I found these fossils while hiking around Thatcher Park. The park is part of the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. It is about six miles of limestone cliff-face and rock-strewn slopes overlooking the quaint town of Altamont, NY.
These fossils are from the Devonian period which was known as "The Age of Fish." For you Christians, it is called "The Fifth Day." From Genesis 1:20; And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, 23; And the evening and the morning were The Fifth Day. For an extremely informative academic report on the geological data of the area, Union College of Schenectady put out this document: http://www.union.edu/academic_depts/geology/outreach/trips/helderberg.pdf Councilwoman Margaret Chin is in charge of the Chinatown district, and she's hoping to pass a law that would prohibit the buying of counterfeit goods with the threat of a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. She said that "More needs to be done to crack down on counterfeits, which cost the city $1 billion in annual tax revenue."
It costs the city nothing for, if I didn't buy my $20 fake Rolex watch, I certainly wouldn't buy the $34,000 authentic Rolex watch. The state lost nothing and at least my $20 supported some person who probably couldn't find a job otherwise. Bargain hunters from around the world flock to Manhattan’s Chinatown for bags, jewelry, perfume, electronics and other accessories bursting onto sidewalks from storefronts along Canal Street. While tourists are there, they are spending money on other products, food, transportation, hotels and entertainment. Margaret Chin is criminalizing shopping and does not take into account the innocent bargain hunter who doesn't know they are buying a fake and simply thinks they are getting a great price on an item. Buyer beware. Margaret Chin's legislation will only hurt the city, hurt Chinatown and fill their already overcrowded jails with grandmothers, unaware shoppers and poor people. I would imagine that the police have bigger fish to catch than naive little old ladies or people who can't afford to buy the overpriced real item and is willing to settle for a fake at a fraction of the cost. At least the fakes are not made by underpaid third world child labor. I know a priest who purchases a fake Rolex and cologne each year. He knows he is getting what he pays for and doesn't mind. He also can't afford the real thing. Nobody is losing anything by his purchase but his trip to the city does provide other forms of revenue. Of course we want to protect the innocent person who thinks they are buying the real thing at a too-good-to-be-true price but, carnival games, casinos, lotteries and horse races are designed to take your money, too. Nobody seems to mind if those people are ripped off and taken advantage of by impossible odds. When is Margaret Chin up for reelection? Chinatown should make a statement. Maybe instead of spending money on the undercover cops it will take to scare off and entrap unwitting shoppers, she should put up an information kiosk educating people on the difference between fakes and the real thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HonBu7yUrts When I was about 13 years old, I had a significant growth spurt. All of a sudden my bones grew faster than the rest of my body. My muscles and tendons couldn't keep up with my bones and as a result I had minor growing pains. Another area my body had difficulty compensating with was in muscle memory. I was always tripping over nothing, falling up the stairs and misjudging leaps. I had suddenly, and for no apparent reason, become rather clumsy. I was embarrassed around friends, provided great amusement to my parents and convinced myself that I had some disease which would propel me into the pantheon of Jerry's Kids.
Muscle Memory. Just as your foot knows exactly where the brake pedal is in your car, or you hand knows where the snooze button is on your alarm clock, if you were to suddenly grow three inches, your body would have have difficulty finding these items, you would need to re-learn the distances but it would only take a brief period of time. Since our bones, muscles, ligaments and organs don't grow at the same rate, our brain is constantly compensating for these evolving differences and sometimes it takes time for instinct to find its way. I grew out of my temporary clumsy stage only for the unfortunate malady of another growth spurt to reassert itself several months later. D'oh! A friend of mine had an eight year old son who stood at five foot ten. He was extremely tall for his age. This eight year old boy had a bed wetting problem and his parents punished and humiliated him severely for it. His problem (besides bad parents) was that he had an adult body with an eight year old child's kidneys. His bones and muscles grew fast but his kidneys and other organs hadn't caught up yet. He was constantly hungry and had a voracious appetite. His body was processing adult portions of food but his kidneys couldn't keep up. He couldn't make it through the night without the need to void three or four times. This unfortunate and uncontrollable process often happened while he was asleep. My German Shepherd dog could be left locked up in the house all day and if I had to be away, she was able to "hold it" until I got home late in the evening. For many dogs, their mutual body and organs were designed for their size. That is the way God/Nature/Time had designed them through the process of natural selection. Enter man who then begins to mess around with canine breeding and DNA. We're not as proficient at evolution as God/Nature/Time and have bred animals who no longer have sympathetic body parts designed for their breed, size, metabolism and body. Sure, you can figure out a way to take the tires off of a Hummer and put them on a KIA but it will look really stupid and not be very functional. Likewise, you can probably figure out a way to take the KIA tires and put them on your Hummer. Again, it will look really stupid and will definitely not be very functional. Why do we do this to dogs? So the next time you leave your dogs locked up for ten hours and you come home to find that they messed in the house, don't blame them. Blame your breeder. And the next time you come home after having left your dogs locked up for ten hours and there is no mess, praise both your dog and God/Nature/Time for their time tested and perfect creation. There is one other thing; Why are you leaving your dog locked up for ten hours? What's wrong with you? At the very least, hire a dog walking service to come over and let them out one or two times each day. |
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