How NOT to Start Your Day

Honestly, you’d think I’d know by now that I shouldn’t open the news first thing in the AM. I should ease into my day – preferably with carrot cake and a nice piping hot cup of tea. Right? 

Maybe scroll through some cute cat pics. Enjoy a few videos of elephant families and then a few more. Maybe check into Facebook – which is mostly ads now but I still see occasional posts from friends. I scroll Threads for some fun tales – get some grins. Read a chapter of my new Murderbot book. THEN, only then, I might be ready to face the horrors of the what’s happening in the world.

Did I do this morning? Fuck no. First thing I read was a front-page article in Al Jazeera about the sexual abuse, rape and torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The report comes with a warning – This story contains descriptions of sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing. “Disturbing” is a profound understatement. I won’t quote any of the descriptions of the horrifying, brutal, dehumanizing, absolutely demonic abuses performed by the Israeli soldiers. They make the reports of the US military’s savage torture, rape, and murders of prisoners at Abu Ghraib seem almost tame. 

Eyad Baba

Allegations of the sexual abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons are not new – they date back decades. But launching its genocidal war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attack of October 2023, Israel appears to have increased the use of rape as a weapon of war, according to the Al Jazeera investigation and various reports by the UN and leading rights groups.
   ~~~
“Surviving sexual violence and torture in general, and rape is brutal,” Albanese (UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories) said. “Imagine when it’s done on a large-scale systemically to a population. It means to destroy the people as such. (source) 

And piss drunk, brain fried, always posturing, mysogynistic, micro dicked, white supremacist, Christofascist Pete wants to further integrate our military with Israel’s. Mind you, it’s not just this deranged nazi clownfuck who’s promoting this. 

At a time when the American public is expressing unprecedented levels of distrust in the Israeli government, Congress just proposed tying the U.S. to the Israeli military more than ever before.

Buried in the House's version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released on Tuesday, is section 224, entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” The provision would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more than $200 billion (inflation adjusted) in military assistance Israel has received from the U.S. since its founding in 1948. (source) 

The House is set to vote on this horror show, this marriage to another ruthless genocidal power before the summer recess. When’s that? Saturday, June 27 through Sunday, July 12, 2026. Call your rep – demand they vote NO on the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As a nation we need to be divorced from and no-fucking-contact with genocidal rapists. From within and without.

We have to purge the bastards in our own country and NOT hook up with nations who think *gee willikers* training my guard dog to rape prisoners is really, really fun! (yes, they did and are doing exactly this – read the article). 

I am constantly amazed by man's inhumanity to man.
~ Primo Levi 

Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic qualities of humanity. 
~ Ambrose Bierce 

Wild animals are less wild and more human than many humans of this world. 
~ Munia Khan

News and Memes

Supposedly there’s a ceasefire going on in the Middle East. Words used to have meaning – I miss those that. I guess that’s just SO 20th century.

As of 12:30 GMT Israel launched attacks across Iran. There were explosions reported in Tehran, Tabriz, Karaj and Isfahan. These followed a wave of missiles that Iran fired towards northern Israel in retaliation for Israel repeatedly violating the ceasefire in Lebanon. Israel says they’re only indiscriminately bombing Lebanon because Hezbollah is there.

How soon before the reason for the bombings, the murders of innocents is “He keeps touching my sleeve!”, "She's breathing on me!”, "They looked at me funny!”, "He started it!”

Meanwhile,  The clearly decaying Clownfuck Pedophile in Chief is screeching on his little Twitter knockoff for Israel and Iran to just immediately stop “shooting.” Can you just hear Pedo stomping his foot, huffing and puffing? Ah, given those intensely swollen cankles (when’s the last time you saw him standing) I doubt he’s up to stomping his feet anymore.

Anyway, it's truly hilarious – like anyone's paying him serious attention anymore.

If you haven’t read yesterday’s Heather Cox Richardson’s post PLEASE DO.

Amongst other things, she talks about how Scott Pelley, a thirty-seven year CBS correspondent, fired last week from 60 Minutes, outed CBS news director and Trump asslicker (and Goebbels wannabe) Bari Weiss over her attempt to rewrite reality.

Hours before airing, he explained, after the story had been approved, Weiss sent an email to Pelley’s boss asking them to make the protesters look more violent and to say that before an officer shot her, Renee Good was driving toward him.

But she wasn’t. Pelley continued: “On the video, you see the officer standing slightly off the front of the car. And you clearly see Ms. Good’s wheels turned completely as far as they will go, away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head, kills her, and says something about her that I can’t repeat in polite company.

…”The video showed that the officer wasn’t standing in front of the car and she wasn’t driving toward him, but that’s what the president said about that, and that’s the way she wanted it described.” (source)

Weiss’ Wikipedia page claims she’s a journalist. I can think of more accurate terms. Just for starters – fabulist, prevaricator, mythomaniac, deceiver, fantasist, and liar.

You’ve surely read about how unpopular Vanky and her partner in crime, Jared, are in Albania? You know, their plans to pave paradise and build condos, malls, hotels – turn it into a playland for the überwealthy?

One of the biggest sources of controversy surrounds the project's potential impact on environmentally sensitive areas.

The planned developments overlap with the Karaburun-Sazan marine national park and the Vjosa-Narta protected wetlands, regions known for their rich biodiversity and importance to migratory bird populations. (source) 

Yeah, fuck the planet – there’s money to be made!

Ivanka, who is definitely as dim, greedheaded and every bit as much of a liar as her father, described Sazan Island as a "private island" she and Jared had “discovered,” despite it being sovereign Albanian territory. 

Environmental groups from Albania and elsewhere in Europe condemned the work, with one prominent local group charging that long-protected habitats are being "irreversibly destroyed."

Albania's state anti-corruption agency has confirmed it opened an investigation related to the project but has not disclosed details. (source) 

Protests are huge and charged. Also, the EU has weighed in on the matter now. 

Basically, anything with the Trump name, or just associated with that name, is suspect and as and appealing as radioactive warthog fecal matter.

Perfect Murders

Eight Perfect Murders is a psychological thriller and mystery novel by Peter Swanson. The story follows Beacon Hill mystery bookstore owner and recent-ish widow Malcolm Kershaw. He’s a quiet guy – goes to work with his two employees every day, comes home, reads, has a beer, goes to bed, gets up, and does it all over again.

I want to like him.

Then, one extremely cold, snowy, February day, a young FBI agent stops in with questions. It seems there have been murders that might be echoing a blog post he wrote years ago titled, "Eight Perfect Murders.” In that debut post for the store’s website, he listed the top eight trickiest murder mystery/thrillers – the most unsolvable murders. 

These included: Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History.

There appears to be a copycat about – someone who’s using Mal’s blog list as a blueprint, a script, a project inspiration site (Instagram for killers). Except shit gets WAY deeper than that. You see, Mal is something I totally fucking despise. Mal is an unreliable narrator.

Was ist das, you ask?

An unreliable narrator can be defined as any narrator who misleads readers, either deliberately or unwittingly. Many are unreliable through circumstances, character flaws or psychological difficulties. In some cases, a narrator withholds key information from readers, or they may deliberately lie or misdirect. (source) 

Confession – once I fully twigged to this (about 45% of the way through the book), I ended up skipping to the end. Yes, despite Eight Perfect Murders being well written, engaging, having a couple likable characters, AND a cat. WHY did I do this? 

My fault (?) – I can’t and will NOT tolerate being lied to. 

There are myriad reasons why people lie.

They lie to cover their shame.

A friend told me they had sent their children to live, temporarily, with their ex (several states away) for a few months because they needed to take care of some general, unspecified issues. A partial truth at best. Child protective services had stepped in and made this choice for them.

People lie because they’re, perhaps, not fully aligned with reality. 

A person I knew and loved told me an elaborate, detailed story about how they lost their job at an eldercare nonprofit which they supposedly created – built from the ground up. The person was completely blindsided – absolutely stunned.

The more they talked the more they contradicted themself. There were SO many gaping holes in the story. They fully believed what they were telling me all while reality was standing there saying "nah babe...sorry, no way." This was an intelligent person but, in certain circumstances, objective reality was beyond their grasp.

People lie for profit and power. Fer instance – Pedo and his Party of fools, sycophants, planet and people rapers, greedheads, thieves, and micro-schwanzed morons, lie with every breath they take.

Some other reasons why people lie:

Sometimes it’s to shield or protect others. Would you lie about Abdullahi Mohamed or Vargas Arellano hiding from ICE in your attic? I sure as fuck would.

“White lies” are theoretically told to spare someone's feelings. Would I? //shrugs// Maybe. It depends. I think I’m more likely to tell the truth as gently as I’m able. This might be how I’ve gotten the rep for being honest – AKA direct, blunt, a stone asshole. //shrugs// Someone's gotta do it.

Lies of omission are committed in order to protect privacy and/or avoid conflict. Sometimes that’s good and necessary. Sometimes that’s chickenshit assholery.

Back to Eight Perfect Murders though – because of this lying shit and me, inevitably, being sparked off into the next dimension by it, I returned the book to the library early. Yes, I read the last chapter and I’m glad I did (no, I won’t give away the ending). Now, NOW I want to know how Mal, the lying little shit, got to that end. I wanna know if his two bookstore employees and the cat (ESPECIALLY the cat) are okay. And what about the FBI agent who seemed like a nice, less buttoned up Agent Scully type. Maybe. 

I might have to get back on the waiting list and take the book out again even though I’m still RILLY pissed off about this lying ass narrator shit.

And now I have Annie Lennox in my head singing Would I Lie to You. THIS is a good thing! 

Gone Too Soon

As you’ve probably already heard, Rupert Giles, Buffy’s Watcher, her mentor, her father figure, has died. Okay, it was the amazing actor Anthony Head who played Giles who died. He was only 72 – just a handful of years older than yurs truly.

Jesus Vampire Christ, I’m bummed.

Giles had some of the best lines on Buffy. Granted, that’s the writers but his desiccated, wry, yet still, somehow, warm delivery was absofucking brilliant. Of all the actors on the show, Giles was the most fully realized – he was seamless. Spike was a close second.

Below are some of his witty, pithy lines – all delivered with that wonderful, tone. If you’re unfamiliar with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (What? Have you been living under a rock?) or weren’t a fan (? HOW can this be? Next you’ll be telling me you don’t like ice cream!!!) this’ll be a bit inside baseball-ish. You can however find the show on something called Hulu – go binge.

~~~

Buffy: Does it ever get easy? [she asks after killing a newly risen vampire]

Giles: You mean life?

Buffy: Yeah. Does it get easy?

Giles: What do you want me to say?

Buffy: Lie to me.

Giles: Yes, it’s terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.

Buffy: Liar.

~~~

Giles: Don’t taunt the fear demon.

Xander: Why? Can it hurt me?

Giles: No, it’s just…tacky.

~~~

I just think it’s rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby.

~~~

I watched Passions (a Twin Peaks by way of All My Children daytime soap) with Spike. Let us never speak of it.

~~~

You have the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone.

~~~

Forgiveness is an act of compassion, Buffy. It’s not done because people deserve it, but because they need it.

~~~

Giles on playing D&D: I used to be a highly respected watcher, now I’m a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily.

~~~

Books smell. Musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer, it has no texture, no context. It’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible, it should be...smelly.

~~~

When Buffy was trying out for the cheerleading squad:
You have a sacred birthright, Buffy. You were chosen to destroy vampires, not to ... wave pompoms at people. And as the Watcher I forbid it.

~~~

We listened to aggressively cheerful music sung by people chosen for their ability to dance.

~~~

Xander: Am I right, Giles?

Giles: Almost certainly not, but to be fair, I wasn’t listening.

~~~

Xander: Here's your coffee. Brewed from the finest Colombian lighter fluid.

Giles: Thank you. [takes a sip]

Giles: Horrible. [takes another sip]

Xander: Aren't you supposed to be drinking tea, anyway?

Giles: Tea is soothing. I wish to be tense.

Xander: Okay, but you're destroying a perfectly good cultural stereotype here.

~~~

On driving an automatic: I loathe just sitting here, not contributing.

~~~

Buffy: We don’t say ‘Indian’.

Giles: Oh, oh, right! Yes, yes. Um, always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as ‘bloody colonials’.

~~~

But that's the thrill of living on the Hellmouth! There's a veritable cornucopia of fiends and devils and ghouls to engage. (pause) Pardon me for finding the glass half full.

~~~

Alright, I'll just jump in my time machine, go back to the twelfth century and ask the vampires to postpone their ancient prophecy for a few days while you take in dinner and a show. (To Buffy who wanted to go out on a date instead of slay vampires) 

~~~

Testosterone is a great equalizer, it turns all men into morons.

~~~

James Marsters (Spike):

“There’s a hole in the World. Anthony Head has passed on from us. He was an unflaggingly kind and steady presence on the set of Buffy, and the best actor in the cast. He was the best of us. I was lucky to have known, and learned from him. He left the world a better place for his presence. Thank you Tony for all you gave.” (source) 

Behind Blue Eyes – Anthony Stewart Head 

Fatigued?

I’m tired. No, that’s not quite it. I’m weary. Maybe flat out exhausted best describes it? It’s the nonstop evil from this administration and the entire soulless, spineless, ethically putrefied, greedheaded, morally bankrupt Republican Party. Add in the complacent and, often enough, confederate media. Then there’s all the absolute, mind-bendingly astounding stupidity. 

This clown orgy of diarrhea beset half sentient turnips couldn’t manage the job of governing even with a complete set of the best books on political history, access to the sharpest advisors, 100 years of apprenticeship with Abe Lincoln, JFK and Obama, and three fast espressos from Sant' Eustachio Caffè in Rome.

Watching Republicans in control of all three branches of our degenerate, corrupted government is like watching drunk frat boys, after a massive kegger, driving a school bus full of sweet kindergartners through the Rockies. Roads are thin, guardrails are weak, the drop-off is lethally steep, and the frat rats are blotto. Buy your tiny caskets now before the rush!

Maybe it’s time to take a few days off from the news. Ya know, read murder mysteries and watch horror movies. Something comparatively calming and restorative.

Searching my heart for its true sorrow,
This is the thing I find to be: 
That I am weary of words and people, 
Sick of the city, wanting the sea.
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay, Second April

The bags under your eyes? That’s the luggage you took, on a trip straight to hell that you didn’t even book.
~ Lokesh Tuli, Notes From Exile: The “Manual for the Broken”

...because I want to see the last one fall. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves.
~ O. Henry, The Last Leaf

Hope was a thing you lost when simply trying to imagine better days became so exhausting, overwhelming, and depressing a task, that one opted for despair out of sheer weariness. Giving up brought a kind of peace. 
~ Sunyi Dean, The Book Eaters

Lunatics All Around

Trump plans to install his personal defense lawyer, Todd Blanche (not to be confused with Blanche Devereaux), as the head of what we’re laughingly still calling the “Justice” Department. The office should really be renamed, at least while the tantrum toddler is still in office, the “Vengeance and Retaliation” Department.

As deputy AG, he oversaw the removal of more than 200 career DOJ officials connected to prior investigations into the president and orchestrated the dismissal of corruption charges against scandal-plagued former New York Mayor Eric Adams, a move that briefly earned Adams’ support for Trump last year.

He also obtained controversial testimony from convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell last summer, denying she’d ever seen Trump do anything “inappropriate” during his friendship with the late pedophile and sex trafficker. Trump remained under intense scrutiny over that relationship at the time. (source) 

Since becoming acting attorney general, Blanche has tried to bring Bleach Bondi’s failed witch-hunt of New York Attorney General Letitia James back from the dead. That AND he went after James Comey for posting an Instagram pic of decoratively arranged seashells. What an absolute FINE use of taxpayer buckos, eh?!

Blanche was the Pedo soldier who led the charge to establish a $1.776 BILLION “anti-weaponization” slush fund. This, an obvious and balls out, pay-off to his allies, his faithful criminal fanbois and a big fuck you to to sane Americans. It was a screamingly, in-your-face, naked cash grab and is now partially, though not completely, dead.

The part where taxpayer buckos gets funneled to  to Jan. 6 insurrectionists and treasonous Trump allies, with no legal basis and no congressional authorization? Yeah, that’s the dead part.

Buried in a separate addendum, posted quietly the day after the original announcement, was a provision permanently shielding President Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization from IRS audit and enforcement on all previously filed tax returns. That part stands. (source)

Of course it does.

When asked if the slush fund was dead Pedo replied “I’d have to ask the lawyers. I don’t know.” Yeah, there’s a president who’s totally in tip top shape! Now, ask him to point out which picture is the giraffe and which one is the elephant, k?

The fact that he doesn’t know what’s what with his own precious “Truth and Justice Commission” is a testament to his rapidly declining mental state. Not that he was ever too bright or stable BUT he has been a successful criminal. Those days are fading.

The elderly orange pedophile, who’s an absolute news cycle/media whore, wasn’t seen on camera for eight straight days?  Doesn’t that pique your interest – I know mine’s certainly piqued. This media disappearance happened just a day after his fourth medical exam since retaking the White House 16 months and 2 weeks ago. Following the visit he, as usual, lied saying, “Everything checked out PERFECTLY.” Sure dude. 🙄

I have a thought here…

As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, the elderly, dementia riddled, malignant narcissist has run into some seriously spectacular fails lately. 

There’s the:

• HUGE failed war on Iran and his buddy Bibi totally fucking him over in his efforts to quit while simultaneously claiming he won.
• Related – nationally, gas is averaging $4.30 per gallon just as summer vacation season is beginning. Gonna be a lot of disappointed families across the country and, yeah, they’re blaming Pedo. He says he doesn’t care. He doesn't care about you or me but he does care that he looks very bad.
• Pedo’s Epstein Ballroom plan isn’t dead yet BUT it’s facing big ass legal challenges and loss of federal funding.
• No reputable musicians want to play at Trumpfest. Embarrassing.
• UFC fighters are pulling out of Pedo’s WhiteHouseTrash-a-thon. Embarrassing with a Vengeance

Those are only a few of his recent, humiliating failures.

These have triggered an accelerated breakdown in Pedo’s already radically shaky hold on basic adult functioning. In the middle of the night, with the assistance of his most worshipful, lunatic disciple, Natalie Harp he applies the salve of unchallenged rage-Tweets and preening I-am-god-Tweets. 

The shit they post is totally mental. Of course it is. If Pedo and his little Ivanka knock off weren’t white and wealthy, they’d be wearing matching straitjackets and doing time on Bellevue’s psych ward.

And then there’s this:

The issue that we are raising is not whether Trump is mentally ill. It is whether he is dangerous. Dangerousness is not a psychiatric diagnosis. One does not have to be 'mentally ill,' as both law and psychiatry define it, in order to be dangerous.
~ Dr. Bandy X. Lee, forensic and social psychiatrist, violence expert, president of the World Mental Health Coalition 

Spinoza’s God

Samuel Hirszenberg, Excommunicated Spinoza

I woke up today wondering if the psychological connection between religion and mental illness has been studied. Of course it has. 

I just did a quick google – it’s been looked at a LOT. 

The connection, the relationship between religion and craziness is deep and messy deserving much exploration.

Current high levels of religious psychosis in this country are disturbing to say the least. Maybe the US has always been this way. After all, the Puritans came to Massachusetts in 1629 after getting kicked out of England. They were booted for trying to impose their beliefs on the Church of England. Totally bright move, eh?

The Puritans were hardly a stable, love-thy-neighbor lot. Well, only if their neighbors were clones of themselves. Our uptight friends were in search of a place they would have freedom to worship as they wished but that freedom was only meant for themselves. YOUR beliefs and ideas, if in any way different, were considered abject heresy. Puritans feuded with Catholics, Quakers, and other Protestants. Roger Williams was ixnayed, moved south and formed the Providence Plantations, which became the colony of Rhode Island. It was set up for “liberty of conscience” – ironically, religious freedom. Freedom from the religious freedom colony.

Barend Graat, Probable portrait of Spinoza

The Puritans – do they sound like any current assholes we might know, hmmmmmm? You know, like the white Evangelicals AKA white Christian nationalists who fill the ranks of the Republican party? Think Rapey Pete Kegseth, Holy Mike Johnson, head of the White House “Faith Office” Paula White, and Stephen Miller (though Jewish he def falls into this camp) to name just a few.

It’s difficult, for me anyway, to keep in mind that NOT ALL Christians are tiny brained, close-minded, hate mongering ambulating stacks of doberman diarrhea.

Einstein, you remember him, right? He favored the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s take on god and religion. 

"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."

Spinoza argued that whatever exists is in God. The divine being is not some distant force, but all around us. Nothing in nature is separate from Him: not people, animals or inanimate objects. Today, the view that God is synonymous with nature is called “pantheism,” and this term is often retrospectively applied to Spinoza. (source) 

Statue of Spinoza by Nicolas Dings

Pantheism

• a doctrine that equates god with the forces and laws of the universe. 
• the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe. 
• the belief that God and nature are inextricably entwined. 

This is, more or less/close enough, a reasonable summation or approximate illumination of my take on the whole god business.

Some featherbrains used to believe that smoking the Devil’s lettuce led to shooting smack. Apparently, similar mini-minds jumped to the sure, firm “knowledge” that Spinoza leads to Nietzsche. Pantheism leads to atheism. 🙄 

The anthropomorphic version of God condemned by Spinoza paved the way for the remote God of later centuries, who sat apart from the universe and, having created it, left it to unfold autonomously, according to mechanical laws. From this “thin” conception of the deity it was a short logical step to Friedrich Nietzsche reading Him the last rites. (source) 

Spare me and also, who cares! We're, at best, briefly lived fireflies in this big fat universe. We're born. We're here to enjoy the hell out of life, do some good, and then we die. Dat's it. 

According to a recent Gallop poll the percentage of US Americans who say religion is “very important” in their lives has leveled off at just under 50%. The most significant drop, since 1948, was in Protestants. People identifying as Catholic or “other” remained the same, more or less. Folks who claimed “none” (i.e., no religious affiliation) rose from 2% to 24%. Given all the god salesweasels, Jesus botherers, and religious scamsters, this comes as no fucking surprise.

Yes, I’m starting today on the DEEP side of the old brain. 

The mind of God is all the mentality that is scattered over space and time, the diffused consciousness that animates the world. 
~ Spinoza

FACTS!

Platypuses sweat milk. Okay, not really. Also, this is kind of icky.

They secrete milk from specialised mammary glands, just like humans and other mammals. But platypuses don’t have teats, so the milk just oozes from the surface of their skin. This makes it look like sweat, but in fact platypuses are aquatic and don’t produce regular sweat at all. (source) 

Pumpkins are a type of berry – a wickedly GINORMOUS berry. 

Stingrays (the fish, not the cars) give birth to live bébés. They keep their eggs inside their bodies until they hatch, then give birth to fully formed bébé rays. 

A dead or dying stingray can give birth to a live pup. Pregnant stingrays can go into an involuntary, stress-induced premature labor as a final, desperate survival reflex to save the bairn. Mother nature is a rager!

Before crowbars were invented, crows would drink at home, alone. Sad.

Notre Dame Cathedral is older than Machu Picchu. Construction on Notre Dame, the Gothic cathedral in Paris, began in 1163 and was pretty much done by 1260. Machu Picchu, the Incan fortress in Peru was built around 1420 to 1450. My mind…it's blown

Liza Minnelli was Judy Garland’s daughter. Judy Garland was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Liza was, at one time, married to Jack Haley Jr. whose father, Jack Haley Sr., played the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. 

Wombats are the only known animals that produce cube-shaped poop. Wombats are, like me, pretty antisocial but have communal latrines (I, by the way, don't use a communal latrine unless the bathroom I share with Ten counts?). Wombat communal cans are generally rocks or logs. Their cube-shaped poops are wicked practical as they don’t roll off and away. 

WHY is this good? You know how dogs, when they’re out for walkies, sniff every tree, bush and what-have-you they pass? They’re reading the local news – getting the latest gossip. Same with wombats.

If humans had wings that enabled them/us to fly, how big would they need to be? It would, of course, depend on a person’s size. Ty Hedrick, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says that someone who's about 155 pounds and at least 5 feet tall would need a wingspan of about 20 feet.

Hedrick arrived at this figure using an equation developed by Robert Nudds, a senior lecturer in biological sciences at the University of Manchester. Nudds described this equation in a 2007 paper published in the Journal of Avian Biology, in which he describes the scaling of bird wing parameters with respect to body mass. (source) 

More on this at the link. 

Flying would be way cool but, frankly, heights scare me and I’d just be thrilled to itty bitty bits if I could walk easily and without assistance again.

The Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex existed further apart in time (~90 million years) than the T Rex and the iPad (~66 million years).

Our old buddy the Stegosaurus roamed the Earth during the late Jurassic period, between 156 and 144 million years ago. Tyrannosaurus rex hung out during the late Cretaceous period, about 67–65 million years ago. The two did NOT cross paths.

 Evolutionarily speaking, the Y-chromosome is a mutated X-chromosome.

While the Y chromosome is indeed a heavily mutated and degenerated descendant of the X, geneticists usually describe it as a divergent evolutionary branch rather than a mutation of the female blueprint itself. Both male and female sexes originally diverged from a common, unisex ancestor. (source) 

So, men are actually mutant women. How da ya like that! NATURALLY this goes a long way towards supporting my supposition that the Bible, the whole Adam and Eve myth, was written by a desperately insecure man.

I KNEW IT!!!