Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Bits and pieces from the internet: Shaken, not stirred edition

If you ever wanted to know how a dog REALLY feels and looks in the middle of shaking off water from its body, you should look at Carlo Davidson's fantastic photos.  Amazing, and incredible.  I remember that we blew in the labradors' ears when I grew up to get them to shake off the water by the shore, and not in the middle of the picnic blanket. The fur coat of a lab can hold a lot of water, indeed.

Earthquakes are scary.  Yesterday there was a rather big one here on the east coast of USA, which is very unusual.  I missed it, was probably in the car or walking outside, but people in my work building felt desks and walls shaking and heard cracking noises.  A friend in Washington said his whole lab building was shaking for 15 seconds and everybody ran outside; most people realized it was an earthquake. Considering it was a 5.8 on the scale, very little damage happened.  But at first, many thought it might be a terrorist attack.  We are getting awfully close to the 10-year anniversary of Sept 11, 2001...

Talking about terrorism, here is an interesting list of 25 people and industries that profit from fear. This is worth reading and thinking about.  It is not just insurance companies and the beauty industry, but also seemingly harmless groups such as advocacy groups, the pet industry, and toy companies.  It is much, much worse here in the US than in Sweden, mostly because here in the US people has to blame and sue someone when something bad happens.

And here is the answer to why James Bond wanted his martinis shaken, not stirred. In case you wondered. (I don't like martinis, so I don't really care either way, honestly.)

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