You’ve heard the phrase “the crotch of a tree.” Some people want to cover it up.

This post on Quiddity provides a couple of links to other sites about clothing for trees, including the Knit-Knot Tree project to create knitted items for trees, to cover them up completely.

I once had a desire to create cloth birds to hang in trees, just to see if anyone would notice. I think the desire passed, but it could come back. I still like the idea of fake birds in trees.

That’s the description of people living in this area, according to WhosYourCity.com. The large band of extroverts skirts over this region.

A Mother’s Day special from Opus.

Eighty percent of Australians live within 80 miles of the sea; 50 percent of the country’s houses sit less than 8 miles from a beach.

That quote is from Architectural Record magazine and leads into a story about house design. So if it’s the beach that you must have, move down under.

No, it’s more than just a good photo. This is spectacular. It shows the ash plume of Chaitén volcano along with an electrical storm.

There are plenty of Ron Paul fans out there and they aren’t giving up. He’s still pulling in the votes at primary elections. Here’s the latest news from his fans:

At last, some cheering news for downhearted fans of Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican now certain to fail, by some distance, to secure his party’s presidential nomination. This month has seen the first meeting of the shareholders in a fledgling community development planned in rural Texas, to be comprised exclusively of Paul’s supporters. It is to be called Paulville.

The gated settlement will house freedom-loving folk, living unbound by the shackles of planning regulations. Its founders hope that when complete, it will inspire further Paulvilles around America and, in their own words, “literally change the world, one community at a time”.

Here’s a collection of excellent photos from National Geographic.

This belongs in the wish-I’d-thought-of-that department. Ralphie Boy comes up with odd stuff and this is a good one. People with Photoshop skills and too much time on their hands. I’ve spent a lot of time doing this very thing. You should see Keith and Lorene Whitehouse’s annual Christmas card in the proofing stage. Many a year the two have switched heads.

There are many more ManBabies to be viewed at, where else but ManBabies.com.

…visit this unique bakery. Here’s the tale of its evolution and here’s a taste of how it’s run:

When Bergen and his partners first started discussing the concept of the City Café Bakery, Bergen was more interested in how things would be done at the business, as opposed to exactly what would be made. For that reason, things are run a little differently at the bakery. Case in point: City Café doesn’t have Interac or accept credit cards. Neither will you see a cash register in the bakery. Instead, customers add up how much they owe themselves and drop their money into a fare box from an old bus.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Huckabee grabbed 12% of the GOP votes in North Carolina yesterday. Impressive for a non-candidate. Ron Paul finished with 7% and no preference took an impressive 4%.

A decorated vet caught by Indiana’s voter ID law:

Russell Baughman, 61, has fought in three conflicts as a part of the United States Army…

His military discharge papers feature a paragraph’s worth of honors and awards…

So when Baughman arrived at his polling place at precinct 52 in Lawrence March 11 for the special election, he wasn’t expecting to have a problem voting in the country he had defended.

But since Indiana passed its new Voter ID law, which requires every voter to have a valid, government-issued photo ID, Baughman’s identification was no longer good enough.

He had with him his expired driver’s license (he rides a bicycle), his Department of Veterans Affairs card (featuring his purple heart endorsement) and, of all things, his voter’s registration card.

But Baughman was told that neither of his photo IDs were valid. His driver’s license didn’t count because it was expired and his Veterans Affairs card didn’t count because it didn’t feature any expiration date at all.

I know, I know, he should have known better.

As the husband of a former La Leche League leader, this is interesting news:

The U.S. breast-feeding rate has hit it’s highest mark in at least 20 years with more than three-quarters of new moms nursing their infants, according to a government report released Wednesday.

About 77 percent of new mothers breast-feed, at least briefly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Experts attributed the rise to education campaigns that emphasize that breast milk is better than formula at protecting babies against disease and childhood obesity. A changing culture that accommodates nursing mothers may also be a factor.

As we used to say, there’s a sucker born every minute.

Barbara and Harry send a link for your amusement. Don’t get too animated over it, but it’s excellent work.

The U.S. Census reports that Latinos still make up the fastest growing segment of the country’s population. From the Los Angeles Times:

The United States grew steadily more diverse last year, with Latinos holding on to their rank as the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority group, a trend with far-reaching implications for American politics and immigration policies.

Newly released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the nation’s Latino population grew by 1.4 million in 2007 to reach 45.5 million people, or 15.1% of the total U.S. population of 301.6 million. Blacks ranked as the second-largest minority group, at 40.7 million.

Minorities now make up a third of our population. That’s a tough concept for some to accept, but don’t forget the U.S. as melting pot. Maybe soup pot is more accurate, and this post will definitely be filed in the Soup category.

From Mind Hacks:

Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel has been investigating whether ethics professors are more moral than other people, and it turns out, they’re possibly less. He’s now turned his attention to economics and wonders whether too much exposure to ‘rational choice theory’ - that says it’s always rational to maximise profit - makes people more selfish.

Surprisingly, there have been several studies on exactly this topic, several which seem to suggest that economics students are more selfish than other students, but these all seem to be flawed in quite important ways.

Do you keep going with this thing? Are police law-breakers? Are pastors more unholy? Do plumbers have more dripping faucets?