I thought this would be an interesting little quiz to fulfill my weekly need.  Enjoy!

What Disease Are You?

You Are Ebola!

Also known as Hemorrhagic Fever, you are a risk-taker. You love to travel and experience the world. You are not afraid to walk on the wild side, while still being a funny, yet sarcastic person. Being so open-minded, you have been known to shock people, which is a symptom that occurs within one week of being infected. What happens next? A quick and excrutiating death…technicalities.
Take this quiz!

Well, no one pointed out that I completely forgot to post the carnival barking last week, so this week’s entry is a bit long to make up for those I didn’t point out last week.

Weekend Cat Blogging #45 has some great photos for you to check out.  Before looking at Weekend Cat Blogging #46, make sure you put the rolls of toilet paper someplace where they can’t see the screen.  If you don’t, they’ll scream “Massacre!” once they see those pictures.  How terribly funny — and disturbingly familiar.

108th Carnival of the Cats also starts with some great photos and links to a lot more.  Carnival of the Cats #109 is a somewhat sad affair as the hosts came home to work on the post only to find one of their rabbits, Rambo Rabbeet, had died.  But the carnival goes on, and you’ll find links to a lot of great cat photos and stories.

The 38th Carnival of the Godless has the Easter Edition up this time.  This is always an excellent read.

Birds in the News 54 (v2n5) has great photos as always, and there’s a lot of interesting news as well.  If nothing else, go check out the photo of the bird sitting on the dog’s head.  Cute.  Birds in the News 55 (v2n6) once again has some absolutely stunning bird photos (the first one of a male magnolia warbler is beautiful, but also check out the tiny pygmy owl) in addition to some very interesting news updates, including something about some roosters becoming sociopathic rapists.

I and the Bird #22 presents the best of bird blogging and is full of good stuff (and lots of photos at the linked articles).

Grand Rounds, Vol. 2, No. 30 is the medical blogosphere’s little get together and always has compelling and interesting stuff to read.  Grand Rounds 2:31 is rather extensive.  There’s a lot of good stuff here, not to mention some very interesting stories.

The Carnival Of Education: Week 63 and The Carnival Of Education: Week 64 have the best of educational blogging and cover a great many topics.  Go get your learnin’ on.  Everybody gots to have ’em an edumacation.

Carnival of Feminists 13 is a new blog carnival I’ve recently started reading.  I originally ignored it because I was not so much interested in what I thought to be a carnival dedicated to such a specific issue, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it is a diverse and enjoyable circle of posts about many topics.  While they are all written from a somewhat feminist perspective, I found the majority of the entries to be thoughtful, contemplative, inclusive, and compelling.  I’ll watch this one more closely in the future and will include it when/if appropriate.

Friday Ark #83 is a summary of the best animal news and photos from around the blogosphere.  Go on; get yer critter fix.  You know you want to.  Friday Ark #84 is a bit sparse this week as the “Ark crew is traveling and expects to have limited net accesss for the next four days. Boardings will be slow….”

Carnival of the Vanities #188 is the oldest blog carnival showcasing the best writing on any topic.  Disappointingly hosted at IMAO, there’s no surprise the political section is replete with sardonic conservatism and ignorance, but the carnival is still worth a visit to see some truly excellent work on a myriad of topics (just ignore the host’s stupidity that leaks in from time to time).

Tangled Bank 52 always has the best science blogging, and this time its also been compiled with a very entertaining Star Wars theme.  Good stuff.

The 33rd Skeptics’ Circle is presented as a research report this time around.  Take a look and fulfill your daily requirement of incredulity.

Both Kraft and Ford defend themselves from anti-gay proposals intended to remove protections and support based on sexual orientation (in all matters).  Kraft’s shareholders defeated the measure by more than 99%.  Is anyone paying attention to this nonsense though?  The assault continues at increasing rates and expanded approaches.  I tire of being fodder for the hateful and bigoted.

Virtual Street Reality.  This is very cool.  It’s street art made in such a way so as to appear three dimensional when viewed from the correct angle.  Go look at the pictures; you’ll be very impressed.

A cat survives eight days after being sheetrocked into the wall of a new home.  The cat lost seven pounds while waiting to be rescued.  As one of her original rescuers said after he and his wife finally found her and rescued her again, “She wasted probably five of [her nine lives] in that house over there. She’s got about four left.”

With the USDA’s bizarre assault on red-shouldered hawks in Florida (see this, this, and this) and the pathetic abuse of red-tailed hawks in New York, Texas wants to tell the rest of the nation how to handle these situations: leave them the fuck alone!  That’s right; Baylor Health Care System will not update its billboard, now WAY out of date, until the red-tailed hawks nesting there, as well as their young, have moved on later in the year.  There’s no panic about attacks despite people being threatened by them.  Instead, Baylor wants the sign left alone so the birds can raise their family in peace.  Oh, and that’s what federal law demands; see the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act of 1998.  Someone should also let the federal government know about that federal law since it also protects red-shouldered hawks, something they obviously don’t know given how many they’re killing and torturing in Florida (and who knows where else…).  Oh, and someone should also let them know they’re supposed to enforce that law when people violate its tenets.  A perfect example of failing to enforce it is the situation in New York.  Baylor’s makin’ me proud to be a Texan.

You’ve heard about the Republicans wanting to give everyone a $100 rebate check to help with high gas prices.  Don’t get me started on that.  Instead, why don’t you see what a Republican blogger has to say about that idea and the Democratic idea to temporarily suspend gas taxes instead.  Keep ’em at the Teat.  As usual, the devil’s in the details of the Republican proposal, and you won’t like the price you’ll pay for that $100.

I’ve mentioned the 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 comet several times as it is providing us a wonderful show as it breaks apart on its approach to Earth before it makes its nearest pass next month.  Bad Astronomy has some great photos and some discussion about the comet’s history and why it might be falling apart in this spectacular fashion.

Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed. … There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

— Charles Darwin

From SpaceWeather.com:

CRACKLING SUNSPOT: Big sunspot 875 is crackling with solar flares. Earlier today it unleashed an M8-flare, almost an X-class event. The sun’s rotation is turning the spot toward Earth, raising the possibility of Earth-directed eruptions in the days ahead.

COMET NEWS: Dying comet 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 is falling apart with a vengeance. Even the fragments are fragmenting. Today’s edition of SpaceWeather.com shows a spectacular photo of “Fragment G” disintegrating into 15 or more pieces. Several of the comet’s fragments are visible through backyard telescopes, so amateur astronomers can monitor events themselves. Sky maps and details are available at http://spaceweather.com.

Remember, 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3 is disintegrating before our very eyes as it approaches Earth.  It will make its closest pass to us in May.  This is very exciting stuff to watch as it fragments during this closing journey.  By the time it passes nearest to us, it will likely be a magnificently large trail of cometary pieces and should provide a spectacular show.  Well, that means a display even more engaging and phenomenal than what we’ve seen thus far with its rapidly crumbling advance toward us.