Whimville » whimsical thinking

A Dinosaur Named "Rover"?

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:02:00 +0000

As a chiropractor who has a large pediatric chiropractic practice, I’ve heard it all when it comes to the animals that children choose for pets. Along with the standard variety of purebred dogs and mutts, in recent years there have been intentionally-mixed breeds such as the goldendoodle (golden retriever/poodle). Naturally, there have been cats, birds, and reptiles (including a 4-foot iguana and 10-foot snake). But, really, what could be more whimsical than a pet dinosaur. “A pet what?” might have just crossed your mind, so let me explain. I just read on the discovery.com website about a tiny dinosaur (tiny by dinosaur standards) that was no bigger than a squirrel, yet coexisted with the gigantic species we’ve all become familiar within “Jurassic Park.”

The Fruitadens haagarorum, a 150-million-year-old creature, was recently identified in Colorado. The largest specimens weigh less than two pounds and measure around 28 inches long, making the Fruitadens the smallest known dinosaur is North America. The smallest known dinosaurs in the word, however, are from China and are just slightly smaller than Fruitadens.

“(The new dinosaur) may look bird-like because of its size, but in fact it isn’t very closely related to birds or Archaeopteryx (the world’s first known bird),” said Luis Chiappe, who is director of the Natural History Museum’s Dinosaur Institute in Los Angeles. He and an international team of experts describe the new species in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The dinosaur’s name was not inspired by edible fruit, either, but instead by the Fruita Paleontological Area, northwest of Grand Junction, Colo., where its remains were discovered.

Fruits were probably on its menu, however, along with eggs and almost anything else it could get in its mouth, according to researchers, which on second thought would not have made a Fruitaden a very good pet after all. I had an Airedale Terrier who did much the same thing and it was a very trying experience.

For more on this Late Jurassic “pet possibility,” as well as a graphic depiction, click on the discovery.com link above.

Technorati Tags: Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, tiny dinosaur

A Bold, Whimsical Moment in The Maldives

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:13:15 +0000

I am a chiropractor who is also a scuba diving enthusiast. At least once a year, I close my chiropractic clinic and head search out the ocean floor of many of the warmer waters around the world. But, I’ve never been scuba diving in the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. However, today, I saw a photo and read a short article about the government of the Maldives on discovery.com that has inspired me to put this cluster of coral islands on my “adventure list.” What inspired me? It’s this: In hopes of drawing attention to his country’s unique challenges in the face of climate change, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting. That’s right! Amongst the fish and coral in a blue lagoon off Girifushi Island, President Nasheed, along with his vice president and 11 cabinet ministers signed a document calling for an international effort to halt global warming, which will be presented this December in Copenhagen during the U.N. conference on climate change.

Why did the government of the Maldives choose to make such a whimsical statement? It is attempting to call attention to their nation because rising sea levels, as a result of global warming, threaten to submerge the island within 100 years. The nearly 350,000 citizens of the Maldives are doing their share and are years (maybe decades) ahead of many other countries around the world. President Nasheed has already pledged that his country would be carbon neutral by the end of the decade.

To see the photo and read the article in its entirety, click on the discovery link above.

Technorati Tags: global warming, the Maldives, U.N. conference on climate change

The Dangers of Catnapping

admin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:31:06 +0000

On a whim, two-year-old Cody climbed into a partially-loaded UPS box of chiropractic traction devices. It might have seemed like a cozy spot to take a nap or a good hiding place for a game of hide-and-seek. But, as it turned out, the box became a transport unit, instead, one that took Cody from Dallas, Texas, to a chiropractic clinic in Woodstock, Illinois. Though two-year-olds are generally a whimsical group, you might have thought that a two-year-old might also have been slightly more cautious around shipping boxes, especially if that two-year-old was a cat!

The good news is that Cody’s unplanned trip to Woodstock took only 48 hours, and fortunately he was shipped UPS ground delivery and not by air. And, since the 10-pound cat was accessorized with a collar bearing his name and a phone number, he returned promptly to his owner, Marie Webster. “He’s a little skinny, but we’ll fatten him up again in no time.”

Technorati Tags: chiropractic, traction devices, UPS

90 Percent Fact and 10 Percent Whimsy?

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:58:34 +0000

Being a San Jose chiropractor, and living in a city as technologically- (and logically-) minded as San Jose, I often quell my tendency towards whimsical thinking. If I find I need a little fanciful stimulation, in lieu of a chiropractors convention, I generally drive into San Francisco for the weekend. But, I just read an interesting Reuters article on Britain and UFO sightings that got me to thinking, once again, about the nature of whimsical thinking and the inherent possibilities that might be discovered by its practice. After all, “the truth is out there.”

The article began by relaying information, according to files released by the National Archives on Monday, that a cluster of UFO sightings over Britain in 1996 may have had more to do with public fascination with TV shows like the “X Files” than extraterrestrial activity. Documents from Britain’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) indicated there were 609 UFO sightings in 1996, compared with 117 in 1995. This coincided with the rise in popularity of the X Files and the release of the alien blockbuster film “Independence Day.”

The files, which span 15 years and contain more than 4,000 pages, show that for most cases the UFO sightings had ordinary explanations such as bright stars and planets, meteors, artificial satellites and balloons. So, apparently, 90% of UFO sightings have been explained away as having “mundane” reasons behind them. That, of course, is no surprise when it comes to government explanations for almost everything. The part I found fascinating was that 10% of the sightings were classified as “unexplained.”

I’ll take the conclusion of 10% whimsy any day when it comes to “factual” documents. In fact, the article concluded with a new detail found in the files on Britain’s best known UFO incident, the Rendlesham Forest sightings of December 1980 in which “American airforce men” saw a series of mysterious lights: “The then government of Margaret Thatcher summarily dismissed the affair but a letter from a former chief of defense staff in 1985 warned it not to be so cavalier. ‘The case has puzzling and disquieting features which have never been satisfactorily explained … which continue to preoccupy informed sections of the public,” said the letter.”

So, take a moment today to give your mind flight. Who knows what UFO you might discover there!

Full article at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE57G2EU20090817?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&rpc=76

Technorati Tags: chiropractor, San Jose, UFO sightings, whimsy