Ghost of TwainPosts

PINE NUTS: Army Ants and Us ~ Army Ants know all about aggression. They think they invented aggression, and they will do it all day long for the queen. Sound familiar? Here’s how they wage their wars; first they bivouac, that is to say, they build a living nest with their bodies within a tree trunk or hole in the ground. Don’t ask me how they do that. Once they are organized into a big ball, the soldier ants, those with the big mandibles, patrol the surface of the bivouac and fight off aggressors.

Pine Nuts: A Fish with a Bicycle -- We have long known that fish can navigate. Who among us has not visited Taylor Creek and stood in awe while witnessing the amazing annual salmon run? But can a fish navigate on land, drive a car? Come to find out, the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

Let us update that popular slogan of the 70’s, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Israeli researchers have not yet taught a fish to navigate a bike, but they have succeeded in teaching a fish to drive a car, and navigate that car toward a cache of food, I kid you not.

These trained Israeli fish cannot drive a Tesla as yet, but they are really good at driving a robotic car designed just for them. There are six of these “fish on wheels” the first six that we know of, and get this, they are each named after characters in Jane Austen’s book, Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley outperforming the rest.

PINE NUTS: My Olympic Romance
With the Olympic Games upon us, I feel compelled to confess, in full, to a lapse of moral judgement that long ago cost yours truly an Olympic berth. This true confession comes with a caveat to young athletes who aspire to compete in the Games, “Don’t do as I did.”

It all started with a high school assembly, when newly minted Olympic Decathlon Champion Rafer Johnson spoke to our student body. He was an inspirational speaker, and he planted in my feverish brain a resolve to be an Olympic athlete. Forget Doctor, lawyer or Indian Chief, I was determined to be an Olympian.

But the Olympic motto, “Higher Faster, Stronger,” was not me. READ MORE PINE NUTS

Pine Nuts: Nobilty of Character

Nobility of character has fallen out of favor with us Americans. Our founding fathers had it, though they neglected to document the possession of it as an essential ingredient for election to office. I think it might better read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of a noble character.” What better epitaph could one have on one’s headstone than, “He Was a Good Man,” or, “She Was a Good Woman,” or, “John Doe Was a Good Woman.”

The most noble of characteristics, goodness and kindness, are sometimes sneered at today by those who consider goodness and kindness to be “Cocker Spaniel Characteristics,” not essential to achieving success, actually, counterproductive to achieving success. MORE...