Recently in News Category

Given my general lack of regular updates to this blog and my recent acquisition of an iPhone with an unlimited data plan, I've added my Twitter feed to the sidebar (replacing the nearly-useless "recent pictures" widget.)

Those of you in the know about such technology can find me there as @voght, and those of you not-in-the-know (hi, mom!) can just keep checking here on occasion to see what's going on in 140-characters-or-less, along with irregular longer news posts. In the sidebar there are likely to be links to interesting news articles, photos, and other general silliness that comes from being out in the world with nearly-instantaneous photo and text uploading capabilities, while the main news feed will continue to primarily feature random pictures of the cats.

And for those of you really in the know, @jasperjenkins and @wileytito also post the occasional tweet in between periods of watching actual birds tweeting outside the bedroom window. Ain't technology grand?

Mice may be responsible for a blaze that killed nearly 100 cats at an animal shelter near Toronto, officials say.

Jasper and I are busy fortifying the back entryway.

An estimated 2,500 lightning strikes in Western Washington over the past twenty-four hours, with more forecast for the next twenty-four hours.  It was a wild night for flashes and booms, and for once it wasn't because of the noisy neighbors.

Given our typical lack of any real thunderstorm activity, it's interesting to note that the 4th of July holiday in 2006 also started with some strong night-time thunderstorms, then more during the afternoon prior to the fireworks (and massive fire.)

But remember, summer in Seattle doesn't officially start until July 5...

UPDATE: And how could I forget the thunderstorms that produced the lightning seen in the photos I use in my site banner?  Those storms occurred overnight on July 12, 2007... apparently there's something special about early in the month of July.

Best invention ever.

Under The Needle: A vending machine to crow about...

Klein studied crows for six years and validated what he already suspected: They're unusually smart. They learn from each other. And there are loads of them.

Thus, the idea for a crow vending machine was born.

Awesome. Click the image to go to the full story. (Photo uncredited, but from the P-I article.)

From CNN.com today:

Californians left in dark as heat wave continues

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Parts of Southern California sweltered in triple-digit temperatures on Monday as a heat wave stretched into the seventh day and contributed to power outages that left thousands with without air conditioning.

Frankly I'm not sure who to point at on this one. Seriously, who thought it was a brilliant idea to build a massive metropolis with tens of millions of people in a desert? Then who thought, after all the brownouts and power disasters there a few years ago, that the infrastructure was still okay? And who in their right mind complains when the inevitable then happens?

This ranks up there with the morons in Arizona who complained that their new McMansions out in farm country smelled too much due to the farms nearby were *gasp* doing farm-related activities!

Stay tuned for next week's exciting article about the rising number of cougar attacks in sprawling exburbs (or whatever they're calling suburbs of suburbs of suburbs these days.), or next summer's "sharks attack swimmers in Florida" story, right next to the "fish populations still in decline" story that doesn't think to make a connection.

Bridge victims: 'Homer,' mom, 'chatterbox'

Victims who died in the Minnesota bridge collapse Wednesday included a father nicknamed "Homer," a successful businesswoman, a "chatterbox" who "loved to smile and laugh," and a mother who dreamed of a cosmetics career.

I understand we're trying to sympathize with the families of these people, but seriously - "chatterbox"? The entire lede is a bit strange and disjointed.

Just overheard on The World, a Public Radio International production that airs locally on KUOW (a Seattle NPR affiliate) in a discussion about the ongoing sexual revolution in China:

[A]ccording to a survey done a couple of years ago in seven major Chinese cities[...] Among respondents under 20, the average age people first had sex was 17 and a half. For those in their 30s, the average age was much older: 24.

I'll leave this one as an exercise for the student to identify the flaw.

CNN.com just ran this lede:

Dobbs: Lame ducks all in a row

President Bush isn't the only lame duck in our nation's capital. All 435 Congressmen are up for re-election next year, and so are 34 of our senators. That's a total of 469 lame ducks, the way I see it.

Color me confused, but I'm pretty sure the term 'lame-duck' explicitly refers to someone who can not run for re-election, and thus has little concern about consequences of his actions, and similarly has little power in terms of getting his actions done, because those around him can just wait him out. You would think Lou Dobbs, a seasoned political commentator at one of our nation's largest news portals, would know this.

He also apparently can't do math, since his initial comment suggests he wants to group these 469 congresspeople WITH Bush, which would make 470 individuals. A more accurate opening might have discussed "sitting ducks" since that is what the remainder of his crappy "a pox on both your houses!" commentary is about, but that wouldn't have let him try to lump all of congress in with Bush's awful popularity (or lack thereof.)