You are presented with a problem. You have bought water conditioner for your aquarium, and the instructions say you should use one capful for each 5g of water. The containers you use to age your water hold 12 pints each. What do you do?

Apart from the fact that these are US measures, this could easily be a problem I was given in math class…when I was learning multiplication and division…in Grade Four. Nonetheless, I was asked this question by an adult who apparently could not figure out that there are 40 pints in 5g, and if you divide 40 by 12, you get 3.333 (repeating, haven’t installed a font with a vinculum). If the recommended amount of water conditioner treats three times the amount of water you have, then you use about 1/3 of the recommended amount. Not rocket science.

Oh! Oh! I know why she didn’t know! The classic, “…but I don’t get math. I’m an arts student.” Since when “arts student” came to mean, “don’t have to understand elementary-level math”, I do not know. Are these the same people who work as cashiers and don’t know how to make change if you fuck ’em up by giving them one bill, then changing your mind after they’ve entered the dollar amount and the display shows change due?

Good for ol’ CK in the itty-bitty town of Cambridge, Nova Scotia! 🙂

Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt.

The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.

The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying.

“It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something,” said David.

They used the Internet to encourage people to wear pink and bought 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear. They handed out the shirts in the lobby before class last Friday — even the bullied student had one.

“I made sure there was a shirt for him,” David said.

They also brought a pink basketball to school as well as pink material for headbands and arm bands. David and Travis figure about half the school’s 830 students wore pink.

It was hard to miss the mass of students in pink milling about in the lobby, especially for the group that had harassed the new Grade 9 student.

“The bullies got angry,” said Travis. “One guy was throwing chairs (in the cafeteria). We’re glad we got the response we wanted.”

David said one of the bullies angrily asked him whether he knew pink on a male was a symbol of homosexuality.

He told the bully that didn’t matter to him and shouldn’t to anyone.

“Something like the colour of your shirt or pants, that’s ridiculous,” he said.

“Our intention was to stand up for this kid so he doesn’t get picked on.”

Travis said the bullies “keep giving us dirty looks, but we know we have the support of the whole student body.

“Kids don’t need this in their lives, worrying about what to wear to school. That should be the last thing on their minds.”

When the bullied student put on his pink shirt Friday and saw all the other pink in the lobby, “he was all smiles. It was like a big weight had been lifted off is shoulder,” David said. No one at the school would reveal the student’s name.

Travis said that growing up, he was often picked on for wearing store-brand clothes instead of designer duds.

The two friends said they didn’t take the action looking for publicity, but rather to show leadership in combating what they say is frequent bullying in schools.

Article liberated from the Chronically Horrid, of course.

If you are going to shoot butterflies close up, buy a fucking macro lens or don’t bother. They look like shit, period.

Nobody but your family is interested in your niece’s wedding. The dress was nice enough, makeup okay, but a little too much black eyeliner for a “blonde”, and she should’ve touched up those dark roots in her hair before The Big Day. Next time, choose a different nail salon; that’s the worst French manicure I’ve ever seen. Waaaay too square at the tips for the shape of her nail bed; looked like a hawk’s tail. If the husband bites his nails now (and he does), I can imagine what it’s going to be like in future, and the “rings shot” is so overdone that it’s sickening. Ditto you–other dude with the pictures of your kids (doing whatever uninteresting thing). Nobody cares about your kids except…you. You know why there are no pictures of disc golf tournaments in my stream? Because I know that they’re boring to anyone who doesn’t play, and that nobody gives a fuck.

Please, please…I beg you. No more horrible shots of goldfinches, house finches, mourning doves, ruby-throated hummingbirds, or that goddamn chipmunk. Oh, and enough of your cats, too–we know what they look like by now, and you don’t need to take a new shot every time the damned cat turns its head. Get off your arse and go outside your house; there’s a lot of wildlife out there that doesn’t visit your feeders, and you can’t shoot that through the window. We are tired and sick to death of seeing the same crappy, blurry shots of the same critters over and over again. Are you using Flickr for storage? The fact that you shot it does not mean it must be posted; pick and choose, and if it’s not good, leave it out unless there’s a very good reason to include it. If an honest comment might read, “Holy chromatic aberration, Batman!” definitely leave it out. In fact, just delete it altogether. WTF are you viewing these on–a 14″ with a 4 meg video card in 256 colours?? How can you think they look good? I go through your pictures and make a few comments because you seem a nice enough person and I feel sorry for the fact that you get so few views and comments. You don’t have to be a great photographer to get interesting stuff, you just have to get out of your fucking house, and post only your decent shots.

I’m beginning to hate even virtual people, and I still have another whole page of “New photos from your contacts” to go. I already did the ones I really like, so the rest is mostly frass. Lucky me. I don’t know why I do this to myself…

Bless his heart; Jim went through my photos and used some to create a composite for my birthday. He seems such a nice man; I can’t recall offhand what he looks like, but he seems very kind and I’m surprised he’s not married, or at least in a relationship. He says he doesn’t mind and prefers to be alone, but I really don’t know many people who mean that. Live alone, sure–hell, if you can have your whole place to yourself and have things the way you want them, that’s great–but being alone is far less popular. I suppose he could be an arsehole in RL, but that sort of thing tends to surface fairly quickly, and I know for a fact that he’s not a misogynist, and probably not one of those horrid men who belch, spit and scratch themselves constantly, because he has several female friends. Hmmm…I suppose he could be gay; he was married before, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Anyway, it was an awfully nice gesture, and accompanied by the comment that I do not look my age (I do, and I know that, but it’s okay), quite a pleasant surprise.

I finally got to watch Dylan Moran’s, “Like, Totally” DVD, and it was far better than I’d been led to believe. I think his cynical, free-association, rambling off on a tangent style is very funny anyway, but I’d heard people complaining that “Like, Totally” was something of a disappointment. I wasn’t disappointed in the least, though I supposed I’m somewhat biased because I just like the sound of his voice. He could stand up there and read cake recipes, and I’d be perfectly content to listen. The dimples are pretty damn cute, too. 😉

I hate the goddamned PC Police. It was patently obvious to any reasonable person that by “I’m insane”, I meant that most people usually do not talk to the bugs they photograph, but noooooo, along comes the fucking Political Correctness Officer to tell me I should be more sensitive to individuals with mental illnesses (Jesus H. Christ–I had one in my house for six fucking years and somehow managed to not strangle her–how fucking sensitive do you think I should be?), and paraphrase my words, making it obvious that she did indeed understand what I had meant! I had a four-letter response–STFU–but chose instead to take the high road (of sorts) and refuse to change what I’d said, or apologise for saying it. Apologist M. did–and no, I don’t care how many of his family members are mentally ill or how sympathetic he feels toward them–he should have stood his fucking ground. Pussy (cat, of course, since we should be sensitive to those with less intestinal fortitude). I haven’t looked, but if she said one more goddamned word about it, I’m going through her stream, and I’m going to comment on every brightly coloured flower or insect by saying it looks “gay”. That means “happy”, right? If insane still means mentally ill, then gay still means happy. Not even that fucked-up Stinky Peterson got sent to an “insane asylum” or diagnosed as “insane”…because the goddamned word is no longer used as a diagnostic and has instead come to mean something different! Language is fluid. It evolves. Get over it. Mental illness is illness. Insanity is talking to bugs. Now STFU, and if you make one more dumbass PC Police comment like that on any one of my images, EVER, brace yourself for deleting as many “gay” comments as I can get in on yours before you ban me, you snotty fucking hypersensitive bitch, and I can type fast.

I have absolutely no explanation for the guy who went through a surprising number of my images last night, tried to tell me that Carolina horsenettle is found in his location, and is not toxic (it is, though the ripe fruit is reportedly less so), and then “re-identified” (and in many cases, misidentified) my dragons and damsels…that were already tagged with the correct binomial and common name. Normally, I would think it was just excess enthusiasm, but….he’s in India. WTF?? What would motivate him to spend so much time identifying stuff that is already identified, and (more to the point) is found on the other side of the world? He’s a native of India, so it’s not like he’s an American who was homesick for the local fauna and flora. I was polite because I think his intent was helpful in nature, but….WTF??

P.S. Yay, me. I made Explore again, this time with my little hairstreak-spider-attack. Kind of a crappy shot, but the timing was damned good! 🙂

(Yes, I included even dropped shots because the 500 images chosen for Explore each day represent roughly 0.1% of the total images uploaded, so I’m content to simply get in, even if others “overtake” me. Hehe.)

Well, I can now fully understand why Ruud Kleinpaste does what he does, acting as an advocate and ambassador for the insect world. People are incredibly stupid when it comes to bugs. I can sort of understand the woman who’d lived for over fifty years in Texas and did not know that of the nine hundred-plus species of spider found there, only five have medically significant venom, and fishing spiders do look a little imposing even though they are not dangerous. This morning, though, I got a double dose of the stupids from some “moran” in Georgia who is:

a. Convinced that a robber fly deposited eggs behind her ear, causing swelling and infection, and;
b. Convinced that a caterpillar of a prominent moth in the genus Datana is, and I quote, “…the acid spraying kind found on our hazelnut tree.”

Robber flies are predators, and they certainly can deliver a painful bite if they are mishandled, but they don’t bite “just because”, and they absolutely, positively do not, not, NOT lay eggs under the skin of any animal at all, and that of course does include mammals such as Homo sapiens sapiens. The females lay eggs in earth or plants, and the larvae are in no way parasitic.

There are caterpillars that have toxins in their spines, but they certainly do not “spray acid”. Not here, not in Georgia, not even in South America or Australia, home of some of the world’s most dangerous insects. Spray acid…Jesus wept. I didn’t bother correcting that one because I didn’t want to deal with the ensuing anecdote about how a “friend of a friend” was horribly burnt by gallons of caterpillar acid and had to be airlifted to a trauma centre in Atlanta.

Holy Christ, how do people get so stupid? It’s got to be wilful ignorance because it definitely defies common sense. Acid-flinging caterpillars and parasitic robber fly larvae? Most people are indeed ignorant of the finer points of insect development and may not know the habits of specific groups, but goddamn, that’s amazingly stupid, even for Georgia!

They’ve just announced the successor to the 7.10 Ubuntu release that is coming out in October (Gutsy Gibbon, which I think it a dumb name, especially since I find primates quite revolting). It will be called…..Hardy Heron. The name is a little dorky, but of all creatures with “H-names”, they had to choose heron. I see herons–especially great blue herons–very often, but in my stream, there are two bad heron pictures. One a green taken from across the pond, and one a great blue taken at Carlyle Lake. Why just two? Well, because herons hate me, and as soon as they see me with a camera, they’re history. I am human heron repellent. Let’s hope it doesn’t apply to OSes called Heron, lest I lose my coveted title of Geek Girl. Hehe.

I want to like you, I really do. Even though you live in Texas and see God in the clouds, you seem like a decent enough guy, and you’re happily married, so I don’t have to deal with stupid double entendres that make me roll my eyes because guys think they’re being clever when they’re not. I like the general theme of your images, and some of them are quite good. Some of them suck. Those that suck probably suck because you haven’t yet got a proper macro lens for that fancy-ass Nikon of yours. Incidentally, I’ve driven cars that didn’t cost as much as that camera. Anyway, I generally don’t hate you (for now), and your photography skills are improving. What I DON’T FUCKING NEED is for you to email me every goddamned time you photograph a bug and tell me about it. I have eyes, and there’s a helpful little link called “New photos from your contacts” where I can go and look at….new photos from my contacts. Yes, including….YOURS! I saw the butterfly, and the picture is nice, but no nicer than the other bazillion fucking butterfly photos you’ve posted. How excited can I possibly be by now? I know you’re keeping track of how many you find in your back yard, and guess what? I don’t care. I saw the goddamned sulphur and–much like EVERY OTHER FUCKING SULPHUR–it’s…..yellow. Surprise! It’s a little out of its known range–so what? You’re in Texas, not Alaska, and it’s not like this is a species thought to be extinct. Butterflies fly (hence the name) and they sometimes wander outside their known range. Sometimes, even less common butterflies wander out of their known range, and that is what happened in your case. I have looked at all of your new images, and I commented on the ones I liked. You know damned well I looked at them because I LEFT COMMENTS. I did not leave a comment on the image in question because it was boring, and no, I will NOT go back, scroll through the comments and follow the links. Know why? BECAUSE I DON’T FUCKING CARE!

Stop fucking harassing me. You are making me want to slap you. I swear to Jeezus that we’ve seen more of you since you wrote that stupid sappy, “My assistant quit, so I’ll have to work long hours, and will still have to find time for my family. Farewell for now, everyone–it’s been fun.” I didn’t tell you, but when I read that, I thought, “Oh, thank Christ! We’ll get a break from multiple uploads every single fucking day!” Did we get a break? Noooooo, you’re around as much as ever, maybe more. Fuck off; you’re a contact, not my goddamned mother. I may not have much of a life, but I’ve apparently got more than you have, so STOP EMAILING ME EVERY TIME YOU POST SOMETHING!

There is no hope for some people in this country. Seen in a Flickr group pool description…

THIS IS A FAMILY GROUP – BUTTERFLY PORN WILL BE DELETED

Un-fucking believable. In a group dedicated to the butterfly species of the Eastern US, the normal process by which butterflies make more butterflies and do so entirely without shame because they are insects is considered “porn”? I can understand human pornography being undesired in a “family friendly” pool, and maybe even mammals, but…insects??? Fachrissake, it’s not like they wear clothes so we can’t see everything they’ve got all of the time, and when they do have bugsecks, they do it end to end, which looks absolutely nothing like human sex. What are these fuckin’ goons going to tell their kids when they’re old enough for adult hormones to start doing their stuff? The poor little bastards won’t have even a bug for reference, let alone “the birds and the bees”. In this brave 21st century, it would appear that Puritanism is still alive and well. I wonder, do they put little skirts on tables and chairs lest the legs be found shocking and offensive? Fuuuuuck!