Donna Lethal

We had an earthquake here today. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to
run around and act like Ava Gardner , although I’m not
sure if I’d want to be Ava at that point.

Have a listen to DaWillys: “Earthquake”!

Speaking of Our Miss G, I found out I have family in Malaysia:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tree shrews that thrive on fermented nectar
suck up amounts that would inebriate a human but seem to have no such
ill-effects themselves, researchers reported on Monday.

They said their findings may shed light on how animals evolved a taste
for alcohol and may help in understanding why so many humans abuse it.

The tree shrew, found in Malaysia, is very similar to the last common
ancestor of all living primates — a group that includes people — and
it could be that the human taste for alcohol evolved millions of years
ago, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.

“For humans alcohol consumption often has devastating consequences,”
Frank Wiens of Bayreuth University in Germany and colleagues wrote.

“We discovered that seven mammalian species in a West Malaysian
rainforest consume alcoholic nectar daily from flower buds of the
bertam palm (Eugeissona tristis), which they pollinate,” they added.

The flower buds of the palm collect yeast, which ferments the nectar,
they said. “The 3.8 percent maximum alcohol concentration that we
recorded is among the highest ever reported in a natural food.”

The amount they sip would cause drunkenness if a human drank the
equivalent, they said.

“Yet, the flower-visiting mammals showed no signs of intoxication,” they wrote.

They plan further study to find out how the shrews’ bodies cope with
constant alcohol intake with no apparent bad effects.