More Timeliness From Wiley Miller

Maybe I should just find a way to put the strip "Non Sequitur" up every day on the blog.

I just don't understand all of the fear mongering and prevarication being slung around by people who fail to see affordable national health care to be as much a "right" for all citizens as is National Defense and just as justifiable as a national government concern as "homeland security" from terrorists.

I'd like to see a run down of how much money insurance companies and health industries have spent to buy off each member of congress. Shame on the whole bunch!

Bletch!!!!

Not all fungi are attractive or useful and I've posted a few previous examples of some onerous ones. The several species in the genus Stachybotrys are probably very beneficial to nutrient cycling in the wild, but when a house becomes infected with the critters, there can be serious economic and medical problems.

Stachybotrys sp. are able, in mild temperatures and with humid conditions, to digest and breakdown materials with a high cellulose content. When this happens to woody debris and other dead vegetation, this fungal activity liberates materials held in the plantstuffs making them available for use by a host of other organisms directly and indirectly.

In a building made from plant material (framing, plywood, fiber board, some paneling and cellulose rich insulation) Stachybotrys may get a foothold and thrive, for a while hidden, and then "blossoming" to exposed surfaces where it is virtually impossible to eradicate except by removing entirely the infected material. While at work, Stachybotrys may release byproducts of its decay process that are toxic (mycotoxins) to humans and and other animals. Plus the abundant production of spores wreaks havoc on on some individuals as a powerful allergen.

Controlling humidity, using treated building materials that contain cellulose and being vigilant may help keep Stachybotrys out in the woods where it belongs (and probably prefers to be).

Fading Fast

The BBC and several news outlets (real news or otherwise) had stories recently about a number of threatened and endangered creatures that might soon go extinct. One such example is Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog shown here. The image came from
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/browse_imgs/amphibian_com_62.html where one can find quite a few other lovely photos of amphibians, reptiles and other beasties.

The guy is quite a handsome fellow, don't you think?

Flying Lessons

After witnessing Carl Edwards' take-off last April up close at Talladega, Ryan Newman shows his aerial skills at yesterday's NASCAR Sprint cup race on the same track. Thank goodness for those rugged race cars. Looks like Mark Martin was correct in his assessment that there would be wrecks on the track at Talladega.

Ohhhh, SCARY!!!!

Please do not give these two any candy.

If not recognizable, that's Mary Lynn on the left and MYL on the right with the pumpkin.

Alabama In Music

I was looking for a musical angle to my previous post with the idea of a title for the NASCAR Sprint Cup posting being a play on “Moon Over Alabama”. However research on that soon led to a thread of its own. One thing just leads to another.

One “Alabama Song” (Whiskey Bar or Moon Over Alabama) goes back quite a while to lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill for their 1930 opera “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”.

On a somewhat different note (no pun intended), check out the various recordings of this ditty as sung by Jim Morrison of the Doors and David Bowie as found on YouTube.

By the same name, but very different music are the official Alabama State song by Julia Tutwiler and a C&W tune sung by Allison Moorer (also on YouTube).

“Sweet Home Alabama”, a great Lynyrd Skynyrd hit, was another possibility. And you simply must see the rendition of this baby on YouTube by, of all folks, the Leningrad Cowboys & Red Army Choir. It’s a real hoot!

Click on images for larger versions

This Week In The Sprint Cup Chase

Earlier this year at Talladega, Carl Edwards’ 99 took off near the finish line and bounced off the fence. No one was killed, but several spectators were hurt by flying debris (Tim, keep your head down. Personally, I’m with Digger).

NASCAR has installed a higher fence for this week’s running at Talladega and has tweaked the restrictor plates a bit more than usual to control speeds. According to Liz Clarke of the Washington Post, track officials have even invited a Creek medicine man to perform a blessing at the race to restore “balance” at the site where supposedly a curse was levied when Andrew Jackson ran the Creeks from the area way back when. This would seem to cover all the bases, however as Clarke reports in quoting Chase driver Mark Martin (#5 car), slowing the racers “doesn’t put cars in the grandstands. It just wrecks them”……on the track.

As usual, here’s hoping Jeff Gordon (#24) can sneak ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates. Wouldn’t mind if Jr. in #88 had a good race too.

From the movie Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby

“Ricky Bobby: I'm going fast again!
Cal Naughton, Jr.: How fast is he going?
Lucius Washington: 26 miles per hour. “

(Must be those restrictor plates at work)