What Are Those Spots?

Via my mom, this shot of the Diga del Cingino dam in Northern Italy. See the little spots on it? Scroll down to see what they are...

Alpine Ibex!

Adele Vasquez and Her Band of Siblings...

I'd say these kids have a future in music.  Even if this song isn't your cup of tea, listen to this 10 year old belt out the refrain.  Awesome!

Mutually Beneficial Arrangements...

I just ran across an advertisement for this web site, which appears to be soliciting young women willing to have paid “relationships” with older men. The ad was on an otherwise completely respectable web site.  The text of the site isn't explicit, but seems pretty clear that the relationship includes (a) sex, and (b) money being paid to the woman. From the site:

When you date someone, if you find them attractive and have a good time with them, things naturally progress. This might happen in one date or it might take a couple, but the point is that this is what happens. Also, as you’re dating someone, you develop a relationship of sorts with them, so if you’re short on your rent, they help you out. If you’re struggling to pay for school, they help you out.

If the person you’re dating likes you and they have extra money, they buy you gifts. This, folks, is dating. So, then, wouldn’t all dating be mutually beneficial? Now, when you actually plan a mutually beneficial arrangement, you should know that you’re dating, but you’re kind of laying out the terms of dating. You want gifts, you make sure that the person you’re planning your arrangement with will want to give them to you.

I'm no lawyer, but that sure looks dangerously close to solicitation to me!

I'm way past being shocked (or even surprised) by this sort of activity.  Six years in the Navy, visiting practically every port in the Pacific and Indian Oceans (and a few others as well) cured me of any lingering innocence concerning the intersection of money and sex.  But I was surprised to see this ad on an otherwise fairly conservative and straight-laced site...

Quote of the Day...

From Clive Crook at The Atlantic, commenting on the ClimateGate 2.0 emails:

“The stink of intellectual corruption is overpowering.”

Cited in this article in the London Daily Mail.

Awesome.  This time, the lamestream media is paying attention...

Curiosity Ready To Go...

The Curiosity Mars Rover is on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, scheduled to lift off about an hour from this post...

Pelican Nebula...

The Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), seen with an amateur 17" telescope in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  From APOD, of course: