sandwich assualt, citrus disease, kangaroo pouches, Strava, and waysides.

First and foremost, as seen on FB today, this article describing how a man, in argument, apparently threw a sandwich (back) at his girlfriend. The girlfriend was on crutches, and the sandwich caused her to fall backwards. Comments? The "charge is baloney", "it is the wurst", "i hear she got a cold cut"... Excellent.

i was super excited to see this NYTimes article featuring a TAMU plant pathologist (who happens to be a really nice guy); the article is about citrus greening, a fairly serious bacterial disease, and efforts to curb it.

i went canoeing/camping this weekend with a large group of friends (6 canoes!) on the Wisconsin River. While in route, my friend Kate and i fell into discussion about several things. A long standing area of speculation has been marsupials, pouches, and how those things get cleaned (Kate's inquiry is whether joeys defecate). They do. Apparently the mother kangaroo uses her tongue to clean out the pouch. Additionally, if you're rearing an orphaned/unpouched joey, you ought to do the same. On that same note, female kangaroos have dual (two lateral ) uteri.

The town where we put into the water is called Muscoda, which means 'Prairie of Flowers', but was also called English Prairie, " named for two English fur traders, Abraham Lansing and Garrit Roseboom, who opened a post there at the close of the French and Indian War. Lansing and his son were murdered in 1763 by their French assistants, and the fame of murder kept the name alive well into the 19th century", as taken from the Wisconsin Historical Society's site.

While driving, we noticed that Wisconsin has waysides, which are like scaled down rest areas (Minnesota has areas called waysides too, according to the internet, but these are park areas too small to be considered full parks). Why make the distinction? Are they not all rest areas?

Some friends use the running/cycling ap Strava, which tracks your location and pace. This can be compared to others' pace along the same route, with the fastest time-holder given the title King Of The Mountain. (sigh) Anyhow, the highly competitive nature of cyclists (and runners, and pretty much folks from all athletic endeavors) leads to some issue; lately in the news come reports of a cyclist striking and killing a pedestrian while using Strava, as well another cyclist crashing and dying (and his family attempting to unsuccessfully sue the company).