I am doing something completely different and posting very early (for me).  Yesterday was just way too rough due to the book signing in the heat, wind, blowing dust (I swear I am still chewing on grit!).  I was going to take my little laptop and work, but the dust situation isn’t good.  Can you imagine what our early pioneers went through, crossing the Santa Fe Trail into this country.  Water was limited.  There was no way to take a bath or to shampoo one’s hair, let alone wash clothes, including underwear that must have walked across the prairie  on its own!  Think how badly people must have smelled.  Add to it all the things women would go through each month – but probably just the exercise and the stress of all that travel would put a stop to that for awhile.  Imagine giving birth in a situation like that.  No wonder so many of those robust pioneers were just that – robust.  Like Garrison Keillor says, “The women were strong and the men were good looking…!”.

We talk longingly of the ‘good old days’ but do we really want to live that way?  It’s like Gilligan’s Island – as primitive as can be!  No cell phone, notebook computer, portable DVD, Blackberry, IPOD, internet, email – as much as I enjoy history, I’ll take right now, with all the weirdness and crazies.

Speaking of which, you now have enough weird and fun stuff to keep you busy all day.  I like the disappearing lake story and the road runner size dino.

We still aren’t certain what killed Miss Piggy.

We need good UFO stories!  This is one.
The strange disappearance of a monster hunter.

Mark in Mexico has solved the illegal immigration problem – by pointing out that through the legalization of prostitution in Mexico City, there will be reverse migration from the US.  Just kidding.

I’ve been waiting for someone to start blogging about the unintended consequences bio-fuels will have at the grocery store check out counter.  Hyscience is hitting it.

What do you do with a 700 pound bear – anything he wants?
Why are Bigfoot sightings down?
Were the Etruscans from Anatolia?
MUST READ:  The ancient land of Kush

You know it was only a matter of time before National Lampoon took on the War on Terror.  What’s up with 72 Virgins?

I am so glad have UFO stories this week.
Suppose you went to picnic by a lake and it isn’t there anymore?
Fire and Ice
Herpes virus killing coral reefs!

Okay, so if they discover a ‘road-runner’ dino, do we picture T-Rex as the coyote?

Prehistoric rock art like that found in France has been found in Upper Egypt.  Are we so fascinated and obsessed with ‘classical’ ancient Egypt that we’ve completely overlooked a vast Paleolithic heritage?

Volcanic activity on other moons of Saturn besides Titan!

Have you voted for your favorite Wonder of the World yet?

Hatshepsut to be x-rayed.
The search for the Grail heats up again.

Alter-net’s piece – Why is the Pet Food Industry Killing Our Pets? This reeks of Soylent Green –
“…I personally have been able to trace euthanized pets from veterinary clinics in the city where I live to rendering plants where they are processed; the end results are shipped to pet food companies. Pentobarbital, the drug used to euthanize these animals, ends up being fed to our pets. Results of a study conducted by the University of Minnesota show that pentobarbital "survived rendering without undergoing degradation." In the late 1990s, officials from the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA/CVM) decided to investigate a theory that dogs were exposed to pentobarbital through dog food. Researchers developed a test to detect pentobarbital in dry commercial dog foods….”

The comments about this piece are just as fascinating.  I have noticed that the life span of our various family cats has become shorter. My mother’s beloved Persian, Misty (my sister and I swear he was the prototype of Garfield) lived for 22 years.  We had Calico for 20 years.  Unfortunately she became completely deaf and did not hear my father backing out of the carport.  Other than that, she was fine.  We did not have the kidney failure years ago that we are seeing now. Gracie was the first in our family to start having kidney problems.  She walked into my parents’ house the same weekend Star Trek: The Voyage Home premiered as a full grown cat.  She developed kidney problems, but by that time she was at least 16 or 17 and lived long enough to move into my parents’ newly purchased temporary home in San Patricio in 2001.  Siggy developed kidney problems by the time he was about 13 years old, and survived another two years.  His twin, Brunhilda developed her kidney problems about a year before she died last March.  One aunt had Friskie (the worst cat ever) for a good 19 or 20 years and another aunt had Frick (named after Friskie) for nearly 20 years.  

For some time I have been complaining about a bias against the color pink.  This is just another indication that such bigotry does indeed exist!

“…In which case, maybe one should call time on the tyranny of the pink junkies. One hears that some women have taken to hiding their pink phones when they are doing business, proving that there may be such a thing as 'pink shame'. And so there should be. After all, when was the last time you walked down a street and encountered armies of grown men decked out in sailor suits, sucking their thumbs and wailing 'Mummy'? The female of the species had better put pink in its place - just a colour after all, and hell on earth to keep clean.”

James Joyner – Outside the Beltway – comments on the feminist end of things.  Frankly it think it is just pure bigotry – against the color pink, my favorite color!

One of the pioneers in climate studies calls global warming a bunch of hooey!    Speaking of which, Mark Margolis at Blogs for Bush has a commentary about the latest fun that Global Warming ended in 1998!

From Monday – let’s watch and see what happens:  Hawaii is being hit by an earthquake swarm.  Is it indicative of volcanolgy or something else?

MUST READ OF THE DAY:  Mark In Mexico has been doing a major study on industrial pollution in Mexico.