Whale Carcass Yields Bone-Devouring Worms
MOSS LANDING, Calif., July 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- Scientists studying a whale carcass in Monterey Canyon recently announced the discovery of two new species of unique worms that feed on the bones of dead whales. In the July 30 issue of Science, the researchers describe these worms, whose bodies and feeding strategies differ from those of any other known animal. The worms have no eyes, legs, mouths, or stomachs, but they do have colorful feathery plumes and green "roots." They use the roots to infiltrate the bones of dead whales, digesting the fats and oils inside with the help of symbiotic bacteria. Marine biologist Greg Rouse, from the South Australian Museum, worked with scientists Shana Goffredi and Robert Vrijenhoek at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) to classify the new worms, placing them in a new genus called "Osedax," which is Latin for "bone devourer."
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Subject: BREAKING NEWS - Cleveland Book Club Announces August Selection
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In a surprise move Wednesday evening the Cleveland
Area Book Club unanimously elected "Moby Dick" as their next reading
selection. The book club will read the first half of Melville's
masterpiece in time for a meeting on the evening of Wednesday, August
25th.
"I can't wait to dive into this great work of American literature,"
club attendee Gwyn Hughes told reporters. "I expect to stay up most of
tonight if I can find a used copy at Mac's Backs on my way home," Ms.
Hughes added, referring to a popular book shop in suburban Cleveland
Heights.
Club member Jason Trump cited the ease of availability as one reason
for the unexpected selection. "What library or used book store doesn.t
have several dusty copies of Moby Dick?" he asked rhetorically. "When
Matt [Southworth] told me that the entire text was also available for
free online through Project Gutenberg, that really sealed the deal."
Mr. Southworth is another organizer of the club.
Noting the length of the work, the club has elected to only require
its members to complete the first half for the month of August, with a
discussion on the second half to follow in September. An approximate
halfway point would be the completion of Chapter 61, "Stubb Kills a
Whale", according to anonymous club sources.
The book club is composed primarily of medical students and
professionals. In attendance last night were five members, although
they allege some meetings can exceed 10 attendees. One of last night's
attendees refused to give her last name to reporters, responding to
requests by spitting and declaring "You'd better watch out or I'll sue
you in a year or two!"
Still to be decided is the location and exact time of the next
meeting. "Our last few meetings have been at the University Circle
Arabica," said founding member Anne Hyson. [Ms. Hyson is married to
Mr. Southworth.] "Their iced mochas are fantastic, but there was a
folk singer carrying on for the latter half of our meeting. I'd be
open to finding a new venue."
The entire text of "Moby Dick" can be found online at
http://www.gutenberg.net/etext01/moby10b.txt . This is provided by
Project Gutenberg, a shadowy online organization with the stated goal
"to make information, books and other materials available to the
general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and
people can easily read, use, quote, and search."
A friend of ours is giving a presentation at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Friday, Dec 3 at 7:30pm. It says:
"The first coroners were appointed in 13th-century England to check the power of the sheriffs and protect the king's interests. Today, coroners investigate the deaths that come under their jurisdiction to determine the cause and manner of death and identify the remains. In his work as Lake County Deputy Coroner, Dr. William Bligh-Glover draws on his knowledge of anatomy, pathology, anthropology, archaeology, meteorology, entomology, geology and other subjects. He discusses how natural history applies to the work of the modern coroner. Please note: Due to the subject matter of this presentation, it may not be suitable for all audiences."
Two articles about (the former) Berry's Music in Indianapolis being shut down for selling Mix CDs. As a former Indy resident, and someone who frequented another Berry establishment, The Emerson Theater, this sucks!
Quickly:
A good article from ESPN on rating baseball umpires.
What a great weekend! Where to begin?
Friday! Watched The (old) Manchurian Candidate!
Saturday! Went to the grocery! For a Walk! Had coffee and played Backgammon! Went to the Symphony!
Sunday! Went to the Gym! Went to the Baseball Game! Made meals for the week! Watched 28 Days Later!
I read Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire last week, finishing it over the weekend.
The book was barely 'OK'. The setting, society, and medical advancements that form the core of the plot were interesting, but the characters were lacking - it seemed like Sterling was just sketching some of his friends. New characters arise and depart throughout the book without much forward contribution to the plot.
If you were a budding writer, this might be a very encouraging work.
I took the wife to see the Lyric Opera Cleveland's performance of Mikado last night. The performance was fun, some problems with balance between the singer and orchestra volumes, but gernally well done for an unamplified show.
There was a one hour intermission where-in everyone else busted out their coolers and ate a picnic dinner. We'd had no idea this was coming. Is this standard operating procedure for light operas? I think it's yet another manifestation of the 'no one moves here' phenomenon that grips Cleveland. Everyone who goes to the opera has been there before, so there's no need to advertise this sort of thing.
The plan for this weekend includes Canoing and Backgammon.
So, the Cleveland Cavaliers traded their forward Carlos Boozer. At least I think he was a forward. Anyway, this is too bad, because he had one of the best names to be called out over a PA in all of professional sports.
Since I haven't quit my job, I had to go to work on Monday, so I brought Amy out to Menner along with me. She spent the day at the beach and the lagoon, joining Mike and I for lunch at Don Tequila's. I think she had a good time with only a brief spot of rain.
After work, we dropped by the house to bathe Amy (she needs so much cleaning) and went to McNulty's for a full house dinner - 8 of us in all. This allowed us to finalize our Saturday Wife Canoeing Plans also.
Back home, a few games of Backgammon, then early to bed to deliver Amy to the airport at 6:50 this morning.
So then on Sunday, I trucked off to the gym while TW did yardwork and Amy went for a walk. We cleaned ourselves up and went out for dim sum with Joseph and Victoria.
After brunch Amy, TW and I went to the Indians game v the A's. Normally if I'm buying my own ticket I go for the bleachers, but they were 'sold out' so I asked for anything cheap. We ended up with $5 tickets on the upper deck first base side.
We were pretty psyched for the cheap tickets. We troop up there and the section is deserted. Our seats are in row U, but we tire of walking and sit in L. Before we can even get comfortable an Indians employee (henceforth 'The Bitch') runs up and says "Can I see your tickets folks?". So we have to move back 9 rows. This was just slightly ridiculous as the entire section was empty. In fact, by the middle of the game we were being dive-bombed by pigeons in the near-empty outer upper deck.
I think it's pretty silly that we got pushed back 9 rows when it was so deserted. "The Tribe" should be grateful we're there at all. Incidentally, the 'sold out' bleachers never filled up more than 2/3rds.
Anyway, enough of that bitching.
After the game we tore over to the Art Museum, I wanted to show Amy the Kelly McLane room. We then came home, ate some dinner, and wrapped up with Amy teaching me how to play Backgammon.
After our successful Friday night, TW and I woke up on Saturday and nipped out to the airport to pick up our friend Amy who was in for the weekend.
After a stop off at home to bathe her, he went to our friendly neighborhood rugby tournament where several friends were competing. We saw the tail end of one of their games, but had to leave before the next began.
TW had obtained cheap tickets to Mama Mia! through her school. So, with Amy in tow, we went to the Saturday matinee of ABBA's masterwork. My quickie review: I'd have loved to have been present at the moment of conception - "Let's string our 22 favorite ABBA songs together with a plot!". The singing was OK, the dancing was too restrained, which seemed to be a intentional directorial decision. The audience was way too fat. Seriously, I bet 10% of the people there had trouble exiting the theater under their own power.
After Mama Mia!, we went to little Italy for dinner. Trattoria normally does us right, but the eggplant parm was frozen, and even after sending it back it only came out lukewarm. The rest of the meal was excellent as ever.
We ended the evening watching Jack Black's School of Rock - topical since Amy just quit her job as a principal.
Our local art museum is open late on Friday nights, so The Wife and I went last weekend. I was very into the temporary Kelly McLane exhibit. Someone want to buy me one of her works? I'll accept a print.
After we were kicked out of the museum at 9pm, we wandered across the street and watched Shaolin Soccer. This was fantastic and hilarious. The venue was a little echoey, so I was glad it was subtitled. The crowd was roaring.
We did more interesting things this weekend, but that's a story for another time.
So, sometime last week I finished Foucault's Pendulum. I read it because my book club (against my suggestion) elected to read The da Vinci Code ... and I hated it. Umberto Eco's work came up in discussion as a more intellectual version of a similar story.
I'd read The Name of the Rose before and found it enjoyable, and a friend gave me a paperback version of FP. I began my slog through it.
'Slog' is perhaps too rough a word. I read the whole thing - it wasn't incomprehensible - but it also wasn't a pageturner. I was in Quebec for the first third of the book, that somehow made it more interesting - the linguistic portions of my brain were already limbered up. As we moved southwest I lost some interest in the book - it was covering ground very slowly. I've got a passing interest in the Templars and their friends, as well, one would think this would be right up my alley.
But all I can muster is a half-hearted endorsement of this book. If, like me, you loathed Dan Brown's sloppy dVC then this will at least restore your literary equalibrium. To restore my own balance, however, I'm now chewing through some pulpy Bruce Sterling scifi.
Bonus Question: What should I read next - The Three Muskateers or The Years of Rice and Salt?
So I heard (again) on my drive home a song I really dig.
The band is called XXX (or triple-X?), and I happened to
find the lyrics on a web site. (Look for the entry on Tuesday, December 14, 1999 - 03:24 pm)
But that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the band.
Searching Google for 'XXX' has predictably poor results.
Anyone know about this band?
While on vacation, we saw both Harry Potter 3 and Spider-Man 2. Both exceeded their predecessors by a good measure. [To watch HP2 actually makes me angry.]
The new director in HP3 made a huge difference - the film had much more life and energy. Spider-Man 2 just felt like it got a new director - or at least he finally figured out that it's hard to form any emotional attachment to a masked character, so the antagonist is maskless and Spidey pulls his off whenever possible. The setup for Spider-Man 3 doesn't have me hooked, although I'm sure I'll see it.
Places visited:
Connecticut
Boston
Portsmouth, NH
Burlington, VT
Some island we camped on north of Burlington
Quebec (City)
Ottowa
Toronto.
Welcome home!