It seems like this ought to be obvious:
Any questions? (h/t BooMan)
Nature can be a real asshole. This video is not for the squeamish:
I’m pretty sure this type of wasp partly inspired the birth cycle of the creatures in the Alien movies. Nature takes it farther, though, in terms of being horrifying, albeit with a certain sense of karma. The narrator notes: “One of the greatest dangers the larvae will face is being themselves impregnated by other species of parasitic wasp.”
Then there’s this: Continue reading
October 16, 1994 was a magical day on the Rice University campus.
You see, nobody beats Rice’s football team 29 years in a row.
Nobody.
“AFK” means “away from keyboard,” right? The reason being that I’m having a minor procedure tomorrow that will most likely prevent me from typing anything for a (hopefully) short while.
I say “minor” because it’s an endoscopic procedure that they say will only take 20-30 minutes, but it’s really just good ol’ carpal tunnel surgery.
About two years ago, I noticed that I was having numbness in my pinky finger and half of my ring finger on my left hand. My doctor referred me to an orthopaedic specialist, who sent me for nerve testing. I was diagnosed at the time with cubital tunnel syndrome, which involves the “funny bone” nerve that runs through the elbow and affects those 1.5 fingers I just mentioned. We decided not to do anything at the time because it wasn’t that bothersome, and the tests showed that the condition was mild.
Earlier this year, I began to notice that the rest of my left hand was going completely numb at times, especially in the morning, possibly because I was sleeping on my side with that hand folded up under the opposite arm (it’s hard to picture, so I’d recommend you not try.) I went back to the orthopaedic doc (spell check is telling me “orthopaedic” is spelled wrong, but it just looks so dang cool with that “a” in there), who sent me for more nerve testing. The tests involve electrodes and tiny electric shocks. I don’t recommend it. Continue reading
Denied. Charles Vestal, Medium, October 10, 2014
The law itself says 20 weeks “from fertilization” (vs. “gestational age”), and we’re actually only 18 weeks from fertilization–my amazing wife tracked her cycle to a T. The hospital acknowledges it isn’t against the letter of the law, but it is a grey area their policies won’t let them touch. Too risky, too hot button a topic.
We are denied the opportunity to even make a humane and doctor sanctioned medical decision by a bill that we never thought would affect us. I was there at the capitol, fighting for the rights of women. It never crossed my mind I would be fighting for my own.
No, We Don’t Want Your Apologies (AKA You are not a very good ally if…), Feminace, October 8, 2014 Continue reading
For Master Thieves, Legos Are the New Uncut Diamonds, Vocativ, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, August 20, 2014
While Legos aren’t exactly uncut diamonds (they’re not nearly as portable), as far as untraceable commodities go, they’re almost as good. Thieves can sell unopened Lego sets, which are very difficult to track, almost immediately online for as much or more than the retail price. And if they sit on them for a while, it gets even better, because many of the bigger sets rapidly appreciate in value—at a rate much faster than inflation. In other words, they’re money in the bank.
Last week’s back-to-back busts underscore what appears to be a growing awareness among criminals of Legos’ street value. Over the last couple of years, professional thieves and opportunists around the world have turned the Danish building blocks into fat stacks of Benjamins. They’ve included Silicon Valley executives, criminal masterminds in Florida, Oklahoma conmen and even drug dealers in Amsterdam, who have started accepting Lego toys as payment.
Some go for the toy stores, others rob the delivery trucks. Earlier this year, a suspected band of crooks in Australia brandished angle grinders and crowbars to pilfer at least $30,000 in Legos from four different retailers. In England, bandits in Watford Gap and West Yorkshire pulled off Lego truck heists to the tune of $87,000 and $67,000.
The Kraken Is Such A Big Meanie, The Kraken, The Gloomy Historian, October 9, 2014 Continue reading
Men Have Depended on the Government for Centuries—So Why Shouldn’t Women Do the Same? Rebecca Traister, The New Republic, October 8, 2014 (h/t Echidne)
Where once American women were forced to depend on husbands for economic stability and social and sexual sanctification, they now rely, to some degree, on the American government to protect the rights and benefits that make independent citizenship possible.
But what too often goes unacknowledged is that women aren’t the only Americans who have relied on the government as a partner. Rather, it’s a model of support and dependence that has bolstered the fortunes of American men throughout the nation’s history.
It’s hard to remember that guys did not rise to the top of business and political worlds passively, by dint of their hard-wired inclinations and the gravitational pull of their penises alone. Men too, even the rich, white married ones who vote Republican as reliably as single women vote Democrat—in fact, especially those men—have benefitted terrifically from government policies and practices. Call it “The Wifey State,” and come to grips with the fact that white guys have been taking advantage of it since the founding.
Wal-Mart Advances ObamaCare, BooMan, Booman Tribune, October 9, 2014 Continue reading
– On the plus side, she’s sure to sell the movie rights: A woman in Spain may be having marital problems, but I’m sure her story will make a profitable—if not actually good—movie.
Some nine months ago, a bride-to-be had sex with a dwarf stripper after a bachelorette party, and this week she introduced a new member of the family to her husband who is likely not the father. Or so the newborn infant’s attributes would suggest.
Inside a hospital in Valencia, Spain, the mother confessed to her tryst with the stripper when doctors recognized the newborn possessed traits related to dwarfism.
Actually, George R.R. Martin may have already thought of a somewhat similar storyline…
This isn’t the storyline I had in mind. It’s just awesome.
– Not quite to Phase 3 yet: The FDA is saying that caffeine-infused underpants probably won’t help you lose weight (h/t Ragen). Continue reading
You might inadvertently trigger a security lockdown at an airport.
A man disembarking a flight at Australia’s Sydney Airport was apparently so engrossed in whatever he was watching on his iPad that he couldn’t take his face away from the screen to pay attention to where he was going when he exited the plane into the airport. With the iPad still glued to his face, Sydney Morning Herald reports that the man accidentally wandered through an exit tunnel into a domestic terminal without clearing security. The entire terminal was promptly evacuated, and all the passengers had to be re-screened before being allowed to board their flights.
Here endeth the lesson.
