have lived just before the extinction of the dinosaurs, Gigantoraptor erlianensis (at least this specimen of it) was 26 feet long and about 12 feet tall at the shoulder. In spite of its bird-like construction, its one-and-a-half ton weight most likely precluded flying.

Looks like the Opera Amateur is for real. I don't know how long his time in the spotlight will last, but he sure is fun to watch.

Right place + right time + right talent = profit, indeed.

Scientists have successfully tested a scramjet design at Mach 10. From what I recall of a more detailed AW&ST article, they're going to test several of these over the coming weeks. They're all throw-aways, designed to send telemetry back and then crash into the sea. That whole, "New York to Tokyo in four hours" thing? Yeah, this'll be what powers it.

50 mph, in a wheelchair, stuck in the grill of a semi truck. Amazingly, nobody got hurt.

Yeah Mark, you are f&^$'d up.

Iz Nazty.

International environmental movements are calling on China to sharply limit its tiger farming industry. In other news, China has tiger farms.

I'm definitely of two minds about this. While I personally find the concept of raising tigers specifically to harvest their bits distasteful, if a percentage of the profits could somehow be funneled into conservation efforts for the wild ones I can't really categorically state I'm against it. I mean really, how different is this from, say, a cattle farm?

The very existence of a legal, reliable source of tiger parts to help keep superstitious Asian wangs at full-mast will considerably ease the pressure on wild populations. After all, if the market is allowed to work the domestic stuff will inevitably be cheaper. Why trek through the jungle when you just have to pay a visit to farmer Ming to get what you want?

Is that a cow in your pool, or are you just happy to see me? They only needed a floating drink to make the set complete.

Scientists have observed a supermassive star dying in a previously unobserved type of double explosion. It appears the star, in the galaxy UGC4904 (78 million light years away in the Lynx constellation), was about 50 to 100 times the mass of the Sun, and generated at least two massive explosions in its death throes. The discovery has implications which could change the way we model star birth and death.

So which side of the rope do you intend to pull on? Oh, don't bother. If you're not already on my side I'll just toss the other end to the left and be done with it.

The Costa Rica-based Ad Astra rocket company has tested its new plasma rocket under continuous power for more than four hours. If the technology matures into a production engine, it could make for cheaper high-altitude orbits and faster interplanetary travel. A good thing!

I'm still having a little trouble believing this is a for-real brush painting and not a photoshop, but the illustrated steps make it seem at least possible. I wonder if such realism could be obtained when not working from a photograph?

Introducing the Lilac Chaser, a new-ish (well, to me anyway) and fun optical illusion. Most of the time these sorts of things don't work for me, especially those "stare at it and see the pattern" things, but this one worked right off the bat.

Keyboard all icky? Stick it in the dishwasher. That it would survive is not completely surprising, since it's just a lump without any electricity. The most important thing is to wait a very long time to ensure it's completely dry inside before hooking it up.

For those on the left side of the peanut gallery and that guy in the corner with the "too loopy to talk to" dunce hat on (you know who you are) we have mo' bettah proof that a) taxes are still every bit as progressive as they've ever been and b) the tax cuts were distributed evenly. The article also includes nifty charts that undercut just about every economic position various friends and family have tried to bludgeon me with over the occasional dinner. And that's before I even got to the main article!

And I agree with him... if the budget's gonna balance itself in 18 months, why not make the tax cuts permanent?

Cucumber flavored soda, anyone? No more making fun of Olivia's fruit punch and grapefruit sodas, eh?

Scientists now claim to have found definitive evidence that Mars once had very large oceans of liquid water on its surface. They did this not through examination of rover data, but instead by carefully examining the surface features of the planet, which revealed a deformed coastline warped by a "toppling" of the planet.

Missed him by that much. It's bad enough not to take home a trophy; it's worse still when the thing you do bring home shows what a poor shot you were that day. Still, it beats the hell out of a typical fish story, no?

Joshua, I have found your shower curtain.

Via ASFD.

A new project to track walruses on the move is still returning data. While only one of the original eight tags is functioning, that final one is returning valuable data on where, and how fast, walruses can move around. The findings will hopefully be able to prove if the current Inuit hunting quotas are sustainable.

Mark gets a no-prize that soothes with few side effects for bringing us this informative infomercial about Oxyclinton, the drug of choice for those suffering from H.A.S., Hillary Ambivalence Syndrome.

Now if they'd only come out with something for Obamaroids...

While every parent knows having a kid completely changes your attitude toward them, it's interesting to know there's a good chance this is hard-wired. In humans, at any rate, I wouldn't be surprised at all to find some sort of post-birth hormonal function that makes people also forget what it's like to have children. This would certainly explain certain behaviors in people I would normally consider more rational.

But hey, that's just me.

Kiwi flavored sausage, anyone? No, really! Soon to be featured at a San Francisco sporting event near you!*

----
* Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sometimes Dennis Miller can be an obtuse reference freak who talks too fast. But when he's on point and on message, watch the hell out.

Well, I don't really like them all that much, but I do think they're interesting. As long as they stay on that side of the TV, that is. The article includes the first video I've ever seen of a goliath spider in the wild. Reason Never to Visit the Rain Forest # 423, far as I'm concerned.

Scientists have developed a "self healing" material which can repair itself many times. While still a lab concept, if it sees production the material could have many uses, especially in aerospace.

Aviation Week and Space Technology this week is featuring this detailed report on the upcoming Phoenix Mars probe. Scheduled to launch later this year and arrive in the summer of '08, this nearly Viking-sized probe will use a variety of advanced robotic laboratories to explore the north polar region of the red planet.

Today's lack of posting was brought to you by a little old lady who will (hopefully) finally be getting the help she needs. And if I ever see the inside of another emergency room...

At any rate, Ron gets a no-prize that's just too damned silly not to laugh at for bringing us a new example of a proto-lolcat:

Like I said, nearly impossible lighting.

Ellen's big recital was last weekend. This was the first one Olivia let me see to the end. Unfortunately the lighting was just about impossible for me to shoot in, so this is one of the few sharp pictures of the bunch. More to follow.

Hippos keep a strict watch over their territories and threaten anyone who invade them. Their teeth are as sharp as razor blades and they kill more people than any other African animal. Despite this, they are actually vegetarians and feed exclusively on grass.

Read the entire article with picture goodness here.

I'm not quite sure what to make of these graphs charting American vs. terrorist casualties in Iraq, but they do seem to pose problems for the people reading from the "it's a disaster, always has been always will be" script. Not that problems have ever stopped them before.

Well, except from thinking, that is.

They even has buckett! Yeah, it's silly, but no worse than that damned "Kitty Cat" song.

Water buffalo: 1, Lions: 0. I've heard it said more than once that the domestication of cattle was probably one of the greatest achievements in ancient agriculture. You see, wild sheep and goats simply run away when confronted by a human. Wild cattle try to kill people. They're justly famous for being quite good at it.

Mark gets a no-prize he can fling high into the air for bringing us this graphic representation of why wild carnivores are successful only about 30% of the time.

MURFREESBORO, Ark. -- Walking along a path taken by thousands of others at the Crater of Diamonds State Park, Nicole Ruhter noticed something everyone else had missed -- a tea-colored, 2.93-carat diamond.

This place is a must if you visit Arkansas.

you happen to be stacked on top of someone you don'tlike?

Mark gets a damned dangerous no-prize for bringing us this look at the "largest illegal arms market in the world." If you want it, it would appear you can get it there, cheap.

Vintage Belly Dance

No really it's cool!

I know I can't have a small dog Scott!

Sprinkle regularly grooms the kitten, licking its face and body. She protects the kitten from people reaching in to pick her up. Even though she’s not producing milk, the dog tries to nurse the kitten. The unlikely pair also sleep together, curled up with the kitten’s head resting on Sprinkle’s body.

Posted by Ellen at 09:32 PM | Comments (1)

On the web site you can find: -- Peoples stories, both those of voice hearers and people who work with voice hearers as well as stories of hope and recovery.

-- A challenge to the medical model and ideas psychiatry has about voices as well as information about a more empowering and helpful alternative.

-- Information about the work and the contact details for all of the hearing voices groups and networks working across the world.

-- Information about research and publications on this new ways of thinking and working.

-- A news service, an events calender and a links page to other helpful organizations and sites.

I shit you not, this is a real site.

So today is the first day of the last of my classes, .Net Enterprise Development. Already it seems this course will fill in the remaining (and critical) gaps in my programming knowledge, allowing me to finally create applications the "right" way without tearing my hair out or bugging Mike J. to death.

Which is not to say I won't do those things after Friday. I just hope to do much less of them.

At any rate, thanks to this and other various crises, posting may be quite light for awhile.

While a single skeleton and a broken pot may not sound like much of a discovery, when it's in downtown London, and the items are from the Dark Ages, it most definitely is. The body is most likely from around 410 AD, and the pot not quite a century later. This places both items squarely in the middle of London's "lost centuries," potentially guiding the way to other finds.

And in the "slow news day" department we have the announcement of an expedition to find the hole that leads to the center of the Earth. No, really!

Ron gets a no-prize that looks best in a lab that uses ridiculously dramatic lighting for bringing us the latest "CSI-like" deployment of DNA forensics, pet DNA analysis:

“There’s some real serious cases where animal DNA played a role in helping solve the case,” said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, a DNA expert who has asked investigators to collect DNA samples from murder suspects’ pets at crime scenes. “I believe that it will be used more and more.”
...
Wictum’s lab handles between 150 and 200 cases a year from all over the world. But scientists don’t just deal with pet-on-pet attacks. They process evidence from cases involving animal attacks on humans, human attacks on animals, and even human crimes against each other in which an animal may yield important clues.

If it means more scientific ways of catching scumbags, I'm all for it. Your dog wants a test tube kit!

A newly announced theory has the Pyramids in Egypt being constructed not from cut stone, but cast. The people behind the discovery claim that if the technique can be teased out, it could create a revolution in the construction industry.

Via Siflay.

While this harrowing video is not actually a guy surfing a tsunami wave, it's likely the next best thing. According to various comments, it's most likely off the coast of the Hawaii island, where in places waves can regularly exceed 30 feet in hight. Narly!

I've re-worked the comment filters, changing .*'s into .{0,20}'s. This should make the filter less likely to bite on false positives. I think. Regexp's have (obviously) never been my strong suit, so it's just as likely to have broken everything completely. Will keep you posted...

While rushing headlong down a steep hill chasing a wheel of cheese isn't something I'd want to do myself, it sure is fun to watch. Olivia looks like this when she runs on level ground. Come to think of it, so does Ellen.

A new report claims that bipedalism was the primary means of locomotion in very early apes, and that knuckle walking was a later development. While the idea that our ancestors were bipedal long before they struck out onto the savanna has been around for some time, the idea that we've always been bipedal is quite novel. As noted in the article, more research is needed to confirm this theory.

While not as good as the "Matrix ping-pong" skit, this "why is my girlfriend mad?" is still fun. Those crazy Japanese!

Ron gets a no-prize with a grudge against Indians for bringing us news of a new theory that attempts to explain why most of the large mammals of the western hemisphere died out 13,000 years ago. Scientists claim to have discovered evidence of a very large extraterrestrial object impacting the earth at about this time, which they claim caused a massive ice cap covering most of North America to melt. The massive cold water runoff this created shifted major ocean currents, triggering the well-documented Younger Dryas cooling event, whose thousand-year effect offed the big mammals. Ta-da!

The theory is, of course, controversial, with the primary objection being the lack of a big hole somewhere to crawl around in.