We watched Pangs last night, after I botched the third of three botched pies (out of a total of four made). Anya's "Ritual sacrifice. With pie," line, which has never failed to delight, nearly had me in tears. On the other hand, I over-identified with Buffy, even more than usual.

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Hey. I went to sleep but my idiotic brain thought I was just taking a nap so it woke me up a couple of hours later. Totally not my fault.

I did the same thing. You know for being brains, they aren't very smart...

Pangs! I missed the broadcast and am oddly sad given that I have the dvds... It's traditional for me to encourage my mom to watch it. Ev.er.y. Year. And by encourage, I mean force. It's like the rutabegas, traditional.

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Timelies all!

Turkeys are as kosher as chickens, if killed correctly. So says Empire, since they sell turkeys, and they are kosher.

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I didn't know if they'd televise it today. I TiVo the FX Buffy reruns, in case I'm in the mood for a Buffy, and too lazy to pick through the DVDs. When an episode I'm in the mood to see pops up in my Buffy folder, it seems to mean more than when I go to the DVDs and pull the appropriate disc. It's like hearing a song on the radio, instead of playing your CD or iTunes file, or whatever.

Anyhow, I never thought to look what FX had on the schedule for today, once I confirmed (last night) that they were still airing season 2. Now I'm kind of bummed I missed the televised airing.

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Chris wants to know if he draws pictures, will animals recognize the subject. I told him that I didn't think they had that sort of ability to reason. I said I suspect if, for example, he drew a tree (no matter how accurate and detailed it was), an animal would not recognize that it was a representation of a tree.

Was I (only) talking out my arse? Are there any animals (I'm thinking something apely) that we think recognize symbols as representations of actual objects? I know that Koko (? that gorilla) does some sign language, but I'd always thought of that as more of a conditioned response, than actual decoding.

Anyone?

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Okay, back to the Frankenbuddha bane crack puzzle. If there's anybody around who can help, out of the three left-most columns, I am only missing four things -- In earth sciences, I am missing the item directly to the left, the one that's below Google Earth. I am also missing three items in automobile, the items linking car and go-karts and the single item up and to the right from train.

The two right hand columns have lots of little spots empty, but hopefully I'll fill in more of that later. SO. CLOSE. TO. DONE.

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Sean, I can't help with the first, since I am not that far along, but for the first of the three in automobiles, it's what Cass and Trudy talk about a lot.

In that box, what connects Wolfenstein, tanks, and hovercraft ?

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This is just effed up, yo: [link]

In that box, what connects

Heh. I'm amazed you got that far without the one you're missing. I only got Wolfenstein by googling Germany, wolf, and the one your missing. But to aid you -- it's a combination of two words you already have, basically a floating war machine.

I got one of the two things I was missing in that square, but the two-word clue between racing and go-karts eludes me still. I've tried lots of stuff related to those two things, but nothing's worked so far.

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Anyone?

Page billytea!

Although I know elephants can recognize their reflection as a reflection not another elephant. Some primates and maybe dolphins can do the same, IIRC.

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There are also some studies with parrots that seem to indicate that they can grok symbols, so that if you ask them to pick out a blue block, when they've never been challenged on such a combination before (having been asked to pick out blue objects and blocks separately) can get it right.

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