And Miller Lite. What do you suppose it does when you drop an unopened can into a pool?

New York joins Missouri, Delaware, California, Illinois, and Iowa in banning the mercury preservative from medicines for children under 3 and pregnant women.

In Dallas, the price just got higher.

Here in California, it’s getting there fast.

It’s a turf war down there, as anemone colonies display previously unknown aggression against other colonies. Their weapons of choice are tentacles with stinging cells.

Those cigarettes that are so French will now be made in Alicante, Spain. It seems that Marlboro and Camel have overtaken Gauloises as the smoke of choice.

He’s a tree kangaroo, and his taste of freedom has lasted four days. After ducking the efforts of police and firemen, he bounded over a fence, and hasn’t been seen since.

Unlike Reggie and Wallace, he doesn’t pose a danger to the local populace.

Maybe they will all three meet up somewhere, and there’ll be a Disney movie coming. Discussions in Hollywood might be underway at this very minute, about which one would be the annoying sidekick.

And over in Scotland, there’s a male boar that townspeople in Dunblane have named Wallace, (for William Wallace - you know, Braveheart) running loose with officials in hot pursuit.

He’s been seen near a pub, around the river, and by the football fields. You remember what they did to William Wallace when they caught him, don’t you.

Updating the Lake Machado reptile hunt: the alligator we once knew affectionately as Harbor Park Harry is actually Reggie, once belonging to two men who have since been arrested for dumping him into the lake.

Gator wranglers hired to catch Reggie admit that calling him by name might be worth a try. But the pursuers from Gatorland in Florida planned to return home last Friday.

Now, it seems Reggie has his own blog, and one can purchase ‘Save Reggie’ merchandise.

It was only a matter of time.

It has been discovered that medieval monks at Soutra Aisle in Scotland chewed bitter vetch to keep hunger at bay. Archaeologists report that those who used the herb had no need of food or drink for long periods of time.

It tastes like licorice.

The floodwaters are contaminated with chemicals, gasoline, feces, and decomposing bodies. With stagnant water that might be standing for weeks, the risk for mosquito-borne infections is very high.

The swelling is down by about half. I’m hobbling lots faster today.

The takeout order last night was botched, so instead of a warm, gravy-laden turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, I got a cold, overly toasted, thin, tasteless excuse of a turkey sandwich. After picking it apart, I couldn’t bring myself to eat much of it.

Since I can’t have a Sasebo burger for lunch, I put scrambled egg in my ham and cheese today.

After twisting my ankle the other night, I saw a centipede on the wall, about an inch long. Since I photograph everything I find interesting these days, I put it in a little jar with a piece of paper over it. Normally, I would have a little jar with holes in the lid, but the trek to the kitchen was long and painful. The next morning, it was dead or in a dormant state, so I put it outside.

Now, if I had the experience of this fellow in Britain, I would no doubt have twisted the other ankle in the retrieval process.

She (8 lbs. 7 oz.) grew in her mother’s abdomen instead of her womb, and doctors had no idea until she was delivered via Caesarean. Mom needed emergency surgery afterward, but all is well now.

A ventriloquist that is also the loudest animal in the world. I should be grateful that the one I had was a female. To have a male lost in the house in the middle of the night is obviously a living nightmare.

Speaking of goats and milk. . .

In Brazil, its owner is offering demonstrations to the doubting.

The mother bears carry their cubs on their backs, even as they forage, or attack a predator.

It’s a red ant that can jump over three feet in the air to catch prey. More information can be found midway down this page.

Slow-tempo guitar music like that of Steven Pesaro, which would put me to sleep on a regular workday. I also have a lot of Erik Satie on tap. Maybe I should put the ankle right up to the speakers.

a) Getting to wear my favorite lavender-colored pajamas all day.
b) A day off without a sore throat, runny nose, cough, and fever
c) Lunch in bowls
d) A whole bar of See’s milk chocolate, because I deserve something for all the pain and aggravation
e) an afternoon of online shopping since I can’t go out

Singer in the Storm. I’m not sure this is what my ankle needs to hear.

Last night, in serious pain from the twisted ankle, I propped it up on some pillows. And settled in with these books, which are not usually the kind I settle in with. In Flight 1, I looked at the work of Khang Le and Chris Appelhans, and In Flight 2, Justin Ridge, Phil Craven, Matthew Woodson, and Jake Parker (The Robot and the Sparrow). Can you become smitten with a little robot who loves a sparrow?

Because of the large number of birds that visit in my yard, any outdoor furniture must be easy to clean and dry. These would be lovely, but not very practical. Ditto the sod sofa.

The disease spreads more easily during monsoon season, which runs from June to the end of September.

Scientists have created an ultra-thin coating of nanoparticles that are more attractive to moisture than the glass itself. Water droplets are then flattened over the surface of the coating, making a transparent layer.

There are other uses for this technology, and the military is quite interested.

A big bird, a big traffic jam on the Golden Gate.

It’s a burger with a beef patty, an omelet, bacon and lettuce. They come in various sizes, up to almost a foot across. There is a picture of one on this page, but not sure which (several burgers shown) because it is in Japanese.

The bride takes on the hurricane on her wedding day.

A series of remarkable photos taken by a scientist in a NOAA-43 hurricane hunter. Includes the eye.

I didn’t take the flashlight, being in a hurry. As I rounded the corner I’ve rounded hundreds of times, I managed to twist my ankle. It is quite difficult to type with an elevated leg (ankle above the knee, knee above the hip).

U.S. scientists have accomplished a feat that sounds almost impossible - mammals with the ability to regrow organs, toes, and a tail. Not only that, but when cells from these mice are introduced into an ordinary mouse, it also is able to regenerate.

The possibility that we could someday replace our own defective organs is no longer such a remote idea.

The winner, Iain Hawkes, made his way through a trench cut into a peat bog. It was smelly, muddy, weedy, and fast, as he managed the 60-yard length in 1 minute, 46-seconds. He’s 26.

It took the 70-year entrant 5 and a half minutes.

I usually save it for around Christmas, but sometimes after a dark time, when the clouds lift some, it’s very fitting. Kathleen Battle’s version.

There is now a PayPal donation link to the right (thanks, Chris!) Whatever is collected will be used to propel me toward podcasting. What? A bad idea? I dunno. Some of you keep coming back. Could it be the catfish stories or the lake monster items (wait, those are sometimes the same thing).

Okay, I haven’t had time to see how much podcasting will cost me. But we are poised on the brink of another heat wave, it seems. I have maintenance needs, mostly ice cream. I promise to take lovely close-ups.

Found in a grave in Jiahu, the flute was crafted from the crane’s hollow ulna, and can still be played. More here.

The outer metal layer sustained the most damage, although winds punched two holes as well.

In case you long to be there, but just can’t make it this time, the Gerlach live cam.

Want some news with those tunes? The BBC is looking into ways to tap into the wallets of their site visitors (25 million per month).

The Oskarshamn reactor in Sweden has temporarily shut down due to an overabundance of jellyfish in its cooling pond.

Last night, pie in hand (Marie Callender’s apple), we went to say goodbye to neighbors who recently sold their house.

It used to be that prior to a sale, a huge tent would be erected over the house, and the obligatory termiting process begun. However, the housing market being what it is, this is no longer true, at least for our neighbors. The new owner has accepted their house as is, termites and all.

A volatile mix, to say the least. France wants at least five bears to help repopulate the Pyrenees mountain region, but shepherds who have witnessed bear attacks on their flocks beg to differ.

Clawing back to positive territory as Katrina’s winds fall from a high of 175 mph to 135 mph.

Russia, Malaysia, China, India, and Japan.

A lost black labrador in Scotland boards the right train taking him home, and gets off at the right stop.

It just wasn’t his time. A man survives horrific train-car collision, frees himself from wreckage.

As Katrina slams into the Gulf region, where 25% of U.S. oil and gas production occurs, analysts begin talk of oil at $75/bbl.

Stocks such as Royale Energy (ROYL) and Able Energy (ABLE) rally.

Thousands take shelter from Katrina.

In a web survey by Sony, men were asked to send in a picture of their most beautiful possession. Germans loved their shoes, food, and art. The French had a preference for food. The Brits? Action figures, teddy bears, and toys.

In Alberta, an animal control officer received a splash of crow brain tissue in his eye as he tried to euthanize the bird. Perhaps his method of euthanization was not the best.

That is, roses with print on their petals. Now you can buy your love a dozen gorgeous flowers, and deface each one with messages.

Courtesy of a Singapore flower company and HP.

Somehow, I can’t get enthused about this. Maybe I see city trees flashing advertisements on their leaves as people wait for the bus.

A few years ago, my mom had a brain aneurysm rupture while we were out shopping (a long story, another day perhaps). At the time, the neurosurgeon recommended surgery, and because of her advanced age, we chose not to go that route. As he later put it, if it were his mom, and she were that old, he probably wouldn’t have it done either.

Now comes news of a minimally-invasive way to treat wide-necked aneurysms, a method that does not involve opening the skull.

Crude oil futures moving up as Katrina is poised to slam into the Gulf region.

It was pleasantly warm when we left home, and as we neared Gilroy, we laughed at the temperature sign. ‘Ha,’ we said merrily, ’someone sure messed up. 103°. Ha.’

The sign was correct, and erred on the cautious side, actually. After factoring in the number of bodies packed in for shopping, the heat reflecting off the concrete, the time it would take for the car air conditioning to feel cool, our constant complaining, and all the things I didn’t shop for because of the heat, it was probably closer to 115°.

Stan’s are what Krispy Kremes dream of being.

The line was bunched up at the door this morning, but everyone is always in a happy mood at Stan’s. Little kids try to pick from all the ones with colored sprinkles, parents are beaming, the customers eating at the counter have boxes beside them. The cook is elbow deep in fresh, raw dough. The staff sport the bemused and somewhat dazed expressions of those who breathe in fried, sugary food all day.

There were only three jelly ones left, and I got them all. I staggered out with a dozen and a half. What can I say? They’re heavy but light.

I only get to do this once or twice a year.

It lumbers around and makes a lot of noise due to its sheer bulk. The one I have is obviously a female, nights have been silent. Once in a while, it finds itself upside down, and then there is a frantic thrashing and spinning around with a lot of wing whirring.

But it needs no food. Unless you believe the folks here.

I ate the last of it today, marble fudge.

So I’m thumbing through a Microbiology textbook this afternoon, looking at various information about bacteria, staph infections, yeasts, slime molds, and lattice fungi. I must have glanced at hundreds of terms, but the last one kind of jumped out at me. Lattice fungi, I thought, now that’s interesting. Then it was dinnertime and a trip to Costco.

When I got back, I found an email from son Jeff over in Berkeley, whom I haven’t talked to since last Sunday. Here it is:

i don’t know if ever mentioned this to you, but i saw a fungus that resembled a buckyball when we were in australia.

i figure you might be interested in them:

That’s eerie.

She’s churning up more power, and might hit Mississippi or Louisiana by Monday.

There is the strange urge to shop.

This may be old hat to you, but I just found it, and while I don’t have an iPod yet, it would be great for my cell.

Sadly, she is no longer here. Through bad molt after bad molt, she hung on, and many times I thought she was gone. But each morning, I’d come out here and say something like, Loretta, are you still with us? And she waggle one or all of her back legs.

A mantis is a low-maintenance pet, except for the times I ran out of food, and was reduced to hanging around the lights out front, hoping for a moth or two. When she was hungry, she’d swivel her head around, and face me in an unnerving way till I came up with something.

Sometimes, when nothing much has gone right the entire day, and the afternoon takes a plunge into the depths of despair, I find a place that has a turkey dinner on the menu. After I’ve had the sometimes dryish meat, the gravy, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the whole bit, I don’t feel so depressed anymore.

The man in the next booth is eating a meatloaf sandwich, the platters heaped with other comfort foods go by, and I can gaze at the dessert cakes on the way out.

Note: the turkey doesn’t appear on this particular menu, but it’s available at the Cupertino Lori’s.

My old Acura is starting to show its age, and I’d like a new one, but maybe not this one.

Not exactly sugar and spice, she is packed with scanners, facial robotics, memory chips, speech recognition, and radio frequency tags. She knows who her mommy is. Around $99.

Residents of Matte, site of 17th and 18th century homes, have been evacuated by helicopter.

After getting a taste of her fury (four dead, flooded streets, massive power outages), Florida Panhandle residents prepare for Katrina’s hurricane status.

It has been established that the body in the grave is not that of the King. Wherever he is, he must be dancing over this article. Includes recipes for the hot peanut butter and banana sandwich (yes it does) and Elvis’ favorite pound cake.

Recruiters are getting jobs to residents of small towns in eight states. High-speed connections make it possible for rural residents to compete for tech jobs that might otherwise go abroad.

Is this too good to be true?

Small, soft, and if the tip is sliced off, spoonable. Is it coming to the U.S. soon?

Reaching far back in the vaults for this. ‘Up in Memphis the music’s like a heatwave.’

Earlier, cows were being apprehended in Nigeria. The Siberian female bear was annoying citizens by begging for food. Officials hasten to add that the her stay in jail is due to the refusal by the local zoo to keep her.

The Klotho hormone is also found in humans, and may lengthen lives, especially of men. However, researchers say, those extended years may not be full of good health, as the hormone predisposes toward diabetes.

She is three weeks old, and weighs a bit over a pound.

Officials say that no other animals are sick, none of the handlers are sick, and the cats were not fed any chicken. Yet they tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the first in their species to have done so.