If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.
— Lord Salisbury
Monthly Archives: May 2006
Representin’ the reptilian residents
More nature photos. Whoda thunkit?
I caught (via camera, not literally) this little guy just doing his thing in the early afternoon sunlight. It’s a male green anole (Anolis carolinensis). First, they change color but are not chameleons. You’ll see the evidence of that ability as you work through these photos from top to bottom; his change in color is recorded as you see his body progress through various combinations and designs. Second, I know it’s a male because of the red/pink fan of skin on its neck that is used to woo the lady lizards (I hope to catch some video of these regulars around these parts, including the male using its neck fan and doing the lizard dance of which they’re quite fond).
This was my first attempt to digitally capture one of these little guys and I’m not entirely happy with the results. I’ll keep trying. That shouldn’t be too difficult since they’re numerous in this area. In fact, I always see a great many of them hanging out around my patio during the warmer months.
It was immediately after that photo that he scurried back into the thick of the bush. While I couldn’t get any pictures while he made his way down to the bottom, I was able to catch up with him there — and immediately noticed he started to change colors on the way down, a process that slowly finished as he reached the ground.
In the very next photo, take note of two things: how long his tail is, and his now green-and-brown color. The color change is complete by the last photo.
And via flash…
And sans flash, but only after he leaped to the other side of the bush…
Here’s the only one I got showing his whole body — head to end of tail. I wish it was better quality.
Look at his color now that he’s on the ground.
Kudos to Bloomberg
I don’t know much about New York City’s mayor Michael Bloomberg. I’ve just not paid attention to him and am unfamiliar with his political leanings, beliefs, ideology, and general personality. He could, for all I know, be the world’s most evil person, but his recent commencement address at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore certainly got my attention.
Bloomberg decried the political manipulation of science to further ideological ends, saying, “Today, we are seeing hundreds of years of scientific discovery being challenged by people who simply disregard facts that don’t happen to agree with their agenda … Some call it pseudoscience, others call it faith-based science, but when you notice where this negligence tends to take place, you might as well call it ‘political science.'”
In that context, Bloomberg deplored ongoing controversies over evolution education in Kansas, Mississippi, and elsewhere: “It boggles the mind that nearly two centuries after Darwin, and 80 years after John Scopes was put on trial, the country is still debating the validity of evolution,” adding, “This not only devalues science, it cheapens theology. As well as condemning these students to an inferior education, it ultimately hurts their professional opportunities.” Intelligent design, he said, “is really just creationism by another name.”
If only more politicians had this kind of common sense. Ha! I made a funny.
I guess I shouldn’t wear my hot pink shorts
Coach [of Iraq’s tennis team] Hussein Ahmed Rashid and players Nasser Ali Hatem and Wissam Adel Auda were killed in the al-Saidiya district of the capital.
Witnesses said the three were dressed in shorts and were killed days after militants issued a warning forbidding the wearing of shorts.
[…]
[A witness] said leaflets had been recently distributed in the area warning residents not to wear shorts.
Maybe the killers just didn’t like tennis.
Last week, 15 members of Iraq’s taekwondo team were kidnapped between Falluja and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, said a member of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. The kidnappers have demanded $100,000 for their release.
Then again, maybe not.
It’s nice to see such great progress being made in Iraq. We’ve done a find job, eh?
Random Thought
Never explain — your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
— Elbert Hubbard