I heart predatory sea creatures

They discovered a fossil of a huge predatory sea creature in Norway. (It's cold up there so I hope it had a sweater on.)

My favorite thing about the discovery of these creatures is that it highlights how much we don't know about life as it existed before humans arrived. We plod along and try to piece the puzzle together but the truth is we can only guess, we can't really know. On the upside we get some really cool "artistic renderings" but those have only slightly more scientific value than the drawing that you see here. The guy that drew the fancy one over on the Guardian is definitely a more qualified artist, but we have both seen exactly as many living pliosaurs as you have: zero. Just sayin'.

I'm fond of my own rendering. He's having a Galapagos tortoise for a snack. Grrrrrrr...

Special bonus: the fossil-hunters called in the wonderfully named Dr. Frank Fish, who is an expert on the biomechanics of cetacean flippers. And his last name is Fish. And he's an expert on fish. Hello? Is this thing on?

laughs, plus really good music, plus I suck at guitar (x2807)

Spent last night playing guitar (badly) and going to a show with some friends. We saw the Fishtank Ensemble in LA, and they were awesome.

That's them in the photo, and l to r there's a fiddler, guitarist, accordionist, singer/2nd fiddle/banjolele/handsaw, upright bass, and shamisan. At least I think it's a shamisan. A very old japanese string instrument? yeah, one of those.

Anyway, it was wicked good. One drawback to the show was they started playing super late, so it was tough to hang around on a school night. They played some Romanian dance tunes (really), some gypsy (Roma) party music, and Mozart, among other selections. I've only really heard about the Roma in the context of their culture, and not much of it good. But the music is fun, and it's jaw-droppingly cool to see it performed live. Seeing six people onstage performing wickedly complex musical pieces is always a treat. If they come to your town, go check them out.

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unrelated, I had some big laughs with my friends before and after the show. My friend Jordan described how he first kissed a girl. He was fourteen-ish, and although he liked a girl and she seemed interested, he couldn't work out how to actually french her. he asked her if she would be his girlfriend. she said, umm, no.

old jordan would have been put off by this, but new jordan had an ace up his sleeve: he was getting his wisdom teeth out in a couple days, and the dentist had told him that he might lose sensation in his lipface. so he tried a different strategy...

"I might lose feeling in my lips, because I'm having my wisdom teeth removed. Can we make out so I know what it feels like, just in case?"

her heart softens, because now he's like a soldier going off to war, except he's 14 and he's actually going off to the dentist. but still, they did some frenching. ahhh, young love.

Sam pointed out later that this was a good strategy, and that you can employ it for any surgical procedure. I was at similar risk when I had my back surgery, but I didn't take advantage. mores the pity.

thanks for reading.