Notes for Today

• Whenever someone says "is harmless to the environment" the first thing you need to think is "doesn't hurt the environment in any of the ways we currently hurt the environment." Or, even more likely "doesn't hurt the environment as much as our competitor." In the case of liquid glass...color me skeptical when the two articles I can find on the topic are basically just a re-hashing of the company's press release.
• I'm admittedly not sure about the source of this information, but based on its content, I'm completely confident in the result. Apparently drinking alcohol does not lead to weight gain. Again, I'm skeptical, but this might be one I dig into a little bit more in the future.
• Isn't there a part of everyone who is still fascinated by dinosaurs? Considering the mounting evidence that birds are the modern descendants of dinos, I wonder why birds evoke absolutely none of the same fascination for me. Regardless, here's an article discussing the earliest yet known bird-like dino. Obviously, this isn't yet a bird, because I was able to read the article without getting bored.
• Iron-plating armor on snails. Holy cow...how did I miss that?
• Something a lot of people have been concerned about in conservation circles is the decision a couple of years ago to delist the Gray Wolf in the lower 48 (except Wyoming apparently), and the subsequent decision by Idaho and other states to open a hunting season on the wolves. If nothing else, the decision to delist occurred because the people who are opposed to listing the wolf got a lot better at speaking the scientific lingo. Right now the evidence seems to be showing that the wolf numbers are stable (they had been increasing for years).