Mountain goat nemeses everywhere!

August 12, 2013

Normally I might just let this beautiful photo slide by without comment.

In this case, I find this particularly frustrating.  See that creature?  That’s the same goat that blocked my trail in Glacier National Park.  I’m sure of it.  I’d recognize those beady eyes and horns anywhere! (See the first story linked to in the “more’ section; maybe this goat stopped in Washington on the way to Alaska.)

He’s probably in Alaska now under the Federal Goat Protection Program.

Harding Icefield Trail @KenaiFjordsNPS. #alaska pic.twitter.com/yozsSLnrcD

Interior US Dept of Interior 6h Caption from the Department of Interior: That’s quite the hike to the top. Harding Icefield Trail @KenaiFjordsNPS. #alaska pic.twitter.com/yozsSLnrcD

He probably thinks he’s safe there at Kenai Fjords National Park.  Ha!  He’s farther away, but that just means I have farther to travel to find him!

I’m taking a longer telephoto, a wide angle, and a first aid kit, next time.  I’ll be prepared!

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Leave a Comment » | Alaska, National Parks, Nature, Travel, Wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

The climate warmed, and I didn’t speak up, because I was not a cloud . . .

August 12, 2013

Another cartoon on climate change denialism, and the bizarre logic some denialists use — no apologies made to Niemoller at XKCD’s site:

http://xkcd.com/164/

XKCD cartoon, by Randall Munroe

[It appears that the word “denialism” triggers WordPress software to suggest “Fox News” as a topic.]

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1 Comment | Cartoons, Climate change, climate_change, denialism, Political cartoons | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Signs: Cthulu’s return? Don’t kick jelly fish?

August 12, 2013

Don Knuth at Stanford University collects signs.

Actually he collects photos of signs, especially the diamond-shaped informational-warning signs.

What in the world is this one?

A sign photographed in Australia, in the Knuth Collection.

A sign photographed in Australia, in the Knuth Collection.

Your nominations for captions welcomed in comments.

More, sorta — or maybe, “tangentially related” is a better description:  

Donald Knuth at a reception for the Open Conte...

Donald Knuth at a reception for the Open Content Alliance, hosted by the Internet Archive. Taken October 25, 2005 by Jacob Appelbaum in San Francisco. (Wikipedia image)

10 Comments | Art, Humor, Signs, Travel | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Win P. Z. Myers’s book!

August 12, 2013

Go here to ShelfAwareness, enter to win a copy of P. Z. Myers’s book The Happy Atheist.

They’ll subscribe you to their newsletter list.  But it’s a nice newsletter for smart and happy people who like to read (you, that is).  Plus, you may always unsubscribe, later.  If you use that link, I get an entry in the contest, too.  Selfish of me, no doubt.

Cover of The Happy Atheist; click image to go to Amazon.com and read a few pages.

Cover of The Happy Atheist; click image to go to Amazon.com and read a few pages. (I’m sure they’ll let you buy the book there, too.)

Good luck.

Oh, the book?

In this funny and fearless book, PZ Myers takes on the religious fanaticism of our times with all the gleeful disrespect it deserves, skewering the apocalyptic fantasies, magical thinking, hypocrisies, and pseudoscientific theories advanced by religious fundamentalists of all stripes. Forceful and articulate, scathing and funny, The Happy Atheist is finally a reaffirmation of the revelatory power of humor, and the truth-revealing powers of science and reason.

See Greg Laden’s review of the book, here.  It has a surprise ending, Laden said, in comments.

Myers strongly supports good science education — heck, he teaches biology at a state university.  You know him as the poobah at Pharyngula and one of the cofounders of Panda’s Thumb.  He probably gets a small smackeral of income off of each sale.  It’s probably a great read (I haven’t read it yet).

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Leave a Comment » | Books, Reason, Religious Freedom | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell