Last week, I was moving picnic tables on one of our beaches and I came across a large snapping turtle laying her eggs under one. She was about the size of a bag of cement, and probably only a little lighter. While not unusual, perhaps more time or my mood got me to thinking about her. Here was a living fossil, essentially unchanged for 200 million years. There was no need for further evolution in her species; she had achieved what was objectively perfection. I know that I am far from perfect, but I had not been thinking that we humans have strayed that far from what seems to be the ideal.

I'll get back to Guadalupe Mountains National Park another time,

_{Guadalupe Mountains NP, seen from Carlsbad Caverns NP}
but in the spirit of keeping my promises to talk more about Carlsbad,

here are some photos from the National Park

_{view southeast from the visitor's center, toward Mexico}

(not the caves themselves -- there's more than one, but I didn't get to go inside because I reached the park after closing time).

<sub>Panorama looking west from the visitors' center parking lot

Visitor's Center, from the southwest approach</sub>
Since this trip I've been up to Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle,

Now, Bob Somerby has an excellent post up about the obsession with earmarks:

Those high-profile spending measures total nearly $2 trillion. By way of contrast, the EARMARKS which have Sheneman frightened total $7.7 billion. (No one has made the slightest attempt to show how much of that is “wasteful.”) But guess what? Trillions are much larger than billions! In fact, those EARMARKS represent roughly one two hundred and fiftieth of the total spending in these high-profiles measures. That amounts to one quarter of one percent—one dollar of every 250.

But to Sheneman, these EARMARKS are larger than human life. They may swallow the White House itself.

Yeah, I'm late to the party for the American News Project. It looks like it's worth a look, though, because apparently (unlike the Main$tream Media) they're serious about investigative reportage. Check out what they've found on the dichotomy between the reported spending of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the effort to pass California's Proposition 8, and the effects (and the evidence of unreported funding in said effects) of that spending on the election results.
Reward good behavior -- pick up an RSS feed or bookmark the site, at least!

No pics and just a short one from me today, as it's too durn pretty outside to stay on the machine for long. But: in case you don't know, many vegetable plants only require 30-90 days of growth before harvest. And many are very easy to grow; lettuce and chard and potatoes and even tomatoes. There are many foods that freeze well, or can be stored dry.

Why am I reminding you of this? Because the flooding in the Midwest is going to utterly ruin a lot of our corporate farms, the farms that we still rely upon for our system of cheap and readily available food. No, I don't predict starvation and food shortages, but yes, I do predict a rise in the price of food starting this fall or sooner, an even more dramatic rise than is already coming due to inflation and energy prices.

Spade up some grass. Fill a couple of pots. Head over to a community plot, or just create one on some unused land in your 'hood. It's not too late.

Colleagues are lauding the NBC News veteran's work.

I won't go into the whole "bury Caesar" speech from Shakespeare here. I'll note that Russert died with his boots on, though, recording voice-overs for this Sunday's program at the time of his collapse.

Brokaw's pretty broken up over it.
The rest of the media, I don't know; but by this time tomorrow, the sharks will be circling to replace him.

Is it wrong of me to hope the VRWC can't find somebody more sympathetic to their agenda?

Good Morning! It's a beautiful day here, sunny and bright, sunrise was wonderful to see this morning. I thought I'd make up for the prolonged lack of blogging with some photos. Warning: big pics, so this will likely load slowly for you dial up folks.

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Ok, yes I saw the Wright speech on CNN tonight. I know I saw it because I just saw another thread on corrente where Wright talked about the right-brained creative black child vs the wrong brained who-gives-a-damn white child. I thought that I had fallen asleep on the couch and dreamed that. Now I have to reconcile reality with um reality. Yes, Virginia this is 2008 not 1846.
Letting that sink in.
Wright went on to say in a tone that was as if all whites during desegregation ran and met in a big assembly room and said "we know what to do, they are right-brained creative AFRICAN children, we will desegregate thus keeping them down forever and ever!"

Not Everything That Can Be Done Should Be Done. I am rarely flummoxed. I've been researching and trying to write an essay about the convergence of transhumanism, the technological singularity, and eugenics. I can't . . . I just bloody can not do it. I understand the damn material, but it just freezes my brain. So I'm gonna have to let you do most of the work. I'll provide some basic resources.   Read more…

Hell, we thought we ran recipes just for fun. Fun is good. If you can't have fun during your revolution why the fuck bother?

Little did we know....from today's (Jan. 1 2008 that is) Guardian: relaying a question posed to a number of prominent scientists asking "What have you changed your mind about recently?":

What was the turning point in human evolution?

Richard Wrangham, British anthropologist who studied under Jane Goodall. Now at Harvard University, his research includes primate behaviour and human evolution.

"I used to think that human origins were explained by meat-eating. After all, the idea that meat-eating launched humanity has been the textbook evolutionary story for decades, mooted even before Darwin was born.

"But in a rethinking of conventional wisdom I now think that cooking was the major advance that turned ape into human ... Cooked food is the signature feature of human diet. It not only makes our food safe and easy to eat, but it also grants us large amounts of energy compared to a raw diet,

The picture, entitled "Zoo Poo" from BBC.

It's great when animal people show what chutzpah they have. At the Dallas Zoo, there's a Waste-to-Energy program that is winning awards, and keeping the beasties in light and warmth.

It's most likely a spoof, but I thought it was funny:

Project Pterosaur Protocols
Our first and foremost goal is to serve the Lord and be prayerful in our actions.

Pterosaurs are not to be harmed, nor are their colonies to be unduly disrupted, so as to preserve these evidences for future generations.

If we find pterodactyloids that are too large to capture and bring back unharmed, we will instead take eggs and/or photos.

Ethnological evidences of latent Biblical knowledge in native cultures from before the Tower of Babel incident should be recorded for use in study and museum displays.

Haven't I read this sci-fi classic?

This melt water was pouring through to the bottom of the glacier creating a lake 500 metres deep which was causing the glacier "to float on land." Calling Peter Jackson! Al Gore on the white courtesy phone!!! These melt-water rivers are lubricating the glacier, like applying oil to a surface and causing it to slide into the sea. It's sort of like if we pushed CA into the sea. It is causing a massive acceleration which could be catastrophic."

The glacier is now moving at 15km a year into the sea although in surges it moves even faster. He measured one surge at 5km in 90 minutes - an extraordinary event. Surge, Bitches!

New York Times article gives an overview, appears that a vir

This is very comforting. We don't have to be the same species of the war criminal variety, I am postulating from finding that fossil evidence shows the lines might not be so straight after all. I am comforted to think that my branch is the one with feelings for my fellow man, the one with ideals of making the world better for those to follow after me. I don't have to be just another grasping snarling life form motivated by greed.

Hey! Look who popped his head out of closet! It appears he's writing with a vengence again, or at least he is on this topic. Go stretch your brain a tad and enjoy some High Thursday framing.

Pope Benedict XVI bashes creationists...

“This clash is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such.”

And climate-change doubters...

"Our Earth is talking to us and we must listen to it and decipher its message if we want to survive,” he said.

Does this mean that John Kerry can have his communion wafers back?

Then again, one could just quit reading Food Recall stories. But this one rather stood out for weirdness--not salmonella, not e. coli, but botulism for chrissakes. The stuff you are told to worry about if you eat badly-home-canned food or go to a lot of church potlucks.

There hasn't been a case of botulism in commercially-canned food in well over 30 years. Way to go, Bushie. Loosen those food-safety standards! The free market will take care of the problem, right?

However there is the minor matter of the stores that sold this stuff. Castleberry brand doesn't must make Castleberry Brand products it seems. They make shit for just about everybody (except Hormel. Spam is safe.) On the just-released-very-expanded list are such items as:

Kroger Hot Dog Chili Sauce, 10 oz. cans (Kroger=everyplace)

Best Yet Chili with Beans, 15 oz. cans (Best Yet=house brand across wide range of regional stores)

And the big UH oh....

Great Value Chili with Beans, 15 oz. cans

* Great Value Hot Chili with Beans, 15 oz. cans

Great Value=House brand for Wal Mart.

And oh yeah, there's also

UPDATE NOTE: If you read this before please click on "read more" and look again. I have received information from "someone not authorized to talk to the media" about this botulism shit. Useful informaton indeed.

It's Sunday, I'm so tired from several days of being ensconced in Family Bliss and long driving, and I've been wondering if I had a blog post in me. Then, suddenly, it hit me.

Out of the Nashville Tennessean--Al Gore's old paper may we remember, although that was very long ago--comes interesting news. You know these stories we've been hearing about how some unspecified "they" have been "breeding honeybees to be gigantic and maybe that's what's causing Colony Collapse Disorder"? Turns out there are giant bees out there, but it's not from any mad-beekeeper breeding project:

The creatures that look like honey bees on steroids are new residents of Middle Tennessee, and are being spotted hovering around decks and in gardens.

They're an Asian species called the giant resin bee, said University of Tennessee Extension entomologist Frank Hale. "I can't think of anything really negative about them," he said.

sheepishly looks around

Hey, Y'all.

Sorry I've been away, I feel guilty about it. I'm trying, really trying, to find things to write about that don't start and end with "kill them all" and "we're doomed, muthafuckers." But I am compelled to write a little about this minor thing I've noticed.
If you care to read about it, I'd really love to hear what you have to say. Be angry, relieved or disinteresed, but it's not about "politics."

From the Burnt Orange Report, Houston's mayor and the Democratic Congressman who represents W's home district in Texas are onto a truth that needs more coverage. I didn't know before today that Texas is home to one of every 11 US service members; but we all know that treatment our returning veterans get isn't what it should be. We all have an obligation to do the right thing by the veterans, too. What you think that right thing is may not be the same as what I think it is, but I think White and Edwards are on the right track.

Pull that magnet off the SUV in the next parking spot, and ask its owner whether s/he's thanked a veteran for serving in person lately.

It's encouraging to see the Lone Star State beginning to emerge from the cancer that gave us the cretin in chief and his lackeys, the legislature that was cashiered by its leader so they couldn't vote him out, and other fun and games that have come to be associated with Texas.

Now, a hard look at political leanings in the march toward the next, hopefully redemptive, presidency show that voters are more inclined toward Hillary Clinton than the rest of the field. I'm glad to see that the long rightwing hate campaign has not had the effect the Rovians had intended. Seeing who's putting out the hate mongering, it would be nice to know that Senator Clinton has gained stature from the comparison.

This morning, the Dallas Morning News editorially renounced its 100 years of support for the death penalty. This is inspirational.

It's finally here! I have no choice but to go out and work the grounds, the birds and budding flowers are calling me. Also, I must prepare the soil for the growth of the Mighty Zucchini of Chastisement.   Read more…