I thought I would post this because I know Nikki loves these little dogs. It’s sad that they have to recall all of these poor creatures…
“While pug owners are accustomed to dog malfunction, the latest animals are prone to more problems than just the usual joint failures, overheating, seizures, chronic respiratory defects, and inability to breed without assistance. The latest model pug is simply not in any way a viable dog.”
Be sure to look at the tragic photo gallery of affected dogs…
I caught a couple of interesting articles this morning on Slate.
The first was about a bunch of strategies to help kids sleep. The article was more or less some common sense stuff, but they showed a study that said when kids have bad sleep habits parents’ health is worse. No shocker there, for sure. I will brag here for a minute to mention that our kids never had any trouble going to sleep. Sure I wish Cael would stay asleep a tiny bit longer in the morning, but what parent doesn’t? He goes to bed like a champ, and stays there all night. Same with Quinn and Jordy.
Then there’s an article that talks about how the government (the US government in this case) should be spending lots more money on educating preschoolers. Apparently the research shows that disadvantaged children that get early intensive academic programs are likely to earn more, stay out of jail, and not have teenage pregnancies. The study claims that the savings in unenployment insurance, healthcare, and the costs for incarcerating these people more than pay back the initial investment in intensive daycare. That’s kind of an interesting angle, but it does seem sort of harsh. Let’s teach those little kids a lesson….
So there you go, a little Slate for you today.
Three thousand unwanted charity walk-a-thon attenbees.
Looks like we found the bees we were missing…. Ok, so we were missing more than that, but still I couldn’t pass it up.
Following on top of the diving tigers from yesterday, this time we have some seriously funky and creepy creatures from much much deeper than a couple of feet. There are living nightmares down there. Very cool stuff, makes me kind of happy that I live up here, actually.
Oh man, I caught this link on Metafilter and it’s my new favourite picture. The most-est, ever. I never knew that tigers could swim very well, let alone dive underwater. I guess with the proper encouragement (raw steak) anything is possible. Underwater they look even more like some kind of mythical beast, snarling and ferocious. Which is what they are, really. Amazing creatures.
Click forward and back for other shots of underwater tigers.
A cruise ship apparently driven by morons was run aground today in Alaska, resulting in 200 people being evacuated from the ship by local fishermen. Nice job, boys.
Then, we have a well duh moment by the people who run a nudist camp association. Apparently they have just noticed that 90% of their members (pun incredibly, uncomfortably obvious) are 35 and older. They are trying to attract younger people to come and take it off by offering discounts, but without much luck.
And finally the utter moron of the day award goes to the group of teachers who thought it would be a good idea to stage a mock school shooting with their class of 6th graders. Like, what the hell were they thinking?
“During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on a locked door. “
Predictably, the parents are freaking (as I would, and I’m sure as would most)…. These idiots deserve to be fired.
**Update from Boing Boing: Apparently there’s some spin at work here, the school board released a press statement. I still think that the “prank” is in very very poor taste.
