1.8 Million Species, But a Single Stamp May 15, 2007January 6, 2017 BOREF According to this press release last week, Gilbert Thomson has signed on to get WheelTug certified with the FAA and has 30 years’ experience in the field. ‘I’m proud to help make this groundbreaking technology a reality,’ he says. Time will tell. ‘GEORGIA RULE’ Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman, and Lindsay Lohan. It’s set in Idaho, not Georgia, and it’s good. (I went having no idea what to expect – my favorite way to see a movie.) Click here. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE II Ron G.: ‘Your mention of the Encyclopedia of Life is a good thing. For readers interested in more detailed and somewhat critical discussion of the project, this is helpful. It’s at a biologist’s blog titled ‘Pharyngula: Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal.’ It’s very popular.’ ☞ With a title like that, how could it not be? ‘There are some related projects [Ron continues], like Tree of Life, which emphasizes phylogeny (evolutionary relatedness) so that even if a species is now extinct, one can learn what its relatives are (or were) like. TOL and EOL should obviously collaborate. Also, a bunch of different relevant databases aimed at particular taxa already exist (FishBase, CephBase, Hexacoral, etc.), and a number of these face the real possibility of becoming financially orphaned.’ FOREVER STAMPS Ralph: ‘Thanks to your suggestion, on Monday the Post Office started selling first-class stamps that are good ‘forever.’ Today will be the last time I will trade-in the remaining stamps (currently 88) on my roll of 100.’ ☞ I hardly think it was thanks to my suggestion, but it is a bureaucratic triumph barely a million years from conception to execution. Larry: ‘The forever stamp is valid on international mail (contrary to what one of your readers feared). From the USPS site: ‘The postage value of the Forever Stamp is always the domestic First-Class Mail single-piece 1-ounce letter rate that is in effect on the day of use (mailing).’ So when the rate for mailing a standard letter goes to 43 cents, the forever stamp will be worth 43 cents towards the postage on international mail.’