THE END IS NEAR

[rthstewart]

As you've probably gathered (in fact, I've even said it on a NFFR podcast once), I live in the greater Baltimore/DC metropolitan area.  This means that on Tuesday we had an earthquake.  As a California native, I of course did not recognize it was an earthquake.  I thought my air conditioning unit was crashing through the ceiling.

Now me and 55 million other Americans are bracing for Hurricane Irene.  I live in an area where our power grid routinely fails for days and weeks at a time (to quote the Doctor, it's held together with a kettle and some string), so I've purchased 30 pounds of dry ice for the freezer, cranked everything down as cold as it can get and stood in line at 8:30 AM for more batteries.  Good luck to all of you in a similar state or worse and hopefully we'll all see each other (virtually) come Monday morning.

This week then, the earth opened up, the skies are opening up and while walking the dog I found cicadas (a sort of locust, but not really).  The Apocalypse is obviously at hand. In a discussion this evening with lady_songsmith wherein we discussed said apocalypse, she urged, "Read all the fic now." To which I responded, PRINT all the fic and take it with you into the bunker because when the power grid fails there will at least still be paper when the nuclear winter falls. I will then be able to twist all of my TSG notes into little tiny logs and throw them on a charcoal brazier made out of my cast iron skillet and my cookie cooling racks.

Should I and my laptop survive, I leave you with this awesome bit of news courtesy of io9, the same folks that informed of the gay finches.  We learn that female chickens practice birth control.

According to Dean [the researcher], "these results show that promiscuous females can actively bias sperm utilization to exert a strong and predictable influence on the struggle for fertilization." And in doing so, they manage to "retain control of paternity even in species such as fowl where males can force mating."  In other words, even if a female chicken is unable to withstand a rooster's sexual advances, the sperm of a socially subordinate rooster is significantly more likely to get rejected. Rejected hard.

So, female chickens who are unable to spurn the sexual advances of lower social order, less desireable roosters, forcefully eject the sperm once copulation is completed.  In other news, another fic is done and should be going up in the next week or so.  I'm  well....  hmmm... not nervous.  I'm excited about this one.  Really excited. 

Sorry for all the edits but LJ keeps screwing with the formatting.

Comments

[autumnia]

I thought of you when the earthquake occurred, so I'm glad to see you came through that just fine. (Me, I didn't even FEEL it happening and did not even know it occurred until I returned to my office desk and saw the IMs and blog posts.)

As for Irene, I live in what has been deemed Zone A in the city, which is currently under a mandatory evacuation (one of many firsts in NY apparently). And yet I'm staying home, one of many who feel (and hope) that it won't be as bad as they claim. We shall see. :-)

And I agree with lady_songsmith about reading all the fic now. Read first while the internet's still up and go back to writing when it's down. :-)

I don't suppose female chickens can teach songbirds a thing or two about dealing with unwanted male advances?

And have you seen this article about a newly discovered fossil? I thought of Mary Anning Russell when I saw it. I wonder what she would have to say on the subject?

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if you were under an evacuation order!!! YIKES!!!!

[autumnia]

I am! :-) And mass transit will be completely shut down tomorrow afternoon. I think I'm in less danger now than in previous years. There are new high-rise buildings built directly on the water now, so they kind of shelter the lower buildings like mine that are a little further inland.

My parents scoffed a bit at all the evacuation plans. They've lived through monsoons and such in Hong Kong in flimsier flats than what we have in NY now.

[lady_songsmith]

Should you get a last-minute attack of the panics, I have a guest bed.

[autumnia]

Thanks, but I'm gonna stick it out here! I could always go to my sister's too, she's somewhere in the middle of Queens and is in a "safe" zone.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

Be safe! Get all stocked up!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

We still have power, but about 20,000 in our area are already without power and areas east and south of us are hit really, really badly. 75% of Richmond, vA or something is without power apparently. The water is already up over the dunes in the Delaware beaches and it's not even high tide yet.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

And as for the discovery of Juramaia sinensis in Liaoning, that's where all the feathered dinosaurs have been discovered and where they just found the discoveries that upended understanding of Archeopteryx. I was just wondering actually when the mammal-like reptiles finally became true mammals and then when the marsupials and plancentals split. I don't remember why I was thinking of that... probably something about egg laying and ear bones. Thanks for the link!! There's a great video at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in the Mammal Hall about mammal origins and it includes "Morgie" Morganucodon from the late Triassic who predates both true marsupial and planetal mammals.