Not being a linguist, and not having a chimp in this fight, I'd guess that it is a matter of degree rather than a sharp difference in kind. Humans brains have evolved to develop the ability to speak to an extreme degree. Chimps, dogs, et al have a much much less evolved need for such abilities, though obviously they use some part of their brains to communicate non-verbally. It is just such a huge difference of degree that really Skinner and Chomsky are both winners. Yaaay!

The more interesting issue is the possibility that rights and personhood could also be a matter of degree. Why do we feel less empathy for a crab being boiled alive than we do a dog being beaten? I don't think chimps should have the right to vote, but to me there is no hard shining line between us - just a slippery slope that is fascinating to ponder as I take a bite of my cow sandwich.

#57: "The supreme court will never let this stand."

The current court - maybe.
A court with a McCain appointment or two - definitely.

I will vote for and support Obama despite this FISA vote. No candidate is ever perfect, and I will not be divorcing my wife for her few annoying flaws.

Life is full of compromises and gray areas.

-John

"Obama is a new kind of candidate"?

Well, he is black, which is the new, uh, black.

The book "1491" argues that many remote Amazon tribes are the remnants of previously civilized peoples who fled death, disease and learning Spanish during the Conquistador era. Their "prior contact" may have been 25 generations ago.

All of these policies have succeeded - insanely high oil prices are the goal. Why would the oilogarchs running the government want to reduce oil prices? That would be opposite, Jerry.

And Carter did implement some great alternative energy programs - my grandfather put solar panels on his roof with Gov't $$. Reagan gutted those programs in short order.

Scary as the carbon rise is, I have an issue with graphs where the scale doesn't start at zero. The current presentation exaggerates the rise:

|---------x
|------x
|----x
|--x
|x___________

If the ppmv scale began at zero it would look more like:

|--------------x
|-------x
|--x
|
|
|________________

/tufte

Rebuild New Orleans levees out of pure gold. Heck the whole city.

That's pretty fast lane. I prefer the slow lane bike bods:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ffiB_uoVx1E
-j

Looks like an old school Vespa horn:

http://www.scooterhelp.com/tips/parts/horns/gs.150.horn.small.jpg

The article has the gall to include the quote "We took pictures because we've never had anything like this," and not include said pictures?

Yup - http://www.fulltone.com/tte.asp

As these things get more and more automated, the value of a call becomes less and less. Now if one could automate a handwritten letter. But nice work in any case.
-j

Sounds like an "Oblique Strategies" reject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies

Now I wanna see Frank Black dancing to Tchaikovsky.

#53: Science teachers around the world seem to be doing just fine. It's the ones in the US (who evidently must have taught EVIDENCE) that are failing.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/21329204.html

-j

Nice. I see your cupcakes, nd raise you - - Gumdrops:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=reY8eimgCkg

Judging from the comments here and on Huffpost it seems that maybe this sort of thing is not really all that crazy and out of the mainstream. It seems the media is trying to make a monster out of her but they are also the ones trying to scare us into war, gated communities, duct tape purchases, etc. I doubt this parenting behavior is really all that unusual in the real world.

Or maybe BB and Huff readers are all self selected security progressives so the sample is skewed. What do I know, I'm not a parent.

#2: Damn right! I can't stand to see poorly regulated militias.

#11: "Ah, conservative logic. This is a very subtle version of "If we make it illegal, then people won't do it and it will never happen." You know, like with drugs."

Except it's the opposite for guns: You can't outlaw them because criminals will just ignore the law.

Just wear one of these and you should be well covered:

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/prod.aspx?p=thejennifers.248515897

-j

Isn't number 2 the "head shot" mortgage fraud charge that Lester Freamon had on Clay Davis on "The Wire", (had he been able to take the charges federal?)

#17: after five seasons of the Wire, I'm MORE inclined to believe this. Ain't no such thing as random violence - every crook has a motive, and this guy used his mad social worker skillz to suss his muggers motivations correctly.

First they came for some loser sick 14 year old's backup feeding tube, and I said nothing because I am not a loser 14 year old stupid enough to continue with my non-refundable travel plans despite having my backup tube contaminated.

Then...

#70 - Indeed. And if it is really about the homeless, then just drop them off at a shelter in Virginia with a fake ID card...

Cool. I look forward to the home-cooked DIY predator w/hellfire drone to take care of white collar crime. Take that hedge fund managers.

Or you could just sleep hanging upside down. That's why Batman doesn't have a sagging chin.

Because the word "monkey" is funnier than "chimp." See also-
Chicken: Hen
Robot: Automaton

Chicken robot monkey= funny
Hen automaton chimp = meh.

"Not if you buy your gas from Hess, or Sunoco,"

Good point. I try to steer toward the sweet Venezuelan crude of Citgo.

Yhis Snopes page gives a good overview:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/saudigas.asp

One more penny? Every time you gas up yer car, a bit of your money is going to these bastards.

Oy vey. Great song? The nun raping is about all it's got going for it. Really.

So what's the euphemism for a black Canadian?

#13: Wow, pretty amazing photoset there. All those books. Maybe that's where Google tosses them once they are digitized.

African or European paper airplane?

It ain't so much what you eat as what you drink. Kick sodas and you'll cut half the junk calories from your diet instantly. Then just eat what you want in the least processed form possible. Simple.

Gitmo sucks, but it is different only in degree, not in kind from the rest of the festering US prison system. Yes it violates the Geneva Conventions, the Constitution, and basic human rights, but so does a large part of our for-profit "corrections" industry. Throwing feces is not unique to Gitmo - happens all the time in your average penetentiary. We lock up a bigger percentage of our fellow citizens than most other countries. And there's little to no focus on rehabilitation, with a market-driven incentive to expand the population and keep people locked up as long as possible so they can enjoy long years of rape, disease, mental illness and gang violence.
Yaaay! Unicorn chaser please...

Looks like an AMC product - the final evolution of the Pacer.

And I bet it's full of eels. Eels on a motherf^ckin' hovercraft!

I love Byrne's journal, but it doesn't feel complete without a comments enabled. Its nice, but it's a monologue.

http://journal.davidbyrne.com/
-j

So what should one do with old half empty paint cans? I plan to clean up the basement one of these days.
-J

The cc mashups of the Beatles with just about everything are my faves of the genre: Revolved and Cracked Pepper are tops: http://www.myspace.com/cccmashups

And this is my bands take of Stereolab meets the Byrds meets Hair:

http://www.thejennifers.com/The_Jennifers_-_Starshine.mp3

Not really a mashup because we recorded everything anew. It's amazing how many songs use the same structure, chords, tricks...

Does this blog post mean that Storm will now take on Boing Boing? And does this comment make me a target? And you people reading this comment better watch out - Storm Knows!

The 50 cent traps are great for mice. We found out the hard way that they only stun Baltimore rats. We heard a "snap, THUMP" at one in the morning. We ran to the kitchen to see a giant rat slowly coming to on the kitchen floor. We quickly threw a trash can over it, and drove it a mile or so away. It was rather angry at that point, but ran off into the night. We now await the big payback.

Here's my similarly simple diet:
Always drink water - no sodas.
Always take the stairs - elevators only for more than five flights.
Never feel like you need to finish what's on your plate.