Rachelle

 Fantastic article discussing homosexuality in the animal kingdom.  Against nature?  I don't think so... perfectly natural, indeed. :) Read on...

Gay animals out of the closet?

From male killer whales that ride the dorsal fin of another male to female bonobos that rub their genitals together, the animal kingdom tolerates all kinds of lifestyles.

A first-ever museum display, "Against Nature?,"  which opened last month at the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum in Norway, presents 51 species of animals exhibiting homosexuality.

"Homosexuality has been observed in more than 1,500 species, and the phenomenon has been well described for 500 of them," said Petter Bockman, project coordinator of the exhibition.

The idea, however, is rarely discussed in the scientific community and is often dismissed as unnatural because it doesn't appear to benefit the larger cause of species continuation.

"I think to some extent people don't think it's important because we went through all this time period in sociobiology where everything had to be tied to reproduction and reproductive success," said Linda Wolfe, who heads the Department of Anthropology at East Carolina University. "If it doesn't have [something to do] with reproduction it's not important."

For pleasure
However, species continuation may not always be the ultimate goal, as many animals, including humans, engage in sexual activities more than is necessary for reproduction. 

"You can make up all kinds of stories: Oh it's for dominance, it's for this, it's for that, but when it comes down to the bottom I think it's just for sexual pleasure," Wolfe told LiveScience.

Conversely, some argue that homosexual sex could have a bigger natural cause than just pure pleasure: namely evolutionary benefits.

Copulation could be used for alliance and protection among animals of the same sex. In situations when a species is mostly bisexual, homosexual relationships allow an animal to join a pack.

"In bonobos for instance, strict heterosexual individuals would not be able to make friends in the flock and thus never be able to breed," Bockman told LiveScience. "In some bird species that bond for life, homosexual pairs raise young. If they are females, a male may fertilize their eggs. If they are males, a solitary female may mate with them and deposit her eggs in their nest."

Mom and Dad and Dad
Almost a quarter of black swan families are parented by homosexual couples. Male couples sometimes mate with a female just to have a baby. Once she lays the egg, they chase her away, hatch the egg, and raise a family on their own.

"Homosexuality" and "heterosexuality" are terms defined by societal boundaries, invisible in the animal kingdom.

"Many species are hermaphrodites," Bockman said. Hermaphrodites have both male and female sex organs. A lot of marine species have no sex life at all, but just squirt their eggs or semen into sea.

Some creatures even reproduce asexually, by dividing themselves into two organisms. In one species of gecko, females clone themselves.

Like most complex issues, animal homosexuality is challenging and poorly understood. Therefore, educators tend to shy away from covering it in their teaching. Many scientists don't even want to be associated with this type of research.

"I've had primatologists offer to give me their data on homosexual behavior because they didn't want to publish it," Wolfe said.

"Against Nature?" was set up partly to demystify the concept. 

The argument that a homosexual way of living cannot be accepted because it is against the "laws of nature" can now be rejected scientifically, said Geir Soli, project leader for the exhibition. "A main target for this project was to get museums involved in current debate; to show that museums are more than just a gallery for the past."

To learn more, see LiveScience's Top 10 presentation, Gay Animals: Alternate Lifestyles in the Wild.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15750604/from/ET/

and if you like this, you should read this strip regularly.  It's FANTASTIC!  http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/

I feel the need to continue along the same thread and expound on my complaint about people who don't use their indicators (aka: blinkers). First, thank you to everyone who posted comments to my last. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who sees these imbeciles on the freeway, slowing down to merge, stopping at the end of the ramps, etc... Oh when will they learn???

So, indicators/blinkers. You all have them on your car(s), they're NOT optional items, they are in fact a safety device as well as being SMART to use. I always use mine, regardless of whether or not someone is nearby. After all, it's a good habit to get in and stay in. As I traverse the landscape of Highway 50 going to and from work I see many who have not developed this habit and oh so many who should. Of course, I also see folks not using their indicators on other freeways and surface streets, but since I seem to spend the vast majority of my time commuting to/from work, I'll stick to Hwy 50 being the topic my discontent, the bane of my existence, and the root of all commuting evil.

Rules of thumb:

• Other drivers are NOT mind readers - when the need to change lanes arises, use your blinker to indicate your intentions so that others might adjust their traveling speeds to accommodate your REQUEST. I personally, being the jerk that I can be, will NOT let someone into my lane if they are not using their indicator. Sure, I can tell they want to change lanes; I can see their little faces peering at me from their side mirror and I can see that the car is angling toward my lane. But if there's no indicator in use, you're NOT getting in. The flip side is that if you ARE indicating, I will gladly slow my speed to provide greater distance between my front end and the back of the car in front of me, thus allowing you ample space to join our little lane party.
• Yes, I said REQUEST - the use of said indicator is NOT meant to be used as a statement that you're coming over no matter what. Rather, it's meant to be a signal of your desire and intent to change lanes when it is safe to do so.
  Set your indicator at least 3-5 seconds before you actually start to change lanes. Please do not start indicating AS you change lanes as that does not allow your fellow drivers the time to make the necessary adjustments to their speed. Also, if there are motorcycles on the road (remember they're sometimes hard to see) they too will benefit from the added notification of intent to change lanes.
• Be sure to turn your indicator OFF when you have completed your lane change. The only thing more irritating than people not using their blinker are the people who don't turn them off when they're done. This leaves me lagging back a bit to allow you to change your lane when you're just happily careening down the freeway in the lane you're already in. Thank you for using your blinker in the first place... Now turn it off!
• Oh and if you see someone using their indicator letting you know they would like to join your lane, please don't be the biggest of jerks by speeding up so as to block them in their current lane. That's just rude.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use your blinkers! Remember, they come standard on your vehicle FOR A REASON! And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE turn them off when you're all done changing lanes, turning, whatever. I know doing so won't be directly responsible for world peace or ending hunger, but if a few more people are just a little happier when they get to work or return home, it might make your day a little more pleasant too. Think about it.

As many of those who know me are aware; I have very strong opinions about people who drive slow in the fast lane and don't move out of the way when approached by someone moving faster than them, people who don't use their blinkers when changing lanes (or in general), and people who brake for no apparent reason. That said...

I live about 1 mile from the freeway on-ramp and nearly 20 miles from Intel. You'd *think* I'd be able to get on the freeway really quickly and find that the traffic congestion ON the freeway itself would be the root of all commuting evils. And you'd be wrong. Today it took 20 minutes to get from my carport to the freeway; the majority of that time spent sitting ON the freeway on-ramp. Random thoughts were shooting through my not-yet-caffeinated brain as I inched forward, not at all patiently. Thoughts such as, "Wow, must be a bad accident up there" and "Gee, wonder if anyone is hurt." Eventually, as my last shred of patience waned, my thoughts turned to, "WTF?!?!" and finally, "Ok, someone better be dead!"

Now had someone actually been dead, I might have felt a little bad for invoking the grim reaper's presence in the first place. However, that emotion never had to surface. When I finally merged on the freeway it was smooth sailing! No accident, no bodies strewn about the freeway, not even the slightest of fender benders. The back up was most likely caused by drivers that don't understand merging is meant to occur much like a zipper; every other car. Or by someone who doesn't understand the act of courtesy while driving or perhaps by someone who didn't use their indicator while changing lanes and caused some panic induced braking, which created a domino effect of more braking and eventually braking just for the hell of it. I don't know... but I do know that it took 20 minutes to travel the 1 mile from my house to the freeway and 15 minutes to drive the remaining 18-ish miles to Intel. *grrrr*

That's right! I'm a WINNER! I participated in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and just finished writing my first novel last night (two days ahead of schedule!!). It was a great experience and I'm very excited to have completed the challenge. Now the real fun begins - I'm going to have the raw material edited (by none other than my best friend Heath, who I also convinced to participate in NaNoWriMo) and work on the re-writes next month. I hope to be ready to publish it early next year!! Amazon has a company called Booksurge where you can self-publish your work and sell it on Amazon.com so, I'm going to try my hand at that and see what happens. It's all very exciting!

Now before you ask, I'll let you know that I will not be posting an excerpt to my blog. However, I will shamelessly brag once it's published and ya'll can go buy a copy from Amazon. ;)

If you feel as though you have a novel in you (and who doesn't, really?) then you should definitely plan to participate in NaNoWriMo next year! It's a wonderful challenge and it really gets you off your butt (or rather ON your butt). :) I think everyone at some point thinks they have a great topic for a novel, but the problem is that we start to edit ourselves before we even start to write. The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that you don't have time to edit yourself (well, not much anyway). You're frantically writing to get your 50k words in 30 days completed and the creative juices just start flowing. It's so freeing!! Just DO IT!!

OMG!  So, I finally subscribed to the Wait! Wait!... Don't Tell Me! Podcasts from NPR and listened to the first one tonight.  Heath and David have been trying to get me to listen to the show for months now and I keep saying, "Yeah, yeah, I'll listen to it..." but of course I never do.  Well FINALLY I did and OMG I was laughing so hard!!!  I'm lying on my bed and just finished my nightly input on my novel and thought, "hmmm, what the heck. It's there and I'm here, so I'll listen."  I have not laughed so damn hard in a VERY long time and I totally needed it!!!

If you haven't already become a listener of the show, I HIGHLY recommend that you subscribe on iTunes or listen via some other streaming radio method.  It's totally worth it!  I currently downloading all of the episodes listed so I can laugh more later. :) 

Also good to know:  Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer) who I absolutely SWEAR by and try my best to emulate when it comes to understanding Aveda and being a good dog mommy, has Podcasts too!  Woo Hoo!  I haven't listened to any of them yet, as they are currently downloading, but I'll be sure to let ya'll know what my take is on the Podcast version of his show too. :)