Carnival of the Cats #122 is to the point this week, even somewhat abbreviated, but it’s full of great cat photos and posts.

An important note on the stem cell debate: There are currently 400,000 frozen embryos in fertility clinics around the U.S.  These are the blastocysts that would be used in stem cell research.  Bush’s spin was that they would be destroyed by research, but we already know they will be destroyed anyway if they are not used in fertility treatment.  Of the 400,000 currently in cold storage, how many have been “adopted”?  128.  That’s right—ONLY 128 of them will become children while the other 399,872 will be destroyed.  Now, tell me again which lives we’re saving by not using them for research?

Here’s some interesting news about the continuing infringement of constitutional rights.  You’ve heard of “free speech zones” where dissenters are corralled far away from the president and his supporters.  Or how about those wearing anti-Bush clothing or buttons being arrested or at least detained.  The list goes on.  Finally, there appears to be a sudden plethora of lawsuits against the government for infringement of rights.  So far?  The government isn’t doing so well and is on the losing end of the judicial decisions.  Excellent news!  Read the article for a brief summary of some of the cases, and there are links from there to more specifics.

I learn something new every single day.  What did I learn today?  That bananas are the atheists’ nightmare because they’re built perfectly for human consumption (we’ll ignore for the sake of argument that they are actually built perfectly to ensure the plant’s procreation, and that monkeys seem also to be perfectly built to match the banana’s “design”, and…  Well, you get the point.).  It’s a video.  Watch it.  And then laugh your ass off.  GrrlScientist is absolutely correct: using the same logic, can one not make the exact same argument regarding the male penis?  And if that’s a sign of creation, what of the watermelon?  We eat it and it’s good for us, yet it’s not human friendly.  And water?  We absolutely must have it, yet it’s not exactly easy for us to drink without artificial means, and without sterilization it certainly can be quite bad for us.  What a joke…

A mathemetician wrote something that supposedly showed math disproved evolution, only he failed to include a single piece of math in his “math disproves evolotuion” proof.  Um, oops.  So a real mathemtician who actually understands math uses math to beat the idiot about the head and ears.  Fun for the whole family!

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and the new Red Jr. are passing each other as close as they will approach this time around the gas giant.  This infrared image (which shows more detail than visible light) indicates neither storm has suffered from the encounter.