Attacks in Mumbai

Mumbai skyline

As we in the United States go into this day of Thanksgiving, I’d like to send my thoughts and prayers out to those in Mumbai who are facing terrorist attacks of unknown origin. As of 3:45am EST, at least 101 people have been reported dead, with a minimum of another 250 severely injured. Those gunmen who spoke may have asked specifically after those who were American and British, but they also took the lives of people of other nationalities, including fellow Indians.

I found Mumbai to be lovely and inviting, and I find it so difficult to believe that the Taj Hotel, which was amazing in every way, is currently in flames and also housing hostages (according to the Times of India, all hostages in the Taj have been freed). It seems impossible that such a cosmopolitan, international city can have been turned upside down so quickly. The New York Times article on these attacks states that the head of the Mumbai antiterrorism squad was killed, as was a commissioner of police. I hope that whoever carried out these craven acts (and remains alive at the end of them) is made to pay for these horrors, and that there will not be a backlash against Mumbaikars because of this.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, which was hit in attacks (photo from 2007)

Other news sources:
Al Jazeera
BBC
Google News

Seriously?

There is not, in this day and age, any good excuse for not understanding the theory of evolution. Even if you don’t believe that evolution is a satisfactory explanation for how we came to be here, you should at least know what it is that you oppose. I thought that misunderstanding or misrepresenting evolution was a particularly American thing to do, but I guess that’s not true. I was reading an article in England’s Daily Express about several actors (Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Rosamund Pike, and Joseph Fiennes) who are gearing up to do films about Charles Darwin’s life, and I was horrified to read this sentence: All four Hollywood stars are lining up to appear in films about Darwin, who developed the controversial theory of evolution, which argued that humans descended from apes.

Really? That’s it? Evolution is a rich, complex theory based on observation of the natural world, living species, and the fossil record, and all they can boil it down to is that it says humans descended from apes? AND THAT’S NOT EVEN WHAT EVOLUTION SAYS. So I’m disappointed. By the way, the theory of evolution states that humans and apes descended from a common ancestor, but in no way says that humans came from apes. If we had, why would apes still exist? Stupidity like this is frightening.

I wrote the editor an email about the story, not that I think it will help. I’m familiar with the Daily Mail, which is roundly mocked because it is rather right-wing and not usually terribly concerned with the accuracy of the articles it publishes, but I didn’t know that the Daily Express was the same way. I guess I learned something today, even if it’s not what the Daily Express thought it was teaching me.

Creepy carousel animals

As promised yesterday, here are pictures of the terrifying hellbeasts that masquerade as harmless carousel animals at Van Saun Park. Click on any photo to see the monster in its full-sized glory.

Mom and EJ were lulled into a false sense of security.

I can’t imagine forcing a kid to ride on this, unless it was some new form of punishment.

Why does this pig/boar need tusks like that?

I don’t understand why somebody thought a child would want to ride on this.

I’m pretty sure that’s not what they mean when they say “seahorse.”

Evil. Pure, flightless, evil.

That ape doesn’t actually look like it originated in hell, but the too-human expression is creepy in its own way.

I’m sure it’s not an accident that all of the truly scary animals had no riders during the three go rounds that I saw. I don’t care how many gaudy, happy colors you put them in, these beasts are just unnatural and wrong, and I can’t see how any child in his or her right mind would actually consent to sitting on them.