This looks like one of the best ways to die EVER!

Just to help clear things up a bit, there are a coup;le of different plants that are commonly called "Skunk Cabbage" in North America. Wikipedia (although not the most scholarly source in the world, in this case, useful and fairly accurate) has a page that points out that "Western Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus), also called Yellow Skunk Cabbage or Swamp Lantern, is a plant found in swamps and wet woods, along streams and in other wet areas of the Pacific Northwest, where it is one of the few native species in the arum family." Those of you on the Eastern side of the continent are used to seeing a plant that is similarly named and with a similar smell, which is the Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), another species in the arum family found in eastern North America. Both of these plants produce a naturally occurring gas called Methyl Mercaptan, or Methanethiol, which is used for many things, not the least of which is to give otherwise odorless natural gas that distinctive "rotten egg" smell.

In short, Skunk Cabbage is awesome.

The NoScript Firefox add-on (free, of course) will stop all of this nonsense. I don't see any ads on any web page that I don't put on a whitelist. NoScript is transparent and stops all sorts of nastiness.

I am in no way affiliated with NoScript or its creators. It is just a darned good little app.

I'm just sayin'

I've seen an ultrasound of my liver, and this one looks much softer and happier. Perhaps it's just the lack of resolution in an ultrasound image, but my liver didn't seem to be smiling at all.

:^)

@imanalchemist

Fair enough. ^_^

@ Mytake

You're welcome.

@imanalchemist

They did not have to keep Rose-tu (Samudra's mom) in chains. They had to keep them separated. You are mischaracterizing the handling of the elephants and doing the Oregon Zoo and the elephant handlers a disservice.

Geez you guys, lighten up. You are getting upset about something that you don't have any first-hand experience with.

I live in Oregon and am a member of the Oregon Zoo. Little "Sam", and all of the other elephants that live in the zoo live in a habitat that has been carefully researched and designed to provide them with not only plenty of space outdoors, but also swimming areas and activities that engage them and allow them to play and operate as a functioning group. One of the other commenters was correct in saying that you were just seeing part of one of the indoor areas where the elephants are handled and monitored, and they also sleep indoors. The Oregon Zoo is a world class elephant protection and research facility and has an enviable track record for advocating for the protection of these animals.

If any of you want to see photos of Sam and his mom outside playing in one of the large yards, you can find them here:

http://flickr.com/photos/carbonfish

I just think that before you express outrage or sadness about something, you should know a little bit about it first.

KC

While I am certain that the Queuebot will increase Neatorama's raw numbers, I am equally certain that it will cost the blog its unique character. I guess if Alex (and the other eds.) are willing to strike that bargain, that's all that matters. It is, after all, their blog.

It will be interesting to come back in a year or so, and compare the content then to the archived content from before the change (to the bot), and see what the spawn of the Queuebot actually grows into.

IMHO noting good ever comes from anything with "bot" in its name.

I'm just sayin'

The queue diminishes Neatorama. More reader input editorially is definitely not necessarily a good thing. Save it for the comments. If the editors at Neatorama are interested in maintaining the blog's individual character, they should abandon the queuebot sooner rather than later.

Keep your editorial integrity and find the good stuff. If your readers could do that, they'd have their own successful blogs.

What kind of a world is it where a person can't leave their 35 Kg. bag of reptile poop unattended for a little while without someone making off with it??

Sheesh.

@violet

^_^

I meant to say irresponsible mischaracterization, not "irresponsible misrepresentation."

My typing got in the way of my brain...

Carry on.

@SparkS

WTF?? Communist in the White House? Not in my country there isn't. I am proud and tremendously hopeful now that President Obama is in the White House. For the first time in as long as I can remember (and I am old enough to have a fairly long memory) I truly feel that our President is a representative of the diversity of the United States. Calling the President a Communist is ignorant and malicious. Having a political opinion is not the same thing as irresponsible misrepresentation.

While I think that America needs to produce much more of what we consume right here at home, I am by no means suggesting that we build physical (or ideological) walls around the country and pull out of the world economy.

I was only saying the the Capitol Visitor's Center represents the U.S. Capitol, and that it seems reasonable to me that the cheesy trinkets that they foist off on the souvenir-buying public represent the best American-made cheesy trinkets that we can offer.

I don't want to sound like an isolationist or something, but I think that having a policy requiring that only American made products be sold at the Capitol Visitors Center is reasonable and so is the refusal to compromise regardless of our current financial situation. If we produced and consumed more of our own goods, and made high quality American made goods available to our Capitol's visitors, both foreign and domestic, we would at least be taking small steps away from the dependence on foreign goods that have helped to get us in this mess to begin with.

Let that stuff sit in storage, or recycle it. $100,000 is chicken feed when you consider the scope of the mess we're in.

If the Capitol Visitors Center is supposed to represent America, let it also represent American industry (such as it is).

I'm just sayin'.