buh-dum. buh-dum. buh-dum buh-dum buh-dum.

Yet another reason not to go in the water:

A snorkeller is believed to have been snatched by a shark as he swam last weekend with his son at a beach south of Perth. Witnesses reported seeing a dorsal fin and thrashing in the water before the sea turned red and the man vanished at the scene on Australia's west coast.

Father-of three Brian Guest, 51, who had campaigned for many years for the protection of sharks, had been looking for crabs on yesterday morning with his 24-year-old son when he was attacked about 30 metres from the shore.

And then there's the 2004 money quote from a web forum posting, made by the deceased Mr. Guest himself:

"I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it, at least it was doing what I wanted. Every surfer, fisherman and diver has far more chance of being killed by bees, drunk drivers, teenage car thieves and lightning. Every death is a tragedy – regardless of the cause – but we have no greater claim to use of this earth than any of the other creatures [we] share it with."

While that may be true for the general population, those that spend their weekends masquerading as a predator's favorite snack may have a slightly higher risk.

YOU ARE THERE: some lucky kayakers escaped becoming a shark snack in this clip.

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Well, you've got to attract the Young People to your Church somehow so why not couple the "Starbucks Model" with their lingo and musical stylings

If yesterday's video didn't make you pee your pants, then check this out from the "GodTube." Honestly it freaked me out a bit -- h/t to the homosexualists over at OMG blog for this one too.



**Updated** As St. Izzy points out in the combox -- this video has become a parody of itself and was produced, of all places, right here in little ole Columbia, SC by First Baptist Church. The video, if not the church has become an internet success overnight, and like many videos -- it wasn't supposed to be published, but inevitably was. Thank you to whoever published this video.

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Meteors seen over Edmonton, Saskatoon in Western Canada

Not your average 'shooting star.' For a brief moment in Edmonton Canada the heavens touched the earth as a meteor barrelled down through the atmosphere to the Canadian prairie. Scientist are now searching for any remains of the extraterrestrial object which caused folks' homes to shake along with a sonic blast that lit up the sky from atmospheric entry caused one person's 10 year old daughter to exclaim,

"She said there was a flash of light, the house shook twice and it sounded like dinosaurs were walking."

It should be noted that one of the main theories of the dinosaurs extinction involves a large impact from a meteor or asteroid 60 million years ago.

Here's one of the widely circulated videos of the meteor as taken from a police officer's dashcam.

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Say hello to my little friend....

Granted the gist of the article isn't necessarily to highlight the attributes of the pistol shrimp as much as the curiosity of the subtropic crustacean's being found further and further north, like England North, probably to highlight climate change. And as much as that was an interesting point, it's not as interesting as the creature itself.

Here's the text from the Daily Mail:


Deadly pistol shrimp that stuns prey with sound as loud as Concorde found in UK waters
By David DerbyshireLast updated at 10:33 PM on 13th November 2008

A prawn which can make a sound louder than a jet engine has been found in British waters.
Pistol shrimps - which stun their prey by snapping their claws together to create a deafening 'crack' - normally live in the sub-tropics.
Despite being less than an inch long, the creatures can emit an astonishing 218 decibels - louder than a gunshot.

Super shrimp: The pistol shrimp is only 2cm long but can make a noise louder than Concorde's sonic boom
The sound stuns small fish and crabs, allowing the shrimp to move in for the kill.
The creatures, also known as snapping shrimps, are native to the warmer waters of the Mediterranean and have only been found swimming off the coast of Britain a handful of times this century.
A pair were discovered last week near the mouth of the Helford River in Cornwall by crab fisherman Tim Bailey, 56.
They were brought to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, where staff were forced to separate them to stop them stunning each other.
Curator Matt Slater, who collected the creatures from Mr Bailey, said: 'Only a handful of this type of shrimp have ever been recorded in UK waters, although their numbers do appear to be on the rise.
'I started to think they were something special while I was driving back from Falmouth.
'I kept on hearing this cracking noise from the back of the vehicle as if someone was popping bubble wrap.

'It wasn't until we unloaded the bucket that I realised the sound was coming from the shrimps snapping their claws together.'
Ben Marshall, a scientist at the aquarium, added: 'They are among the loudest marine animals. They simply snap their claw to make a loud noise, and it's 218 decibels.'
He said the level of noise made by the shrimps was comparable with that produced by a sperm whale.
'That is 40 tonnes, and this is 2cm,' he added. 'The click of the claw stuns the victim for enough time for them to get on it and kill it - from tiny shrimp to anything planktonic.
'The noise is very instantaneous. It's not like a shotgun blast. It lasts literally a fraction of a second, but it's enough to stun the prey they're after.'
Douglas Herdson, the information officer at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, said that the creatures are so loud that they can be heard by sailors.
'I have heard of yachtsmen being moored in a bay and not being able to sleep because of the noise these shrimps make,' he said.
He added that the species is likely to be seen in UK waters more often as sea temperatures rise.
The British pair may have been carried to the UK as larvae by a passing ship.
There are around 600 species of pistol shrimp worldwide. Most dig burrows and feed off small crabs and fish.

When I first read this article I immediately thought about the movie shark tale and the little shrimp. I was even going to try and find a clip of the character on youtube -- no luck.

Actually though, there's no need to find a substitute and as cute as the animation would be, it would serve this animal no justice -- this little guy is one bad mo'fo.

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File it away under unsolicited and frightning

Hi, mattheusmei.
JimDeMint (JimDeMint) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out JimDeMint's profile here:
http://twitter.com/JimDeMint

I wonder if he'll really read my tweets which normally range from mundane to 'direct yourselves to the notebook.' If he does the latter, he'll probably stop following me.


Odds are it's just a staffer, or better yet Mr. Donehue -- who I've been meaning to add to the blogroll... sorry Wes.

Speaking of Wes, it appears that Jimmie Boi isn't the only SC politico trollinig the twitterverse.

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Foot Fetish Fiend is Foot loose and fancy free in Columbia

Women in the South Carolina Midlands should be on guard, there's a serial foot masseur lurking in the dark,

Police were called to a home in the 800 block of Zeigler Road in West Columbia at 7 a.m. Saturday after a woman said a man broke into her home and gave her a foot rub.
The woman told officers she and her husband were asleep in bed when she woke to find an unknown man at the foot of her bed, massaging her feet. She said she screamed, waking her husband, who chased the intruder out of the house but couldn’t catch him. Her husband chased him into the yard, but the man ran through a nearby park and escaped.
The husband said a pair of his pants he had worn the day before were on the back porch, but the intruder took only $60 in cash and left the wallet. Nothing else was touched in the home, and there was no sign of forced entry, a report said.

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All Dogs go to Heaven

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Uga VI, his given name being Uga V's Whatchagot Loran (how imperial and at the same time redneck sounding), passed away last Friday and that Monday the University held a funeral.

But not just any funeral. The beloved mascot of the University of Georgia's remains were flown on the university's private jet from his home in Savannah, GA, to Athens. Uga VI wasn't alone on the journey as the dog's owners and their family were also in tow on the flight.

Once arrived at the University his body was paraded through the stadium and across the football field to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Bulldog Nation. In attendance were local officials University and State dignitaries.

The Octogenarian, who so many years ago was instrumental in deigning the current line of Ugas from the Seiler household at the demise of the last "brindle bulldog" in 1942, recounted how it therefore came about that the current bloodline was selected.

The Rev. Claude McBride, a local Baptist Minister, said an invocation concluding the prayer with "Sic 'em, Uga. Woof, woof! Amen."

There was no Pine Box for Uga, his body was then interred with the past Ugas in the Granite Mausoleum of the "Great Uga," shrouded in his Jersey and collar.

Photo from Atlanta Journal Constitution

Folks, I can't make this sh*t up! It's all true. I don't think humanity has seen such goings on over a dog since the days of Pharoh - though perhaps at PETA gatherings, nor such regal and stately accord outside the death of a President or Head of State.

Conversely if the current Cocky died, the most you'll see is President Sorensen eating a two piece with a biscuit, and then casting the bones at the base of the Strom Thurmond Statue to divine who's going to succeed him as President or what the outcome of the this year's football season will be. And to top it all off, this goes to show you that there are more wasteful spenders in the world than the South Carolina Legislature.

As an aside and update, it appears that a Journalist at the AJC are going all post-Tim-Russert on the Uga story and asking, what's the big deal, it's just a dog!

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Your Friday Diversion: "Joh the Baptist"

Saw this post over at Sully's about a site that sends e-mails to all of your friends who are left behind after the rapture.

Needless to say it started a great (caddy) e-mail thread with some friends of mine. Immediately we all thought of the Bible Belt of the South, our home, as being the most likely place to advertise such a peculiar business. I suppose that shared assumption is what made the following response possible:

Aren't they presumptuous---emails sent 6 days AFTER Rapture--!! ha ha, So does this plan include snakes?

Snake handling? Well, the opened the door to silliness. So of course we believe that the snake handlers would be very upset if their brood weren't able to join them!! Especially upset would be the congregation of the First Snake Handling Mount Olivet Church of God in Christ [inc.] and who could forget the other church St. John’s Mount Holy Olivet Second Independent Baptist United Methodist-Episcopal Snake Handling Church of God in Christ Holiness Church Apostolic of the Latter Day Saints in Spirit of Truth Catholic Ministries for the Hope of Harvest Inc over on 3rd and George, in Orange Georgia, with the Reverend Deacon Bishop Wallace K. Joyner, Presiding Pastor!!!!!!!! (pronounced Epee*scop*uhl) [sic]

So it's in apologies and in due reverence to our friends in Orange and elsewhere who by the Grace of the Lord handle snakes that I present your Friday diversion, Neko Case singing John the Baptist.

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Cold Fusion at last?

RKnows has a link to a story about Japanese scientists who may have finally performed cold fusion. The jury is still out as to the exact causation of the heat emanations (70+ Celsius for 50 hours), whether they were purely chemical or truly fussile (yup made that word up, opposite of fissile).

So far it's made no major networks, and even though the experiment is replicative, cold fusion naysayers have been so vocal as to relegate the notion to science fiction.

BUT if this is the real deal, I agree with Mr Raymond - the Oil and Coal people will need to take those record profits and immediately invest, because otherwise they could be out of business.

Slashdot has reported on it and most commenters have side tracked talking about Greek/Latin roots for Helium and Hydrogen and the problem with Google translator.

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Kentuckistan is voting

(Now for a little cynicism that this protracted primary is continuing...)







All those hard working, White Americans,the population is 91% White, in the commonwealth of Kentuckistan are voting today, along with the hippies in Oregon.


The Uncyclopedia has this to say about Kentuckistan:


Kentuckistan, part of the former Soviet Union, was only granted statehood in 1993. Until then, it was a Communist-State existing in the South-Eastern United States. Kentuckistan is amazing, and you would be an idiot for not going. It says so right here in the brochure. It is currently ruled by Emperor Beshear the Undieing and Darth Daniel Mangiardo, The Man To Praise Casino.


Oregon, according to the same source is


...pronounced ['o ɹɪ ɡɑn] or ['oɹ ɡən], but never the erroneous and stupid [ˈo ɹɪ ɡən]. [It] is often called the Next-to-Last Frontier, the Romantic Wood-Products State, Meth-town USA, and Toilet Paper Producer to His Majesty, Too Treely. But in actuality is a community of inbred escapees from the notorious Biosphere project, led by a band of moss-covered, lichen-brained, doddering Ents. Oregonians naively believe this band is a State Legislature.
Oregon is commonly referred to as "the Canada of California," "the Mexico of Washington," "the New Zealand of Hawaii," and sometimes "the Portugal or Haiti of Idaho." Make sure not to confuse Oregon as "America's trash can" because that is New Jersey. But it is America's white trash can. With the exception of Portland, this state is more racist than the city of Birmingham.
Unlike its flighty neighbor to the south, Oregon stays firmly on the ground. In this it is similar to all the other regions in the world. Except the flying ones. Or the ones that don't really fly but merely hover. Well, and the Burrowing Nation of Burundi. Let's just abandon this line of discussion, shall we?


Needless to say the punditocracy has declared Kentuckistan to be demographically the last strong hold of the She-Clinton until Puerto Rico (and the Uncyclopedia has lots to say about them too). Needless to say someone who's a fan of Arugula and latte, as well as literature, is best served by the amalgam population of hippies that live in Oregon, hence their declaration of an assured Obama victory.



When will the madness of this primary end!!!!

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British Government approves human-animal embryos

In a move that Sky news says is worthy of Dr. Frankenstein, Gordon Brown mustered a sizable majority coalition to overcome amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that would have outlawed the creation of “human admixed embryos” for medical research by a majority of 160 votes as well as pure hybrid embryos (50/50) by a smaller margin of 63 according to the Times UK.

From Sky News:

Scientists will now be allowed to insert the nuclei of human cells into animal eggs, creating hybrid embryos which grow for up to 14 days. As a result, stem cells can be harvested and used to create brain, skin, heart and other tissue for treating diseases - before the embryos are destroyed.

These admixed embryos are called Chimeras after the mythical creature that Homer in his illiad described as "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire..." Such a name is appropriate to more than a few bioethicists and even me. Even more strange and bizarre than the bills passage is the notion that the leader of the conservative party - the Tories, David Cameron supported these measures of admixture. Even more peculiar is though this bill passed a measure to give lesbians the right to IVF did not is expected to fail, while a further restriction on abortion looks to pass. Bizarre to say the least!! I'm sure the is going to cause a huge fuss in religious and more socially conservative circles.

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Yes, it was my twin

I saw this story from Greece from the AP:

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A 9-year-old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday. ...

Andreas Markou, head of the hospital's pediatric department, said the embryo was a formed fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord. Markou said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births. ...

As frightening as that sounds, I couldn't help but be reminded of this scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding

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