We are everywhere

Gay penguin couple live in the New York Zoo. They've been together as a couple for eight years.

Book Review, They Have a Word for It This a delightful book that introduces one to the fact that there are many words and concepts in various foreign languages that do not exist in the English. On this page are a list of some of them.

did you know?

Horns in the majority of modern American cars beep using an F note. Source: defensivedriving.com, where I am currently taking my 6 hour, court-required-to-avoid-paying-for-a-speeding-ticket class. It's only available for Texas drivers, but you take it at your own pace, which is great. It costs $40 -- more than the local comedy defensive driving's $25, but I already wimped out of one scheduled taking of that... Seems like a terrible thing to waste a beautiful Saturday on. I'd much rather sit around playing CDs and clicking through animations a couple of nights in a row.

caller location for cell phones

Rhode Island is the first state to do this, according to JEMS -- The Journal of Emergency Medical Services.

In October 2001, Rhode Island began testing its statewide Enhanced 9-1-1 (E-9-1-1) system, enabling emergency dispatchers and responders to pinpoint the location and callback numbers of wireless telephone users. On Nov. 28, it became the first state to reach the FCC's Phase II benchmark of implementing the E-9-1-1 service. Phase II, in which wireless telephones must carry a GPS chip allowing emergency providers to locate callers, was originally slated to be in place nationwide by Oct. 1, 2001, but technological problems have pushed back the projected national rollout to at least 2006.

Rhode Island has gone even farther, to Phase II 1/2, and the latest testing has allowed them to locate some wireless callers to within three to five feet and most to within 20 to 50 meters. Cool beans.

blogger insider questions

A few days late, but here they are, from Andrew at www.phancy.com:

1. If Binky is really a Wonder Dog, what are his super powers?
Binky is a she! Her super power is the ability to catch any morsel of food tossed in her general direction in her mouth.

2. Studying to be an EMT, I'm guessing you've probably gotten to see some pretty disgusting things. What's the grossest?
Actually, the grossest was a decubitus ulcer (bed sore) on my Grandmother's heel that took literally months to heal.

3. My impression of Texas, having only visited Dallas for a few days, is that everyone smokes and eats lots of meat. How wrong (or right) am I?
This is certainly true in Bryan/College Station, the home of Texas A&M University (aka "Hell on Earth"), where I so recently lived, but it's not true of Austin, which is several miles to the left of the rest of the state.

4. Have any interesting tattoos and/or piercings? Why, or why not?
I have a butterfly over my left scapula.

5. What's the big appeal of Terry Pratchett?
As Douglas Adams is to Science Fiction, so is Terry Pratchett to Fantasy. He writes jokes about chaos theory and quantum physics. How cool is that? =)

6. You win the lottery. After all the dust settles, what's the first thing you splurge on.
A Great Dane puppy to play with Binky. Then a new place to live, with a yard. Maybe the new place should come first.

7. Your favorite artist does a cover of your favorite song by another artist. What is it?
Hmm. Annie Lennox singing Hi De Ho (a Dusty Springfield song.) 'Got to get me a piece of that pie'

8. What's the best part of owning a dog?
Somebody loves me absolutely, without question, no matter what I do or how I feel.

9. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?
He would chuck what wood a woodchuck would chuck, if a woodchuck would chuck wood.

10. Would you rather be rich or famous?
Rich, no question.

brush with fame

My sister the psychiatrist has been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of Andrea Yates, which starts tomorrow. I wonder if Court TV is planning to cover it. Ms Yates is the Houston woman who drowned her 5 children and is now pleading insanity, because of post-partum depression. My sister was on call once and admitted her to a psychiatric hospital.