ADHD Train(s) of Thought

I've been gathering a lot of links that interest me to post here, but adding each one as a separate entry would take away precious obsessive surfing time, so here's one of my "what I'm thinking about today" lists:

• Al Gore has responded to the White House backlash after his excellent speech. Most excellent, though I can't help wishing he'd shown this type of fire in the 2000 election. Sigh.



• The Supreme Court upheld the Oregon assisted suicide law yesterday, with the Unholy Trinity dissenting, natch. The obsession with prolonging physical life, no matter how intolerable, is inhumane evidence of the gaps in the wall between church and state. Why should we allow our family members to suffer more than we would let our pets, especially when they are cognizant and able to voice their wishes?



• Former astronaut Mike Mullane has new memoir out, in which he claims that the US space shuttle is "the most dangerous manned spacecraft ever flown, by anybody." He says that this is partially because astronauts and other NASA staff avoid questioning the bureaucracy because they are afraid of losing project opportunities, especially space flight. "Only janitors and cafeteria workers at NASA were blameless in the deaths of the Challenger seven," he charges.
  He's not without a sense of humour, though, as when he describes doing whatever it took to get chosen as an astronaut, from preparing for a proctological exam to withstanding the humiliation of a too-large condom. Although I may be wary that part of the griping is for publicity, his charges are disturbing. I may have to get this book. As I've mentioned before, I loves me some NASA, so an opinionated inside look should be interesting.



• 27 new animal species have been discovered by biologists in Central California caves. That's TWENTY. SEVEN. In just around three years of study. How cool is that? NB: Obviously, the people who say there's nothing new to find and nowhere left to explore on planet Earth? Imbeciles.



• In other animal news, even more proof is coming out that dogs are better than standard tests at detecting cancer. Yet another reason to respect animals, people!



• Finally, I don't know why nobody thought to enter me in this contest. Possibly because it might lead to a situation like this. Actually, I heard Chuck Norris was able to grill a cheese sandwich with the heat of his gaze, but I'm not going to try to verify that, since I don't want a roundhouse to the head.

More disjointed babbling later, no doubt...