Short Bites

Darwin’s Tortoise Rolls onto Back for Last Time…
Harriet the tortoise, believed by some to have been brought back to England from the Galapagos by Charles Darwin himself [has died] at the age of 172. DNA testing has raised questions about the Darwin link, but it is still amazing to think that when this creature was born Andrew Jackson was President. Kinda’ puts your own life in perspective, eh?

Are Blogs Bad for You?
[This fellow], writing in ChristianityToday, thinks so. He makes some valid points about the limitations of today’s technology that, for all of the hype, doesn’t map very well to the needs of human communication. Blogs may very well be bad for you. But not this one.

America’s War on Science
In a slightly [breathless editorial] over at SEED Magazine, they’re taking a marketplace approach to the problem of production of home-grown scientists and engineers. In short, we’re not producing enough of our own and need to import more. Apparently, this is one area where we need more of a trade imbalance. What they neglect to address is the fact that we still [produce a lot of techies] — just not as many, per capita, as when the Russkies were breathing down our necks with a bazillion missles…

10-year Erection Leads to Stiff Penalty
Some poor guy in Rhode Island has been walking around with a [Bionic Boner] for 10 years. You might think that’s a good thing, but it isn’t — to the tune of $400,000.