Video Games and Earthworms

I ran across a couple of interesting items on the science page of our local paper. One article claimed there would be a minimum of 10,000 PlayStation 3s whose spare processing power will be used next year for biological research. Further, it was reported that the interconnected game systems will be five times faster than the world's most powerful supercomputer. The first question that came to mind was, "Are there biologist standing in line at Target Stores all over the world to collect 10,000 PlayStation 3s?" The next question: "What do they mean by 'spare processing power'?" Is that whatever is left over after the so-called researchers are done playing Zelda? Surely Sony won't make the biologists stand in line when their game system is getting such good press as a research tool. Heck, they probably donated 10,000 and wrote them off! Next question: "Why didn't I think of this before Christmas?"
The other article explains that Charles Darwin was an authority on earthworms. Apparently, he even went so far as to calculate the number of worms in his garden ("53, 767 pre acre, on average". What? 53,767 is an average? Does this mean some days there were 53, 766 and other days there were 53,768?). Mr. Darwin also subjected his earthworms to many experiments, including several to test their hearing. He placed them near a piano and then in the mouth of a bassoon. Given their lack of response, he concluded they were deaf. Or at least unappreciative of the music. Kind of calls all his other scientific theories into question, doesn't it?

Valentines

Check out the Valentine pictures of Lynlee and Gavin at my flickr! I am still trying to figure out how to use the flickr site. I opened the account because I don't seem to be able to upload photos to Blogspot. It may be a Mac thing. Whatever the reason, the blog will not publish my photos. And I can't figure out how to reorder the photos on flickr. It is sounding more and more like a user problem. Nevertheless, the grandkids are adorable and hilarious. Jana is here with Lynlee and Sherman asked us to watch Gavin last week, so we dressed the two up and gave them a box of chocolates - then took a boatload of photos, only five of which I have posted so as not to appear overly doting. Even if I am.