Weekend Beer Review: Red Stripe Jamaican Lager

Inspired by AÖrstan at Snail's Tales, I decided it was time for a weekend beer review as well. My choice is Red Stripe lager from Jamaica. I have tried this beer a few times in the remote past and never really thought much of it. On my recent trip to the beach, I had a new experience which brought me a little closer. I sat down at a beachside bar, for a beer, when I noticed Bob Marley was playing, then I saw Red Stipe on the menu so it made sense to go for it. After a couple of songs, I noticed a familiar pattern. I looked over at the guy next to me, he was drinking a Red Stripe. That seemed interesting, so I said, "You like Marley?" He replied "Yeah sometimes." I could tell he didn't care. But I pushed it, "I think this is Legend." No response, then he left. But in his place sat a nice older man with his family. He ordered a Red Stripe, and within five minutes we found out that we had been in the same fraternity, gave the secret challenge and response followed by the handshake. We traded a few good stories over a few more beers before parting ways. That is why I am bringing to you today this smooth beer. It did not come cheaply though. There is not much diversity here and it shows in the availability of beer. This selection cost me $10.00 for a six pack. A box of 12 would have cost me $15 but they were out of those. Oh well, time to get off the computer and enjoy this Jamaican treat. Cheers!!

Friday Crablogging

I got this little fella on a recent trip to the Florida panhandle. My best attempt at classification puts it in the family Portunidae or the Swimming Crabs. This is based on the paddle shape of the last pair of legs. In getting him out of the water where I could get a pic, he took a swipe and drew a little blood from my finger. He was very vigorous and ready to fight. So I just got my pictures and let him get on back to his business.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark

Spear Point

Following a recent post by afarensis, I began thinking of a spear point (click the pic for a larger view) that my dad found several years ago. As I commented to afarensis, the point was found on our farm. We have a nice collection from a few generations of farmers here, but this is one of the better ones. We are in the Mississippi River Valley, a few hours South of St. Louis, where there are many known Dalton sites in the area. It is in pretty good shape considering its size (about 4 inches) and how thin it is. You can see that the very tip is broken off. I will not pretend to know anymore about this subject than I do so I will just say that if I had to guess I would say it was a Dalton point, but again I know very little about this. Please feel free give your input

Friday Carp Blogging

This post was originally intended to be about the good ol' common carp, Cyprinus carpio(click the pic to enlarge), but I just had to bring back the water snakes one more time. The bottom pictures are 2 different sets of snakes and carp that I just happend to get with them side by side. They were oblivious to each other's presence. The carp were seen all around the banks of this large reservoir, eating the vegetation which is growing thick.


Don't forget to check out the Modulator's Friday Ark.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Review

Well I finally saw H2G2 with my little brother yesterday. We both enjoyed it thouroughly. It was a little different from the book, but I don't feel that my idea of Douglas Adams' original vision was violated. I was pleased to see that the excerpt that I had chosen to quote a little while back was the opening line to the movie. I think that fact makes the point for me that the movie was at least a fair representation of the book.

What's Your World View?

I hadn't really thought about this, but early into this quiz I could tell this is how I would come out.

You scored as Materialist. Materialism stresses the essence of fundamental particles. Everything that exists is purely physical matter and there is no special force that holds life together. You believe that anything can be explained by breaking it up into its pieces. i.e. the big picture can be understood by its smaller elements. Materialist 81% Postmodernist 75% Existentialist 63% Cultural Creative 56% Modernist 44% Idealist 38% Romanticist 19% Fundamentalist 19% What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com

From Mike the Mad Biologist

Friday Snake Blogging Special Edition Part II: Snake Orgy

These are Northern Water Snakes, Nerodia sipedon(click the pic to enlarge). The photos were taken this week. This place is covered with them and they have practically no fear at this point. These snakes are mating, I assume it is two males on one female. Their tails are twisted and knotted up and they paid me very little attention while photographing. I was not able to see any reproductive organs, but from what I understand, that can be difficult. Here is a link to a page discussing the hemipenes of a male copperhead.

Here is some bonus video footage of these three snakes mating.You can also see at the top, a fourth snake looking for some action. It is an mpg, about 5 seconds and 1.8 Mb.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark!

Friday Snake Blogging Thursday Special Edition Part I: Getting Undressed

These are common watersnakes(click the pic for a larger view). They are non venomous but I think many of my friends would automatically call any of these a Water Moccasin, which is venomous, because it was near the water and it scared them. In the second picture, you can see that the snake is getting ready to molt, this is also known as ecdysis. Notice the dull color of the skin and the haziness of his eyes. Snakes are vulnerable during this time and have poor vision, which also makes them unpredictable. Healthy snakes will usually shed their skin in one piece, including the eye caps. The snake will rub its nose on rocks and other objects aid the sloughing process. This has been done by the snake in the 3rd picture. In the final shot, you see the head of a shed skin.

Don't miss Friday Snake Blogging Special Edition Part II: Snake Orgy

Huxley Read Aloud..........by Hawking?

I have just read a post by AYDIN ÖRSTAN, over at Snail's Tales where he has used the read aloud feature of Adobe Acrobat 6.0 to make the English speaking program speak Turkish by using phonetic spelling. I was not aware of that feature so naturally I was impressed and wanted to play along. So I have taken a component of one of my previous posts on T.H. Huxley, which is an excellent excerpt from a biography, and converted it to pdf format so that it too can be read aloud.

Click here, to see it, then turn on your speakers, and you should be able to use the combination Shift+ Ctrl+V to have it read aloud. If not you can download, open the file, and then select 'Read Out Loud' from the View menu.

Friday Frog Blog- The Green Tree Frog

This is a green tree frog, Hyla cinerea (click the pic for better view). It is easily identified as a tree frog by its small size and the fact that when you see it, it will probably be on a vertical surface, thanks to its large pads on the tips of its toes. What further distinguishes this as a green tree frog is its smooth green color and the white or yellow stripe extending from the upper jaw along the body. I really like seeing these frogs around my house and on the windows. It seems strange to me that when I see one, the first thing I think is that I should catch it to feed to my pet tarantula, even though it has been over 20 years since I had it. I wish the last pic was clearer since this frog was really posing for me there.

Don't forget to check out Modulators Friday Ark!

Mars Polar Lander May Be Sighted

Nearly six years after NASA's Mars Polar Lander vanished during a landing attempt on the Red Planet, a scientist said he has spotted what appears to be wreckage of the spacecraft....More from Yahoo.