They might be trying to keep their jobs.

Nearly ten percent of companies have fired an employee for violating corporate blogging or message board policies, and 19 percent have disciplined an employee for the same infractions, according to a new survey from Proofpoint, a messaging security company.

Of course, it doesn't help to tell your boss about the blog, and then use it to complain about her.

Lately, I find myself longing for the time off that getting fired would give me. Unfortunately, I project an illusion of competence and diligence while at work.

[via Race in the Workplace]

Three men who dug up a young woman's corpse to have sex with it after seeing her obituary photo cannot be charged with attempted sexual assault because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

[ via bb ]

MORE: And here she is, sickos (as requested in comments):

Here.

The only way I can really understand this happening is that the pool from which astronauts are drawn are largely privileged Air Force pilots, with all of the bullshit drunken monkey-behavior that comes along with that status.

From the NYT. Cool graphic with names and obits and wealth adjusted for inflation.

from daily drew

When you order this shirt and are excited to wear it in public.

And I do, by the way.

found at skepchick
Number 1:
Is it subverting our genetic imperative if you cum all over my face?


ethan said to introduce myself. I am Squid Pants. Hi. I'm a girl and I will post things here sometimes now.

This may be the most accurate description of modern Las Vegas that I've ever seen:

These people, hunched grimly over their roulette wheels and nickel slots and Pai Gow tables, these According to Jim-watching, sun-battered bastards, they couldn't have been more bored by the sight of a half-naked woman simulating an orgasm while riding a robotic Pegasus.

"During World War I, the British and Americans faced a serious threat from German U-boats, which were sinking allied shipping at a dangerous rate. All attempts to camouflage ships at sea had failed, as the appearance of the sea and sky are always changing. Any color scheme that was concealing in one situation was conspicuous in others. A British artist and naval officer, Norman Wilkinson, promoted a new camouflage scheme that was derived from the artistic fashions of the time, particularly cubism. Instead of trying to conceal the ship, it simply broke up its lines and made it more difficult for the U-boat captain to determine the ship's course. The British called this camouflage scheme "Dazzle Painting." The Americans called it "Razzle Dazzle.""
[liblog]

Just a gentle reminder to our legions of readers that Salto has more than one contributor; you can see who authored what by looking at the lower-left portion of each post.

So.

Speaking of our other contributors:

D, where are you? jps3?

I only listen to Wizard Rock.

The frenzy over Book 7 [of the Harry Potter series] has propelled wizard rock to these heights. The bands have tens of thousands of friends on MySpace, with Harry and the Potters approaching 100,000. Maggiacomo has released two CDs. Draco and the Malfoys just finished their second CD, and later this month will join Harry and the Potters on a tour of the East Coast, Midwest and Ontario. Other bands, including the L.A.-based Remus Lupins and the Seattle-based Parselmouths, are on tour.

Such a good first paragraph:

The hunt for extraterrestrial life should be dramatically expanded, a panel of scientists convened by the country’s leading scientific advisory group said today, to include what they call “weird life,” organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life as we know it.

It's a very exciting article.

(Salto's own contributor Monster, oddly enough, is an example of weird life. As I understand it, Monster lacks normal DNA characteristics of Earth life, and is, instead, "bulbourethral." Don't ask me; I don't know.)

I'll ask my evolutionary biologist friend to submit a comment in response.

MORE: Here's what Dr. M has to say about this:

Whatever Carl Zimmer says is true. He's smart and likes parasites, so I like him.

In response to the article, I think a number of things and I will list them here in no particular order.

1. No doubt about it, weird life exists. It is simply a probability thought experiment. How could it not exist?

2. A problem for most of the scientific fields is that even if we find weird life, that's not enough. We need large sample sizes to be able to make statements about governing principles. Biologists have done their best to draw principles from our one instance (we think) of life on earth. If we found life on Planet Diaz, for example, and it was say, silicon-based...what does that really mean other than we now know there are two different platforms that work for life. But if it were carbon-based, obviously that doesn't mean that all "weird" life must be carbon-based. Hence the need for discovering at least 10 different instances of weird life.

3. On top of weird life elsewhere, there is some seriously weird life here. I'm all for trying to find weird life, but not at the expense of the weird life we have right here, present company included.

4. I don't have a deep enough understanding of what chemical principles would be likely to pertain to all forms of weird life, regardless of what elements such life might be based on. However, whatever the chemistry may be, I would bet that natural (and perhaps sexual) selection plays a large role in generating the diversity of weird life. But then, I'm a convert.

"In 1935, the collaborative satirical writers Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) and Evgeny Petrov (1903-1942) traveled to the United States from the Soviet Union on assignment as special correspondents for the newspaper Pravda. Shortly after their arrival in New York aboard the French luxury liner Normandie, they purchased a Ford automobile and embarked upon a ten-week road trip to California and back. Ilf and Petrov visited America as literary tourists, stopping at major attractions, staying in tourist motels, consulting with AAA for travel advice, and relying upon Russian-speaking tour guides to smooth their way. Like a good tourist, Ilf extensively recorded his trip with his Leica camera. Shortly after their return to the Soviet Union, the popular illustrated news magazine Ogonek— a Soviet analogue to Time magazine—published a series of illustrated articles entitled "American Photographs." Individual installments featured such thematic topics as the road, the small town, Native Americans, Hollywood (where they spent two weeks writing a screenplay for Lewis Milestone), advertising, African-Americans, and New York City."

" In answer to a growing swell of interest in realistic responses to the excesses of the present American empire, The Middlebury Institute has been launched by a group of activists and professionals to promote the serious study of separatism, secession, self-determination and similar devolutionary trends and developments, on both national and international scales."

"I've enjoyed blogging for nearly four years now, but long-time readers know that I've longed to branch out into cutting-edge ancillary activities like podcasting. Lately I've also been thinking about possible ways to combine blogging with my professional bailiwick, the federal tax laws.

Well, yesterday, right in the middle of a scintillating lecture I was giving on the wonders of carryover basis, a brilliant idea struck. I'm surprised I didn't have this flash of genius sooner. Of course! Why not make the entire tax code available via podcast?"

[Jack Bog's Blog]

Happy 4th!

A peacock that roamed into a fast-food restaurant parking lot was attacked by man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.

Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city’s Center for Animal Care and Control.

“It’s just unbelievable that someone would do something to a poor, defenseless animal and do it in such a cruel fashion,” he said.

The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Staten Island Burger King parking lot and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees had been feeding him bread when the man appeared.

He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19.

“He was going crazy,” she said.

Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, “’I’m killing a vampire!”’

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as being in his teens or early 20s.

It was not clear how the bird made his way to the Burger King, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given some to a person who lives near the restaurant.

U! S! A!

U! S! A!

"Trying to tell the story of the short, unhappy life of Roberta Pedon becomes more difficult each year. Those of us who knew her use that name, although it certainly was not her "real" name. Separating reality from the fictions Roberta created about herself is almost impossible. Very few things about her are certain: she was born in 1954 in the United States, either in California or Ohio; she had one credited motion picture role; she had serious drug and alcohol abuse problems; she was hospitalized at least twice for overdoses; she was arrested at least once; she worked by turns as a model, actress, and prostitute; she was bulemic and suffered from one or more mental health problems known as personality disorders; and her adult life was a repetitive pattern of short, unstable, intensely sexualized relationships."

[lady bumps, myspace, bba (nsfw), youtube]

"I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.

My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting."
[whitehouse]