links for 2009-06-19

"Shortly after the findings were revealed, Phoenix Zoo staff tranquilized, crated, and transported Panovich by helicopter to his Mesa, AZ home, where he was released into his front yard and reintroduced to his mate and two young."

"Last Sunday morning, my son James said, "Dad, what if you made a bowl out of cookie dough?"

I'm the first to admit that there are almost no truly new culinary innovations or ideas, only variations on what's come before us, and I also know that making a cookie to serve ice cream on, such as an ice cream sandwich, is a common one (some great recipes will be in Ad Hoc At Home, now at the printers). But when James said it, I said, "Very cool idea, James. Let's give it a shot." And so we did."

"According to Bryant, it was vital to step up his game and take on a leadership role in order to surmount the countless flaws in Luke Walton's game, which include playing a slow, hindering style of offense that relies on ruining pick and roll plays; clogging up lanes with an ungainly lumbering stride on the transition; and making slow, drifting passes to double-covered players. "

"One of my colleagues had a strange dream recently: one of his graduate students was in prison.

Was this a bad dream? In fact, it apparently was not."

"The âimpossiblenessâ of these objects isnât the main reason Iâm sharing them - the main reason is how beautiful they look, even though they arenât real life models (not that they canât be produced in real life). The fact they are CG doesnât make them less amazing. "

"The insurance industry -- you know, the one conservative lawmakers and the AMA are so desperate to protect at all costs -- has this unpleasant habit called "rescission." Customers have insurance, and they pay their premiums, but once they get sick and require expensive medical treatment, the companies drop the coverage.

And in testifying before Congress, executives of these insurers not only confirmed the rescission practice, but said they had no plans to change the money-saving tactic."

"In my heart of hearts, it just seemed reasonable that the public would want the low-down on aliens.

Not the Fox TV low-down. Not the conspiracy-blog low-down. Not the new-agey I-can-see-their-auras low-down.

No, I figured the great unwashed, as well as their better-bathed brethren, deserved to hear the tweed-jacketed, gray-haired academic low-down. Call me deluded."