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Joke

If you went to the Mentos factory (the freshmaker), would you be able to visit the gift shop and take home some Mentos mementos?

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Through A Glass Darkly

I can’t speak for my workmates (I can, but I better not) but for me one of the great pastimes at work is watching women go by as I sit in front of our computers behind the great big windows. We’ve gotten to know most of the locals by sight. There’s Lulu Lemon, the Librarian, and My Favourite Lesbian Couple, the latter of whom must have moved away as I haven’t seen them in months.

We are right across from Mestisos pet spa so we see a lot of dogs pooping, but today right in front of the three of us, on the sidewalk, at the intersection where everyone walks, one of the women in the nearest apartment building stopped as her dog was talking a crap. She didn’t clean up after it and we were all outraged. Trevor banged on the window as she walked away but she either didn’t hear or ignored it.

As the day progress the poop was kicked and trodden on until Trevor couldn’t take it anymore. He walked out and pulled up a clutch of dandelions and put it over top of the poop. “That just makes it more of a trap” I laughed and indeed by the time I left the flowers were about a foot away from the poo.

I think I’m going to keep my camera handy and the next time the woman comes by I’ll take a snapshot of her, make up a poster like this, and hang up copies all around the neighborhood (especially her building). And then take a photo of the poster to submit to passiveaggressivenotes.com.

toast1

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Cephalopod “News”

From various news sites:

Researchers … have determined all octopuses, cuttlefish and some squid are venomous. The scientists …said their discovery indicates the octopus, cuttlefish and squid share a common, ancient venomous ancestor. Bryan Fry…said that while the blue-ringed octopus is the only octopus that’s dangerous to humans, the other species have been using their venom for predation, such as paralyzing a clam into opening its shell.

from Taollan on TONMO.COM:
The media generally screws up good stories like this. They completely missed the point. The paper’s topic is not that virtually all cephalopods are toxic (I don’t really even know how they got that. They must have completely misunderstood the paper), but that there is high amount of conservation of what types of proteins are used between cephalopods and snakes in venoms, despite having independently evolved venom. The abstract of the paper can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19294452, and PZ does a good write up of the work at Pharyngula (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2…pod_venoms.php).

a related choice quote from PZ Myers about how evolution works:

evolution doesn’t just invent something brand new on the spot to fill a function — …existing proteins are repurposed to do a job. This is how evolution generally operates, taking what already exists and tinkering and reshaping it to better fulfill a useful function. Phospholipase A2, for instance, is a perfectly harmless and extremely useful non-venomous protein in many organisms — we non-toxic humans also make it. We use it as a regulatory signal to control the inflammation response to infection and injury — in moderation, it’s a good thing. What venomous animals can do, though, is inject us with an overdose of this regulator to send our local repair and recovery systems berserk, producing swelling that can incapacitate a tissue. Similarly, a peptidase is a useful enzyme for breaking down proteins in the digestive system…but a poisonous snake or cephalopod biting your hand can squirt it into the tissues, and now it’s being used to digest your muscles and connective tissue.

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A Little Dignity

Trevor and I are in the store, doing our regular stuff. The door chimes and we both go up to the front.

GUY IN BIKE HELMET: I wash windows. Do you want your windows washed? Ten bucks.

ME: Uh, I can’t really answer that, the boss isn’t here right now. Do you have a business card?

GIBH: No, I was just passing by in the neighborhood so I wanted to see if you wanted your windows done while I was here.

ME: Well I expect the boss back later today if you want to come back.

GIBH: If I have to come back then it will be another ten bucks.

ME: Oh, well I guess the answer is ‘no’ then.

GIBH: Yeah well you should have said that at the beginning then, shouldn’t you? Imagine if it was you looking for work.

ME: [stares blankly]

GIBH: Imagine if it was you.

ME: Okay….

GIBH: You’d want to be shown a little dignity. If you were going around town all day you’d deserve a little dignity, right?

ME: Right.

GIBH: Yeah, that’s right.

Guy leaves.

ME (to Trevor): What an asshole.

Kenn steps back into the shop.

KENN: That looked like an interesting conversation.

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Saturday Morning Cartoon Party 12a – Relive the Magic

Photos Sean Corrigall

This morning we put on the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party at the Rio Theater.

It went super great!
There were a few hiccups – starting late, the theater was cold, sound levels on different commercials and cartoons varied wildly – but other than that everyone had a great time and we are going to do it again next week! JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP, WON’T YOU?

Couldn’t find good quality versions of these commercials for the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party – but they’re good enough to blog!