Calvin (dressed in boxer shorts, flexing muscles in front of mirror): “Made in God’s own image, Yes Sir!”
Hobbes: “God must have a goofy sense of humor.”
— Bill Watterson “Calvin & Hobbes” Oct. 16, 1993
Calvin (dressed in boxer shorts, flexing muscles in front of mirror): “Made in God’s own image, Yes Sir!”
Hobbes: “God must have a goofy sense of humor.”
— Bill Watterson “Calvin & Hobbes” Oct. 16, 1993
The discovery of bacteria in the anaerobic muck beneath kelp beds, and the elucidation of its metabolism, may uncover the biochemistry that fueled the metabolism of the first life forms on earth. The microbe makes vinegar out of carbon monoxide, and a primitive version of this unique biochemistry may have easily developed using sulfur-containing inorganic substrates. The acetate-producing species also appears to be the direct descendant of one of the earliest true microbes. The proposed metabolic cycle may resolve a controversy between two competing theories of the origin of life that has raged in scientific circles for decades. [No, one of the theories is not intelligent design! I said scientific circles. LOL…]
You may be surprised to learn that the prime buyers of organic produce are not softies who make their own yogurt and hum Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” (“They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot”). A new report by market research consultants The Hartman Group finds that “Compared to the general population, two ethnic and racial groups are somewhat more likely to purchase organics: Asian Americans and Latino/Hispanic Americans. Latino/Hispanic Americans and African Americans are much more likely than Caucasians to be Core organic consumers.” Complete story here; eat it up!
Sexual harassment is a burden that females of many species face, and some may go to extreme lengths to avoid it. In a new paper from the June issue of the American Naturalist, researchers suggest that female guppies, a popular aquarium fish, may risk their lives to avoid too much attention from males. In the same issue, there’s a groundbreaking new study exploring how leafy, “normal” plants evolved into the leafless succulent cactus.
Activity intensifies on the Indonesian volcano Mount Merapi, which continues to spew out ash, rock and gas. Experts monitoring the volcano, in central Java, raised its alert status to the highest level on Saturday. Thousands of people have been moved from the volcano’s upper slopes…
When does a female mouse behave like a male? When you give it small, environmentally-typical doses of bisphenol A, a chemical that mimics the hormone estrogen. The “gender bender”, which masculinizes the brains of female mice, is the base chemical for making polycarbonate plastics, often used in bottles and food containers. However, Steven Hentges of the American Plastics Council in Arlington, Virginia, points out that humans can metabolize bisphenol A, whereas the mice could not do this since the chemical was administered direct to tissue. “It makes you wonder if it’s relevant to humans,” he says. [So we’ll just keep on keepin’ on at the APC; nothing to see here folks, move along, move along…]
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has snapped a picture of the bits and pieces left of Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3, which passed by earth this weekend and is continuing to break apart on its periodic journey around the sun. The new infrared view shows several chunks of the comet riding along its own dusty trail of debris.
Princeton University scientists have discovered that migrating dragonflies and songbirds exhibit many of the same behaviors, suggesting the rules that govern such long-distance travel may be simpler and more ancient than was once thought. [Did you even know dragonflies migrated? Who’d have thought?] Photo of a dragonfly being fitted with a tiny radio transmitter at the link…
A potent molecule that causes more regeneration of eye nerves than any other known has been found by researchers. The damaged eye nerves of rats that received injections of the protein showed five times better recovery than those that did not. Drugs developed from the newly isolated protein – called oncomodulin – might one day even help heal spinal cord injury in humans. But experts stress that they have not yet tested to see if spinal cells respond to the molecule.
Why is the Navy spending $100,000 to investigate the movements of swarms of opossum shrimp? The fast-moving shrimp are a major source of food for small cod and other fishes. The research is important for national defense purposes since the movements of large numbers of the shrimp and other small organisms can interfere with the military’s use of sonar for detecting and identifying underwater mines.
And what would a Monday “News Bucket” be without global warming? Record amounts of the Arctic Ocean failed to freeze during the recent winter, spelling disaster for wildlife and strengthening concerns that the polar region is locked into a destructive cycle of irreversible climate change. But the poles are not alone in being impacted: The poorest people in the world will be the chief victims of the West’s failure to tackle global warning, with millions of Africans forecast to die by the end of the century, Christian Aid says in a report out today. Meanwhile, poor nations tell rich ones to do more on climate, the current Canadian government says Kyoto is too hard, and the World Bank calls for the development of more drought-resistant crops.
Scientists are trying to put an economic value on the services provided by unspoiled nature [since that seems to be all that the people with power understand…], and have come up with the following results: a Canadian wetland at $6,000 per 2.5 acres per year against about $2,000 if converted for intensive farming; 2.5 acres of tropical forest in Cameroon was worth about $4,000 if managed properly against $2,000 if felled for farming; and intact mangroves in Thailand were worth $1,000 a year against $200 a year if converted for shrimp farming.
I’m glad to see some scientists putting a monetary value to such things as a wetland. How sad is our culture that the only value we seem to covet is monetary.
Hey, I love Joni Mitchell!
…don’t it always seem to go
that you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone…
Kind of like those valuable Canadian wetlands.
Thanks for putting up the bucket, Knox…I was up half the night with a food allergy reaction and slept most of the morning.
Oh no! Better now? Those can be life threatening and very frightening. When I was still teaching in the gradeschool there were a few kids with severe food allergies that every staff member was aware of. In certain cases, the only option would be an epi-pen and an ambulance. Quick. I sure hope you are feeling better, CabinGirl.
Thanks, Nag. It’s not life-threatening, but it’s very painful.
I just read your explanation over in the open thread. Glad you’re ok… hope the pain subsides quickly.
I thought you were kiddingabout the transmitter. Whoa.
You know the military’s fingerprints are all over that one.
Hmmmmm: There’s been an annoying housefly buzzing around our place the last few days… Maybe he needs to go MIA tonight…
link
[snip]
Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Laura Bush said she did not think people were losing confidence in
President George W. Bush, despite a series of polls showing support for him at its lowest point in his five-year presidency and among the lowest for any president in the past 50 years.
“I don’t really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me,” she said.
“As I travel around the United States, I see a lot of appreciation for him. A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘Stay the course’.”
It appears that Laura, like that thing she married, isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. She actually doesn’t know that those adoring crowds she and her husband are exposed to are plants. Shhh… no one tell her. This is kind of fun.
What’s that you’re saying, Laura? I can’t hear you through your bubble.
Shhh… no one tell her. This is kind of fun.
Kind of like in Catholic grade school when the nun would have a bit of hair showing from under the wimple, and everyone just stared, and some kid remarked, amazed, “I thought they were bald!” 😉
If you surfed the alternate news over the weekend, you probably saw this, but it’s worth a look.
link
Despite a congressional order that the military assess the mental health of all deploying troops, fewer than 1 in 300 service members see a mental health professional before shipping out.
Once at war, some unstable troops are kept on the front lines while on potent antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, with little or no counseling or medical monitoring.
And some troops who developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq are being sent back to the war zone, increasing the risk to their mental health.
These practices, which have received little public scrutiny and in some cases violate the military’s own policies, have helped to fuel an increase in the suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq, which reached an all-time high in 2005 when 22 soldiers killed themselves – accounting for nearly one in five of all Army non-combat deaths.
The Courant’s investigation found that at least 11 service members who committed suicide in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite exhibiting signs of significant psychological distress. In at least seven of the cases, superiors were aware of the problems, military investigative records and interviews with families indicate.
Although this does not surprise me, it is infuriating. The abuse of American soldiers will not stop until Bush and all his garbage is flushed out of the White House and Pentagon.
pants on fire: WashPo
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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) May 13 — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch legislator who has championed the rights of Muslim women, is returning from a book tour to a firestorm for lying on her asylum application when she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage.
Hirsi Ali, 36, said she was puzzled by the uproar since she publicly acknowledged the false refugee application when she stood for parliament in 2002. “Have they all gone mad?” she said, accusing her rivals of a political vendetta.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch legislator.(Der Spiegel)● Hirsi Ali to Leave Netherlands for Job with US Think Tank
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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MP Hirsi Ali may lose her Dutch citizenship as a result of her lies to the authorities in 1992 upon her request for asylum. Dutch media reported the first result of an investigation by Minister Verdonk into the case of her citizenship.
● Fed Up with Holland, Hirsi Ali Plans to Move to America
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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PARIS (NYT) May 15 — The Dutch government abruptly threatened to revoke the citizenship of one of the country’s most prominent members of Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born woman who arrived as a refugee 14 years ago.
“I’m speechless,” Ms. Hirsi Ali (VVD) said in a telephone interview from The Hague after she had received a call from Ms. Verdonk (VVD) . . Ms. Hirsi Ali said she considered the move to take away her citizenship, leaving her stateless, as an attempt to silence her. “I have been fully committed to my work in Parliament, and I have taken many risks,” she said. “This will make others think harder before they speak out.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali in parliamentVVD – Dutch Liberal Conservative Party
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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WASHINGTON D.C. (MSNBC/AP) 25 minutes ago — The Bush administration has decided to restore normal diplomatic relations with Libya for the first time in over a quarter century after taking Moammar Gadhafi‘s country off a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, State Department officials said.
The gates are open and oilcompanies are flooding back
… The European Union in 2004 ended its 12 years of sanctions and eased an arms embargo to reward Libya for giving up efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Five countries — Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria — remain classified as state sponsors of terror.
● More US oil firms return to Libya
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Gadhafi isn’t nuts, he’s our friend. Oh, he has oil? We didn’t notice. I hear Gadhafi will be at Dubya’s next birthday party. Perhaps he can look in Gadhafi’s eyes and see his soul (which happens to look a lot like an oil rig).
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(MSNBC) May 12 — Russian President Vladimir Putin played on that theme in his annual state of the union speech, referring to the United States, none-too-obliquely, as “Comrade Wolf,” and in the same breath, announcing what could soon become a new arms race on a scale not seen since the days of the cold war.
American military spending, said Putin, “is 25 times” that of Russia’s. “In defense parlance, their house is their fortress, and good for them,” he went on, but “we have to build our home, our house, to be strong and safe–because we can see what is happening in the world. We can see it! As they say, Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat. He is eating and listening to no one. And it would seem he has no intention of listening.” Applause rang through the Kremlin. “Just where does all the rhetoric on the need to fight for human rights and democracy disappear to when it comes to the need to realize one’s own interests?” Putin asked. “It turns out that everything is permitted. There are no restrictions whatsoever.”
≈ Cross-posted from RubDMC’s diary —
Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 313 ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Next election, Putin will be running TV ads saying he needs to be re-elected so Russia will stay strong, “Just in case there really is a wolf in the woods.“
Amazing how these things go full circle.
Truer words were never spoken:
“God must have a goofy sense of humor.”
UN says Congo remains world’s deadliest catastrophe
Let’s see; 1,200 dying every day. That comes to well over 300,000/month – roughly one tsunami every month!
The US has prohibited the sale of weapons to Venezuela, due to it’s lack of cooperation in the war against terrorism according to sources in the State Department.(In Spanish)