Staircases

Some awesome staircases here. An example:

(Thanks MGKH)

One Never Knows When a Homosexual is About

(From The Bilerico Project)

Rational Discussion Rules

An infographic.

Aurora Borealis

Did you know you can see the Aurora Borealis from space? I didn't! But you can, and here it is.


Check out the whole post for a beautiful time-lapsed video of the northern lights.

Pork

This clearly means that the world needs a pork-themed fast food restaurant.

(Thanks SBHB)

Chernobyl

A really fascinating read about Chernobyl, 25 years later. Some excerpts:

But radiation doesn't travel consistently or evenly. If radioactive dust is picked up by a cloud, it will fall where the rain falls. There are still parts of Wales where the sheep farmers can't sell their meat, and last summer thousands of wild boars hunted in Germany were declared dangerously radioactive.

But some have started to show: there are bird populations with freakishly high levels of albinism, with 20 percent higher levels of asymmetry in their feathers, and higher cancer rates. There are strains of mice with resistance to radioactivity—meaning they've developed heritable systems to repair damaged cells. Covered in radioactive particles after the disaster, one large pine forest turned from green to red: seedlings from this Red Forest placed in their own plantation have grown up with various genetic abnormalities. They have unusually long needles, and some grow not as trees but as bushes. The same has happened with some birch trees, which have grown in the shape of large, bushy feathers, without a recognizable trunk at all.

(Thanks MGKH)

What a Nut!

Holy crap! Victoria Jackson is a total nut! I mean, aside from the homophobia, she just sounds like a damn nut!



A NUT.

File this under People Are Rotten

During the mid 1970s the Argentine military set up a baby-redistribution network, headquartered at the Campo de Mayo Hospital and the Escuela Mecanica de la Armada in Argentina. Fact-finding commissions have established that the regime systematically kidnapped young parents who expressed left-wing sympathies, then killed those parents, dropping many of them alive from airplanes into the ocean. If the women were pregnant, the regime created maternity wards where mothers were drugged or forced (their hands and feet tied to the beds) to have cesarean sections to accelerate birth. If they survived childbirth, they were murdered.

That way, the junta would not only eliminate its political opponents; it would steal their children. Kids who might have grown up thinking like their parents would now grow up thinking like their parents' enemies. This was a double erasure.

More here.

Radiation

Always wanted to know the radiation difference between eating one banana and standing next to a Chernobyl reactor during meltdown? Well, here is a radiation dose chart just for you.

Happy Day After Pi Day

Nerdy stuff about Pi.

Where Children Sleep

A photo tour of children & their bedrooms from around the world. Two examples:

Japan

Crazy footage of tsunami.

Before & after pictures here.

Money Chart

Via The Dish.

Japan Earthquake

Giant whirlpool here. Tsunami travel times here.

Brains!

Brainbow and other neurological type pictures.

(Thanks MGKH)

Tipping Around the World

A helpful graphic for tipping.

Get Out of Jury Duty

Well, here's one way to make a statement and get out of jury duty. Follow the lead of gay New Yorker, Jonathan D. Lovitz.

"Just had an intense day at jury duty. During voir dire we were asked who would not be impartial. I raised my hand and said "since I can't get married or adopt a child in the state of New York, I can't possibly be an impartial judge of a citizen when I am considered a second class one in the eyes of this justice system." You wouldn't believe how people in the room reacted."

Ted Haggard!

My obsession with Ted Haggard continues.

(Thanks AD)

Sheen, Qaddafi, or Beck

Play here.

(Thanks SBHB.)

Oh, Don

Donald Rumsfeld has released a whole bunch of everything, including delightfully bitchy emails, to coincide with the release of his book. Esquire has sifted through some of them, and gives us the following sampling:

The "My Time Is More Valuable Than Yours" Note

- - -
October 26, 200l
TO: Honorable Condoleezza Rice
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: Schedule

It isn't possible to have a 7:15 a.m. phone call, an NSC meeting and then two PC meetings in one day. That takes most of the day.

I need time with my staff. Let's try to figure out a different way to do our business…

The "Do You Think You're On Entourage?!" Note

- - -
December 13, 200l
TO: Honorable Condoleezza Rice
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: PC Meeting

We just had the Principals Committee meeting on Iran and Russia. At the last minute, we were told not to bring the “plus one.” I arrive, and I see you have Steve Hadley, Bob Joseph, Robin Cleveland, and Al Gonzales there-and I am like a one-armed paperhanger.

I am going to start bringing “plus one” to my meetings at the White House, unless there is just an enormously good reason not to. I sure cannot imagine what it would have been on that meeting, particularly since there were so many people in the room anyway…

The "You're Terrible At Your Job And You Can't Even Explain Why, Dumbass" Note

- - -
May 20, 2002
TO: Honorable Condoleezza Rice
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: Moscow Proposals

I just saw this article from the London Times saying, “President Bush will propose . . . that Russia and the United States join forces to develop the controversial Star Wars missile defense system . . .”

What is that about?

Second, I have asked repeatedly for a copy of these other documents that are supposedly going to be dealt with by President Putin and President Bush in Moscow. I still haven't seen a copy of anything other than the treaty. I need to see them. Please get them over to me.

Thank you.

The "She's Either Dumb, Deaf, or Secretly British, and Therefore, an Obtuse Asshole" Note

- - -
August 22, 2002
TO: Paul Wolfowitz [Deputy Secretary of Defense]
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT:

Call Condi Rice. She said to me that we have got to get the detainee mess sorted out, that nobody is able to get answers. I think she is getting this from the UK. Call her and find out what she is talking about. She always comes in with these cryptic messages as thought [sic] the Pentagon is messed up, and I don't have any idea what she is talking about…

The "You're Such an Idiot You Can't Even Run a Schedule" Note

- - -
October 4, 2002
TO: Honorable Condoleezza Rice
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: North Korea

I thought you told the President in my meeting that there werent going to be any meals at the North Korean event. I notice they had one or two dinners.

Thanks.

The "How I Subvert Your Time-Sucking Meetings" Note

- - -
October 30, 2003
TO: Honorable Condoleezza Rice
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: NSC Meetings

We have an NSC meeting scheduled for Monday with no subject. I like to be prepared for meetings, but if we don't have the subject of the meeting a working day ahead of time, then there is no way for us to be prepared…

The "You're Not Early Enough For Us, Slackass" Note

- - -
November 5, 2003
TO: Honorable Condoleezza Rice
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: Agendas and Schedules for PC and NSC Meetings

…If you want people from DoD to do something, please tell us that, not in the meeting, but the day before—and we will do our best…

The "And By Tactical Errors She Means 'My Bad Hair Days'" Note

- - -
April 04, 2006
TO: Stephen J Hadley [National Security Advisor]
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld

I think we better get some talking points on what Condi thinks she meant when she said we have made "thousands of tactical errors."

I keep getting asked the question, and I don't know the answer. I don't know what she had in mind.

Thanks.