Ancient Fruit can Be Reborn and Hope Springs Eternal (This is another 420 character piece, although WWWW tell me I’m to hunt for a different number of characters, words, or sentences so as to pull away from the 420 character genre popularized by Lou Beach. Any tricky suggestions?)

Tags

Plant, Squirrel, 32, 000 year old plant, frozen burrow yields good seeds, Ice age, Kolyma River, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberia, oldest viable multicellular organism, study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, first plant returned to life from permafrost conditions

No more throwing out food so ice-studded it could compete in a Which-Is-the-Real-Diamond competition. If a  tiny arctic plant can be generated from a 32,000 year-old seed stored by a ground squirrel in his burrow,I think we can eat Stop and Shop petite peas from 1974! Also, we should eliminate refrigerators and use burrows. It worked for that squirrel. And I bet he didn’t have a “Use By” stamp in his burrow either.

(This  mummified version of the above ground squirrel may have fared better if he’d found his ancestor’s cache of seeds.)

Histrionicus Histrionicus is in Trouble (These Ducks are Aptly Named, for They ARE in Danger) What Our 1955 Bathing Suits Have in Common with the Harlequin Ducks: Another 420 Piece.

Tags

Biology, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, endangered Harlequin Ducks, Exxon Valdez, Harlequin Ducks

Image via Wikipedia

Buoyant in the rock-boil of electric plant and incoming tide, we near ruin our red and ghost-gray, chevron-striped, herringbone stretch knit suits. A tanker flush. It was allowed back then. Mum was mad at us. Harlequins, the tiny, slate-blue, chestnut-sided, densely-feathered divers, bounce like corks on the rocky shore surf. They’re near ruin too. Power plants and oil spills. I guess it’s STILL allowed. I’m mad now.

Patty 2/20/12

LINDULGENCE

Tags

Basketball, Harvard, Jeremy Lin, NBA, New York Knicks, point guard, postaweek2012

Indulgence : the act or practice of indulging, the gratification of desire.

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Like the rest of the planet, I’m indulging in the story of Jeremy Lin, a jaw-dropping phenomenon of a point guard and the most popular athlete in America today.  A buzzer-beater dreadnought of a player.

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The gee-whiz escapades of this fast-break hero make for a rollicking steampunk tale. Plenty of writers reported the facts and figures that have given his story legs. The novelty of his Harvard roots, his Tebow-like religious conviction, the couch on the Lower East Side, and larky coincidences put Lin in the lineup.  On the court, he intrigues and thrills us.  But in life, guys just wanna have fun.

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As a Chinese/Taiwanese/American, Lin is unique to the NBA. He’s got a last name that’s a dream-come-true for the writers who pen headlines.  And Lin’s skill, timing and luck keep him there ~  front page, above the fold.

Lin’s overnight obscurity-to-stardom won’t save the planet, or maybe even the Knicks, but the world is definitely a more interesting place for it.

Warning ~  Lindulgence ahead.

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Toni 2/18/12