Is Ananova reporting urban legends now? Zoo keeper mauled to death ‘after defecating on tiger’

According to one new novel approach to detecting planets around stars (looking for extra iro in the star itself, which would have come from iron-rich ateroids crashing into it, sent there by close encounters with Earth and Mars-sized planets), there are “billions of Earths” in this galaxy alone. Let’s go and get ’em!

British microbiology professor Johnjoe McFadden writes in the Guardian that we must turn to human genetic engineering to insure the survival of the species. He argues that due to successful treatment of many diseases (such as diabetes), people are passing genes on that years ago would have died with the bearer before child-bearing age. As a result, he says, our gene pool is weaker and evolution is being thwarted.

A small box of chirping chickens was just brought to my desk.

I’m off to a class on making Sushi at home. I never thought I’d be a sushi fan, but it only took one try a couple years ago to get me hooked. Maybe that’s a bad phrase…

28 chickens were in the box (I’d ordered 25). Two didn’t make the journey from Iowa to Georgia, and a third likely won’t. Undoubtably, another one or two will be lost as well. Baby chicks are fragile things. I split the order with someone else, so there’re now 14 (including the hurt one) peeping in my kitchen. The four cats show gleeful apprehension.

Pseudonovibos spiralis is a species of southeast asian mountain goatish mammal. It made the news about ten years ago when it was discovered by scientists and immediately put on the endangered species lists. The scientists found horns from the animal for sale at local markets, and the native inhabitants described the animal to the researchers. No living specimens were found. It seems the animal was a jackalope.

Apparently FOX-TV recently aired a program pushing the old “the moon landing was a hoax” line. Enough people have watched it that NASA has had to defend itself right on its main web page, and CNN reports the story. Meanwhile, for a more interesting debunking, visit Richard Hoagland (the “face on Mars” fellow) as he explains that the whole landing fake idea is nonsense, because NASA did land on the moon and saw ruined cities while they were there.

It was a busy weekend at the farm. (Now that I’m a farmer, I can call my house the farm.) The chickens come this week, so Chris and I built a brooder box for the little peepers to live in inside the house. We also borrowed a really nice miter circular saw and began construction of the chicken coop. It’s a big one, over 100 square feet, made of lumber and chicken wire. Well, a new plastic chicken wire. It was so much easier to work woth than the traditional kind! We’ll see how it holds up to chickens and rodents. The coop’s almost done, and will be complete tonight or tomorrow. I’ll post pictures and plans later. I also made a half gallon of yogurt and a half gallon of kefir. Yogurt you’ve certainly heard of, and homemade is both thinner and tangier than what’s commonly available in the store. I jut had some for lunch, with diced strawberries mixed in. Kefir is very similar, but thinner still to the point of being drinkable. It’s cultured like yogurt, but has a slightly different blend of bacteria. It’s related to the (alcoholic) fermented milk drink from Mongolia. Tart and tangy, it’s an aquired taste. I had to work up to it over the last couple years.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture has a wonderful online version of its Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin. You’ll find everything from the latest prices of livestock to growing a small garden to cooking with fresh, locally grown meat and produce. It has been suggested to me that I use the classified ad section to buy me a mule.