Weird Science: Birds, Brains, and a Steady Trunk

It's been thought for some time that birds use the Earth's magnetic fields to navigate and migrate.  But how?   A several studies in the last year suggest that it is very simple: they can actually see the magnetic field.  Before you get too excited about what superpowers might accompany that, though, let me add that it may just be that north appears as a darker spot -- a sort of visual compass, essentially.

This guy named Clay Shirky (nifty name) believes people may be starting to use our cognitive surplus provided by modern technology.  That is to say, we're coming out of our wholesale societal shock at how the world changed in the 20th century -- a shock we essentially numbed ourselves to with television -- and beginning a major cultural shift in how we share our creativity and information.  He compares it to the early 19th century, in which the Industrial Revolution produced a generation of extremely high gin consumption before a new generation produced public libraries, museums, and most other culturally democratic institutions.  Here's a print version of his lecture; a question nagging me is how much this surplus is actually founded on cheap energy, so that we're waking up just in time for another huge society-altering shock.

And finally, if you have not already seen this elephant paint, it is quite a treat.  I was told beforehand what to expect and I still found it staggering.

You can't make this stuff up. (UPDATED)

Seriously.

When a Republican Congressman is stopped for running a red light, and consequently arrested for DWI, and the address he claimed to be driving to in the wee hours turns out to be that of a mistress, with whom he eventually admits to having fathered a child... you know things are already pretty weird and bad.  (For his wife, as much as anyone.)

But when he is eventually bludgeoned into retiring -- no, really, he wanted to run for re-election -- and every single person (from State Senators to County Clerks) that the Republican authorities tap to run for this swing district flees for the hills so that the nominee they are left with is just a former transit authority board member, then you would think things could hardly get any worse for the Republicans either, or any stranger.

But you'd be wrong.

Because this noble soldier for the cause, a Mr. Francis H. Powers, has a son... Francis M. Powers.  Which wouldn't enter into any of this, of course, except that Francis M. Powers decided to run for the same seat as the Libertarian candidate, saying "This is not about my dad... I'm running against the Republican candidate."  That is to say, his dad.  Got that?

So Francis M. Powers is getting his name on the ballot (under the 'Anarchist Party' if the Libertarian effort falls through) with the explicit intention of siphoning votes away from Francis H. Powers not because of personal reasons but because "We can't have the Republicans take this seat again."  It's really very gentlemanly of Francis M. Powers, especially since Francis H. Powers apparently has no such reservations about using personal attacks against his opponents, that is to say, his son.

Like I said, you can't make this stuff up.

Oh, and did I mention that Francis M. Powers (that's the son) is in a Staten Island band called Box of Crayons?  Well, he is.

UPDATE: Annnnnnd... NPR covers the story.  Guess they couldn't resist.  Go here to listen to an interview with the above-pictured Francis M. Powers, obviously the more entertaining option for good material.  And to his credit, a guy who shows he appreciates the irony of an Anarchist Party.