Secrets of Our Living Planet - The Emerald Band

I may not be able to blog this week, since I'm going to be spending some quality time with my family, so I'm leaving you dear readers with a fascinating documentary.

We've seen in multiple cases before the intricacies of various animals. What's different about today's documentary is that it showcases the interesting and intricate relationships between various organisms to explain why there is so much biological diversity in the Earth's rain forests, why so many of these organisms are so weird, and why these relationships and processes matter.

Part of the key has to do with the runaway result of an evolutionary arms races of specialization and ingenious manipulation between plants and pests, predators and prey, parasites and hosts. And underneath it all is the process of natural selection, that blind watchmaker that can produce incredible adaptations out of physical, chemical and biological necessity.

See you next week!

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Dare Mighty Things - Curiosity on Mars

I don't know about you, but I'm still ecstatic about the Curiosity success, and things just keep getting better and better...

Some of the obvious important and concrete goals of NASA have to do with scientific research, discovery, application and engineering, but although it cannot be so easily quantified, one could easily argue that whether by design or chance, it is one of the greatest vehicles we have to increase the fecundity of scientific inspiration: NASA's successes inspire new generations of young people to dream big and to work to make those dreams come true, especially in an age when scientific literacy is more needed than ever to solve our technological, social and environmental challenges.

So here is a little bit of inspiration:

And also, thanks to my good friend Harris, I get to share some high-definition footage of Curiosity landing on Mars, captured by Curiosity itself:

And this one is the same thing, but it centers on the heat shield, so it's a lot more stable:

Go create something great :)

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Todd Akin, Republicans and "Legitimate Rape"

As you may be aware, Congressman Todd Akin has been receiving fire from all directions for his stupid, right-wing ideological, scientifically illiterate and insensitive remarks about how women who are victims of "legitimate rape" have natural physiological mechanisms to prevent pregnancies, implying that women who do get pregnant after being raped were not really raped. Everyone's been jumping on the response bandwagon, and so I can do no better than to summarize what's going on.

First we have the folks from Mr. Deity promoting the "mourning-after pill," for those ladies who may have "enjoyed their forced sexual encounter just a little too much":

And while Republicans are acting all offended by Akin's remarks, one should not forget that Akin's real sin is to make public what these heartless jerks really believe and have actually made their official party platform (and I'm talking even prominent Republicans like Paul Ryan and Mike Huckabee, not just fringe conservative outcasts).

Thankfully, the good folks at The Young Turks don't let these conservatives get away with these Republican bullshit public relations spins:

And if the whole idea that female bodies can prevent pregnancy due to forcible copulation does sound familiar to you, that's probably something you learned in this previous episode about sperm, but it wasn't about women... it was about ducks!

Here's a little more on that, plus some actual footage of the weird duck corkscrew penis...

And let's not lose focus about why conservatives are calling out for Akin's withdrawal from the race. It's not about their concern for women's health and reproductive rights, as if... it's about what will happen to the GOP come election time...

I swear... you cannot make this stuff up... If you care about women and their rights at all, make your voice heard in the elections, and vote these jerks out of office...

But of course, some of the best responses to this story come to us courtesy of The Onion.

First, we have the good news headline: Woman relieved to learn her rape was illegitimate.  The victim of a brutal sexual assault last month, Martha Byars confessed that “Being violently coerced into having sex was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, so I take comfort in knowing it wasn’t actually rape. Thank God for that,” she added. “I’m so relieved to know that my child’s father, the man who muffled my screams as he forcefully penetrated me over and over and left me hemorrhaging to death on the street, is not a rapist.” Hallelujah!

Then, in its story "I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being'," we learn that this may have all been a misunderstanding based on a poor choice of words by Akin. What he really meant to say is "I am a worthless, moronic sack of shit and an utterly irredeemable human being who needs to shut up and go away forever. I am an evil, fucked-up man who should never have been elected to the United States Congress, and anyone who would vote for me is probably a pretty big fucking dumbshit, too. I am not a competent or respectable politician; I am, essentially, a subhuman monster of a prick, a prick as profoundly insensitive as he is monumentally unintelligent in every respect; somebody should apply dozens of layers of duct tape to my mouth every morning so that words are not able to exit my large, dumb, misogynist, imbecilic mouth at any point; I make the planet worse; I don’t know jack shit about any of the topics I spoke about in that interview, or about any topics at all, really; I should apologize every day to the women of the world, but doing so would most likely be an exercise in futility given my rock-bottom intellect and my complete and utter lack of human decency; I am, in no uncertain terms, not even worth the time it took you to read this."

And of course, while Akin may be an utter dumbshit, that in no way reflects GOP views, since Republicans Condemn Akin's Comments as Blemish on Party's Otherwise Spotless Women's Rights Record...

But even after all this, Akin has not withdrawn from the race, and in fact he's just barely behind his opponent, so before you faint in disbelief, you should be aware that Poll Reveals You Live In Country Where Mentally Ill Man Still Has Good Chance Of Being Senator.

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Horrifying Planet - Zebra: Nature's Ultimate Prey

When it comes to the philosophical problem of evil (the question of how an omnipotent and benevolent God would allow unnecessary suffering to exist), religious believers tend to argue that suffering is a necessary consequence of our having free will: sure, our freedom does tend to produce all kinds of nightmares every now and then, but overall, the net benefits of having free will outweigh the bad.

Whatever merit that answer may have (it doesn't), it's a great distraction from what philosophers call "natural" evil: the suffering created by non-human related causes: things like disease, animal suffering, earthquakes, etc., and the suffering and destruction experienced by non-human animals. So how do you explain that?

Well, The Onion thinks that you can do it through Intelligent (but evil) Design :)

I bet zebras hate giraffes and ostriches :)

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Jane Goodall on Chimpanzees and Human Emotions

Jane Goodall's story of scientific discovery is an amazing one, but even more amazing are the stories that she shares with the world, the way she tells these stories, and the optimism with which she confronts pressing global issues such as conservation, poverty, education, deforestation, etc.

If you want a basic introduction to the wonders and mysteries of our closest evolutionary cousins, you could probably not do better than to listen to Jane Goodall recount some fascinating incidents that have shed so much light into our understanding of these adorable creatures.

But she also carries a powerful ethical message about the need for more humane, sustainable practices, and for the moral obligation we have to those around us and to future generations at whose expense we get to lead lavish and profligate lifestyles. And because rhetoric can inspire but not necessarily guide, she also offers some very practical examples of programs, big and small, already in place and from which we could learn how to make the world a better place for everyone.

I could listen to her speak all day long :)

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I Want to Be Sarah Palin?

One of the things I despise about politics is the hypocrisy and the double standards: it's okay for our group to do something, but if those from the other side of the isle do the same thing, then that very same thing is evil; or conversely, it's so wrong for those on the other side to do something, but it's perfectly fine for our group to do the exact same thing, or even the very same thing on steroids...

I don't know whether it's willful manipulation or whether they are so blind by cognitive biases that they actually believe the things they say, but I have to confess that even thoughI never thought I'd see the day when I would want to be Sarah Palin, if being Sarah Palin means I would never again have to listen to Sarah Palin, then I'd want to be Sarah Palin. Jon Stewart explains:

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Talk about a dilemma!

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U.S. Teens Lead World in Teen Pregnancy-Test Scores

Say what you will about our alarming rate of science illiteracy, the decay of our political discourse, the brainwashing and mindlessness of our entertainment industry... We may be lagging behind in a lot of different areas, but there are some things at which we Americans are still number 1!  USA!  USA!?  USA??

I bet these girls didn't even study and still got positive scores on their tests!

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