So, I don't get:

• We have 3 bones in the inner ear. So, we must have had 2 bones in our ear before that, right? What the heck did that look like?
• As we evolved to 3 ear bones, how do you not wreck the ear? What possible advantage is a 3rd bone until it's totally working?

I'll admit I'm a rummy, but I'm not alone.

QOTD

"... it has been a mystery how this delicate system [the ear] evolved from the cruder listening organs of our reptilian ancestors"
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fossil-reveals-ear-evolution-in-action

You can't say "intelligent design" these days because that's a loaded (re. politically incorrect) term. My understanding of evolution (admittedly limited) is that it is based on 1) random mutations or changes, and 2) pretty much a greedy optimization algorithm, in that only changes that improve the competitive nature of the organism are accepted, or survive. It's a head-scratcher to me.

I also don't understand (Ty too) why we don't have pads on our feet, but that sounds too stupid, so I'm not going to mention it.

2. The Earthquake
Tomorrow is the 20th Anniversary of the SFO (Loma Prieta) earthquake, Oct 17, 1989.
Williamt was there. Here's a tasty map. The red star is the center of the quake. I was about 10 miles west of that San Jose dot. Holly was closer to the center, south of the San Jose dot.


I have pretty vivid memories:

1. I was at some convention in a large room, and I remember seeing the large lights above us doing some serious, serious swaying. I just looked up and figgered, "I hope those don't fall down, eh." Unsurprisingly, it seemed to last a lot longer than it did.
   
2. Everything shut down... no power. All the highways clogged up... because everyone left work at the exact same time. My car (1970 Pontiac Firebird) ran out of gas sitting in traffic. So, I just walked to work which was a few miles away. I wasn't carrying any money. Dop. I always a hundo hidden away in my wallet since then.
   
3. I couldn't reach Holly at daycare, either physically or by phone. So, yeah that was very tough. Fortunately, girlfriend Janny scooped Holly up all on her own. I found this out some number of hours after the earthquake... and I owe Janny to this day for that one!
   

I have some great photos of our apartment getting pretty trashed too... but they're not scanned in yet. Stay tuned. Or not.
thanks janny... yow, bill

PS - Holly and I moved to (beautiful, scenic) Naperville Illinois in August 1990. About two weeks in, one of the strongest/deadliest tornadoes ever hit neighboring Plainfield: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado. I would claim being a disaster jinx, but since the tornado, I've been pretty much disaster-free. So, meh.

Labels: fun, qotd, technology