Manatees!!

"Barbara Manatee, manatee, manatee, You are the one for me, one for me, one for me, Sent from up above, up above, up above, You are the one I love, one I love, Oh Barbara!" ~Silly Songs with Larry, Veggie Tales

Sometimes referred to as sea cows, manatees are infinitely amusing water mammals, but that's pretty much all I knew by myself. Oh and they live in marshes, which is bad for them because boats come through the shallow waters and hurt the manatees. Well, my interest in manatees was recently renewed when a friend of mine posted some manatee pictures from a recent dive.

Here I bring you the knowledge gleaned from my questions to Caleb, marine science major, and manatee semi-expert:

He doesn't know what's up with the eyes, but the nose plugs keep poor Barbara Manatee from breathing in water. He also tells us that manatees are fairly friendly, if a little slow. They tend to be curious or indifferent to the presence of people, and enjoy having their bellies scratched.

Our outside research (aka Wikipedia) adds that they are grazing herbivores and are endangered. They have no natural predators but as I mentioned before they get hurt by boat propellors.

Save the Manatees!

Machu Picchu

Well, it wouldn't really be my blog if I didn't provide you with random and only marginally interesting information.  Today's topic? Machu Picchu. And no it is not a pokemon.

It's a place, as you can now see, and my current desktop background is a picture of it from NatGeo. The NG photo also includes a llama :).  Anyway, Machu Picchu (pronounced matchu peektchu) is an Incan site in Peru, and is often considered to be the "Lost City of the Incas". It's situated 8000 ft above sea level.

It was mostly-ish constructed in the mid 1400s but it was completely abandoned within a century. The natives were likely wiped out by smallpox from spanish conquistadors, although historians are pretty sure the spanish knew nothing about the city.

It lay utterly abandoned for centuries. There are some indications that in the mid 1800s the site was visited by and plundered by various europeans. There are also many claims for discovery of the site at the turn of the century, but it wasn't until American historian Hiram Bingham found it in 1911. He wrote numerous books and articles on Machu Picchu through out is life. National Geographic devoted their entire April 1913 issue to the site. Although more than one theory exists about the role of Machu Picchu in the Incan Empire, the generally accepted one names it as an estate of the emperor Pachacuti.

Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site but they are likely to add it to the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger because of heavy tourism.

A New Direction

So, I haven't exactly posted in a while. Ok a really long time. Stopped for a while cuz I didn't really have much to say after France, then I kinda picked up a little with school, but once again ran out of things to say. So here we are way later with the most recent post as like two months ago. Oops.

I needed a new theme, and the blog needed a face-lift for sure. My mother always refers to me as her "Scarlett" for my occasional inability to recognize that parades do occasionally get rained on. Minor side story: My senior year, in the midst of the marching band rehearsals, crazy ridiculous volunteering for clubs and such, and the academic, um, "thrill" of 4 AP classes, I somehow became in charge of organizing the Homecoming Parade, which is kind of a big deal at my high school. It was crazy and ridiculous and I'm still not sure how I pulled it off, but throughout the process whenever my mom asked what would happen if it rained, my immediate answer was, "It won't." It didn't.

Anyway, I don't always have such a lovely Life Will Be Perfect rose-colored sunglasses outlook, but I try. I gripe and whine like everybody else from day to day, but at the end of the day, tomorrow is still another day. Except of course if your math homework is due tomorrow. But I don't have math anymore so that's no longer a problem.

I'm also an EXTREMELY left brained person. It has its ups and downs. My idea of creative is clean lines with funky colors, and a slight chemistry theme. Yup. There you have it: Jackie's blog, take two.

Jackie's Random Thoughts

This qualifies as one of my more random thoughts: can you give a cat a bath? Now, obviously, I have never owned a cat. I know people who do, and I'm sure they would all tell me that they have never even considered bathing their cats. I understand that for the most part, cats clean themselves. However. I worked in pet kennel and I assure you that I have never yet come across a cat that smelled good.

Dogs get baths all the time. Most people who have dogs can tell you some pretty funny stories involving giving Fido a bath, but they will all tell you that you have to wash your dog from time to time. And besides, they look so much better and they smell SO much better after they've been bathed with puppy shampoo.

So that led me to my all important question of is it possible to wash a cat? Does anyone do this? Because let me tell you, I would (but I'm also the kind of person who would be training the cat to go out in the yard like the dog). The answer, according to Yahoo! Answers, is Yes, people do wash their cats. And there are lots of tips there for how to pull it off. Personally I think it's a matter of starting young. If you start washing the cat as a kitten, using very gentle methods and lots of kitty treats, I think it would probably be just as easy to wash the cat as the dog.

I mean, after all, Calbert is no big fan of bath time, but he tolerates it because he knows there are biscuits involved.

What is the difference between a Jam and a Jelly?

The title is pretty self explanatory so I'm going to just dive in.

According to Dictionary.com :

jam: n. a preserve of whole fruit, slightly crushed, boiled with sugar.

jelly: n. a food preparation of a soft, elastic consistency due to the presence of gelatin, pectin, etc, esp. fruit juice boiled down with sugar and used as a sweet spread.

I would like to point out at this time that "jam" had twelve dictionary results whereas "jelly" had merely five.

wiseGEEK.com provides us with further analysis:

Jam is made from whole fruit and jelly is made from fruit juices. Jam is healthier for you. Jelly is generally sweeter than jam. Both are types of fruit preserves; other fruit preserves include confit, fruit butter, conserves, and marmalade.

Now you know.