Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Basic Horse Colors

I decided to do a series of posts on horse colors. This one will start with the basic horse colors, bay, black, chestnut, and grey.

All colors are either red based or black based. Bay and black horses are black based. Chestnut horses are red based. Grey horses can be either, because the grey masks another color, such as bay or chestnut. These horses are almost never born grey, the horse is born one of the other colors and then they "grey out" as they get older.

Grey horses are often confused with white horses, but see the black muzzle and the black around the eyes? A true albino has pink skin.

Grey horse (either base):



Here's a chestnut horse (red based):



Here's a true, or jet black horse (black based):



And this is a bay (black based):



One of the reasons that a bay turns out bay instead of black is because of a gene called Agouti. If Agouti is present in a horse's coat, it restricts the black to the legs and muzzle, so the horse is bay. If there is no Agouti, then there is nothing to restrict the black so it covers the entire horse.

Horses are either homozygous or heterozygous for any gene that they have. Homozygous means that a horse has a double copy of the gene, and will always pass on one copy of the gene to its foals. Heterozygous means that the horse has only one copy of the gene. For example, a horse that is DNA tested and shown to be e/e is homozygous for red, and will never produce a black based foal. But a horse that is DNA tested and shown to be E/E is homozygous for black and will never produce a red based foal. A horse that is tested to be E/e can produce a red based foal or a black based foal, because it has one copy of each gene. However, since black base is dominant and red base is recessive, a horse that is E/e will appear to be black based.

These are just the basic horse colors. You can add dilutions to them to get other colors, but we'll talk about that next time.

**NOTE: I got all of these pictures and all of the pictures I will be using in the rest of the horse color series off of Google.**

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Wonders Of Science

Reagan has made 2 important scientific discoveries lately!

The first is that if you don't chew your pickle slices AT ALL, they can be barfed up completely intact at a later time and make for a really gross story.

The second discovery was made today while we were picking pecans. She informed Mommy excitedly that she "Opened a pecan and IT! HAD A NUT! INSIDE IT!", and best of all, "The nut, IT! TASTED! GOOD!"

I wonder what we'll discover next.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Throw-Ups

Reagan has "The Throw-Ups".

That would be bad enough, but Reagan needs a little work on obeying without arguing. Here are some conversation clips that I heard:

"Mommy, I WANT TO GET UP!!!!! You KNOW my stomach doesn't hurt ANY MORE!" (To make this sound authentic, have a whiny two-year-old say it while another sibling is stomping their feet and one more is making gagging sounds.)

"Mommy, WHY can't I have cereal?!?!? You know I don't have the throw-ups any more!"

Add a long pause, and then:

"Mommy, I NEVER EVER throw up!"


In other news, how do you like my blog's new look? Mommy A certain person named whose name I shall not mention said that my header looked like it had a big pile of sand in it.

Tell me if she's right. Okay?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Katherine's Story

Last night, I overheard my 4 y.o. sister pretending to read a book to my 2 y.o. sister. I'll relay the story to you IF you have a strong stomach and IF you are not eating. If you fall into that category, just go away. That's right. Leave. Go on!

Katherine's Story (with interuptions)

4 y.o.: "Once upon a time there was a dog and-"

2 y.o. "What kind of dog?"

4 y.o. "Just a dog. Once there was a dog and he ate a person-"

2 y.o. "HE ATE A PERSON?!?!?"

4 y.o. "Yes."

2 y.o. "Eeww."

4 y.o. "But his stomach didn't like the person, so he BARFED HIM ALL UP!"

2 y.o. "EEEEWWWW!!!"

4 y.o. "And then he got a drink out of his water bowl-"

2 y.o. "Eeww."

4 y.o. "And then he ATE THE PERSON AGAIN!"

2 y.o. "EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!"

The moral of this story is: Dogs, DON'T EAT PEOPLE!

And to all of you who were eating when you read this even though I warned you: Aren't you sorry now?

Friday, October 31, 2008

What Will Happen If Obama Is Elected

About spreading the wealth:

If Obama is elected, there will be no more little red hens. They will all die of starvation:

LITTLE RED HEN

"Once there was a little red hen. She called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'

'Not I,' said the cow.

'Not I,' said the duck.

'Not I,' said the pig.

'Not I,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.

'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.

'Not I,' said the duck..

'Out of my classification,' said the pig.

'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.

'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.

At last it came time to bake the bread.

'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.

'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.

'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.

'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.

'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.

She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'

'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)

'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)

'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)

The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)

And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.'

'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.

'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.'

And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. 'Fairness' had been established.

Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for. And eventually there were no more rich because they all joined the 'free bread' crowd, so all of the animals died from starvation."



(Click on the picture to see it bigger)

About the Obama tax plan:

Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too.

It's unfair that he got ten times more than I got'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

*Snicker snicker* This stuff cracks me up.

I Like To Ramble

Well, I was going to have a giveaway for the bloggy giveaways carnival, but by the time I heard about it, IT WAS OVER, Y'ALL.

Because Mymomconnie forgot to tell me about it while it was going.

Oh well. Better late than tardy.

"What did you just say?" You're saying.

Oh nothing, I was just quoting Hank The Cowdog.

So at the NEXT Bloggy Giveaways, I'll be giving away...

A HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!!!

Just kidding.

I'll be having a really great giveaway with crafts that you can make yourself, so don't miss it!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

My Math, It Is STRANGE, Y'all

This is actually a real problem that was in my math book today.

"The formula for the space (s) passed over by a body that moves with uniform velocity (v) during a given time (t) is s=vt. Find s when v=180 feet a second and t=3 seconds."

Now, I'm curious: At what time is the human body moving at one hundred and eighty feet per second?!? Is it a common practice these days to shoot people out of cannons so scientists can dream up mathematical formulas to torture innocent kids?