A Sense Organ Unique to Fish

A sense organ unique to fish is the lateral line system, a network of electrical receptors that detect electrical current in the water. Muscular contractions generate weak electrical currents that fish can detect. This makes them aware of the movements of other animals — especially predators and prey — in the water around them. Some few species, such as electric skates and eels, can even generate a strong current of their own in order to stun predators and prey.

What!

How long has everyone known about this?

And why has no one told me before now?

I'm telling you, A Life of Life is simply eye opening. It helps that it is in bite-sized pieces.

Something I Really Like - Personally

There is no thrill like seeing the people you love grow to be more "themselves." (If that makes sense.)

Recent examples:

• Reading the third draft of Rose's screenplay.
  This is a project from her screenwriting class that her teacher (who has sold screenplays under a pen name) feels has great potential, especially after a few more drafts.
  
  It came alive ... so very satisfying compared to draft 2. It isn't perfect, but ... wow. She's good. And I'm not just saying that because she's our own sweet Rose.
  
  
• Hannah looking at a chirping sparrow sitting in the entrance to a birdhouse and providing the translation of his chirping.
  She's a nut about animals as her Wildlife and Biology degree will attest. Birds are a special passion. I forgot that birds are actually doing some communication beyond singing until that moment.
  
  The translation? This works best if done in a sing-song ...
  "This is mine. Mine, mine, mine. This is mine. Mine, mine, mine."
  
  It makes me smile just to think of that little guy staking out his territory.
  

In which we hear learn some about Fraulein Dollman, consider Von Brunning's cleverness, and change plans

Yes, it's Episode 124 of Forgotten Classics as we forge ahead with The Riddle of the Sands ... and find out about a good source of movie info along the way.

PSA: Nelnet ≠ Customer Service

I don't use this as a forum for complaining ... well, not usually anyway.

In this instance, however, my personal interest in lowering Tom's blood pressure makes it incumbent upon me to warn people about using nelnet for student loans. A couple of early loans we got for Hannah's college were sold to them which is how we have been flung into the dizzying world of what they laughingly term "customer service."

However, if you have the right sense of the ridiculous, then perhaps the more outrageous of our examples will simply tickle your funny bone.

• Receiving an email telling you that in 24 hours your statement will be posted to your account.
  
  Really? This is the computer age, guys. Why not just send the email when it is posted instead of making us check back in 24 hours?
  
  
• Their customer service phone number message tells you they are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern time.
  
  Why the special hours? Every message leads to a computer and they never sleep. If you try "O" then it kicks you out. This is especially annoying when you are responding to that 24-hour notice email (24-hours later) to tell them that your statement has not been updated.
  

As I say these are just a few examples of the extremes. On the plus side, if you finally find a phone number that allows you to speak to a human (yes, the "apply for a loan!" phone number), then they are very nice ... but ultimately powerless.

It is too late to save us, but if you're applying for school loans then save yourselves!

Something I Really Like - Fun

My narration of Mike Resnick's "The Bride of Frankenstein" is now live at Escape Pod.

This is one of their series of Hugo-nominated stories and it was a great compliment to be asked to narrate it ... and the story is a lot of fun.  It was a real treat to read it.

There's a bit of depth that Happy Catholic readers will appreciate.

To top it all off, it is guest hosted by my favorite ... Alasdair Stuart of Pseudopod

Enjoy!

(Note: contains a bit of language ... )

Something I Really Like - Easy on the Eye

Not the puppies, though they are drop-dead cute.

The TV.

Tom bought my MacBook with some of our tax refund. I realized that what he'd really have liked for his birthday was something to replace our 20-year-old television. However, we didn't have that tax refund when it was his birthday. Obviously it was necessary to rectify that oversight. Especially after I heard him going over all the specs for televisions while we were lunching with friends.

Voila!

Apex Digital LD4088 40 in. LCD TV

Key Features

• Flat Panel Type: LCD TV
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (16:9)
• Broadcast Format Displayed: 1080p (HDTV) 1080i (HDTV) 720p (HDTV) 480p (EDTV) 480i (SDTV)
• LCD Response Time: 7 ms
• Screen Size: 40 inch
• Contrast Ratio: 1,800:1

It also has provided him with a bonus activity ... a new hobby as he tries to find just the right way to improve the sound, which he says is worse than that of our old television. Being glued to the glorious new "pop out of the screen" vision in front of me, I have hardly noticed.

The first movies we watched on it? Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles.

Worth a Thousand Words

You may kiss the bride
from Mom, I'm getting married
at the King Arthur Flour Baking Blog

This is a photo that captures sheer joy. If you click through then you'll also see the cake her mother and friends made for her.

Atheists Don't Have No Songs -- Steve Martin with the Steep Canyon Rangers

Much thanks to Mike Aquilina for pointing out this good natured and clever song. I laughed out loud but, then, Steve Martin usually has that effect on me.

Something I Really Like* - Tasty

Truly a delicious potato chip, worth the extra money. Just enough salt, zipped (or is it zapped?) with just enough pepper on hand-made potato chips. One bag per week for the household makes sure we appreciate these savory bits.

If you have a few extra bucks, then it is worth picking up a package of their most recent limited edition.

Hoochey mama, that's a zesty chip! You can read the story behind the flavor here.

Thank you Zapp's!

*Something I really like is one of Dr. Gemma's regular segments on her podcast, which I thought I'd try to adapt as I have so much I'd like to share that I never can get to it. One bite at a time ... maybe I can do it.

Fish, Fish, Fishes, and Grammar

Fish are our first group of animals, but before we discuss them, a note on English. One fish is, of course, a fish. The plural is also fish. However, the plural of different kinds of fish is “fishes.” So if you catch five of them, you’ve caught five fish. If you’re talking about groups, as we will, its fishes.

A Life of Life preps us to dive into discussing vertebrates. (Pun intentional)

Good Reading for the Weekend at the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal had tons of good stuff ... here are my picks:

• The Case for Having More Kids
  

  The main problem with parenting pessimists, though, is that they assume there's no acceptable way to make parenting less work and more fun. Parents may feel like their pressure, encouragement, money and time are all that stands between their kids and failure. But decades' worth of twin and adoption research says the opposite: Parents have a lot more room to safely maneuver than they realize, because the long-run effects of parenting on children's outcomes are much smaller than they look.

  A must read story about having more children which uses statistics and current observations to counter "what everybody knows." Tom and I agree that this story's information and attitude is much needed and a true reflection of what we have experienced. The short version would be: don't worry, be happy, and relax more. I am going to read this book when it comes out.


• Frederick Douglass's Eloquent Biography

  By its own terms, "Narrative" is the story of "how a slave became a man," and that story is intimately connected with Douglass's discovery, while still a slave, of the power of language. That process, as told in "Narrative," began like a trickster's tale. After learning a few letters of the alphabet by observing the markings on timbers in a shipyard, Douglass started boasting of what he knew to be his very limited knowledge to the white boys he met, knowing that, in their pride, the boys would try to top him by showing him letters he had not mastered. In this way, Douglass recalled, he got "a good many lessons in writing." The true turning point in his education, however, came when he happened upon a copy of "The Columbian Orator," a book of classic speeches, poems and dialogues "calculated to improve youth . . . in the ornamental and useful art of eloquence."

• The Bumper Book of Nature

  Not so funny but sadder still is the degree to which our own tech-absorbed society is cut off from nature's beauty and cadences. That sentiment, at least, and with gentle rue rather than Betjeman-like invocations of violence, is what emanates from the pleasant pages of "The Bumper Book of Nature: A User's Guide to the Great Outdoors." [...]
  
  Mr. Moss further urges readers to pursue outdoor pleasures that might seem laughably self-evident. "Climb a tree," he exhorts, and then goes on to explain when it is best to climb (late fall, when the leaves have dropped) and what it is most prudent to wear (jeans and a long-sleeved top, to keep from getting skinned). "Stand out in the rain," Mr. Moss advises. "It doesn't have to be for long—just time enough to appreciate the sensation of pure rainwater."
  
  Screamingly obvious? Well, sure. Yet the spirit of this sweet book is such that one is inclined less to mock than to think: "What a great idea!" And there is no doubting that Mr. Moss is onto something.

  Hannah, with her training in wildlife and nature (and Wildlife Biologist certificate in sight), has had occasion to bring up the idea several times in the last couple of weeks just how divorced most of us are from nature. Sometimes it is to the point where people are afraid of it in any manifestation. This looks like a nice counter to that tendency. I am going to see if our library has a copy.


• Three Shaw Films in Their DVD Debut

  George Bernard Shaw loved movies—or, more accurately, silent ones. But he didn't much care for early sound films, especially cinematic adaptations of his plays. That is until the appearance on his doorstep in 1935 of Gabriel Pascal, a gap-toothed, Transylvania-born actor turned producer who, in the words of the playwright's biographer Michael Holroyd, "belonged to a breed of troubadour-entertainers . . . for whom Shaw had special fondness."

• What I Learned in Pappy's Study

  I can still see him now, balding and bearded, seated behind his massive wooden desk, his powerful shoulders bent over a book, left hand pulling a pencil across the page. I enter Pappy's study and he looks up from his reading and greets me. Sometimes the greeting is light and playful; sometimes it is weary or stern. Always it is followed by the same: "Come, have a seat, son."
  
  To enter my father's home was to step into his scrutinizing gaze, a gaze that swept over my geometric haircuts, oversized basketball jerseys and voluminous, sagging trousers like an infrared beam, ...

  Sadly, this is only available to WSJ online subscribers and if you are one then I urge you to go read this. For the rest of us (except actual subscribers like me) then go look for William's book, Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture. Another one I'm going to be hitting our library for.

"When Catholics are Attacked All Christians Should React "

Scott Nehring, our token Protestant (his label, not mine, folks!) over at Catholic Media Review, has a clip on his blog, Good News Film Reviews explaining why he believes Christians of all denominations should stand with the Catholic Church when it is unfairly criticized or attacked by those in the entertainment industry.

There is a segment in his book titled “Attack on Catholics: Just Because I Don’t Follow You Doesn’t Mean I Won’t Back You Up” where he delivers the same message. Scott told me, "It ends w/ the line 'When filmmakers throw cinematic eggs at the Vatican, they are intended to splatter on us all.'"

We all remember Scott's book, right? The one I read the galley of and can't wait to get a copy of? You Are What You See: Watching Movies Through a Christian Lens

Luckily, Scott is kindly not going to make me break my book fast experiment* as I will be getting a review copy. As he emailed:

Literally, I am sending one to the Vatican, then one to the Texas Chainsaw.

You read that right. A copy of his book will be residing at the Vatican. So you know you'd better read it, just in case the Pope twitters about it.

And, yes, you read that right. He calls me the Texas Chainsaw. Perhaps because of our frequent sparring over movies, most notably Memento.

*No books bought since the New Year.

“You gotta try and save them. It’s pretty simple.”

In those bleak moments when the lost souls stood atop the cliff, wondering whether to jump, the sound of the wind and the waves was broken by a soft voice. "Why don't you come and have a cup of tea?" the stranger would ask. And when they turned to him, his smile was often their salvation.

For almost 50 years, Don Ritchie has lived across the street from Australia's most notorious suicide spot, a rocky cliff at the entrance to Sydney Harbour called The Gap. And in that time, the man widely regarded as a guardian angel has shepherded countless people away from the edge.

What some consider grim, Ritchie considers a gift. How wonderful, the former life insurance salesman says, to save so many. How wonderful to sell them life.

"You can't just sit there and watch them," says Ritchie, now 84, perched on his beloved green leather chair, from which he keeps a watchful eye on the cliff outside. "You gotta try and save them. It's pretty simple."

Since the 1800s, Australians have flocked to The Gap to end their lives, with little more than a 3-foot (1 meter) fence separating them from the edge. Local officials say around one person a week commits suicide there, and in January, the Woollahra Council applied for 2.1 million Australian dollars ($1.7 million) in federal funding to build a higher fence and overhaul security.

[...]

But he remains available to lend an ear, though he never tries to counsel, advise or pry. He just gives them a warm smile, asks if they'd like to talk and invites them back to his house for tea. Sometimes, they join him.

"I'm offering them an alternative, really," Ritchie says. "I always act in a friendly manner. I smile."

A smile cannot, of course, save everyone; the motivations behind suicide are too varied. But simple kindness can be surprisingly effective. Mental health professionals tell the story of a note left behind by a man who jumped off San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way to the bridge, the man wrote, I will not jump.

By offering compassion, Ritchie helps those who are suicidal think beyond the terrible present moment, says psychiatrist Gordon Parker, executive director of the Black Dog Institute, a mood disorder research center that has supported the council's efforts to improve safety at The Gap.

"They often don't want to die, it's more that they want the pain to go away," Parker says. "So anyone that offers kindness or hope has the capacity to help a number of people."

Obviously I could quote the entire article but please do go read it for yourself. I only know that the man's note who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge brought tears to my eyes. How much does it affect someone when we are too preoccupied to even notice that another human being is near us and give them a smile? We see that sometimes there is much more at stake than we could ever know.

Via The Anchoress.

Atheist Bus Ads in Chicago are an Opportunity, Not a Threat

The Freedom From Religion Foundation plastered more signs on 75 Chicago buses this week encouraging Chicagoans to skip church and sleep in on Sundays. But that's just the beginning.

Riders also will see 200 interior bus signs with quotations from five famous freethinkers or skeptics, including author Mark Twain, attorney Clarence Darrow, poets Carl Sandburg and Emily Dickinson; and actresses Butterfly McQueen and Katharine Hepburn.The interior ads also will feature a provocative quote from Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction."

"Obviously, there are many reasons to reject religion, most of them intellectual," said Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. "But face it -- one of the immediate benefits of quitting church, besides getting a 10 percent raise because you can stop tithing, is getting to sleep in on Sundays! What the world really needs is a good night's sleep."

I saw this at The Deacon's Bench where the first thing I thought was, "Really? That's the best they could do? Promise more sleep?"

Upon reading the excerpt it turns out that even so-called atheists are not immune to pressure from outside. Of course, that is only possible if they are treating their disbelief as a religion and trying to coax others into seeing what it's all about. Which is sad. Seriously. Give me a good, solid atheist like my Mom used to be. She cared not about what anyone believed as long as they treated others decently because to her all religion was hoo-haw.

Anyway, back to the business at hand. Let's get real. These bus signs are actually more of an acknowledgment of the way things really work. People profess faith but don't examine their profession and all too often do not live it.

Those bus ads are a talking point, a conversation starter for us to be able to talk about what we know and love about our faith. To talk about why we would rather go worship than sleep late on Sunday. We can use this to express our joy and peace in having a person-to-person relationship with God.

If we can't have that discussion honestly, then the ads are a good jump start for self examination of what we do believe, why we do not have the relationship we'd like, and what we might be missing by sleeping late on Sunday.

Captain Picard Day! Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me Until Now?

Thank goodness for Savage Chickens who clued me in.

In which we meet someone new and a surprising hint is dropped!

Yes, we're back to puzzling out The Riddle of the Sands over at Forgotten Classics. Enjoy!

Hard Hat Zone ... Crane Operating Nearby

I'm finally biting the bullet and updating my template to a more user-friendly version. Blogger gave it the final push by tempting me with a really customizable set of new template designs and images.

All sidebar items will be restored in due time.

You patience is appreciated while I work through the process.

(I know ... no time for posting, but time for template redo? Shhhh. I gotta have some fun!)

Update: as you can see I've been looking at different formats and colors, etc. I like the idea of coordinating a bit with the liturgical time of year (though if I am feeling like sun or sand then that will be a bit more tenuous). So, for now, we have the leafy green feel.

The New Liturgy: Let's Educate Ourselves Before Making Judgments

We are going to begin seeing more and more questions about the new liturgy as it is circulated. In an unlikely place, I came across someone referencing this article and expressing perturbation over the line "Jesus died for many" and then referencing their own belief of what it means.

To have questions is only natural and I wish there a comprehensive, official explanation of the new liturgy, line by line. The USCCB's "coming soon" is not enough when there are dribs and drabs being released. I know that our diocese is having all the priests go to classes to receive training and education about the new liturgical form. Considering how long the translation took, how many countries and committees it had to make it through before getting to us, and the fact that the Church is trying to get us back to important basics ... I would hope we could relax and trust the Church before putting our own hasty judgments on bits and pieces.

However, that is not really human nature. Certainly is is not American human nature.

Therefore, I would strongly advise doing some research about just what the background and meaning is behind any of the new liturgy before making any guesses ourselves.

An excellent book which is very easy to understand and also helps one understand the Mass better is Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the Peopleby Jeffrey Pinyan. It goes through it piece by piece. He has further books coming out on the Prayers of the Priest and more which will I hope will be equally illuminating.

If you are Catholic and have questions about the new liturgy, do yourself a favor. Get that book and read it. Note: the introduction is written in a much more scholarly vein than the rest of the book. If it bogs you down skip it.

In which we find Goldfish. (Yes, that's what I said. Goldfish.)

The Raymond Chandler sampler. Get it at Forgotten Classics.

Photo of the Week (Maybe of the Month)

RESCUE AND PROTECT: Staff Sgt. Edward Rosa reads the Bible and extends a cigarette to Pfc. Jorge Rostra Obando, who was stunned by an explosion in Afghanistan’s Arghanab Valley. One comrade was killed and two injured in the blast. Pfc. Rostran asked the sergeant to read Psalm 91, a favorite from his childhood. (Ricardo Garcia Vilanova for The Wall Street Journal)

What a surprise and a pleasure it was to see this photo in the middle of the front page of our Wall Street Journal this morning. Two comrades and faith under fire. Inspiring and a good reminder to keep our soldiers in our prayers.

Psalms
Chapter 91

You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,

Say to the LORD, "My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust."

God will rescue you from the fowler's snare, from the destroying plague,

Will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you may take refuge; God's faithfulness is a protecting shield.

You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day,

Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon.

Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, near you it shall not come.

You need simply watch; the punishment of the wicked you will see.

You have the LORD for your refuge; you have made the Most High your stronghold.

No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent.

For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways.

With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

You shall tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon.

Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high.

All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with them in distress; I will deliver them and give them honor.

With length of days I will satisfy them and show them my saving power.