Thursday, September 25, 2008

Rubber duckies to the rescue















Most of us remember this famous song:

Rubber Duckie you’re the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun,
Rubber Duckie I’m awfully fond of you
Vo-vo-dee-o!
Rubber Duckie, joy of joys,
When I squeeze you, you make noise,
Rubber Duckie you’re my very best friend it’s true
Oh, every day when I, make my way to the tubby
I find a little fellow who’s cute and yellow and chubby!
Rub-a-dub-dubby!
Rubber Duckie you’re so fine,
And I’m lucky that you’re mine.
Rubber Duckie, I’d love a whole pond of,
Rubber Duckie, I’m awfully fond of you!
Oh, every day when I, make my way to the tubby
I find a little fellow who’s cute and yellow and chubby!
Rub-a-dub-dubby!
Rubber Duckie you’re so fine,
And I’m lucky that you’re mine,
Rubber Duckie I’m awfully fond of you!

Words and music by Jeff Moss
First broadcast 2/25/70

The cute little critters that we all know and love made headlines today. Already famous to multiple generations for bathtub fun, duckie now stands on the threshold of new fame, accomplishing something that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sophisticated electronic equipment failed to do ….. track where the runoff from glacial ice melt ends up. The full story is at the following link:

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1746514020080921

I’m using this as my first posting today because
1) duckies are just plain fun, and we all need to laugh
2) it illustrates how sometimes we unnecessarily complicate life, when the simple things, the simple solutions prove to be the best. In this case, scientists created a variety of complicated and expensive instruments to track the water flow from the glacial melt. All of them disappeared without providing any reliable information.

Who would have thought, that our dear rubber duckie would be the tool scientists used to unlock the secrets of the glacier ice melt.

Carl

5 comments:

  1. Not bad for the first try, if I do say so myself.

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  2. I've been thinking about this economic meltdown. See RonPaul.com

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  3. Butterfly, there was one line on that website that I believe cuts right to the heart of all the problems that were exploding around us, and it was on the page "Who Is Ron Paul". The line was:

    "his principles will never be compromised”

    That, in all of its simplicity is the heart of the problems with our government, the problems within the church, the economic system, the education system, etal

    ... basic principles have been compromised.

    I'm not referring to some pet theory of a Harvand MBA, who has never set foot outside of a classroom, much less worked a real job, or the rantings for ratings of a televangelist. I mean the basic principles: honesty, inegrity, the basic principle laid down in 1st Cor 13.

    When all the floral rhetoric is stripped away, and the superfluous verbosity removed, every problem we are facing now has compromise of basic principles at its heart.

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  4. Carl, I love your post, because it's a reminder that some of the most overlooked (and, sometimes, whimsical) things around us may ultimately prove to be the most valuable.

    Who'd have thought that mold on bread would one day prove to have lifesaving potential? Or that the leaves and bark of willow trees could soothe almost any pain, and perhaps even prevent strokes and heart attacks?

    Or that rubber duckies could have such potential? There's hope for all of us in your message.

    ReplyDelete