From CNN: “Beheaded Vikings found at Olympic site”

“To find out that the young men executed were Vikings is a thrilling development…”

It occurs to me, despite the likelihood that the young men were criminal invaders, they were still human beings….

From XKCD.com
HT: Bill Goodwin

I love pomegranates. They are wonderful. Maybe even my favorite fruit. I just wish that they were easier to eat.

Well, my colleague Peshwaz Faizulla (from Iraqi Kurdistan) and my colleague Austin Petersen (from Missouri) made a nice video showing how to do it. I bought some pomegranates on the road from Jalalabad to Kabul yesterday and today used my wicked sharp Gerber/Applegate pocket knife to do as Peshwaz had instructed. It was great!

How can they make something so, um, unappetizing look so beautiful? “Timelapse of swarming monster worms and sea stars”
HT: MarginalRevolution.com

Hat tip: Jude

I have experienced it myself….. (Wolly used to be a fierce hunter, who would track down and kill — much to my relief — mosquitos, which she especially hated. Tiggy is more mouse-oriented.)

Hat Tip: Mike

Russia’s new code-breaking game

Not as physically challenging as Parkour, mind you, but mentally challenging in interesting ways:

BBC: “Denmark pulls ‘promiscuous’ video”

Critics says the video implied that along with traditional tourism, Denmark was a place to go to have unprotected sex with strangers, with one Danish newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, labelling it “grotesque” and a “waste of tax payers money”.

Um, right.

CNN: “Johns Hopkins student kills apparent burglar with sword”

Authorities are determining whether the student will face criminal charges, Guglielmi said.

Naturally, there should be some investigation of the nature of the incident, but if someone breaks into your home and you confront him with a sword and he attacks you….just what should he expect? (And yes, it’s logically possible that the college students kidnapped a burglar who was recently released from prison, trapped him in the garage, and then attacked him for fun. But not likely. So ask questions and determine what happened, but if the student was defending himself, he’s not the one who’s legally or morally responsible for the death of the intruder.)

BBC: “Cats ‘exploit’ humans by purring“

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks!

Hat Tip: Pedro Sette Camara

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has nnounced “Human Achievement Hour” to coincide with “Earth Hour”

Seaborne&Roach Ep5: Taxes and Chicken

BBC: “Dance duet helps male birds mate: video”

Dance duet helps male birds mate: text

Blow-up doll sex suspect arrested in Australia

Police have charged the unidentified man, believed to be from the city’s Manunda suburb, with four counts of breaking and entering. They told the paper that DNA samples had been recovered from one of the dolls.

Czech artist David Cerny strikes: “Czech EU art stokes controversy”

Here’s the official account.

*Jaroslav Hašek

Hat Tip to Diogo Costa

Advice for Straight Guys: Beware of the DogHouse

CNN: “A judge sentences some teen noise offenders to listen to Barry Manilow. KUSA’s Chris Vanderveen reports“