Mystery Fox!

Cryptobiology!! Via National Geographic News, Carolina Mystery Beast Is a Rare Abnormal Fox, Experts Say

mystery animal is foraging in the grassy fields around a North Carolina company.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Jerri Durazo, a Tyco Electronics employee who photographed the animal.

The slender creature has a kangaroo-shaped head, big upright ears, and a long ratlike tail. From a distance the animal looks hairless, but closer inspection reveals that its coat is a sleek grayish brown.

For two months the animal has roamed the high-tech company's woodsy campus in Fuquay-Varina near Raleigh.

Biologists speculate that it's a fox with a rare genetic disorder that effects the outer layer of its coat.

Wednesday kitty fix

Yes, that is food on his mouth. What a pigpen.

More plush

By popular request. I love his white little feeties.

What civil war?

Reuters/Namir Noor-Eldeen

Via Wolcott, the Independent's Patrick Coburn paints a grim picture of the reality in today's Iraq. Death Squads on the Prowl; Iraq Convulsed by Fear:

"Unseen by the outside world, silent populations are on the move, frightened people fleeing neighborhoods where their community is in a minority for safer districts.

"There is also a growing reliance on militias because of fears that police patrols or checkpoints are in reality death squads hunting for victims.

"Districts where Sunni and Shia lived together for decades if not centuries are being torn apart in a few days. In the al-Amel neighbourhood in west Baghdad, for instance, the two communities lived side by side until a few days ago, though Shias were in the majority. Then the Sunni started receiving envelopes pushed under their doors with a Kalashnikov bullet inside and a letter telling them to leave immediately or be killed. It added that they must take all of their goods which they could carry immediately and only return later to sell their houses.

"The reaction was immediate. The Sunni in al-Amel started barricading their streets. Several Shia families, believed to belong to the Shia party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), were murdered later the same day the threatening letters were delivered...

"One effect of the escalating sectarian warfare is to strengthen the Sunni insurgency as their own community desperately looks to its defenses.

"It is not as if life was not already hard enough before the latest escalation in communal violence. Three years ago, most Iraqis were glad to see the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, even if they did not like the US occupation, because they wanted normal lives. They had been living in a state of war since 1980 when the Iraqi leader invaded Iran. They then had eight years of bloody conflict followed by the invasion of Kuwait, defeat by the US-led coalition, the Shia and Kurdish uprisings of 1991 and then 12 years of UN sanctions.

"Instead of improving, life in Baghdad has become far more dangerous than it was under Saddam Hussein. Every facet of daily living is affected."

Imagine, just for one moment, living like that. Bush asked yesterday what he was seeing that we weren't.

Wrong question. Why isn't he seeing what the rest of the world is? Why does he refuse to look?

Wild baby plushy

Reuters/Ilva Navamushin

A baby lion in Siberia.

Fuck you redstate!!

"I scratch your eyes out and disembowel your cracker ass!! mrrrowww!!"

Oh my! Mr. Plushy!!

... what big toes you have.

Cigar Galaxy. Oh my.

Via Space.com:

The Cigar Galaxy lights up the night sky when viewed in the infrared spectrum.

Also known as Messier 82 (M82), the Cigar Galaxy sits about 11.7 million light-years (or about 68 trillion miles) from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major.

The galaxy appears as little more than a bar of light in the visible range of the light spectrum, but blazes into deep reds using the Spitzer Space Telescope’s infrared eye.

The red “flames” seen here are made up of dust particles blowing into space from hot stars that appear in blue. According to Spitzer’s instruments, the dust contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, a carbon-containing molecule found in car tailpipes and barbecue pits.

This can't be good

Via National Geographic News, Arctic Ice Isn't Refreezing in the Winter, Satellites Show.

For the second year in a row a large amount of Arctic sea ice did not refreeze during the winter as it normally does, a team of scientists reports.

This trend may indicate an overall shrinking of Arctic ice cover due to rapid global climate change.

I'm wondering if republicans will admit that global warming is a problem when Miami and New York flood?

Napping kitty

When it's raining, lion kittys must nap.

Wanker of the Decade

Rummy has a nauseating editorial up on the WAPO this morning: What we've gained in 3 years in Iraq

Some have described the situation in Iraq as a tightening noose, noting that "time is not on our side"and that "morale is down." Others have described a "very dangerous" turn of events and are "extremely concerned."

Who are they that have expressed these concerns? In fact, these are the exact words of terrorists discussing Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates -- who are describing their own situation and must be watching with fear the progress that Iraq has made over the past three years.

Holy mother of god. We're back to that hoary old argument agaiin- if you question the war, why, you must be a terra-ist sympathizer!!

Let me tell you what we've lost these past 3 years, Mr. Rumsfeld. We've lost the lives of more than 2,000 american soldiers, we've lost our moral compass, and we seem to have lost our collective minds.

Iraq is spiraling into bloody civil war. Why? because we broke it. And all Rummy can do is bleat about the elections and call critics "terrorists." They found 22 more bodies in Baghdad Saturday. They'd been executed and most showed signs of torture.

That's not my definition of progress. Rummy can go fuck himself.

Don't tell cornyn

Getty Images

Torture antidote

AFP Yuri Tutov

Bears might eat you, but they won't lock you up in a black room and torture you or turn you into a living paintball target.

Black Room

The NYTimes is reporting a US army unit abused and tortured prisoners both before and after Abu Graib.

As the Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004, an elite Special Operations forces unit converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret detention center. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into their own interrogation cell. They named it the Black Room.

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.

The Black Room was part of a temporary detention site at Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of a shadowy military unit known as Task Force 6-26. Located at Baghdad International Airport, the camp was the first stop for many insurgents on their way to the Abu Ghraib prison a few miles away.

Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, "NO BLOOD, NO FOUL." The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it." According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. "The reality is, there were no rules there," another Pentagon official said.

No blood, no foul. You know what that reminds me of? the scene in the Grifters where the hood has filled a bag with oranges to beat Angelica Houston with. Because it doesn't leave marks.

God. When did we turn into such an unbelievably brutal society? Stories like this make me think that America isn't worth saving. It makes me think that we've stepped so far over the line that we are indistinguishable from the brutal regimes that we profess to hate.

"The reality is, there were no rules there." Think about that quote. The reality is, this administration doesn't care about the rule of law, domestic or international, and has dispensed with common decency.

So what will tomorrow bring? Cue the wingnuttians moaning and rending their hair over "the enemies of america who endanger our safety by revealing the abuse." And cue the justice department initiating yet another investigation to find out who let the cat out of the bag.

Saturday kitty fix

Maxx is wondering why there isn't a decent sci-fi movie on tonight.

Score one for our side....

The NYTimes is reporting that Bush has been thwarted in his bid to gut the clean air laws.Judges Overturn Bush Bid to Ease Pollution Rules

WASHINGTON, March 17 — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a clean-air regulation issued by the Bush administration that would have let many power plants, refineries and factories avoid installing costly new pollution controls to help offset any increased emissions caused by repairs and replacements of equipment.

Ruling in favor of a coalition of states and environmental advocacy groups, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the "plain language" of the law required a stricter approach. The court has primary jurisdiction in challenges to federal regulations.

Thank god. The administration doesn't understand that all pollution is local. It doesn't matter to me if the aggregate level of air pollution in the country decreases if the plant in my town is still making the air that I breathe toxic.

Welcome Sean Patrick Thersites!!

Congratulations to NYMary and Thersites- Sean Patrick was born this afternoon at 4:52 EST. A St. Patrick's Day baby!! woo hoo!!

Lion kitty Maxx would like to offer his giant plush peep as a baby gift.

Cosmo Blogging!!

This is Vicki's adorable kitty Cosmo. He thinks Bush is the Worst. President. Ever.

note: Title edited to accomodate my bossy sister Flory.

Lunchtime Mr. Plushy blogging

Mousies are delicious!

Eli explains partisan politcs

Eli has hit on the perfect illustration of the dynamic between the two major political parties in America today.

Kittens!!

Almost friday lion kitty blogging

Maxx hangs out on his blankie, waiting for a pretty atriette to drop by and coo over him.

The Zombie Administration

Froomkin comments on chimpy's reaffirmation of the "bush doctrine" which apparently has risen from the ashes of the failure in Iraq to menace the world once again.

This morning's news that President Bush is reasserting his doctrine of preemptive war is a bit of a surprise because, well, I think most people thought the Bush Doctrine was dead.

How can Bush still argue for attacking another country based on his suspicions about their intentions -- when the first time he tried it, his public case turned out to be so utterly specious?

The idea that the American public or the international community would tolerate such behavior once again seems highly unlikely at this point in time. The American people, for one, won't be keen on putting troops in harm's way again on spec anytime soon.

The good news is that we don't have the troops or resources to be pre-empting anyone else anytime soon. The bad news is chimpy and his merry band of idiots have never let a few facts get in the way of their disatrous decisions.

Horrid ideas are like the undead with this administration. Nothing seems to kill them. They just resurface in new and virulent forms when karl thinks the coast is clear.

This is what happens when the country elects a narcissistic nitwit who surrounds himself with asslickers and lunatics. Worst. President. Ever.

Photo illustration from "Poltergeist the Legacy"

Operation Swarmer

AFP/US Army/Sgt. 1st Class Antony Jose

The US has launched the largest series of air attacks since 2003 in Samara, north of Baghdad. Many of you weren't around during the Vietnam war, but the more things went south, the more tonnage we dropped on Vietnam.

It didn't help, and I doubt this will either.

Maxx and friend

Maxx hanging out with Teddy.

kitten porn

4 legs is really, really tired this week. But not too tired to give ya some anonymous baby plush.

Space Helix!

Cosmic 'DNA': Double Helix Spotted in Space

Magnetic forces at the center of the galaxy have twisted a nebula into the shape of DNA, a new study reveals.

The double helix shape is commonly seen inside living organisms, but this is the first time it has been observed in the cosmos.

"Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm," said the study's lead author Mark Morris of UCLA. "Most nebulae are either spiral galaxies full of stars or formless amorphous conglomerations of dust and gas—space weather. What we see indicates a high degree of order."

These observations, made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, are detailed in the March 16 issue of the journal Nature.

Hat tip to Ruth for the heads up.

Plush for Auntie Flory

Here's Maxx hanging out in the middle of my swimming pool. Feh.

Everyone's favorite lion kitty

A little on the sleepy side.

Awwwww....

Polar bear triplets!! "The three cubs pictured above are believed to be the first set of polar bear triplets born in captivity. The trio made their public debut last Friday at the Ouwehands Zoo in the Netherlands ." Via National Geographic News.

Super Planet!!!!

Via National Geographic News, "Super-Earth" Discovered Orbiting Distant Star.

Scientists have discovered a new planet they call a "super-Earth" in a solar system 9,000 light-years away.

The icy, rocky planet, which weighs 13 times as much as Earth, orbits the outer region of its solar system, around a so-called red dwarf star that is about half as big as our sun.

The planet dominates a region similar to the one in our solar system that is populated by the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Scientists believe the planet likely didn't accumulate enough gas to grow to giant proportions.

Gee. It would take republicans at least a few centuries to trash a planet that big.

Hidey blogging!!

Hidey looks like she's stalking a giant peep.

Late night plushy

A plethora of monday plushy. Just cause he's so fucking cute.

I'm sorry plushy for Vicki

Four legs bad!! Lion kitty Maxx luvs ya though.

Holy Crap! Attack of the giant bunny!!

Via Athenae at First Draft. Our Bunny Overlords.

Damn.

Monday plushy fix

Maxx wants to know why his toys are attacking him. "Get that thing off me!"

Burn baby, burn!!!

The Mars Orbital Explorer has begun its burn, descending into orbit around Mars. Good luck NASA and JPL!

More updates later, since I loves me some space mission stuff.

update: At 5:16 pm EST NASA received a signal back from the space craft and the control room erupted in cheers. Congratulations to the entire NASA team on a successful orbital insertion.

One of my favorite friday things....

Yes!! friday nudibranch blogging at Bouphonia. This one is hypselobcscura.

All scientifically minded plushyites should make it part of their friday habit too.

CNN Sucks Ass

Via Josh at TalkingPointsMemo, we see this unbelievable headline at CNN on Netscape. I agree with Kos. Whoever wrote this headline should be fired.

And then be drop kicked off the fucking planet.

Z Machine

AP Photo/Sandia National Laboratories, Randy Montoya

Hey! I gotta get lion kitty one of these!

Lab Heats Particles Past Star's Interior

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A particle accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories has heated a swarm of charged particles to a record 2 billion degrees Kelvin, a temperature beyond that of a star's interior.

Scientists working with Sandia's Z machine said the feat also revealed a new phenomenon that could eventually make future nuclear fusion power plants smaller and cheaper to operate than if the plants relied on previously known physics.

"At first, we were disbelieving," said Chris Deeney, head of the project. "We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result and not an 'Oops'!"

This is a huge, huge deal. The pretty picture is just a bonus.

Incidentally- everytime you see an interesting science story, remember that chimpy and his cohorts don't believe in science and that they've consistently short changed support of basic science in the federal budget. Prayer doesn't get you scientific breakthroughs. Investment dollars do.

early friday maxx blogging

Hoo boy, this is what happens when 4lgs is too lazy to put the flash on the camera and fix the white balance. Better pictures later.

chimpy worries about the message....

... that the failed port deal sends. ( I guess that's his "I'm worried and thoughtful look"- sadly, he just looks stupid)

I'm more worried about the message the United States of America has sent the world by having a war mongering, incompetent asshat as our president.

Joe Scarborough jumps ship

Holy shit! about 5 minutes ago Joe Scarborough said, "...I am embarrassed to be a republican."

Heh.

Geyers!! woo hoo!!

AP Photo

Cassini Spots Water Geyers on Saturn Moon

LOS ANGELES - The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has spotted what appear to be water geysers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life.

The surprising images from the moon Enceladus represent some of the most dramatic evidence yet that water in liquid form may be present beyond the Earth.

Excited by the discovery, some scientists said Enceladus should be added to the short list of places within the solar system most likely to have extraterrestrial life.

Good to know. We may need a place to run to after Bushco gets through fucking up this planet.

mid afternoon plush

I have to go to class- so here's a jolly picture of lion kitty Maxx playing with his particle accelerator.

Still no civil war..... huh???

AP/Hadi Mizban

Condi and Rummy were on capital hill today, trying to sell their "ain't no civil war, no sir!" nonsense today. Rumsfeld, Rice Say Iraq Not at Civil War.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that despite a surge in sectarian violence in Iraq, the process of creating a stable government is proceeding satisfactorily.

Of course. Because having giant pools on blood on the sidewalk of your nation's capital is really freakiing normal.

What universe are these guys living in?

Santorum a liar? say it ain't so....

Little ricky sure is a nasty piece of work. Not long after claiming, "who me? I was never part of the K-Street Project," he has quietly resumed, yes, the bi-weekly meetings that are part of the K-street project.

The WAPO has the details: Senator Resumes Lobbyist Huddles

After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.

Santorum, whose ties to Washington lobbyists have been criticized by his Democratic challenger, suspended his biweekly encounters on Jan. 30. His decision came as Democrats named him as their top target in November's Senate races, and after the guilty plea of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to charges of conspiring to corrupt public officials.

But in the month since his announcement, Santorum has held two meetings attended by the same core group of lobbyists, and has used the sessions to appeal for campaign aid, according to participants. Both of those meetings were convened at the same time as the previous meetings -- 8:30 a.m. -- on the same day of the week -- Tuesday -- and they lasted for about as long as the earlier meetings -- one hour. (my emphasis added)

I guess being a corrupt little asswipe has become an addiction. Little Ricky has sure got some 'splaining to do.

Alien carrots....

.... are always gonna need killing.

The boy does love his carrot.

Hummingbirds have superb memories

AFP/Omar Torres

Which makes them way smarter than our preznit. Apparently they can remember the last place they had a tasty meal, proving that birds are much smarter than scientists had previously thought.

I, for one, welcome our buzzy-winged little overlords.

Space News

AP Photo/NASA

From the Associated Press: In this undated image made available from NASA on Sunday March 5, 2006, which shows the central region of a group of galaxies 300 million light-years away known as Stephan's Quintet. The distant galaxy is generating a 'sonic boom' of cosmic proportions, astronomers have discovered, as one of the galaxies falls towards the others at high speed, ploughing through a cloud of hydrogen gas travelling at 540.6 miles per second - 100 times faster than the speed of sound. The effect of this is similar to the sonic boom created by a fast jet, according to astonomers at the American space agency Nasa, using the Spitzer space telescope, and their findings are to be published later in March, in the Astrophysical Journal.

No Civil War here....

Who are they kidding? Bodies of 23 Men Found in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, March 8 -- The bodies of 23 men who had been strangled or shot were found in two locations in Baghdad Wednesday morning, with 18 discovered aboard an abandoned bus in a predominantly Sunni area of the capital, police and the U.S. military said.

All of the victims on the bus were found with their hands tied by rope, according to an official in the in the Baghdad police operations room who would not be quoted by name. He said 15 of the victims, including the driver of the bus, had been strangled and three had been shot in the back of the head.

All the victims are Sunni, and Sunni leaders allege that the killings, which have become common, are being carried out by Shiite death squads.

So what does our side have to say about conditions in Iraq? On Sunday, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Pace, had this to say:

"I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at."

Not surprisingly, not many sane people are buying it. General's Assessment of Iraq Questioned. If this is what "going very, very well" looks like, I'd hate to see his version of "disaster."

Gordon Parks 1912-2006

Johanna Fiore, Portrait of Gordon Parks, 1997

One of the masters of 20th century photography died yesterday at the age of 93. Gordon Parks was the first black person to photograph for Life Magazine and Vogue, and the first to write, direct, and score a Hollywood film, "The Learning Tree."

The WAPO obituary, 'Life' Photographer And 'Shaft' Director Broke Color Barriers, links to a nice photo gallery of some of Parks' work.

RIP.

Tuesday night lion kitty.....

He would really like for me to get that peep out of the house. And stay home more often.

From the "of course" file

Tom Delay to spend election night with lobbyists. Ha! You have to love that snarky headline.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Tom DeLay, whose association with lobbyist Jack Abramoff has left him politically vulnerable, is spending Texas' primary night Tuesday at a fundraiser hosted by two Washington lobbyists.

You can't make this shit up. Really, you can't.

The Dalai Lama rocks

Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri

The Dalai Lama has offered a lifeline to the endangered Indian Tiger.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has thrown a lifeline to India's dwindling tiger population after an emotional appeal to outlaw the trade in animal skins provoked an extraordinary reaction in his homeland.

All over Tibet, there have been reports of people burning wild animal furs since the Dalai Lama, the Himalayan region's exiled god-king, made his appeal at a Buddhist prayer meeting in southern India in January.

Thousands of Tibetans attended the festival and many carried the Dalai Lama's words back to their Himalayan homeland.

Let's hope that the Dalai Lama's words will help stem the rising incidence of tiger poaching before all of these magnificent creatures are gone.

In time for spring

AFP/Mike Clarke

An adorable chinese girl, beautiful floweres... I needed to see a beautiful photo like this today.

Monday plushy fix

Sorry, 4lgs has been very busy and apologizes for the lack of plush this past weekend.

Monday plushy fix

Sorry, 4lgs has been very busy and apologizes for the lack of plush this past weekend.

You must let us talk your children into dying for us...

... or else. The supreme court has upheld a law that requires that US colleges and universities allow military recruiters on campus or forgo millions in federal funds.

The Roberts court at work. Feh.