And now for something completely different: elephant impressionists.
Researchers have recorded two African elephants (Loxodonta africana) that are adept mimics. One does a decent impression of an Asian elephant, and another is, remarkably, a dead ringer for a passing truck. The skilful impressions are far from the traditional grunts of an average African elephant.
Look for them to headline at the Sahara next year.
[Via Geek Press]
Can there be a jot without a tittle?
Wretchard has some interesting thoughts on what one might look like.
As he notes, the current organization is a corrupt relic of events of six decades past, and badly in need of a total restructuring. In its current form, it’s not just useless, it’s counterproductive to its stated ends.
Alan Boyle has an interesting report from Esther Dyson’s little space conference, on the state of the entrepreneurial space industry, and its invigorated prospects for investment.
…for those looking for bad news in Iraq. But good news for everyone else.
I’m sure that the Lancet will add this to the count of all the “innocent Iraqis” killed because we removed Saddam:
U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a suspected guerrilla training camp and killed 85 fighters, the single biggest one-day death toll for militants in months and the latest in a series of blows to the insurgency, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.
“Among the dead are Arab and foreign fighters, including Sudanese, Algerians and Moroccans, as well as other nationalities,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim told Reuters.
Isn’t that a shame? And they didn’t even get to murder children before they died. Maybe they’ll get their virgins anyway.
If they can keep things up at this pace, I suspect that they will be killing them faster than new ones are recruited, because news like this makes recruiting a lot harder.
Hugh Hewitt writes, about the recent school shooting incident in northern Minnesota:
…[the] MSM is not distinguishing itself in this instance, and will again move past this terrible story without ever asking what has happened to youth culture in America that it turns out such killers.
Hugh is making a couple assumptions here for which he provides no basis. First, that these types of incidents are more prevalent today than they’ve been at various times in the past and, second, that they’re caused by something in “youth culture.”
Both may be true, but I’m not aware of any evidence for either. Does he have any data to indicate that mass shootings by young people are at some kind of all-time high, on a per capita basis, or are we just more aware of them, because of modern communications technology? If so, does he have any data to indicate that it’s caused by “youth culture,” as opposed to (for example) increases in psychoses due to environmental factors (e.g. Ritalin, or non-prescribed drugs), or increased availability of rapid-fire weaponry?
It’s not like this is a unique period in American history, after all. Remember Billy the Kid? And if this didn’t happen in the early nineteenth century, it wasn’t so much because it was discouraged by “youth culture” (to the limited degree that such a thing existed) so much as the fact that muzzle-loading muskets weren’t very handy tools for shooting and killing many people in a short period of time. It would actually be interesting to see how gang murder rates compare with, say, the range wars of the old west (which both have a lot of young shooters involved).
I’m not proposing gun control as a solution to this problem–Kliebold’s and Harris’ guns were “controlled” (which is to say illegal), after all. My point is that it’s very easy to simply say “O tempora, O mores!” when something like this happens, when the reality is that in a population of three hundred million people, sometimes a few of them out on the tail end of the bell curve are going to go nuts, pick up a gun, and shoot some folks. Short of a draconian reining in of our freedoms, there’s probably some irreduceable amount of this thing that we’ll have to accept. I’m in fact surprised that it happens as seldom as it does.
In my opinion, the solution is likely to not be fewer guns, or “gun-free zones” (which are basically the equivalent of a sign saying “Welcome, mass murderers! Unarmed victims in abundance here!”) but more guns, in the hands of trained teachers and other school authorities, to end such incidents as quickly as possible with a minimum loss of life.
What concerns me is the future, as technology evolves, and some demented kid gets a hold of something really nasty, that can create a great deal more havoc in an even shorter amount of time.
Apparently, he looks just like a turtle. Who knew? Was it foreseen that the dark angel would take terrapin form?
Here’s an interesting interview of the incoming Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, by Der Spiegel:
SPIEGEL: The Sunnis, the second-largest ethnic group in Iraq, were in control of the country until recently, but now they feel forced into a secondary role by the Shiite majority. Many sympathize with the terrorists. A few Sunni religious leaders have even issued fatwas that justify the killing of occupation forces and alleged collaborators.
Jaafari: This is why I am doing everything within my power to convince our Sunni brothers to join us in developing the new constitution.
SPIEGEL: How successful have you been? 80 percent of Sunnis boycotted the elections.
Jaafari: My efforts have certainly been fruitful. More and more Sunni politicians, even religious dignitaries, are now willing to participate in developing our constitution. We want every Iraqi to support the new constitution.
SPIEGEL: What will the constitution look like? Do you envision an Iranian-style Islamic republic, or could Saudi Arabia be a model?
Jaafari: Iraq should become an Islamic state, but without Iran or Saudi Arabia as its godfather. Islam, not unlike Christianity, has many different faces.
SPIEGEL: Will you introduce sharia?
Jaafari: Yes, but only as one of several sources of jurisprudence. That is only natural in a country that is populated mainly by Muslims.
SPIEGEL: Will Christians, for example, be given religious freedoms?
Jaafari: Everyone will have the same rights, even the members of our many smaller religious communities.
SPIEGEL: How do you plan to deal with the many Iraqis who are in favor of a secular state and the separation of religion and the state?
Jaafari: Iraqis are tolerant by nature. No one should be concerned about losing his freedom of expression. I will fight to ensure that every citizen is able to express his opinion, even if I don’t agree with it.
SPIEGEL: Will women be required to wear veils in the new Iraq?
Jaafari: Never. They will be free to choose for themselves.
Read the whole thing. He sounds like a savvy politician. And the civil war, and Islamic Republic so long predicted (and probably, on the part of many, fervently desired) by war opponents seems to continue to be delayed in arriving. Of course, that’s true for almost all of their dire predictions.
American Express has an insecure login. When you enter the URL http://www.americanexpress.com (a natural enough place to go take care of your accounts, and the address that comes on the bill), you’re redirected to this page. Note that it’s an “http” site, not an “https.”
You can get a secure login by adding an “s” to the URL and reloading the page, but most people wouldn’t know to do that, and you shouldn’t have to. There’s no link to a secure option, and they shouldn’t even allow a non-secured login. This is kind of amazing for a company with the reputation of AmEx.
Whatever my other opinions about the Terri Schiavo situation, or the facts of the matter, I can find no circumstances that justify starving and dehydrating her to death.
Either let her continue on in her present state, or mercifully and quickly kill her, but the present course is absolutely outrageous and unjustifiable on any ethical ground or circumstance, in my opinion. Even if the consensus medical opinion is that she’s insensible to it, there’s insufficient reason for it (in my opinion, none) to take the chance that she’s not.
I do find this aspect of the case a judicial travesty, beyond my comprehension, other than to maintain a legal fiction that she’s not being euthanized. Given all the outrage over how we’ve been treating prisoners, most of whom are trying to kill us, is that worth torturing an innocent human being to death over a matter of many days?
[Update at 6:30 PM EST]
When they remove (or reinstall, if that happens) the feeding tube, do they use either a local or general anaesthetic? If not, why not? Because they are operating on the assumption that she’s vegetative? That seems wrong as well.
[Update on Wednesday morning]
Here’s a link to a doctor blogger who is disputing the characterization that the “cortex has been replaced by spinal fluid,” based on the scans.