ME and Ophelia

PICKLED BABY DRAGON MYSTERY SOLVED
It's British!

The pickled baby dragon mystery I posted on some months ago, is solved. The dragon was created by Crawley Creatures, the model makers behind TV's Walking with Dinosaurs, and the jar was made by a specialist glass blowing studio in the Isle of Wight. The whole thing was thought up by aspiring author Allistair Mitchell as a publicity stunt that proved hugely successful for him.

The baby dragon sure is fine looking. Trust the Brits to come up with such brilliance. I wonder how much it cost. Though, like Jim says, it might all just be an elaborate cover up of the truth... :-)
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BACK TO THE SEA OF CORTEZ
John Steinbeck and the Hermit Crab

See this amazing Hermit Crab discovered a few months ago by James' wife during a visit with their three children to Monterey Bay Aquarium in America. James is a fan of John Steinbeck and found the visit a great way to experience the things that he'd read about in his books. Read more in his post Back to the Sea of Cortez.

A while back, I posted on the launch of the Eglu. This next post is for you James - and your family :-)
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EGGS AND THE CITY
British designed Eglu

BBC reporter Christine Jeavans writes a blogger-style account
of keeping two South American Araucana hens (which lay pale blue eggs) in an Eglu, "an iMac-style bright plastic hen house complete with run, feeders and a sun/rain shade".

The eglu (£325 including two hens and feed) was dreamt up by four industrial design students as part of a final year project at the Royal College of Art. After graduating they decided to bring chicken-keeping to the urban masses.

"We had a hunch that a lot of people wanted to keep hens but didn't know how," says Johannes Paul, 25, one of the inventors. "They think they need a massive garden and that there will be lots of mess and noise but that's not the case."

Comb & wattles keep hen cool
Crop stores food
Grit in gizzard grinds food
Clipping one wing stops flight
Egg yolk takes a week to form
Shell is 0.3mm thick
Hen lays an egg every 25 hours
No cockerel required
A hen costs 3p per day to feed
Produces average 6 eggs a week
Six free range organic eggs cost £1.55
Saving per egg: 22.5p
Annual saving per hen: (£1.55x52)-(0.03x365)= £69.65

"The key thing is demystifying what it is to keep chickens. They are easy to look after and children in particular love them."

Online bookseller Amazon UK has seen a 400% increase in sales across hen-keeping titles since 2000, something the company attributes to Channel 4's Big Brother, acquainting a new generation with the simple pleasures of keeping a few chickens roaming around.
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SCOTT WESTON
At Google in Dublin and Silicon Valley

A few months ago, in my list at Technorati, I found offendedlamentation.cluevacuum.com linked to my blog. Must be an error as the link leads to Scott Weston's new blog Inexcusable Inferences.

On March 8, 2004, Scott wrote: A new week, a new blog, a new job. I am a proud G o o g l e r. I'm working in the Dublin office (in Ireland for the geographically challenged and experts alike). Next week I fly to the G o o g l e p l e x in the heart of silicon valley and get to stay there for 3 months. I can honestly say I haven't been this excited since I was a young 'un left to my own devices for an entire day in seaworld.