Leonard David has the story of the budding lunar environmental movement.
Is this stupid? Why, yes, as a matter of fact. Yes, it is.
Category Archives: Weird
And Now For Something Completely Different
A fight over radioactive space monkeys.
I want one.
Pat Flannery probably does, too, but only if it’s cute and personality filled.
Our Ursine Allies
But the president is spurning them, natch:
Barack Obama has announced that he is withdrawing from all existing treaties and security arrangements with the ursine community. Explaining his sharp break with the Bush administration’s policy of supporting overseas bear operations, president Obama said “bears are still our valued allies, but we can no longer pursue the arrogant policy of unilaterally supporting one member of the animal kingdom over another.”
He added, “Of course I believe in bear-exceptionalism, just as I believe in badger exceptionalism and tree sloth exceptionalism. But the days of a pecking order in the animal kingdom, with top of the food-chain predators and disrespected bottom-of-the-food-chain prey, are over.”
Some animals are more equal than others.
New Terminator Movie Concepts
The frightening thing is, there are probably some suits in Hollywood who would actually greenlight some of these.
Well, That’s A Relief
The administration is making sure that Gitmo detainees get swine flu vaccine. And here I was worried that those heartless rat bastards in the White House would be too busy making excuses about why American families can’t get it (“It’s Bush’s fault!”) to make sure that the illegal combatants were protected.
Seriously, what is the probability that they’ll even be exposed?
Equal Rights For Illegal Aliens
What we have here is an interplanetary travesty of justice:
…if the plaintiff is not a person in that he is neither a human being nor a corporation, he cannot be a plaintiff as contemplated by the Rules of Civil Procedure. The entire basis of Mr. Joly’s actions is that he is a martian, not a human being. There is certainly no suggestion that he is a corporation. I conclude therefore, that Mr. Joly, on his pleading as drafted, has no status before the Court.
Careful, you’re going to make him very very angry indeed.
Focusing On The Important Issues
Thoughts on the utility of international cooperation and law in the event of a transnational zombie uprising. This will be important once they start crossing borders.
[Update a few minutes later]
I’m compelled to believe that the first thing that this president would do is ask, “Why do they want to eat our brains?” and apologize to all of zombiedom for our previous imperialistic aggression against the undead.
Don’t Try This At Home
A six-year-old boy has floated off in a balloon in Colorado. I’m guessing no flight plan was filed with the FAA. This sounds like one of those “Honey, I shrank the kid” things. I’ll bet Mom’s not happy. Here’s hoping for the best.
But the story seems to be updated sort of weirdly. It’s not clear that he was ever in the balloon. Maybe he ran away after accidentally releasing it, afraid that he’d be in trouble.
[Late afternoon update]
Fortunately, it looks like my guess was correct. He was hiding, safe and sound.
In Case You Didn’t Get Enough Yesterday
More zombie thoughts. This topic is also turning into a lot of inadvertent pans of World War Z
An Existential Question
This is a sign I saw on the road from Las Cruces to Tucson.
So. What does it mean?
Is it a description of what might be? That there is a possibility of dust storms? Here, and now, but not other wheres or whens? Or is it (as we were reprimanded by our mothers or English teachers) simply an expression of permission for dust storms to exist? By whom? Our betters in Santa Fe, or Phoenix? These are state-sanctioned dust storms? And they’re not permitted elsewhere?
Or is it more of a Heisenbergian deal? That dust storms simultaneously both exist and don’t exist, and which is the case is determined only when one collapses the wave function by driving down the road to Lordsburg?
I’ll never know for sure, of course, but I can say that I never saw a dust storm on the trip.
Next up (or perhaps other things in between) — a road sign that I liked a lot more, on the American autobahn. There are a few things that the Germans got right.