Double X Science Jr

Profiles of the periodic table: Neon

2012-03-02T10:00:00.001-08:00

Neon is one ofthe six noble gases. The average neon atom is made up of ten protons and tenelectrons. Its first shell holds two electrons and its outermost shell holds eight. It has an atomic mass of about 20.180. Its atomicnumber is (obviously) ten.

A neon atom. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Weekly Element Joke: A game of hide andseek: Argon: I found you, neon! Neon: How did you find me? Argon: I think it’sbecause of your glow.

Neon glowing reddish-orange.
Via Wikimedia Commons.

Neon also can glow if it is inside aglass tube and a current of electricity flows through it. [Ed. note: Thevoltage through the tube makes the electrons in the neon atoms excited, and after the electrons' kinetic, or motion, energy increases, they fall back into a relaxed state and release packets of energy called photons at a specific wavelength of visible light.] Neon’s colorwhen it glows is an orangey-red. If you see other colors in a “neon” sign, theyare from other gases, like argon.

Jean Picard, via Wikipedia.

Neon was discovered in 1898 by twochemists by the names of William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers in London, England. [Ed. note: They also identified xenon and krypton]. But the first person torecord seeing it glow was Jean Picard, a French astronomer, in 1675!

William Ramsay, via
Wikimedia Commons.

Neon’s symbol is Ne, and it’s name means“new gas” [Ed note: “neo” means “new”]. Even though neon is the fourth mostcommon element in the universe, the earth’s atmosphere is only 0.0018% neon.

Profiles of the periodic table: Hydrogen

2012-02-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hydrogen gas

By Carcharodontosaurus, age 10, DXS Jr Contributor

This post is our continuation of our series on the periodic table. Our first post was about helium.

Hydrogen is the lightest gas known. A molecule of hydrogen gas is two hydrogens bonded together, known as H2. A water molecule is H2O or two hydrogens plus one oxygen.

A molecule of hydrogen gas consists of two hydrogen atoms bonded together.

In the Sun, four hydrogens crash into each other and fuse to form a helium. Some of the mass in this process is converted to energy, which can fuel more reactions. In our Sun, this series of reactions can go on for about 10 billion years. Albert Einstein’s most famous equation, E=mc2, describes how much energy results from each of these reactions. The c in that equation is the speed of light, which is 670,616,629 miles per hour!

The Sun. Image credit: NASA, via Wikimedia Commons.

Hydrogen’s atomic mass is about 1.00794 atomic mass units, a unit based on carbon, an element we’ll be posting about later. A common hydrogen atom consists of one proton and one electron. Here is a hydrogen joke: One hydrogen atom says to another, “I think I lost an electron!” The other hydrogen asks, “Are you sure?” And the first hydrogen answers: “I’m positive!” One form, or isotope, of hydrogen that has more mass, called deuterium, also has a neutron in its nucleus, in addition to the proton.

A rendering of deuterium, a hydrogen with one proton and one neutron
in the nucleus (red and green) and one electron. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Hydrogen was used in the Hindenberg but that was a big mistake because hydrogen is extremely flammable.

The Hindenberg. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.

Hydrogen is used in a hydrogen bomb (duh) designed for mass destruction everywhere within its range. This bomb relies on fusion like what happens in the Sun. In a hydrogen bomb, two isotopes of hydrogen--deuterium and another isotope that has two neutrons, called tritium--are involved in the fusion reaction. Since a hydrogen with two nuclear particles is called deuterium and a hydrogen with three is called tritium, you might think a regular everyday hydrogen is called unium, but it’s not. Instead, it’s called protium or… just hydrogen.

A rendering of tritium, a hydrogen with one proton (red), two neutrons
(green), and one electron (blue). Via Wikimedia Commons.

Profiles of the periodic table: Helium

2012-01-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

Helium. The funny gas. Via Wikimedia Commons,
Creative Commons License.

By Carcharodontosaurus, age 10, DXS Jr Contributor

Hello there, random person who’s interested in science! Thisseries is about the different elements in the periodic table and what they canbe used for. First, let’s start with helium. The symbol for helium isHe. Here is a helium joke: “I always thought the funniest element was helium.He He He.”

A helium atom has two protons in its center and twoelectrons orbiting it. It also has two noncharged particles, or neutrons. Thetwo electrons are the maximum that the first electron orbital of an atom canhold, so helium is chemically stable and doesn’t react with other atoms. Anotherjoke about helium: Two atoms of helium walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Wedon’t serve your kind here.” The heliums don’t react. Ha!

Helium is never found in a solid form. It only can be a gasor a liquid. Helium is a liquid from [Ed. correction] -273* C to around -269* C. It can be found inincredible abundance on gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn, and all stars,including our Sun.

A special kind of helium, called Helium-3, is strangelylacking a neutron but could, in theory, be a never-ending power-source. Go to StartsWith a Bang to find out more about helium.

Liquid helium that is supercooled is known as a “superfluid”because liquid helium at a very low temperature (below 2 K, or Kelvin) can do alot of strange things like seep through microscopic cracks, as shown in the video below [Chemistry editor’snote: The video also suggests that it could make a fountain that could, in theright conditions, go on forever, but there are no right conditions for that].

If You Give an Opossum a Mozzarella Stick

2012-01-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

By Elizabeth Preston

When the bus driver pulled away and I was left standing with a dozen near-strangers in the lobby of Durham's Museum of Life and Science, I admit I felt some doubt.

It was the second day of Science Online 2012, a conference-meets-mothership for bloggers, researchers, and other science communicators. We'd been promised a tour, but that promise had come electronically from yet another person I didn't know. I began to wonder how much time we could kill in the gift shop if needed, and where exactly in North Carolina I was. Then Keeper Mikey appeared, wearing a baseball cap and a big grin, and told us we were going to see some bears today.

I learned several things that afternoon. Outside, on the trail, we ran into three boys who ranged from knee-height to thigh-height. I asked them if they'd seen any animals they liked. "I saw a snake!" the biggest brother said. "But it would be cool if there was a tiger." In the spirit of the museum's tinier visitors, I'm going to present our adventures in modified children's book titles.

Make Way for Alligators

The first thing Mike did after leading us into a staff-only hallway was disappear behind another door. "You stay put," he called behind him, "It's venomous down here!" Without leaving us much time to wonder what that meant, Mike reappeared holding Phoebe.

I learned from Phoebe that baby alligators are pretty irresistible. Mike wanted us to take turns petting Phoebe on her back, but we convinced him to let us hold the alligator ourselves. "Just promise you won't yell at me if she gets nippy," he said. Phoebe was a good sport, looking around and blinking with her upside-down eyelids while a succession of humans held her around the belly. (Later, on the bus, one woman confessed that she thought Phoebe felt like a purse. "Technically," someone else countered, "a purse feels like Phoebe.")

I had also never figured alligators for intelligent animals. But Mike told stories of his work at other alligator facilities, where the animals knew their names and would come when called. He said he could yell out the name of an alligator, see its wake approaching him in the water, and pass it a meatball on a stick when it stopped near the shore. Summoning alligators isn't a talent I'd be quite so excited about.

If You Give an Opossum a Mozzarella Stick

Most of the animals at the museum are rescues, used for education because they're too tame or injured to go back to the wild. While juggling an extraordinarily squirmy opossum, Mike let us in on a secret: Opossums go nuts for mozzarella sticks. In fact, he seemed to know the favorite food of every animal under his care. Lemurs love Craisins. Black bears don't care too much for raw sweet potato, but they love it after it's been cooked with a little vanilla. Doesn't sound too bad to me, either.

Everybody Bites

No matter how cuddly the animals look, sometimes they want to chew on your fingers. Mike gave this potbellied pig a stern "No nipping!" command as it stood on its hind legs to greet us. Potbellied pigs are highly intelligent ("Smarter than your dog!") and often kept as pets.

This pig's companion was named, Mike told us regretfully, Miss Piggy. Any animals that arrives at the museum with a name gets to keep it--no matter how much that name pains the staff. The center receives plenty of cast-off pet reptiles, for example: "People say, 'Oh, this is my iguana, his name's Iggy,'" Mike said. "Of course it is." We met a lizard named Godzilla, a donkey named Lightning, and a gecko named Gordon.

Go, Wolf, Go!

I'd never seen a red wolf before, and that's probably because there are only a few hundred of them alive in the world. The two at the Museum of Science and Nature belong to the government--they have numbers, not names.

Mike told us they're hoping for cubs this year, but so far the male and female wolf haven't hit it off. He described watching video footage of the wolves one night: The male lay down a safe distance from where the female was sleeping and closed his eyes. Later in the night, he opened his eyes, crept a little closer to the female, and slept again. He kept sneaking closer to her throughout the night until she finally woke up and growled, sending the male slinking away.

Since the red wolf population at one time dipped to only a handful of breeding individuals, today's population isn't healthy by genetic standards. When a whole population is closely related, there aren't likely to be individuals with genetic mutations that give them different strengths. This means a virus or a shift in climate could wipe out the whole population in one go.

One member of our tour suggested solving this problem by irradiating the animals before releasing them in the wild. "I'm joking, by the way," she added for the benefit of everyone live-tweeting.

Where the Wild Nerds Are
We'd been on our tour for at least an hour when two members of the group suddenly burst out with, "Oh! It's so nice to meet you!" and shook each other's hands. Mike looked totally baffled. I told him that plenty of people at the conference knew each other by their Twitter handles but hadn't met face-to-face before. He looked only slightly less baffled.

One Lemur, Two Lemur, Red Lemur, Ringtail

While Mike went into the ring-tailed lemur enclosure and fed them Craisins, we called down to him with questions: What's their social structure like? (Matriarchal.) Why do they carry their tails up in the air when they walk? (To signal to each other in tall grass.) What are those collars for? (They're radio collars so the lemurs can be tracked through the woods if they escape.)

"Are they soft?" someone yelled down.

Mikey looked up at us and nodded, grinning.

Cloudy with a Chance of Bears

It began to sprinkle while we headed out to see the animals we'd all been waiting for: the black bears. When we arrived, two were huddled in a cave and the other two were high on a cliff, hidden except for their faces. Mike led us into a shed and through a series of padlocked metal gates. The last gate, which he kept closed, looked directly onto the enclosure. "You stay here," Mike said. "I'm going to go on the roof and throw raisins."

He disappeared, and a few moments later the bears began to trot toward us. A bear that had been on the cliff shimmied backward down an incline, checking behind her, like a toddler descending stairs. Curious to see who was visiting, another bear came right up to the fence we were behind and stood up against it. Cameras flashed. We gaped at the bear's big paw pads, looked it in the eyes. Mike returned and called us around to a fenced-in area at the side of the shed.

The bears have been taught various commands; they stood up, sat down, and followed Mike back and forth (their round teddy-bear bodies bouncing) in exchange for spoonfuls of raisins. This is so that, if the bears need a physical exam or to have blood drawn, a veterinarian will be able to interact with them easily. We witnessed the bears' different personalities: Virginia licked up raisins delicately, while Gus tried to gobble the whole plastic spoon. If Mikey ignored them for too long, they snuffled up behind him to get attention.

We were sorry to leave the bears and the center's other inhabitants, including Keeper Mike, the friendliest animal of all. Virginia was nice enough to pose for a picture with us before we left.

Meanwhile, Gus turned away and scratched his rear end at length on the corner of the shed. He wasn't feeling quite as sentimental.

Photos by Elizabeth Preston, except for the final photo provided by @CogSciLibrarian. You can find more photos at this Storify. Thanks to Mikey Romano for a terrific afternoon!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Preston, who wrote this delightful piece about her experience on this museum tour, is the Chicago-based editor of MUSE, the children's science magazine. Her writing has also appeared in National Geographic.

Madagascar's unique plants and animals

2012-01-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

Madagascar (red), off the southeast coast of Africa. Via Wikimedia Commons.

First off, you know what Madagascar is right? You might think you do, but you never will. But I'll give you some information on this tropical land. Let's start off with its unique plants. Now when you think of a tree, you probably think green leaves and a long thick trunk. Well, this tree has green leaves, but it's not your average everyday trunk. This tree is known as the baobab tree.

The baobab tree is the strangest tree you'll ever look at. Its giant barrel-like trunk is more than four feet in diameter! You wouldn't want one of these to fall on your house, that's for sure. The main reason baobabs are so porky is because their huge trunks are used to store water.

A fat baobab. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Now that you know a little bit about Madagascar's plants, let's move on to the animals. How about the aye-aye? The aye-aye is a nocturnal primate. It has long fingers (Ed. note: for finding food), estimated at two inches or more. The aye-aye was once hunted and killed for its bizarre appearance (Ed. note: It still is).

Despite its bad hairdo and its long black boney fingers, the aye-aye is an extremely interesting creature. This aye-aye was photographed in a tree at night searching for fruit.

An aye-aye at night. Via Wikimedia Commons.

By XXScience Jr contributor Rabid Shrimp.

Ed note: We just finished watching a great documentary series about Madagascar, called Wild Madagascar. Highly recommended.

Octopus mimic fish, or fish mimic octopus? Both, actually

2012-01-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

The mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) does just what its name implies:

And now, there's a fish (Stalix cf. histrio) that returns the favor:

More on the story here and the original scientific paper here.

Tuesday "awwww" moment: Baby polar bear

2011-12-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Happy Holidays from....a Comet?

2011-12-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

Photo (c) Guillard Blanchard: http://www.eso.org/~gblancha

Click to read the story of the "Christmas" Comet Lovejoy's discovery.
(from ScienceDaily.com).

The Layers of the Ocean

2011-12-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

by Lizzie

http://www.exploringnature.org/db/detail.php?dbID=13&detID=2474

Epipelagic Zone

http://questgarden.com/99/85/9/100414153742/process.htm

The Sunlit Zone, also known as the epipelagic (epi = "outside of", pelagic = "referring to the ocean") zone, is zero to 600 feet deep. It is the warmest zone with temperatures from 68 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit. The pressure is 20 times greater than at the surface. Phytoplankton produces most of the oxygen in this zone.

http://www.wowcollector.net/2011/05/deep-sea-disco/

Mesopelagic Zone Many kinds of animals live in the Twilight, aka “Mesopelagic,” Zone. It is 660 to 3,300 feet deep. In this zone, it is 52-39 degrees. The pressure here is 100 times greater than at the surface. This zone receives only a faint amount of sunlight during the daytime because the sea water absorbs the sunlight. Many animals here display bioluminescence, like this jellyfish (left).

Bathypelagic Zone

The Dark/Midnight/Bathypelagic Zone is 3,000 – 13,000 feet deep. The pressure here is 20 times greater than at the surface. In the Dark Zone all of the animals have black, dark brown, or red coloring. They are also smaller. Some examples of animals in this zone include the pram bug, pelican eel, and the hairy angler. Some fish and sea creatures in this zone use bioluminescence to confuse predators, lure in food, communicate, and mate. They also have to have long, sharp teeth so they can hold on to their food and big eyes so they can find their food.

Anglerfish (above) (c)extremescience.com

http://www.cracked.com/funny-149-the-deep-ocean/

The Abyss

The Abyssopelagic is 13,000-19,700 feet deep. The temperature is close to freezing. No light reaches the Abyss. The pressure is 600 times greater than the surface. Ooze, marine “snow” and sediment, is thousands of feet thick and hydrothermal vents provide habitat for a special kind of bacteria. Here's a really cool National Geographic video on hydrothermal vents.

Hadalpelagic

Tubeworms (c)Encarta

This is the deepest point in the ocean that scientists have ever found. It is located in the West Pacific Ocean and seven miles down. The temperature is 36 degrees and the pressure is 1,000 times greater than it is at the surface. Animals like tubeworms and starfish can survive here.

So...which zone should we visit first? Check out this post for tons of other awesome pictures of deep sea life.

Left Brain vs. Right Brain

2011-11-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

by Lead Zeppelin

http://www.angelfire.com/wi/2brains/

Are you better with numbers or colors? Do you prefer pencils over crayons? Are you more interested in how they filmed the movie rather than the movie itself? Math over writing? Dogs but not cats? Everybody’s different: some people are right-handed, some people are left-handed. But…did you know that you can be right-brained or left-brained?

A right-brained actor playing a left-brained physician

If you are left-brained, you’re probably more practical. You don’t “clown around” in class or daydream about pirates taking over robot island. You probably quietly take your notes (which will be color-coded, underlined, highlighted...) and proudly bring home your report card, covered in A’s (because you don’t tolerate B’s). You might not care for cartoons (sorry, SpongeBob) and would rather watch what’s on History (congratulations “History of Northern Egypt”!). Your favorite subjects will most likely be math and science and you’ll probably be more skilled in Microsoft Excel then you are in decorating the living room! Actually, some left-brainers wish they weren’t so into algebra and chemical reactions. In fact, sometimes left brained people wish they could be more creative and less, well, “brainy”! If you are left brained, you may eventually become a scientist, judge, lawyer, mathematician, librarian, or doctor.

http://www.tower.com/

If you are right brained, you’re most likely daydreaming about ways to repopulate unicorns, and when your math teacher asks you what pi is, you’re probably going to say “a sweet pastry with apples and cinnamon.”. You have a shelf filled with journals full of your ideas and ponderings marked "BOOK NUMBER 1," "BOOK NUMBER 2," and "BOOK NUMBER 3," and you and your friends will probably meet more for book club than you will for study sessions. You get bored at long meetings, enjoy telling stories (or being told stories), and you also have the wonderful, convenient ability of being able to listen to music or television while studying (you have NO clue how lucky you are)! The right brain excels in poetry, art, and endless dreaming. You see the world in your own very special way and you love imagining the impossible. But even with all of your right-brained person’s talent and creativity, you might sometimes wish you could understand the words in your science textbooks more than the words of Shakespeare! Some common occupations for a right-brained person are forest ranger, beauty specialist, politician, athlete, artist, craftsman, and actress.

Do you want to know if your right brained or left brained? Take this test.

Editor's Note for "Right Brain vs. Left Brain"

by DblXSciJrEd

So you're a budding poet...don't go labeling yourself just yet. Although many studies have confirmed that the two hemispheres of the brain perform distinct functions, very few people are truly right- or left-brained (unless they've had a hemisphere or corpus callosum removed). Hemispheric lateralization--the fancy term describing distinct functioning of the left and right sides of the brain--may contribute to certain abilities, but it's important to note that both sides of the brain can communicate via the corpus callosum, a tract of white fiber that keeps the left brain up to speed on what the right brain is doing (and vice-versa). Remove the corpus callosum and this "sidedness" becomes more pronounced. For example, a patient shown an orange in his left field of vision may see an orange, know that it is an orange, but would be unable to say "it's an orange." This is because the other side of the brain (right) directs speech formation. With both sides acting together, it is possible to understand and describe. It's a team effort.

I took the test at the link that Ms. Lead Zeppelin so kindly provided. My results were 59% left-brained, 41% right-brained. (I'll now pause for some of my close relatives to gasp.) I am certain that fifteen years ago these percentages would have been flipped if not even more heavily-weighted to the right. I used to be able to write one heckuva poem or short fiction and couldn't solve a proof to save my life. Sometime in my early 20s, though, something switched on in that left side and has made me the organized, linear-thinking, non-fiction-reading, logical person I [sort of] am now. So if you're despairing over your perceived shortcomings, give it a few years and exercise your brain in the subjects that don't come easily. Relax, embrace your talents...even Einstein made a silly face once in a while.


http://djstorm.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/left-brain-vs-right-brain/

Can you see me now?

2011-11-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

by Lizzie

Camouflage is how animals blend in or look like their environment. It helps animals stay alive by giving them an advantage over other animals (that don't blend in). Camouflage can help prey animals live longer by hiding them from predators (like the rabbit hiding from the coyote). Camouflage can also help predators hide while they hunt. For example, leopards have spotted coats that look like sun on trees or grass, and they can be very still. A well-camouflaged animal will probably survive longer than an animal with poor camouflage. Some animals, like the chameleon, change color to blend in with things that are around them and others, like the sting ray, cover themselves to blend in.


(c) @HowStuffWorks http://curiosity.discovery.com/topic/ecology-and-the-environment/animal-camouflage-pictures12.htm

Can you find the animals in these pictures?

Editor's Note for "Can you see me now?"

by DblXSciJrEd

You may be thinking that it's easy for you to see a lot of the animals above. Remember, you (as a homo sapiens) have special equipment for sharp, clear, color vision. Your cones, special nerve cells in your eyes, set you apart from most of the animal kingdom. Look at the picture below of zebra running through grass.

http://www.game-reserve.com

Pretty obvious, right? If you were a lion, though, all of those zebra stripes would start to look a lot like grass waving on the Serengeti. Picking one out of the herd becomes quite a task... especially when the stripes are moving. Think of this the next time you're driving fast down the highway. Look at the grass along the side of the road and how blurred it becomes as the car speeds up. It would be tough to find a grasshopper (or anything grass-colored) under those conditions.

We encourage you (once you're on solid ground) to hunt for examples of camouflage in your own back yard. You'll be surprised what you'll find. Good luck!

Does Turkey Make You [yawn] Sleepy?

2011-11-22T18:21:00.001-08:00

Oh, the turkey, always taking the blame for the post-feast food coma. Although turkey does contain a sleep-inducing amino acid, L-tryptophan , so do a lot of other protein products. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins that build up muscles and other important parts of your body. There are 20 types of amino acids, and these can combine in tons of ways to make different proteins. When we eat the turkey, the L- tryptophan flows through our digestive system and the blood carries it to our brain. The brain changes it into a neurotransmitter called serotonin. The serotonin calms us down and makes us sleepy.

However, in an exciting twist, we discovered in our research that L- tryptophan can only really affect our brains if it’s not competing with other amino acids to get into the brain. The brain is protected by the blood brain barrier, a selective bunch of cells that “guard” our prized grey matter. So, since turkey has many amino acids in it, it’s unlikely that the L-tryptophan is the culprit. Now here’s the bad news: carbohydrates also tend to trigger drowsiness. All the good stuff—dressing, pumpkin pie, homemade rolls, and pound cake—are the true guilty parties. (We also hypothesize that watching football enhances the effects.)

Now that you know that turkey doesn’t really make you sleepy, go on and enjoy your Thanksgiving! But you still might want to watch out for that cornbread and pumpkin pie! You don’t want to be napping on your plate…

Let's Talk Turkey

2011-11-22T18:05:00.001-08:00

The turkey is a famous bird in the history of the United States. It was Benjamin Franklin’s choice for national bird of America! Even though most people think the pilgrims loved turkey also, historians believe diners at the “First Thanksgiving” dined on deer and native vegetables (sorry, no pumpkin pie, either). Turkeys mainly live on the forest floor, but sometimes they hang out in swamps and grasslands. Turkeys are, surprisingly, omnivores that feed on nuts, seeds, insects, fruits, and…salamanders? Yep, salamanders…and snakes.

from http://tingsgrove.blogspot.com/2011/10/snake-eating-turkey-or-is-it-turkey.html

The male turkey is thought to look “showy” and “attractive”, but there isn’t anything very attractive about a bald, pink head and a large, red wattle hanging from its beak (in our opinion). Aside from its minor flaws, it has a large tailfan and big, ruffly feathers to attract mates. The female, on the other hand, is smaller and “less showy”. It doesn’t sport the shiny blue-black feathers and is more of a brown or tan color. In the wild, turkeys live for about three to four years and can grow up to about four feet tall! Because turkeys are birds, their bones are light and even the largest birds max out at only 20 pounds. Most are around 8-10 pounds, though.

Meleagris gallopavo: The Wild Turkey (male). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Turkey

Most people don’t eat wild turkeys, and for Thanksgiving, your mom probably bought one that was raised on a farm! People have been breeding domesticated turkeys for about three to four hundred years. Breeder farms send the eggs to the hatcheries. The eggs hatch after about 28 days. There, they are categorized into different gender groups and are fed the same thing every day: ground soybean and corn (pretty gross… huh?). The female turkeys are slaughtered at about 14 weeks after hatching, and the males after about 18 weeks (poor turkey!). Some domesticated turkeys are able to lay eggs that are able to hatch without fertilization. This process is called parthenogenesis and is more common in insects than birds or mammals, so the turkey is definitely a unique bird.

We hope you have a happy Thanksgiving (with or without the turkey…)!