One of our seas is missing

The Aral Sea (actually a lake) was a landlocked body of water in Central Asia. A half century ago, it was the world's fourth largest inland sea. It was fed by two rivers, the Syr Daria and the Amu Daria (the ancient Oxus). Beginning in 1959, the Soviet Union began a series of large irrigation projects aimed at increasing amount the amount of commercial crops, mostly cotton, grown in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

As less and less water reached the sea, it began to dry up. As the shoreline receded, fishing villages became landlocked. Soon, that ceased to be a problem as increasing salinity killed most of the fish in the sea. Dust blowing off the lake bed, carrying with it salt and various pollutants, has become a public health hazzard. With the loss of the moderating effect of a large body of water, the summers have been getting hotter and the winters colder in that part of Central Asia.


By 2000 the sea had separated into three, barely connected, parts. The larger, southern, part had divided into a shallow eastern lobe and a deeper western lobe. The northern part of the sea, which had always been somewhat seperate from the rest, was an independent lake. In 2005, Kazakhstan built a dam between the lake’s northern and southern parts to stop the loss of water from the north. While the northern lake has returned to a degree of health, this doomed the south. The eastern lobe completely dried up earlier this year. Ironically, the northern lobe, which was once called the Small Aral Sea, may soon be the only Aral Sea.




Last week

Mammoths had no appendix

I'm not aware that anyone has confirmed that in a frozen mammoth, but that's what I conclude from this article on the distribution of appendixes among mammalian species. Only platypuses, echidnas, some marsupials, most glires (rabbits and rodents), and most primates have them. None of the other mammals, including the order Proboscidea, have them. If anyone had a theory that the mammoths went extinct because of an epidemic of untreated appendicitis, you'll need to develop a new theory.

Stay classy guys

The Republicans have thought of the same thing that I did on hearing of Kennedy's death. That is, that the proper way to honor him is to pass the health bill. Whereas I think that it is a good idea, they're scared that the idea will catch on and are taking preemptive action against it.

Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) was direct in opposing the idea:

Certainly people honor Sen. Ted Kennedy for all of his work, but at the end of the day, this is a democracy, and I think the voice of the people have [sic] been heard quite loudly in the month of August.

Michelle Malkin was a little more oblique, merely accusing the Democrats of planning to do it:

[T]here will be a nauseating excess of MSM hagiographies and lionizations — and crass calls to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death.

Ann Althouse said the same:

Teddy Kennedy's death will be used to rekindle the old argument that we need to shut up and hurry up about health care reform.
So I assume.

There's some projection there. They wouldn't hesitate to use a death for political advantage, so they assume we will. I only hope we will, but fear the usual Democratic death wish will make our leaders decide it would be unfair to capitalize on the moment.

John J. Pitney, at National Review's "The Corner," managed to use Kennedy's death to bring up the specter of death panels:

He and the other Kennedys loved one another and looked out for one another. There was no cost-benefit analysis in their family life, no sense that age, illness, injury, or disability would diminish their value.

Scott Johnson at Powerline managed one of the least gracious editorials. He follows a pro forma "We extend our sympathies to his family upon his death" with "In one respect, Senator Kennedy's contribution to our public life has been indisputably negative." he then goes on for 657 words to rant about Kennedy opposing the Bork nomination which he calls "a template for liberal attacks" which "we have seen ... on display this month in the White House/Reid/Pelosi attack on the opponents of Obamacare."

Ed Driscoll complains that "ABC ... attempts to spin Kennedy’s passing as an advertisement for socialized medicine," and then whines that they didn't give enough prominence to Chappaquiddick.

We crazy bloggers are allowed to be a gracious or ungracious as we want; that's the prerogative of having your own site. We should, however, expect a little more class from people who position themselves as serious pundits or who are office holding politicians. Of course, the right has reason to fear the effect Kennedy's death might have on the healthcare debate. Kennedy spent his entire public life pushing for national healthcare. The proper way to honor him is to pass a good bill. No amount of sentiment or refocusing of the debate is going to budge the Republicans. The real hope for Kennedy's legacy is that it will budge the right wing of the Democratic Party to act like Democrats. It's time to call, write, fax, or send smoke signals to every Democrat in Congress and tell them to stop compromising and do it for Ted.

Update: Kennedy's death brings out the conservatives who put the twit in Twitter.

Do it for Ted

The news is telling me Ted Kennedy just died. He spent his whole career trying to get some kind of universal health coverage enacted. The thing that kept him going for the last year was his wish to get it done before he died. He would have too, except that Baucus, Nelson, and the blue dogs thought it was necessary to go slow and appease Grassley and the medical/insurance industry. Maybe we can use Ted's death to shame them into acting like Democrats. I'm sure he would have approved.

Suspicious similarities

Joseph Farah, publisher of the ultra-right World Net Daily wrote an editorial last week about the amazing similarities between Hitler and Obama. As shocking and explosive as his revelations were, I think he missed some important parallels. Fortuanately, I'm here to fill the gap.

• Hitler was born in a different country (Austria) than the one he ruled (Germany. Obama was born in Hawaiokenyastan.
  
• Hitler had dark hair. Obama has dark hair.
  
• Hitler was a (National) socialist. Sothern Republicans think Obama is a socialist.
  
• Hitler had a dog. Obama has a dog.
  
• Hitler's followers wore brown shirts. Obama's friend, Al Gore, wore a brown suit.
  
• Hitler didn't smoke. Obama is tring to quit smoking.
  
• Hitler fought a two front war in Europe. Obama is fighting two wars in Asia.
  
• Hitler was a crazy rightwinger. Obama drives rightwingers crazy.
  
• Hitler's mother was a white woman. Obama's mother was a white woman.
  
• Hitler wrote a book. Obama wrote a book.
  
• Hitler had a beer hall putsch. Obama had a beer summit.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!11!

Breaking news: The ties between Hitler and Obama run deeper than we ever suspected.

Today is my birthday

How on earth did I get this old?

Mammoth in the news

Siberia isn't the only place where you can stumble over mammoth parts while minding you own business.

Patrick Walker, a groundskeeper at Morrison Lake Country Club, says he's glad he paid attention in high school science classes.

That's how he knew he was probably looking at the tooth of a 10,000-year-old mammoth while grooming the course last week.

"Mr. (Douglas) Schmuck always told us to keep your eyes open, you never know what you'll find," said Walker, a 2009 graduate of Lakewood High School. "He's into archaeology and taught us about that kind of good stuff."

[...]

[Scott Beld, a research assistant at the Ann Arbor museum] said the mammoth probably lived 10,000 to 12,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age. It was probably a young adult or a female -- about the size of a circus elephant -- and weighed more than 2,000 pounds.

Mr. Schmuck deserves a lot of credit for producing a student like this. And Walker is a pretty classy kid for giving Mr. Schmuck that credit. This is the kind of thing that can change a kid's life and send him off into a life of science and dirty fingernails.

I are smart

I know as much about science as Greg Laden and he's a real science guy.


How much do you know?

Why would you buy used uranium?

Wouldn't all of the superpowers be used up?

Why we love Barney Frank

Barney does a town hall:

You want me to answer the question? Yes. As you stand there with a picture of the President defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated. Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

More like this, please.