Meet a Somali Wild Ass Foal

Nice leggings!

 

 

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Meet a Somali Wild Ass Foal

via ZooBorns by Andrew Bleiman on 12/16/10

Among the rarest mammals, the Somali Wild Ass is a critically endangered subspecies of African Wild Ass, which is itself critically endangered. This species is believed to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey. While the exact size of the small population left in the wild is unknown, about 200 Somali Wild Asses live in zoos around the world, 35 of which were bred at Switzerland's Zoo Basel! Born November 16th, this beautiful young foal, named Hakaba, explores her enclosure for the first time, cautiously sniffing at first, then exuberantly running!

 

 

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Watch: Jimmy Carter Says America is Ready for a Gay President

 

 

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Watch: Jimmy Carter Says America is Ready for a Gay President

via Towleroad News #gay by Andy Towle on 12/15/10

In a new Big Think interview, former President Jimmy Carter says America is ready for a gay Commander in Chief.

Says Carter, in part:

"Step-by-step, we have realized that this issue of homosexuality has the same adverse and progressive elements as when we dealt with the race issue 50 years ago, or 40 years ago. So I would say that the country is getting acclimated to a president who might be female, who might, obviously, now, be Black, and who might be as well a gay person."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

 

 

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Sleepy: Wild Parrot of Telegraph Hill (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

 

 

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Sleepy: Wild Parrot of Telegraph Hill (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin on 12/14/10

Photograph contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by user Brandon Watson of Hayward, California.

 

 

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Warhol Foundation Threatens to Pull Funding from Smithsonian Unless it Resto...

 

 

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Warhol Foundation Threatens to Pull Funding from Smithsonian Unless it Restores Censored Wojnarowicz Video

via Towleroad News #gay by Andy Towle on 12/13/10

The Warhol Foundation today threatened to stop funding exhibits at the Smithsonian unless it restores the David Wojnarowicz video piece "A Fire in the Belly" to the National Portrait Gallery's Hide/Seek exhibit. The Smithsonian, as you may know, pulled the Wojnarowicz piece from the exhibit after complaints from the Catholic League that the video, which depicts ants on a crucifix and memorializes the death of Wojnarowicz's lover from AIDS. 

Wrote the Warhol Foundation in a letter:

Mr. Wayne Clough
Smithsonian Institution
SIB Office of the Secretary
MRC 016
PO Box 37012
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Dear Mr. Clough,

The Warhol Foundation is proud to have been a lead supporter of Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, but we strongly condemn the decision to remove David Wojnarowicz's video A Fire in My Belly from the exhibition. Such blatant censorship is unconscionable. It is inimical to everything the Smithsonian Institution should stand for, and everything the Andy Warhol Foundation does stand for.

Although we have enjoyed our growing relationship during the past three years, and have given more than $375,000 to fund several exhibitions at various Smithsonian institutions, we cannot stand by and watch the Smithsonian bow to the demands of bigots who have attacked the exhibition out of ignorance, hatred and fear.

Last week the Foundation published a statement on its website www.warholfoundation.org, condemning the National Portrait Gallery's removal of the work and on Friday our Board of Directors met to discuss the long-term implications of the Museum's behavior on the Foundation's relationship with the Smithsonian Institution. After careful consideration, the Board voted unanimously to demand that you restore the censored work immediately, or the Warhol Foundation will cease funding future exhibitions at all Smithsonian institutions.

I regret that you have put us in this position, but there is no other course we can take. For the arts to flourish the arts must be free, and the decision to censor this important work is in stark opposition to our mission to defend freedom of expression wherever and whenever it is under attack.

Sincerely yours,

Joel Wachs
President

It's good that folks are finally taking action over this shameful censorship.

Also, Tyler Green reports that National Portrait Gallery commissioner James Bartlett has resigned in protest:

"Bartlett is the former board president of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The commission functions as a kind of board of directors for the gallery."

Previously...
Frank Rich Bashes The Smithsonian Over Censorship [tr]
Watch: Activist Banned for Life from Smithsonian for iPad Protest [tr] 
National Portrait Gallery Censors AIDS Artwork [tr]

 

 

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Lovely song about math by Wilco frontman's son: Put A Line On It

 

 

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Lovely song about math by Wilco frontman's son: Put A Line On It

via Boing Boing by Dean Putney on 12/8/10

Attention mothers of mine who teach sixth grade: This is a great song to sing with your students for Friday Song.

14 year old Spencer Tweedy, son of Jeff wrote this parody version of Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" for his algebra class. The song very neatly and cleverly covers a few key math concepts like lines, slopes and digits. And it is fantastically catchy.

Original post with lyrics at Spencer's site [via Xeni via Cassandra Jones]

 

 

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Baby Hippo Sticks Close to Mom in Basel

more baby hippo!

 

 

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Baby Hippo Sticks Close to Mom in Basel

via ZooBorns by Andrew Bleiman on 12/8/10

On November 26th, Switzerland's Zoo Basel welcomed a baby Hippopotamus. Believed to be a boy, the "tiny" hippo sticks close to mom, joining her swims and small cautious adventures outside. Despite outward similarities to rhinos, horses or pigs, the hippo's closest living relatives are whales and dolphins, from which they diverged 55 million years ago.

More pictures below the fold

 

 

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Report: Wikileaks cables show Texas company "helped pimp little boys to ston...

 

 

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Report: Wikileaks cables show Texas company "helped pimp little boys to stoned Afghan cops"

via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin on 12/7/10

In the Houston Press, an extensive blog post untangling an alarming story from the state department cables: "another horrific taxpayer-funded sex scandal for DynCorp, the private security contractor tasked with training the Afghan police," and apparent proof that the company procured male children for bacha bazi ("boy-play") parties.

The story boils down to this: this company, headquartered in DC with Texas offices, helped pimp out little boys as sex slaves to stoned cops in Afghanistan:

For Pashtuns in the South of Afghanistan, there is no shame in having a little boy lover; on the contrary, it is a matter of pride. Those who can afford the most attractive boy are the players in their world, the OG's of places like Kandahar and Khost. On the Frontline video, ridiculously macho warrior guys brag about their young boyfriends utterly without shame.

So perhaps in the evil world of Realpolitik, in which there is apparently no moral compass US private contractors won't smash to smithereens, it made sense for DynCorp to drug up some Pashtun police recruits and turn them loose on a bunch of little boys. But according to the leaked document, Atmar, the Afghani interior minister, was terrified this story would catch a reporter's ear.

He urged the US State Department to shut down a reporter he heard was snooping around, and was horrified that a rumored videotape of the party might surface. He predicted that any story about the party would "endanger lives." He said that his government had arrested two Afghan police and nine Afghan civilians on charges of "purchasing a service from a child" in connection with the party, but that he was worried about the image of their "foreign mentors," by which he apparently meant DynCorp. American diplomats told him to chill. They apparently had a better handle on our media than Atmar, because when a report of the party finally did emerge, it was neutered to the point of near-falsehood.

Read the whole post.

Frontline covered the phenomenon earlier this year—I watched the documentary when it first aired in the US. It was hard to watch. The notion that an American company enabled the sexual and physical abuse of kids like this is nauseating. Video embedded below, may be geo-blocked for folks outside the USA.

(via Dave Winer)

 

 

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