Bird Business

Well, today was another sleet/ice stay at home day.  No driving around in this mess for me.  Even now it's still below freezing (the weather folks said it was gonna warm up - hasn't happened here) but tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer and pour down rain.

So I did a couple things - nothing important - and then decided I would make these little cuties.

 

These little birds will be 8" square finished. I'm gonna make a bunch for a Little Bird Quilt.

Circus Elephants

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus is in Raleigh this weekend.  Ringling Bros. announced in January it would permanently retire its elephants to its 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida in May. 
It's fascinating the reason for this change - cancer research.  It seems elephants rarely develop cancer based on research by Dr. Joshua Schiffman, a pediatric cancer specialist at the University of Utah. Feld Entertainment (the parent company for the circus) announced in October it will partner with Salt Lake City's Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital and Dr. Schiffman for more research.

The research requires regular blood draws from the elephants - a simple process, a little butterfly needle and the blood is drawn from the veins in their ears.  Cancer is much less common in elephants than in humans, even though the big animals' bodies have many more cells. That's a paradox known among scientists, and now researchers think they may have an explanation one they say might someday lead to new ways to protect people from cancer.

Compared with just one copy in humans, elephants' cells contain 20 copies of a major cancer-suppressing gene, two teams of scientists reported in October. The gene helps damaged cells repair themselves or self-destruct when exposed to cancer-causing substances.
The findings aren't proof that those extra p53 genes make elephants cancer-resistant, but if future research confirms it, scientists could try to develop drugs for humans that would mimic the effect.
Dr. Schiffman's team is exploring how to apply the research to children and families who may be at high risk for cancer.



Groundhog Weather

Well, this is the infamous Puinxsutawney Phil.  He predicted spring will arrive early this year!  

Punxsutawney Phil has had a 39% accuracy rate regarding his early spring/late winter forecast according to the Stormfax Almanac. 
According to USA Today, which has tracked his predictions since 1988, the groundhog has been "right" 13 times and "wrong" 15 times, for an accuracy rate of 46 percent.
And even though Sir Walter Wally (Raleigh's groundhog) also predicted an early spring, he's been wrong seven out of the past ten years.
We've had very little cold weather so far this winter - snow and ice recently and we've got rain and wind coming our way this afternoon.
So the accuracy rate for these critters is not so great . . . . .  so what does all this mean - who knows!  You can look out the window and be as correct as these guys.