Here there and anywhere

Lot of different things about today, including a pretty day for a walk...

Look!  Grass in the front yard!

Last attempt at this, the snow was 9 inches deep.  And Scrappy got stuck.

Robins may not exactly be a sign of spring (unless you think it's spring year-round), but they are a sign of life...

More on the walk later.  Next, I have to give the episode two review of Fox and Seth McFarlane's new "Cosmos" with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  First time out, I thought it was well-done and fair.  Well, that lasted one episode.  Over and over, he repeated the phrases "completely random" and "this is solid science" about evolution.

 But here's the thing- every example he gave showed how something in a specific species (say, a wolf) evolved through artificial or natural selection into something similar, but different (like a dog).  He quoted Darwin's statement about the evolution of the eyeball being too complex to evolve without a guiding hand (AKA God).  And then Said, "But, is it?" and tried to show how it could have happened randomly.  Yes, a light sensitive spot COULD have mutated by accident.  And over millennia it could have had a random mutation turn it first into a depression, then a pit, then a sphere.  Then I suppose purely random chance could have mad a lens appear right where it was needed (instead of, say, the anus).  Or his polar bear example, where just by random chance a bear living in a snowy wasteland developed WHITE fur, instead of say, blue or mauve.

Of course he then claimed that science learned by keeping an open mind, and the "tree of life" was a "spiritual experience" to him (just to soften things a bit).  But it sure seemed to me that these supposedly random chances were guided by environment, need, logical progression.  Even if you refuse to believe in a creator being, you have to see that if you are intellectually honest.  There is every bit as much evidence for a hypothesis of a creator being, and more, than purely random mutation (HIS words, not mine).  The only thing that keeps both theories from being "solid science" is that modern science refuses to accept the thought of a creator being- because they cannot explain Him with a formula or an experiment.  They refuse to look at the fact that nothing that they have done or will ever do can truly disprove His existence.  And That's solid science.

Still about 4-5 inches down the Landing trail.

I know I said I was going to save hockey comments for the NHFFL page until and unless a team made their league finals, BUT....

Lokomotiv, the eighth seed in the KHL Western conference, facing the top team and defending champs Dynamo Moscow, fell behind two games to none, won a pair to tie things up, lost game 5 in OT 1-0 and trailed three games to two... Lokomotiv, a team that scored five or more goals just 3 times in 59 games, topped Dynamo 6-0 and 5-1 in games 6 and 7 to knock the favorites, the defending champs, the New York Yankees of the KHL, OUT of the playoffs!  I couldn't be happier if the reds knocked the Cardinals out of the World Series!

Finally, I have three MWN stories.  First, the minor league Baseball team in Lehigh Valley is taking advantage of America's bacon mania.  The team, named the "Iron Pigs", have a whole line of bacon flavored merchandise...

...including not only caps and such, but also food items...


...the team will continue the theme at the ballpark this year, selling bacon-flavored cotton candy and offering free bacon crumbles on all concession items the team sells, from hot dogs to ice cream. The IronPigs are also in the process of developing a race that involves eating a large number of bacon strips at the halfway point. Bloody Mary cocktails, with pieces of bacon in them, of course, will await those who cross the finish line.


The team also says they have sold 1,500 scratch and sniff bacon t-shirts guaranteed to smell like bacon through ten washings.

Second, the "drug dealer son of a well-known Cornish criminal" has gotten into a spot of trouble... but didn't do a good job of talking his way out of it.  Here's the story of Jack Harvey, Jr.-




...police were alerted to the younger Harvey's movements on November 26 last year when he left a St Austell petrol station without paying.Staff at the station described Harvey's behaviour as bizarre and reported that he had been making strange noises.

Officers caught up with him on the A390 near Probus where they witnessed him driving dangerously by overtaking several vehicles. Mr Lee said a urine sample later revealed a "cocktail" of drugs including amphetamine, methadone, cocaine and heroin.

When he was arrested at his home, drugs were found in Harvey's house, car and taped to his testicles.
 In interview, Harvey said he had no recollection of any incident on the A390 and denied being intoxicated.

Mr Lee said: "He made allegations that police had planted the drugs in his car … of the drugs stuck to his testicles (he) denied any knowledge, commenting that some filthy woman must have put it there."

Uh.... Yeah.  So then comes story #3... and no lead in will suffice for this one...

A British woman attempted to sue her former lawyers for professional negligence, claiming that, alongside a number of other allegations, they failed to advise that finalising divorce proceedings would inevitably cause her marriage to end.

The curious case - made against two solicitor firms - had already been rejected by the court, but was revealed in the transcript of a later appeal by the claimant against the dismissal of other aspects of her case.
Jane Mulcahy had argued that the lawyers should have made it clear that a divorce would cause her marriage to be terminated - something which she apparently wanted to avoid.

When you finish shaking your head, have a nice evening...