Pearls are hard "gems" produced from mollusks.  Most commonly known are clams and oysters.  However the "giant clam" or Tridacna gigas have also been known to produce pearls as well.  A pearl is produced in a mollusk when it has an irritant inside of it.  When such irritations come about the mollusk will deposit layers of calcium carbonate in the form of the minerals aragonite or calcite (both crystalline forms of calcium carbonate) held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin.This combination of calcium carbonate and conchiolin is called nacre, or as most know it, mother-of-pearl.

The idea that these irritations are usually a grain of sand is more of a myth than proven fact.  Although anything that gets inside a mollusks mantle will irritate it, it is usually taken in bivalve mollusks when their shell valves are open for feeding and respiration.  What is produced is the beautiful thing we know as pearls.

The largest recorded pearl ever found was from a giant clam off the coast of Palawan.  It measured ten inches in diameter and weight 14.1 pounds and is known as the Pearl of Lao Tzu.

Pearl of Lao Tzu

Giant clams are found mostly in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.  Giant clams can measure up and over five feet across and weigh as much as 400 hundred pounds. 

As man is so good at, legends and myths have arose of man-eating giant clams that have gone out of their way to consume humans.  The Navy manual at one time even had detailed instructions as to how to escape the grasp of a clam.  Although giant clams have the potential to hold a human captive, the closing of the giant clam is far too slow, and is merely a defensive move when the creature feels threatened.

Giant clams as in a fantasticly sized creatures are subject to the mercy of man and his intolerance.  Hunted as used for everything from damn ornaments to the harvesting of pearls intentionally, and for their meat, which is the Japanese delicacy Himejako.

Again, we learn from the marvels of animals.  Here is a creature that when irritated with something so bothersome to it, turns it in to, and not out at others.  And what it produces is something beautiful and sought after.

This is one case where making a mountain out of a mole hill, is truly amazing.

What will you do with your next small irritant?

I don't want to be a bad father, I really don't. I don't want to expect perfection in everything and everyone, but I do. I want my sons to be everything that I am not. Take all the bad things out and leave in the good (which more and more seems to just be my anal cleaning habits).

I don't want them to bury and bury themselves inside and wait for the most inappropriate time to let it all burst out. Then it becomes a violent and immature display of frustration and anger. They see that and they think it is okay. But it is not. So then I am not a good role model either. And being a father that is pretty damned important.

It's okay for them to have bursts of frustration. He's only three years old. But a thirty year old man responsible for two children and wife, has no excuse. I should be better than that, but lately, I haven't.

Take the time to appreciate the children, and worry about the other shit later. No, the laundry won't do itself, but is that more important then spending time with them. Instead of yelling at them, talk to him. And physical punishment is not always the answer. Sometimes they just need to be told that everything is okay. And then there are times when he needs to be told WHY he can't do something. But it is the times that he just needs to do/not do it because I told him.

He needs to know that being angry is not always okay. He needs to learn how to properly display his anger and frustrations. And I am not teaching him what he should be learning.

"If I have just one wish, only one demand. I hope he's not like me. I hope he understands, that he can take this life and hold it by the hand. And he can greet the world with arms wide open."

I think I'm a bad father.

Dinosaurs were a vertebrate animal that dominated Earth for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago.  At the same time the term dinosaur is many times used generically to describe other prehistoric reptiles, such as the pelycosaur Dimetrodon, the winged pterosaurs, and the aquatic ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, although technically none of these were dinosaurs.  In this post that might happen, so for the technical reader, I apoligize in advance.

Baryonyx

Baryonyx was a dromaeosaurid that lived during the Cretaceous period.  Baryonyx means "heavy claw"  from the Greek word "barus" meaning heavy and onyx, meaning "claw" or "nail".  Due to the elongated jaw and curved, "heavy" claws on Baryonyx, it mostly likely consumed fish as it primary food source.  The jaw, mouth, could be plunged into the water a lot further, so as to snap up fish, without dunking its entire head in the water.  It large, curved claws on it hands were ideal for grasping fish and keeping them from flopping out of its hands before being eaten.

Baryonyx was about 40 ft, and around 16 ft. tall. It probably weighed in the region of 3,600 kg.  The curved neck of Baryonyx was ideal for fishing, as it was at an acute angle, instead of a 90 degree angle, like most dinosaurs.  This way it could rest on it's powerful front arms and comb the river for fish.  The "S" curve of its neck supports this theory.  Baryonyx was a piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaur.  Among others is the Eqyptian piscivorous,  Suchomimus.

Huayangosaurus

Huayangosaurus was a stegosaurian from Mid-Jurassic period that lived in what is now China.  It derives its name from "Huayang" an alternate name for Sichuan, the province where it was discovered. It's more famous American relative was Stegosaurus.  At only 4.5 metres long, it was also much smaller than its famous cousin. 

Like many other stegosaurians it had plates all down its back, and spikes on its tail. The two large spikes were above its hips, help protect it and deter attacks from carnivores.  Like the spikes on its tail, although these could be swung at predators.  Its plates were smaller than those of Stegosaurus, with much less surface area. Thus they would have been much less effective heat regulators, one of the postulated functions of plates.

Oviraptor

Oviraptor, Latin for "egg thief", due to the fact that the first fossil found of this theropod were found with egg remains in the stomach.  Oviraptor, as pictured above, also hunted on small mammals, lizards, and dinosaurs.  Many different postulations have been made as to the diet and actions of Oviraptor.  For a complete read on Oviraptor vist wikipedia.org

Parasaurolophus

Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaurid (duck-billed dinosaur) from the Cretaceous period.  It's name means "near crested lizard" referring the the crest protruding from the back of its skull. 

Parasaurolophus were about 33 ft long, 16 ft high and weighed around 7,700 lbs.  Like other hadrosaurs, they were facultatively bipedal, i.e. they could alternate between two legs and four, probably preferring a quadrupedal gait while they foraged for food and assuming a bipedal mode for faster running.

Notable is the crest on it's head.  It has been speculated, that because it was hollow, it allowed the Parasaurolophus and other hadrosaurids with crests, to communicate within their species.  Either using them as communication within herds, or as "chit chat" between males and females when mating.  Some even say that this crest gave Parasaurolophus a excellent sense of smell, as well.

Spinosaurus

Many people know the Spinosaurus due to it's exposure as the main antagonist of Jurassic Park III.  Although he was the largest predator at the time in the Cretaceous period, he was not as large as depicted in the movie, and not as bloodthirsty.  Although there are many disputes about the size, weight, and temperament of Spinosaurus, he was a carnivore that feed on other dinosaurs.  Different sources have given this dinosaur a size of anywhere from 50-10 ft long, and anywhere from 6 to 19 tons.  As the picture above shows, experts can't even agree on whether the sail on Spinosaurus' back was bone with skin between the bone, much like Dimetrodon or solid, like the above picture, which would have added to the dinosaur's mass.  The many issues regarding Spinosaurus are due to a lack of key skeletal findings or fossils to support these speculations.

So, if you are still with me, and have actually read all this, or if you have just looked at the purdy 8-) pictures and scanned down to here . . .

What dinosaur would you want to be?  And why?  What are your reasons for picking the dinosaur that you do?  If none of these interest you check the list of dinosaurs at wikipedia for a more extensive look.

Me?  Well first off, Baryonyx has always interested me.  If it were to be a anything else, it would be Pachycephalosaurus because I have been told that I am hard-headed.  8-)

Mankind, the living plague.   According to the World Conservation Union (WCU, also known as IUCN), 784 extinctions have been recorded since the year 1500, the arbitrary date selected to define "modern" extinctions, with many more likely to have gone unnoticed.  There are an estimated 5,000 species of insects alone that have met extinction before even being discovered, due to deforestation of the rain forests.

Seven hundred and eighty-four species.  Among some of the most well known are the passenger  pigeon, Dodo bird, Aurochs, Guagga, Bali tiger, and sea cow.

  Is this what it means to be human?  Is this the pinnacle of our own evolution?  The genocide of over 700 species of animal?  And for what?  Hides, game, profit?  It is sad to think we like label ourselves the "dominate" species on the planet.

Animals like the passenger pigeon, and dodo bird, are supreme examples of our superiority.  Passenger pigeons were hunted to extinction.  Used for fertilizer, hunted, and sought for food from slaves of the time, when they were not given their needs.  So even in something as horrible as slavery, the white man actually is able to disturb and disgrace the planet and species even more.

The Dodo bird was considered a "stupid" or "simple" creature, and so through our vast "wisdom" found it necessary to hunt this friendly creature to extinction.  Leave it to man to find a weakness in something and exploit it. 

Never mind all the plant and animal life that is endangered at this time.  I use to scoff at the idea of zoos and the such.  Imprisoning animals outside of their natural habitat.  But it seems that it is the only way that man can keep some species among the living.

What is it that makes it so hard to coexist with the many living creatures on this planet besides ourselves?  Fuck if I know.  Shit we can't even live amongst ourselves, much less incorporate animals within that equation.

We only have one planet to live on.  And whether we are a part of this planets plan to survive is up to us.  Because Earth will survive with or without us.  With us is up to us.  It is our choice.  Make your choice and realize that the choices that we make everyday, to coexist or to destroy will effect us the next day.  Experts say that half of all species alive today will be extinct by 2100 based on past extinctions.  If we can tolerant and coexist with all species on this planet, then one day, maybe one day, we  . . .

May Live 2 See The Dawn

 . . . Remember . . . remeber that we only have one chance.  And the chances that we loose out on, result in this . . .

genocide.