Apparently, it IS natural, Mr. Santorum: Over 1,500 Animal Species Practice Homosexuality

February 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Rick Santorum has been widely quoted as saying that homosexuality is “against nature”. In fact, he has said that any sex act that doesn’t involve procreation is against nature. Once again, science begs to differ:

Homosexuality is quite common in the animal kingdom, especially among herding animals. Many animals solve conflicts by practicing same gender sex.

The Norwegian Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo is hosting the first exhibition that focuses on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.

“One fundamental premise in social debates has been that homosexuality is unnatural. This premise is wrong. Homosexuality is both common and highly essential in the lives of a number of species,” explains Petter Boeckman, who is the academic advisor for the “Against Nature‘s Order?” exhibition.

The most well-known homosexual animal is the dwarf chimpanzee, one of humanity’s closes relatives. The entire species is bisexual. Sex plays an conspicuous role in all their activities and takes the focus away from violence, which is the most typical method of solving conflicts among primates and many other animals.

“Sex among dwarf chimpanzees is in fact the business of the whole family, and the cute little ones often lend a helping hand when they engage in oral sex with each other.”

Lions are also homosexual. Male lions often band together with their brothers to lead the pride. To ensure loyalty, they strengthen the bonds by often having sex with each other.

Homosexuality is also quite common among dolphins and killer whales. The pairing of males and females is fleeting, while between males, a pair can stay together for years. Homosexual sex between different species is not unusual either. Meetings between different dolphin species can be quite violent, but the tension is often broken by a “sex orgy”.

Homosexuality is a social phenomenon and is most widespread among animals with a complex herd life.

Among the apes it is the females that create the continuity within the group. The social network is maintained not only by sharing food and the child rearing, but also by having sex. Among many of the female apes the sex organs swell up. So they rub their abdomens against each other,” explains Petter Bockman and points out that animals have sex because they have the desire to, just like we humans.

Homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 animal species.

“We’re talking about everything from mammals to crabs and worms. The actual number is of course much higher. Among some animals homosexual behaviour is rare, some having sex with the same gender only a part of their life, while other animals, such as the dwarf chimpanzee, homosexuality is practiced throughout their lives.”

Animals that live a completely homosexual life can also be found. This occurs especially among birds that will pair with one partner for life, which is the case with geese and ducks. Four to five percent of the couples are homosexual. Single females will lay eggs in a homosexual pair’s nest. It has been observced that the homosexual couple are often better at raising the young than heterosexual couples.

When you see a colony of black-headed gulls, you can be sure that almost every tenth pair is lesbian. The females have no problems with being impregnated, although, according to Petter Boeckman they cannot be defined as bisexual.

“If a female has sex with a male one time, but thousands of times with another female, is she bisexual or homosexual? This is the same way to have children is not unknown among homosexual people.”

via 1,500 animal species practice homosexuality.

Filed under politics, GLBT, science, religion, opinion Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

5-Star Reviews? Don’t Be so Sure (NYTimes)

January 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

For " a Star, a Retailer Gets 5-Star Reviews - NYTimes.com

If you pay attention to online reviews like I do before I buy something, you need to read this article from the New York Times explaining how the system is gamed. (And also, use your instincts: if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.)

For $2 a Star, a Retailer Gets 5-Star Reviews – NYTimes.com.

Filed under business as unusual, News, science Tagged with , , , ,

Ha Ha . . . Uh-Oh

December 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Going For a Walk in the 21st Century

First, I read this article from The Onion that says Global Warming May Be Irreversible By 2006. Among the most humorous parts:

The report also outlines a set of year-by-year goals aimed at curbing emissions prior to 2006, such as weatherizing all homes by 1979, replacing household light bulbs with compact fluorescent models by 1985, phasing out fossil fuels by 1992, and taking steps to ensure the world population never reaches the “exceedingly dangerous” 7 billion mark.

Biting satire, to be sure, and a well-aimed poke at the intransigence of our government when it comes to acknowledging reality.

Then I read this article in The Independent, which states that the retreat of Arctic ice has coincided with an increased release of methane – a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than CO2.

“Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of metres in diameter. This is the first time that we’ve found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 metres in diameter. It’s amazing,” Dr Semiletov said. “I was most impressed by the sheer scale and high density of the plumes. Over a relatively small area we found more than 100, but over a wider area there should be thousands of them.”

The researcher said,

“We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale – I think on a scale not seen before. Some plumes were a kilometre or more wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere – the concentration was a hundred times higher than normal.”

Bad Day at Pompeii


My concern is this: will we be so thoroughly and instantaneously gassed, like those buried at Pompeii, that we won’t have time to say to climate change deniers that we told them so? I’m beginning to think those Mayans were on to something. 2012, huh?

If you were going to take tango lessons, you should start now. If you are going to hit on that cutie you’ve been too scared to even speak to, you might want to do it now.

Filed under environment, News, politics, science Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

A River Runs Out

November 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In this excellent short (12 minute) film about the Colorado River, filmmaker Peter McBride wants to know how long it takes for the irrigation water from his farm in Colorado to reach the Sea of Cortez at the end of the Colorado’s reach. Answer: the Sea of Cortez has been beyond the reach of the Colorado since 1998. The picture, at about the 10 minute mark, of the sludge that passes for the river is disgusting. The statistic that the West is in the 20th year of a drought is accompanied by a picture of “bathtub rings” 100 feet high that mark how low Lake Powell has dropped since the drought began.

Bathtub Rings

Filed under environment, miscellaneous, News, science Tagged with , , , , ,

Climate Scientists: Please, Occupy the Climate Talks

November 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Occupy Climate Talks. But, in this case, they need to be occupied, not just by the people who are already feeling the effects most acutely, but by the scientific community. At the end of every paltry governmental proposal, scientists need to do a mic check and tell those present exactly what the implications of their inadequacies are.

I have begun to greet news of climate summits with something like a yawn, but with more angst. I think the first shock was the Earth Summit in Rio, when President Bush, Sr. would not sign the biodiversity treaty and the Pope would not permit any discussion of population control. Having been raised both American and Catholic, I was aghast that my representatives represented the diametric opposite of my views. At every summit since then, after major scientific studies always revised their predictions to be increasingly dire in the face of human intransigence, those whom we persist in calling our leaders have habitually failed to take significant, much less adequate, action.

After all, Severin Suzuki gave the most articulate speech about the subject 19 years ago. 40 years ago high school students like m were being told of the dangers of a human population explosion (our population has increased 75% since then). We have been warned. No one can say we didn’t see this coming.

It feels like living for years with a fatal diagnosis, and getting bored with the visits of impotent or incompetent doctors and the hand-wringing of well-meaning friends bringing crystals and herbal remedies. I would feel completely giddy if, for a change, someone knowledgeable and competent, who knew what it would take to beat the diagnosis, would come visit and tell me the truth, whether it was what I wanted to hear or not. And if I could watch them berate and verbally abuse the doctors who had been charged with healing, but instead allowed my condition to deteriorate in the years since my diagnosis, I would be ecstatic.

Or would I? Because what strikes me is that the human response to climate change is so similar to a person’s response to being told that their cigarettes will, indeed, kill them. The addict’s response is almost always, “Well, yes, but I’m not dead yet, am I?” It is not information we lack. It is, perhaps, not even the will. There are lots of smokers who would like to quit, and have tried to quit. It’s the combination of knowing the steps needed to break the habit and addiction, the support to reinforce new behaviors, and the courage and community needed to actually go through that process.

We need an intervention.

Filed under business as unusual, human rights, miscellaneous, News, opinion, politics, science Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Scientist Convicted of Love for His Mother

November 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A scientist has been sentenced in New Zealand for helping his mother to end her pain-filled life with morphine.

This is criminal.

Doesn’t he understand that the purpose of our lives is to assist health care providers in making profits, and that by helping his mother to end her suffering early, he deprived various hospitals, pharmaceutical and insurance companies from improving their bottom lines? How selfish. Now the money they didn’t spend will go god knows where. These companies depend on the medical expenses of our last year or so of life to pay for their CEOs’ salaries, bonuses and stock options, not to mention defraying the extraordinary cost of lobbyists. Unconscionable! Oh, for the days when the social contract meant something and life had value (in the range of tens of thousands of dollars, at last count). It’s a good thing we have laws to protect our most sacred values.

A toast to Sean Davison. Your mother would be proud of you, and grateful for a son with the courage of his convictions. She taught you well, sir.

Filed under business as unusual, culture, human rights, News, opinion, politics, religion, science Tagged with , , , , , ,

The Fire This Time

November 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

If Only They Had Prayed Harder . . .

Governor Perry, you may want to re-think slashing the funding of your volunteer firefighters and Forest Service in Texas. Perry cut funding support for volunteer firefighters by 74%, and the Texas Forest Service budget by 34% this year, before requesting federal help with the worst fire season in Texas history. These firefighters are not getting paid in the first place – and he wants them to provide their own equipment, maintenance, and supplies?

As if the 2011 fire season – with over 21,000 fires in Texas alone – was not enough…

Is it warm in here, or is Texas burning again?

If this prediction of soil moisture “anomalies” is right, Texas – and most of the American Southwest, and all of Mexico – will be either a desert or engulfed in flames by the end of this century. (If the chart is wrong, it will probably be because it happens earlier.) You can find the entire IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Report here. But, as Joe Romm says on ThinkProgress.org, its main failing is that it inserts uncertainty where there is none. And as Bill DeBuys, author of A Great Aridness, said recently in Albuquerque, what the Southwest and Mexico are about to endure is not a drought.

Because you don’t say the Mojave is experiencing a prolonged drought. You say that the Mojave is a desert.

And where will 100 million Mexican refugees go?

Filed under irreligion, miscellaneous, opinion, politics, religion, Santa Fe local, science Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bring Back Tarring and Feathering

November 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A Look Fit for an Oil Company CEO


AGAIN? Another oil spill? This one’s in Brazil. And Obama is giving away leases to drill in the Gulf AND in Alaska?

Carlos Minc, the Rio de Janeiro state environment minister, said that Chevron, which is a partner with Petrobras on the well, likely faces fines of at least $5.5 million. [Can we replace that M with a B, please?]

‘We’re going to show this gang that they can’t come here and create whatever environmental mess they want,” Minc was quoted by the O Globo newspaper as saying in its Sunday edition. “I want to see the CEO of Chevron swim in that oil.”

And I want to sell advertising rights to a video of that swim on the Nature Channel.

On the other hand, wouldn’t this be the right time to bring back tarring and feathering? For humans, I mean. Not pelicans.

Filed under opinion, science Tagged with , , , , , ,

What If We Were Good For the Earth?

November 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Here is a brief, 10 minute, video of Michael Pollan discussing Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farms, complete with stats on the farm’s annual yield, and a dream at the end:

Is it possible that 7 billion humans, if we tried, could be GOOD for the planet? Not if we’re consumers, but if we are stewards, perhaps. Hard to know what the planet’s carrying capacity for human stewards would be. We know it can’t accommodate 7 billion consumers. Maybe we can change our relationship with the planet, and heal the damage we and our pdecessors have caused …

Filed under inspiration, local, opinion, politics, science Tagged with , , , , ,

A Giant New Plutonium Complex (In My Backyard) at Los Alamos

November 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Despite President Obama’s campaign rhetoric of a world without nuclear weapons, despite the recent catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima complex, and despite the new START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia last February, it seems the desire among our leaders for nuclear power and nuclear weaponry remains as strong today as it was at the height of the Cold War. What’s just as disturbing, though, is the disregard our government shows for any input from its citizenry — pro or con.

In a recent Santa Fe Radio Café interview with Greg Mello, co-founder of the Los Alamos Study Group, an Albuquerque-based watchdog organization that monitors the goings-on at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Labs, this sober, fact-loving, almost phlegmatic “Joe Friday” of an activist outlined very clearly both the potential gains and losses (and for whom) of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plans for a new Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) facility at LANL, before going completely off character to point out the utter neglect that the Department of Energy (among many other government agencies) has for any due process.

Mello said that the main purpose of this $4-12 billion plutonium lab, which the NNSA claims “would provide vitally essential technical support capabilities to NNSA’s national security mission,” is basically “making weapons of mass destruction.” Craftily-languaged in the NNSA proposal as “plutonium pits,” Mello says that the CMRR building’s main purpose is “to increase the nuclear capacity of LANL as a whole and to manufacture plutonium plants.” The warhead cores of these “plants,” says Mello, would be “the successors to the bombs used on Nagasaki. They’d each have a yield that’s 50 times greater than the bomb used there in World War II.”

Contrary, then, to the popular perception of Obama as anti-nuclear proliferation, his endorsement of this CMRR facility — and the facility’s true purpose — puts him entirely in line with that of his predecessor, George W., who originally championed this project. It’s part of a deal, said Mello, between Obama and the Republicans: you can have your nuclear-arms treaty and our 67 votes for it, but only if you follow through on a nuclear arms buildup. “We just signed a nuclear weapons treaty,” said Mello, “but we’re spending billions of dollars to make new ones. It doesn’t improve the credibility of our nonproliferation diplomacy.” Indeed.

via Mary-Charlotte Domandi: A Giant New Plutonium Complex at Los Alamos.

Filed under News, opinion, politics, Santa Fe local, science Tagged with , , , , , ,

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