I and the Bird #33 is generously endowed and deserves a bit of your birding attention.  Also, coming from a financial blog, I have to point out how much I agree with this sentiment from the host:

But as regular readers know, I’m a firm believer in integrating real life into financial life. After all, it doesn’t matter how nicely you feather your financial nest if you don’t use some of your earnings to follow what makes you happy.

Sounds familiar, huh?

The 44th Skeptics’ Circle is now available.  I think everyone would enjoy reading Coturnix’s entry on denialist rhetoric, but don’t let that recommendation stop you from enjoying all the other good posts as well.

Tarantulas produce silk from their feet!  How cool is that?  “Researchers have found for the first time that tarantulas can produce silk from their feet as well as their spinnerets, a discovery with profound implications for why spiders began to spin silk in the first place.”

We don’t charge Christians with terrorism even when they commit an act of domestic terrorism.  That’s nice.  He rammed his car into what he thought was an abortion clinic and promptly torched the place.  It wasn’t an abortion clinic.  He was only charged with second-degree arson.  You can bet a Muslim would be in Gitmo by now.  [via Ryland]

Good news from Chris Clarke about Zeke.  He doesn’t have cancer.  Of course, although he’s doing better, he’s still a very sick dog.  It’s likely his age more than anything else (and age-related ailments), and Chris still has a difficult time ahead to ensure Zeke doesn’t suffer unnecessarily.

This explains a great many things, does it not?  “Too much testosterone can kill brain cells…”  Need I say more?

And Bush just keeps getting hit.  This time it’s the UN reporting on Iraq and completely refuting the lies from Dubya and his régime.  “An intelligence report showing an upsurge in Islamic militancy put the White House on the defensive on Wednesday in an election-year debate over whether President George W. Bush has made America safer. In a second blow to the president, a new U.N. report said the Iraq war was providing al Qaeda with a training center and fresh recruits, and was inspiring a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan hundreds of miles away.”  Again, feel safer?

Grand Rounds 3.1 has the best and brightest from the medical blogosphere, so don’t miss it.