Do deer make noises? I was driving home tonight when I saw two deer on the side of the road, watching traffic from the edge of a field. I couldn’t help but wonder, how do deer communicate with one another?
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Month: July 2008
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Missing a Day
I was glancing over at the calendar, confirming that Wednesday is July 30, when I notice something odd. July only has 30 days. Trying to confirm my suspicion that July actually has 31 days, I checked August to see when it started. Friday, August 1st. So apparently according to my calendar Thursday doesn’t really exist.
Looks like I can just slide from my “over-the-hump” day right in to the weekend this week.
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Question of the Week
A few days back I woke up singing that old Toys R Us theme song. The one that went as follows:
I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys’ R Us kid
There’s a million toys at Toys ‘R Us that I can play with!
From bikes, to trains, to video games,
It’s the biggest toy store there is! Gee whiz!
I don’t want to grow, cuz baby if I did,
I wouldn’t be a Toys ‘R Us kid!
Here’s the question – do you think they really had a million toys at the store for sale?
In the Merck news category, the overall news is less than stellar these days. On the one hand, there’s some news about Whitehouse Station that should be interesting – we’re adding an array of solar panels in some of the open field area later this year. On the downside, earnings guidance wasn’t provided and clinical trial news continues to be negative overall.
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Question of the Week
Is voicemail dead? So argues this guy, and I find myself agreeing with him. There have been times at work I’ve let voicemail accumulate for days or weeks before emptying it, or even remembered to take down an out of office message. I rarely check it on my personal phone lines, either.
Do you agree? Do you still check voicemail regularly?
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Life Imitating Art
Having traveled the world, the evolution of English has been a fascinating phenomenon to witness first hand.
Thanks to globalization, the Allied victories in World War II, and American leadership in science and technology, English has become so successful across the world that it’s escaping the boundaries of what we think it should be. In part, this is because there are fewer of us: By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language. Already, most conversations in English are between nonnative speakers who use it as a lingua franca.
It’s true. I think back, for instance, to all the fantasy stories I read in the early 90s where there existed a kind of “common” language that enabled various groups to communicate with each other, when they had no other languages in common. It’s fascinating to see how English is taking on that role on a global scale. Of course, the ultimate evolution of English is represented in Firefly.
Of course, this must drive the persctipvies nuts.
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A Different Kind of Community?
Artifacts from the Raritan Landing settlement were found at the site of the football stadium expansion during the excavation in the south end zone. One of the key finds was the Rising Sun Tavern, a key meeting place during the heyday of the town. Which is why I find this quote so funny:
“This will be the gathering space for a whole new different type of community,” Elizabeth said.
How different, really? Drunk people will still be meeting up in the same place they did 200 years earlier.
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Question of the Week
The other day I was thinking in the shower (not an uncommon occurrence) and an idea occurred to me. Is there a smallest discrete unit of time? Not of measurable time, but is the space between one second and another infinite like the number line? Or is there a smallest unit of time that exists?
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Question of the Week
I was thinking today about speed limits in NJ, and I realized that I have seen speed limits posted for 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 65. And there are from time to time limits posted between 5 – 25 mph, especially in certain neighborhoods or parking lots. But is there a 60 mph speed limit posted on any stretch of NJ roadway?