Miscellaneous Monday

1.  I do not want roses for Valentine's Day.  Short lived blooms, often grown in far-away countries (high carbon footprint for transport), using pesticides, herbicides and too much fertilizer to achieve the perfect blooms at just the right time, regardless of growing conditinos.  Nope.  

I would much rather have a new plant.

No.  Not a rose bush.  I don't have a lot of full sun locations and I have too many other things I want.

So what would be appropriate for Valentine's Day?

I know.  A nice plant with (sort of, if you use your imagination) heart shaped flowers.  And, well [mom, look away] somewhat....  phallic.... parts sticking up.  An Anthurium.  But not just any Anthurium (I already have several) but the rare and elusive purple blooming cross.  I've found them available if I have them shipped from Hawaii.  

Probably costs about the same as a dozen roses.

2.  Am I the only Science Geek out there who watches The Big Bang Theory and argues with the title song lyrics?

"The Autotrophs began to droll" - I think not!  Chemotrophs came first.  Autotrophs evolved from them and they produce energy without the need for a mouth so how could they drool?

[key terms:  Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own energy, like PLANTS that photosynthesize.  Chemotrophs have to get their energy from the environment, like people who have to eat and have mouths that actually could drool.  Where are plants going to drool from?]

And then there's "Neanderthals developed tools"  ha!  The oldest stone tools predate Neanderthal by around 2 million years.

You'd think song writers could get their science facts straight.

Sheesh.

C.  This semester I'm teaching an introduction to human anatomy and physiology course.  I don't like a lot of the illustrations from the text so I've been finding images on Wikimedia Commons (they have the copyright information right there so you know if you can legally use the image, very convenient).

My question?  Why is it that nearly every search term I use brings up at least one picture of a penis?  Terms like thumb or muscle contraction or abnormal feet.

I guess it's a good example of Rule 34.

[Sorry, no picture to illustrate this point.  You want images?  There are plenty on Wikimedia Commons.]