Trokashka e mullirit

01 tetor 2009

Dragged All The Way to Jail

Men in drag being... men in drag even for their mug shot.

Our Foremother Who Were on Earth

The image below shows the skeletal remains and a possible reconstruction of the creature to whom they belonged. It turns out that she is our common ancestor, about a million years older than Lucy. She has both ape- and human-like traits, though, given her pelvic structure, it is believed that she was able to stand and walk upright.

Her discovery provides a missing link in our family tree.

30 shtator 2009

The Oldest Organisms on Earth

It is amazing to think that today there exist living things—mostly plants—that were already around at the time of Caesar or even before.... Absolutely astounding....

2,150-year-old Sentinel Tree, Sequoia National Park, CA

(Source: The Daily Dish; Image source & other images here)

Glücklich Oktoberfest!

I'm definitely going to try to make these pretzels one of these days....

(Source: Wired)

Immigrants & National Pride

The chart below, taken from The Economist, shows pride in one's country. Australia and Canada top the list. (Flip of the middle finger to you Canada scorners!)

This second chart taken from Think Progress shows the percentage of foreign-born individuals in the top three countries with foreign-born population. Australia and Canada once again top the list—and in that order, too!

Whaddya know?! Immigrants are not detrimental to 'trust, admiration, respect and pride in [one's] country,' to use the language of The Economist.

Suck it, Xenophobia!

Kalashnikov Going Kaput

According to an article in Der Spiegel, the makers (and the inventor) of the Kalashnikov are on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. The most popular weapon in the world might become a victim of its own popularity and of the popularity of its forgeries....

29 shtator 2009

Relentless Thuggery

Conservatives are behaving like piranhas: they attack a prey and never leave until all that is left are its lifeless bones. And they succeed by virtue of their numerous appeals to the masses and the reactions they elicit, among which are the worst and ugliest of human nature.

ACORN is the conservatives' latest victim (though they still are attacking president Obama and others). Rachel Maddow does a tremendously good job of exposing and unmasking the forces behind the conspiracy against ACORN:

What happened to Republicans' appeal to the 'better angels of our nature,' so vivid 150 years ago?

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Abraham LINCOLN

28 shtator 2009

«O Captain! My Captain!»

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Walt WHITMAN