Amazing Dinosaur Invention: The Bone-Lung!

It appears that dinosaurs (or some dinosaurs) may have had air sacs in their bones, allowing them to circulate the air they breathed into their bones and then back into their lungs again, giving them an extra-efficient breathing system and allowing them to sustain the hot-blooded metabolism that many scientists now think they had.

Turns out, while dinos may have invented this system of utilizing air, they aren’t the only creatures that are known to use it.

Another, very common kind of critter also uses it . . . birds.

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British Teachers Want To Ban The "F" Word

Unfortunately, the "F" word is question isn’t the all too common one. That word will likely remain all too common.

No, it seems that many UK teachers are as nutty–excuse me–as barmy as many US teachers.

The "F" word that they want to ban from the classroom is "Fail."

That word could be too traumatic for the wee ones, so instead, the teachers making the proposal wish to speak of students having "deferred success."

GET THE STORY.

It’ll be interesting if this passes and they start to be really rigorous in shielding the children from the "F" word.

It’d mean teaching them that the Nazis had deferred success in their takeover of Europe.

Considering the current state of the European Union, that might not be inaccurate.

British Teachers Want To Ban The “F” Word

Unfortunately, the "F" word is question isn’t the all too common one. That word will likely remain all too common.

No, it seems that many UK teachers are as nutty–excuse me–as barmy as many US teachers.

The "F" word that they want to ban from the classroom is "Fail."

That word could be too traumatic for the wee ones, so instead, the teachers making the proposal wish to speak of students having "deferred success."

GET THE STORY.

It’ll be interesting if this passes and they start to be really rigorous in shielding the children from the "F" word.

It’d mean teaching them that the Nazis had deferred success in their takeover of Europe.

Considering the current state of the European Union, that might not be inaccurate.

Where No Justice Has Gone Before?

Combining the themes of the first two posts today (i.e., the Supreme Court and Star Trek), it’s worth noting that blogger Alan K. Henderson writes:

Kathryn Jean Lopez has a question she wants posed to John Roberts (link via Glenn):

"I’d like to know if Star Trek had an influence on John Roberts and, if so, what that influence was."

Here are some responses I don’t want to hear:

  • "It is a good day to die."
  • "Strength
    is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We
    will add your distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to
    service ours."
  • "My position on Roe? How much latinum is it worth to you?"
  • "Please state the nature of the legal emergency."
  • "From hell’s heart, I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee."
  • "Setting dissent on stun."
  • "Don’t push your luck, pinkskin!"
  • "Engaging cloaking device." [dodging a question]
  • "Red alert! Raise shields!" [more dodging]
  • "Beam me out of here!" [yet more dodging]
  • "Really, Mr. Senator, you emotions will become your undoing."

Okay, maybe I do want to hear that last one [SOURCE].

Feel free to add your own inappropriate Star Trek answers in the combox.

Ted Kennedy Is Dangerously Unqualified!

Justice

Yesterday on Today, the senior senator from Massachusetts was holding forth on the subject of Pres. Bush’s new nominee to the Supreme Court and he (i.e., Kennedy) said the following:

    What these hearings are about are really the question and the challenge to make sure that we’re going have someone who stands on the side of working families, the middle class, of ordinary people, when you get right down to it.

    The American people during this process want to know is he [Roberts] going to be on the side of the major corporate interests or is he going to be on the (side of the) consumers’ interest? Will he be on the side of the polluters or will he be on the side of those that believe that the Congress had the right to pass important legislation on the environment? And will he be on the side of workers, or is he going to be on the side of the bosses? [SOURCE.]

Attention Sen. Kennedy! Judges are not supposed to be on the "side" of anybody! They are supposed to be impartial. That is why Justice is supposed to be "blind." If you don’t understand that, you are not qualified to assist the Senate in its "advise and consent" role in the nomination process! You are advocating the idea of judges who dispense justice in a biased manner. That is contrary to the virtue of justice itself.

The fact that Kennedy could say such things in public and expect them to be helpful to him and his Party is a sad commentary on how poorly educated in civics the American public is.

Happy Lunar Landing Day!

MoonwalkToday–July 20th–back in 1969 was the day man first walked on the moon. (Unless you’re one of those folks who thinks it was all fake, like in that thar Capricorn One movie.)

Neil Armstrong was supposed to say "That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," but as the tapes reveal, he actually said "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"–which makes no sense.

It’s always been a comfort to me that the first words spoken by a human being on another celestial body were a blown line.

Should help keep us humble in the face of such achievements.

GET THE STORY.

Y’know . . . I’ve always thought that a Saturn V rocket looks rather a lot like a tower. Now where have I heard something about towers to heavens and confusion of tongues before . . . ?