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cats rule
nogutsnoglory blog-
If, during the long course of ages and under varying conditions of life, organic beings vary at all in the several parts of their organization, and I think this cannot be disputed; if there be, owing to the high geometric powers of increase of each species, at some age, season or year, a severe struggle for life, and this certainly cannot be disputed; then, considering the infinite complexity of the relations of all organic beings to each other and to their conditions of existence, causing an infinite variety in structure, constitution, and habits, to be advantageous to them, I think it would be a most extraordinary fact if no variation ever had occurred useful to each being’s own welfare, in the same way as so many variations have occurred useful to man. But if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterized will have the best chance of being preserved in the struggle for life; and from the strong principle of inheritance they will tend to produce offspring similarly characterized. This principle of preservation, I have called, for the sake of brevity, Natural Selection. [Charles Darwin (1859) On the Origin of Species]
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“It is essential to such a government, that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.” James Madison -
All the property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it. -Benjamin Franklin - IO9
- V/H/S/ 2 trailer teases scary aliens, FINALLY May 21, 2013We are so excited for the sequel to the horror anthology, V/H/S/2. Because this time, THERE BE ALIENS! Too long have we gone without genuinely horrifying aliens.Read more... […]
- Pentagram Bikini: For the Sunbather Unafraid of Satanic Tan Lines May 21, 2013For the beach bunny with strong beliefs, or a strong desire for a Pentagram-tan-line chest. Either way, you do you girl. Read more... […]
- Paolo Soleri and the Cities of the Future May 21, 2013Paolo Soleri, who died last month at 93, transformed the way people imagine cities of the future. You've probably seen some of his concepts without realizing it. He even built an experimental city in Arizona, called Arcosanti. We've got a gallery of his drawings and designs, some of which have never been online before.Read more... […]
- Steven Spielberg is making a live action Halo series May 21, 2013You're finally getting that live-action Halo you've been clamoring for, and it's going to be produced by Steven Spielberg. Poor Neill Blomkamp. Read more... […]
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- Make Blog
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- Weird Universe
Category Archives: humor
Teaching Cartoon: Secret of a Long Life
In fact, it is only recently that most people survive long enough to encounter the unique maladies that “show up” in the territory of the long-lived.
The Evolution of Human Longevity from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages: An Analysis Based on Skeletal Data
by Jesper L. Boldsen & Richard R. Paine
Screening Needs
Ummm, cats.
Last May, when Sonny, our male cat, was five months old and a lithe leaper, I constructed a video and posted it to youtube. Since then 62 people have viewed the video. Thank you. I did my part. The video did not go viral.
Sonny, grown-up, apparently.
Yeah, now he’s a big lad; 15lbs. He cannot really elevate like he used to be able to do, but when he gets up a head of steam he can get himself up five feet. As always, he doesn’t stick the landing as much as try to wrestle his ‘touch-down’ momentum back down to zero.
I’d Participate
Role-playing is fine. I’d prefer the cooking role.
h/t Subverting Subverting the Genre blog, one of a family of very humorous blogs.
Meanwhile, there is a genre I’d call unintentional subversion. So, bonus:
The Centrifuge Brain Project from Till Nowak on Vimeo.
CIA Goes Social
I much prefer the international party / creep show by design that is Google Plus (G+) over both The Facebook and The Twitter. Alas, hardly anyone I know shares this view as of the end of 2012.
Posted in humor, speculations, web 2.0+
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Mars Hars
Classic.
First Glimpses From Curiosity’s cameras:
. . .a burgeoning genre, no doubt.
Teaching Cartoon: What Everyone Has In Common
My wife discovered a folder with syllabi for a course she taught on social work with couples. The alternative syllabus includes cartoons and this comprised a gold mine of material in the teaching cartoon vein.
This cartoon has long been one of my favorites and yet I had never made a copy for my collection until she produced her find.
First Five Callers…
Just for the record, I much prefer Google+ to Facebook. On the positive side of the ledger, Facebook has brought into distant orbit a handful of long-lost friends. That is it for the positive side of the ledger.
Facebook seems tenaciously attached to its bad interface innovations. Facebook’s search function is laughable. The ‘be-friending’ central imperative is, for me, limited and not congenial.
Google+ has a slightly better interface, excellent search, and its users may access any other user. The latter advantage is very congenial to my open-ended approach to new relationships and incoming information. The serendipity factor on Google+ is by design central to its differentiation (as a platform) and its appeal to me.
There are ways to leverage Google+ which would make it an attractive vehicle for resurrecting the discussions that have mostly disappeared from my screen over the last ten years. Unfortunately, very few people I personally know are on Google+.
The upshot for my own usage is that the internet isn’t in the main a social space for me; it’s much more like a cosmic library.
“He’ll Do That Because He’s A Republican”
What of one of Stewart’s implications, not overtly given here, in this otherwise pointed critique of expected hypocrisy? Are Romney’s concrete beliefs best left completely off the table? If so, are such beliefsbest left off as a matter of respect for which salutary principle?
See: Pennies from heaven: How Mormon economics shape the G.O.P; Chris Lehmann; Harper’s Magazine; October 2011.
Consider the following:
(Interestingly, Mormonism may be the best example of a contemporary living religion–where its doctrines are subject to active revision through the workings of its internal political economy.)
Anti-Hippies
What happens sometimes is start a post and then don’t wrap it up and then its time ends up having gone by. Kaput. So it was with a post on Rich Santorum. He interested me because of his arch way of hiding under the cloak of his practiced–and daffy–”Catholic-like” traditionalism that he was actually a typical “picker and chooser”. Besides, my now buried riff gave me an opportunity to provide trenchant observations about policing bedrooms, and, rhyme Herman Caine with Maratain.
Still, I work in, today, my collection of jpegs of hippie man light switches. These were also in the old post.
Hippie Man Light Switch
Hippie Man Light Switch
Hippie Man Light Switch
h/t to Thinking Outside the Agora
WIllard Wagged
h/t Colbert; Stewart; Americans for a Better Tomorrow Tomorrow
It’s Not Like There Haven’t Been Warnings
There’s a confusion about ‘smarts.’ There’s nothing about the skill set required to pilot an aircraft which makes ignorance ‘elsewhere’ impossible. Similarly, that Michelle Backmann was a tax attorney doesn’t verify her advanced mental capabilities across the spectrum, especially including that of elementary mathematics. The string of appalling, jaw-dropping assertions, each flavored by intense stupidity, is–some would say–simply par for the course of the campaign year.
How is it that the Grand Old Party can align itself with what is termed ‘Conservatism’ and, at the same time, not understand that proudly showcasing abject stupidity is itself not a conservative value in any way, shape or form? The supposedly normative claim made by conservatives–at the higher end of the cognitive spectrum–is: that conservatism’s foundationalism enjoins wise observer and political actor to join sideways-looking pessimism and upward-looking faith in the most realistic, humbling, prudently liberal, and intelligent understanding, about human nature and human society. It is taken as gospel truth, then, that the conservative mentality and intellect is by definition superior to the alternative or opposing instances.
Irony is alive and well
But isn’t this claim obviously and riotously undermined by the current flag-bearing exemplars of what really cannot count as thoughtful fronting of conservative values/principles because each in different ways is so remarkably ignorant?
A friend of mine hadn’t seen Bad Lip Reading’s dadaesque work. Here are my three favorites.
