Next? A Bumblebee

MORE reasons that Octopuses are terrifying.

This one Mimics stuff to trick th'animals around it. The video shows flounder, sea snake and lion fish as well as some basic octopus evasion techniques.

If you see a man walking strangely up the street, not saying anything and perhaps gasping a bit as though out of breath, I recommend you waste no time and attack! For if you don't, the octopus will surely be revealed and you will just as surely be dead.

'Nuff Said, Bub

There are about 11 species of African Frogs, it has recently been discovered, who create skin-splitting bone-claws when threaten.

And then gouge you!

The article, by the way, does contain the phrase "collagen rich sheath." You are warned.

Froggy went a cuttin' and he did ride (uh huh)

I need to read Slaughterhouse Five again...

Times Online has recently published this article from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s private journal about his time in Dresden, the city of the famous bombing. That act, of course, forms into one of the centerpieces of Slaughterhouse 5.

And it positively drips with the humanism that makes him one of my heroes.

The facile reply to great groans such as mine is the most hateful of all clichés, “fortunes of war”, and another: “They asked for it. All they understand is force.”

Who asked for it? The only thing who understands is force? Believe me, it is not easy to rationalise the stamping out of vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored when gathering up babies in bushel baskets or helping a man dig where he thinks his wife may be buried.

The article is worth a read and if you feel like being incensed, check out some of the comments.

My guess is they somehow felt at one point that the saturation bombing of Dresden was justified and when they realize - or rather don't realize but see a faint glimpse of - the tremendous tragedy of the whole thing, they lash out at the person who makes them feel bad for justifying such a horrible act.

Also, I do believe one of the people in the comments thinks Vonnegut is still alive.

A wonderful new drug

Scientists are trying to make a drug that will diminish social anxiety. I didn't even bother reading the whole article because this wonderful "new" drug already exists. And it's called alcohol. Geez, scientists, get with the program. Why not study something useful? Like perhaps how to stop the inevitable octopus menace?

I almost wrote "inevitable zombie menace" and then realized that'd be less horrifying and more awesome. Zombies aren't smart, they don't have eight prehensile limbs (sometimes they don't even have four limbs!) and they only want brains. Octopuses want power, crabs and to drag you to an inky, horrible and cold death and swallow your soul.

Octopocalypse. It'll happen. I'll be ready. And by ready I mean shrieking on a chair in the kitchen like 50s sitcom wives at the sight of a mouse.

Do it, Hulk, do it!

The Hulk is, after all, one of my favorite people in the world. My MySpace says so. He and Jimmy Carter. "gggrrrrRRRRRAAAAAHHH! HULK CARTER WANT BUILD HOME FOR NEEDY!"

Kate Beaton Comics Rock!

So there's this Canadienne named Kate Beaton and her comics rock, if you hadn't gathered from the title of this post.

Her historical ones are pretty great but I was just scrolling through the "Nonsense" section of her website and found these gems:





Many of the others appear to be hand drawn. I particularly like her recent Garfield comic. Her style took a minute for me to adjust to, but now I quite like. Also, she's a fan of Anders Loves Maria, a comic I have increasing affection for.

Break it down, now

Some sociologist of some stripe or another has broken down political party contributions by occupation.

It's an interesting look. A couple of "huhs" and "hehs" and "What?s"

I guess it makes you think. I particularly enjoyed this breakdown:

Babies Lurve Banjos!

Adorable!


This wee chap here is utterly in love with the sweet twang of his momma's dulcet pluckin'. Would he love it so much, I wonder, if'n 'tweren't his mammy clawhammerin' the jams?

It reminds me in a way of the Hey Jude Toddler. Except younger and more bouncy.

Moderation's the key?

I have to confess that I hate the sunlight scare. The fear that exposure to sunlight is going to give you horrible cancer and you will die. The fear that it accelerates aging and kills puppies.

It would seem to me that humans have been going through several hundred million years of evolution in exposure to the sunlight. Ever since that legged fish flopped out of the water and wriggled onto the beach, animals have been getting better and better at dealing with exposure to the sun.

And while over-exposure does have downsides, sunburns and, I'll admit, an increased risk of cancer, in the end sunlight is good for you. Each of those words is a separate link, by the way. Though the last way may be lost on women, the second will be lost on men. Equal opportunities.

And it's not even that sunburning is going to cause cancer. There's a learning curve here, and you have to figure out when to get out of the sun. But you certainly shouldn't be completely covered up, either. Get your Vitamin D. There's probably a reason sitting the sun just feels good. It excites the skin.

My suspicion is that your atoms (I've been worrying a lot about atoms lately) are experiencing a sort of "E.T. Phone Home" moment. We're all stellar ejecta in the end, products of the Big Bang. Forged from the same infinitely dense, cosmically hot explosion that created stars and planets and black holes. Feels good to get a little of that space radiation under our skins.

My theory is this falls under the Atkins Diet/Autism/ADHD fads. People will get their feet on the ground on this one and realize the hysteria. Indeed, it's happening now.

Which is good.

Befriend the sun.

What a sweetheart

I don't need to defend myself here.

His dying, Urn-est plea

The man who invented the Pringles can, Fredric J. Baur, has passed on.

Before he went, however, he maintained such a pride in his creation of the container for the "Salty, stackable, saddle-shaped snack" that he requested to have part of his remains buried in one.

I think that's pretty cool. His family complied. What I want to know is, did they buy the tube at a Kroger's or something and have it open at the wake, requesting people to eat from it if they really loved Dr. Baur? Is it weird that they had to eat the contents of the urn before putting the dead guy in it? Part of him, at least. It would be pretty cool if they'd had the head burned separately and put that in the can, I guess. Are his remains living up to the "salty, stackable, saddle-shaped snacks" that were in there before it?

it sorta reminds me of The Big Lebowski. The end of it, at least.

It is our most modestly priced receptacle.

Three Jocular Gentlemen

We're all there with you, though

Another prescient comic from Toothpaste for Dinner