- Scientology on trial in France – “The case centres on a complaint by a woman who says she was pressured into paying large sums of money after being offered a free personality test.” From Dave.
- New physiological correlations to depression found – From Rav Winston.
- When atheists have precocious kids – A clip from the British show Outnumbered. From JJ.
- The birds, the birds! – Mockingbirds can recognize people and will only attack those who have approached their nest before.Â
Thrashers do it to. I had one that dive bombed me all of the time. I called to have it removed. I was told it was “protected” . That I couldn’t kill it or have it removed or remove her nest.
I had to wait it out. When she finally left I cut down the bush. I must confess that she looked a little pitiful when she returned the next season only to find her home destroyed. I wonder if birds have souls…(*smile*)
that’s “too” …my typing needs help.
A friend of mine claims that geese make different sounds for “dog we know” and “dog we don’t know”.
re: The Birds
…and red-shouldered blackbirds…and rock doves…and canada geese…and ducks…and swans…
I’m not trying to be snarky. I am glad that someone is actually proving my anecdotal experience.
The birds. They hate me.
@durnett: I’m pretty sure they also have a signal for, “There’s that lady that likes to sleep in, let’s go perch right outside her window and scream our heads off.” Little bastards.
Per the mockingbirds:
Well, hell, I could have told them that.
Some kids in the neighborhood found a baby mockingbird nowhere near a nest. So, the entire neighborhood knowing my mother is the second coming of St. Francis, the kids brought it to her.
After confirming for herself that there was indeed no nest in the area, she named him Larry and she and I raised him over the next several weeks.
Until Larry was big enough, he lived in the large screened-in area under the deck. We fed him tons of meal worms, had him perch on our finger and had him practice flapping its wings, and when he was old enough, Larry stayed in our yard for a while and then moved down the street when he found a mate.
Until the day he died, if Larry was in our yard and my Mom or I were sitting down, he would swoop down and land on us for a bit. Never anyone else, just the two people who helped raise him.
So can I have the grant money now? I knew this a decade ago.
Loved the Outnumbered clip. “What, even idiots?” Classic! That little girl is my hero.
@Amanda: Hear, hear! Had a whole tree of those annoying chirpy creeps back in college. Whole house wanted to murder them, and the dogs they were in cahoots with.
@Amanda:
We’ve got a bird’s nest right out our front door and they drive me insane. They also drive our cat insane….so close, yet so far away.
love that little girl in the clip, so funny
Welp. California is still anti-gay.
@marilove: I used to think Cali was so cool. I still want to move there once real estate comes down to acceptable levels.
But, in the mean time, BOO on CA!
@Outsider: i suspect a mass exodus of gays if they don’t get their act together, which means you don’t want to live there! hah! but how sad, you know? i was watching The Times of Harvey Milk this weekend (AWESOME docu) and siiiiigh.
@marilove:
I agree….it sucks and I am ashamed of my home state. I don’t think this will last very long, though. There are 18,000 or so gay people who were previously married and they are still legal and valid. This split can’t be, where some gays were/are allowed to be married and others can’t. There will be another thing to vote on in 2010 to allow this. It’s only a matter of time. Hell, if Iowa can do it, Cali can. The anti-gay assholes are eventually going to lose.
@tiger kitty: That’s what I was thinking–those legally married 18,000 people are actually good thing. Now there is a big argument for equality.
@marilove:
agreed. I am hearing a lot of stuff that this decision actually scared some groups because of the ease with which the state constitution was amended by the “will of the people”. And who’s to say the whim, er, will of the people won’t take rights away from other groups? It’s a mess.
@Outsider: Never gonna happen. Woody Guthrie used to sing a song about how expensive it was to live in California. And it hasn’t gotten any cheaper. My grandma bought her house in Pleasant Hill in 1947 for $8000 and sold in in 2008 for $450,000. It was barely larger than an efficiency apartment. I think it was like 1050 square feet.