The Island of Dr. Moreau . . .

. . . or, what are our Brit friends up to?

Embryos containing human and animal material have been created in Britain for the first time, a month before the House of Commons votes on new laws to regulate the research.

A team at Newcastle University announced yesterday that it had successfully generated “admixed embryos” by adding human DNA to empty cow eggs in the first experiment of its kind in Britain.

Full story here.

The intent is to develop a method to produce very strong stem cells, and the DNA content of the "cybrid" (cytoplasmic hybrid) is 99% human.

Odd thoughts that occurred to me as I read the article . . .

- Will Victoria's Secret need to develop a line of cybrid bras, and if so, will it have one cup or four?

- Can you now call that ex-wife / ex-girlfriend / obnoxious co-worker an "old cow" and be 99% correct?

- Is this a step in a program to develop self-milking cows?

- By extension, does this explain Wolfman Jack?

I suspect Pope Benedict is having a cow over this.

That is all . . . feel free to comment.

Sunday . . .

. . . bloody Sunday.

No, not as in the U-2 song, nor the story of Domhnach na Fola, nor as the adjectival form of the noun blood, but rather as the expletive attributive. Our Brit friends will bloody well understand.

It's just that I had Friday through Sunday off, and while Friday was 80F and beautiful, Saturday and Sunday were cold and rainy. Blah. It was very, very dreary for the full 48 hours.

Also, the dishwasher started leaking, and my first, infallible, guaranteed, sure-fire fix didn't work. You'd think six years of engineering school would have made a better impression on the contrary machine. Parts are on order. One more try next weekend, then it's off to the junkman.

They're baaaaaack . . .

. . . The Tudors, that is. There are some serious factual errors, but the series is quite interesting. Costuming and cinematography are excellent, but also often historically inaccurate.

I'm not used to seeing a skinny Henry with dark brown instead of ginger hair, but the series is still fun, and Jonathan Rhys Myers portrays a very intense Henry. Natalie Dormer is a very interesting Anne Boleyn, although, from the period paintings of Anne, Natalie is much more attractive. But then, it IS entertainment, is it not?

My favorate quote so far . . .

Henry to Anne - "I love your neck!"

Number one songs . . .

. . . at important dates in my life. Some are picked because they were number one on or near the date. Others were picked because of some odd coincidence.

My birthday: White Christmas - Bing Crosby
Mrs. Bulldog's birthday: In the Blue of the Evening - Tommy Dorsey
When I got my driver's license: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - The Platters
High school graduation: Hit the Road, Jack - Ray Charles
Wedding day: So much in Love - The Tymes
Daughter's birthday: Baby Love - The Supremes
Son #1 birthday: Yesterday - The Beatles
Bachelors' Degree: I'm a Believer - The Monkees
First "real" job and the big move to Omaha: Hello, Goodbye - The Beatles
Son #2 birthday: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In - The Fifth Dimension
Masters' Degree: I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
10th wedding anniversary: You are the Sunshine of my Life - Stevie Wonder
20th wedding anniversary: Every Breath I take - The Police
25th wedding anniversary: Need You Tonight - INXS
Mother died: When I See You Smile - Bad English
Son #1 wedding: Justify My Love - Madonna
Father Died: Emotions - Mariah Carey
30th wedding anniversary: I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
Daughter's wedding: Can't Help Falling in Love - UB40
Our second big move - to Kansas City: A Whole New World - Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle
Son #2 wedding: Honey - Mariah Carey
The day my department was eliminated, and I had to find another job - Fallin' - Alicia Keys
A new job and our third big move - to Virgina Beach: Dilemma - Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland
40th wedding anniversary: Crazy in Love - Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z

This will probably be the end of the list. There hasn't been a #1 song that I give a rat's fuzzy backside about since the new millenium.

Dodging snipers . . .

. . . in Bosnia.

Notice how she has ducked down in order to avoid sniper fire while arriving in Bosnia a few years ago. I assume she was throwing her body in front of the little Bosnian girl to protect her.

Doesn't say much for the quality of Bosnian snipers, though.

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."--Hillary Clinton, George Washington University, March 17, 2008.

Feeling guilty . . .

. . . or not

Work was fine today, but getting home was not. I tried bug out and catch an early bus. Unfortunately, the bus driver decided to be early also. So, I sat at the bus stop for about forty minutes, and I ended up on my regular bus. Bummer.

Once I arrived got to the park-and-ride I remembered that Mrs. Bulldog had given me direct marching orders to stop at the grocery to pick up a couple of items.

As I walked up to the store, I was approached by a rather distressed-looking woman. She wasn't a bag lady, but looked a little tired and out of sorts. My first thought was that she was looking for a handout, and I was prepared to hand over a few dollars. That's not what she wanted. She said she had been waiting for an hour, and needed a ride home.

I felt sorry for her, and decided to hear what she had to say. The place she wanted to go was at least five miles back the way I had just come. She gave me a street name, but wasn't very specific about where on the street she lived. I asked her who was supposed to pick her up, and she was a bit evasive - no straight answer, just "a friend." Because the end of my day almost left me stranded too, I was feeling a little guilty, and considered it for a minute or so.

Then I decided that she was too evasive - and that the grocery store was just across the street from the county courthouse complex . . . and the city jail. "Sorry, ma'am, I can't help you."

When I came out of the grocery store ten minutes later, she was gone. It still bothers me a bit, but I think I did the right thing.

Easter . . .

. . . a long way from home.

But first, Easter trivia - and mathematics. In western Christianity, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

It came early this year - on March 23. In fact, it only missed the earliest possible date by one day. March 23, the earliest possible Easter, happened in 1818 and won't repeat until 2285 . The latest possible Easter fell on April 25, 1943, and won't repeat until 2038. A late Easter - April 24 - will occur in 2011.

If you want to witness all the earliest and latest dates, hang around. The Easter cycle repeats every 5,700,000 years.

All that notwithstanding, since 2002, Mrs. Bulldog and I have been somewhere between 1,100 and 1,400 miles from our immediate families (children and grandchildren.) We see them all on the occasional vacation or holiday, but not as often as we would like.

In order to keep things semi-normal - which is about as good as you can reasonably expect with this crew, :o) we always trot out the Royal Doulton china and the Waterford crystal and have a formal holiday dinner. Today, it was sugar-cured ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, grandma's green salad (only the family understands this) and chocolate cake.

Later, there will be Kolache . . . yay - one of the many joys of marrying a Bohunk girl. For those who don't know, that's a bread made with sweet dough, filled like a jelly-roll with a sugary mixture of ground poppy seeds and raisins.

Oh, and before anyone gets insulted by "Bohunk," it's how my Slovak father-in-law referred to himself and his friends. If it was good enough for Andy, it's good enough for me.