Wallaby Milk to the Rescue

According to this article, researchers from the Victorian government's Department of Primary Industries have found that Tammar wallaby breast milk contains a highly-potent compound which is active against a wide variety of fungi and bacteria including antibiotic-resistant superbugs. The compound was found to be effective against a relative of the hospital superbug MRSA, or golden staph, as well as ecoli, Streptococci, Salmonella, Bacillus subtilus, Pseudomonas spp, Proteus vulgaris, and Staphylococcus aureus. The bacteria-fighting compound is deemed 100 times more effective than penicillin.

Nike Plus

According to this article, Nike has teamed up with Apple to launch a wireless link between your running shoes and your Apple iPod. With a transmitter popped into your trainer and a receiver attached to the base of your iPOD, the system will feed back data from the sensor that monitors your time, distance, and pace which can be heard over the music on the iPOD. The system should be ready for sale in a couple of months.

Imminent Birth

I don't really know why I care about this, but I am checking the news websites continually today for THE birth announcement of the WMBB, the offspring of the WMBC. According to Mr. Pitt, the birth is imminent! It's magic how the premiere of his first biological child will coincide with the premiere of his ex-wife's fourth-in-a-row stinky movie. I can say that because I've personally spent my money to see the first three and being a slow learner will probably go see number four!

The Willie Way

Willie Nelson shares his worldview in his third book of jokes, aphorisms, and heartfelt personal stories. According to Willie, "This book is my way of sharing a little of what I’ve learned in seventy-two years of making music and friends on this beautiful planet. I don’t know if the things I write here will change your life, but they sure changed mine." Possibly the funniest line from the book is Willie's view on marijuana of which Willie is an unapologetic advocate. Here's Willie's unique take on the subject: "I'll support a war on drugs, but not a war on flowers or herbs."

Podcasts

With my new mp3 player in hand, I am discovering podcasts: how to download and manipulate the podcasts . It's a whole new world to me. I am especially intrigued by the level of information available and intelligence and interests of people out there in the wide world. Like bloggers, these people seem to have found their niche in the dotcom world. The best place to start, if you're interested in listening to podcasts, is a podcast directory like podcast alley . Start by picking a podcast genre from the left sidebar and go from there. You'll be surprised at what is out there!

Discovery's Crawl

Space Shuttle Discovery's four-mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B is underway! The move brings NASA one step closer to the STS-121 mission, targeted for launch no earlier than July 1. Mounted on the Mobile Launcher Platform and carried by the mammoth Crawler-Transporter, Discovery emerged from the assembly building at 12:45 p.m. EDT. The "stack" rolls along at less than one mile an hour, and is expected to arrive at the launch pad sometime this evening. The STS-121 mission is targeted for launch no earlier than July 1.

Guilty Pleasure

Only people who have actually tried this are allowed to comment on this "recipe" from Ro*tel. It is my guilty pleasure and once you try it, it'll be yours too.

Ingredients:

* 1 lb. pasteurized processed cheese spread, (Velveeta), cut into 1" cubes
* 1 can (10 oz.) Diced or Whole RO*TEL Tomatoes & Green Chilies

Directions:
In a saucepan, combine ingredients; stir over low heat until cheese spread is melted. Or microwave: Place ingredients in a covered casserole. Microwave on HIGH until cheese spread is melted, about 5 minutes, stirring once. Serve with tortilla chips.

Yoakum on mp3

Currently playing in my ears from my mp3 player is Mr. Dwight Yoakum. Thanks, Kel!

When David Letterman said to Dwight, "You wear that hat all the time. How much hair DO you have?"

He answered, "More than you think and less than I'd like."

Terrific answer!

Here's What I Dread

The San Francisco Giants are coming to Minute Maid Park for a series of three games with the Houston Astros, starting tonight. As the luck of the rotation goes, two of the three pitchers the Giants will bat against are pitchers who made their major league debuts in April 2006. Added to this is the fact that Minute Maid Park is a hitter's paradise and you have the formula for that cheat Barry Bonds to hit number 714 in Houston against the Astros. I Hate That!

Dragonfly Migration Revealed

Billions of common green darner dragonflies (Anax junius) migrate every year but until now hardly anything was known about their routes or strategy. New research into the migration behavior is available from a team of researchers from Princeton University. Detailed flight path information was made possible by tiny radio transmitters developed by the team. A transmitter weighing about a third of a gram was attached to green darner dragonfly's thorax with a couple of drops of superglue and some eye-lash adhesive. Then a team tracked the movements by following the signals from a receiving airplane.

According to this article in BBC Science, the dragonflies tended to only move after two nights of cooler temperatures, indicating a cold front was approaching with favourable north-westerly winds. They also tended to change direction when they met a large body of water, ensuring they never became stranded out over the sea. Two insects were recorded flying out over the ocean before reversing and skirting down the coastline. The data also revealed that the dragonflies' migration patterns are strikingly similar to those of songbirds, suggesting there is a strong evolutionary link to their behaviors.

Happy Mother's Day

Our family's new mom with her daughter Ella Grace

Playlists to MP3 Portable Player

Now that I have my playlists ready, I need to transfer the songs to my MP3 player

1. With WMP (Windows Media Player) open, I plug in the MP3 player to the computer USB port.
2. From WMP select "Sync" from the selections available.
3. Select the PlayList from the drop-down menu "Sync List".
4. Choose the PlayList I want to copy to the MP3.
5. Click "Start Sync".
6. Repeat from step 3 for adding more PlayLists.

How to Make a PlayList

After ripping all my CDs to Windows Media Player, I am ready to make playlists from the collected songs. Playlists are lists of songs (or other audio files) that you can create to organize your library.

• Open Windows Media Player. The window is divided into three sections. On the far left of the Library window under All Music there are 8 subsections. All these subsections contain the songs I ripped with each subsection organizing the songs by a different grouping. All I am interested in now is the alphabetized list (by first letter) under All Music Album Artist, so I will open Album Artist on the + sign to see all the music I ripped listed by the artists' names.
• Select an artist two ways: one, by clicking on the + sign by the artist's name I will see all the albums I ripped by that artist or two, by clicking on the artist's name I will see all the songs I ripped by that artist. In either case the ripped songs will show in the large middle window. There is other information included with the song titles also. The length of each song could be important when making a playlist.
• Now I am ready to make the playlist. Look at the far right side of the window. It's blue. I see Now Playing List at the top with a down arrow. I click that arrow and go down to New List then Play List. Click on Play List and I am ready to make some decisions about the songs I want in my playlist.
• From the large middle window, I can drag song titles into the right (blue) window to build a list of items for my playlist. Lots of options are available now. I can use one or more songs from the artist I have open, then close that artist and open another to add to the playlist.
• After the playlist is complete to my satisfaction, I open the drop down box again and click Save Playlist As and get a new window for naming the playlist. I will give the playlist a meaningful name so I can know which one this is after I have a lot of playlists saved. I'll call this one Music for Fast Walking 1.

Hint: When I couldn't remember what the song sounded like, I put on my headset, selected the song from the middle window song list, and listened to a bit of it by clicking the Play arrow at the bottom of the window (or double click the song title). After listening, I clicked the Stop button and made the decision whether or not to add to the playlist.

"Fairy" Penguin No More

Australia's fairy penguins have been renamed "little penguins" at Sea World theme park operators on the Gold Coast in Queensland to avoid offending the gay community.

Rebecca Smith, spokeswoman for Sea World, confirmed: "We didn't want to upset the gay community.We didn't have any complaints about the name of the penguins, but someone thought it could be seen as offensive so we decided to change it to little penguin instead.The name is more politically correct. We're not treating it as a big issue."

But the name change has had the opposite effect. Queensland's gay community described it as ridiculous and unnecessary.

"If they were called poofter penguins or something more direct, it might be a problem. But I don't see the name fairy penguin as a mickey take," Kamahl Fox, chairman of gay support group Gold Coast Breakers, said.

Wind Farms for Texas

Texas officials announced plans Thursday for the nation's largest offshore wind farm, consisting of as many as 170 windmills out in the Gulf of Mexico. Houston-based Superior Renewable Energy will build and operate the project about 10 miles of Padre Island. It is expected to cost $1 billion to $2 billion and should be ready in five years. Its 400-foot turbines would generate a total of 500 megawatts of electricity, or enough energy for 125,000 homes. Some environmentalists said the spinning blades could kill countless rare birds that migrate through the area each year on their way to and from winter grounds in Mexico and Central America. Jerome Collins of the Sierra Club said his and other groups support wind energy and hoped to work with energy producers to prevent bird deaths and protect the scenic landscape.

Hot Hollywood

Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, one of Hollywood's hottest couples, have signed up for new projects, both biopics. Ledger is cast as one of six actors who will play Bob Dylan in a biography of Dylan's life. Williams is set to play the title character in Angela Workman's Bronte, the life of Charlotte Bronte, author of the classic novel Jane Eyre. Both films start production later this year.

So, who's waltzing, huh, minding Mathilda?

New Link on Sidebar

I have added a link on the sidebar of my blog: Wine for Newbies. This is the blog where I found the excellent podcasts which are really Wine 101 in content. So far Bill Wilson, the podcast host, has presented 33 podcasts and they are all very interesting and informative. He has a teacherly approach, organized and aware of his audience. If you decide to give the podcasts a listen, I suggest that you start with #1 and work your way through them. Remember, it's Wine for NEWBIES, so if you have lots of wine knowledge, you'd want to find a more advanced source.

Ripping CDs

I am learning how to set up my mp3 player with podcasts and playlists. Here is the first step for getting my CDs onto my mp3 player. First, I have to build a CD library on my computer. I am using Windows Media Player which came installed on my computer.

1. Open Windows Media Player.
2. Click Rip which is listed in the bar along the top.
3. Put a CD you own in the CD drive on your computer.
4. Wait for the window to show the listing for the CD you inserted.
5. Here's the tricky part: Some CDs do not have the information about tracks, artists, etc stored on them that can be read by Windows Media player so the listing in the window will come up with Unknown.
6. If configured appropriately, and you are connected to the internet, Windows Media Player will do a lookup of missing information and load the details.
7. After waiting a few seconds, that doesn't automatically change to list the actual artist and songs etc from the CD you inserted, then you will have to change a setting on your computer.
8. Once the rip is finished, remove the CD and look at the library view. You will see your CD listed under All Music Album Artist.
9. Now you are ready to rip another CD.

Technically speaking this process converts the digital track on the CD to an mp3 file on your computer.

Dirty Harry Box Set Release Announcement

Warner Brothers announced yesterday that the studio will reissue all five Harry Callahan films in 2007. The movies will be released together in an epic box set and are expected to feature commentary from the star Clint Eastwood as well as "footage from the vaults". Can you name all five Harry Callahan films? Here are some clues:

• In the final scene Harry throws his badge in the river.
• Harry suspects that he has a vigilante on his hands, quite possibly a cop.
  
• Harry gets a female partner.
• "Go ahead. Make my day."
• A chase involving a radio-controlled model car featured a modified 1/10 scale 2wd Associated RC10 off road racer with an off-the-shelf Parma International 1963 Chevrolet Corvette body.

So, do ya feel lucky, punk?

Ebert's Must-See Film List

Even though he's not always "right", I do enjoy Roger Ebert's film critiques. He writes a very thoughtful review and has a consistent point of view. Here is his list of 102 Films You Must See Before... It confounds me how West Side Story keeps appearing on these "best" lists. Any on the list you hated?