The Drone Hearings--Farea Al-Muslimi

Last week, I learned about a Senate hearing on drone warfare that I could watch live on my computer, and as it was my day off, and since I really have no sympathy for this whole program and even have a blog where I post news I glean from a few places, I thought I should walk my talk and watch it. I liked the tenor of the conversation as a whole, and found it quite different from the often fractious proceedings on the Senate or House floor. But I think many people would agree with me in saying that the most moving and compelling testimony came from a Yemeni citizen named Farea Al-Muslimi, who had come to school in the U.S., and loved this country, but had returned to find his own country to be a sanctioned drone target area. I think in that moment, he was the voice of his people, and I am so happy that Just Foreign Policy gave us a link to his part of the hearing.

 

If you would like to watch the hearings in their entirety, you can find them HERE.

Run For Boston

I'm not a runner, but I heard about this on Chris Hayes' show, All In, and thought my running friends might like this way of showing solidarity with the Boston Marathon runners. It's not a fundraiser per se. But as a poem by Rumi called "Things Are Such" that I picked up at our store today goes:

"Things are such, that someone lifting a cup,
or watching the rain, petting a dog,
or singing, just singing -- could be doing as
much for this universe as anyone."

Or running. Just running.

Ezra Klein on the Boston Marathon

I love the wonky Ezra Klein with his buoyant way of teaching us all about statistics and data. Still I don't normally think of him as the first person I'd turn to for moral uplift in a time of crisis. But I found his piece on today's Boston Marathon tragedy moving but also hopeful. Thus, I share it with you. 

Mantis shrimp

You may not have missed this, but I certainly did. If it wasn't for a friend at work, I never would have known about this shrimpy dynamo.

First, the cartoon.


Now, a short film:

 

This all came up because a couple of mantis shrimps seem to have found their way into the Monterey Bay Aquarium, just on the other side of the bay on which I live. My friend was highly amused that the best plan for catching this creature, which can punch through aquarium glass and devastate a fish tank, not to mention see a specturum of colors that is about five times what we humans can see, apparently involves using a set of tongs...

Treasure trove

Everybody and their brother will have heard of this by the time I post it, but just in case you haven't, there is a real life treasure hunt commencing NOW.

I'm hearing shades of Treasure of the Sierra Madre in all this, but you go right on ahead...

Bunny Awareness

Spring has sprung, Easter is just around the corner, and apparently it's the time of year when people find the idea of buying a cute little bunny irresistable. My friend Brittany, a self-described Crazy Bunny Lady,  has put up an excellent post about resisting that particular temptation unless you are fully prepared for what that commitment entails. A lot of these creatures end up at the SPCA--or worse. I know one other Crazy Bunny Lady and will attest from that example that yes, they really do chew on EVERYTHING.

I feel confident in thinking that Brittany won't mind me stealing a picture of her beloved Emily to induce you to read on...

 

Here Comes the Sun---again

Not embedded by request.

Not the Suburu commercial, either...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHdhMrcXC7s&list=PL6F53EA9F7A4A20D2

Thanks. M. Ward.