See, pets really are smart!

And are even helpful with things like science lessons...





Unless they're the evil mad scientist type of course, hee hee hee



For more info about today's science lessons brought to you by the letter "C"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_(optics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodinger_cat

CPSIA - get informed, get involved

The CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a new set of laws that will come into effect on 10 February, 2009 and will impact many, many people in a negative way. This law was initiated in reaction to the recent scares of lead poisoning in children's toys. While we all agree that eliminating harmful toxins such as lead is a good thing, the way the US government is going about it is not. It goes to extremes and does not incorporate common sense.

Why should you be concerned?
This law affects anyone that buys items, or makes items, for children under 12. Parents will see rising costs in not only toys, but school supplies, clothing, books - ANYTHING used by a child under 12 must be tested. Since these tests are very costly, the prices of these items will rise, which in our poor economy is not a good thing.

Businesses will suffer, particularly the small business owners such as those on Etsy (handmade goods are not exempt from this law either). For makers of limited or one of a kind items, this law may very well force them out of business, since these tests are often destructive (hence you'd need to make more than one of every item you want to sell, one for testing and another to actually sell). Even non-destructive testing is nearly prohibitively expensive for all but large manufacturers.

If you would like to get involved, please contact your senators and representatives and let them know that this law needs to be modified. While nearly unaminously approved when initially voted on, many apparently didn't even realize what this law would mean. To look up representatives you can check http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html and to find senators check http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

More info about the CPSIA can be found at http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

A Gemology Quiz and Smelly Fish

Just two of my latest treasuries on Etsy!

The Gemology Quiz is one of my favorite to date and I hope to do some more. (Hopefully next time I'll take a screenshot w/o Etsy's little rainbow graphic, lol) There are some really fabulous gemstones available on Etsy - either as supplies or jewelry! Do you recognize these stones? (No cheating!)



And a fun treasury of beautiful blues and gorgeous greens all featuring our little fishy friends :)

Hey, I'm not dead yet! And neither is my blog...

Maybe it kinda looked like it seeing as I haven't posted for a really long while! What can I say, life got in the way :)

But I'm planning to start blogging again! Weekly at least is my goal, but more is better!

So what happened you might ask that precipitated the little hiatus my blog took? Well for starters I moved in September to Tennessee to do an internship for school at Oak Ridge National Labs. August was spent panicking about setting up said internship, and September with moving and learning my way around a new city which involved getting lost a lot (still does sometimes! lol) Since then I've been wrapped up with learning my new job (I do environmental stuff), as well as writing up yet another new thesis proposal - on said environmental stuff :D And December I was rather swamped with holiday sales (a pleasant surprise!). But now that the holidays are over, and my proposal is done, I'm finally trying to work on things I've kinda let go including my blog, flickr, etc.


Speaking of Flickr, for your viewing pleasure...



When JD goes to sleep at night with his favorite duckie plushie, he often has rather fanciful dreams...




Sometimes he dreams of being King JD, lord of pookie-dom...




Or resting away in peaceful Rivendale among the other elf rabbits :)