French toast...French water...French rainforest?

While the French are notorious for their tower, cuisine, and rudeness, they are much less known for their biological contributions to the world. This article/press release describes recent scientific findings that conclude a tropical rainforest may have occupied the space of current-day Paris.

Just imagine the level of obnoxiousness of the French were Paris hot and humid, a la the Amazon Rainforest... I kid...I kid.

Happy birthday, Patrick Stewart

One of the best!

Story about Angkor temple Banteay Chhmar.

A few years ago I went to Cambodia for two weeks. We saw the majority of the classic Angkor temples around Siem Reap, but did not travel to any of those outside of the general vicinity: namely Preah Vihear, which recently has been in the press for a dispute between Cambodia and Thailand and whose land it belongs to, and Banteay Chhmar.
What the below article describes is the temple of Banteay Chhmar and how it plays a role in the everyday life of the locals: Farmers store hay in the outer rooms and allow their cattle to graze on the grass inside the temple, crops are grown near the moat, etc. At the temples we visited--most of the major ones including Angkor Watt, Ta Prohm, Bayon, etc.--the grounds are kept clean, the walkways are free of weeds and debris...i$n general, they're tourist attractions. The role of Banteay Chhmar seems much more organic; it seems that it's less of a trek for pale-faced visitors, and more of a entity to be used among the people who built it. I enjoyed learning about Banteay Chhmar through this article and wish I had a chance to see it.

Read the story here

Black Flag? EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

YouTube is awesome.

MORE cable access commercials are needed for future shows. Maybe we can get Steve The List to start producing a video list...? He's already on the email tip, why stop there?

Hillary prevents Obama from being white

At the gym, riding the bike, listening to The Swankys, and reading the CNN captions. Anderson Cooper's show, Mark Halperin of TIME elaborates on how Ms. Clinton is preventing Mr. Obama from acquiring votes:

Halperin: She's preventing him from getting white...

Eyebrows are raised.

Does Mr. Halperin know of plans by Mr. Obama that the general population is unaware of? Does Ms. Clinton hold super-powers that we should be aware of? Does Mr. Halperin really speak that horribly?

Halperin: ...conservative votes...

Relief settles. The captions catch up. Back to boring punditry. Mr. Obama and his transforming skin-color no longer interests me.

Later I'm less concerned when the (sic) "hunta" of Myanmar is discussed regarding the cyclones.

UPDATE:
It was Joe Klein, not Halperin; here's the quote:

KLEIN: And she's got to cast significant doubt in the minds of a lot of people in the party that Barack Obama just isn't going to get white, working-class votes.

I was a little off; it was a rough workout.