Wednesday, January 16, 2008
ROUS found in Uruguay
Fans of The Princess Bride will get a kick out of this:
"We report the discovery of an exceptionally well preserved fossil skull of a new species of rodent, by far the largest ever recorded," they wrote in a report in Britain's Proceedings of the Royal Society.
"...our work suggests that 4 million years ago in South America, rodents with 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds) of body mass (a 'mouse' larger than a bull) lived with terror birds, saber-toothed cats, ground sloths and giant armored mammals among others."
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Jan 16, 03:00:00 PM:
Now i suppose the evolutioin cracked urns will claim this is the ansestor of all land creatures like their always putting those stupid little feet on those fish all the time
By , at
Wed Jan 16, 08:04:00 PM:
That would be Jimmis Cartersaurus.
By , at
Thu Jan 17, 01:11:00 AM:
Hey look what the salat just dragged ib its sonething the lamachya killed but didnt want to eat
By , at
Thu Jan 17, 11:11:00 AM:
My feeling is that this giant rat is the ancestor to all land animals.
It, in turn, came from a fish with feet on it.
Such is the natural flow of evolution.
Ah, Villy -- that's what's so great about blog comments, isn't it?
Incisive commentary from educated minds. :)
Actually, BofP, if this thing's a paltry 4 million years old, then it's not an ancestor to anything. Except maybe smaller rats.
___________________________________
Nice to see you around, Villy. I can't say I always enjoy your topics, but I certainly enjoy your writing. Mayhaps you'd care to venture into the dangerous world of partisan politics and let us know your take on the current situation?
(turning on griddle under Villy's feet, setting it to "Low")
As I see it, the pertinent question at this particular moment in time is:
What happens if Fred loses big in South Carolina and is effectively written off for the rest of the race?
When it comes to original thought, I admit I'm a pretty strange cat, but when it comes to reactions, I find that my reactions to events are fairly normal. Conversely, if I react a certain way to some news, I figure many others out there are reacting the same way.
If Fred loses big this Saturday, my reaction is going to be one of general disenfranchisement with the overall election. Romney is a flip-flopping panderer (aka "normal politician"), McCain is an open borders sissy boy who opposes any form of torture, Huckabee is a total RINO and Giuliani is a RINO in hawk's clothing.
Who's that leave to be interested in?
(turning up griddle to "Medium")
If Fred doesn't do well in S.C. (and the pundits are already handing it to McCain), and effectively falls out of the race, what then?
What, indeed.
An old novelist's term springs to mind:
Internecine squabbling.
Translated, if Fred drops out of the race, the rest of the election will be spent with the bloggers debating who's the least bad.
This is no way to run a railroad.
Care to let us know what you think?
(turning up griddle to "High")
By 
Charlottesvillain, at
Fri Jan 18, 09:26:00 AM:
DM,
You ask interesting questions. I'm a bit more mercurial in my political tastes than TH, less analytical and logical, more emotional and reactionary. In a prior post TH joked that I would interject "keating five" into his McCain preference. He's right. I dislike politicians at the trough, and have never been a McCain fan.
The presidential choices are, as usual, abysmal. Having lived in NYC through the 90s, I'm actually quite partial to Rudy, although it seems clear that he's going nowhere this year. I'm no fan of the religious right, so Huck is out of bounds for me. Romney looks and sounds like the Republican John Kerry, and the ease with which he shifts positions is distastful to me. Fred? Is he even running? That leaves....McCain. He seems to have the best chance of winning the general election among the 'Pubs.
I should add that I am no die hard partisan. Bush has been a disaster on so many levels, the Republican legistlature was a catastrophe and deserved to be thrown out, that I have become quite disillusioned about the whole mess.
I will vote, but it will likely be a vote against someone rather than for someone. At this point I have lowered my standards and an acceptable outcome is not having another 8 years of Clintonian intrigue. I'm not sure we'll be that lucky, however.
One thing I am pretty sure of is that the next prez will have some pretty serious crises to deal with, the economy, energy, and the Islamists are likely not going away after Bush leaves.
