Snowflakes and new cats and icebergs, oh my!

It's officially winter in New England. There was a good-size snow storm Saturday into Sunday this past weekend, dropping a couple inches, and it's snowing again this morning. The weather reported that we'd have a huge blizzard today, but we didn't... or at least, we haven't yet. (This is a picture of a house and small park I pass on my way to work.) Yesterday morning, Dec. 5, was the first morning in which I had to scrape ice off my windshield this season. Yay. I guess it's time to break out the winter coats, hats, gloves and scarves.

I'm having a hard time coming up with gift ideas for Mom for Christmas. As she said yesterday, she's usually got a nice list and a few catalogs with corners folded over: a veritable cascade of gift ideas for myself and Brian. This year, so far: nothing. I spent some time thinking last night though and came up with a couple good ideas. (Not for nothing is my desire for a new iPod: one with color and video capabilities. I must be able to watch LOST on my iPod! Awesome!!) (This paragraph could be some kind of record for most properly used instances of the colon, too!)

They've discovered a new animal in the forests of East Kalimantan, in and around Borneo, called the red Bornean carnivore. Here's a picture of it. The eyes are reflecting the flash from the camera, and that's its long tail going up to the right. They say it's about the size of, or a bit bigger than, a cat. I love that scientists and explorers are finding new species of mammals and animals! I love that there are things in this world that we still know nothing about! I fear for their lives though, now that humans know they exist. I mean really, we pretty much destroy everything we touch.

Along those lines, some other scientists and explorers are saying that the Titanic broke up into three pieces instead of two, and that the great ship sank much faster than they had believed. My most favorite quote about the whole thing though comes from the guy would discovered the wreck in 1985. Said Robert Ballard, "They found a fragment, big deal. Am I surprised? No. When you go down there, there's stuff all over the place. It hit an iceberg and it sank. Get over it." The History Channel was the first to find and explore the new fragment.

They're legally hunting black bears in New Jersey. That sucks. Apparently, the bear population, after rebounding from numbers nearing extinction, is encroaching on the humans living nearby. I suppose that because they rebounded so well, it's time to start killing them again?