Let's sachet through some potpourri ...and, yes, I noticed -- you all do smell particularly nice today! Is that for your valentine, or are you looking for one?
Tell us: Who do YOU love, and why?
Bitterly sweet potpourri
The very idea of bombing from the air was so horrific it was outlawed even before it existed. At the Hague Conference of 1899, a ban was placed on dropping bombs from balloons or "any other new method."
"These were visionaries that could foresee what might happen," said Peter Murton, a historian at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, England.
-- from "Dresden: 60 years ago, aerial bombing became grisly fact of modern warfare," Stars & Stripes, Feb. 14, 2005
I love the outcome of the Hague Conference of 1899, and oh how I wonder what they'd think of us in 2005.
::: more good smelly stuff below :::
Sweet potpourri
In Sri Lanka, a baby boy separated from his family in the December tsunami is to be reunited with his parents after a court accepted their claim to the child. The high-profile custody battle for the infant - known as "Baby 81" - has become a symbol of the thousands of families torn apart by the killer waves.
-- from "Tsunami 'Baby 81' Parents Positively Identified , Feb. 14, 2005
Strong potpourri
TARA BROWN: If we're to believe what we have been told about Mamdouh Habib, then this is one very dangerous and evil man.
Well, George W Bush said you were the worst of the worst.
MAMDOUH HABIB: Well, George Bush, he can say whatever he want to say. George Bush, he say he never touched nobody. George Bush is a liar. If I'm the worst, why he release me? If I done anything to him, why am I here now? Why he not charging me?
-- from "Transcript: Under suspicion," "60 Minutes," Australian television interview with Mamdouh Habib, Feb. 14, 2005
Kitty potpourri
Nepetalactone is one of the major components (~ 40%) of the essential oils from Catnip, Nepeta cataria (photo above), a member of the mint family Labiatae. Other compounds found in the oils are common plant compounds like citral, geraniol, citronellol, nerol and limonene. When they inhale it, many (but not all) cats show a response lasting for a few minutes; symptoms include a head-over roll, body rubbing and kicking. Eating it has no effect, the vapour of the nepetalactone has to reach a receptor above the palate in the vomeronasal organ. The behaviour is believed to be an inherited characteristic related to an autosomal dominant gene. Nepetalactone has also been shown to be an active repellent for cockroaches, and recent tests on yellow fever mosquitoes showed that it was a more effective repellent than DEET (N,N diethyl-m-toluamide), the most popular synthetic insect repellent. It is not toxic; it was once even used to make a kind of tea used as a mild sedative and cure for insomnia. Nepetalactone has also been found as a pheromone component in some aphids such as Megoura viciae, Schizaphis gramium and Aphis fabae.
-- from Nepetalactone
Don't you wish that human catnip were legal? What's the deal with that?
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So, TELL US: Who do YOU love, and why?