gregladen | December 7, 2009This is police dash cam video of a cougar just across the Mississippi from my place, in the town of Champlin. The Cougar was spotted heading towards the river. Strangely, a few hours after this cat was spotted by Champlin cops, there was a report of another cougar a few miles east on the other side of the river. This is either a very active cat or a publicity seeking copy cat (or confused person).
We are expecting snow tomorrow. Cougar tracking season begins!!!!
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gregladen | December 7, 2009Jeremiah Wobbe, of Saint Paul, chucked tomatoes at Sarah Palin ... at the mall of America ...
... He missed. He threw two tomatoes, and both missed Palin, but one did hit a cop in the face. Apparently a second police officer was hit as well. Mr. Wobbe was arrested with the help of angry citizens who were standing nearby at the time.
Jeremy was still holding two unexpended tomatoes when he was arrested.
source.
Thanks Emily Cassidy for the heads up on this one.
gregladen | December 7, 2009I have yet to meet anyone who has read this book, myself included. But apparently some sciency blogger picked up a copy the other day and noticed a near absence of female scientists represented in the anthology. Why? Y, apparently.
As you probably know, Richard Dawkins is presently being raked over blogospheric coals for having edited a volume of science writing that includes only about 3.6% of its works written by females. The observation was first made here at hgg, and has been discussed here at The Intersection, here at Aetiology, here at Questionable Authority, at Blue Lab Coats, here…
gregladen | December 7, 2009For the US, World War Two started today, 68 years ago, when the Japanese wiped out much of the US Pacific Naval fleet and President Roosevelt declared war.
The dissenting vote was by Jeannette Rankin, of Montana (House), who also voted against engagement in WW I. Her statement on casting her dissenting vote: "As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else" ... supposedly.
gregladen | December 6, 2009Cannibalism has been documented again and again in archaeological contexts, as part of normative human behavior. Here's a recent report (I've not looked yet at the original) from the German Neolithic:
Archaeologists have found evidence of mass cannibalism at a 7,000-year-old human burial site in south-west Germany, the journal Antiquity reports.
The authors say their findings provide rare evidence of cannibalism in Europe's early Neolithic period.
Up to 500 human remains unearthed near the village of Herxheim may have been cannibalised.
source
See more on Cannibalism
gregladen | December 5, 2009The e-mail archives stolen last month from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK, have been greeted by the climate-change-denialist fringe as a propaganda windfall (see page 551). To these denialists, the scientists' scathing remarks about certain controversial palaeoclimate reconstructions qualify as the proverbial 'smoking gun': proof that mainstream climate researchers have systematically conspired to suppress evidence contradicting their doctrine that humans are warming the globe....
Nothing in the e-mails undermines the scientific case that global warming…
gregladen | December 5, 2009"We really have this strong belief [about vaccination]. If it wasn't that strong I would never jeopardize my job, knowing I have five kids, a wife, a mortgage. That's how deeply we feel about this." Orf so say's Christian Gary Cowlay, one of several individuals fired from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for refusal to get an H1N1 vaccine.
The story is here, and Phil Plait is talking about it here.
Cowlay's statement quoted above is both outrageous and typical. It is outrageous because this is a man insisting that it is OK for him to endanger the lives of the very ill children in…
gregladen | December 5, 2009My review.
The last movie of this genre I watched had Christopher Lee as the Werewolf Hunter. In this movie, the Werewolves engaged in a periodic orgy in which a newly converted nubile female would would be converted into a wolf-like form to have repeated dog-like copulations with a male vampire-wolf counterpart under the observation of the king and/or queen vampire and a dwarf. Or something like that. I came in during the middle of the movie and never quite got it. But it was obvious, and this is always true in traditional vampire and werewolf movies, that the Catholic Church is very…
gregladen | December 5, 2009Digital Rabbit is a web site that focuses on conservation and social justice issues related to H2O. The next 12 days of gift suggestions from Digital Rabbit should prove interesting. Check it out.
gregladen | December 5, 2009Subtitled "The truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity," this might be a book you should read.
James Hansen is probably the world's best known climate scientist, partly because of his own work and his testimony before Congress, and partly because he has become a target of Global Warming denialists who seem to revel in every opportunity to accuse him of fraud, deceit, or incompetence.
In Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, Hansen provides a message that is much more severe…
gregladen | December 4, 2009We brought Huxley in for his first doctor visit yesterday. Everything was fine. But since we were going to a clinic with an urgent care unit, I expected to see a lot of people with the flu in the waiting room. There is always a lot of messing around in the waiting room, with a two stage sign in process, a need to show ID, sign stuff, etc. etc. and then there would be a wait in the waiting room breathing in H1N1 kooties. My plan was to keep Huxley, who was in the nifty car seat-stroller thingie and well bundled against the elements, in the entrance way of the building or even in the…
gregladen | December 3, 2009... or ... Republicans Attack Franken for Opposing Rape
No, no ... maybe this ..
Thirty Senate Republicans Prefer Rape over Justice
Or perhaps ...
Al Franken Does Right Thing: Republicans Get Mad
Oh, forget it. I'll never decide on a title for this post. Just watch the story:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
gregladen | December 3, 2009Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann wins a major award, and we Minnesotans are all so freakin' proud of her! Watch:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Hey, next time maybe you'll win the gold!
gregladen | December 3, 2009More are expected to die prior to December 17th gathering.
Every year in December, and this has been true for a quarter of a century, there is a memorial gathering and march to commemorate all those who died in the previous year of one of our most insidious social ills: Homelessness.
This year the job of gathering the names of the dead has fallen to John Petroskas. This is John's third year on this job.
Some stories are particularly hard to hear. It really bothers me when someone reports that a child has died while homeless, but it happens every year. It's also especially sad for me when…
gregladen | December 2, 2009Welcome to the 45th installment of the Circus of the Spineless Blog Carnival.
The previous installment of this panoply of boneless metazoans was at Marmorkrebs, and the next edition will be at Life Photo Meme. Please check with the carnival's home for information on how to submit your spineless blog posts.
Trees, Plants and More: Scale Insect Infestation
The scale insect, which has struck all over the city seems to have found its way here as well. It secretes honeydew that attracts ants. Indeed, i saw many big black ones right next to the scale insects.
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National Park Service: Native…
gregladen | December 2, 2009Raptors and their Talons are the subjects of a blog post on the DC Birding Blog called "How Raptor Talons Fit Their Prey"
This post, which is quite excellent and that I highly recommend, on the November Plos Blog Post of the Month Award. We hope blog post author John Beetham will enjoy his trip around the world for two, his new Z sports car, and his life time supply of groceries. Or whatever they are giving out these days for this highly prestigious award.
gregladen | December 2, 2009As pointed out moments ago by DrugMonkey, the brain of HM is at this very moment being cross sectioned at The Brain Observatory.
Here
gregladen | December 2, 2009Chosen by a selected, secret jury, this entry comes from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Just when you think you've seen all the viral videos, another one comes along ....
Alternate source: