SUN DAMAGE? WHAT SUN DAMAGE?

This is enough to make us want to stay in the dark for the rest of our lives. From the New York Daily News:

The New England Journal of Medicine has published a shocking photo of a 69 year-old man with unilateral dermatoheliosis -- severe damage from ultraviolet rays on one side of his face. 

The unnamed man, who gave permission for his photo to be used in new stories, told researchers that had driven a delivery truck for 28 years. 

Ultraviolet A (UVA) had penetrated the window glass, damaging the outermost layers and sublayers of his skin.

Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark.

AS SEEN FROM SPACE

Not many people get to hang out on Bouganville Island in Papau, New Guinea. Bagana, the volcano, is active.

And apparently spewing, according to NASA. This new satellite photo shows it happening.

COME SEE THE SQUID

Wake the kids, pack the car and go west, young man. Squid on the beach.

The Oregonian has the story:

"I haven't confirmed it, but we are hearing reports that dozens are washing up," said Chris Havel, spokesman for the Oregon State Parks & Recreation Department. "They are probably Humboldt squid, which are much more common in warmer waters around Santa Cruz."

The squid are about two feet long, and have a life cycle of only a year or two, Havel said. They may be dying because they are at the end of their life cycle or it could be food related or a disease, he said.

"If you get a chance, go look at them," said Havel, who suggested Washburne State Park would be a good starting point. "Bring your camera, take some pictures. This may be your only chance to see a Humboldt squid lying on the beach."

Or you can check out this pic of said squid and freak out.

DESTRUCTION AS ART

Who knew fire could be so cool? Click here to watch the vid in HD.

NOT SO LOST, AFTER ALL

A few weeks ago The Media went with a bad-ass story about a previously undiscovered tribe in a rainforest hugging the Brazilian-Peruvian border. Television gobbled the story because it came with good vid, great vid, of tribesmen shooting arrows at the plane during a looksee.

Too good to be true, of course. As the Guardian explains:

[I]t has now emerged that, far from being unknown, the tribe's existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that 'uncontacted' tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry.

The disclosures have been made by the man behind the pictures, José Carlos Meirelles, 61, one of the handful of sertanistas – experts on indigenous tribes – working for the Brazilian Indian Protection Agency, Funai, which is dedicated to searching out remote tribes and protecting them. ...

For two days, Meirelles says, he flew a 150km-radius route over the border region with Peru and saw huts that belonged to isolated tribes. But he did not see people. 'When the women hear the plane above, they run into the forest, thinking it's a big bird,' he said. 'This is such a remote area, planes don't fly over it.'

What he was looking for was not only proof of life, but firm evidence that the tribes in this area were flourishing – proof in his view that the policy of no contact and protection was working. On the last day, with only a couple hours of flight time remaining, Meirelles spotted a large community.

'When I saw them painted red, I was satisfied, I was happy,' he said. 'Because painted red means they are ready for war, which to me says they are happy and healthy defending their territory.' ...

Survival International, the organisation that released the pictures along with Funai, conceded yesterday that Funai had known about this nomadic tribe for around two decades. It defended the disturbance of the tribe saying that, since the images had been released, it had forced neighbouring Peru to re-examine its logging policy in the border area where the tribe lives, as a result of the international media attention. Activist and former Funai president Sydney Possuelo agreed that – amid threats to their environment and doubt over the existence of such tribes – it was necessary to publish them.

Use the tribesmen. Just don't let them know they're being used. As far as they know, you're just a big metal bird in the sky.

A HONEY OF A HOUSEGUEST

Dateline: Concord, N.H.

Skinny: Homeowner sees sticky stuff on walls, dips a finger, takes a taste. It's honey. In the walls, bees crawled.

WYFF reports:

Mark Jones’ 100-year-old house has more than 60,000 [bees].

Jones and his wife, Amychelle, said they can sum it up in one word: insanity. On Sunday, they found a way to deal with the bees.

Beekeepers removed 60,000 bees from the Joneses' home Sunday morning, leaving about 1,000 still buzzing inside.

No queen, so no lingering infestation. Four bees stung the beekeepers. All good, and the house remains tasty.

NO WAY, FEDERAL WAY

We thank the gods or whatever for not putting us on the path of the Federal Way school district in Washington State. There, the citizens with juice seem to be a little goofy in the head.

The skinny: A teacher wanted to show "An Inconvenient Truth" to a class. A parent who supports creationism in schools complained, loudly. The school board says the Al Gore film can only be shown only with permission from the principal and superintendent, and only if a "credible, legitimate opposing view" is presented.

It's not a fight over truth; it's a war about politics, religion and political correctness. A story in the Post-Intelligencer illustrates the power of screwed-up thinking:

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

Hardison is apparently the one who does the thinking around the house:

Hardison and his wife, Gayla, said they would prefer that the movie not be shown at all in schools.

"From what I've seen (of the movie) and what my husband has expressed to me, if (the movie) is going to take the approach of 'bad America, bad America,' I don't think it should be shown at all," Gayle Hardison said. "If you're going to come in and just say America is creating the rotten ruin of the world, I don't think the video should be shown."

People with common sense would listen politely to the Hardisons, allow them to remove their child from the class, and go ahead with the movie. But that would be asking too much of the Federal Way school district. Hardison's e-mail to David Larson, a school board member, sparked Larson to call for a moratorium on "An Inconvenient Truth." Larson explains, poorly:

"Somebody could say you're killing free speech, and my retort to them would be we're encouraging free speech," said Larson, a lawyer. "The beauty of our society is we allow debate."

School Board members adopted a three-point policy that says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented," that they must get the OK of the principal and the superintendent, and that any teachers who have shown the film must now present an "opposing view."

Hardison has an opposing view. Is it credible or legitimate? Not unless he has scientific evidence to bolster his own young-Earth claims and to dispute the film's contentions. That's a debate. Otherwise, the district must allow everyone with a crackpot view to make his or her case.

A guy named Curt Brown used to be the general manager of KTTS radio in Springfield. Brown would voice his own editorials; a sly tagline said "opposing views will be considered." The Federal Way school district should have taken a lesson from Brown and stood up against a blowhard.

KITTY CONUNDRUM

Jim Stevenson stands accused of killing a cat with his .22-caliber rifle. The Galveston, Texas, resident isn't some sick, punk-ass kid. He's a bird lover and a published author, founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society.

But even if he isn't good for the Nov. 8 shooting with which he's charged, Stevenson is a cat killer. The Houston Chronicle reports that Stevenson admits to shooting two dozen cats on his property.

He also insists he does not hate cats. From the story:

"It has come across in articles that I hate cats and that's just not true," Stevenson said in an interview at his home today. "I actually like cats in the house. I have friends I visit and I play with their cats in my lap."

Feral cats, however, are another matter. Stevenson told the newspaper that it's not illegal to shoot feral cats, and if they're on his property, they're fair game.

But the Nov. 8 shooting happened this way, according to the Chronicle:

Stevenson was arrested last week after a toll booth worker at the San Luis Pass Bridge said he heard two shots and saw Stevenson driving away in a white van.

The bridge employee, John Newland, said he and other toll-takers feed the cats that gather around the bridge and consider them pets. Newland said he found the cat, which already had a limp from an earlier shooting, dead after he heard shots.

Police arrested Stevenson several miles from the bridge as he drove toward his home.

Problem for Stevenson: A pet cat isn't considered feral.

Stevenson loves his birds. Understood. But how'd you like to have an outdoor cat and be this guy's neighbor?

ONLY A DOLPHIN, MA'AM

Conservation International announces ... a walking shark:

Not far from the Foja Mountains, where a CI team recently discovered a "lost world" of rare plants and animals, another CI-led expedition has found a new trove of extraordinary marine biodiversity in a region known as the Bird's Head Seascape.

Among the new species were two kinds of epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium sp.) – small, slender-bodied bottom-dwellers that use their pectoral fins to "walk" across the seafloor.

Candygram.