Friday Ephemera

Nixon shares his knowledge of panda sex, 1972. // Opal of note. // YolkPig is for separating egg yolks. // A plan to nuke the Moon. // Six-year-old limbo skater. // Supermarket excursions of yore. (h/t, Ace) // An archive of field recordings, from a dawn chorus in London to grasshoppers in Moscow. // Why dogs sniff each other’s rears. // A sudden interest in the toilet. // Tasty cheeseburger meets hydrochloric acid. // Thirsty bird would like some of your water. // Taiwanese scooter traffic during rush hour. // 12 hours of hair dryer noise. // Oversized Spirograph. // The babes of chess. // Teamwork. // Insect jewellers. (h/t, Julia) // Communist ingenuity. // And because you demanded it, some goldfish bubble wrap. 

Comments

[R. Sherman]

When a dog smells another dog’s butt, it’s actually collecting a bunch of information about the other dog: its diet, its gender, its emotional state and and so on. Think of it kind of as speaking with chemicals.

Canine speed dating?

[WTP]

"Yolk Pig is not a hat for your Obama action figure"

It's scary how much the internet knows about me.

[Connor]

How to sell peaches in China.

[Anna]

The opal is beautiful. Can I have it?

[Mike]

12 hours of hair dryer noise.

*Clears space in diary*

[David]

*Clears space in diary*

That’s what I like to see. Commitment.

[David]

In other news:

A flight to Edinburgh was diverted to London after a drunk passenger attacked cabin crew with her prosthetic leg. The woman, 48, demanded “cigarettes and a parachute.”

Via Mr Eugenides.

[Patrick Chester]

Sounds like she was hopping mad...

*dives for cover*
"I REGRET NOTHING!!"

[Jim Whyte]

On the habits of dogs meeting, my father would recite a variant of this:

http://monologues.co.uk/Anonymous/Doggies_Meeting.htm

[Jacob]

And because you demanded it, some goldfish bubble wrap.

For a second there I did wonder if they were going to be real goldfish.

[ac1]

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/08/01/Swedes-to-remove-the-concept-of-race-from-all-legislation

This could be amusing.

[David]

This could be amusing.

I can’t help feeling that the most telling line is, “How can you apply for a grant for fighting racism if the concept of race doesn’t exist in legislation?”

[Spiny Norman]

For a second there I did wonder if they were going to be real goldfish.

Wait, what? You mean they're not?

[Hal]

From the Breitbart article: Racism existed before the concept of race biology.

David Cannadine's Ornamentalism .

[dicentra]

claiming that accepting that there are different races means one race is superior to another.

Not necessarily.

However, racial tribalism does provide a handy means for graft and extortion.

[Hal]

In other news:

A flight to Edinburgh was diverted to London . . . .

So she had a leg to stand on, but when she jumped to her foot she rather should have hung onto both . . . .

[JL]

Gee, it's a pity they abandoned that plan to nuke the moon.

[Runcie Balspune]

The "nuke the moon" document needs to be taken with some suspicion, rather like the more modern Zombie Attack Plan, government military strategy is notorious for inventing an enemy to replace one they cannot name. Taken with the language of era, this event could easily be referring to Cuba, etc.