I've just been really curious this week, so I'll share what I've learned:

Pol Pot:
"Saloth Sar (May 19, 1925–April 16, 1998), better known as Pol Pot (short for Politique Potentielle, French for "potential politic"), was the ruler of the Khmer Rouge and the Prime Minister of Cambodia (officially Democratic Kampuchea during his rule) from 1976 to 1979, having been de facto leader since mid-1975. Most analysts view Pol Pot as a dictator.

During his time in power Pol Pot instigated an aggressive policy of relocating people to the countryside in an attempt to purify the Cambodian people as a step toward a communist future. The means to do this included the extermination of an estimed 1 million to 2 million people disposed of in mass graves (quotes include the CIA, Amnesty International, and the very same Pol Pot, who quoted approx. 1 million), seen as intellectuals and other "bourgeoisie enemies." In 1979, he fled to the woods after an invasion by neighbouring Vietnam which led to the collapse of the Khmer Rouge government. Pol Pot, along with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, is today regarded as one of the foremost mass murderers in human history."  This guy is really interesting to read about.  I am really intellectually baffled thinking about how Htler, Stalin and Pol Pot could have been so successful in genocide.  millions over millions of individuals slaughtered in the last century between the three of these men.  It is just inconceivable to me. 

Banyan trees:
"(genus Ficus, subgenus Urostigma) is a subgenus of many species of tropical figs with an unusual growth habit. They are large trees that usually start life as a seedling growing on another tree (or on structures like buildings and bridges), where a fig-eating bird has deposited the seed. The roots descend over the trunk of the host, seeking out the soil below. Once they have rooted into this, the fig roots rapidly thicken and lignify (become wooden). Where the fig roots cross each other they fuse, thus creating a lattice around the host tree trunk. The fig competes with its host for light, water and nutrients, while its roots prevent the host trunk from growing. Eventually the host dies and rots away, leaving the fig self supporting as an ordinary tree, but with a tubular lattice of lignified roots instead of a trunk. For this reason banyans are often referred to as strangler figs."  I was watching Sunrise Earth, and they were featuring Angkor Wat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat), and there were these gigantic trees that were dripping off the stone temples, and they were just amazing.  I found out what these were after researching Pol Pot.

Whale sharks: 

"The largest fish - The whale shark inhabits the world's tropical and warm-temperate oceans. While thought to be primarily pelagic, seasonal feeding aggregations of the sharks occur at several coastal sites such as Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia; Útila in Honduras; Donsol and Batangas in the Philippines; and Pemba and Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania. Though it is often seen offshore, it has also been found closer to shore, entering lagoons or coral atolls, and near the mouths of estuaries and rivers. Its range is restricted to about ±30 ° latitude. It is found to a depth of 700 m.^[3] The whale shark is solitary and rarely seen in groups unless feeding at locations with an abundance of food. Males range over longer distances than females (which appear to favour specific locations)."  Also known as Tofu Shark in Japan, for the texture of its meat.

Cave glow worms:
" is the common name for various different groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females which glow through bioluminescence. They may sometimes resemble worms, but all are insects (Arachnocampa being a fly and all the others being beetles).  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow-Worm_Caves_Tamborine_Mountain)"  The cool thing about these is that they attach themselves to the ceiling of a cave, and produce these beaded strings of mucus and let them drop down to catch flying insect attracted to their glow; very similar to a web, but it looks like fragile crystal chandelier.  It's really beautiful, in a gross, "I'm looking at gigantic mucus strands" kind of way.

Cave swifts:
From these birds comes Bird Nest Soup, the most disgusting thing I've ever heard of (but they've been eating it in China for hundreds of years).  "A few species of swift, namely cave swifts, are renowned for building the nests used to produce the soup's unique texture. Such edible bird's nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans. The nests have been traditionally consumed in China for over four-hundred years, most often as Bird's Nest Soup.^[2] When dissolved in water, the birds' nests have a gelatinous texture. Bird's nest soup can either be served as a savory soup or sweet, as tong sui."
Here's the gross part though: the nests are made from mucus/spit from the bird's mouth, and it takes about 30 days to make a nest.  Just small strand of spit layered over another strand of spit.  Let this dry, then harvest the nest, put it in hot water and let it melt, and it turns into a gelatinous soup.  Bird Nest Soup.  OMG that is so nasty. 

Fasting:
Very difficult on the first time, at least it was for me.  Your body is just "used" to eating at certain times.  I found the main advice that was the most helpful was to not exert too much energy, which for me chasing after 2 kids was very difficult, so I finally had something small at 4pm.  But I found myself able to use my energy much more efficeintly, and I felt a lot better than I would have after I ate a giant meal (just for comparison).  It is something I am going to be putting into my agenda throughout the year for a variety of reasons.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting)

There is probably quite a bit more, but that's on the top of my mind right now.
Oh!  And I met Brendan Gregg's wife, Claire, last night at SVOSUG (too briefly, but Nova just had a little accident and we had to flee back to the car to change, but she seemed very nice and I am looking forward to meeting her again); along with Alan Coopersmith (boy is he a nice guy...no two ways about it) and Michelle (for whom I don't have a link, but she's an editor at Sun.  Very very pleasant lady!)

All the quotes are from wikipedia.

I've just been really curious this week, so I'll share what I've learned:

Pol Pot:
"Saloth Sar (May 19, 1925–April 16, 1998), better known as Pol Pot (short for Politique Potentielle, French for "potential politic"), was the ruler of the Khmer Rouge and the Prime Minister of Cambodia (officially Democratic Kampuchea during his rule) from 1976 to 1979, having been de facto leader since mid-1975. Most analysts view Pol Pot as a dictator.

During his time in power Pol Pot instigated an aggressive policy of relocating people to the countryside in an attempt to purify the Cambodian people as a step toward a communist future. The means to do this included the extermination of an estimed 1 million to 2 million people disposed of in mass graves (quotes include the CIA, Amnesty International, and the very same Pol Pot, who quoted approx. 1 million), seen as intellectuals and other "bourgeoisie enemies." In 1979, he fled to the woods after an invasion by neighbouring Vietnam which led to the collapse of the Khmer Rouge government. Pol Pot, along with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, is today regarded as one of the foremost mass murderers in human history."  This guy is really interesting to read about.  I am really intellectually baffled thinking about how Htler, Stalin and Pol Pot could have been so successful in genocide.  millions over millions of individuals slaughtered in the last century between the three of these men.  It is just inconceivable to me. 

Banyan trees:
"(genus Ficus, subgenus Urostigma) is a subgenus of many species of tropical figs with an unusual growth habit. They are large trees that usually start life as a seedling growing on another tree (or on structures like buildings and bridges), where a fig-eating bird has deposited the seed. The roots descend over the trunk of the host, seeking out the soil below. Once they have rooted into this, the fig roots rapidly thicken and lignify (become wooden). Where the fig roots cross each other they fuse, thus creating a lattice around the host tree trunk. The fig competes with its host for light, water and nutrients, while its roots prevent the host trunk from growing. Eventually the host dies and rots away, leaving the fig self supporting as an ordinary tree, but with a tubular lattice of lignified roots instead of a trunk. For this reason banyans are often referred to as strangler figs."  I was watching Sunrise Earth, and they were featuring Angkor Wat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat), and there were these gigantic trees that were dripping off the stone temples, and they were just amazing.  I found out what these were after researching Pol Pot.

Whale sharks: 

"The largest fish - The whale shark inhabits the world's tropical and warm-temperate oceans. While thought to be primarily pelagic, seasonal feeding aggregations of the sharks occur at several coastal sites such as Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia; Útila in Honduras; Donsol and Batangas in the Philippines; and Pemba and Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania. Though it is often seen offshore, it has also been found closer to shore, entering lagoons or coral atolls, and near the mouths of estuaries and rivers. Its range is restricted to about ±30 ° latitude. It is found to a depth of 700 m.^[3] The whale shark is solitary and rarely seen in groups unless feeding at locations with an abundance of food. Males range over longer distances than females (which appear to favour specific locations)."  Also known as Tofu Shark in Japan, for the texture of its meat.

Cave glow worms:
" is the common name for various different groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females which glow through bioluminescence. They may sometimes resemble worms, but all are insects (Arachnocampa being a fly and all the others being beetles).  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow-Worm_Caves_Tamborine_Mountain)"  The cool thing about these is that they attach themselves to the ceiling of a cave, and produce these beaded strings of mucus and let them drop down to catch flying insect attracted to their glow; very similar to a web, but it looks like fragile crystal chandelier.  It's really beautiful, in a gross, "I'm looking at gigantic mucus strands" kind of way.

Cave swifts:
From these birds comes Bird Nest Soup, the most disgusting thing I've ever heard of (but they've been eating it in China for hundreds of years).  "A few species of swift, namely cave swifts, are renowned for building the nests used to produce the soup's unique texture. Such edible bird's nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans. The nests have been traditionally consumed in China for over four-hundred years, most often as Bird's Nest Soup.^[2] When dissolved in water, the birds' nests have a gelatinous texture. Bird's nest soup can either be served as a savory soup or sweet, as tong sui."
Here's the gross part though: the nests are made from mucus/spit from the bird's mouth, and it takes about 30 days to make a nest.  Just small strand of spit layered over another strand of spit.  Let this dry, then harvest the nest, put it in hot water and let it melt, and it turns into a gelatinous soup.  Bird Nest Soup.  OMG that is so nasty. 

Fasting:
Very difficult on the first time, at least it was for me.  Your body is just "used" to eating at certain times.  I found the main advice that was the most helpful was to not exert too much energy, which for me chasing after 2 kids was very difficult, so I finally had something small at 4pm.  But I found myself able to use my energy much more efficeintly, and I felt a lot better than I would have after I ate a giant meal (just for comparison).  It is something I am going to be putting into my agenda throughout the year for a variety of reasons.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting)

There is probably quite a bit more, but that's on the top of my mind right now.
Oh!  And I met Brendan Gregg's wife, Claire, last night at SVOSUG (too briefly, but Nova just had a little accident and we had to flee back to the car to change, but she seemed very nice and I am looking forward to meeting her again); along with Alan Coopersmith (boy is he a nice guy...no two ways about it) and Michelle (for whom I don't have a link, but she's an editor at Sun.  Very very pleasant lady!)

All the quotes are from wikipedia.

"Since the creation of the Internet, the Earth's rotation has been fueled, primarily, by the collective spinning of English teachers in their graves."

This is an email I received this morning from a very good friend of mine.  I've been getting updates about this Governor for a while now, since it affects her family directly; and she is very involved with politics in her community.  It was so well written, I wanted to pass it on; especially because conventional media outlets don't cover issues like this (as opposed to Iraq or Virginia Tech).  I thought this sheds light onto alternative educational resources that are really starting to take off in America these days.  I'm certainly looking into them for my own children, so I am very interested in how they function.  I would encourage any parent to get this involved in their children's education (something I aspire to do myself!).

Well, it seems Ohio's issue is making it beyond the borders! I'm normally
not a fan of the Washington Times but hey, this works for me!!!

http://washingtonti mes.com/op- ed/20070421- 103501-7869r. htm

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has some explaining to do. He plans to gut the
state's school-voucher program, ending a two-year statewide experiment
building upon 12 years of vouchers in the city of Cleveland.

Through EdChoice, 2,829 students around the country receive vouchers to
attend private and parochial schools instead of failing local public ones.
But Mr. Strickland now intends to send those students back to those crummy
public schools, allegedly as an act of fiscal prudence. How insulting. The
savings: $13 million, in a two-year budget totalling $52 billion.

Mr. Strickland should explain to these thousands of students why their
education is not worth a tiny fraction of the state budget. He should
explain why he and other Democratic stewards managed to find additional
money for half the state agencies that squealed for more after the budget's
unveiling last month, as the Associated Press reported. The squeal money
includes $2.6 million to fund Department of Commerce mortgage-broker
applicants' background checks and, as the AP also reported, $50,000 for the
Ohioana Library Association, whose trustees include Mr. Strickland's wife,
Frances. Mr. Strickland also managed to find $2.5 million to install soy
biodiesel tanks and pumps at Ohio gas stations. The list goes on.

The governor should explain why students who happen to live in Akron,
Cincinnati, Columbus or Dayton do not deserve the same opportunities as
those in Cleveland. They are allowed to continue to participate in the
state's 12-year-old voucher program.

The farce of the "not enough money" line is belied by the size and scope
of spending, none of which unduly punishes Mr. Strickland's allies or deals
similar death blows to programs used by groups who vote. Take teachers'
unions. This budget may not be a dream for those union bosses, but it
nevertheless contains several hundred million more dollars for public
schools -- slated to receive a 3 percent annual budget increase. Or seniors.
The budget funds burgeoning Medicaid costs. Seniors vote, remember.

Mr. Strickland is better advised to admit the truth: This is a cave-in
to jealous teachers' unions. The unions make no secret of their hatred for
vouchers, which lose funding when pupils decamp for private or parochial
schools where their future prospects greatly improve. Democrats like Mr.
Strickland need to pay some kind of dividend to these unions once they help
propel party members to office. It's bad policy that Mr. Strickland would
kill a voucher program at their behest. But it is also shocking and
unconscionable that he would try to pass it off as "fiscal restraint." Tell
that to the voucher recipients he just robbed of a decent education.

This is an email I received this morning from a very good friend of mine.  I've been getting updates about this Governor for a while now, since it affects her family directly; and she is very involved with politics in her community.  It was so well written, I wanted to pass it on; especially because conventional media outlets don't cover issues like this (as opposed to Iraq or Virginia Tech).  I thought this sheds light onto alternative educational resources that are really starting to take off in America these days.  I'm certainly looking into them for my own children, so I am very interested in how they function.  I would encourage any parent to get this involved in their children's education (something I aspire to do myself!).

Well, it seems Ohio's issue is making it beyond the borders! I'm normally
not a fan of the Washington Times but hey, this works for me!!!

http://washingtonti mes.com/op- ed/20070421- 103501-7869r. htm

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has some explaining to do. He plans to gut the
state's school-voucher program, ending a two-year statewide experiment
building upon 12 years of vouchers in the city of Cleveland.

Through EdChoice, 2,829 students around the country receive vouchers to
attend private and parochial schools instead of failing local public ones.
But Mr. Strickland now intends to send those students back to those crummy
public schools, allegedly as an act of fiscal prudence. How insulting. The
savings: $13 million, in a two-year budget totalling $52 billion.

Mr. Strickland should explain to these thousands of students why their
education is not worth a tiny fraction of the state budget. He should
explain why he and other Democratic stewards managed to find additional
money for half the state agencies that squealed for more after the budget's
unveiling last month, as the Associated Press reported. The squeal money
includes $2.6 million to fund Department of Commerce mortgage-broker
applicants' background checks and, as the AP also reported, $50,000 for the
Ohioana Library Association, whose trustees include Mr. Strickland's wife,
Frances. Mr. Strickland also managed to find $2.5 million to install soy
biodiesel tanks and pumps at Ohio gas stations. The list goes on.

The governor should explain why students who happen to live in Akron,
Cincinnati, Columbus or Dayton do not deserve the same opportunities as
those in Cleveland. They are allowed to continue to participate in the
state's 12-year-old voucher program.

The farce of the "not enough money" line is belied by the size and scope
of spending, none of which unduly punishes Mr. Strickland's allies or deals
similar death blows to programs used by groups who vote. Take teachers'
unions. This budget may not be a dream for those union bosses, but it
nevertheless contains several hundred million more dollars for public
schools -- slated to receive a 3 percent annual budget increase. Or seniors.
The budget funds burgeoning Medicaid costs. Seniors vote, remember.

Mr. Strickland is better advised to admit the truth: This is a cave-in
to jealous teachers' unions. The unions make no secret of their hatred for
vouchers, which lose funding when pupils decamp for private or parochial
schools where their future prospects greatly improve. Democrats like Mr.
Strickland need to pay some kind of dividend to these unions once they help
propel party members to office. It's bad policy that Mr. Strickland would
kill a voucher program at their behest. But it is also shocking and
unconscionable that he would try to pass it off as "fiscal restraint." Tell
that to the voucher recipients he just robbed of a decent education.

This is an email I received this morning from a very good friend of mine.  I've been getting updates about this Governor for a while now, since it affects her family directly; and she is very involved with politics in her community.  It was so well written, I wanted to pass it on; especially because conventional media outlets don't cover issues like this (as opposed to Iraq or Virginia Tech).  I thought this sheds light onto alternative educational resources that are really starting to take off in America these days.  I'm certainly looking into them for my own children, so I am very interested in how they function.  I would encourage any parent to get this involved in their children's education (something I aspire to do myself!).

Well, it seems Ohio's issue is making it beyond the borders! I'm normally
not a fan of the Washington Times but hey, this works for me!!!

http://washingtonti mes.com/op- ed/20070421- 103501-7869r. htm

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has some explaining to do. He plans to gut the
state's school-voucher program, ending a two-year statewide experiment
building upon 12 years of vouchers in the city of Cleveland.

Through EdChoice, 2,829 students around the country receive vouchers to
attend private and parochial schools instead of failing local public ones.
But Mr. Strickland now intends to send those students back to those crummy
public schools, allegedly as an act of fiscal prudence. How insulting. The
savings: $13 million, in a two-year budget totalling $52 billion.

Mr. Strickland should explain to these thousands of students why their
education is not worth a tiny fraction of the state budget. He should
explain why he and other Democratic stewards managed to find additional
money for half the state agencies that squealed for more after the budget's
unveiling last month, as the Associated Press reported. The squeal money
includes $2.6 million to fund Department of Commerce mortgage-broker
applicants' background checks and, as the AP also reported, $50,000 for the
Ohioana Library Association, whose trustees include Mr. Strickland's wife,
Frances. Mr. Strickland also managed to find $2.5 million to install soy
biodiesel tanks and pumps at Ohio gas stations. The list goes on.

The governor should explain why students who happen to live in Akron,
Cincinnati, Columbus or Dayton do not deserve the same opportunities as
those in Cleveland. They are allowed to continue to participate in the
state's 12-year-old voucher program.

The farce of the "not enough money" line is belied by the size and scope
of spending, none of which unduly punishes Mr. Strickland's allies or deals
similar death blows to programs used by groups who vote. Take teachers'
unions. This budget may not be a dream for those union bosses, but it
nevertheless contains several hundred million more dollars for public
schools -- slated to receive a 3 percent annual budget increase. Or seniors.
The budget funds burgeoning Medicaid costs. Seniors vote, remember.

Mr. Strickland is better advised to admit the truth: This is a cave-in
to jealous teachers' unions. The unions make no secret of their hatred for
vouchers, which lose funding when pupils decamp for private or parochial
schools where their future prospects greatly improve. Democrats like Mr.
Strickland need to pay some kind of dividend to these unions once they help
propel party members to office. It's bad policy that Mr. Strickland would
kill a voucher program at their behest. But it is also shocking and
unconscionable that he would try to pass it off as "fiscal restraint." Tell
that to the voucher recipients he just robbed of a decent education.

I can't get rid of the advertisement in the middle...this is the third time I've written this.

I can't imagine a man of this caliber existing outside of literature.  I am humbled, inspired and amazed by his life, and death.

JERUSALEM - The e-mails from grateful students arrived soon after Liviu Librescu was shot to death, telling how the Holocast survivor barricaded the doorway of his Virginia Tech classroom and saved their lives at the cost of his own.

Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several foreign victims of Monday's shootings, which coincided with

Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Joe Librescu, who studied at Virginia Tech from 1989 to 1994, said his mother received e-mails from students shortly after learning of her husband's death.

The gunman, identified as Cho Seung-Hui — a 23-year-old English major and native of

South Korea — killed 32 people, then committed suicide.

Also among the victims was G.V. Loganathan, a 51-year-old engineering professor from India, his brother G.V. Palanivel said from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Peruvian student Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, was also killed while in his French class, said his mother, Betty Cueva.

Loganathan, who was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, had been a professor at Virginia Tech since 1982.

"For us it was like an electric shock. We've totally collapsed today," his brother said. "Our parents are elderly and have broken down completely."

When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war.

Librescu, who was 76 when he died, later found work at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said, and he was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel.

In 1977, according to his son, Israel's then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family an emigration permit, and they left for Israel in 1978.

Librescu left Israel for Virginia in 1985 for a sabbatical year, but eventually made the move permanent, said Joe Librescu: "His work was his life in a sense."

The academic community in Romania also was mourning Librescu's death.

"It is a great loss," said Ecaterina Andronescu, rector of the Polytechnic University in Bucharest, where Librescu graduated with a degree in mechanics and aviation construction in 1953. "We have immense consideration for the way he reacted and defended his students with his life."

At the university, people placed flowers on a table holding his picture and a lit candle. "We remember him as a great specialist in aeronautics. He left behind hundreds of prestigious papers," said professor Nicolae Serban Tomescu.

Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work. He received a doctorate from the Bucharest-based Academy of Sciences in 1969, and an honorary degree from the Bucharest Polytechnic University in 2000.

He also received several

NASA grants and taught courses at the University "La Sapienza" in Rome and at the Tel Aviv University in Israel."

My brother is going to have a fieldday with this: Dr. Phil is blaming the Virginia Tech shootings on video games:

"

LARRY KING: Why, though - OK, you want to kill someone, you’re crazed, you’re a little nuts, girlfriend drops you, why do you kill innocent people?… Dr. McGraw, are they treatable?

DR. PHIL: Well, Larry, every situation is different…  The question really is can we spot them. And the problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me - common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high.

And we’re going to have to start dealing with that. We’re going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murders of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose."

1) The person who killed all those people at Virginia Tech was South Korean; he was over here on a student visa.  So he wasn't programmed by our society at all. 

2) Psychopaths and sociopaths were killing people long before video games came around.

3) Homicide rates in America (here for statistics) in 1960 there were 9,110 murders in America.  In 1970 there were 16,000.  In 1980 there were 23,040.  In 1990 there were 23,440.  In 1996 there were 19,650.  In 2002 there were 16,229.  In 2005 there were 16,692. 

This is not a clear case of kids becoming more violent, and I believe Dr.Phil is doing the kids of America grave injustice with his disgusting accusations.  I am not a fan of video games myself (despite how many my brother pushes on me), but just because I don't enjoy them doesn't mean they are not beneficial to society.  They teach coordination, skill, pattern solving, logistics and analysis that they won't find on the playground.  I think Dr.Phil owes the youth of America a gigantic apology for misrepresenting them.  Until they have a case study where more than a hundred murders were committed because of video games, I think it is irresponsible for adults to accuse children of homicidal intentions that don't exist. 

This entire scenario is very similar to the crap the comic book community was getting in the 1970s: there is violence in comic books, therefore the people who read them will be violent.  Both are a load of horsecrap, and I am embarassed of Dr.Phil and his baseless accusations against the children of my country.

I am finding that I really like useless information.  I am just the bottomless pit of this stuff.  Like, penguins only live in Antarctica (most of you know this...some don't.  Just encountered this the other day).  One of my favorites is the fact that there is no such thing as a female peacock.  There isn't!  That's because it is called a peahen (makes sense now, doesn't it?).  That'd be the same as saying there is no such thing as a female rooster. 

But I'm running out of new material, and I'm on a mission to refresh my mental stash. 

A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.

A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.

A capon is a castrated rooster.

A chameleon can move its eyes in two directions at the same time.

A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.

A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.

A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A father sea catfish keeps the eggs of his young in his mouth until they are ready to hatch. He will not eat until his young are born, which may take several weeks.

A female mackerel lays about 500,000 eggs at one time.

A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

A leech is a worm that feeds on blood. It will pierce its victim's skin, fill itself with three to four times its own body weight in blood, and will not feed again for months. Leeches were once used by doctors to drain "bad blood" from sick patients.

A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.

A normal cow's stomach has four compartments: the rumen, the recticulum (storage area), the omasum (where water is absorbed), and the abomasum ( the only compartment with digestive juices).

A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel.

A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.

A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.

A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquitoes-sized insects in just one hour.

A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.

A zebra is white with black stripes.

...also, a polar bear has black skin and his fur is hollow (from my recollection).  This enables them to heat themselves through sunlight more efficiently.

This is the poem I wrote for my church; they got an actor and created a photo montage and put music in the background...I'm so excited to see it I can barely stop smiling.  The Pastor said it is so emotional and gripping, he knows the congregation will be really blessed by it today, which would be fantastic.  I hope you guys like it as well!

The Winds of Me
Tamarah Rockwood 2007

The edge is so near
I can feel the rush of wind
gusting in wild gales, nearly sucking me in;
The edge was where I had come,
and the edge was so near.
What does it all mean?
If I was a child, I would be playing under the swings
after the rain;
If I was rich, I would be celebrating my life
aboard a yacht, the Santa Maria, discovering
wild islands and foreign tongues.
If I had all the stars in the sky, maybe I would
halo myself with daisy chains of universes and time.
But I have the Gregorian calendar
tattooed on my wrinkled face,
as crushed, stained rose-colored paper
fitted over a terrible mortal skull, reminding
me of the time I have spent,
of the time I have.

Behind me lay the barren soil of my life.
I had worked so hard, and yet
despite every bead of sweat I endured,
every person I knew, every good deed, every mistake,
every unanswered question,
I have still brought myself here.

As I look up
and the breeze overtakes my breath,
and I can feel my heart slow to the beat of
the storm clouds marching across the sky.
I heard every story my grandmother told me
of “forever” and “eternity” and “everlating love,”
but I wonder if there is any proof of forever,
I thought I would have seen it in my life.

What is beyond this divide.
Will a gleaming city house me?
Will the crux of life end beyond this cliff?
What will become of me,
as I hardly know what I am looking for,
or who I am when I am alone.
But still the angel said to the women:
Do not be afraid, for
I know you are looking for Jesus.

I close my eyes and
in my mind I watch the rugged cross
being drug through the dirt, laced with his blood.
I shudder, for even I have not suffered so much;
and yet, I suffer so much.
In my mind I can feel the nails crash violently into my skin,
I feel the shallow breaths slowly leave me,
I feel the cries from the women who cower beneath the shadow
of the cross.
And yet, the angel said to them:
Do not be afraid.
I know you are looking for Jesus;
at the edge of my life,
when the winds of change sweep me off my stubborn feet,
at the edge of my mind when the upheaval of thoughts crumble on my
flimsy excuses,
and when the meaning of my strife
drifts like smoke on the still river of life;
I feel the answers my grandmother spoke,
softly floating in my haze
and drifting along the river that
winds through life’s valley.
When I stop worrying about my own mortal swim
and what it means to me
I see how much greater is the purpose
of how much I mean to Him.

I can't get rid of the advertisement in the middle...this is the third time I've written this.

I can't imagine a man of this caliber existing outside of literature.  I am humbled, inspired and amazed by his life, and death.

JERUSALEM - The e-mails from grateful students arrived soon after Liviu Librescu was shot to death, telling how the Holocast survivor barricaded the doorway of his Virginia Tech classroom and saved their lives at the cost of his own.

Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several foreign victims of Monday's shootings, which coincided with

Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Joe Librescu, who studied at Virginia Tech from 1989 to 1994, said his mother received e-mails from students shortly after learning of her husband's death.

The gunman, identified as Cho Seung-Hui — a 23-year-old English major and native of

South Korea — killed 32 people, then committed suicide.

Also among the victims was G.V. Loganathan, a 51-year-old engineering professor from India, his brother G.V. Palanivel said from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Peruvian student Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, was also killed while in his French class, said his mother, Betty Cueva.

Loganathan, who was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, had been a professor at Virginia Tech since 1982.

"For us it was like an electric shock. We've totally collapsed today," his brother said. "Our parents are elderly and have broken down completely."

When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war.

Librescu, who was 76 when he died, later found work at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said, and he was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel.

In 1977, according to his son, Israel's then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family an emigration permit, and they left for Israel in 1978.

Librescu left Israel for Virginia in 1985 for a sabbatical year, but eventually made the move permanent, said Joe Librescu: "His work was his life in a sense."

The academic community in Romania also was mourning Librescu's death.

"It is a great loss," said Ecaterina Andronescu, rector of the Polytechnic University in Bucharest, where Librescu graduated with a degree in mechanics and aviation construction in 1953. "We have immense consideration for the way he reacted and defended his students with his life."

At the university, people placed flowers on a table holding his picture and a lit candle. "We remember him as a great specialist in aeronautics. He left behind hundreds of prestigious papers," said professor Nicolae Serban Tomescu.

Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work. He received a doctorate from the Bucharest-based Academy of Sciences in 1969, and an honorary degree from the Bucharest Polytechnic University in 2000.

He also received several

NASA grants and taught courses at the University "La Sapienza" in Rome and at the Tel Aviv University in Israel."

Yesterday I (and the rest of the world, I imagine) read that Keith Richards snorted some ashes of his cremated father.  Today, it's a different story:

Keith Richards Snorting Of Dad Was A Joke

Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards insists he never snorted his father's ashes - his recent comments were made in "jest". Richards can't believe people took him seriously after he told British music magazine NME he once snorted his dad Bert's ashes mixed with cocaine.

He said, "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared.

"It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

However, Richard's manager Jane Rose tells MTV that the hellraiser's comments were "said in jest. Can't believe anyone took (it) seriously."

Of course we took it seriously!  This is Keith Richards we're talking about!  Good grief, he'll survive us all and rock out when the last one of us drops!  Oh Keith, you silly man...

Yesterday I (and the rest of the world, I imagine) read that Keith Richards snorted some ashes of his cremated father.  Today, it's a different story:

Keith Richards Snorting Of Dad Was A Joke

Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards insists he never snorted his father's ashes - his recent comments were made in "jest". Richards can't believe people took him seriously after he told British music magazine NME he once snorted his dad Bert's ashes mixed with cocaine.

He said, "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared.

"It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

However, Richard's manager Jane Rose tells MTV that the hellraiser's comments were "said in jest. Can't believe anyone took (it) seriously."

Of course we took it seriously!  This is Keith Richards we're talking about!  Good grief, he'll survive us all and rock out when the last one of us drops!  Oh Keith, you silly man...