this tuesday in the science times

encouraging news from (of all places) utah on the evolution "debate"

pollution messes with chemical communication in swordtails resulting in an increase in the number of hybrids.

now she tells me

my mom mentioned today that her side of the family has had a history of depression.
AWESOME.

sunday morning musings

beaverotterplatypus fossil discovered from the jurassic in china. or as those snooty scientists like to call it, Castorocauda lutrasimilis.

goal: start reading more journals about mammalian evolution. because it is really cool.

last night i watched a movie called Godsend with a couple of friends. it came out a few years ago, and the plot is basically: cute 8 year old white kid meets untimely death, grieving parents are approached by brash scientist (played by robert deniro) for cloning project, parents get child back- live happy new life in secluded suburb, kid reaches age when his predecessor died and all hell breaks loose....with a twist...

now the movie wasn't bad. it was suspensful, kinda scary, and was, well... generally original. but it lost me when the underlying message shot out, grabbed the audience, and shook us like neglected babies. the message: cloning bad. scientists worse. scientists are arrogant and like playing god. they are manipulative and have done nothing to help humanity. now i saw this creeping into the movie from the getgo (i mean the movie is about cloning), but it went a little over the edge when robert deniro is confronted by angry clone father in a church and preceeds to beat angry clone father over the head with some religious artefact, setting the church on fire in the process.

plus there were lots of issues with the "science" of the movie....but i'm not going to get into that. because it's just a movie.

women's rights vs. south dakota

Never Ever Ever Ever Ever support South Dakota.

i am blogging as i'm reading in absolute outrage. apparently the south dakota senate has been voting to outlaw ALL abortions, and have done so successfully in what i suspect is a white male dominated state government.

After more than an hour of fierce and emotional debate, the senators rejected pleas to add exceptions for incest or rape or for the health of the pregnant woman and instead voted, 23 to 12, to outlaw all abortions, except those to save the woman's life.

that's because you cock suckers only want to imprison women with your sexuality. a woman's life isn't ruined by rape or sexual abuse. actually, i bet it's her fault. that little slut was just asking for it and should spend the rest of her life paying for her sinful mistake of lettling your filfthy dick penetrate her. she should have sealed off her vagina long ago.

They also rejected an effort to allow South Dakotans to decide the question in a referendum and an effort to prevent state tax dollars from financing what is certain to be a long and expensive court battle.

of course you don't want WOMEN deciding what is right for themselves.

In an interview this week, Mr. Rounds said he had doubts about whether now was the time to make a "full frontal attack" on Roe v. Wade

these guys certainly see nothing wrong with full frontal attacks.

and speculation that Justice John Paul Stevens might soon retire, made now an ideal time to challenge Roe.

fuck.

"What can we as a state possibly gain by passing a bill that is unconstitutional?" asked Senator Clarence Kooistra, Republican of Garretson, who added that he represented the "silent majority" of South Dakotans who would not approve outlawing abortion nearly entirely.

you know, that's a great question clarence. but you know what would help? not being silent. how bout sticking up for women's rights? not even women's rights. just respect for them.
and "not approve outlawing abortion nearly entirely"? how fucking non-committal can you get?

Leslee J. Unruh, founder and president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, who said she could not disclose the identities of those who had pledged money. "We're concerned with the 800 children aborted here every year."

why don't you take on all the women whose fetuses are spontaneously aborted too? god would love you for that.

any rant right now would just be redundant. so all i have to say is, fuck you south dakota. but if you get me pregnant i will rip that fetus out with a coat hanger.

science times, salmon, and something else that starts with s

in today's news: a new example of sympatric speciation, the new york times says what we're all thinking, and an aggravating yet somewhat exposing article about scientists signing that anti-evolution petition.

i got tired of eating soup, sandwhiches, and various snack foods for dinner and attempted a making a real meal. 1/2 lb salmon, red potatoe slices, and edamame. i now have stomach cramps.

also i couldn't find a damn copy of half blood prince that didn't cost over $60. i don't want the collector's edition, i want a cheap paperback! even the normal hardcover would have been acceptable. somebody's breaking in thier library card tomorrow.

fear of flying...things

so now i'm getting paranoid about birds.

when i was in my friendly neighborhood gristedes last night i was searching for larg brand packaged sandwhich turkey (you know the nicely thin sliced kind in those nifty reusable plastic containers) and none was to be found. there was ham. there was roast beef. but there was no turkey.

am i reading too far into this? and is it foolish that i got turkey from the deli anyway?

snow blog

the last resort

a friend of mine directed my attention this article on the bbc news page.

when i was 11 i started attending the y.o. ranch adventure camp during the summers. it was paradise for a kid like me. lots of outdoorsy stuff, no pressure arts and crafts, kooky hippy counselors, and furry exotic animals.

i started working as a counselor when i was 15 and started to see some of the other goings on of the camp world as well as those of the ranch itself. while i still had a blast, it became ever more bothersome that the the ranch and camp focused so much on hunting. now i have heard the arguments from many sides....hunting can be important and done in an ethical manner. but the sad reality is that many people just want to kill something they think is pretty and would look nice in thier living room. this was especially disturbing coming from the younguns who would ask how much it cost to kill an animal everytime we passed one on the ranch or on safari (they even said this about our giraffes!). the idea that no reverence was being passed down in these hunting families for other members of the biological community and conservation really bothered me.

the statement one of these men made about preserving some of these exotic animals only to kill them makes me think they are really missing the point of conservation.

sigh. i guess when you call someplace paradise you really should kiss it goodbye.