The article I quoted in this post mentions that the mice attracted by stores of grain in the first agricultural settlements led to cat domestication. From an article by William J. Bennett on US history:
As commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Washington in 1775 firmly ordered his soldiers not to celebrate Pope’s Day. It had been [...]
DNA dates cat domestication:
Domestic cats around the world can trace their origins back to the Middle East’s Fertile Crescent, according to a genetic study in Science journal.
They may have been domesticated by early farming communities, experts say.
The study suggests the progenitors of today’s cats split from their wild counterparts more than 100,000 years ago – [...]
Yet another cool google hack: Pirates!
(via, which has upgraded to a great new design since I’ve last visited)
I’ve lost power three FOUR times in the past 22 hours.
“Extreme heat” my sweaty ass. You’d think there’d never been a fucking summer before, and they’ve been taken totally by surprise. Also, NSTAR, congratulations on your notification system that calls folks to give them your best estimate about when their power will be back on [...]
Roving archenemy field correspondent SBL provides the above photo from Switzerland (and a number of others, but I have yet to ask him if I can post any). I particularly like how much the mountain in the background resembles a hollywood special effect or a Wyeth painting… in the foreground, the shadows go to black, [...]
Pajamas Media:
PJM’s Ardeshir Arian, who has been following developments closely by phone and on the Internet, reports that unrest sparked by government gas rationing continued all night. The rioting, mainly in Tehran, but also in other cities, spread beyond the gas stations to government banks and government-run supermarkets, which were ransacked by ordinary people. It [...]
“Get your hands off our talk radio”:
Feinstein says she is “looking at” reviving the Fairness Doctrine to counteract the decidedly conservative bent of talk radio. Former President Reagan and a Democratic Congress repealed the Fairness Doctrine in 1987.
She wants to bring it back because she thinks “one-sided programming” pushes the American people into “extreme views” [...]
Tammy Bruce observes that polls show Congress’ approval rating at an all-time low, and makes a suggestion:
I suggest we pass legislation (or change the Constitution if necessary) which would require the ‘firing’ of all members of Congress in the event their approval rating dips below 15%. In other words, if 85% of the American people [...]
Warren Ellis blogs:
PULPHOPE, a monograph by Paul Pope, is officially released on June 25. I got hold of a PDF of the book a couple of months back.
You need this book. It is Pure. It manages to be a complete statement and a work in progress all at once: a report from the borders of [...]
iowahawk:
A few minutes later we arrived at the nondescript hall deep in the Blogosphere Bowery. We pushed through the filthy padded door and made our way to a smoky backroom. Huey was seated at a card table, around which sat a rogue’s gallery of sleazy online opinion slingers: Beantown Barney, the head of the Boston [...]
Bit the bullet last night and upgraded to openSUSE 10.2. Slightly nerve-wracking since I couldn’t really afford to have the box out of commission should anything go wrong, but it went like a charm. Two problems and one “problem”:
Something odd happened to Samba, I can’t reach the SUSE box from my windows box anymore, so [...]
Never heard of ‘em, of course, as I’m officially No Longer With It™.
Via Pajamas Media:
Former KGB agent and Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov explains how the KGB worked from within American universities to demoralize our society in a generation.
Poking around a bit turns up part 2:
These interviews are from 1984. I guess the MSM (or, as it was known back then, the M) wasn’t interested in this [...]
Maybe live-action wasn’t the way to go. Any more than stupid was the way to go.
Archenemy roving field correspondent AWM writes from Duke:
Hot as nuts down here all the time now. Pretty much keeps me from leaving the house, not that that was a problem before.
LOL!
Emerson Radio (WERS 88.9) has an all a cappella show on now. I just heard “Where the streets have no name” and was like “somethings wrong- is this a cover?” before I found out that it was all voices. They had the Edges guitar down pat.
Archenemy roving field correspondent SBL reports, via email from some trendy wireless handheld or other:
Dude, I’m looking at the Eiger!
No word yet on whether he’s sanctioning anyone.
The dangers of working at home:
The worst writing experience of my life was authoring my Apple book, “Infinite Loop.” It was not bad just because of the subject matter, but because all of the other demands on my life reduced me to writing the book from 11 p.m to about 4 a.m. every night for [...]