Ack! Yes, meara, I'm so glad nothing bad happened.

I think Hec posted something about Battleship Island a while back - here's a bunch of pictures:

Battleship Island & Other Ruined Urban High-Density Sites

In the case of Hashima Island, or Battleship Island (Gunkanjima in Japanese) as it's often called, hope and optimism became dust and decay because one black resource (coal) was replaced by a cheaper black resource (oil). Populated first in 1887, the island – which is 15 kilometers from Nagasaki – only began to really, and phenomenally, become populated much later, in 1959.

Hashima is, for many ruin fans, the rotting and collapsing grail, the benchmark all other crumbling structures are measured against – and seeing pictures of the place it's easy to see why. Not only is Hashima frighteningly preserved in some places, as if the residents had just stepped out as few minutes before, but it is also, contrarily, spectacularly falling down. Beyond its current awe-inspiring state of decay, the island's dramatic isolation and its bizarre history make it the ruin of ruins.

I am VERY LUCKY MY HOUSE DID NOT BURN DOWN OMG. I got home from a two day trip and discovered that I had left a burner ON on my gas stove. For TWO DAYS.

OMG. I did that once with my gas grill - which I had intended to turn off in the first place because it was making a scary noise - and then like two days later I was watering my plants and was all "why is it so freaking hot right here?" Scary.

A puzzler - what thread does "music for dogs" go? I'ma gonna' guess it goes here.

LOU REED AND LAURIE ANDERSON PLAN HIGH FREQUENCY CONCERT FOR DOGS

The ad for the show reads:

"Laurie Anderson has composed a 20 minute work especially for the hearing range of dogs – who can hear frequencies far outside the human audio spectrum. Taking the idea of the apparently inaudible dog whistle to new artistic heights, our canine friends will be treated to a glorious cacophony of sound, while all we will hear is the lapping of the water on the harbor.

The morning will be an inter-species social gathering on a scale never seen before in Australia. Breakfast can be purchased on site including freshly brewed coffee and egg & bacon rolls, while you watch dog demonstrations and be surprised by some very special guests.

This is an event that you’ll be yapping about for years to come, an absolute must for any dog and their two legged friends!"

Both Anderson and Reed have indicated that they enjoy making such music for their own rat terrier named Lollabelle.

Anderson told the Sydney Morning Herald, "She likes things with a lot of smoothness but with beats in them."

The prolific composer continued that she was inspired to create such a show after she attended a performance at the Vivid Live festival in Sydney.

"Wouldn't it be great, if you were playing a concert and you look out and you see all dogs?"

BBC News indicated that Reed is helping to stage the 20-minute show.

I haz a very important visitor coming on Sunday! [link]

I'm so excited I'm practically vibrating. Also, I apparently have a type.

Aw, brenda, what a sweetheart.

She's lovely, brenda. I hope the visit goes well!

Aww, puppy!

And hell, it's morning again.

Darby is adorable! I have a weak spot for mixes that have the coloring of one side but the size of another.

Doggie!

More doggie news: Dogs can potentially sniff out prostate cancer, French researchers say

Man's best friend may cement his position if early results from French researchers can be replicated. A team of researchers from Tenon Hospital in Paris reported Tuesday at a San Francisco meeting of the American Urological Association that dogs can be trained to detect the characteristic odor of unique chemicals released into urine by prostate tumors, setting the stage for a new way to identify men who are most at risk from the cancer.

If developed, the test might be more effective than the PSA test now used because it would have fewer false positives.

As surprising as the idea might sound, other researchers have already been studying the use of dogs to detect cancers of the breast, lung and bladder. Many tumors release characteristic chemicals that can be identified by the exquisitely sensitive canine nose. Lung cancer cells, for example, can release such chemicals into the air of the lungs, and they can then be detected on the victim's breath.