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Go ahead, send them your financial information

Are you worried about the Rapture? Of course you will be called up into heaven, but those hateful bastards among your family and friends will certainly be stuck here on earth for the tribulation. So yet another service has sprung up to help you help your stranded loved ones: You've Been Left Behind. Why do you need this service? WHY? We all have family and friends who have failed to receive the Good News of the Gospel. The unsaved will be 'left behind' on earth to go through the "tribulation period" after the "Rapture". You remember how, for a short time, after (9/11/01) people were open to…

Widows Honored for Justice-Seeking Efforts

What do three women made widows by three fatal Kentucky coal mining accidents have in common with two others left behind in the 2006 airline crash? "I am a widow.  I am a single parent.  I'm an advocate for anyone suffering because they were robbed of their spouse due to ineptitude and/or negligence," said Sarah King Fortney, (here) whose 49 year-old husband C.W. Fortney was killed when Comair flight 5191 crashed after taking-off from the wrong runway at the Lexington, KY airport in August 2006.  Mrs. Fortney was recently honored, along with four other widows, by the Kentucky Justice…

Smokers---what should we do with them?

We sometimes treat them like second-class citizens. Or do we? Certainly smokers hate it when we force them out into the cold for a butt. Here in Michigan, we're thinking about restricting smoking in a lot of public places. There benefits are supposed to accrue to three groups: the smokers themselves, their co-workers who are exposed to second-hand smoke, and the public, who pays more for health care because of smoking. I asked a simplistic question once about whether smokers should pay higher insurance premiums, that doesn't really bring the same benefits to everyone as a more…

Is Anonymity Even Possible?

Sciblings are discussing the ethics of anonymity all over Scienceblogs. I want to pose a different question: practically speaking, is anonymity even possible? Consider: 1) There is no standard definition for what is anonymous or anonymized. For instance, AOL released a putatively anonymous database of search queries a few years ago, but it was soon discovered that individuals could be identified in it. Google "anonymizes" some user records but the method they use is pretty pathetic. 2) The field of reidentification is growing in sophistication. Professor Latanya Sweeney at Carnegie…

Stop the RFK Jr. appointment NOW

I would beg everyone who reads the scienceblogs and cares about science to contact the transition team in the Obama administration as Orac has requested. It should be clear by now to readers of this blog that pseudoscience is not a problem of just the right. The left wing areas of pseudoscience are just as cranky, just as wrong-headed about science, just as likely to use the tactics of denialism to advance a non-scientific agenda. We have been dealing with the denialism of the right more because they've been in control. Now is the time to nip the denialism of the left in the bud so it…

Connecticut Attorney General practicing medicine without a license

A rather opinionated reader made me aware of a disturbing issue. In Connecticut--the state whose city of Lyme gave the name to the tick-borne disease--the Attorney General decided that the nation's foremost infectious disease experts have their heads up their arses. Apparently responding to pressure from questionable advocacy groups, the AG launched an "investigation" into the Infectious Disease Society of America's Lyme disease treatment guidelines. The excuse for the investigation was alleged anti-trust violations. Let's step back a little. As discussed yesterday, there is some…

Smoke and mirrors---cult medicine's attack on science

I generally enjoy Bill Maher. I mean, he seems like an ass, but I enjoy his shows---except when he talks about medicine. As any regular viewer knows, he regularly spouts the usual denialist canards about medicine. This week, he was interviewing Senator Arlen Specter, who, among other accomplishments, has survived Hodgkin's Disease, a form of blood cancer. Maher had the bad taste to ask him is he was disgusted that health care is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Had he said this to me, I would likely have responded, "Look, asshole, the American health care system just saved my…

Trauma

I've almost come to the end of the core 8 weeks of my surgery rotation (4 more weeks follow in electives) and am currently working on the trauma service for another couple days before taking exams. I don't have a great deal to say, the hours stay long, the medicine remains interesting etc. I'm enjoying the decrease in laundry that wearing scrubs entails. I enjoy how much doctors tend to take joy in their work. Medicine is a great field that way, as it gives you a feeling of accomplishment as you see what you do day to day really can make a big difference in people's lives. The debt may…

Mayim Bialik is a problematic ambassador for science

Mayim Bialik is an actress. She grew up playing TV's "Blossom," and recently has surfaced again on television as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler, a neurobiologist on "The Big Bang Theory." In between, she went to college and on to grad school, receiving a PhD in neuroscience. She is a "Brand Ambassador" for Texas Instruments and is this year's featured speaker at the National Science Teachers' Association conference. She is also anti-vaccine, and a spokesperson for the "holistic mom's network," which eschews much that modern medicine has to offer and features several prominent anti-vaccine advocates on…

House to Vote on Popcorn Workers Lung Act

By David Michaels Later this week, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2693 -- The Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act. Now is the moment to let your Member of Congress know how important it is for them to support the legislation. Popcorn Workers Lung is a case study in regulatory failure. As we've written many times here, OSHA has ignored this deadly hazard for far too long. At least three workers have died and dozens more have developed irreversible lung disease as a result of exposure to diacetyl. H.R. 2693 would give OSHA 90 days to issue an interim final standard that…

"Popcorn Lung Victim: 'Friggin' Unbelievable'"

By David Michaels Earlier this week, we broke the story of the first case of âpopcorn lungâ occurring in person whose exposure to diacetyl was not workplace-related. Now more details are coming out, including an interview with Wayne Watson, the Colorado furniture salesman with disease. In today's AP article, P. Solomon Banda writes that "When Dr. Rose told me, she said: `Mr. Watson, there is a chemical in butter flavored microwave popcorn called diacetyl and it has been known to cause lung disease of this nature, with your symptoms.' I went, `friggin unbelievable.'" In many ways, Mr. Watson…

Pneumonic plague outbreak

I blogged a few months ago about a case of plague (due to the bacterium, Yersinia pestis) in a woman in California. I'm still doing some reading for the promised post on Black Death, CCR5, and other topics discussed in the comments section, but in the meantime, I wanted to alert y'all to an ongoing outbreak of the disease (in the pneumonic form, meaning the bacteria is present in the lungs and therefore is person-to-person transmissible) in the Democratic Republic of Congo: The sole aid agency fighting an outbreak of pneumonic plague in the remote lawless corner of the Democratic Republic…

A single insect can't demonstrate evolution

I have to criticize the video below. It's a beautiful piece of work, and the animal it shows is spectacularly well-adapted, but it does not demonstrate the fulfillment of a uniquely Darwinian prediction. An orchid was found with a nectary that was only accessible by way of a long, narrow tube, and Darwin predicted the existence of an insect pollinator with an almost equivalently long tongue. However, an Owen or a Cuvier, scientists of that century who did not accept evolution, could have easily made the very same prediction, on the basis of created functionality: a god would not have made…

Ask ’em what they really think

Christopher Hitchens has been debating a Christian pastor named Douglas Wilson on the subject of whether Christianity has been a force for good in the world. These debates were recorded, and assembled into a film called Collision. I haven't seen it, and I doubt that it will be showing in my small town theater, but I'll be looking for it on DVD. This is obviously not a movie review, then…I just want to comment on one point Wilson throws out. "It's not a question of whether we have faith, it's what we have faith in," says Wilson. "Christopher has faith in the role of scientific inquiry,…

Slow-worms of 2008

At the start of 2008 I promised myself - in fact, I might even have said it on Tet Zoo - that I'd photograph all the Slow-worms Anguis fragilis I see. The bad news is that I only saw four and - of those - one was dead. Nevertheless... Both individuals you see here (above) were found in the New Forest, within sight of Bournemouth Airport. Neither are fully adult. The male on the left is doing a nice job of coiling round my thumb, and he's showing his grey belly scales in the process. Like other anguid lizards, slow-worms have relatively small belly scales: very different from the transversely…

Meteoroid vs goose... again

Thanks to the latest issue (no. 240) of Fortean Times I've just learnt of the remarkable case whereby an unlucky Canada goose Branta canadensis was, allegedly, hit by a meteoroid (Anon. 2008). The story goes that Derbyshire postman Adrian Mannion was 'having a morning cuppa with his wife Fiona' (I'm not quite sure what a cuppa is, but assume it's a sexual act of some sort) when a rock fell, from space, onto their driveway. It was followed by the goose, which hit the roof of their car. This story was reported in that most reliable of sources, The Sun newspaper, back in February (it's here).…

Towards a Model for Linear Logic: Monoidal Categories

Time to come back to category theory from out side-trip. Category theory provides a good framework for defining linear logic - and for building a Curry-Howard style type system for describing computations with *state* that evolves over time. Linear logic provides a way of defining a valid *model* for part of linear logic (the multiplicative operators) that aren't tractable using other modeling techniques. I'm going to show you the relationship between models for linear logic and category theory. It's going to take a couple of days to go through the whole shebang, but even the parts that we…

Good Math, Bad Math might be in trouble later this week

I just received some email that would seriously worry me if it weren't for the fact that I'm not an idiot. WARNING! TERRORISTS are going to ATTACK NEW YORK! There is NO TIME to waste! Go read http://www.truebiblecode.com/nyc.html!!!!!! Going there, I find: We are now 98% confident that the UN Plaza will be hit by a terrorist nuclear bomb between Thursday evening June 29th and Tuesday evening July 4th, 2006 It is certainly true that: No nukes is good nukes! But just because we got the date wrong (3 times) does not mean that the scriptural threat has evaporated. It is still there in black…

Friday Random Ten, June 23

Dirty Three, "Some Summers they Drop Like Flies". I've mentioned the Dirty Three before. Just go get their CDs and listen. Amazing stuff. Broadside Electric, "The Gardener". Broadside is a local electric fold band. Great music, really nice people. Tony Trischka Band, "Feed the Horse". The first album by Tony's current band. A very cool song actually, although the lyrics are utterly incoherent. Thinking Plague, "Consolamentum". Thinking Plague is, well, just plain weird. I'd probably put them into the same category as groups like the Dirty Three and the Clogs, but TP is a lot less…

Basics: Syntax and Semantics

Another great basics topic, which came up in the comments from last fridays "logic" post, is the difference between syntax and semantics. This is an important distinction, made in logic, math, and computer science. The short version of it is: syntax is what a language looks like; semantics is what a language means. It's basically the distinction between numerals (syntax) and numbers (semantics). In terms of logic, the syntax is a description of what a valid statement looks like: what the pieces of a statement are, and all of the different ways that the pieces can get put together to form…

The long-awaited launch of Pterosaur.net

Today see the launch of an outstanding new website devoted entirely to pterosaurs, the flying reptiles of the Mesozoic. What makes the site different from many specialist sources on the internet is that it was created, written and designed by specialists in the field. As such, it should prove an invaluable resource. I'll try and keep this brief, as I know you're just desperate to go over there and start looking around... Pterosaur.net had its genesis at the Munich pterosaur meeting in 2007 when Dave Hone, John Conway, Ross Elgin, Mike Habib, Luis Rey, Lorna Steel, Mark Witton and yours truly…

Dream Life

Railroad Sunset (1929, oil on canvas). Edward Hopper. I've noticed that I've recently started to dream in German. Well, the people who pop up in my dreams are speaking German, and I seem to understand them and act accordingly, but I never speak in German in my dreams. Actually, I rarely say anything aloud in my dreams anymore; probably a reflection of real life. The interesting thing about this is that I don't speak German. Well, I can utter a few words or phrases here and there, and my comprehension of spoken German is growing, but I don't speak it myself. Oddly, even though I still have…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

tags: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, film, movie, trailer, entertainment, streaming video Those of you who are Harry Potter fans will LOVE this! This is the first trailer from the penultimate installment of the Harry Potter films; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, which will hit theaters on November 19th, 2010 [it's being released in Belgium on 17 November, so guess where I'll go to watch it on opening night?]. And it looks like the entire film will be offered in IMAX 3D and in 3D, too! Yeow!! I am exciiited and I'll bet you are too! And here's the first trailer,…

Scientia Pro Publica -- Will Publish Tomorrow!

Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux). Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power) -- Sir Francis Bacon. The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) will publish TOMORROW and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog? Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in the…

The Experiment: Can Scientia Pro Publica Get Enough Submissions to Publish Each Week?

Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux). Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power) -- Sir Francis Bacon. The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) will publish on Monday and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog? Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in the…

Who are you calling fat, eh?

Wow, the weight-loss topic is still going strong in the blogosphere (see that post for links for several initial posts). Pal MD has more and some more. Dr.Isis is on a roll. Janet is now in the discussion. Bikemonkey joins in. Larry's had something related recently. It is interesting to see how experts differ on the topic...and the comment threads are enlightening as well. Take-home message: don't trust a "TV dietitian"...or diet advice in your local newspaper or Cosmo.... As you know, my problem has always been the opposite. How to gain weight?! The only time I managed to put on a few…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Hunters Are Depleting Lion And Cougar Populations, Study Finds: Sport hunters are depleting lion and cougar populations as managers respond to demands to control predators that threaten livestock and humans, according to a study published in the June 17 issue of PLoS One. The study was led by Craig Packer, a University of Minnesota professor and authority on lion behavior, who worked with an international team of conservationists. Mammoths Survived In Britain Until 14,000 Years Ago, New Discovery Suggests: Research which finally proves that bones found in Shropshire, England provide the most…

A non-biological biological clock

A clock is supposed to tell time. Furthermore, it is supposed to do it accurately and precisely. These days, it is not too difficult to build a mechanical, quartz, digital or atomic clock that is marvelously accurate and precise. But if a clock is not so good, it will have a systematic error, i.e., it will go slightly too fast OR slightly too slow and will, over time, get seriously inaccurate. On the other hand, a biological clock is messy - it relies on ineractions between molecules. Thus, it will display occasional fluctuations - getting a little bit ahead at one point, a little bit…

The Millionth Comment! Just around the corner. And it could be YOU!

Guys, keep commenting! A lot. Because if you do, and you are lucky, you will be eligible for a prize: ....one lucky reader will win an all-out science adventure -- a trip for two to New York City and exclusive science adventures only ScienceBlogs could give you access to. The trip includes airfare, four nights in a four-star hotel, behind-the-scenes tours of top museums and labs, and dinner with your favorite ScienceBlogger. The Grand Prize is this: Grand Prize: 2 round-trip economy class tickets on a carrier of Seed Media Group's choice from the major airport closest to winner's home, to…

William James - The PhD Octopus

A century ago, yet nothing has changed: William James, March 1903: ..............Human nature is once for all so childish that every reality becomes a sham somewhere, and in the minds of Presidents and Trustees the Ph.D. degree is in point of fact already looked upon as a mere advertising resource, a manner of throwing dust in the Public's eyes. "No instructor who is not a Doctor" has become a maxim in the smaller institutions which represent demand; and in each of the larger ones which represent supply, the same belief in decorated scholarship expresses itself in two antagonistic passions,…

Michael Pollan's Letter to the President

In this weekend's New York Times: Farmer in Chief :' Dear Mr. President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration -- the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Dinosaur Fossils Fit Perfectly Into The Evolutionary Tree Of Life, Study Finds: A recent study by researchers at the University of Bath and London's Natural History Museum has found that scientists' knowledge of the evolution of dinosaurs is remarkably complete. Global Warming Fix? Some Of Earth's Climate Troubles Should Face Burial At Sea, Scientists Say: Making bales with 30 percent of global crop residues - the stalks and such left after harvesting - and then sinking the bales into the deep ocean could reduce the build up of global carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by up to 15 percent a…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Urbanization: 95% Of The World's Population Lives On 10% Of The Land: A new global map released by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 2009, measures urbanisation from the new perspective of Travel Time to 8,500 Major Cities. The map fills an important gap in our understanding of economic, physical and even social connectivity. Girls Have Superior Sense Of Taste To Boys: Girls have a better sense of taste than boys. Every third child of school age prefers soft drinks which are not sweet. Children and young people love…

WWW2010 - call for papers

WWW2010 is coming to Raleigh, NC next year. This is the conference about the Internet, almost as old as Internet itself, founded by the inventor of the Internet, and it is huge: The World Wide Web was first conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The first conference of the series, WWW1, was held at CERN in 1994 and organized by Robert Cailliau. The IW3C2 was founded by Joseph Hardin and Robert Cailliau later in 1994 and has been responsible for the conference series ever since. Except for 1994 and 1995 when two conferences were held each year, WWWn became an…

Blogrolling - Letter A

Continuing with asking for your help in fixing my Blogroll: Every couple of days or so, I will post here a list of blogs that start with a particular letter, and you add in the comments if you know of something that is missing from that list. Today brought to you by letter A. This is what is on the Blogroll right now. Check Housekeeeping posts for other A blogs I have discovered in the meantime. Check links. Tell me what to delete, what to add: The Alternative Scientist Academic Productivity The Apprenticing Lab Rat A Man With A Ph.D. A Wallflower Physicist's Perspective Advances in the…

Temporary full-time job opening in cell and microbiology at UMM

Full-Time, One-Year Faculty Position in Biology University of Minnesota, Morris The University of Minnesota, Morris seeks an individual committed to excellence in undergraduate education, to fill a full-time, one-year position in biology beginning August 17, 2009. Responsibilities include: teaching undergraduate biology courses including an introductory level cell biology course for majors (with lab), an upper-level microbiology course for majors (with lab), and contributing to other courses that support the biology curriculum. Excellent fringe benefits and a collegial atmosphere accompany…

New and Exciting in PLoS this week

Isolation-by-Distance and Outbreeding Depression Are Sufficient to Drive Parapatric Speciation in the Absence of Environmental Influences: A commonly held view in evolutionary biology is that new species form in response to environmental factors, such as habitat differences or barriers to individual movements that sever a population. We have developed a computer model, called EvoSpace, that illustrates how new species can emerge when a species range becomes very large compared with the dispersal distances of its individuals. This situation has been called isolation-by-distance because remote…

Not so smug now, are you, Canada?

I confess, we residents of the USA sometimes have a bit of an inferiority complex when we compare our citizenry to those of other nations of the world — we look like such a collection of idiots next to places like Iceland and Australia and New Zealand and Germany and England and Canada and etc. (at least we feel a bit wiser than Turkey). Of course, none of those other countries are entirely exempt from having dumbasses pontificating on science, so we can still occasionally take a cheap, desperate shot at some furrin' loon. Here's a Canadian who has done his part to bolster American egos:…

Blogging Sex and Reproduction

Everyone seems to be blogging about sex (and reproduction) these days. Is it something in the air? Water? Anyway, here are some good recent examples: Bush Administration Censored Talk On Birth Control And Sex Ed: This administration got away with a trailblazer--using the FDA to decide a drug's (Plan B) availability based strictly on party ideology. It set the precedent for a future administration to behave equally as irresponsible. When a future administration institutes a one-child policy, or executes officials who don't tow the party line, or makes stoning part of the treatment protocol…

My Blogroll, and the Newsfeed Question

I've been a little behind (as in 'few weeks') in adding the blogs I tagged in my Blogrolling for Today posts into the actual Blogroll but I caught up with that a few minutes ago. That Blogroll is a Monster! But, check it out anyway - at least check if your blog is there and if the link is correct. I don't know how useful it is to anyone, but having about a thousand blogs personally chosen and listed in one place is better than browsing tens of millions of blogs that are in existence out there. Anyway, I am looking for a new newsfeed. Having this many blogs listed is tough on any newsfeed…

My Picks From ScienceDaily

Fire Ants Killing Baby Song Birds At High Rates: Red imported fire ants may be killing as many as a fifth of baby song birds before they leave the nest, according to research recently completed at Texas A&M University. Ecologist Finds Dire Devastation Of Snake Species Following Floods: In science, it's best to be good, but sometimes it's better to be lucky. Fossil Whale Puts Limit On Origin Of Oily, Buoyant Bones In Whales: A fossilized whale skeleton excavated 20 years ago amid the stench and noise of a seabird and elephant seal rookery on California's Año Nuevo Island turns out to be…

My picks from ScienceDaily

'Alien' Jaws Help Moray Eels Feed: Moray eels have a unique way of feeding reminiscent of a science fiction thriller, researchers at UC Davis have discovered. After seizing prey in its jaws, a second set of jaws located in the moray's throat reaches forward into the mouth, grabs the food and carries it back to the esophagus for swallowing. More here and here (you can see the video on both places). Migrating Squid Drove Evolution Of Sonar In Whales And Dolphins, Researchers Argue: Behind the sailor's lore of fearsome battles between sperm whale and giant squid lies a deep question of evolution…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Inside The Brain Of A Crayfish: Voyage to the bottom of the sea, or simply look along the bottom of a clear stream and you may spy lobsters or crayfish waving their antennae. Look closer, and you will see them feeling around with their legs and flicking their antennules - the small, paired sets of miniature feelers at the top of their heads between the long antennae. Both are used for sensing the environment. The long antennae are used for getting a physical feel of an area, such as the contours of a crevice. The smaller antennules are there to both help the creature smell for food or mates…

The Joys of Blogging Biology

One cool thing about being a blogging biologist is that one can write every day about sex with a straight face and then blame readers for "having a dirty mind". But sex is so interesting - life would cease to exist without it and it is a central question in biology, so we have a license, nay, duty, to write about it all the time. We get all blase about it, I guess, compared to "normal people". ;-) One cool story that revolves around sex is making the rounds of the science blogosphere today. Jake Young explains in seemingly dry scientific language: This issue has spawned a variety of weird…

My picks from ScienceDaily

What Gets A Female's Attention, At Least A Songbird's: Male songbirds produce a subtly different tune when they are courting a female than when they are singing on their own. Now, new research offers a window into the effect this has on females, showing they have an ear for detail. The finding provides insights not only into the intricacies of songbird attraction and devotion but also into the way in which the brain develops and responds to social cues, in birds -- and humans. Oldest Cretaceous Period Dinosaur Discovered Represents New Genus Of Prehistoric Aquatic Predator: One of the oldest…

How did we get to this point?

The Texas Board of Education is led by Don McLeroy, a creationist dentist and plagiarist who believes that the earth is only 6000 years old. Just stop there and savor it. The man who wants to dictate what all of the children in one of the largest educational systems in the country should learn about science believes his pathetic and patently false superstition supersedes the evidence and the informed evaluation of virtually all the scientists in the world. There is no other way to put it than to point out that McLeroy is a blithering idiot who willingly puts his incompetence on display. His…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Religion Colors Americans' Views Of Nanotechnology: Is nanotechnology morally acceptable? For a significant percentage of Americans, the answer is no, according to a recent survey of Americans' attitudes about the science of the very small. Male Fertility May Be Harmed By Mix Of Endocrine Disrupters: Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which are harmless individually in small doses, can together be a dangerous cocktail. Concurrent exposure to several endocrine-disrupting substances may, among other things, result in malformed sexual organs. Risk assessments of chemical substances should therefore…

Updates...

First, I'd like to thank Archy, Rev. BigDumbChimp, Melissa and PZ for the birthday wishes. Also, a couple of my blog readers (who, I assume, wish to remain anonymous), hit my amazon wish list and bought me birthday presents which arrived with perfect timing - today. I am very happy I got this, this and this. Thank you so much! I had a wonderful day today. After sleeping late, we went up to the Village green in Southern Village, feasted on the recently revamped menu of the Town Hall Grill, got coffee and gelato (as well as my favourite newspaper) at La Vita Dolce (which has really improved…

Marsh Bird Rediscovered After 130 Year Absence

tags: large-billed reed-warbler, birds Large-billed Reed-warbler, Acrocephalus orinus: the world's most mysterious bird. Image: Philip Round/The Wetland Trust. More elusive than even the Ivory-billed woodpecker, a large-billed reed-warbler has been rediscovered at a wastewater treatment plant outside of Bangkok, Thailand, Birdlife International announced today. The bird has eluded birders and ornithologists for more than 130 years. Because the bird had not been seen since its discovery in 1867 in the Sutlej Valley of India, little is known about the mysterious large-billed reed-warbler.…

Don't They Lock Up People Who Are Like this??

Speaking as a person who is currently in a nuthouse, who has met all kinds since I've been in a nuthouse (ooo, the stories I could tell you ... !), I wonder why Bush is allowed to not only roam freely throughout our country at the taxpayers' expense, but why he is in the White House, of all places, with his finger on the red button? What am I blabbing on about? The recent interview with Brit Hume, that's what. Part of the transcript follows below the fold. (Italics are my comments). Hume: "I've just spent some time in the company of people who were for you, who are worried about you, just as…