Yes there would still be a debt. We give the government one dollar and they spend ten trying to figure out how to spend that one dollar.

Or to any good cause. I think about that all the time, PF.

Sad but true!

I found out that a sears riding mower WILL NOT and never will outrun a pissed bumble bee or two OUCH!!!!!

Remember that saying ...

"Nothing runs like a bee!"




(That is how that say went ... isn't it?)

Working on a Saturday means it feel like I didn't have a weekend....

Yep.

My portfolio was passed. :)

congrats!! hope it wasn't painfull

Killed me but I'll graduate on Saturday which will ease the pain.

We're happy for you, Lilith! Congratulations!

If I had a dollar for every time that I was told to grow up! I could build an awesome tree house!

And it you ^^^^ did what they said they comment on how old you've become. Stick with the grow up comment! :D

The baby I had when I was here all the time is almost 9 years old and in the 3rd grade. Time flies.

Time does fly.

Thirteen years here and I've met some awesome people.

There's even been some really great ones from Australia! :D

Sharni? I agree totally.

I hit 52 in a couple of days. I don't want to turn 52. I also don't want to not turn 52.

52 is survivable, just ask us.

53 is too, just.

Age is just a number GG. I don't even really celebrate my birthday anymore.

I'll gladly trade with you and remember it sure beats the alternative!

Shit dude, you are still only 1/2 as old as PF.

Shit, Lilith, I'm on a first-name basis with glaciers that are only half as old as PF.

Yes GG, but they're frigid.

That was cold Oldfart.

Yup.

did you know that the secret of the universe is that no thing in space/time has a definite position, a definite trajectory, or a definite momentum...? werner heisenberg is credited with this observation and honored for it via the "heisenberg uncertainty principle."

Certainly, alanna-rose.

My g/f and I got a dog today. It's a little dachshund mix.

We're going to celebrate our daughter's birthday this evening although her actual birthday isn't until Monday.

Stretching it out hoping for more presents, is she? :)

Putting a dachshund in the mixer is never a good thing.

Ninja blender does better.

You blend ninjas?

It's the brand. Has little ninjas with razor sharp swords to slice everything up.

We get those annoying advertisements as well.

I enjoyed a good baseball game last night. :)

Hey jseal, GG.

It looks like ALF brought some friends, or we've found some living fossils.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/artic.../04/4079443.htm

A mushroom-shaped animal that defies current classification systems has been found living in the dark depths of the Tasman Sea.

The animal could be a 'living fossil' from the pre-Cambrian period but further studies would be needed to confirm this, say the researchers in the journal PLOS ONE.

"We've basically discovered an animal which we cannot place in the current animal system that science operates with," says lead author Dr Jean Just of the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

Just and colleagues found the new organism, called Dendrogramma, while analysing organisms collected at depths of 400 and 1000 metres on the south-east Australian continental slope, east of Bass Strait.

It is about 1.5 centimetres tall, a little over 1 centimetre wide and shaped like a mushroom.

The animal has a dense layer of jelly-like material between its outer skin and inner stomach cell layers.

And it has a combined mouth and anus in its 'stalk', that Just and colleagues suspect points down into the ocean floor sediments.

From the several specimens collected, two new species were identified in a new genus, Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides, in the new family, Dendrogrammatidae.

The researchers say Dendrogramma may be related to members of the Cnidaria (jellyfish) group of animals or another primitive group called Ctenophora.

But the Dendrogramma lacks the stinging cells that define Cnidaria and the tentacles that define Ctenophora, says Just.

Living fossil?
The newly-discovered creature has similarities to extinct life forms from the Ediacaran period, 540 to 580 million years before the present, the researchers found.

They point to branches in the digestive system, that give Dendrogramma its name, and which are visible in the 'disc' of the mushroom shape.

Just says it's a "long shot" but Dendrogramma could be a descendent of pre-Cambrian life, although molecular studies are needed to provide more definitive answers on its relationship to the tree of life.

Australian palaeontologist Dr Jim Gehling from the South Australian Museum agrees.

"It is a pity that the molecular affinities of Dendrogramma cannot be determined until new specimens are collected, due to the initial preservation in formalin that damaged the nucleic acids of these organisms," he says.

Gehling says while there are interesting similarities between Dendrogramma and some Ediacara fossils there are also significant differences.

"Many weird Ediacaran forms remain a biological mystery. Some of these defy comparison with animals or plants that populate both ancient and modern marine settings," he says.

"The tiny mushroom-shaped Dendrogramma species share some patterns familiar in the so-called Trilobozoans of Ediacara," says Gehling.

"Unfortunately, biological body patterns are often repeated in unrelated organisms if only because there are limited ways of maximising surface area within body spaces."

However, gathering fresh specimens for molecular studies won't be easy.

"A thousand metres is a long way down and to hit the right spot can take a long time," says Just.

A combined mouth and anus in it's stalk ... :yikes:

I wonder if there's any aftertaste? Ewwww.

Oldfart,

Yes, it’s rare for a new animal to form a new phylum. It’s interesting to note though that Dendrogramma’s resemblance to several long (thought) gone Ediacaran lifeforms raises the possibility that we have a living representative of a Precambrian community. Of course, the appearance could be a coincidence. Convergent evolution is not uncommon. When other samples become available for DNA analysis we’ll be better able to make that distinction.

The discovery reminds me again of how much of Earth still waits to be explored.