Cool sciency pictures.

Apparently there is a contest by Wellcome Images to find cool microscopic pictures/artwork. Here is the link to the gallery. This one of red blood cells is my favorite. I didnt want to post any of their pics on this site because of copyright laws, but I will post a cool micro artwork of my own.

This is one of the biggest protein crystals I have grown; it was ~2mm long.
jb

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign...

Our friends Jason and Angela came for a visit last weekend. One of the fun things we did was visit Fredericksburg, Tx. It is a small touristy town about 1.5 hrs from Austin. There is a Pacific WWII museum there (because Admiral Nimitz was born there, it certainly has nothing to do with geography). There are a lot of German themed businesses and wineries there as it was a German settlement originally, and the are under the delusion that they can make good wine. Anyway, One store that was awesome sold local produce (we bought some awesome pecans) and had all these cool signs on the wall... here is a sampling of the awesomeness....


Coors Light + Huge Silver Eagle = Good times... I contemplated putting this one up in our bedroom... or sending it to the Eagle (Kirk).

Here is everyone admiring the signs. One perk in Fredericksburg is you can walk around the downtown with beer, like Mardi Gras.....except in the afternoon... and with Texans... and with lots of curio stores instead of bars.

Thanks for the detailed map of dixieland. Speaking as a Missourian... its okay if you leave us out of your club...I appreciate your inclusiveness, but MO is no Georgia or Alabama when it comes to Dixiness....Growing up there, I certainly did not consider it "southern"; it is soundly midwest. Sure, historically we dabbled in slavery, but so did a lot of states, it was the thing to do back then...
As you can glean from the last paragraph, my heart isnt in dixie totally yet, so I will begin plans for the removal of my donkey. To tell you the truth, it was making a mess of the apartment anyway. Also, nice random use of underlining.

The Rock.. nuff said...

Too bad I had such a hard time putting on my legitimate Tx license plate... otherwise this one woulda gone on the back of the metro... Yes, the "No Fear" fad of the mid 90's is still alive and well in Texas. More posts on the visit soon.

jb

Videos!

I totally got you guys!!!

Louie Loves sand and water... sand seems to be the perfect medium for one of his favorite activities: hiking things between his legs. He was doing this for about 15 minutes, but here is a short clip. He likes to do this in shallow water also.

L & D to Austin

As mentioned in a previous posting , our friends L & D came for a 4 day visit to our fair city. We had a lot of fun showing them around, playing games, and generally making merriment. Lets get to the pictures, shall we? We went on a campus tour which was fun. Here are the precocious pair by the statue of George Washington. UT has a lot of statues of random public figures with little or no association to the university, which I find odd, but whatever.


while on campus Lou took time to reflect on life... and turtles in our campus turtle pond. He was very interested in these creatures as you can see by his erect ears... we had to hold him back from leaping on them.


This pic comes from a walk around the lake we took on Saturday.. This part of town has great views... everyone comes out to recreate around ladyBird Lake when the weather is nice and we were no exception.
Souvenir T shirts are fun! D got this one at a shop on 6th street. This is the same shop where our friend Russel purchased his infamous "F#%$ y'all I'm from Texas" shirt. D chose something a little more subdued.


Here we are at Pedernales Falls. We found out how to access the western part of the falls via a small cliff. Good times were had, although the weather was not cooperating... this was a theme throughout the weekend. The weather here has been great all winter compared to Madison and unfortunately for L and D is was abnormally cool for their visit. I am told that the end of March and early April is prime camping weather.

On Friday we slipped on down to San Antonio. The famous Alamo is seen here. we actually went inside this time, it was pretty neat. Afterwards a park ranger gave a stirring oral rendition of the siege of the Alamo. Our patriotism was stirred deeply.

This is us on the riverwalk hanging out. We love the riverwalk, it is super fun. This is the spot where Demian saw his "favorite duck ever." She was diving and snacking on bread on the bottom of the river, Demian was fascinated by this and took several videos and pictures of her. He also poured some shinerbock into the river for his homies who couldnt be here. In doing so he actually improved the water quality of the san antonio river.

Here we are in the Buckhorn Saloon and museum in downtown San Antonio!!

We found this place on the roadside america website. It was worth every penny. Here we are with our Shiner Bocks in front of a big ole longhorn.
Below are some of the many exhibits and stuffed animals.

Mongoose vs. Cobra is an epic struggle (kind of like GI joe vs. Cobra). In this case I am going to say the Cobra has the upper hand. First off, the albino cobra is 8 times bigger than Ricky Tikki Tavi, and it has him in a strangle hold. Also the cobra is hypnotizing the mongoose with its beady red eyes. It doesnt look good for the mongoose at this point.

This is some sort of saw fish... awesome... D almost fell in the aquarium.

Excuse me, may I cut in? you too are dancing awful close there... oh I'm sorry, my bad, I didnt know you were Siamese calf twins.. How Awesome!!!

The most fascinating exhibit was of course the world famous "Manboon" (top left). We had heard good things about the manboon, but seeing it in person in all its glory, took our breath away. Is it a missing link? A taxidermy mishap? Who knows, perhaps we'll never know, but one thing is for certain, our lives were changed forever. Lesser oddities and freaks were also displayed including a particularly evil merman (front center) and some sort of man-squirrel-velocaraptor (back center), but none struck us like the manboon.

We may link up all the awesome pics (all 146 of them) soon... keep on the lookout for that.

"Evolution DOES NOT state we came from chips!!"

As mentioned in an earlier blog entry the Memorial Museum on the UT campus has an extensive section on evolution which is great for kids and adults alike. We stopped there again with my friends Laurel and Demian when they visited. We had a great time in the museum. This time we saw something that we must have missed on our initial visit. . . a scrapbook of archived comments on the evolution exhibit by people who have previously visited. This turned out to be a great source of amusement for us throughout the entire weekend, and I am thankful I had my camera handy so I could show you some of these great entries.

As for the drawing above, all I have to say is nice rhyming....



Apparently I should read the bible more as this is where "proof" of the 6000 year old earth lies. I am told it is right in the beginning part, but I cant seem to find it.

The authors of these last 2 entries seem to think the bible is some sort of almanac or better yet a science textbook. Rx and I have about 20 odd science textbooks that we have saved from our accumulated years of science education, I am glad to know that they can be all be replaced by one handy little book. I only hope Roxanne can find the cat anatomy section before she has to do surgery tonight. I think it is in Leviticus.






Here is another person who believes the bible is a an almanac and the scientific history of earth is recorded therein verbatim. Indeed, why haven't apes learned to talk yet? Boohya Darwin! We've found a chink in your mighty armor of logic. Pull on that thread and all his lies will unravel evolutionary theory like a flimsy sweater. And also, why don't they wear pants!!!

I like how in the end he does acknowledge the existence of maybe... just maybe... a little evolution. That's dangerous thinking... you just opened a window in your brain for THE DEVIL to jump in!!!!! Quick, shut your mind tight like a trap so no new thoughts can enter!!!! Close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears or you're a gonner!!!

Yeah!! and Horses and Zebras look alike am I supposed to believe they evolved too? Also, mice and rats look alike!! There are similarities between chickens and ducks am I supposed to believe they evolved as well? Wait I am seeing a pattern here.... never mind, I just answered my own question.

Apparently I wasn't there the day that Darwin came and this person met him and assessed whether he was nice or not. I wish I could have been there to see him myself. That has a lot to do with whether his theory has merit by the way.

Unisex bathrooms!!! All part of the secularist plot to unhinge morality!!! It has nothing to do with the fact that the exhibit is basically in an attic and space is very limiting... It is all part of secular atheists plan to convert everyone to primal beasts knowing only lust and hedonism!!!! Oh the depths of depravity I conjure as I pee in a toilet knowing full well that a woman may once have peed there also!!! I can hardly hold back my urge to plunder and defile all I come into contact with as I wash my hands in a sink that may well hold girl germs. I stare into a mirror that a woman may have also looked into and ALL I SEE IS RED!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!!??!!

I wish I could ask this lady if she has a unisex bathroom at home and if so how can she live with herself!?!?!?!

I have no response to this. Your steel blade of logic stabs me to the core!!!! If we came from monkies then why indeed is there still monkeys?

This person got it right on. I totally agree with this statement, "Evolution DOES NOT state we came from chips." In fact we may not have evolved from salty snacks at all. Resent fossils have been unearthed that show indisputably that man evolved from dried meat snacks. The common ancestor between us and jerky snacks lived 100,000,000 years ago. This creature resembled our slim jims of today, but were much larger, with rudimentary arms, fins, and spices. Salty snacks and the ancestors of what we now call "Funions" broke off much earlier in the evolutionary tree.

It should be noted that this person is one of the few "pro evolution" commenters I saw, but nevertheless still prone to hilarious misspellings.

2 posts on this page claim that creationism should get "equal time" in the museum's exhibit. I think that is fair. Also, Art should get equal time in Social Studies and P.E. should get equal time in Home Ec class. Lets be fair here... a crazy homeless man outside has a different opinion about how the fossils on the first floor were made, lets hear what he has to say and give it equal credence.

I like to think that these people are a vocal ignorant minority, but there is evidence for the contrary. Texas seems to be a Mecca for creationists. Evidently some moved here to attempt to attain accreditation to give out "Masters of Science" degrees in the state. The sheer irony of the title of the degree they should supposedly be able to bestow almost doubled me over. Unfortunately this is not a joke. In April, the state's higher education board will decide whether to allow them to become accredited. It is interesting to note that they initially (quietly) recommended them for approval, and it may have gone through until some actual scientists heard about it and sent some letters. I sure hope these nutcases are not further legitimized. Texas will be the laughing stock of the scientific community (move over Kansas and Alabama), and our children will be taught scientific reasoning by zealots masquerading as teachers.

From the archives...

Warning, the below pictures may induce "AAAhhhh" and Aahh-like sounds... I found these while going through some pictures. These were from Roxanne's first job in the Dells.

Okay, the last one wasn't from the dells as you may have guessed, it is a penguin in a bucket I came across on the interweb, but its cuteness is unquestionable.