I posted a new photo to TheWayWeWere.
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This dress is being sold as a prom dress. From the article:

This prom dress is so skimpy, even the designer's CEO wouldn't let his teenage daughter wear it. But the dangerously revealing gown, prominently advertised in Seventeen Prom, YM Prom and Teen Prom, and on sale in a Midtown shop, is a top seller for the company this season.

I cannot believe it is even selling anywhere. Quite apart from the complete sluttiness of the outfit, it's absolutely impractical. Note, I never went to prom -- dancing and mass socialization just isn't my thing. But my sister went to hers, and what she said was that prom's entire purpose was to show up, look pretty, dance a bit, and depart for food much better than what was being catered. How can you a) look pretty, and b) dance in such an outfit? It wouldn't stay put!

I'm so very glad they quoted kids with SENSE in the article. It bothers me immensely when my-and-my-sisters' age groups get painted as being "loose and amoral". One hopes dearly that this horribly expensive dress does not sell well enough that such is offered again. The article seems to indicate this is not the case. However, hopefully, peer pressure will come to bear on those insane enough to wear it to a FORMAL EVENT.

One last comment that I simply have to make. What's the point in such an outfit, from a female point of view? There's probably not a single hook-and-eye on that outfit. And, as any girl could tell you, the purpose of hook-and-eyes on feminine clothing to so that we can laugh at the poor bumbling male as he attempts to figure out how to unclasp the damn thing.

Surely, Mardi Gras is right around the corner.  In Florida, the robins are all ready partying hard for it...on overripe mulberries. 

They'll flock to mulberry bushes for their berries, as well as the bugs they tend to attract. In late winter or early spring, the berries can become intoxicating.

"Sometimes the birds will have one too many," Paul said. "They become a little looped. So it becomes fun to watch them."

We get drunk robins on occasion here, but mostly we just get pissed off male cardinals who attack our windows.  Very aggravating to have them slamming into the windows every few seconds for a few hours.

Wayne has discovered he doesn't NEED opposable thumbs. He just needs to be taller.

Last night, I was trying to go to bed. I had gone through the obligatory two hour "pet and snuggle" Wayne requires before he stops purring so loudly I can't sleep. Finally gave up, and made him move so I could sleep. In revenge, he went to the laptop and woke it up. So I unplugged it (battery's bad), and plugged it back in. Get back in bed ... and he specifically turned it on again. So this time, I unplugged it and left it unplugged. I heard him hitting the keys to turn it back on, but I ignored it. Surely he wasn't hitting the power key on purpose. Finally ended up kicking him out of my bedroom after he pushed four different piles of junk crashing to the floor, in a sulk because his high tech catbed (aka "The Laptop of Doom") wouldn't turn back on.

So, this morning, I get up, let him back into my bedroom. And, with my eyes (aka "glasses") back on, I saw him specifically push the laptop's power button to turn it back on. He did it again, about an hour later. He's now off having a snit because it's still unplugged.

This is the same cat who, when he's hungry, leaps for all he's worth to grab the handle of the fridge to open the Magic Portal of Food. If he wants into a room, he jumps for the door handle -- and sometimes, if held even with it, manages to turn it.

It's here, at long last. The doom of the human race. Enslavement is upon us all.

Oh. Right. It's been this way since the Ancient Eygptians. Nevermind...

I added a few more pictures under The Way We Were; I believe they show up on the second page.  Mostly me on horses, though one shows one of my sisters on her horse as well.

This wonderful post from another underground State Department Republican says not all things are rotten in Paris.

As most folks know, everyone except developers hates the idea of the Grand Parkway.  Sounds like people on the north end of this nightmare of a road hate it too. 

In the November election, a bond issue in Brazoria County was passed to help the bastard developers who want the damn thing to go through in Brazoria County by misleading wording on the ballot.

Like anyone needs a 187 mile loop around the city of Houston.  What kind of time is that going to save anyone? 

From CNN, a report that loggerhead turtles, a threatened species, have decreased from 18,000 nests to about 8,000 since 1998.  Though loggerhead nesting rates are cyclic, this decline may signal an actual decline due to the long term of the decline.  Possible reasons are cold water upwellings and accidental hooking during fishing off of Portugal.

From BBC News, a story about the sense of fairness in chimpanzees, which is apparently similar to the reaction of fairness in human social situations.  The "fairness" has been measured by differences in rewards for work.  This is one article that should be read from the link; the information is important both because it shows how we are linked to other primates, and because it shows how important our social relationships are between ourselves.

From the Aftenposten (Norway), two different waste disposal companies in Norway are blaming each other for two rats that were in a load of garbage which has caused an incinerator in Sweden to stop accepting Norweigan garbage. 

None of the Norwegian trash exporters is willing to take the blame for having transported the vermin.

"I think the rats had a Tromsø accent," said the director of Hålogaland Ressursselskap in Narvik. The response was predictable.

"The rats surely have a Narvik accent," said the director of Tromsø's refuse treatment.

Both companies are suffering from the ban and can run up extra expenses of NOK 500,000 (USD 79,000) a month moving their garbage to alternative sites.

I'm sure there are some scientists in the US that would like that $79k to figure out exactly what accent those rats have!

Via the Independent, a company who has copied the protein from vampire bat's saliva which makes blood flow, is set to sell shares.  The protein may have uses in heart and stroke patients (like the drug Plavix).

Monday, an off duty police officer was seriously injured in Houston when he ran into a run away horse loose on I-45 N.  The horse was killed on impact, and officers who responded to the scene closed the road due to the carcase being hit by several other vehicles, causing more accidents.

In Ohio, a mailman saved a 9 pound poodle from the icy Erie Canal after the dog's owner called for help. 

From ABC Channel 7 in Denver, Colorado, a story about two pit bulls that were shot by animal control officers attempting to rescue a cat owner from the dogs. 

The owner of these dogs apparently allowed the dogs to escape custody; the dogs were running around loose, the officers were called and were attacked.  They made it back to their vehicle, called for backup, then saw the dogs attack a cat.  The cat owner tried to save the cat, the dogs then went after the owner, and the control officers first taisered the dogs, then shot them to save the owner of the cat.

Colorado has had a string of pit bull attacks in the past couple of years, the worst of which caused the death of a woman in November 2003.  The owner of the pit bulls in that case has been sentenced to six years in prison, and has begun serving her term.

The Sun reports on two little tamarins born at the Cambridge Zoo.  The sex of the little ones isn't known yet, but they appear healthy.  These cotton top tamarins are New World monkeys, one of several kinds of tamarins that can be found in Central and South America.

 

From Bill Dietrich, a guide to fishing for dinner from a sailboat.  I came across this today, while trying to figure out what to do next with Ron's little Luger, since his SailRite Jiffy reefing gear should be in by the end of the week.  He hasn't pushed very hard to go out in it since the last time (about mid-December) when we had a heck of a time due to stronger than forecast wind conditions.  What should have been a short two hour stay on the water, turned into a six hour trip. 

Via the New York Times, scientists have been able to extend the cognative abilities of older dogs through a combination of enriched diet and enriched environments.  Per the study:

By the end of the two-year trial, it was clear that the enriched diet alone and the enriched environment alone were each helpful in preventing decline. But the mental functioning of the dogs given a combination of enriched diet and stimulating environment was considerably higher than that of the dogs in the other three groups, the researchers found.

This study was conducted on beagles, already an intelligent breed (like most hunting types).