Blog Crawl Gems

This Week's Treasures

First, I would like to thank The Mermaid’s Tale for their post about the ethics of using chimpanzees and other animals in medical research, prompted by recommendations from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (USA) to sharply curtail use of chimpanzees.  I have never understood how people could subject animals to the kinds of treatments that they do.  One study on stress comes to mind, where mice were repeatedly shocked until they failed to respond.  Without apology, the investigators published the details of their experiments along with photos of a mouse in various stages of being shocked, finally just standing in a dazed stupor.

On a cheerier note --

Rapid Uplift writes about why he teaches rugby to village kids in rural India (it’s not just for the terrific views of layered Deccan Basalts) ... go Rapid Uplift!

For another spectacular view, see Gazing at distant hills…

But wait ... note the poor exposure, and the view obviously was not well-framed.  So what is so spectacular?   These are distant hills on Mars, part of Endeavor Crater.  I am awestruck looking at landscapes on another planet.  You can do some exploring of Mars yourself courtesy Road to Endeavor: Walking alongside Opportunity as she explores Endeavour…

And some big news for aging Baby Boomers ... the pace of the Grim Reaper has been established!  Now we know how fast we have to walk to evade him.
GR courtesy FBNY.

Finally ... don't miss the wonderful sand grain Christmas card from Sandatlas.