[TheForge] [YAK] Weather; mussels (Was Re: power hammer)

[Mike Spencer]

Ralph> That -20 gets old quick..........but Frosty's probably just
Ralph> laughing at us wishing he'd get a warm spell like that.  :-)

I remember that.  I've gotten spoiled here in Balmy Nova Scotia.  It's
normally only zero when New England is 20 below.  This year is kinda
spoiling the record: we're just into our second spell of 5 below.

Frosty> Of course we all know a mere Alaskan can't hold a candle to a
Frosty> tough old north easterner like YOU when it comes to cold, COLD
Frosty> weather.

When I lived in Monatgue, Mass., it got so cold one January that the
fire froze up in the stove and we hadda break it up with a cold chisel
and pry it out with crowbars.  Put it out in the barn and dang if the
barn didn't burn down when spring thaw came.

But wait: If it's so mild in Alaska, why does Steve Sayer, my long
time buddy from College AK, spend his winters in the hills of Western
Mass where it's "warm"? 

ObIronwork: Blue mussels use iron extracted from sea water to catalyse
the conversion of goop into the stuff they use to stick themselves
down.  Purdue chemist that discovered this speculates that this may
lead to new rust-proofing technology among other things.

    http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/2004/040112.Wilker.mussels.html

- Mike

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Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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