Okay, I bought a small mortar and pestle simply because they are cool. To me, they bring to mind spells, and magical potions, burbling pots of incantations.

Not that I believe in magic, nor am I wiccan, etc.

However, the thing is proving useful for reducing food to hermit crab sized fodder. So – if you routinely need to pulverize foodstuffs (spices, etc), get one!

With a macaw, when they are out and about, you go check on them when they are being too loud – and when they are being silent.

I’ve got my 40th birthday coming up. For the sake of vanity, I’m pondering creating a time capsule to be opened on my 80th birthday. This is more of a reminder to myself, than a serious post.

Over 25 tanks of gas (and 6876.8 miles) my gas mileage averages 23.6 MPG.

I’ve owned my Element for 391 days, and driven it 22,524 miles – thats an average of 57.6 miles per day. The EPA mileage was estimated at 19/24 (city/highway). The bulk of my driving is city. I’ve used 954.4 gallons of gas since I got it (roughly anyway).

This has included two trips – one to ann arbor michigan (680 or so miles, one way), and the other to Miami/Keys. (No idea on mileage). The first major service (30,000 miles), should be due around the end of July.

Heh. I have a prominent (but mild) scratch that didn’t come from a bird!

How odd.

Okay, my mother has been trying to convince me to go to Hawaii with her and my sister, for a cruise to visit all the islands. I’ve been reluctant. I had no particular desire to visit Hawaii. At 7-9 days of being in close proximity to people – even my much loved sister and much loved mother…. well, it stresses me out just thinking about it. But, for whatever reason, mom doesn’t want to go just the two of them.

So, I got to researching – and there are several populations of feral parrots in Hawaii. Now I want to visit Hawaii. One of my few “life goals” is to see B&G macaws in the wild. This won’t give a chance at that, but it will give a chance to see parrots in the wild.

Also, there are two nights when the ship stays in port overnight. That means I can get a hotel room for a night, and have one night of solitude, which will preserve my sanity. Hopefully. And thats assuming I’m sane to begin with, which might not be a valid assumption.

This trip won’t be till late december of this year. My sister will have her birthday on board the boat, and we will ring in the New Year on the boat.

Back in September 2007, I wondered whether Flickr was being used by biologists for Science. Well, the City Parrots group is using it in exactly this way. I.E, to learn where feral populations of parrots exist.

Sleep Dealer – due in theaters April 17th.

Set in Mexico, its about a young immigrant worker, future style. They work in sweatshops, hooked into the net, controlling robots in the U.S, who are doing manual labor.

Interesting possibilities – telepresence is fascinating stuff.

The internet is a nice little aid to finding stuff out, without having to deal with people. Which is good, because people annoy the hell out of me. And, I’m shy. So I don’t like approaching people, especially when I’m 90% sure they will annoy the hell out of me anyway.

Dad wants to see some Gypsy horses (aka irish cobs, etc). So a quick google search turns up some links to breeders, a few of which are in Ga. Some browsing of sites finds one in Dalton Ga. They don’t have an address on their web page, but they do give their full names.

Back to google – the guys name pops up as head of XYZ (not the real name) industry, based in Dalton. So, over to anywho.com next, where a quick search of that name, turns up an address.

Fire up Google Earth, enter the address. Yep, at least two large pastures around this house. Looks probable. Over to flickr – no gypsy horse pictures geotagged near this spot. Thats a negative.

Its only about 65 miles away, so the next step is a drive up that way. (I’m always up for a drive). If it pays off, and the horses are visible from the road, me and dad can make a drive up there. All done without that messy human interaction (well, except for with dad, which has its drawbacks).

Harley macaw has me well trained.

I heard crunching in the kitchen today, and went to investigate. Harley had climbed up on the kitchen counter and found the Almonds in the shell. He was eating away. As I approached, he spread his wings and opened his beak wide. Thats his way of saying “back off!”

So I told him, “all right, grab another one. I’ll be right back.” I went upstairs and got a big fluffy towel (Thats a macaw control device). I walked back down to the kitchen with it draped over my arm.

When Harley saw me approaching this time, with towel, he stuck his foot in the air to step up. He happily went back to his cage munching on an almond.
Using the towel wasn’t required, but having it was.

I saw the first purple martins of the year today! Hmm, last year they arrived on the 22nd.

I’ve always been interested in “low tech medicine”. So, in particular, I follow the use of Maggots to control necrotic tissue, which foxnews talks about here. Its particularly interesting when used for diabetic foot ulcers. (Also, do a search on youtube for maggot therapy).

This fox news article has two quotes in particular that bug me

“Maggots definitely work, but this is not the standard of care in any developed country,” said Dr. Harold Brem, a wound expert at New York University Langone Medical Center. Brem was not connected to either BMJ study.

“If you are out in a remote place and don’t have access to a surgeon or good medical care, then maybe maggots are an option,” Brem said.

and

Maggots were commonly used in this way as late as the 1930s, but fell out of favor when antibiotics and surgery became widely available after World War II.

So lets see, extrapolation from Dr. Brem’s comments means that in an age of increasing microbial resistance to antibiotics, we should continue that course, instead of using a just as effective method, which is much harder for microbes to adapt against? How does this make sense? In widespread use for almost a century, antibiotics have resulted in a lot of antibiotic resistant bacteria and diseases. Maggot therapy was in widespread use for several hundred (possibly a couple of thousand) years, and didn’t lead to a major evolution of disease. Hmmmm.

Besides, I love the idea of their being a maggot industry. The potential drawback there, is that they would rapidly form a massive lobbying organization, because maggots and politicians just naturally go together.