I wish everyone best wishes for the holiday season, however and with whomever you choose to celebrate it.

(Update: I had forgotten where this comic originally came from but reader Jorg reminds me that that the original was from Calamities of Nature, which, alas, no longer produces new comics. But you can see the original, larger, version in the archive.)

Blog posting will be sporadic until after the new year. I am going to be taking some time to goof off, or at least goof off more than I usually do.

But I will not be completely silent and will continue to post on things from time to time as and when the mood strikes me.

Ed Brayton is one of the founders of FreethoughtBlogs and a key person who works behind the scenes to keep things running as well as keeping together a highly opinionated group of people. That last task alone is a Herculean one that he fulfills admirably with his good humor and common sense approach. His blog is an excellent source of news and commentary on politics and religion and culture.

He had a major health scare a week or so ago that required open-heart surgery. Thanks to the skill of the medical staff, he is out of the hospital and back on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, this means that he has had unexpected expenses and loss of income.

If any of you can spare anything, please go over to his site where he has indicated how you can help out.

The old adage that photographs don’t lie is no longer valid in the age of Photoshop. Now even amateurs have the technology to manipulate photos and even videos to produce results that look remarkable realistic. [Read more…]

Exactly seven years ago today he came into our lives and immediately captured all our hearts so I could not let this day go by without commemorating it.

This is what he looked like two days after his arrival. [Read more…]

I’ve always been a fan of magic and, being a bit of a klutz myself, particularly impressed by the sleight-of-hand abilities of many of the best practitioners. Here is a great example by Yann Frisch in a variation of the familiar cups and balls trick. You always have to be wary of magic tricks you see on the internet because of the possibility of subtle cuts but this performance is apparently from a live performance at a competition where Frisch won a prize. [Read more…]

I am someone who enjoys sleeping. But I am impressed by the much greater sleeping ability of dogs. It seems like they can take naps almost anywhere and at any time. Here is a puppy that is determined to sleep even in an uncomfortable pose.

I have been reading about the dreadful shootings in an elementary school that has resulted in so many deaths.

I really don’t know what to say that will not be said by many other people. But I wonder about what goes on in the dark recesses of someone’s mind that can cause them to prepare so carefully and methodically to kill so many little children.

Some time ago, I linked to videos taken by cameras mounted on the dashboards of Russian cars that show crashes and the like. It seems like dash-cams are popular in Russia. I don’t know anyone in the US who has one though there are increasing demands for police cars in the US to be equipped with them so that there is a video record of what happens following a stop that can be produced as evidence, especially when allegations of police brutality and tasering are involved. [Read more…]

I generally do not like it when people dress up their dogs. But this photo of a dog dressed to look like two dogs carrying a present really cracked me up because it was so clever. I wonder how people react when they see it walking down the street. [Read more…]