For some reason, I’m reminded of a news item making the rounds. Emerging fossil evidence suggests that many dinosaurs had feathers, perhaps even most or all of them. This makes sense to me. Well within my lifetime, the idea that dinosaurs more closely resembled birds than lizards first gained public attention. It took years for this dramatic shift in perception to be generally accepted, but I thought it made a lot of sense the first time I heard it laid out. It didn’t make the idea of dinosaurs less terrifying, either. If you were a bug, which would you rather cope with, a sleepy anole on a limb over there, or a voracious hen rampaging around the barnyard? Anyway, I’ve wondered since if maybe dinosaurs didn’t have feathers, and now it seems maybe they did.
65 responses to “And an umbrella!”
Well, what do you know? First Post two days in a row! Tnanx, JJ!
I had not heard of dinosaurs having feathers. I’m not really sure if I care either. I guess it just shows that world has always changed, despite mankind’s attempts to mess it up.
Birds are somewhat like background noise. However when you take time to observe them, it can be quite fascinating.
GR6: WTSHTF – am I correct that this acronym is referring to a time at which the excrement strikes the ventilating device?
Our science seems defined more by what it hasn’t yet discovered than by what it knows for sure. Much of what I was taught as a child has since been proven wrong.
Good morning, Villagers! I read a book called The Hot Blooded Dinosaurs when I was just a kid, so I am on the page. I doubt that feathers would improve a T.rex, but what are feathers but modified scales anyhow?
*pats foot* Ghost, did you post “Bacon should be a vitamin” on the Dark Side today? For shame!
Ruth Anne: 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StpbhwYtkF4
I’m sorry, Lily. What I meant to say was, “Chocolate should have been a vitamin.”
Relax, everyone. I recall hearing at the time that the movie “Airplane” was made that it was just modeling clay with chopped walnuts in it. Although come to think of it, that sounds almost as bad.
If chocolate was a vitamin, I would take the calorie-free supplement. Kind of like I take fish-oil capsules, get the benefits without eating nasssty fisssh.
Heh, once again, my one hearty out-loud laugh today was aqt the vintage “Peanuts” 😀
What also fascinates me is that we’ll never know what colors dinosaurs were. Think about our birds (and reptiles, for that matter). The color combinations are phenomenal. So why would we assume that dinosaurs are murky gray/brown?
Bonnie, right! Look at today’s lizards and birds. Although, I’m sure Debbe doesn’t want to think about a broodhouse full of Archaeopteryx.
I suspect the predators were camouflaged as today, the giant herbivores were colored to attract mates, and the flying dinos were brightly colored. But we’ll never know
Caution: “On-topic” comment follows…
A show of hands, please…
Who thinks that (as apparently do most of the Darksidians) the 7-28-14 and 7-29-14 A&J cartoons are just about tomato sandwiches?
Who thinks they are about Meg and Arlo bonding?
And who thinks they are about both, because Jimmy is really good at the whole “multi-level meaning” thing?
I prefer feathers to guns but, I suggest if you are accosted in a parking lot throw up your hands, yell “don’t shoot” as loud as possible and run. If I am going to be shot I want witnesses around and, as the videos prove, a punk can’t hit someone standing right in front of him.
Ghost, you are very perceptive; as you always are. It does appear that Meg and Arlo both ate too much, in addition to bonding!
If your armed assailant is right handed, run away at an angle to his right side, rather than directly away from him. It’s harder to hit a crossing target, especially when it’s moving away from your dominant side. Ask any skeet shooter.
As my SWAT ninja says, “Cheat.”
Sandwiches and bonding, of course. Arlo isn’t going to waste any time with his adoptive grandchild!
Charlotte, I think Meg has the potential to develop into the most interesting of an already interesting group of A&J characters. Just look at her role models. 🙂
I suppose we’ll just have to wait until the successful completion of Operation Universalstudiosaur, the secret dinosaur DNA recovery/cloning project, and see what color they are.
Trapper Jean, I really liked your story near the end of yesterday’s thread! Was that elf-like girl by any chance you, yourself?
*raises hand* I think it’s about Arlo and Meg bonding, but it’s also JJ reminding us of how good fresh tomato sandwiches are without bacon 😛
GR, I’m definitely raising my hand for both bonding and sandwiches.
CXP, I AM glad I asked; thank you. Now I admit that I not only collect stamps, which is fairly “normal” although not so common anymore, but I also have a very large collection of all kinds of bells, some of them purchased on eBay.
Lily, I suspect the only time you would add bacon to a lettuce and tomato sandwich is when it’s necessary to disguise the flavor of a green house-raised tomato!
TR, you are almost certainly right!
I just posted this in response to gun talk, at the end of yesterday’s posts. It belongs here.
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emb 29 Jul 2014 2:00 pm #??.
Speaking of guns, Brooke is dragging things out again in 9CL. Remarkable what his double agent can do with a pistol at great distances.
Reminds me of a film clip I saw at an ’80s lecture about portrayal of women in films. This [police? no uniform] gal, has just seen a boy kidnapped and the villains are driving off. With her pistol, bang 3x, she kills all 3 and the boy is unharmed. Sure.