Coffee, what can't you do?

An extract from coffee can inhibit the bacteria that lead to bad breath, scientists have discovered

Canada's "Rosie the Riveter"

Veronica Foster, aka "Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl" made Bren guns at the Inglis factory in Canada during WWII. She posed for some wartime propaganda posters.


I'll take the Bren over a rivet gun.

Fully automatic and shoots a .303 I;m not sure if that is fun or punishment.

Speaking of Bren guns, here is one from "Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrels":

I'm surrounded by A55es

When I saw the first license plate with A55 I thought it was funny. After seeing dozens, I thought it was downright strange. I was able to take pictures a few.

Osage darkens with age

More specifically, osage darkens with exposure to light. In this picture, you see a new osage kids bow compared to a bow I made years ago. Both bows started off lemon-yellow in color. The bow on the right has been sitting indoors, exposed to average amounts of sunlight (but not direct sunlight), and has 6 coats of Minwax Helmsman spar urethane with IV inhibitors. As you can see, the UV inhibitors in the urethane have not stopped the darkening process, but have probably slowed it down a bit. Eventually, the wood will darken to a deep purple/black.


For those of us who make osage bows, part of the allure is that the woods darkens with age. It develops its own patina as time progresses and looks better with age.

Retro fun

Not as awesome as Star Wars/Airwolf, but still entertaining.

Redwood bowl... 50 cents

M, the boy, and I went for a walk last night. We encountered a woman getting yard sale signs ready. She was quite gregarious, so we decided to swing by Saturday morning to check out her wares.

And I saw this:

















And I turned it over:




















Redwood? Maybe it is. Underneath the dark finish, the wood is a brownish-red. A product of the redwood forests may not be redwood. But for 50 cents, it would make a dandy bowl to hold my wallet, keys, and other items. I cleaned it up and sanded it lightly with 600 grit paper. I wanted to keep the dings, nicks, and scratches. It's good wabi-sabi. A few coats of satin urethane finished it up.

Damn Dirty Birds!

Researchers have found that rooks, a member of the crow family, are capable of using and making tools despite not doing so in the wild.

"This finding is remarkable because rooks do not appear to use tools in the wild, yet they rival habitual tools users such as chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows when tested in captivity," said Chris Bird, the lead author of the study.

First rock and sticks, and then it'll be bows and arrows. Before long we'll all be trapped in a net telling a bird to get it's stinking dirty talons off of us.