Herold, a widow whose daughter was killed in a car accident several years ago, told the Today Show that the incident was “a freak thing.”
She said Travis “couldn’t have been more my son than if I gave birth to him,” and rejected criticism that chimpanzees are inappropriate pets.
“It’s a horrible thing, but I’m not a horrible person and he’s not a horrible chimp.” she said.
The unexplained attack was uncharacteristic of Travis, a veteran of TV commercials who could eat at the table, drink wine from a stemmed glass, use the toilet, and dress and bathe himself.
Don Mecca, a family friend from Colchester, N.Y., said Herold fed the chimp steak, lobster, ice cream and Italian food.

The Associated Press: Chimp owner begs police in 911 call to stop attack

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“It’s like a little yappy dog?” Obama asked Walters, foolishly ignoring his wife’s advice not to criticize.

“It, like, sits in your lap and things?” queried the skeptical president-elect.

Michelle, still trying to save her husband from himself, pronounced the dog “cute.”

Barack wasn’t buying it. “It sounds kind of like a…a girly dog,” he said, at which point his wife pointed out, “We’re girls. We have a house full of girls.”

Except for the, well, Top Dog, who forthwith issued an executive order. “We’re gonna have a big, rambunctious dog.”

What’s Wrong With Girly Dogs? – PostPartisan – Quick takes from The Post’s opinion writers

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YouTube – Go Shorty

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just fantastic:

Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don’t pose a threat, under regulations the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Obama can reverse them.

The rules must be published Friday to take effect before Obama is sworn in Jan. 20. Otherwise, he can undo them with the stroke of a pen.

The Interior Department rushed to complete the rules in three months over the objections of lawmakers and environmentalists who argued that they would weaken how a landmark conservation law is applied.

Bush To Relax Endangered Species Regulations Before Obama Can Reverse Them

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First of all this suggests that Humans were the expected outcome of God’s creation and while it is easy to understand this flawed logic, after all, we are the outcome of God’s creation, this should not be confused with a forward looking goal. In fact, it is easy to argue that God’s Creation was set in motion to eventually result in a form of life which could gain spirituality and a soul and thus become aware of His existence. Furthermore, even if God had set in motion a Darwinian process, He could still have intervened, as I have explained above, without violating natural law. In other words, the process would still appear purely Darwinian and at the same time would be guided.

So contrary to the fallacious claims that ‘true Darwinists’ cannot be ‘true Christians’, it is self evident that such a position is not logically tenable.

What I find puzzling is why people are intent on rejecting the good science of Darwinism and evolutionary theory as somehow being incompatible with their faith. That shows both a disregard for science, which is a typical ID Creationist affliction, as well as a significant lack in faith.

Being a Theistic Evolutionist without contradiction

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February 7, 2008—To call attention to Japanese whaling practices, the Australian government released video captured on the ocean near Antarctica. Warning: graphic imagery.

Video: Grisly Whaling Video Released

the video linked to above is simply disgusting.

it’s hard enough to think about killing animals, even for food, but to think about how these very intelligent animals who are self-aware struggle to get away after being caught…

it’s sad and gross.

Technorati Tags: gross, japan, killing, killthewhales, whailing, whales

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Authorities in India’s remote northeast will deploy a hundred armed guards to a protected game reserve after poachers killed a rare one-horned rhinoceros—the fourth this year—at the park, a senior official said Wednesday.

“We are alarmed at the seemingly organized poaching by gangs at the Kaziranga National Park,” Assam state Forest and Environment Minister Rockybul Hussain said.

Rhino Poaching Rise Spurs India to Deploy Armed Guards

Technorati Tags: environment, extinct, extinction, india, rhino

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Consider one more experimental example to prove the point: the ultimatum game. You are given $100 to split between yourself and your game partner. Whatever division of the money you propose, if your partner accepts it, you each get to keep your share. If, however, your partner rejects it, neither of you gets any money.

How much should you offer? Why not suggest a $90-$10 split? If your game partner is a rational, self-interested money-maximizer — the very embodiment of Homo economicus — he isn’t going to turn down a free 10 bucks, is he? He is. Research shows that proposals that offer much less than a $70-$30 split are usually rejected.

Why? Because they aren’t fair. Says who? Says the moral emotion of “reciprocal altruism,” which evolved over the Paleolithic eons to demand fairness on the part of our potential exchange partners. “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine” only works if I know you will respond with something approaching parity. The moral sense of fairness is hard-wired into our brains and is an emotion shared by most people and primates tested for it, including people from non-Western cultures and those living close to how our Paleolithic ancestors lived.

the idea that most people react this way is something in our selves so deep that it is something we share with other primates.

when we share so much DNA with monkeys, apes, and lemurs, and yet so many people deny that we come from common ancestors, it just seems dishonest to me.

intellectually at best, and plain-old lyin’ at worst.

as i get further and further away, as the months tick by, from my old christian self, i have trouble even remembering how it is i ignored so much evidence for evolution and spent so much time researching “science” that “disproved” it.

how was i able to accept as fact then what is so clearly horse-pooey?

this article explains it, in some small sense.

Why people believe weird things about money – Los Angeles Times:

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We began discussing human cloning, and someone mentioned a noted bioethicist who believed that the parents of a deceased child should be allowed to create a clone of that child. My friends were curious: “Would the clone begin life at the age its original version died?” “How would you tell the clone about its origin?” Nobody appeared discomfited by or even aware of the words that seemed to come so naturally: The Clone. It. Version.

The American Interest: Policy. Politics. Culture. Digital.

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“Somebody created a situation that really agitated her and gave her some sort of a method to break out,” Mollinedo said. “There is no possible way the cat could have made it out of there in a single leap. I would surmise that there was help.
”A couple of feet dangling over the edge could possibly have done it.“

note to self: don’t try to set caged tigers free — they don’t appreciate favours

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one of my coolest christmas gifts is the avenging narwhal
from the back of the box:

For centuries, the Narwhal was the great mystery of the sea. With the body of a whale and the horn of a Unicorn, many people believed that these fascinating creatures were harmless inhabitants of the icy waters of the Artic Ocean. Recent studies, however, have exposed the secret agenda of these mysterious mammals and the true purpose of their extraordinarily long pointy tusks.

The studies revealed that millions of years ago, penguins, snow seals and koalas ruled the earth. For sustenance, they feasted upon whales, dolphins and other sea mammals to the point of near extinction. But the Narwhal went into hiding beneath the ice of the North Pole, biding their time, planning their revenge and sharpening their tusks. Finally, they reemerged, tusks gleaming with newfound magical power, and fought back against the adorable creatures that threatened their existence. The battle was long, and many Narwhal were lost, but their strong will and sharp tusks were enough to stave off the cute ones temporarily.

Now, once a year, in a continuous effort to keep their enemies at bay, the Narwhal leave their homes to embark on a treacherous migration to Antarctica in the hunt for baby penguins and seal pups. Many will not return….Along their journey, they will spend time in Australia, swimming upstream to the inland habitat of the koalas, where they will actually leap out of the water to spear the deadly koalas from their perches high in the Eucalyptus trees.

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Here’s how to understand the Creation Museum:

Imagine, if you will, a load of horseshit. And we’re not talking just your average load of horseshit; no, we’re talking colossal load of horsehit. An epic load of horseshit. The kind of load of horseshit that has accreted over decades and has developed its own sort of ecosystem, from the flyblown chunks at the perimeter, down into the heated and decomposing center, generating explosive levels of methane as bacteria feast merrily on vintage, liquified crap. This is a Herculean load of horseshit, friends, the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Augeas.

And you look at it and you say, “Wow, what a load of horseshit.”

Your Creation Museum Report

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A female chimpanzee believed to be the first nonhuman to acquire human language has died of natural causes at the Washington State research institute where she was kept.

Washoe, who first learned a bit of American Sign Language during a research project in Nevada, had been living on Central Washington University’s Ellensburg campus since 1980. She had a vocabulary of about 250 words.

First Chimp to Sign Dies

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