- Missouri reintroduces endangered Burying Beetle, the most metal insect of all – "…once you learn a little about the Burying Beetle's life cycle, you'll realize these little devils are as metal as Tony Iommi knife-fighting Lemmy on the precipice of an active volcano."
- Atheist misogyny – Could also be titled, "Misogyny writes terrrrrible jokes". From Robert.
- Free issue of Focus on Alternative and Complimentary Therapies available – Check out an actual CAM journal. Via Consumer Health Digest.
- The Oatmeal on atheism – I really want one of those pi helmets.
- Cute Animal Friday! Everyone is really excited about baby eagle cam and the new baby pygmy hippo, so thanks for those submissions. And in celebration of spring, dancing cows.
Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies's editor in chief is Edzard Ernst. I thought that he was a CAM practitioner turned skeptic. Hasn't he mostly been devoted to exposing methodological flaws in CAM research?
Amanda,
That thing about the insects in Missouri is kind of interesting. Insects are some of the most fascinating creatures on Earth.
The baby pygmy hippo is so absolutely adorable! Mostly, though, it just makes me think that this childhood dream could possibly be true someday. My grandkids will have house hippos!
"Fascinating but a little disgusting," as my 7-y-o niece said while observing a carrion beetle at work on a dead frog. (We didn't know what kind of beetle it was, black with 2 yellow spots on its back, about 1 to 1.5 cm long. She looked it up in a nature book and declared it to be a carrion beetle.)
Cute animal(s) in zoo: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2012/03/new_pictures_of_ranua_polar_bear_cub_3321549.html
The Oatmeal forgot a detail — Stalin originally studied to become a priest. I would argue that Stalin used his knowledge to make the State Religion of the USSR the State itself.