Pity the Poor Insurance Companies

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Hat Tip to The Arkansas Daily Blog.

"Characteristic of Mystics or Psychics"

Two years ago, I linked to an article about a man released from death row in Virginia after he was exonerated by DNA evidence. In that post, I mentioned the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed despite evidence that the fire he was accused of setting (and which killed his three young children) was accidental. A heart-breaking article in the New Yorker tells Willingham's story. One scientist says that the original arson investigator's methods "deny rational reasoning," and are "more characteristic of mystics or psychics." Read the article and be sickened.

Yeah, the Mets Pounded the Cards Yesterday

But we've got this guy coming up through the minors. So all is well.

Oh, No! I'm Exposed!

My actual birth certificate has been discovered!

(Click it, and it gets big enough to read.)

No Need to Rearrange the Deck Chairs--the Iceberg's Melting.

Previous estimates of the effects of global climate change include the melting of the ice pack on Greenland as a "worst-case" scenario.  Guess what?  The climate models underestimate the rate at which the pack-ice is melting, and also the amount of carbon that melting permafrost will inject into the atmosphere.  Greenland is losing 52 cubic miles of ice each year, and the permafrost emits three to six times as much greenhouse gas as the entire U.S. car and light truck fleet.  Meanwhile, the G8 and the United States Congress fiddle while the planet burns.

Happy Courtney Love's Birthday!

It's been quite a five-week stretch for your favorite transitional fossil. Trips to New Mexico, Alberta, San Francisco, a couple of looming deadlines at work, and a total lack of anything to say have kept this blog eerily quiet. At least the travel is over, and the deadlines met.

It's the Talk on a Cereal Box

Thanks, Skitch!