Desk Cut-out. Why aren't all desks made this way?

Is a desk that lets you rest your elbows the pinnacle of laziness or something more? Do you remember the desks in grade school? The one piece desks with the wrap-around top that let you rest your entire arm while you worked? I miss those desks. They were the motivation behind the desk I built for my office at work.

With a little measuring I figured out that a small radial cut-out only nine inches deep would let me comfortably rest both of my arms on the desk. The project was more a novelty than anything else, but I was amazed by the difference it makes while working at the computer. All of the tension in my neck and shoulders that builds up through the work day was simply gone! Which makes sense when you think about it. Normally you would, at least partially, hold your arms in the air all day. Even if your wrists or forearms are supported you still have to hold your arms in place with your shoulder and neck muscles.

Here's an experiment. If you're at a desk right now, close your eyes, relax, and let your body go limp. Did your arms fall? See what I mean?

This is by far the most comfortable desk I have ever used. I'm building a larger version for my home office and will never go back to a flat front desk. As you can see in the picture, a comfy chair that leans back and a foot rest are always a plus :)

Pumpkin Sex Fairy Kills off Pollinators

Hows that for a title, huh? Let me give you a little background. About a month ago, my wife bought this evil insect killing kit called the Fatal Funnel to kill wasps building nests on our front porch. A yellow plastic flower from the kit is embedded into the side of a two liter soda bottle to create a very deceptive and effective trap.
We placed the bottle with it's inviting yellow flower on our porch rail and my wife was quite pleased with herself as the layer of drowned insects began to grow at the bottom of the bottle. After a couple of weeks we had collected enough insect soup to sustain Bear Grills (and camera man) for days in the wild.

As we were enjoying our wasp-free porch though, nature had been twisting it's fate up through our pine bark pebbles in the form of a beautiful, healthy pumpkin vine. By the time we noticed it, there were a couple feet of vine. Now, Halloween is out favorite holiday and we have a big pumpkin carving tradition so we were happy so see it take over our flower bed but its first yellow bloom brought to mind a major problem.
Yes, I'm sure you've figured this out already. The vine needs to be pollinated to produce pumpkins, yet all of the buzzing creatures that like yellow flowers are now rotting in the bottom of a coke bottle. Having destroyed the balance of nature, my wife has agreed to go out and transfer the pollen from the male to female flowers herself using an art brush. I now refer to her as the Pumpkin Sex Fairy. Right now the vine is a complete stamen fest. The male flowers usually start to appear about a week or two before the females. Hopefully some females will appear soon so I can get some shots of the Pumpkin Sex Fairy in action.

Tenacious DNA

There are a couple minor things I have issues with in this compilation, but it's a very moving piece of work. Definitely worth 12 minutes of your time!

My only issues with the film are that first, the text for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction is confusing. It seems to say that surviving avian dinosaurs later evolved into birds, then mammals. I think the point was supposed to be that avian dinosaurs and mammals survived and that birds would later evolve from the avian dinosaurs.

Secondly, not that life was easy for early hominids by any means, but the depiction of an individual taking on dangerous game on his own doesn't sit well with our evolutionary math. Our intellect and sense of community were much more likely drivers for survival than strength and bravery. A theory that fits into this realization is Persistence Hunting, another interesting topic I'll be learning more about when I can find the time.