Jeremy Herndon

I’ve seen pictures of the Smart car on the Internet, and on television, but not “for real” until today.  I was waiting to pull out of a parking lot and a large tractor trailer passed me by, followed by a Smart car.  What a huge difference in size that was!  It was a cute little thing, a bright red, but it brought back memories of many years ago when I saw the results of a little car being in an accident with a tractor trailer and it made me shudder.  I don’t know how safe I would feel in such a little car!

Do you know what parthenogenesis means?  I didn’t until I read it in an article that was talking about how a second case of asexual reproduction in sharks was documented this week in Virginia Beach.  It seems that a female blacktip shark, having been the only kind of her species in an aquarium, gave birth without benefit of having a mate.  The article also mentions that last year a hammerhead shark in a zoo in Omaha also gave birth without benefit of mating.

I found this to be quite fascinating!  I knew that there were some animals that could do that, but not sharks!  Considering how many people are afraid of sharks, this could be very scary news to some people.  I would not be surprised to see this story on the Colbert Report’s threat down sometime soon!

I was reading on a few Internet sites that the Royal Society’s education director Professor Michael Reiss has resigned from his post due to a controversy that occurred when he was misquoted regarding creationism being taught in the classroom.  He claims that he said that if a student brings up creationism that the class should be encouraged to understand evolution.  He was misquoted as saying that creationism should be taught in the classroom.

This is a classic case of people being misquoted and the havoc it can wreak in their lives.  I can think of a few times that I’ve said something and I was misquoted and I ended up in unfortunate circumstances, such as losing a valued friend.

A lie that is believed can have the same consequence as if it were true.  It really is too bad.

I like Ralph Nader.  I really and truly do.  I was reading an article on The Washington Post website today about how there was a unity rally of third party candidates yesterday that went downhill fast when Bob Barr refused to attend the rally and essentially insulted the other candidates.

I think Ralph Nader would make a good president, but I don’t think that the United States will ever see a President elected from a “Third Party.”  The two-party system is just too strong.  I think if Ralph Nader ever really got serious about running for president and joined the Democratic or Republican party, he just might win, but as long as he stays with a Third Party I think his efforts will be unsuccessful.

I have an uncle who lives in England, and he sent me an email telling me that horrible storms have hit the UK, killing five people.  The country is under flood alert.  I don’t remember hearing about this on the news anywhere, and it makes me wonder why.  I don’t know if I just wasn’t paying attention, or if it just didn’t get very much coverage here in the US.  It seems to me that sometimes “we” are a little bit too self-centered and egotistical and don’t pay enough attention to what is going on in the rest of the world unless it has a direct impact on “American Interests” - which means corporate profits!