Greetings from EschaCon

Wish you all were here!

I'm listening to some guy from DailyKos, talking about law. Or something.

More later. Too lazy to take pictures. Will try later.

Sadly, no kittehs here.

Noooooo!!

Why U haz luggage out? iz almost weekend and time to playz fetch.

U leeving us? oh noes.

Wut U sayz?

I haz a sad.

Blackmail - DOAN WANT!!

A call to action over at Got Pitchfork?

Clinton big money donors are trying to lean on Nancy Pelosi and the DCCC to be more publicly favorable to Hillary. Feh. A pox on all big money donors.

YOU DO NOT OWN THIS COUNTRY.

kai thx bai

Spring!

Spring has arrived in Central Texas. Actually it's been here awhile. SInce January in fact.

We finally got some rain though, and the tree outside my office window actually bloomed. And even more happily, the birds have discovered the feeder I hung at home, and the girls now have some live birdie teevee to occupy them during the day.

Yardman

I iz also scared of teh yard guy and his eeeeevil leef blower cos it maekz awful racket.

kai thx bai

BRAVE!!

I ain't afraid of no VACOOOM machine.

ehhn. I stayz up here in mah half pipe. kai thx.

Aliens!!

Five by five I'm in teh pipe.

Ripley! they're inside the barrier. They found a way in! something we didn't think of... something not on the plans!

We didn't miss anything! I stopz them, doan worree...

Hey, U want sum? how bout U??

I killz U all!!

Ripley saves us agin.

Iz CATURDAY AGAIN!!

Hallooooo! iz caturday nao??

Wutz outside?

wut R U doing down dere?

Hai. I haz a half pipe.

Prepare to LAUNCH!!!

TAKE OFF!!!

silly Ripley

Poor behbeh kitteh

I wuz thinking this morning about what Ripley's kittenz might have looked like. Funny, stumpy little pink nosed balls of fur, most likely.

Cows Found in Outer Space

This is excellent news, since I like to have a nice steak after a long space voyage.

Methane Detected on Distant Planet for First Time

Methane has been detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system, the first time that an organic molecule has been found on a distant world.

Studies of this carbon-bearing compound could shed light on the planet's formation and evolution.

The planet, known as HD 189733b, is a so-called hot Jupiter, a gas giant similar to Jupiter that orbits very close to its parent star.

The far-flung world, discovered in 2005, is 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula.

In 2007 astronomers detected signs of water on HD 189733b using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Now, using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have confirmed the presence of water and also detected methane.

Planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets, are so far away that scientists can't obtain images clear enough to separate the planet from its star.

So to study HD 189733b, the team used an instrument aboard Hubble called a spectrometer, which breaks up light passing through a planet's atmosphere into different bands.

"The big news is that this is the first detection of an organic in an exoplanet atmosphere," said lead study author Mark Swain, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.

The study appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

Mmmmmm.... space cows.....

Planet Earth

Yes, that's here, but I'd like to imagine it's a photograph of a beautiful, far-off planet and that I am there, far away from the nonsense on this rock.

From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day

U comes home nao... play fetch

She is so BUSY lately. Photo is high resolution.

5th Anniversary

This isn't very plushy, but today is a grim anniversary. The link below is to a Reuters mulitmedia story on the war:

Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War

I can't believe it's been five years.

Grrrr.

hat tip: res ipsa loquitur

WHAAAA????

We needs us one of dese... do they make a milk ring version?

(that puppeh is hazzing 2 muches fun)

oh, hai!

U can't be mad at me... cuz I luvs U!!

I iz still a fluffee little angel. (snort)

Okay, Maddie iz out of the, ahem, doghouse. Everyone can scritch her ears nao.

Photos R high resolution (I spoilz U), click for all teh scritchable kitteh goodness.

Baffff, UR doing it WRONG!!

Dis kitteh haz a flavr!

I iz an angel!!

look how quietly I B sleepies...

I NEVAH wakes up mah centaur 20 times a night!

Bad kitteh!!

Yes, you.

Waking UR centaur up all night long. Not good.

Wild plushy kittehs!

AP/Firdia Lisnawati

AP/George Nikitin

AP Photo

Baby kittehs of any variety are darned cute.