On the Origin of Disco Species

(Sabre Tooth Tiger, fitted out in disco gear © 2006 QB)

Q watched a Science Channel documentary on the Sabre Tooth Tiger the other day. I was reading so I didn't watch it with her, so I am not exactly sure what spurred the following piece that Q wrote. After the program, she came to me with a gleam in her eye and said, "You know, Sabre Tooths COULD have worn disco clothes". Her assertion was that we could not really rule it out per se because the fossil record didnt negate it or support it. I thought it was a great beginning, so I asked her to draw and write on it.

That drawing is at the top, the writing is below.

On the Origin of Disco Species, according to Q:

"I made a picture about saber-toothed tigers with disco clothes. It looks like a bear with a disco fur. It has a disco hair head. Sometimes I think it is like a lion. It's really weird but cool.

It is very possible that they wore them and the clothes rotted when they died and are not there anymore like the flesh. The bones are the only thing that remained and that the colors on their teeth rotted away because of the tar pulling on the color.

They might have been very civilized creatures. They might have had cities that just rotted because this was a few million years ago. Maybe they took the hides of their prey and made huts.

On the other hand, maybe they made a lot of paint. Or they just lived normal lives as big lions with gigantic teeth.

Disco clothes really sound like they would give away the saber tooth to the prey and the prey would get a head start, letting it get away and the saber tooth tiger dying of hunger. If that happened then the tigers would die out and they could not stumble into a tar pit. Therefore, they must have just had brown fur and normal colored teeth.

Still they might have had inner teeth that were colored. They do not show that often when they are hunting. Only when they bit stuff that it might show if they had it colored. Maybe they would have a rainbow tail fluff thing.

I really think that my picture that I drew really looks like a saber-toothed tiger dressed in clothes. Sometimes it looks like a big bird with wings and a clown nose but I do not really want to draw another one.

Millions of years ago, saber-toothed tigers roamed the lands and we do not know their colors. If they did have disco clothes, that would be astounding."




Soon Q will be starting the distance learning Stanford EPGY English Expository Writing Course (ages 9-11). It will be great to see how they work with kids to develop their writing skills. The course is deployed online as well as voice-based group lessons.
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Old Sturbridge Village Homeschool Day!

(Musket demonstration © 2006 Nika Boyce)

Q and I spent the day yesterday at Old Sturbridge Village at their homschool day. We got to meet several of the homeschooling families from nearby Worcester, was wonderful!

The day was astounding in it's beauty.

Here is some information from their site about homeschool day at OSV:

Join us for an event day designed for Home School families. We offer you and your children the opportunity to visit the Village and engage in hands-on activities and participatory programs. This is a great opportunity for children to gain exposure to many aspects of 1830's New England life in an interactive way.

We did it pretty much freeform activities, they had more structured things but we have been here before and like to do certain things.

We had a picnic on the common (way too expensive sandwiches from Micknucks Fresh Marketplace in Stubridge - I am boycotting them, I recommend you do the same, their customer service is simply pathetic).

We walked around a bit and then saw a musket firing demonstration.


(Musket demonstration - the fire © 2006 Nika Boyce)


(Musket demonstration - the smoke © 2006 Nika Boyce)

The kids played 10 pins in the bright sunshine


(10 pins © 2006 Nika Boyce)

We then went to the pottery demonstration, early, only to wait MORE than an hour for Q's turn! We have never had to wait so long before.


(Getting ready to make a clay pot © 2006 Nika Boyce)


(Throwing the clay pot © 2006 Nika Boyce)

In that hour, I had time to contemplate life, watch how the kids related with each other and how some parents let their kids run wild! (even little ones)

I also took a few photos of the scene around the pottery barn.


(Pottery barn door © 2006 Nika Boyce)


(Field near the demonstration farm, one of my favorite places but no pics of that because we didnt visit there yesterday © 2006 Nika Boyce)
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Bush's failure is his legacy

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Disney's and ABC's "Path to 911" propaganda - what you can do

(Graphics credit: fubar of Needlenose)



How is this anything but Terror Porn?

As distributed from DailyKos

IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTED RESEARCH HELP NEEDED

A large rebuttal project is underway to combat the lies that will be broadcast on ABC tonight. We need your help NOW. There are only a few hours before a bare-bones site must go live.

The site will be at http://thepathsince911.com, with many other similar domains purchased by generous Kossacks redirecting there, as well.

You can help now by doing some distributed research for content. It is good to post here, but please also go to the message board set up specifically for this project:

http://www.thepathsince911.com/

Register there and help flesh this thing out.

Also, if you have any special skills to contribute, or iron-clad, crashproof server space, etc., please e-mail anothermassachusettsliberal, who is coordinating the team.

Here is what we need you to collect:

- Links to Statements/Letters of Objection
- FALSE Reviews/Articles: Defamation Accomplished
- Links to Primary Source Documents
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In addition, you can also help with the following:

- Ideas for content, organization, navigation, etc. Brainstorm.
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We only have a few hours to do this. We want something basic and live by the time the movie airs.

YOU can help make this happen.

(AnotherMassachusettsLiberal (the site developer) will be along later to post, as well. Please pardon a bit of repetition today. The time crunch is vicious on this one.)

Update: Please DO feel free to spread the word to other friendly sites. I don't have time to post everywhere, so I need your help in gathering volunteers. Try not to be obnoxious about spamming, of course.




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