Imagine if he committed suicide. That would be unfortunate enough but imagine his obituary, ‘Partridge shot by gun‘. I mean, nobody would read it and nobody would remember him.

Is it some sort of sub-conscious attempt to set themselves apart from the apes? ‘Look, ma, it’s working invisibly. I did that. Mentally with my head.‘.

They can’t be showing off because most casual observers would just see the furtive movement of a balled fist in the trouser pocket, near the you know what, and assume the worst.

9pm*
TG4 Paisean Faisean **: One girl looking for love must choose between three guys, whose challenge it is to woo her by picking her an outfit.

BBC2 The Elephant’s guide to sex: Getting elephants in the mood for love is just one of Dr Hilebrandts jobs. the Doc is just one of a growing number [really! There's more than one?] of pioneers using a hands-on approach to animal reproduction…

C4 Ulrika – Am I a sex addict?: Ulrika Jonsson presents a revealing and personal documentary exploring sex addiction.

RTE2 and Channel 5: CSI Miami. Both are probably repeats.

It’s funny and sad how ’sex’ is treated in both countries while the BBC2 elephant documentary is just plain odd.

But, but, what’s that buried near midnight on BBC1? Hmmm. There’s a show on Peter Singer. Peter Singer (wiki) is an Australian philosopher whose writings made me become a vegetarian way back when. I’m trying to remember stuff from a long time ago but, to use the jargon, he takes an extreme utilitarian viewpoint (wiki). At first blush, his views are quite radical and even outrageous. I’ve never jumped completely on his bandwagon but he has an interesting mind. Religious groups hate him and think he’s immoral. So he can’t be all bad, then. It’s past my bedtime so I’ll be taping it and I’d encourage you do the same.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m a bit grumpy because, last Tuesday, Sky showed the last episode ever of Stargate SG1. I’ve now got nothing to watch (sob, sob) so I’ll have to read a book or something. Maybe I could volunteer to help the elephants at Dublin Zoo??

*Programme descriptions are from saturday’s Irish Times TV listings.
** I’m told it means ‘Passion Fashion”.

Some things are best left unsaid so I’ll probably moderate comments if you make one that’s NSFW! This photo was taken in Dublin Zoo at the weekend. It was hilarious to listen to the comments that parents made to each other and the (ever so) slightly different comments that children made to their parents.

humourous-blog-post-of-year-whatever

This is the least funny line. Honestly, you absolutely have to read the article!!

He was fined €2,000 for bringing the donkey to [his hotel] room under the Unlawful Accommodation of Donkeys Act 1837.

Major hat-tip to Counago & Spaves

He’s calling it ‘Spook Country‘ for now.

My new novel sort of glances sideways at this “death of cyberspace” meme.

It’s “everting*”, says the French curator of locative digital art to the American journalist, of cyberspace. The journalist thinks the curator said everything”.

They’re both right.

The thing that’s going to be quaint about “cyberspace” (that already is, really) is the inherent assumption that it’s a realm unto itself; that it’s in any way elsewhere or other.

Glancing sideways is becoming more generally recognized as about the best way of doing what we used to call futurism.

There is a god Santa.

everting – the act of turning inside out; a change of position that does not entail a change of location

Please don’t pretend you knew what everting meant

Recent Human Evolution Detected
A surprisingly recent instance of human evolution has been detected among the peoples of East Africa. It is the ability to digest milk in adulthood, conferred by genetic changes that occurred as recently as 3,000 years ago, a team of geneticists has found.

The finding is a striking example of a cultural practice — the raising of dairy cattle — feeding back into the human genome. It also seems to be one of the first instances of convergent human evolution to be documented at the genetic level. Convergent evolution refers to two or more populations acquiring the same trait independently.

He found the story in The New York Times.