For the first time ever, science has identified a species of animal other than humans who have unique names for each individual.  They’re bottlenose dolphins and they whistle their “names” to each other through referrential communication, something that “until now had not been clearly shown in a non-human animal.”

Take a look at Grand Rounds n.2 v.33 for the best of the medical blogosphere.  This incarnation is quite extensive and full of health information, the personal side of medical practice, the politics of health care, and the state of medicine in America.

The tablecloth game.  It’s played by cats everywhere.  (All you need do is look at the photos from top to bottom to understand.)

The new idiot who’s supposed to be in charge of the CIA has no clue what the Fourth Amendment is about or what it says.  That amendment protects us from searches and seizures without probable cause, and that’s the constitutional premise which is violated by the domestic spying apparatus put in place by the Bush administration.  If General Michael Hayden, Bush’s new nominee to be head of the CIA, does not know what the Fourth Amendment says, he does not know what it means or what it protects.  And this is the man who’s going to be in charge of protecting our rights while running the nation’s spy institution?  You’re kidding, right?

The White House is demanding all agencies talk about Iraq progress in every speech they give.  Can you imagine?  “‘The head of FEMA is here to talk about New Orleans…’  ‘Thank you for that kind introduction.  First, I’d like to talk about Iraq…'”  It’s the propaganda machine hard at work regardless of how pathetically evident it is.

Tangled Bank 53 is available and sports the best writing on any science topic.

Michael Bérubé’s Sybillity is an important dissertation on the Democrat Party’s need for civility in the blogosphere.  It’s uproariously hysterical.