Upside-down rhino research wins Ig Nobel Prize https://t.co/NdeEgFaIYN
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 10, 2021
I’m not a fan of grief pr0n, so here’s something literally more uplifting:
… What could seem more daft than hanging 12 rhinos upside down for 10 minutes?
But wildlife veterinarian Robin Radcliffe, from Cornell University, and colleagues did exactly this in Namibia because they wanted to know if the health of the animals might be compromised when slung by their legs beneath a helicopter.
It’s an activity that increasingly has been used in African conservation work to shift rhinos between areas of fragmented habitat.
However, no-one had done the basic investigation to check that the tranquillised animals’ heart and lung function coped with upside-down flying, said Robin.
It turns out, the animals coped very well. In fact, there was evidence the rhinos did better in this unusual position than simply lying chest down or on their side.
“I think the reason for that is, when a rhino is on its side, you have positional effects of blood flow. So in other words, the lower parts of the lung are getting lots of blood flow for gas exchange, but the upper part of the lung, just because of gravity, is not getting perfused well, so when a rhino is hanging upside down, it’s basically like it’s standing upside up; the lung is equally perfused…
Other jackal-pleasing winners (full list at the link):
Biology Prize: Susanne Schötz, for analysing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat-human communication…
Medicine Prize: Olcay Cem Bulut and colleagues, for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.
Peace Prize: Ethan Beseris and colleagues, for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face…
Here are some of the winners from this year's Ig Nobel prizes, an annual honor for unusual accomplishments in science and the humanities that aim to make you laugh and then think https://t.co/vrqSdoGPOp pic.twitter.com/r4iNcM0QJq
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 11, 2021
gkoutnik
Perfect fare for a chilly Saturday morning. Thanks!
Baud
Didn’t we start out as hairy pre-homo?
Baud
“I was trying to pick up a chick at the bar and things got out of control.”
WereBear
The more humans recognize how much we have in common with other species, the more I like it :)
Though I think focusing on verbal cat communication is entirely the wrong track. Sure, a talky boy like Tristan communicates that way. But there’s far more nuance in their native language: body language.
germy
This thread brought back memories of all the craziness of the Bush years:
Nicole
@Baud:
We did, and anthropology scientists who didn’t win the Ig Noble prize (but should have), figured out that you could determine when in our evolutionary history we evolved away from body hair because the lice that infest our heads are a different species from the ones that infest pubes. Likewise body lice vs head lice give us a ballpark idea of when humans started wearing clothes.
(Although the pubic louse is very closely related to the louse that infests gorillas, so it’s also possible early Homo had some serious beer goggles going on.)
Ugh. Now I’m itchy.
WereBear
@germy: Of course, I remember where I was when I saw the plane hit the tower.
And I remember what went through my mind:
Lo and behold, it was all true. And I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Baud
So men have prehistoric Nazis to thank for their beards.
germy
We really needed to get out of there. Biden did the right thing, no matter what Richard Engel says.
Baud
@WereBear:
I blamed gay people and abortionists. No, wait, that was Falwell.
germy
@WereBear:
My cat uses all sorts of subtle body language, but she also does a thing where she imitates human speech. If she’s calling me from another room, and it’s a matter of an empty food dish, she’ll make all sorts of sounds “rowell awrall oy” like she’s a standup comedian doing a bit in front of an audience of cats: “Humans be like…”
She also has about ten different purrs. It’s wonderful to hear.
germy
Baud
@germy:
Now he’s someone who should be hung upside down from a helicopter. For science!
WereBear
@germy: Tristan has whole conversations with me. It’s a tonal language :)
Cat Voices
Among themselves, they manage to communicate without any sounds.
zhena gogolia
@germy: I had to go to DC for a conference right after people had been mailed anthrax there. I told a friend I was afraid to go to DC, and he said, “Just don’t go near any mailboxes.”
zhena gogolia
@germy: Do we trust the NYT to have gotten this right?
RandomMonster
Something we allergy sufferers already knew, but glad you confirmed.
Chris Johnson
@RandomMonster: It’s fun to find out!
The Pale Scot
Economics Prize: Pavlo Blavatskyy, for discovering that the obesity of a country’s politicians may be a good indicator of that country’s corruption
So, We’re doing better than we have been recently
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
Immanentize
@rikyrah: good morning!!
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Imma,
How is school going for Little Imma?
I know that he is fully vaccinated… But, it IS Texas?
debbie
@germy:
For how much? //
Warren Senders
My father was awarded an Ig in 2011 (for work he’d done in the 1960s). He regarded his IgNobel as one of this high points of his career and kept the actual physical prize in a prominent position in his house (he died in 2019). In the video below, he can be seen receiving the “Public Safety” prize from Marc Abrahams at 1:31:48 onwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_wu19NA4yo&t=5668s
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
I had to fly to Florida for a sales conference just after Pan Am 103 was bombed. Standing in line in JFK for hours and everybody nervously eyeing everybody else, it was exhausting.
Baud
@debbie:
I still give you the side eye when I see your nym here. ?
RandomMonster
@Chris Johnson: “Honestly, honey, I’m doing this to help my congestion!”
prostratedragon
@WereBear: Which section of the Greek chorus were you in? I was with the contraltos.
debbie
@Baud:
As you should.
zhena gogolia
@Warren Senders:
Congrats!
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
We’re the only primate species with whiskers. And I’ve never seen an artist’s impression of a male hominid who had whiskers, either.
JPL
@Warren Senders: Thanks and that is really special.
Ken
“Hang Your Rhinos By Their Heels” would work as the first line of a song chorus. But what genre? Eh, doesn’t matter, it’s clearly a novelty song however it’s packaged.
Peale
@Ken: Christian Contemporary. And no, it would be sung as earnestly as possible.
Booger
@Ken: “I’ll take ‘1960’s Broadway musicals’ for a thousand, Alex.”
WereBear
@prostratedragon: I’m an alto. It was one big — and ignored — chorus!
Led me to Balloon Juice, actually!
OzarkHillbilly
@Warren Senders: Belated congrats to him.
RandomMonster
@Ken:
Hang your rhino by the heels
Get his horn in the air
See how much better he feels
Flying way up there
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nicole: That’s fascinating in a very gross kind of way
NotMax
Olbermann connects dots.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Warren Senders: Whoa. Did they do the thing where the little girl starts chanting “I’m bored”?
Gbear
Now I have two things to like about Namibia. One of my fave YT channels is a group called Ocean Conservation Namibia that removes ocean garbage entrapments from seals who live on the beaches. Watching the rescue videos is one of my current addictions.
NeenerNeener
@WereBear: This is a really interesting book about how a speech therapist taught her puppy to “talk” using a board with programmable word buttons:
https://www.hungerforwords.com/book/
I wonder if you could do that with kittens too.
NotMax
Moving along to something less heavy than my link above, gonna repost from earlier in the week the little dude exuding enjoyment. Smiling will ensue.
Ken
@NeenerNeener: Just program it with “Obey me, human lackeys.” It’s the only thing a cat would ever want to say to the two-legs.
germy
Sounds like something a duck would say.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: “It’s all downhill from here kid.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: That and “Hurry the fuck up!”
oatler
Hippos. The assholes of Africa, and they’re HUNGRY
MomSense
I’m the motherflippin’ rhymenoceros
My beats are phat
Chief Oshkosh
@germy: If true, this further emphasizes to me the poor ROI we get from the MIC. ROI as used here means way more than money – it means our treasures of lives, aspirations. good will — everything.
Starfish
@germy: It really did. Bush did so many awful things.
Olivia
@germy: My cat does the imitation human talk too. I once asked a young person from Spain how American English sounds to a Spanish speaker who doesn’t know English. His response was utterances that are very similar to what my cat sounds like when he is pretending to speak human.
Catherine D.
Flanders & Swann
WereBear
Absolutely, I have some online friends who do!
I’ve toyed with doing so: perhaps the expense could be a business deduction now that I’m a full-time Cat Consultant :)
germy
@Olivia:
Yes, it sounds like when comedians do a fake accent.
Sid Caesar in the 1950s would pretend to speak in German or French, but all nonsense.
My cat figures “I’m in another room, they can’t see me, I’ll have to use their human language.” It’s a good approximation, too.
germy
@WereBear:
I have a theory. I think the book industry imploded some years ago. Downsizing and consolidation. Lots of talented people fell through the cracks.
If you’d shown up in the 1960s or early ’70s, you’d be a best selling author, promoted by a major publisher.
I’ve never seen any other writer display the sensitivity and understanding you have about felines. It’s extraordinary. But nowadays you have to be a one-person operation.
Chief Oshkosh
@Ken: Reminds me of the old joke:
Dog: “Humans provide all for me — food, a place to live, toys! — everything! She must be a god!”
Cat: “Humans provide all for me — food, a place to live, toys! — everything! I must be a god!”
NotMax
@germy
Doggy lesson.
WereBear
@NeenerNeener: Somehow I did it wrong… yes, I am kind of intrigued by the idea.
Especially since I’m planning to start live-streaming and have a Youtube channel!
You got me really thinking now.
Betty
@WereBear: They may have started verbalizing to communicate with humans who don’t understand body language. “What do I have to do to get something to eat around here?”
WereBear
Thank you so much! You’ve made me very happy this morning :)
And yes, I have launched a Cat Business with books, consultations, and soooooon… a Youtube channel! And podcast…
SO much to do.
WereBear
@Betty: Very likely. I call them “Cat Scientists” because they do study how to work our levers :)
Immanentize
@MomSense: yeah?!
Well I’m the hiphop-opotamus,
My lyrics are bottomless…
AirSpencer
@Olivia:
See also Prisencolinensinainciusol, which is an Italian’s impression of English. (or so the story goes)
Immanentize
@Chief Oshkosh:
Bastet (Egyptian Cat Goddess) is communicating with a modern tabby:
B: Tell me Grand Daughter, do humans still worship us?
Tabby: Well, I shit in a box and humans clean it.
B: Good, good!
Raven
I’m sitting outside of a bakery in Waynesville, Nc. It was in the 50’s last night and it is going to be a great day for an outside wedding! The princess is on major flower duty so I was told to vanish. There is no connectivity at the site so no football for Raven!
Raven
@Immanentize: I threw your rapala on the lake this morning!
debbie
@Raven:
Be strong and enjoy!
NotMax
@Immanentize
Care for a spoonful of hippo?
:)
Immanentize
@Raven: Any luck??
Immanentize
@NotMax: I thought that was fake, then I realized it is real. Now I am back to it must be a spoof product. But it’s not.
Chief Oshkosh
@Immanentize: Even better! :)
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Tight lines!
Roger Moore
@RandomMonster:
A lot of scientific hypotheses come from more casual observations. But there’s some real benefit to putting these existing beliefs to a rigorous test.
NotMax
@Immanentize
The lesson is to never decide on a product name during a pub crawl.
;)
Steeplejack (phone)
@germy:
I would love for Trump to go to Brazil! His Secret Service detail would shit themselves trying to cover that mess. It wouldn’t be the same as full presidential coverage.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
If you choose to proceed
you will indeed concede
Cause I hit you with my flow
The wild rhino stampede
Another Scott
How bout dem Orioles, eh?
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Snarki, child of Loki
So, it’s “vet recommended, vet approved!” to give RINOs the “Mussolini treatment”?
Good to know!
Kayla Rudbek
@Nicole: that was in Who ate the first oyster?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Warren Senders:
Cool! Did you inherit the physical prize?
Immanentize
@MomSense:
My rhymes are so potent
that in this small segment
I made all of the ladies
in the area pregnant
ETA, My friend and I at work like to tell others, “Why? why? Please be more constructive with your feedback.”upl
Roger Moore
@Ken:
I think I saw a video of someone who had trained her cat to use those buttons, and its favorite was the “angry” button.
NotMax
@MomSense
Heh.
Fly me ‘noceros high, sport
Fly me ‘noceros high
Don’t stop to question just why, Si
Please fly my ‘noceros high
.
frosty
@Raven: No connectivity for football? Radio? Are any of your games on?
We’ve recently cut the cable cord (to quit paying Fox News) and the major hangup is watching the Ravens. Every streaming service that covers the major networks also includes Fox News. So we bought Fubo for a month and I have a couple more weeks to figure out how to route the coax out to the garage where we’re putting up an antenna.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Why? ‘Cause I rap about reality?
Like me and my grandma drinkin’ a cup of tea
There ain’t no party like my nana’s tea party
Hey, ho
Roger Moore
It’s OT, but there is very good news about AsianGrrlMN. She is off her ventilator, conscious, and able to talk. She doesn’t remember anything from the day she collapsed, but she does remember things from earlier in that week. She will need a lot of rehab, but it sounds as if she is doing as well as could be reasonably hoped.
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
Oh my goodness that is the best news
Bex
@Ken: Australian folk music.
OzarkHillbilly
@Roger Moore: Good news is never OT.
Benw
@MomSense:
Yo, I represent the jackals
Best of the African mammals
Step up you’ll get scavenged
My rhymes are savage
WaterGirl
@MomSense:
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Amazing.
Honus
@Kayla Rudbek: “It was a brave man that ate the first oyster” -Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson I think
Raven
@Immanentize: lucky to be here! It’s a church camp with a vey pretty catch and release lake and no hits.
MomSense
@NotMax:
@Benw:
Yes!!!!
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Great news to start the day with!
Roger Moore
@Honus:
I’m thinking it was a very hungry one.
zhena gogolia
@Roger Moore: Oh, that’s great.
OzarkHillbilly
Honus
@frosty: I had good luck getting sports on Sling a few years ago when I was in a loft with wifi but no cable.
WereBear
@Roger Moore: That is wonderful! Thank you.
MomSense
Well with happy news of Minna and a head full of verses – I’m off to buy guitar strings.
Music video shoot tomorrow in the barn with a crew coming from LA.
geg6
@Roger Moore:
Most excellent news! Go grrrl!
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Can you maybe stream audio from a radio station? I guess you can’t go to Best Buy and pretend to shop for a TV.
Kayla Rudbek
@Roger Moore: actually, according to the book, it was a woman who ate the first oyster (as it was gathering rather than hunting) and she had to also figure out the tides in order to do so safely.
Immanentize
I’m off too — brunch at my friend’s house I’m taking caprese from the garden. But I had no time to make my own mozzarella…
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
I didn’t see the aftermath, though. Did the perpetrator get ejected?
Nicole
@Roger Moore: Oh my God, that’s fabulous news. I’m so glad!
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
Good to hear!
oatler
Gaffigan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y6KW_Tup4M
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore:
I hadn’t looked yet this morning. What a great news to start the day!
kindness
‘Humans evolved beards.’ That’s a funny line. Like the facial hair wasn’t there but popped up in an evolutionary quirk that ended up protecting the face. I think it’s backwards. See my notions of evolution would be we previously were covered with hair much like our critter cousins and over multiple evolutionary cycles came out with less and less.
Honus
@Roger Moore:a few years ago I read great contemporary description by one of the early explorers of the James River. It was 17th or early 18th century before any pollution and he described native Americans lounging on large oyster reefs in the middle of the river, with oyster shells the size of garbage can lids. Of course he didn’t use that imagery.
Omnes Omnibus
@kindness: I think the theory is that facial hair remained there as the hair receded elsewhere on most other people.
Sure Lurkalot
Lots of good news (miracle jackal, WereBear’s new cat ventures) with verses to boot.
NotMax
@Kayla Rudbek
Mothershuckers.
:)
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: That’s incredible, about her short-term memory, etc.
Time is the great healer. And while it was bad that Minna had the stroke, her youth is likely what helped to save her. That and very good medical care.
We can keep her entertained while in hospital and rehab! Keep her spirits up. And ours.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Looks like no. The runner successfully scored, so I guess no harm no foul??
https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/fernando-abad-lourdes-gurriel-collision/583732
Zounds…
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Roger Moore: Excellent news. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Honus
@oatler: there is the story about the prisoner riot at the West Virginia Penitentiary. It seems that lobsters were really cheap because they were thought to be trash fish and the warden purchased copious quantities to feed the prisoners, who rioted because they considered them huge bugs.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/maine/articles/story-maine-lobster-prison-food-delicacy/%3famp=1
Steeplejack
I heard from my brother this morning that his husband’s COVID test came back positive. I don’t know any details at this point. The BIL is young (36), healthy and vaxed, so hopefully this will be a minor thing.
And of course as I say that I think of the ESPN guy who said, as his partner reported on somebody going on the disabled list with a “minor groin pull,” “Hey, it’s only minor when it’s someone else.”
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack (phone): I just worry that TFG would flee from Brazil to somewhere with no extradition treaty with the US. Wonder if he would even be allowed to leave the country, given the cases against him and his organization being prepared in New York.
Would love if his boasting about trying to re-elect Bolsonaro would get the prosecutors to go RICO on his ass a tad earlier than planned.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: I am still going with Yutsano’s theory that hearing that her mother was coming all that she needed.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: They must be very worried about the little ones and exposure, though. Wishing your family all the best.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: News of that sort would get me up and about! Yutsano is on to something there.
oatler
@Honus: Ever read “The Sotweed Factor”? Should have been the Great American Novel but was probably too creepy and prophetic for 1966.
LivinginExile
New band name. We’ll Hung Rhinos.
Steeplejack
@germy:
That @ExileGrimm thread is great. I recommend it to everyone. It’s not about 9/11 per se—I am studiously avoiding the treacly media coverage of that—but about our grievously flawed response and, more generally, the tsunami of Bushian malfeasance and right-wing bullshit that followed. I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. PTSD, I guess.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
I would be quite satisfied if he fled the country.
LivinginExile
@LivinginExile: Well, not we’ll.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: My neighbor across the street had a freak accident on his bicycle and the news was totally grim. Not being able to care for himself, with much brain impairment, if he even lived.
But he came back nearly 100%. He gets overwhelmed easily being around too many people, and of course he’s frustrated by the remaining 2% that he lost, but he is totally a miracle.
But that’s the kind of person Martin always was – always doing something, always thinking about the next project, always thinking ahead to the next thing he wanted to learn, and the next after that.
The day after we got such discouraging news about asiangrrrl, I woke up thinking of Martin and thinking that if anyone else could beat the odds it would be asiangrrl. And here we are.
Kirk Spencer
@Elizabelle: only half kidding, I hope he does. And styles himself as President in Exile as well.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Thanks. It didn’t look so “unintentional” to me. ?
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Dammit! These fuckers leave a wave of destruction in their wake and don’t think twice about it.
The dammit is about the positive test, of course, not about being young and healthy.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: I am avoiding the 9/11
portentousnesspretentiousness too. All the grief drama llamas, although it certainly is a day for grief.Michelle Goldberg had a great column in the FTF NY Times. Worth a click, and read the reader responses too. Worth a BJ thread, actually. On the misuse of the 9/11 tragedy, and the aftereffects of Bush-Cheney-vengeance seeking Americans’ response.
The FTF NY Times keeps retitling it. LOL. Started out as “What bin Laden won” or something like that. Then “How 9/11 Damaged America.” And now, in the hour since I refreshed that page, it’s
What will the next headline be? And why do they keep changing its title? They’ve even changed its URL to remove the bin Laden. LOL again.
They’ve closed the reader comments after 1,000 plus. Now that they’ve put up that clickbait title, 3rd and counting.
Viva BrisVegas
@Steeplejack: I didn’t see Don Siegelman mentioned.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: Hoping for the best for everyone.
Caphilldcne
@germy: this literally makes me ill. Also, why has Milley not been forced to resign for participating in the Lafayette Square photo op?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I read a Krugman article the other day about how right wing media is basically funded by the nutritional supplement industry. That industry is poorly regulated and, as a result, there have been ample cases where nutritional supplements have done more harm than good. This is one of those cases where tighter regulation can BOTH to protect the public from problematic products AND defund the right-wing noise machine. Right now, supplements have tiny caveats on their labels that indicate that what they are claiming hasn’t been confirmed by the FDA. That needs to be more explicit AND potential harms of the products need to be put out there in bold. Plus, people hawking these products need to have restrictions placed on what they can say when pimping these products and those restrictions need teeth.
WereBear
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: From what I’ve read, it hardly stops there.
Medical devices and lightly tested procedures are another area where the FDA tut-tuts and does nothing, even as harm is being done.
Citizen Alan
I can’t help but hear “Hang Your Rhinos by Their Heels” as sung by Buck Owens to the tun of “Tiger By the Tail.”
oatler
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
But I want Dr Amy Cooper’s patented nerve tonic!
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Thanks for the Michelle Goldberg link. I’ll read that.
When I was writing earlier I was trying to think of a synonym for hagiography (“biography that idealizes its subject”), but for events, not people. Couldn’t come up with one.
I was only nine years old on the 20th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 1961, but even so I don’t remember anything close to what we go through every year with 9/11. Maybe it’s because we definitively won the war and closed the book. By 1961 the Japanese were our allies and trading partners!
Olbermann’s comment linked by NotMax above is also good.
Another Scott
@Viva BrisVegas: No DC Sniper or Anthrax, either.
And the 20+M emails were found – kinda sloppy there.
He’s right that 9/11 wasn’t 70,000 hardened fighters out to kill us all in our beds. It was half a dozen guys who took some classes at flight school with some muscle to back them up. The W response was incredibly damaging…
I’m not watching any of the treacle today.
Peace to the survivors.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kirk Spencer
@Steeplejack: opinion: It’s a legacy of 20 years of trying to sustain public investment in our middle eastern adventures.
One of the big lessons learned I see pushed about Vietnam is that we “lost” because we lost the “will of the public”. We in this case being all the people who wanted us to stay and continue fighting for whatever reason we were there.
I’m guessing that over the next few years this morbid celebration will decline and eventually get rolled into the veterans day and memorial day celebrations. With longer life in places directly impacted such as New York City.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@WereBear: Tightening regulatory controls could really make a difference. The whole point of regulation is to protect the public from crooks and scammers.
Ken
@Citizen Alan: After Peale’s suggestion of Christian contemporary, I hear “Hang Your Rhinos by the Heels” to the tune of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steeplejack:
I’ve wondered why that is, myself; that 9/11 is still remembered the way it is compared to Pearl Harbor.. What I can up with is this:
Kent
Jumping into this thread late because I just got back from walking the dog and making coffee (Pacific Time Zone here).
But is the rhino hanging by it’s toes some sort of metaphor for the United States in 2021? Seems like a good one if it is.
WereBear
How and why the crooks and scammers party are always trying to roll them back.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: I figured that woman would be ID’d, but to learn she’s an RN is pretty scary
Steeplejack
@Viva BrisVegas, @Another Scott:
Jeez, it feels like you guys are getting into the “But the portions are so small!” zone. It does’t purport to be an exhaustive list, and @ExileGrimm invites people to chime in. The anthrax letters are mentioned, but pretty far down in the comments. No Don Siegelman. Checkmate, libtard, I guess.
Rob
I love how the rhino research is in the Transportation category rather than in the Ecology or Biology categories.
I rolled my eyes at the Entomology winner (Entomology Prize: John Mulrennan Jr and colleagues, for their research study “A New Method of Cockroach Control on Submarines”.) because this research was done some 50 years ago. I thought that the prize winners would be fairly recent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I still hate the sound of Bush’s voice, but this is interesting.
MAGAts are freaking out. Like so many here, I’m trying to avoid the wallowing, but I may look for a write-up of this later, or wait for my dead-tree Sunday papers
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I doubt he can ever do enough to redeem himself but at least he’s not letting that stop him (on this issue anyway).
SiubhanDuinne
@Kayla Rudbek:
Backwards, and in high heels.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
That Michelle Goldberg piece was good. Thanks for the pointer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: he failed the country in the summer of 2001, and again from 2016-2021. I think he’s irredeemable.
But like I said, interesting.
SFAW
@Baud:
I don’t remember ever seeing you in the same room/place as Falwell, ya know.
Just sayin’
CaseyL
@Roger Moore: Excellent news, a great start to the weekend. Thanks for the update!
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
That is just a great thing to read!!
frosty
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Failed from 2016 – 2020 except for one moment: “That was some weird shit.”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Current title: “How 9/11 Turned America into a Half-Crazed, Fading Power.”
Kelly
@Kent: I read it as hanging RINOs by their heels and thought it would be about the end stages of the Trumpist take over of the Republican party.
(also Pacific Time Zone)
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: We’re a tough crowd here. ;-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Eh. It was pretty vague imo. Which I suppose isn’t surprising given it’s a speech for a memorial
eclare
@CaseyL: How is your cat?
Uninvited Guest
@NeenerNeener: There’s a YouTube channel called billispeaks that was made by a woman who did exactly that with her now thirteen year old cat.
Anotherlurker
@Steeplejack: Hi! On last night’s dead thread about Proud Boys leader, Enrique Da Jerk, I talked about my adopted Golden, Addie.
You speculated about the cost of traveling a rescue dog from China to L.A. . It is more expensive than a Stateside rescue by 2X. My donation to adopt Addie was $850.00. This price included the travel crate.
The correct website is http://bunnysbuddies.org
This morning,Addie is doing well, after her surgery. She is sore and logy but starting to eat and drink.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’ve mentioned it before, but one of my favorite non-fiction book that I’ve read in the last few years was Frans de Waal, Are we Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
He covers many species, but one of my favorite things is his discussion of primate politics and political campaigns.
germy
CaseyL
@eclare: Much better, thank you for asking!
We’ve had a lot of work being done around here (roofs, tree removal) and it’s possible the noise and everything upset his system. This is HIS TERRITORY and he doesn’t like uproar.
He’s almost his usual self. I was so scared for him yesterday, and so relieved today.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Update on the Sighthound Hall mob:
COVID-positive brother-in law has been
quarantined in a big guest bedroom with en suite bathroomlocked in the old tower with the madwoman and the subhuman half-brother (joke for Immanentize). Bro’ Man is going to take an at-home test today, but he and the two kids are scheduled for drive-through tests at Kaiser tomorrow morning. ?Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steeplejack:
Keeping good thoughts for your BIL
frosty
@Honus:
We don’t have a problem streaming over wifi, although I just plugged in an ethernet cable. The problem is that Sling also carries FoxNews. Or at least one of the “colors” of Sling does.
germy
scav
@Steeplejack: No demented & forgetful nanny for the ruinous half of the hall? How will the baby be left to the sole care of the drooling hounds near an untended blazing fire!
Steeplejack
@Anotherlurker:
Thanks! I saw your response in that thread. I usually circle back until a conversation looks really dead, especially if it’s sort of an “overnight” thing.
One of my minor pet peeves is when someone asks the jackaltariat for advice and then seems to disappear after a very short time. Do they miss good advice posted later or do they just not acknowledge it? Closure is good!
WereBear
@CaseyL: I know exactly how he feels.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL:
I’m glad to hear it. Cats’ anxiety is so easily manifested in physical symptoms. Once when my former husband was in the hospital for an extended period, one of our cats started peeing on all my books.
eclare
@CaseyL: So good to hear!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
So how will Greenwald’s big brain process that?
Anotherlurker
@Steeplejack: Soon after my post I nodded out. I woke up about 4 am (Paciffic) and shut down the computer and turned out the light. It was a long day for me and Addie. I’m glad I could answer your question about the transport costs in this thread.
CaseyL
@WereBear: A weekend’s respite before it all starts up again…though they may be done with the tree removal, which was worse than the roofing.
@zhena gogolia:
Good point! I was going through such a long list of things that might be wrong. He kept moving from hidey-hole to hidey-hole in the house, and at one point I found him laying very still with his eyes open, not responding to my voice, and thought he was dead. Terrible moment, afraid to touch him to see if he was alive or not. You can imagine my sheer happiness to see him so much better today.
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Give him time. He’ll come up with something.
Steeplejack
@scav:
Inorite. I have a lot of problems with the quality of estate management over there, but I’ve learned to keep my nose out of it. Hasn’t been the same since the former housekeeper, Mrs. Flinders, was found drowned in the marsh.
Steeplejack
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Thanks, G.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
BTW – am in Crete on a lovely leisure trip that was beyond cheap. Free flight, low cost stay, low cost food. The locals are really responsible on vacation policy and masking, particularly in the north, in Chania. Did a vow renewal at a historic Orthodox parish in Chania, and are spending some second honeymoon time at a naturist resort (don’t judge us – it is really tame with an average age of about 60 and no woo-woo, as they’re all English or German) in another part of the island.
I really needed this trip. We both did.
JPL
@zhena gogolia: Let me mention that you now know your place in the family.
CAT
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: If she was drowned in the marsh, why was chlorinated water found in her lungs?
SiubhanDuinne
@frosty:
He also didn’t invite TFG to his mom’s funeral. Melania went, though, and had a ball.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav:
Ah, childhood memories.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL: It can be so scary!
JPL
Grand Imp was here over night, and didn’t leave until noon. I’m just now watching some of the rememberances from the anniversary of 9/11. I applaud Bush for his speech and pointint out that the home grown terrorists and children from the foul evil.
Villago Delenda Est
The Wallow. I loathe it.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m just now reading some of the comments, the same quote caught my attention. The entire speech moved me.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: How lovely. Congratulations
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Give the investigators a teeny break: they were rather busy ignoring the water was bright red and smelled of copper.
Steeplejack
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Congratulations! ? Enjoy the vacation.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Exactly! I brought that up at the inquest, but the chief constable quashed it. Nothing must disturb the illusory bucolic peace of Woodmont.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
“Death by misadventure” my eye. Harrumph!
geg6
About to get up off my ass and get ready for my niece’s long delayed wedding. Absolutely stunning day for it. So happy for her and her husband-to-be.
9/11 is always a weird day for me. My parents were married that day and we have always celebrated that day, even after they passed, because they had a true love story for over 50 years. Then 2001 happened and we didn’t know how to celebrate properly. My niece and Zach are bringing us back to the joy we always approached this date in the before times.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m surprised that Trumpsters have any response to anything Bush says. They regard him as a Democrat and the tiny non-Trumpster wing of the party behaves as if he never existed.
Mike in NC
We see a lot posted here about imbecile anti-mask, anti-vax Republican governors like Abbott and DeSantis, but will nobody weigh in on the gun-loving clown down in South Carolina who just might be worse than both of them combined? McMaster even has a weird frizzy hairdo that Albert Einstein might have envied.
nclurker
@Honus:
darwin speculated that we learned to eat certain things by watching birds do it.
oatler
Tomorrow Chuck Todd will host five Republicans to analyze how Clinton fumbled the ball on 9/11.
ShadeTail
Fellow Californians: Has anyone not voted yet? I just dropped off my ballot this morning. I voted No on recall, and Jackie McGowan to replace if Yes wins.
I understand why the CA Dems are saying leave the second question blank; they don’t want to give the false impression that they’re campaigning against Newsom in the election. But I think actually doing that would cede the replacement choice to the Nazis who have taken over the GOP, and we can’t afford to give them a hat trick. And of the 7 Dems who are running in the Replace race, McGowan seems the best to me. The fact that she focuses on her marijuana legalization efforts as a metaphor of her qualifications is a, shall we say, interesting choice, but hey, she’s probably locked up the stoner and libertarian cast-off demographics.
As for the rest, John Drake at least has some great positions on his platform, enough so that he was a close second for me, but he seems far too naive about how he could actually transform his ideas into action. Holly Baade comes across as an outright crystal-healing-style wackjob who is trying to make herself look like an old-school hippie stereotype; no solid platform or plans, just lots of artsy-fartsy language. And the other 4 Dems in the race are just different shades of Republican trying to pretend there’s really a D in front of their names. That goes double for Kevin Paffrath, the media-annointed front-runner of the 7. Variations on “vaccination is a personal choice” idiocy are particularly popular among the 4 of them.
Vote soon, if you haven’t yet. And vote smart.
sdhays
@SiubhanDuinne: I wasn’t sure how to grade him during 2016-2019 because the fact is his miserable failure of a Presidency was a big contributor to the current state of the nation and his party. He’s not popular even among Republicans. He was an albatross around his brother’s neck in 2016.
But in 2020, he should have endorsed Biden and said Republicans don’t deserve to win with a man like Trump leading the ticket. But loyalty to party still came first.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
Joy to you and your family on reclaiming the date. ?
eclare
@Steeplejack: Last night I dreamed of Woodmont…
Steeplejack
@eclare:
?
James E Powell
@ShadeTail:
Sent my ballot in a while ago.
I’ve been texting & getting almost 100% positive response. Not like 2020 when I was texting Ohio for Biden & one out of three were “FU! I’m voting for Trump!”
I am still disappointed that I’m seeing Sanders, Warren, and Obama for Newsom ads, but no Newsom for Newsom ads.
Steeplejack
My brother’s at-home COVID test is positive too. Bummer.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Sorry for the stress. Fingers crossed that everyone has mild cases and are back to normal soon.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mo MacArbie
I guess I missed the large mammal rap battle. Still torn between LF Ant and Will Da Beast anyway.
WaterGirl
@ShadeTail: A lot of people weighed in on that in the thread that’s in the sidebar.
Vote NO in the California Recall
It’s from August, but you can comment on a thread for 30 days, so it’s still available for discussion if anyone wants to discuss.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Shit. I’m sorry. Hoping for the mildest possible case for brother and BIL. Hoping the kids don’t get it, too.
I have a friend who got a breakthrough case which knocked her on her ass for 2 weeks, but not hospitalized, at least. Fingers crossed.
Comrade Colette
@James E Powell: @ShadeTail:
Thanks for the nudge – I need to get mine in. I’ve been waiting because Colette jeune – whose first election this is, poor kid – wants to talk it over and I want to have my ballot on hand for reference while we’re discussing it.
No on Question 1, of course. For Q2, I’m going for the harm-reduction strategy, and I think I’m going to hold my nose (and possibly cover my entire body with a hazmat suit) and vote for Faulconer. He’s an unredeemed asshole but at least he’s not Larry Elder.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
That’s what I’m thinking.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Thanks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@ShadeTail: I dropped my ballot off yesterday.
Tony Gerace
The B side of Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Niece (7 next month) and marginally competent (vaxed) “manny” (early 20s) both tested negative today (at-home tests). Waiting for a friend to bring another test for the 5-year-old nephew.
James E Powell
@Comrade Colette:
I am very much anti-Faulconer. He’s the only R on the list who, if he wins, could get re-elected
And while we are on the subject. I don’t watch local news, but right after the NFL game on Thursday night the Los Angeles affiliate ran a short local news segment that included a story on the recall. It was basically a two minute, pro-recall commercial. Apparently all the firefighters in California are defying their union and supporting the recall.
Sister Golden Bear
@WereBear: Cat Skinnerists experimenting with our behavioral training.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Pearl Harbor was far away out in the ocean, the towers were in the city. That whole day was televised live as it was happening, Pearl Harbor revealed itself through newspapers and radios, often hours or days later. Wouldn’t this explain at least part of the difference?
Geminid
@debbie: Also, the U.S. was immediately launched into a world war and a nation-wide mobilzation. There was too much going on and Americans were too busy to observe commemorations.
Warren Senders
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
My father timed his speech so he finished just as “Miss Sweetie Poo” was starting her walk across the stage.
A benefit of being an Ig-adjacent person: my daughter was “Miss Sweetie Poo” two years in a row. She still remembers her line.
PLEASE STOP. I’M BORED. PLEASE STOP. I’M BORED.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: That is amazing!
Kayla Rudbek
@SiubhanDuinne: and getting no credit for her work for thousands of years…
PST
@Elizabelle: Yes, Goldberg’s column is remarkable. I love this phrase, although it is peripheral to the argument:
Warren Senders
@Steeplejack (phone):
His wife is still alive and in possession of the cherished Ig. I suppose it may come to me eventually.
fancycwabs
Huh.