Ahem....

It would seem that a new chant/slogan is called for since the recent oil discharge off the coast of Louisiana resulted from a defeat of the "fool proof" safeguards that BP and other oil companies assured us would keep such an event from occurring.

Instead of "drill, baby, drill" this other cliche may be more useful.

Oh, that's the slick as seen from space.

Holy Zoonoses Batman!

This image was one of several from a Newsweek/MSNBC slideshow on cute little animals that can vector nasty diseases to humans. It seems to me that this poor guy is frightened of contracting something evil from humans. The credit goes to Stephen Foster/Getty images (didn't he write My Old Kentucky Home?)

I've Heard Of Russian Roulette, but.......

At the Senate hearings that have explored Goldman Sachs operations, a common analogy that has cropped up has to do with gambling and the nature of "risk". According to an AP story today, "Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein testily told skeptical senators at a hearing Tuesday that clients who bought subprime mortgage securities from the Wall Street powerhouse in 2006 and 2007 came looking for risk "and that's what they got."

Now, Russian Roulette is also a risky game. I submit that GS is being charged by the SEC with using an approach suggested by this image in "playing the game" with some of their "less sophisticated" (or more greedy) clients. I think some such clients may have expected significantly more empty cylinders than GS had actually loaded in GS's favor.

Current Political Cartoons...No Additional Comment Needed

Wait For It, "Marmaduchess", and I Didn't Know That

Two of today's cartoons stood out for me. Perhaps it was too early for me and I hadn't had a second cup of coffee, but I had to "wait" for the punch line of Parker and Hart's Sir Rodney epiphany to sink in.

Anyone familiar with our new pup Maggie may appreciate today's Marmaduke (by Brad Anderson). When taking Maggie for a walk, I sometimes feel a bit like Phil hanging onto the leash. As usual, you might have to click on an image to enlarge it somewhat.

What I didn't know (of the myriad of things I don't know) is that naturalist John J. Audubon was born on April 26, 1785 in Haiti, I presume of U.S. parents. Check it out "birthers".

Health Care Barter System?

Perhaps you have heard of the idea advanced by a candidate for U.S. Senate from Nevada that health care reform might center around a return to the 19th early 20th century barter system. "Chickens for Checkups". Take a look at this handy dandy calculator web site that might be useful for this (at least in Nevada)

http://lowdenplan.com/

Another Skyline

It looks like 1,000,000 does not attract much attention, so all bets are off. I guess skylines are not all that intriguing. Try this one, it may be the last. At least the "sky" part is striking.

Return Of The Friday Fungus! Beware!

The following is from a piece by C. Choi that was posted yesterday on MSNBC's web page:

"A deadly, airborne new strain of fungus has emerged in Oregon. It has killed nearly one out of four known affected people so far and might also attack animals ranging from dogs to dolphins. And it is likely to spread, researchers now warn.

The new strain known as VGIIc of the fungus Cryptococcus gattii not only targets humans but has also proven capable of infecting dogs, cats, alpacas, sheep and elk. Other strains have even infected porpoises.

Although it can spread to mammals, it does not jump from animal to animal. Instead, people and other animals get it from inhaling spores released by samples of the fungus that infect trees."

Now that H1N1 is fading a bit, something else is looming on the horizon. This image is credited to Duke U. researchers E. Byrnes and J. Heitman

Gee, All That's Missing Is The "H"

I know just how JON feels. Click on the Garfield strip to enlarge.

Where Can I Buy A Duck Stamp? (and a virtual shotgun)

The political "comic" strip, "Mallard Fillmore" appears in a local newspaper on the Op-Ed page along with the strip, "Doonsbury". This seems to be the newspaper's attempt to balance the alleged liberal bias of "Doonsbury" with that of the attitude expressed by the Duck. The same newspaper carries 2-3 times a week the ravings of Rush's little bro' David and I must admit that I read the Duck while ignoring whatever garbage appears below D. Limbaugh's by-line.

While I read the Duck strip, I almost always am struck by the extreme hyperbole (redundant?) expressed by the Duck's creator. Never content to just point out foibles of the Left (yes, there are some to point out), the Duck takes most everything to an absurd extreme. Today, suggesting that there is no reason to be concerned about what humans are doing to the inhabitability of good old Mother Earth.

Skyline #3 (Or Is It #4?)

OK, here's another city skyline to consider. This time if you "comment" and guess the city correctly, I'll send you 1,000,000.00!

Well, I Tried

After almost a week of trying to be politically even handed, I couldn't resist posting a few of this week's cartoons that take a few jabs. I promise to be better (whatever that might mean).

Kindle That Quest For Knowledge From Your iPad

Gee, it appears that I retired from teaching just in time. I don't know whether to credit Amazon or Apple.

Not Your Typical "Skyline", but......

I'm not sure what this town/village/farm in Iceland may be, but the sky in its backyard certainly shows one of the most disruptive forces of nature that, as of this writing, still hasn't killed anyone.

Oh Gross!!

In today's news there is a story about a newly described species of leech that likes to chomp down mucous membranes of hosts and begin to snack. Apparently one or more specimens were collected inside noses of folks who swim in the upper reaches of the Amazon in Peru.

UGH! (see http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2010/04/membraneleeches.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/t-rex-leech/&usg=__hCerBg8Rn4MQ-MtUpCCZvLUDB9c=&h=498&w=400&sz=180&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=5Md5rnvGDpvpJM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3DTyrannobdella%2Brex%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1 )

Where Are We?

In part to get Senator Coburn's mug of the top, but also to start a new blog idea, take a good look at this image and see if you can guess where this skyline is located.

Hint: It's not too far south of the Tropic of Capricorn and it's east of the Prime Meridian.

A gold star to anyone who can post a comment and guess correctly (or just post a guess) Don't cheat!

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Oil On The Water

The following is from the blog of the Washington Post's Tom Weigel:

"Tom Coburn's plea for civility
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)'s much-discussed friendship with Barack Obama is, all of a sudden, a little harder to attribute to the closeness of their desks in the Senate. Matt Laslo reports on a town hall meeting Coburn held in Oklahoma:

While discussing his policy disagreements with Pelosi Coburn said “she’s a nice lady,” which brought hisses and hoots from the crowd. But Coburn flatly rejected the crowd's animosity towards the liberal Speaker.

[Come on now. She is nice – how many of you all have met her? She’s a nice person,] Coburn said as he went on to lecture the crowd about civility. Coburn also cautioned his crowd not to [catch yourself being biased by Fox News that somebody is no good.]

He's not the first Republican to go there.

Way back in August, at the start of the "town hells" Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) told an angry crowd to [turn that television off] when Glenn Beck's show came on."

Somehow everyone is going to have to work much harder to "depolarize" American politics. It would be a great shame if it would have to take another large national tragedy to get us all to work together for most everyone's benefit.

When Is An Echidna Not An Echidna?

In reading through the e-mails from those commenting on the recent name change for the “common” fruit fly, I ran across a lead to this little nomenclatural tidbit.

If one “googles” the word echidna, one finds nearly all of the first “hits” relate to Tachyglossus aculeatus the cute little primitive mammal (a monotreme of Australia and some other locations in that general part of the world). The creature’s common names include “spiny anteater”. The scientific name literally means "spiny quick tongue"

Digging a bit further, one finds the name Echidna also applied to a genus of fish (e.g. moray eels) and to the Greek monster goddess (as depicted here in the steel sculpture). In Greek mythology, Echidna was the mate of Typhon. Typhon turns out to also be the name given to a large asteroid; large enough to have its own orbiting moonlet called, you guessed it, Echidna.

There is even a heavy metal band by this name (the album cover)

So, take your pick; spiny anteater, eel, goddess or moon or rocker group. They are all echidnas.

BTW, the asteroid Typhon is considered to be the first known binary “centaur”, here used as a term for a celestial minor planet type (gee, I wonder how many different kind of “centaurs” there might be).

Alas, The Old Order Changeth (Or In This Case The Genus)

From Wikipedia:

"Drosophila melanogaster (Greek for dark-bellied dew lover : δρόσος = dew, φίλος = intimate friend, lover, μέλας = dark-coloured, γαστήρ = belly [2]) is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is commonly known as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W. Woodworth, this species is one of the most commonly used model organisms in biology, including studies in genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis and life history evolution because they are easy to take care of, breed quickly, and lay many eggs.[3]
Flies belonging to the family Tephritidae are also called fruit flies, which can lead to confusion, especially in Australia where the term fruit fly refers to the Tephritidae, economic pests in fruit production."

Yesterday, a listserv to which I subscribe was all in a dither about the recent, "official" changing of the name of this classic biological model organism. Apparently the ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) decided that, according to their rather complicated "code", the proper binomial of this beast should now be Sophophora melanogaster. The change is based, in part, on molecular character distinctions.

Sophophora is a name previously used for a "subgenus" in the fly group (with many hundreds of described species besides this one).

I have to admit that "dark-bellied bearer of wisdom" is a more elegant name (as translated from the Greek).

Touché Wiley!

NIce save. Apparently it's OK to negate laws of physics by making Danae a supernatural "queen".

I wonder if someone pointed out to Wiley that it's hard to generate static electricity in the high humidity of a rainy day.

Chillin'

This afternoon I took Maggie for a slow jog along the river meadow road. It was warm for April, but we got about a mile in before Maggie pooped out.

Here she is resting her head on the step while the AC blows over her. (The cool air was also appreciated by me)

If You Think Carefully About It........

I'm not sure that today's Non Sequitur by Wiley is based upon sound physics (rainy day static electricity?)

I'm Glad It Eats Fruit!

"Giant lizard discovered in the Philippines
By JIM GOMEZ (AP) –
MANILA, Philippines — Researchers have concluded that a giant, golden-spotted monitor lizard discovered in the forested mountains of the Philippines six years ago is a new species, according to a study released Wednesday.
The 6.5-foot (2-meter) -long lizard was first spotted in 2004 in the Sierra Madre mountains on the main island of Luzon when local researchers saw local Agta tribesmen carrying one of the dead reptiles.
But it took until last year to determine it was a new species. After capturing an adult, researchers from the University of Kansas and the National Museum of the Philippines obtained DNA samples that helped confirm the lizard was new to science.
The Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor Lizard or Varanus bitatawa feasts on fruits and snails rather than carcasses, unlike many monitors, including its larger relative, the Komodo dragon, according to American and Filipino researchers who wrote about the discovery in Wednesday's peer-reviewed Royal Society journal Biology Letters. It spends much of its time in the treetops and has unique claws that allow it to reach its favorite fruits."

Good Ole Boy Donnie

This evening during its broadcast CBS News had a short face to face interview with Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy. The interview took place near the site of the tragic mine explosion yesterday at one of Massey's mines in southern WV where at least 25 miners lost their lives.

Butter wouldn't melt in Blankenship's mouth as he suggested that safety was job one at his company even though it has been cited for numerous safety violations and has been fined almost $1 million (but has only actually paid a fraction of this amount).

The CBS interviewer chose not to touch on Blankenship's influence buying efforts in WV which can be found described in a Wiki for this guy. Nor did CBS touch on the rather nasty treatment he demonstrated toward some ABC reporters a couple of years ago and which can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Ym8qqR5vU

Blankenship may have spent more money trying to buy (and in one case succeeding) WV elections of public officials than his company has spent on safety measures in WV.

Makes one wonder. The guy in the picture with Donnie is "Skip" Maynard, a State Supreme Court justice who at first refused to recuse himself when asked to rule on some of Massey's legal problems. Note in one of the other images the stereotypical wrapping of himself in the flag and oh, what's that nasty teleprompter for? Doesn't Donnie know how to write on his palms?

I'm Back!

I decided that instead of trying to "clean up" the old Shy & Retiring Blog after it was apparently hacked with malware, I'd just crank up another version, 2.0.

It will take a while to flesh out the site so be patient (all 5 of you readers ;0)