8102 - Today I learned -

[scottobear]

Dinosaurs are a specific subgroup of the archosaurs, a group that also includes crocodiles, pterosaurs, and birds. although pterosaurs are close relations, they are not true dinosaurs. Even more distantly related to dinosaurs are the marine reptiles, which include the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Mammoths and mastodons are mammals and did not appear until many millions of years after the close of the Cretaceous period. Dimetrodon is neither a reptile nor a mammal, but a basal synapsid, i.e., an early relative of the ancestors of mammals.

I honestly didn't know that pterosaurs and marine reptiles didn't count as dinos,  or that dinosaur wasn't a catch-all term before today, and I've loved early critters for well over three decades. Talk about a hole in my education!

-as a side result of this entry of graypumpkin 's

---

Also testing out this site to seek out info re: sexual predators over a mapped area -

http://www.familywatchdog.us/

Type in your home address or a family members address. The web site will bring up a map of your neighborhood with small colored boxes on it. The small House icon represents your address; the colored boxes represent sex offenders in your area.

Click on the colored boxes and it will bring up the offender's photograph and the exact address, names and employers. Click ALL AROUND, you will be amazed at the information you get!

Seems to work better with MSIE than Mozilla

Comments

[eryx-uk.livejournal.com]

Marine reptiles and pterosaurs don't count as dinosaurs because (as I found out a couple years ago) all land based dinosaurs had a piece of bone in their skulls that the marine and flying reptiles don't.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

archosaur doesn't have the same "huzzah!" as Dinosaur.

[eryx-uk.livejournal.com]

I'm quite shocked. That watchdog site is US only so as a test I grabbed a WW sourcebook and input the address of White Wolf publishing, and the sheer number of red squares (hell, the sheer number of squares!) was incredible.

I don't think we have a site like that for the UK.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Hopefully one will come soon. I wonder how many sexual predators *work* for WW?

damn

[phillykat.livejournal.com]

this is the msg i got:

Unfortunately, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Vermont do not currently provide addresses for registered sex offenders. Consequently, we are unable to provide adequate or meaningful information about sex offenders located in these states.

Re: damn

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

that's no good!

Re: damn

[phillykat.livejournal.com]

to think nevada is one of the states where i'd like to move.

Re: damn

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

looking for hookers and craps?

Re: damn

[phillykat.livejournal.com]

nah. just crappy hookers

[ex-brokensou724.livejournal.com]

Well I cant get the site to work....

But I have taken a look at this one.... http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/homepage.htm

There is a guy right in my complex.... scary

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

look like the site is gettinga lot of traffic tonight, I'd try it again later or tomorrow.

knowing your enviroment is important!

[aldric-stien.livejournal.com]

I remember most of that dino stuff. I was way to into all of that as a little kid( like pre-k) All of my first books where about ancient animals.
I've moved up in the ancient history world now though, I'm at Anthropology, the study of people in history. I'ts kind of close though.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

by the time you're an old man,you'll be up to written history!

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get to the watchdog site yesterday, but had been to it months ago, and was apalled. :P

I just checked it again, and it says there are 625 offenders around me. Our local site, says there are 150 or something like that within a 2 mile radius of me.

I think it's out of control...and I often wonder why more isn't done about it. Why it's only recently that it's becoming more talked about?

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

Did you get my comment with my addy? I just wanted you to see how close that guy is to the elementary school.

How many icky peeps came up around you?

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

I did! 156 in the zoom level 5, and 2 in the tightest zoom level. (one of whom is within 1000 yards of an elementary school, blast it.)

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

Yeah... if I get in the car, I can look at his place within 15 seconds on my right, and look to the left and see the school.

In putting in family memeber addresses on a different site you posted once, I saw other offenders were who were right next to a school in Bradenton. :/

The little girl two houses down from me was molested. But not by one of the 2 on the map near me.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

it's a difficult situaiton... at least now the offenders have to register, or be guilty of a felony for not showing where they are.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

it is out of control... I don't know of a good solution. a penal colony?

In my area, it said 156 found... are you near a jail, perhaps?

I think it's become "flavor of the day" with more and more kidnappings and worse appearing in the news, plus megan's law making it more accountable in 47 out of 50 states.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

You and I are pretty much in big time agreement. There's got to be a big time miscarriage of justice there.

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you could still reply to deleted comments. Neat.

Remember when we were talking about the spying thing, and I said that I'm not bothered by it very much? With all the rambling I did about it...I should've mentioned that one of the reasons I don't worry about that kind of stuff, is because of stuff like sex offenders going on every day. It's largely ignored by most people...or they refuse to believe it, but they want me to worry about spying. (NOT you, I mean people who put down others for not being worried about spying, and I have seen & heard them do it).

I should've mentioned that when I said I don't care. I didn't want you to think I'm a callous bonehead. :0)

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

It'd take a *lot* for me to change my mind and think of you as a callous bonehead!

It is a tradeoff to be sure.