Grass has this amazing ability to survive the most bizarre weather conditions: the yellow (but slowly turning green) grass patches on the (still) frozen ground in our yard are a testament of the species’ resilience. I find it a kind of funny that despite it being one of the longest surviving plants, Wikipedia’s entry on grass is a bit dull:
Many types of animals eat grass as their main source of food. These animals are usually called “herbivores”, although certain herbivores are more inclined to eat leafy plants, and some omnivorous or even primarily carnivorous animals have been observed eating grass on occasion. Some of the most familiar grass eaters include cows, sheep, horses and rabbits.
Oh. No really? Zzzzzzz.
I was reminded of a silly Dutch tradition: The ‘Palm pasen’ parade. I think only the first two grades (primary school) do this (@Flickr) and I can’t remember exactly what this is all about (Dutch Wikipedia to the rescue) but kids are supposed to make and decorate a cross, nail a piece of bread (the shape of a chicken, I believe) to it and then parade around the neighbourhood or school. Thinking of it, I can’t imagine why public schools would do this to their kids.
Then, somehow, I got here, “Almost Perfect”, which is a personal witness account of the rise and fall of WordPerfect. What can I say about WordPerfect? It went from de-facto standard to obscure word processor. Sure, one can blame Microsoft for aggressively throwing Word at OEMs.
And last but not least, via this (“Neither have you tasted my Jesus”), I ended up looking at this excellent series (“From Big Bang to us – Made Easy”) about the universe, evolution and mankind. If you’re scientifically inclined (and I assume you are), you may just as well subscribe to the creator’s the Youtube channel.