Link Log for March 26

Happy Twitterday...meaning loads of links! Today's Categories: Animals, Books, Extreme Weather, Fashion, Food, Foot & Mouth Disease, Immigration, Job Opportunity, Politics, Quotes, Sports, Travel, Weird Science, World News. Whew. This is plenty. After checking in with non-Twitter e-friends I may post another Link Log.

Animals 

Please don't overfeed your pet. Cats' and dogs' ribs should be hard to see, but easy to feel.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/26/pets-fat-serious-consequences-unhealthy-diabetes

Books 

Now I have to read Strahan's Managing Ignatius...I loved A Confederacy of Dunces (any student doing student labor can relate to Ignatius) and later worked with a friend on a snack wagon.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/mar/26/reading-american-cities-books-about-new-orleans

Has anyone ever cited Tom Sawyer as influencing his decision to "become a vagrant"? (Especially considering that, according to Mark Twain himself, although Huckleberry Finn did think about becoming a vagrant at the end of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he later went back to his home town and shared a few more adventures with Tom Sawyer...)

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-32070271

Extreme Weather 

Tornadoes in Arkansas and Oklahoma, including the town of Moore:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/mar/26/tornado-tears-through-oklahoma-video

Massive flash flood in the desert of Chile:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32062039

Fashion

Cardigans are the height of fashion, the Guardian reports.

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/mar/26/cardigan-comeback-knit-fashion-spring-trend

Hmm. Does any of these cardigans appeal to you?

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/middle-school-girls-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/yellow-sands-cardigan.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/pastels-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/scallops-cardigan.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/monet-cardigan.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/sheaf-of-corn-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/no-smoking-jacket-and-stocking-cap.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/babys-tomten-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/silver-toddler-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/01/hand-knitted-by-gena-greene-photos-by_31.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/11/mauve-patchwork-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-turkish-carnation-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/11/hand-painted-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/11/rock-creek-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/11/faded-ribbons-jacket-with-beanie.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/09/painterly-impressions-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/10/dressy-patches.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/10/babys-delight.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/10/four-shades-of-green-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/10/garter-stitch-blocks-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/10/aran-and-fairisle-mix-coat.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/11/timbered-fairisle-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/11/soft-silvery-childs-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/11/babys-cap-and-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/11/maine-pines-cardigan.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/11/santa-fe-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/11/aqua-lace-cardigan.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/12/turkish-carnation-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/12/childs-jacket-and-cap.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/12/color-me-beautiful-spring-jacket-and-hat.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/12/dawns-early-light-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/12/jesters-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/12/knitted-plaid-jacket.html

http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2014/12/turkish-scrollwork-ski-jacket.html

Food 

Cookies! (The nice kind.)

http://www.roanoke.com/life/columns_and_blogs/columns/fridge_magnet/new-fridge-magnet-columnist-says-hello/article_b874eb44-410b-5da9-b1f8-815ebf18b360.html

Foot & Mouth Disease 

MSNBC apologizes for Jamilah Lemieux's claim that "Nothing says 'Let's go kill some Muslims' like country music." Er. Um. I have heard country songs that were definitely about "Let's go do some things of which Muslims would not approve." I've never heard one that specifically mentioned Muslims at all, nor am I aware of one that seriously advocates killing...murder ballads, in which the killing has already happened and usually the killer has lived to regret it, yes. Does anybody out there have clue one what Lemieux thought she was talking about?

http://www.teaparty.org/msnbc-nothing-says-lets-go-kill-muslims-like-country-music-91145/?

Immigration 

Katie McHugh's Breitbart.com story reads as more angry and defensive than persuasive...but you need to scroll down to the next to last paragraph to read the key fact. The position of this web site is that conservatives should stop wailing like bashful toddlers about the idea of strangers being around us, and start strategizing ways to counteract the way the Old Left is actively reaching out to those who may not have heard that the Cold War is over..."President Rodriguez"? Some of our conservative correspondents are already campaigning for "President Cruz"! The position of this web site is also that a more crowded United States will not be able to fulfill anybody's American Dream, and people in other countries need to focus on bringing the benefits of American Democracy to their countries rather than trying to move here. 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/03/24/nyt-jealous-hoarding-americans-should-let-in-11-million-immigrants-annually/

Turns out that Ted Cruz is not a natural-born U.S. citizen though...his parents were citizens, but his mother happened to be in Canada when he was born. I sympathize. I'm a seventh-generation Virginian but my parents happened to be in Los Angeles on the historic day. Canadian Ilya Shapiro sympathizes, too. But will constitutional law have to be revised to allow Senator Cruz to run for President?

http://www.cato.org/blog/yes-ted-cruz-eligible-be-president?

Now here's a place that could use some immigrants. Points if they already speak Spanish!

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/mar/26/the-spanish-region-as-deserted-as-siberia-in-pictures

Job Opportunity 

If I could depend on anybody else to look after the cats for six months (and yes, the Cat Sanctuary does take in strays in addition to resident cats; yes, we have one this week) I might go after this job, because Grist badly needs some True Greens to help them focus on genuinely sustainable as distinct from Poison Green stories. Well, I'm too old for them anyway. If you're a college senior or recent graduate, this might be for you.

http://grist.org/fellowships/

Politics 

Virginia requires voter registration one month before an election. How bad is this? Does it ensure that newcomers have a reasonable idea which candidates for state and local positions are which, or does it keep people who've moved across town from voting? Both I'd guess. But here's this web site's timely tip for political activism: Get your neighbors registered to vote before October. And provide opportunities for them to find out which local people you do or don't support, and why.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/26/google-searches-show-that-millions-of-people-wanted-to-vote-but-couldnt/?tid=sm_tw

Meanwhile, another big hairy land use dispute takes shape in Virginia's New River Valley. Makes me glad I don't live there, although some of our correspondents do, and this web site will doubtless receive plenty of correspondence about it...

http://www.nrvliving.com/2014/11/21/mountain-valley-pipeline/

Quote 

Laura Ingraham quoted Charles Mackay (1841): "Men...go mad in herds, and only recover their senses slowly, one by one."

Sports

Why Bristol's spring Race Week has been moved to April rather than March.

http://www.tricities.com/sports/gregory-bms-date-change-shaping-up-to-be-the-game/article_9fa83db8-d35d-11e4-9e78-ffd84767e21c.html

Travel

Personally, I sort of fancy the idea of taking the plunge (into marriage) at the "Lovers Leap" at Natural Tunnel. But nobody can deny the appeal of Alexandria Old Town.

http://blog.virginia.org/2015/03/places-to-get-married-in-virginia/?adref=twtr0315

Weird Science 

Tobacco mosaic virus helps boil water faster?

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/26/new-discovery-uses-virus-to-boil-water-three-times-faster

World News 

Reuters' Joe Penney took some awesome photos of the town of Damasak, Nigeria, after Boko Haram took it over. The Guardian link is what showed up on Twitter; one or two pictures from this collection will probably be in your local newspaper.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/mar/26/boko-haram-attack-nigeria-damasak-in-pictures