The Nature of Things

What a week.  The execrable Palin family is crowding into our consciousness once again, with the matriarch leading the way with her word-salad endorsement of Donald Trump for president and her blaming President Obama for her son's drunken domestic violence. Personal responsibility, anyone? The presidential campaigns are heating up which means that the nonsense meter is rising higher. The National Review has belatedly decided that maybe it has been a mistake for conservatives to clutch the viper Trump to its bosom. Trump supporters have responded as Trump supporters do. On the other side of politics, some liberal voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Paul Krugman have had the temerity to criticize some of the pronouncements and policies of Saint Bernie, generating frothing at the mouth and some truly unhinged attacks by his supporters who believe that the man can do and say no wrong.  Enough! Let's take a break from all that. Here's an emotional and intellectual palate cleans...

This is so incredible that I just have to share it - Black Swans feeding koi in a pond at a resort in Taiwan. How did this get started, I wonder? Were the swans feeding their cygnets and the koi took advantage and then when the little swans grew up the parents continued to feed the koi? I have no idea. Maybe some human trainer actually trained them to do this. Regardless of how it happened, I find it perfectly amazing!

Have you met Teddy Bear the porcupine? He REALLY loves pumpkins and he'll be glad to tell you all about it!