I managed to leave home without my phone this morning. I miss it (partly because I could be playing Words w/Friends right now) but really the biggest drawback for the day has been not knowing the time.

I just got the sweetest email from a student. She was in my class last semester, but she kinda crashed and burned and stopped coming. Only after the semester ended did she contact me to let me know what happened (she had gotten really sick). So I set up the paperwork to change her grade, but it took a while to all come together. But it's all resolved now, and she just sent the sweetest thank you to me. Made me a little verklempt.

I just learned the purpose of spermaceti- it's a buoyancy device. They cool it by drawing in water to turn it to wax and they sink. Warm it back up, increases buoyancy. So frickin' cool. How I got to this age and never wondered, despite reading a lot about the whale oil trade... Um, and prehensile penis. This biologist is waaay too excited and yet not at all heee-heee about whale penis. She's flopping it about and extolling its virtues. (Dead whale.)

Got a hand-drawn thank you note from Piper, my ex-neighbor's daughter. Kids are so cool. It's of her, dad, step-mom and their dog (all labelled) and a drawing of the necklace she made (I gave her a bead kit and a mess of glitter glue.)

I just learned the purpose of spermaceti- it's a buoyancy device. They cool it by drawing in water to turn it to wax and they sink. Warm it back up, increases buoyancy. So frickin' cool.

I did not know that, sarameg. Hard to wrap my brain around it.

As the oil turns to wax, it is less buoyant, allowing the whale to sink. Run blood across it to warm it up, turns back to oil, which floats! Kinda awesome.

Oh, they use their own blood to warm it! So cool that a body would find a mechanical solution to that problem.

An images thread might be good. It'd be nice to have the pictures we want everyone to see posted here, kids and pets and houses and new hair and such, and then we wouldn't have to fiddle around with who's on Facebook, who's Friended on Flickr, or whatever. But I don't think I'd like having images in every thread. As someone else said, there's already Tumblr and I don't want us to be that.

Not sure I want us to be posting reaction macros. Disgruntled Chipmunk and Grumpy Cat are funny, but I really like that this is the a place where we communicate via words. Even if that word is eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Oh, also. One thing I'd like, and this may have to do with how I have things configured (because I never configured anything), but I wish images I click on here would open in a new tab. Is there a way I can make it do that?

I really like that this is the a place where we communicate via words.

This is very true, and a good point.

If you right click, Zen, you'll get an option to open it in a new tab.

I just learned the purpose of spermaceti- it's a buoyancy device. They cool it by drawing in water to turn it to wax and they sink. Warm it back up, increases buoyancy. So frickin' cool.

There's some dispute about this. There are scientists who regard the impact on buoyancy as being small save for the largest sperm whales, and the biological structures are insufficient for the purpose.

The alternative theory is that it helps the sperm whale's echolocation. Organs filled with spermaceti are very sensitive to receiving sound waves.