Monthly Archives: February 2007

Party On, Dude!

This entry was posted in Biology Neurology on by

There’s a Mouse Party going on over at the University of Utah. Go check out what all that good stuff will do in your brain.
Do take heed, though, from Girl Scientist:

The simplified mechanisms of drug action presented in the game are just a small part of the story. When drugs enter the body they elicit very complex effects in many different regions of the brain.

An exercise for the reader: What happens in your brain when you imbibe two or more of these substances at the same time?

Via Pharyngula.

Friday Ark #125

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Dog Blogging Entymology Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Birds

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn’t Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 150th edition, 2;4, is up at This Blog Is Full of Crap. The 151st edition will be hosted at When Cats Attackon 2/11. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 2/10-11 by Catsynth . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 42nd edition is up and hosted by Neurophilosophy. The 43rd edition will be hosted on 2/22 by Earth, Wind & Water.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 17th edition is up at The Voltage Gate. The 18th edition will be hosted at the end of February by Pharyngula.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Careful What You Ask For

This entry was posted in Anarchism Government on by

There is a new initiative hitting the streets in Washington State. The Defense of Marriage initiative would, if passed:

* add the phrase, “who are capable of having children with one another” to the legal definition of marriage;
* require that couples married in Washington file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage automatically annulled;
* require that couples married out of state file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage classed as “unrecognized;”
* establish a process for filing proof of procreation; and
* make it a criminal act for people in an unrecognized marriage to receive marriage benefits.

Farcical on its face, right?
The folks that put this together say:

The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance seeks to defend equal marriage in this state by challenging the Washington Supreme Court’s ruling on Andersen v. King County. This decision, given in July 2006, declared that a “legitimate state interest” allows the Legislature to limit marriage to those couples able to have and raise children together.

They want to generate discussion and hope that if this passes it will eventually be ruled unconstitutional and thus weaken Anderson.
This could work. However, they might just get the first two parts of what they are asking for: discussion and passage…even in blue Washington. But they might not get the 3rd part: any part of this then being ruled unconstitutional by the state supreme court and end up strengthening Anderson.
My take: not a chance of passing. We all know to many couples, both same-sex and opposite sex, who have been married for years and do not have children.
If folks are going to spend precious time on issues like this why not go right to the heart of the matter and work on initiatives and so forth that say something like:

Individuals and voluntary groups of individuals must be treated equally under the the laws of…(insert appropriate federal, state or local entity).

Oh yea, the 14th Amendment already says something a bit like this.
The state, i.e., government, of course, has no legitimate interest in any aspect of marriage other than possibly enforcing judicial rulings on the contractual aspects of living arrangements entered into by 2 or more consenting adults.

Via Whatever It Is, I’m Against It.