ThinkGeek :: DIY Blood Typing Test Kit

ThinkGeek :: DIY Blood Typing Test Kit

ThinkGeek has the coolest stuff.  This one is kind of gross, but kind of neat, which pretty much sums up everything McMichael's is about.  It's a home blood type test kit.  If you don't know your blood type, maybe you should. I'm not sure why, I've never been asked.  But I think it's one of those things that you should probably know if someone does ask.  Plus, the kit is only $8.99.

Here's the link: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/8f3d/. 

As for me, would I ever share that with all of you? Oh, probably not. Negative. :)

Neanderthals and Michael Crichton

One of my favorite movies is the 13th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderas and (be still my beating heart) Vladimir Kulich.  I would watch the movie for those two alone, but it's a rare movie that I can watch over and over and over again, and not grow tired of the story.  It's the combination of real history and fiction, the historical fiction genre, that I love so much.

I'm one of those people that always reads the book before watching the movie, then complains about how inaccurate the movie was (I know, how annoying, right?).  But I didn't even know this movie was based on a book at all!  Apparently, it was based on Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead.  Now, I know I should read the book, but it may be too late!  I am really worried it will ruin the movie for me! 

In the movie, the story of the "wendol" is never fully developed.  They are menacing, true, but who were they? I assumed a tribe of humans that believed they were bears.  Had I read the book , I would have known that they were intended to be a surviving band of Neanderthals.  And you know, I heart Neanderthals.  

The book itself was based on the epic poem, Beowulf, and the true accounts of Ahmad ibn Fadlan.  The Beowulf part I figured out while watching the movie, since Vladimir "Heart-Skips-A-Beat" Kulich plays a king called "Buliwyf".  So, yeah, obviously Beowulf, duh.  But Ibn Fadlan's true stories of his travels in the 10th century are available in an English translation, as Ibn Fadlan's journey to Russia: a tenth-century traveler from Baghad to the Volga River. I feel like I'm following the White Rabbit down a trail of books.


I suppose I have just convinced myself that both  Eaters of the Dead and Ibn Fadlan's Journey to Russia, must be added to my wishlist and consumed immediately. But they better not ruin the movie for me!

Facebook Fan Page

I've done it! I've finally started a Facebook Fan Page!

I don't really have a way to interact with most of you, other than the standard "Your order has shipped" automated emails.  But I'd like to know what you really think of the skull and fossil replicas.  What would you like me to carry? Do you have ideas for new inventory?

On the Fan Page, you can leave reviews, start discussions, post to the wall, add photos of your skulls... anything you'd do on your regular Facebook page. 

Click here to stop by and become a fan of McMichael's!

You can also cut & paste this link into your browser: http://www.facebook.com/pages/McMichaels-Fossil-Replicas/369695098461?ref=nf

See you soon!

Global Warming Cycles Threaten Endangered Primate Species

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2009) — Two Penn State University researchers have carried out one of the first-ever analyses of the effects of global warming on endangered primates. This innovative work by Graduate Student Ruscena Wiederholt and Associate Professor of Biology Eric Post examined how El Niño warming affected the abundance of four New World monkeys over decades.

Wiederholt and Post decided to concentrate on the way the oscillating weather patterns directly and indirectly influence plants and animals in the tropics. Until the research by Wiederholt and Post, this intricate network of interacting factors had rarely been analyzed as a single system. "We know very little about how climate change and global warming are affecting primate species," explains Wiederholt. "Up to one third of primates species are threatened with extinction, so it is really crucial to understand how these changes in climate may be affecting their populations."

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