Aired 11-15-09

Episode 2 of 3
“Darwin turns his back on scientific celebrity and becomes a virtual recluse, secretly gathering evidence for his theory of evolution. He is almost trumped by a rival book on evolution but finds a steadfast supporter in the young botanist, Joseph Hooker. Darwins faith is shattered by the death of his beloved daughter, Annie, but he is buoyed up by the return from Australasia of one of his greatest allies – the young firebrand, Thomas Huxley. Darwin knows he has found the men he needs to help him when he goes public with his ideas. Hooker and Huxley push Darwin to publish but events overtake everyone when a letter arrives from Indonesia. An obscure collector called Alfred Russell Wallace has come up with an evolutionary theory almost identical to Darwins own. Darwin is shattered and fears that 20 years of his own work
has come to”

(1/6)

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Episode one

“Darwins Brave New World is the story of how four young voyagers to the southern hemisphere, Charles Darwin, Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Russel Wallace revolutionised science and gave birth to an extraordinary theory about the evolution of life on earth.

Featuring a cast of Australian and Canadian actors and commentators such as controversial author and Oxford academic, Richard Dawkins, the Canadian scientist and broadcaster, David Suzuki and Australian scholar and author, Iain McCalman, from the University of Sydney, this brilliant drama-documentary tells the story of Charles Darwins struggle to produce one of the greatest scientific
theories of our age and the roles played in it by Hooker, Huxley and Wallace – Darwins fellow voyagers to the southern hemisphere.”

(1/6)

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Feel free to click on the title, download the report………take it all in ………and “Please” feel free to leave your comments. I for one have my own thoughts but lets see what we hear from the camps in Ontario Wildlife Management unit 49. I love statistics….you can put a bunch of numbers out there, present graphs and come to some way off conclusion based on your interpretation of the data you collected, and you interpreted without gathering all the facts, Under “Black Bears ” you are suggesting to all camps that there was a “Localized Overharvest” in part of Management Unit 49………… it’ seems to me that it’s pretty hard to shoot bears if you don’t see them; you also don’t state that what you have determined to be “Overharvest” doesn’t mention the number of bears in that area of 49 that were passed up, missed, not shot at and photographed on  trail cams…………that my friend is cold hard numbers………don’t be so quick to jump to conclusions without accepting offers to observe the facts! Either present all the facts or don’t present any……..your conclusions on bear management in Unit 49 is very off the wall………! And yes I know the area very well…….

Learning to be a farmer from the ground up on an historic farm… From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: farm. The blog is also related to: farm.

Comparto con ustedes uno de mis capítulos favoritos de Seinfeld.

En este capítulo Kramer juega golf tirando pelotas hacia el mar. George para conquistar a una chava le dice que es un biologo marino. Caminando George y la chava en la playa ven mucha gente se acercan, ballena en la orilla y piden a un biologo marino para que vea que pasa y la chava le pide a George que vaya…

I share with you one of my favorite Seinfeld episode.

In this episode Kramer plays golf throwing the balls to the ocean. George tries to pick up a girl and tell her hes a marine biologist. Walking in the beach, George and the girl see a lot of people, they go to see whats happening, theres a whale by the shore and they all ask for a marine biologist to help, the girl ask George to go…

Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world’s data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein’s theory of gravitation replaced Newton’s, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin’s proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.

- Stephen Jay Gould

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

All the stupid memes usually contain a question on “your favourite color”. I HATE these memes…I mean, how can you describe yourself in your full depth in just few Q&As? Impossible, I believe.

Anyway. There were times when I really liked green (because my friend in the primary school liked green and fairies! Haha!), yellow (because it’s a happy color – but I look WEIRD in it), black (when I was emo after a break-up with my then-boyfriend and a real idiot), magenta & violet (now I am very tired of it wtf) and brown (I am now tired of it too).

And then one day I started to like red. And since then I am addicted!!!
It’s amazing that red is also a color deemed auspicious and ‘personal’ for Snakes…which I am in Chinese astrology. Hehe. To me red is a color of love, passion, energy, femininity, decision and happiness.

I love red everything…

…LIPS:

Credits to ogoodforme.filmstills.org

Kim Kardashian looking good...via look.co.uk

…LINGERIE:

Love Red "Love Demi Bra" by Agent Provocateur (click!)

(I WANT this bra and panties that come with it. Thanks for noting down. Xmas aren’t that far away!)

…SHOES:

Christian Louboutin Fifre 120 suede boots, €879.16 (Net-a-Porter..*click*!)

Lacoste L33 CAN W, via Zappos.com (*click*)

I actually have these red Lacoste sneakers and they are awesome.

…COATS:

DKNY Double-breasted wool coat, €714.32 (*click*)

I saw more affordable red coats at Zara but I haven’t tried them on yet (will do…I can’t stop myself!).
DKNY is a brand I will stalk when I am a rich girl one day…which may not happen, if I end up as a biologist in Slovakia (scientists are underpaid here – but they are very happy because science is not a job…it’s a passion!)…but then, I’d rather be a poor and happy biologist wearing Zara than a rich & stressed out corporate ghost in DKNY!

…and DRESSES:

Diane von Furstenberg Felted wool dress, €413 (*click*)

Hervé Léger Strapless bandage dress, €1,590 (*click*)

Sigh. I know dear readers, I KNOW.
For most of us none of the things from net-a-porter I showed here is actually attainable. I KNOW!!! But looking at the top stuff isn’t buying and we can at least get inspired.

Red lover signing off to read about the emotional world of dogs!

xoxo
MM

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/one-fine-day-a-cat-named-darwin/

An Oldie.

Several people were asked the following problem: Prove that all odd integers higher than 2 are prime.

Arts Student: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime, 11 is a prime,…

Consultant: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 — we’ll do for you the best we can,…,…

Microsoft Salesperson: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 will be prime in the next release,…,…

Biologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 — results have not arrived yet,…,…

Advertiser: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 11 is a prime,…

Mathematician: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, and by induction – every odd integer higher than 2 is a prime.

Physicist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is an experimental error, 11 is a prime,…

Lawyer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 — there is not enough evidence to prove that it is not a prime,…

Chartered Accountant: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime, deducing 10% tax and 5% other obligations.

Statistician: Let’s try several randomly chosen numbers: 17 is a prime, 23 is a prime, 11 is a prime…

Psychologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime but tries to suppress it,…

So .. how was it funny? By induction ? or results have not arrived yet.

I was born a Homo Sapiens./ Then I became a biologist./ Then I became a cat.

You have no idea./ Read on, friends.

Many years ago I finished reading a book about a cat that I was quite sure would never be surpassed.   That book was The Best Cat Ever by the late Cleveland Amory.   Imagine my surprise, then, when I came across a paperback by someone named William Jordan…   The book was A Cat Named Darwin: Embracing the Bond Between Man and Pet.   This is the best cat story ever!

Jordan’s tale is perhaps best expressed by this book’s original sub-title:  How a Stray Cat Changed a Man into a Human Being.   As he so nicely explains, “…it was during my forty-fifth year on this glowing blue Earth that a cat entered my house and stole my heart.”   Yes, the then-unnamed cat was a “home invader” who instead of being chased away, entered writer Jordan’s home and office flat in Long Beach, California.   It seems that the more Jordan attempts to get rid of the cat he  named after Charles Darwin, the more the cat embeds itself into his home/heart.

Eventually Jordan realizes that the more time he spends around the wily Darwin the more he enjoys himself; Darwin helps the author to re-create himself as a better person.   “…because I had come to love this small creature, whatever happened to him happened to me.”   Sadly, Darwin is a very sick cat but this makes the time he spends with the author all the more precious.

Yes, every cat – if not pet – owner will identify with Darwin’s antics and activities.   Like our own retired cat, he was first and foremost a fighter in his prime:   “…he loved the slings and arrows of the feline military existence.   Combat gave meaning to his life.   Danger was what he lived for.”

Jordan, trained as a biologist, does an excellent job of explaining why cats – whose ancestors have occupied the planet for 60 million years or so – are so intelligent and why they are able to co-exist with their human owners in a way that is distinct from dogs.   The one caution about this book is that it would certainly be a difficult read for anyone who has recently lost a pet; contra, some would find it the best time to read this true story of love and loss.

Yes, this is a love story, now available in trade paperback form for $14.95 (Mariner Books).   In the author’s words, “I thanked Darwin for giving me life.”   At the end of this furry tail (tale), you will thank the author and Darwin and Hoover the cat for giving us this story.   Highly, highly recommended!

In the end,/ Because I became a cat,/ I became a human being.

Note:   This book was purchased by the reviewer.

Sarah’s Landing – 1 — Contact — Synopsis*

A 111-year-old mystery — people who vanished ten years before the new millennium — the first space-exploration star-ship, Earth Star-I, lost in deep space fifty-one years later — Is there a connection between these unexplained disappearances, and a village situated along the rocky coast of New England, a place out of time, called Sarah’s Landing?

Joshua Morgan, the Astronaut/Biologist scratched from the ill-fated space flight, had the determination to seek out the answers. Working out of the Space Intelligence Command in Houston, Texas, his investigation leads him to long-forgotten secret government archives in Washington, DC, and to a little-known underground chamber in the old uranium storage caverns along the Colorado River in Utah. Slowly, almost magnetically, he is drawn to Sarah’s Landing. Stories told by the local townspeople of the Founders’ House, and of the strange going’s-on within, draw him to the site over the objections of a redheaded telepath, Alexandra McKay, who interests him greatly. Little does he realize his quest will take him to the far reaches of space and to an alien planet no one knew exists.

The story takes place in the year 2055 and weaves around Sarah’s Landing, one of the last vestiges of an earlier era. Unknown to most of its inhabitants, it maintains an unusual bond with an alien city, in an undiscovered galaxy thousands of light years away, on a planet where a race of aliens possess telepathic, telekinetic, psychic abilities more powerful and far-reaching than anyone could have imagined.

In his search for answers Joshua falls deeply in love with Alexandra, who senses danger in his life. Soon after his disappearance, the first inkling of an alien bond manifests itself in her dreams. Trying desperately to find him, Alexandra enlists the aid of Joshua’s friend, Lt. Henry (Harry) Jacobsen, a Navy Lieutenant who is quickly smitten by her.

A quadrangle develops when the main characters, Joshua, Alexandra, Harry, and the alien leader’s daughter, Adrianne, are helplessly caught in the entanglement of an affair that spans two different planets light years apart. Joshua discovers that his love for the two women, results in the birth of two sons— siblings — one from the alien planet Theon, and one from Earth, empowered with mind-linking capabilities. This phenomenon results in detection by an ominous dark force whose threatening presence is overcome by the interconnecting relationships of the people of the Planet Theon and Planet Earth.

Reviews:

Contact – Book I- Sarah’s Landing Series
By Elena Dorothy Bowman
ISBN# 1-59431-497-7
Write Words, Inc./ Cambridge Books*

The Review is by Sandy Bernstein, Editor of the Sour Grapes Magazine:

*by Sandy Bernstein,*
*Sour Grapes Magazine, Editor*
*Methuen, MA*

*5 Stars ******

Sarah’s Landing is a work of pure imagination. September 10, 2001

This sci-fi tale is a perfect blend of fantasy, mystery, and romance working together in a most seductive way. The peaceful setting of this New England coastal village is anything but what it seems. Dark forces are at work breaking down the barriers of two separate worlds. Its rich characters will draw you in as they struggle to find answers to a century old mystery they believe is a connection between our own planet and one called Theon. Sarah’s Landing is the first in a four part series, and as such leaves the reader begging for more. The characters are real and complex, driven by compassion and loyalty. But where their loyalties lie is another matter. The plot is intriguing and spun in true sci-fi fashion. All the elements of a wondrous tale are here as Elena keeps the reader in suspense from beginning to end. I can’t wait to read book II, The Telepaths of Theon.

The Second Review is by Jackie Young: Correspondent of the Westford Eagle:

*by Jackie Young*
*Correspondent – Westford Eagle*
*Westford, MA*

*/”Chelmsford author’s tale is out-of-this-world”/*

Even those who are not sure they are science fiction fans may be swept up in Sarah’s Landing-I, a spellbinding tale which takes the reader from the rocky shores of a small New England town to a planet in an undiscovered galaxy thousands of light years away. The wonder of it is that the author has managed to tell the tale of astronaut/biologist Joshua Morgan so convincingly. Her down-to-earth approach, soaring imagination and her expertise in software engineering are a winning combination. The kinds of experiences that her characters encounter have the ring of truth to them.

Set in the year 2055, the book centers around the hero’s attempts to solve the 111-year-old mystery of people who vanished 10 years before the new millennium, and the loss of the first starship, Earth Star-I which vanished 51 years later.

This fast-paced novel, which incidentally, is also a first-rate love story, will undoubtedly pull readers in. Bowman’s powers of description are second to none. Here is a book that is difficult to put down ? a real page turner.

Bio:

Elena Dorothy Bowman, formerly an aerospace software engineer, is an Honors graduate of Fitchburg College earning her BS Degree in Engineering and Management. She serves as an officer in the /Massachusetts Chapter of the National League of American PenWomen/. Her novel */Contact,/* which has won the coveted APA award for its audio book, is the first in the */Sarah’s Landing Series/* of four science-fiction/ mystery/ romance novels all of which have been published by /Write Words Inc/Cambridge Books/. Other novels -*/The House On The Bluff/* is the first in */The Legacy Series/* of three Romantic Suspense/Mystery/Thriller, bordering on the Paranormal. All of which were published by /Write Words Inc/Cambridge Books/. Three stand alone novels, */Time-Rift/*, */The Odyssey/* and */The Imposter/* have all been published by Write Words Inc. as ebooks with /Write Words Inc., ebooksonthe.net./

Elena has co-written and published through Lulu.com, two other non-fiction books. One with her husband, James; */The Continuum/*, and a biographical one with her brother Alfred, */Military Justice-Denied,/* which is a limited private release.

Her prize winning short story */Canollies For Christmas/* was published in /The Lowell Sun/. She has also co-written and co-produced a Musical Workshop, which was performed at the /Merrimack Regional Theater/. The Mother of four and Grandmother of one, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband.
Excerpts and reviews of all my novels can be viewed on my website: http://elenadb.home.comcast.net.

*Sarah’s Landing Series Links at Amazon.com for all 4 books:
http://www.amazon.com/Contact-Book-I-Sarahs-Landing/dp/1594314977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249237471&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Telepaths-Theon-Sarahs-Landing-2/dp/1594315981/ref=sr_oe_11_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-11
http://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Landing-Elena-Dorothy-Bowman/dp/1594316589/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-9
http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Sarahs-Landing-Book-ebook/dp/B000Q9J03I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-3

Legacy Series Links at Amazon for 3 books:
http://www.amazon.com/HOUSE-BLUFF-Book-One-Legacy/dp/1594313636/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/GATEKEEPERS-REALM-Book-Two-Legacy/dp/1594314519/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-8
http://www.amazon.com/Adams-Point-Book-3-Legacy/dp/1594314527/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-5

Stand Alone Novels at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Rift/dp/B000JMKN2Y/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/The-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B00140FXA2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249237582&sr=1-2

And the Imposter at Barnes and Noble.com
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Imposter/Elena-Dorothy-Bowman/e/9781594315350/?itm=7

A biologist is a person who studies living things and how they interact with their environment.  If you are interested in becoming a biologist there are many types of career paths to take, depending on your personality and interests, including: Marine, Biochemist, Botanist, Microbiologist, Physiologist, Biophysicist, Zoologist, Ecologist

Marine biologists study salt water organisms, and limnologists study fresh water organisms.

Not only humans practice marine biology

Biochemists study the chemical composition of living things. They analyze the complex chemical combinations and reactions involved in metabolism, reproduction, and growth.

Biologist in the Lab

Botanists study plants and their environments. They study all aspects of plant life, including algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants.

Botanists in the Field

Microbiologists investigate the growth and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, or fungi.

Physiologists study life functions of plants and animals, both in the whole organism and at the cellular or molecular level, under normal and abnormal conditions.

Biophysicists study how physics, such as electrical and mechanical energy and related phenomena, relates to living cells and organisms.

Zoologists and wildlife biologists study animals and wildlife—their origin, behavior, diseases, and life processes.

Brazilian Squirrel Monkey

Ecologists investigate the relationships among organisms and between organisms and their environments, examining the effects of population size, pollutants, rainfall, temperature, and altitude.

Explaining Ecological Habitat Types

Finding Work

If you’re interested in finding work as a biologist, make sure you check out the Biologist Jobs at Let’s Work Green’s main web site.

My brother-in-law the biologist recently challenged me and the architectural profession to consider a biosensate approach to a net zero architecture beyond LEED….

Dear Mr. Biologist,

“Why do people pick their noses while driving? Do they think no one can see them? I am appalled. Sometimes when I get stuck in traffic and look around, I feel like I am at the zoo and the animals are feeding.”

-Stuck and Disgusted

Dear Stuck,

Your zoo analogy is quite appropriate. Nose picking is part of animal grooming and serves as a bonding behavior in groups. Those people sitting in the cars around you have subconsciously formed a temporary tribe while stuck in traffic and are reverting to bonding behavior. Why fight it? You might join them next time and see if you make a new friend.

–Mr. Biologist

At the University of Texas at Austin, March 2008
Born	Clinton Richard Dawkins 26 March 1941 (1941-03-26) (age 68) Nairobi, Colony of Kenya
Residence	Oxford, England
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	English
Fields	Ethologist and evolutionary biologist
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley University of Oxford New College, Oxford
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Doctoral advisor	Nikolaas Tinbergen
Doctoral students	Alan Grafen Mark Ridley
Known for	Gene-centred view of evolution Introduction of meme concept Advocacy of atheism and rationalism Criticism of religion
Notable awards	Zoological Society Silver Medal (1989) Faraday Award (1990) Kistler Prize (2001)
Religious stance	Atheist
Notes Fellow of the Royal Society Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Clinton Richard Dawkins, born 26 March 1941, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author. He was formerly Professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford and was a fellow of New College, Oxford.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. In 1982, he made a widely cited contribution to evolutionary biology with the theory, presented in his book The Extended Phenotype, that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism’s body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms.

Dawkins is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics.

Dawkins is an atheist, secular humanist, sceptic, scientific rationalist, and supporter of the Brights movement. He has widely been referred to in the media as “Darwin’s Rottweiler”, by analogy with English biologist T. H. Huxley, who was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his advocacy of natural selection. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that faith qualifies as a delusion − as a fixed false belief. As of November 2007, the English language version had sold more than 1.5 million copies and had been translated into 31 other languages, making it his most popular book to date.

I haven’t posted anything in awhile and have a lot to say, but I want to be concise.

“The meaning of life is to live… All I know is that it gives me comfort,” is line from a previous post that I want to develop further.

I want to modify this quote to, “The meaning of life is to live and then die”

“Life is journey not a destination.”

Your life is essential component of the human destiny, the journey of the human experience. Your instinctive duty (your purpose) is to connect the generation before you to the one after you, to pass on the lessons of your generation, to aspire that the next generation will live just a bit better.

Life.

In every instance of life there is single basic chain of life that makes it continue (seemingly) indefinitely.

Energy from Sun—>Birth—>Death (food)—>Growth (reproduction)—>Birth—>Death

As long as there is energy provided by the sun, the earth has plenty of life and energy to support this process for millions of species.

It is very interesting to notice that quite literally, “the number one cause of death is life.”

The “journey of life” is traversing the chain of life as a human, there is no end to it, you just continue it. You may die but the process doesn’t and you helped keep it afloat. Life is not a destination that involves an end, it is a cycle in which the “beginning” and “end” really don’t exist.

In order for life to continue one must be born.
In order for life to continue one must die.

Or as Buddha says in his conversation with Kutadanta

There is rebirth of character,
but no transmigration of a self.
Your thought-forms reappear,
but there is no ego-entity transferred.
The stanza uttered by a teacher
is reborn in the student who repeats the words.

We personally do not continue the process of life, but the process of life continues with a small notch of “progress” made by individuals.

Each does not complete the task, but together the task is completed.

The experience of living in the cycle of life give each species it’s “spirit” a will to live. As humans are the product of millions and millions cycles of life (evolution) our “spirit” has become resilient. This resilience has given humans an “unwillingness” to give up. We will reach the top and once we get to the top, we will make the top higher and then we will try to get to the top again.

Thus in order to help humanity achieve greatness, we must promote the idea that we, together, can make things better even if it takes us generations to do.

We inch away at progress, but the human spirit, the little voice that says, “well if I just keep on doing it I will make progress,” is too strong. It does not matter how slowly progress happens, because progress means that tomorrow you’ll be a closer than you were yesterday.

This speed of progress can be discouraging if viewed as and end and not a means of life. No human will ever reach a “finish line” or an “end.” In a certain respect our condition will always largely be the same, we want to make progress. Thus anything that you do right now is just as important to what somebody else did at another time, all progress is necessary for its time and place.

The goals, dreams, and aspirations of the human spirit have set the course for human destiny. We will continue to try and achieve our dreams and each generation, each person, will play a role (positive or negative) in this endeavor.

Which dreams we chase and how we chase them are the two most important things to consider

A banker, a stay-at-home mom and a flight paramedic. What do they all have in common? They all became Minnesota State Troopers.

This is the 52nd class of candidates to graduate from the Minnesota State Patrol Academy and it is the largest class in history. Almost half of the 72 new officers have a background in something other than law enforcement.

“There is a biologist in there, there is a baseball player, we have people from all walks of life,” said one graduate.

New trooper Gabriel Exman has a college degree in finance.

“I was a banker for Highway Federal Credit Union. I did that for about a year and then before that I worked for the Minnesota National Guard in Iraq,” said Exman.

For this class, the Minnesota State Patrol tried to find candidates with backgrounds other than law enforcement. Some of the candidates tried out because of economic conditions, like Leah Carpenter who left the patrol in 2004 to start a family.

“I have three small children, but my husband is a home builder and with the economy the way it is today, we made the decision that I would go back and work full time. And this is the only thing I could think of doing,” said Carpenter.

The State Patrol is proud of its history, going back to 1929, but the graduates will have some of the most diverse backgrounds the force has ever seen.

The graduation marks the end of 12 weeks of rigorous training for the new troopers. Each will now work with a veteran officer for one year before they go on solo patrol.

Watch this story: Banker, Mother, Biologist: All New State Troopers

Photo: From Flickr user chuck-reynolds’

So, I have not been blogging lately, but never fear. I have been writing up a storm.

It’s always been my dream to write a book. For as long as I can remember I’ve been making up stories left and right.

Now is the time where I get to feeling like my hypothetical biological clock is ticking. NOT for children… for a book.

There are already published authors who are my age or younger. I have a great deal to contribute to the literary world and am so eager to share it!

So for the past few weeks I’ve been carrying around a simple-but-perfect black composition notebook. It’s a lot like a journal, because the story is going to be narrated by me, for the most part. It’s easier telling a story that way; reading one written by someone else always makes me feel like I am in that character’s shoes at that particular place in time. What I write is always in story form, though; I have a setting and a cast of characters and I’m trying to go crazy with it every chance I get. I think it’s working :] As soon as I fill up the notebook, I’m typing and revising the little excerpts I have, then putting them in order. And then filling in the gaps with more story. Maybe I’ll even fill a second notebook, depending on how much material I feel like I’m lacking.

Ha, but anyway. There you have it, the reason why I have neglected my blog.