Friday Afternoon Miscellany

Hola! Just a few quick posts. dondelion is here and we've got a full schedule planned, so I am not sure how much time (or inclination) to post until after Christmas. Tonight we're going to see a play, tomorrow it's the art museum, Sunday the Packer game is the Number One Priority, on Monday we will do our visit to the mall and lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, on Tuesday it's dinner with the family - the rest of the time we spend talking and cooking (we both like cooking). Some items that caught my eye during the past week (enjoy!): The Bactrian Gold hoard discovered in Afghanistan in 1978 is going to be touring the United States for the first time ever, beginning in May, 2008. The National Geographic has an article and some stunning photos of the objects and jewelry. The treasures will begin a 17-month tour of the U.S starting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where they will be on display from May 25 to September 7, 2008. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City have also tentatively scheduled stops along the tour. Oooohhh, a trip to San Francisco or New York to see this - hmmm... The thought of scientists (or anyone) tinkering around with "artificial DNA" creating new life forms is something VERY disturbing and scary to me. Here's a quote: "We're heading into an era where people will be writing DNA programs like the early days of computer programming, but who will own these programs?" asked Drew Endy, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Won't those guys EVER learn? Maybe they all need to go see "I Am Legend" or revisit the 1970's version, "Omega Man" - or read Stephen King's classic "The Stand." Geez! These guys might genetically engineer an "artificial life form" that could wipe out every single living thing on the planet, and they're worried about frigging property rights! Honestly, have certain people lost ALL sense of proportion - not to mention their sense of humor? Borders under fire from evangelicals for a promotional Christmas card that says "Oh come all ye faithless... ." LOL! I think that's hilarious! The Norwegian government has plans to build a "doomsday" vault to house seeds of all the known food crops. Gee, nice to know that our seeds will be safe even though the scientists may wipe us all out with their genetically engineered "artificial life forms." We'll leave the seeds for some future instellar travelers - assuming the "aritficial life form" doesn't also knock them off should they ever land here in the future... The Haunted Internet: be afraid, very afraid... Everything you never wanted to know about crystal skulls. I understand a crystal skull will be featured in the new Indiana Jones movie and no, I'm not referring to Harrison Ford who is looking rather skeletal to me these days; he hasn't aged well and even with all the makeup they pile on him he is too old looking to be playing the formerly hunky main character! Harrison, darling, it's an unfortunate fact of life that we all grow older and greyer. Sixty-something you should not be portraying thirty-something Indy!