Really. I think this is perfect.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8272651/pastafarian-wins-right-wear-colander-in-licence
I don’t find a Pastafarian demanding to be able to wear a colander on his head for a license photo any more ridiculous than a Christian demanding to be able to wear a cross or a Jew wearing a star of David.
I do draw the line at practitioners of voodoo wearing dead chickens around their necks, though. Health concerns mostly.
For some reason this is just heartbreaking.
From the November issue of National Geographic magazine.
The North Coast 24 Hour Run has just completed. The men’s winner is Phil McCarthy with over 151 miles, and Jill Perry takes the women’s with 136 miles.
But I have to give a shout to two members of my running club, John Geesler who came in second with over 138 miles, and Dave Putney, eighth in the men’s race with over 124. I train a lot with Dave and he possesses an enviable, dry humor. This makes him an excellent partner for weekend long runs. Unfortunately, he had a bad fall while on a 42 mile trail run with John a couple weeks ago and banged up his ribcage. I’m sure it had a negative impact on his race. Meanwhile, John churned out yet another enviable performance which is all the more impressive when you consider that he’s 50.
Between the two of them, they have ultra stories galore (John, like Dave, also has that certain dry wit). I’ve been trying to get them to write a book on some of their exploits. No doubt that even non-runners would find it entertaining. Dave’s description of his 24 hours at the Across the Years event two years ago is priceless (over 131 miles on that one).
It happens. I wouldn’t have guessed it, but in this video, golden eagles are shown cajoling and even carrying kids (i.e., young goats) off mountainsides. Warning: Some of this content is disturbing.
Eagles are at the top of anyone’s concept of a food chain, but this one seems to involve some zig-zags. I’ve seen them knock other birds of prey out of a clean blue sky but had no idea they would go after quadrupeds. Note that the adult goats successfully chase off the eagles’ salvos, but that the eagles really don’t seem to care beyond basic safety concerns. I guess hunger creates some serious imperatives.
It happens. I wouldn’t have guessed it, but in this video, golden eagles are shown cajoling and even carrying kids (i.e., young goats) off mountainsides. Warning: Some of this content is disturbing.
Eagles are at the top of anyone’s concept of a food chain, but this one seems to involve some zig-zags. I’ve seen them knock other birds of prey out of a clean blue sky but had no idea they would go after quadrupeds. Note that the adult goats successfully chase off the eagles’ salvos, but that the eagles really don’t seem to care beyond basic safety concerns. I guess hunger creates some serious imperatives.
I am pleased to welcome a guest bonobo to the Refuge. You might recall Professor Doctor Eye as the model for this fine motivational poster:
Dr. Eye is a physicist on the faculty of a university in a certain European Union country where something smells rotten and it ain’t Havarti. Maybe it’s a cheesy Danish gone bad. His hobbies include hobnobbing with hadrons and channeling Grendel. Without further adieu, Dr. Eye rants about science in television, a favorite subject here at the Refuge.
Recently, I have developed a somewhat less than healthy habit. Yes. CSI reruns. From Horatio overdramatically removing his sunglasses in Miami, to Mac Taylors’s NY sneer, to Grissom admonishing his—well, I don’t know what they are, juniors? Proteges? To look for what isn’t there, I love ’em. All. Every night at 20.00, on one of the many cable channels which seem to only ever show reruns of US TV shows, there they are – fellow scientists – but with guns. I won’t even get into their labs.
Good googly woogly, what I’d give to have a lab that clean and stylishly lit. But the entire illusion came crashing down in Las Vegas, and let me tell you…
I’m madder than Ed Asner at an ACLU convention! Some body had fallen (or was it pushed?) from an upper floor of a construction site*, and Grissom, discussing the fall, made the worst conceivable error (OK, I’ll admit this may only be the worse conceivable error for someone teaching first year physics, but still…). He didn’t have to mention it at all. It had nothing really to do with the case, but there he is, trying to look smart, saying the body reached its terminal velocity of…9.8m/s**2.
As the kids say today, dude, WTF? How can an error of this magnitude get broadcast on (inter)national television? Does this mean that I should question everything I have seen on CSI? Is it not commonplace to match (graphically!!) fingerprints in a matter of seconds? Do CSI folks really not get to interrogate suspects? Would they really not be allowed to blow up trucks full of explosives thus foiling terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants? Say it ain’t so.
*Yes, this may well be old news. In fact, I have no idea how old, since I don’t even know what season this show comes from. It is new news to me, though, and I’m still reeling from the shock. I’m even beginning to wonder if there really is luminol.
