Random link time!

[conuly]

First things first, let me say that I still adore Pat's Papers. I mean, I try to pick and choose what I repost from there, because I think copying everything would be a little pathetic, but there's always a good article or two on that site, every day.

So we've got the famous rat-on-a-train. The scary thing is not that there's a rat on the train. Of COURSE there are rats in the trains, people EAT down there and it's a CITY and it's WARM down there. The scary thing is that the rat apparently had no fear or compunction about just jumping on people. I thought they were generally smarter and more cautious than that?

This is named the most badass alphabet ever, and it might well be.

Storms may create anti-matter. Spooky!

And you have to have to HAVE TO see this. Be sure to check out the pictures of the world's biggest cave. It's got a frakkin' jungle in it! I'm thinking... Underland. But, you know, not under NYC.

This set of crystals in caves is no less impressive.

Climbing trees and snowball fights 'should be encouraged by schools'

The USDA is calling for huge changes in school lunch standards.

Regional slang is "alive and well" on Twitter

Oh, and an article on humans and finding patterns.

Comments

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder if that rat was someone's pet that got loose? We had a rat in the movie theater I used to do Rocky Horror in that was acting a great deal like that one appeared to be. One of the lights guys caught her, and she turned out to be completely tame. I took her home, and she lived with me for a couple of years. Her name was Trixie, and she liked to ride around inside my jacket pocket.

[conuly]

I had that very same thought at first.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

That was a very frightened rat to begin with, trapped in the midst of all these humans on a smooth flat floor with no cover, desperately seeking any sort of bolt-hole or escape route.

Rats have good hearing and sense of smell, but their vision isn't so great. Panicked, surrounded by noise and human smell, it's unlikely the rat even recognized the guy as a living being - only as a way up off that deadly-flat floor, with a dark place at the top of it (the guy's hood) that a scared rat could maybe hide in.

I have caught a bunch of rats and mice, mostly because my hunting kitties bring them in from outside and lose hold of them. The easiest way is to put down an open, empty paper sack, because all their instinct is to run for the dark hole, and then one can just pick up the sack and carry them outside.

[conuly]

That makes sense. Poor ratty.