I Will Remember You

July 1, 2014 • 5:53 am

Whatever happened to Sarah McLachlan? I suppose she’s out there still singing like an angel, but I don’t hear much of or from her. Of course, I barely listen to the radio any more.  But I did hear this song, which reminded me of an old friend, and so wanted to share her live performance (she’s just as good live as when she’s recorded).

If you speak Spanish, you get the bonus of subtitles.

The song was written by McLachlan, Séamus Egan, and Dave Marenda in 1995, and the live version won McLachlan a Grammy for Best Female Pop Performance in 2000.

Today’s footie

July 1, 2014 • 4:29 am

After today we get a break until we get to the quarterfinals on Friday (Brazil vs. Colombia and France vs. Germany—two great games!). I watched most of both games yesterday (including of the France/Nigeria game; this football is killing me! I’d love to watch both games today (I want to see Messi play but I feel I should also watch the US lose to Belgium), but don’t think I’ll accomplish that.

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Put your guesses for victors and scores in the comments below. There are no prizes except the warm appreciation of your host.

I’m getting sick of the diving, which seems ubiquitous. I’m starting to think that, as one reader suggested, games that are tied after overtime should be settled on red and yellow card scores throughout all matches. That would give a huge incentive to avoid diving, bad tackles, and so on.

Germany defeated Algeria 2-1 but Algeria, like Nigeria, played a good game:

France beat Nigeria 2-0, with Nigeria scoring an own goal in the last few minutes. They also missed an earlier goal which was nullified because the Nigerian striker was offside. Here are the highlights (click on screenshot):

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The animated Google Doodle is very cute today, but see it soon before it vanishes (click on screenshot):

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Readers’ wildlife photos

June 30, 2014 • 11:45 am

Diana MacPherson sent a photo in an email headed “A female grosbeak with a strange look on her face.” See for yourself (click to enlarge). She added:

I can’t quite articulate the look on this grosbeak’s face but it does seem almost forlorn. She sat there for a while nibbling seeds. I find grosbeaks to be the least worried of all the birds that come up to my feeder.

I’ve found Diana to be inordinately absorbed by the facial expressions of the critters she photographs. Unfortunately, she neglected to include both the common and Latin names of this one (readers take note!). I don’t know from grosbeaks. ID, please?

Dignified Female Grosbeak

Reader Tony from Brisbane in Oz writes in modestly:

While I enjoy photographing wildlife I’m not close to the standard of many of your contributors. Nevertheless I’d like to share a few of my favourite snaps with you.

The one “Budgies” is of a flock of Budgerigars [Melopsittacus undulatus] I followed around snapping in central Queensland near the town of Barcaldine. While I’ve never seen the giant flocks that arise after a good season in Central Australia I was still blown away by this flock of around 150 birds.

Budgies

The photo labelled “chicks” is likely of the young of the Horsfield’s Bushlark [Mirafra javanica]:

chicks

And the the one that isn’t a bird is an Eastern Water Dragon [Physignathus lesueurii] which are very common near any water in my city but always great to see. Old males can get to a decent size (comparable to a large Green Iguana) and quite colourful and conspicuous in the breeding season.

IMG_6045

Again, if you submit photos of wildlife (or plants), please include both the common name and the Latin binomial. If you don’t know it, no worries, mate, for the readers will.

 

Ceci n’est pas une bouteille

June 30, 2014 • 11:19 am

We need a break, so here:Screen shot 2014-06-30 at 1.12.20 PM

Nope, it’s just a drawing of a bottle of vodka, but an amazingly realistic one by Italian artist Marcello Barenghi, whose webpage is here and whose YouTube channel, with similar hyperrealistic drawings, is here.

You can see how this was created in the following speeded-up video:

The video has already gotten more than 1,400,000 views in a week.

The FFRF’s take on the Hobby Lobby decision

June 30, 2014 • 8:59 am

While sitting here polishing the prose of my book, I’m nagged by the dreadful decision announced today by the Supreme Court (see the New York Times story). What they’ve done is not only classified corporations as people (something they did in an earlier decision about campaign donations), but also classified them as religious people: firms that can control on religious grounds the working conditions and benefits of their employees.

This seems to me to violate the very freedom of religion that the Founders wrote into the Constitution. Can a Christian Science business refuse to give their employees any conventional medical care? After all, they don’t believe that disease or injury is real, but are illusions curable by prayer. Can a Scientologist-owned firm refuse psychiatric coverage for its employees? After all, Scientologists see psychiatry as repugnant and useless.

I could go on, but today I’m really afraid for America: afraid that, due solely to our Supreme Court, we are becoming a theocracy. And given the court’s status as the last legal resort in America, only the legislature  (also highly religious) can effect change. But in this case, since the ruling is on Constitutional grounds, I doubt that even Congress could affect it. [Note: the preceding sentence is wrong: Congress could amend the law by overturning the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allows people to get exemptions from Federal Law; see here.]

What can we do? The FFRF just put out a “call to action,” which I’ll reproduce here. Please consider taking some of the steps they suggest, including joining the FFRF itself, which you can do here.  And also consider boycotting the horrible firms involved in this decision: Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties.

Here’s the FFRF’s bulletin:

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Oh, dear God: the Supreme Court sides with Hobby Lobby

June 30, 2014 • 7:38 am

My CNN news alert has just given me the depressing decision:

The Supreme Court today sided with Christian-owned companies that don’t want to pay for some types of contraceptives for their employees.

The owners of Hobby Lobby, furniture maker Conestoga Wood Specialties and Christian bookseller Mardel argued that the Affordable Care Act violates the First Amendment and other federal laws protecting religious freedom because it requires them to provide coverage for contraceptives like the “morning-after pill,” which the companies consider tantamount to abortion.

The decision may serve as a primer for other pending challenges to the health law championed by President Barack Obama.

I’m busy and haven’t time to look this up, but I’m betting the vote is 5-4, with Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy concurring, and Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer and Ginsburg dissenting.

This opens the door to every business being able to determine its employees’ health care on religious grounds. Abortion is next.