Linkety-linkety

[moominmuppet]

How had I never before heard of these? Sole-less Sandals. *want*

Texas ed board adopts social studies standards *weeps for the future*

Sexist Ad of the Day: Your Vagina is a Void

Experts say US doctors overtesting, overtreating

A breath of fresh air in China: Is the government of China easing up a bit on its official prudery toward

Comments

[moominmuppet]

At the moment I'm too damned broke to order _anything_, but at some point I probably will.

[flexibeast]

Re. Polys vs. Swingers, obligatory link: "Really Just a Swinger". :-)

[moominmuppet]

I'll definitely have to check it out when I get home! (blocked from work, sadly)

[jajy1979]

The animal thing forgot tardigrades and a host of other cool micro-organisms, and more than a few macro ones. The primates they chose aren't even the oddest of the bunch. It also forgot things that while they don't look that odd are actually leaking toxins. The one that comes to mind is a bird whose feathers carry the same type of toxins as a poison dart frog. So much for snuggling after coitus

[bbblakey]

Love the Australian critters on that list. (ok, I'll concede that some of the others are pretty cool too - Pygmy Jerboa! Malay Eagle Owl! Awesome!) However, they missed some of the crazier aspects of the monotremes - they lay eggs, feed their young milk secreted from a patch of hairless skin on the belly of the mother (no teats!) and, most impressively, the male platypus has a venomous sting, which can be extremely nasty

[jajy1979]

Ok, I'll give you the Snakes, though South Americans (fer de lance, golden lance head, bushmaster), and Africans (Cobras, Mambas, Vipers of all sorts) may want to argue the point. They have far more aggressive species on the whole, and dead is dead

[bbblakey]

Aussie snakes like the king brown snake, tiger snake or inland taipan are aggressive enough - and all my close encounters have been with dugites, a local small brown snake which is very reclusive, and also apparently very good at hiding from me when I'm walking around. I'd still rather meet even a king brown snake than a cobra or mamba, though

[jajy1979]

The tiger snakes are a group of snakes, a whole genus, and they range from moderately aggressive to moderately docile. The inland taipan is actually exceedingly docile for a venomous species. Exceptionally deadly but very docile. Part of what makes a snake dangerous is a group of factors that go beyond just the toxin's lethality, and if you want my professional opinion the Black Mamba wins for most dangerous snake. Though Golden Lancehead wins for habitat control. It only lives on a single island and the square footage vs. lethal snake on that island is mind boggling

[minniethemoocha]

Maybe I'm just being oversensitive (and also found the unexpected barrel-eye view in the first image triggering, to my surprise), but I wish there were some mention that even antique firearms can at least in theory be loaded. Responsible ownership is essential. A friend of mine was recently killed with an antique gun he owned for the sake of its historical and aesthetic interest. Weird and awful, but true.

I really am enjoying these links, though! Thank you. :)

[moominmuppet]

*nod* Very true.

My first and only interaction with a gun, I was a teen, and ran across it totally unexpectedly in the attic of our so-anti-gun-we-had-squirty-fish-instead-of-water-pistols house. I opened a random box, found something heavy wrapped in cloth, unfolded the cloth, and suddenly I had a gun in my hand. Holy shit, was I shocked (and freaked) as hell. Went straight to my folks, turns out it'd belonged to a great-grandparent, and that's the last I ever saw or heard of it. Still, wow. weird.

[moominmuppet]

Also, I'm really sorry about your friend.