You can say what you want,

But I'll always love Phil Collins.

That's right - I do. And not in that arrogant, "only when he was with Genesis," way, in a pure, warmhearted kind of way, because sometimes, Phil Collins sings exactly what I'm thinking.

Of course, I understand that that's the principle of all pop stardom. But I like to credit him among my early influences that have led me to a life of activism.

That's right, Land of Confusion is one of the songs that changed my life.

You can laugh if you want. You can laugh if I already posted a similarly pathetic rant and have forgotten it. But Invisible Touch was remastered and re-released in 2007, and that my friends, is a masterpiece.

I'll take the crab juice

In an episode of The Simpsons, there's this scene where Homer is stuck in New York City, cause his car has the boot put on it, and he can't drive away.

So the only food he can get is from a vendor who comes by. And the joke is that the man has an accent, so when Homer asks for something to drink he says what sounds like, "I have only mountain dew and grape juice.

And then Homer wretches and writhes a bit and says, "Okay, I'll take the crab juice."

So yeah, it's crab juice. And it's preferable to mountain dew.

In that vein, you should read this article about an eel drink that's popular in Japan here

Teach the starlings to say "Schieffelin"

There is a project to teach starlings to say the word "Schieffelin." Starlings can mimic human speech.

The background:
Between 1890 and 1891, Eugene Schieffelin introduced approximately 60 pairs of European starlings into New York City 's Central Park . Schieffelin was a founding member of the New York chapter of the Acclimation Society of North America whose goal was to introduce non-native species that they deemed culturally or environmentally beneficial into new environments. It is generally believed that Schieffelin felt it was his calling to introduce all the birds referenced in the works of Shakespeare into North America . His attempts to introduce bullfinches, chaffinches, nightingales, and skylarks were unsuccessful.

Starlings can mimic a word after hearing it only once. Above is a photograph of a rigged feeding station that exposes the starlings to the sound of the word.

Learn more about the project here

A corpse flower is blooming, and you can watch

You might have heard about these on CSI. Their flowers are beautiful, but their perfume smells like a rotting body.

Smith College has a webcam where you can watch it bloom. Best viewed in daytime hours.

It's a shame

That sometimes work is so very deadening. Because some days it makes me feel so very alive, and I am saddened that there are not other people feeling this, so that I can call at 11:30 at night and share this with them.

This happens most often when my work involves writing and telling stories. And when I am working at cupcakes.

The plate is half empty, the plate is half full

One day at work I order a sandwich, and I say it's for here. I pretty much have three choices of things I can eat at work, and a sandwich is one of them.

"Would you like me to wrap half of it up for you?"

I laugh, because seriously, since when was there ever a sandwich I couldn't finish? That's what I tell the woman working and we laugh.

Then a little while later I have a sub at another place. I say I don't need a bag. The woman says, "I'll give you one because if you don't finish it you can still keep it in your purse."

Which is preposterous, because again, there has never been a sandwich I couldn't finish.

And about two weeks later I order a veggie burger. The woman asks if I'd like it cut in half.

Seriously, I can see only three things could be happening here:

1) People assume women don't eat
2) Women don't eat because people assume they shouldn't
3) I look fat in this dress

In closing I would just like to encourage women to eat the whole damn sandwich. It's only a sandwich, okay, and I can eat it all.

It's time to start thinking about it

This is a contest I truly love - and I've got some 'splaining to do, since last year I was so sick I couldn't even pick up a pen. Consider plunking down $50 and trying your hand at writing a novel in just three days.

This year's 3-Day Novel Contest will run Labour Day Weekend, August 30 - September 1, 2008. Registration must be postmarked by August 29th.

This is a great test of your stamina, creativity, and focus, as well as a chance to get something down on paper.

So let's all sit down for three days and type. Registration and contest details here

Transborder Immigration Project

This information comes from the justseeds.org blog. justseeds is a community of artists who have banded together to both sell their work online in a central location and to collaborate with and support each other and social movements.

One of the highlights of this year’s Allied Media Conference in Detroit was learning about the Transborder Immigration Project by Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Micha Cárdenas and Jason Najarro.

In the true spirit of hactivist art and civil disobedience, this team of San Diego-based artists and scientists has ingeniously reconfigured a Motorola i455 phone into a lifesaving device for immigrants crossing the border between Mexico and US. In their own words, “The goal of the project is to help reduce the number of deaths along the border by developing a common cell phone device into a navigation tool that will help migrants locate life saving resources in the desert such as water catches and safety beacons.”

The device, which is built upon the back of a basic $40 Motorola i455 phone, has a built-in compass, vibrates near water sources, and is gps enabled.

Learn more here.

And here

How time flies when you're almost having fun

It's true - time goes so freaking quickly when you are almost out of your mind with work to do.

Almost the middle of July, I have been going so fast I'm barely paying attention to things around me.

But I'll tell you about two things I've learned this morning.

One is that a study that involved MRI scans of children's brains while they were being shown images of people being either accidentally or deliberately hurt has led researchers to believe that children are hardwired for empathy.

And the other is that a red panda, rejected by its mother, is being tended by a domestic cat. A cat that is, if I don't say so myself, the spitting image of the cat I had as a little girl.