Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Sexual Selection and The DMV

Six years ago I purchased a motorcycle that was used for off-road and somewhere along the line one of the digits in my address was deleted from the purchase documents. When doing things with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) here in California the more confusion the better so to complicate matters I bought my son a similar motorcycle and subsequently sold it. Well the records over the years continued to show the one sold and fail to show the one in our garage. Letters with threats of liens, trips to the DMV and several return letters met with frustration. Then I made an appointment at the DMV and timed it with a full moon. There are those that may scoff at my lunacy but I now have a sticker for my motorcycle.

While visting the DMV office which had a line that filled the waiting area in the office and continued out on to the sidewalk I observed a young woman standing on the sidewalk with a bare mid drift. As a scientific observation (being a Darwinian) I did spend some time observing the advertisement (tattoo) placed there around her navel. With my trusted IPhone in my pocket I could have photographed the specimen and taken the data back to my lab for further investigations but thought better of it. There are many unique displays that play out in the dance of sexual selection but I have grown tired of the peacock tails, puffed bird feathers, clashing anthers that are shown on the nature shows and relish the advertisement on the bare mid drift.

Those who have read the biographies of Charles Darwin would know he was plagued with various illness through out his life. I too at times are bothered by the complaints of aging but there are some sights that can provide great healing.

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