Just more bad news on global warming

"Thaw of Arctic Soil May Unleash Runaway Warming"

Analysis of "swiftboating 2.0"

Over at Media Matters.

What the hell is wrong with some people?

From the About.com page on animal cruelty:

On March 7, 1997, three youths broke into Noah's Ark, a cat shelter in Fairfield, Iowa. Using baseball bats, they brutally bludgeoned 27 cats, leaving 17 dead and many others maimed for life.

Horrifying? Not so, according to some of the residents of this town, which lies philosophically somewhere between bucolic nostalgia and new-age transcendence.

"I agree what the things did you and I do growing up that we wished we wouldn't have done?", "I think it's a thing that boys have. You used to see them out hunting, targeting cats with .22s," and "If I'd been with him that night, I would have helped," were comments heard from the "old-timers" (the latter comment from a teenage boy.)

As animal advocates raged country-wide, the town split asunder, with pleas from the "old-timers" to "just go away and leave us alone." Many residents considered the event just a "boyish prank", but not so the founders of Noah's Ark and their supporters.

I get really angry when I see people demonstrating their absence of empathy. Really angry. Or maybe it's some other emotion, but like any good American man, I convert all strong negative emotions into anger.

Magpies...

...are self-aware? It really seems like the popular conception of "intelligence", and its distribution among species, is way off the mark.

I heartily endorse this event or product

Charbay Meyer Lemon Vodka. It's hard for me to find any alcohol delicious, but this is damn close.

Ouch

7 in 10 games lose money (i.e. fail to make back their development costs). That's pretty good, actually; I thought it was 9 in 10. In the linked article, Chris Deering talks about how the industry might be able to make up for some of that lost cash.