Rainbow and Lightning: A stunning photograph!  That said, natural phenomena like lightning and rainbows DO NOT PROVE GOD.  Period.  Ugh.

Friday Ark #95: Go get your animal on, and get it on over and over again throughout the weekend as updates occur.

I couldn’t decide whether or not to even mention this.  It’s truly so bizarre that I had a very difficult time wading through it all.  But, in the interest of full disclosure (or, at least, burning your brain cells like I burned mine), I offer the craziest woman on the planet: Wiola (a pseudonym, obviously).  This lady believes that running photographs (mostly of people) through a multitude of Photoshop filters can reveal whether they are alien or not.  And she sees aliens everywhere.  This is definitely a case in support of abortion, although, sadly, that can’t be performed retroactively.

It’s been 1,172 days since Dubya did his cheap flyboy marketing routine and said of Iraq, “Mission accomplished!”  So, how’s that going?  By the way, if we want to measure it by the numbers, that equates to more than 100,000 dead Iraqis, at least 2,546 dead American soldiers, about 226 dead coalition soldiers, 1,768 days since he declared we’d get Usama bin Laden “dead or alive”, and hundreds of billions of dollars (the most recent request for additional funding asked for at least $110 billion, so I think the running tally is soon to exceed $400 billion).  Oh, and one more number: it’s been 151 days since our vice president shot anyone in the face.  Just sayin’.

And while we’re on the topic…  Baghdad seems to be nearing complete anarchy.  “Ali, The Times [of London] translator for the past three years, lives in west Baghdad, an area that is now in meltdown as a bitter civil war rages between Sunni insurgents and Shia militias. It is, quite simply, out of control.”  The article is grueling to say the least.  Again I’d like to ask: So, how’s that going?

Check out this photo of Saturn and two of its moons, Mimas and Enceladus.  Be sure to see the larger version.  It’s a side-on view of the rings with the two moons silhouetted, one in light and the other in shadow.  Cool.

Despite this obvious censorship of MySpace by News Corp., the new owner of the social networking site, we can still accept Faux News Fox News, also owned by News Corp., really is still fair and balanced.  Right?

This will be an interesting series to follow.  Mind you, the source is biased as he is the parent of one such bird, but that does not negate the fascinating intelligence of African Grey Parrots.  Next to humans, parrots in general are the next most intelligent species, a surprising fact considering how much smaller their brains are, so I suspect at least to a great degree that the conclusion is a bit anthropomorphic.  After all, parrots, like dolphins, can learn a great deal of our languages, can reason, use tools, are tremendously successful problem solvers, and have learned a great deal about interacting with, not to mention manipulating, humans.  Still, African Greys outperform dolphins at every turn, but consider they are accustomed to the same environment we are (on land in air), a fact that well influences the tests to favor parrots over dolphins who live in a completely alien environment (in liquid water).  The same can be said of whales.  But that doesn’t negate the mental acuity of parrots, and I’ll be very interested to see this series as it develops.  Also, one can not help but be enticed by the emotive impact of this:

Greys also make great pets, as I can attest to. But, they are not for everyone. You need to spend a significant amount of time and attention on your Grey: it truly must become your friend and equal and not a mere show piece. Some people compare having a Grey to having a toddler, and in many ways this is very apt. They are smart but tricky, a little manipulative but loving, playful yet have little tantrums. They are also quite quiet, but if you get a talker like Pepper, don’t even try to shut them up. Greys are also one-person birds. They bond STRONGLY to just one person, forever. In the wild, Greys mate for life and when their mate dies they usually stop eating and die too. In captivity, your Grey thinks you are its mate (not sexually so much as socially) and will mourn your “passing” if you die or give it away. This is one reason you should make the decision to get a Grey slowly–they live for 60-90 years. It will love you that long, will you love it?

Of course, disparate from the readable content, there’s always that fantastic picture of an African Grey…