How would you like your egg done?

"... perfect for a very large family" - an ostrich egg is 24 times the size of a normal hen's.

Waitrose, the supermarket chain, has just started selling the eggs which can weigh in at almost 4.4lb (2kg); each egg costs £15.99. The eggs come from free-range birds on a Lincolnshire farm. "They are very good for meringues because the white is much lighter than chickens' eggs,"

I can't conceive of ostriches as being anything other than "free-range," and £16 for the equivalent of 24 eggs doesn't make sense in economic terms. This seems to be yet another development in that strange foreign world of epicurean gastronomy. Which also applies to the suggestion in the article for an Ostrich Scotch Egg (a cold hard-boiled egg removed from its shell, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and ... deep-fried) (presumably served with sublingual nitroglycerine as an appetizer...)

(Credit to Nothing to do with Arbroath)

What teachers do in the "rubber room"

Associated Press is carrying a story today about New York City, and the use (or misuse) of the "rubber room" for teachers removed from classroom duties for administrative reasons. On an average day, seven hundred teachers go to rooms where they do nothing (useful); they read a book, play cards, take a nap, and talk or fight with each other. And this goes on for months and years - sometimes many years - at full salary.

Reading this report, I am reminded that This American Life did an audio segment on the same topic just two months ago. Go to THIS LINK and click on the little orange icon that says "Full Episode" to hear the program (to jump to the "rubber room" segment, move the slider forward to the 6:20 point). It's free and easy, and there are a myriad of other great programs available on the website's home page. I'll do a fuller blog entry on This American Life at some later time; to my mind it's one of the treasures of the radio world, and I'm glad it's available as podcasts.

Video Games Ruined My Life...

Remembering the "good old days"

The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss

This is a superb book that I can recommend without hesitation - a large-format coffee-table-type book replete with full-page photos of remarkable creatures, ranging from tiny radiolarians to siphonophores longer than blue whales. It's more of a picture book than a reading book; most of the text consists of captions for the photos. If your impression of jellyfish has been derived only from looking at the sorry specimens rotting on a beach, this book will be a breath of fresh air.

The book is available from Amazon, but is expensive. Your library will probably have several copies; the waiting list at ours was only a couple weeks. Log on to your library's website and get on the list now, because otherwise you will probably never see Vampiroteuthis infernalis (The Vampire Squid From Hell) and the other amazing creatures (they live too deep to survive in aquaria).

p.s. - many similar photos at THIS LINK - especially the jellies, but also the vampire squid and Dumbo and others to whet your appetite for the book...

Is there a hidden meaning in these events?

1) Hillary Clinton predicts the filly, Eight Belles, will win the Kentucky Derby, and bets on her.

2) Eight Belles loses to the favorite, Big Brown.

3) Eight Belles is then euthanized on the track.

Several metaphors/analogies there. Story at HuffPo (and many other places); discussion at Reddit.

Very sad

I don't know the backstory or the source. Found the image at Pixdaus.

p.s. - click to enlarge (works for most of the images used in this blog)

3 yo girl attacked by American bald eagle

A stark reminder that raptors are predators, not just national symbols.

"An immature American bald eagle swoops down on Kayla Finn, 3, at Hampton Beach, N.H., on Aug. 22, 2001, knocking the Albany, N.Y., girl off her feet. The girl was not seriously injured in the attack." (Image and text credit to the New Hampshire Union Leader)

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Extreme mascara

I used to enjoy meetings...

...especially with doughnuts. (Found at the new shelton wet/dry)

Metronomes synchronize themselves...

...when they are placed on a surface with a little flexibility. Apparently this phenomenon will also occur with ticking watches and clocks, and has been known since the 17th century. Some explanation at the comments where this was originally posted at Neatorama.

Inflation-indexed bonds now pay 0%

I'll be posting some entries about economics in the weeks to come; some readers will find these boring and skip over them; for others the information may be eye-opening. Here's the first one: the fixed rate on the newest issue of Series I inflation-indexed savings bonds is now ZERO.

Inflation-indexed bonds have been promoted by the U.S. Treasury as a way to beat inflation; they they are set up to have a fixed rate of return on top of an interest rate equal to the Consumer Price Index inflation rate. Now, because of the "flight to quality" across the country, so many people want these inflation-indexed bonds that the fixed rate has fallen to ZERO. That has never happened before. As Bloomberg reports:

"The so-called earnings rate on the bonds issued between May and October, which is tied to the rate of inflation, is 4.84 percent, the bureau said in a press release. The fixed rate, on top of the compensation for rising consumer prices, is officially 0.00 percent, down from 1.2 percent when the Series I was last issued, in November. That means investors get no returns on their investments other than compensation for inflation..."

The next point to understand is that the Consumer Price Index grossly underestimates the actual rate of inflation, as I blogged earlier this week at THIS LINK.

Thought-provoking, if not just a bit scary.

Remember when it was fun to fly?

"...reminisce about the days when it was fun to fly from place to place -- remember? When you walked through the airport and out the door onto the tarmac and up the stairs to the plane, just like Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca"?...

... when I went through airport security in Minneapolis on Monday, it was an object lesson in something -- a line of a hundred people twisted around in the cattle chute, 16 men and women in the white TSA shirts with the epaulets, an obese young woman shouting at us to take our laptop computers out of our cases in a voice she learned from a prison camp movie; one metal detector in operation, two closed, and the guardian of this narrow gate was a man who carefully read each boarding pass as if proofreading it for misspellings, though it had already been checked by his colleague at the head of the line. And then a poor old guy rolled up in a wheelchair who had to be made to walk through the metal detector, though he could not walk. But he could sort of shuffle, an inch at a time, so we got to watch him do that...

I wanted to tell the shirts not to treat us with such extravagant contempt, but you should be careful about mouthing off to people who have the power to detain you and order a body search..."

(Text excerpts and image from Salon - where you can read the whole rant HERE. Full credit to the inimitable Garrison Keeler)

Helen Thomas receives her flowers

Regular readers of TYWKIWDBI might be interested in this followup. 500 contributors eventually chipped in over $4000 for flowers. The backstory is at THIS LINK.