In the spirit of our penguin – bashing (see “Favorites”) here is a rant about pandas by brilliant anthro- blogger John Hawks: “….I am so tired of having to hear about it every time a panda ovulates in this country! “Count me out of this number: [V]isitors flock to see them, and when they cannot …
Art of Fine Printing and The Duck Creek Martini
My wife asked as I cleared the table last night: “Aren’t you going to a thing?“ I’d forgotten. And having pulled on a t-shirt and sweatpants almost immediately after work, I said, “I’m already in my jammies,” and walked the dishes to the sink. But I stared at those dishes just a moment before changing …
The Book of Mormon, DNA, Native Americans, and Archaeology
This story in last week’s LA Times chronicles another collision between science and religion, a type of story much in the news these days. The story deals with one of the basic tenets of the Mormon Church – Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints – or LDS as they often refer to themselves. …
.600 Nitro
This video (requires Windows Media) , sent to me by an outdoor writer friend, is pretty funny but may need a little explanation. The .600 Nitro cartridge was the last and biggest of what might be thought of as the Edwardian elephant cartridges. It was exceeded in size only by the shotgun “Bore” rifles– ten …
England’s Decline and Fall, Continued..
Ted Dalrymple has another installment, in the Times of London, ready made. A few samples: “I have lived under a Latin American military dictatorship where daily life was freer than in Britain today. Of course, you couldn’t go out into the street and shout “Down with Señor Presidente”, at least not without dire consequences; on …
Has Evolution…
… made it hard for us to understand evolution? Matt’s post below on toads put me in mind of this provocative essay by Razib at Gene Expression. It is long, and I can’t seem to “capture” any paragraphs from it, but let me quote one bit for the flavor: “Science is hard,science is abnormal, and …
Crunchy
I am eagerly awaiting Rod Dreher’s new book on small- “c” conservatism and green issues. I was pleased to see this post on the issues by blogger Mark Shea. He says: ” Rod Dreher noted that the air in Dallas is filthy and that there’s no particular reason conservatives (whose name is, after all, related …
Quailgate
I think gunblogger Tam just about nails it, with one caveat: “Yes, we know that Ted Kennedy (aka “The Evel Kneivel of Chappaquidick”) is a pusillanimous toad who killed a woman with his total lack of backbone, and that his car has killed more women than Dick’s pansy little 28 gauge shotgun has “Yes, we …
Leaping To Conclusions
As reported by Reuters today, scientists claim, “Cane toads in Australia have developed longer legs to enable them to invade more territory.” That’s quite a leap. I am always interested to see this line of reasoning suggested in the findings of biological studies: Animals evolved Trait X in order to achieve Goal Y. I don’t …
Something Completely Silly
Pluvialis found it first.: a site in which you can portray yourself a la South Park. Looks rather like her, complete with Camel (cigarette not mammal). Then Peculiar picked it up from her. How appropriate: an angry Crusader with a Tuareg (or is it Ninja?) turban and a chainsaw: So of course I had to …