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Do yourself a favour and go pick up Cradle To Grave’s most recent album, “Texas Medicine”. From The Metal Observer:

With hype from some of the most respected Metalheads hailing from Canada, including the legendary Devin Townsend, CRADLE TO GRAVE has a lot riding on this release. And they live up to every expectation.

Catchy vocals, heavy groove, shredding solos, and a rhythm section to shake the core of the earth, “Texas Medicine” is just what the doctor ordered. And in high dosage.

For friends and family (and my benefit so I don’t have to go to the horrible Volcano Community Association website again), here are some useful links for keeping tabs on what’s happening with Kilauea, specifically surrounding its recent increase in SO₂ output.

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory maintains a close watch on Kilauea. Its daily update is a wealth of information. They have one webcam on Halema’uma’u and another on Pu’u O’o.

The National Park Service maintains real-time SO₂ monitoring. For reference, we live in the cluster of roads between the ‘Kilauea Visitor Center’ and the KVC’s SO₂ reading labels.

The National Weather Service provides both a five-day forecast and an hourly forecast table for our area. We live to the ENE of Halema’uma’u, so winds from the WSW are of particular concern. Calm or non-existent winds are also troublesome, as the SO₂ doesn’t clear out from our neighbourhood.

And finally, the County of Hawaii Civil Defense Agency issues statements, advisories, and warnings in its Civil Defense Message when conditions warrant. If they mention any subdivisions, watch for Mauna Loa Estates, the one we live in.

KTA, one of our local supermarkets, put out an advertising flyer for Earth Day. What eco-friendly foods did they highlight on their front page? Local produce? Organic milk? Seventh Generation soap?

Nope.

Frozen prawns. Bleached white rice. Bleached paper towels. Apples from the mainland. Canned fruit drinks. Tortilla chips. And Dutch beer.

Only one local product, and that’s flavoured sugar water shipped in aluminum cans that have a 60% chance of ending up being recycled in Hawaii. Zero organic products. The products that could be unbleached weren’t. And the majority of them have to be shipped from the mainland.

Way to completely miss the point of Earth Day, KTA.

Who am I to disobey such an direct order from PZ Myers? Here goes: Expelled is shaping up to be a horrible movie. I haven’t seen it, but Expelled is getting an absolute pasting from all kinds of people, from Time to Fox News to (obviously) Richard Dawkins. It looks to be a horrid little movie written by horrid little people narrated by a horrid little man.

For those who don’t know, Expelled is based on the theory that proponents of Intelligent Design are being persecuted by “Science”. It’s a ham-handed affair narrated by Ben Stein, who was made famous in America for being a teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Amongst its arguments is the idea that Darwinism is responsible for Nazism:

Darwinism is still very much alive, utterly dominating biology. Despite the fact that no one has ever been able to prove the creation of a single distinct species by Darwinist means, Darwinism dominates the academy and the media. Darwinism also has not one meaningful word to say on the origins of organic life, a striking lacuna in a theory supposedly explaining life.

Alas, Darwinism has had a far bloodier life span than Imperialism. Darwinism, perhaps mixed with Imperialism, gave us Social Darwinism, a form of racism so vicious that it countenanced the Holocaust against the Jews and mass murder of many other groups in the name of speeding along the evolutionary process.

This disgusting sentiment has been thoroughly debunked and shot down by a large number of wiser people than I. I suggest reading some of the reviews and articles about Exposed at the Expelled Exposed website.

Expelled opens in theatres on April 18, 2008, and will live a short life.

Good news everybody! The Trib, after not publishing their Vital Statistics column for a couple of months, published a whopper of one today. The first three baby names in the list were, and I’m not kidding, Shawntel, Kirra, and Tayvin. And it goes downhill from there!

Bowson is perhaps the least horrible of the names you’re going to read about today. It’s still a bad name, though. Was this kid’s father’s name Bow? Was he really a Duke of Hazzard? Alas, the Vital Statistics column doesn’t provide any sort of useful information.

Next up comes Iycen. Iy don’t know what to say about Iycen, only that Iy know that iyt’s a pretty bad name.

It’s not nearly as bad as Jacelynn, though. Or Daehlee. Or Shayston.

But this week’s winner has to be little Dhymenz. I can just picture the scene in six years…

Teacher: “Diamonds are really hard rocks, and they’re very valuable. You spell it D-I-A-M-O-N-D.”
Dhymenz: “But my name sounds like diamonds, why is it spelled D-H-Y-M-E-N-Z?”
Teacher: “Because your parents are fucking morons.”