Silflay Hraka

So this weeks Carnival is a little delayed. It’s not my fault. Seriously. I had it all wrapped up last night, hit the wrong set of keys and bam! Gone. By the time I’d finished, I had no more energy to recreate the thing and decided to delay until this evening. If the Carnival seems a little thinner than usual, it’s because I still don’t have a lot of energy for it. I’ve been busy every night for three weeks it seems and…

Well, no more excuses. Here’s your Carnival.

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Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah is a deep, deep guy. He writes about stuff I wouldn’t even notice. Like the typefaces used on book covers. In Types and Faces he examines how certain typefaces have come to represent Africa.

Adam says we should open up the U.S. currency market to competition. I would be happy if we could use any kind of currency here and abroad. Maybe we should start a trend and start accepting the peso or something. I mean, might as well, right? Read his take in Woodrow Wilson Pleads the Fifth.

Madeleine Begun Kane gives us a short rhyme about Office Politics. I am not sure I get it. Maybe you will.

Old Friend of Hraka, CGHill explores how radio stations are beginning to give us the “Reader’s Digest” version of songs in Get to the point. It’s a telling expose about the attention span of the average…

Where was I again?

Nick Queen is some kind of paranormal researcher. He has three recordings that may or may not contain Voices From Beyond.

Marsha Hudnall talks about Fat Actresses & Size Acceptance.

Andrew Ian Dodge is Banned In Beijing. I have to imagine that we are as well. Hell, I have friends that can’t even get here from their work places.

Jack Yoest asks Are Business Elites Capitalists? Apparently they aren’t. Apparently they’re all just a bunch of flaming liberals. Who knew?

Lastly, Wayne Hurlbert catches a lucky break and gets this post in for the Carny at 2:57 a.m. I was just going to save it for next week but anyone submitting to this Carnival at that time of the morning deserves a little extra effort. Wayne wants you all to blog in Blog evangelism: Overcoming resistence. I personally do not want you all to blog. If everyone blogged, we’d have no one left to read our writing.

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And that’s it for this week’s Carnival of the Vanities. The Carnival of the Vanities appears in this space every Wednesday when I can get to it. If you’d like your writing to be featured in this lovely Carnival, please submit your material through Blog Carnival.

Until next week, enjoy the Carnival of the Vanities.

The Taliban gets in touch with its feminine side.

Mullah Mahmood, who is accused of helping the Taliban detonate suicide bombs, was caught Tuesday in Kandahar province while wearing the all-encompassing Islamic veil worn here by women, NATO said.

How very Jefferson Davis of him.

Besides the suit of men’s clothing worn by Mr. Davis he had on when captured Mrs. Davis’ large waterproof dress or robe, thrown over his own fine gray suit, and a blanket shawl thrown over his head and shoulders. This shawl and robe were finally deposited in the archives of the war department at Washington by order of Secretary Stanton.

Still, it puts me in mind of a song…..

Mullah Mahmood:
Oh I’m the Taliban, and I’m okay.
I sleep all night and I bomb all day.

Tribal Fighters:
He’s the Taliban, and he’s okay.
He sleeps all night and he bombs all day.

Mullah Mahmood:
I shape C-4. I eat halal.
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin’
And have buttered scones for tea.

Tribal Fighters:
He shapes C-4. He eats halal.
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping
And has buttered scones for tea.

He’s the Taliban, and he’s okay.
He sleeps all night and he bombs all day.

Mullah Mahmood:
I shape C-4. I skip and jump.
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women’s clothing
And hang around in bars.

Tribal Fighters:
He shapes C-4. He skips and jumps.
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women’s clothing
And hangs around in bars?!

He’s the Taliban, and he’s okay.
He sleeps all night and he bombs all day.

Mullah Mahmood:
I shape C-4. I wear high heels,
Suspendies, and a bra.
I wish I’d been a girlie,
Just like my dear Papa.

Tribal Fighters:
He cuts down trees. He wears high heels,
Suspendies, and a bra?!

Osama Bin Laden [Spoken]
Ohhhhhhhh, Mullah!
And I thought you were so rugged!

PETA vs. Al Gore

This morning, PETA sent a letter to former vice president Al Gore explaining to him that the best way to fight global warming is to go vegetarian and offering to cook him faux “fried chicken” as an introduction to meat-free meals. In its letter, PETA points out that Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth–which starkly outlines the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming and just won the Academy Award for “Best Documentary”–has failed to address the fact that the meat industry is the largest contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions.

Another reason to celebrate the upcoming Eat a Tasty Animal for PETA Day.

The Large-billed Reed-Warbler has re-appeared after 130-some* years.

A bird whose discovery in India in 1867 was also the last recorded sighting of the species has been found again in Thailand, a conservation group said Tuesday.

Researchers were uncertain about whether the reed-warbler, which lives in wetlands, was actually its own species or a genetic anomaly, since the last sighting occurred when it was discovered in India’s Sutlej Valley 139 years ago.

*Quibbles: The article itself seems unsure of when the species was first observed or collected.

…A bird whose discovery in India in 1867… - 140 years ago
…discovered in India’s Sutlej Valley 139 years ago…
…the museum’s sample, caught in 1869 in Uttar Pradesh, India… 138 years ago

As well, a biography of the original observer of the species, Allan Octavian Hume, gives the discovery date for Acrocephalus orinus as 1871. In the general scheme of things, fuzziness on the dates might not be a big deal, but as I’ve pointed out before, if the media can’t get minor details straight, why trust them when it comes to the major ones?

Update: More innumerate fun with dates, from the AP. A wetland bird that eluded scientists for nearly 130 years has been rediscovered…

Let’s see. 2007 - (nearly 130) = 1878, or perhaps 1877, which is 6 to 10 years off, depending on which source one takes as definitive.

From what I can tell, the confusion in the dates in the stories arose from the dates attributed to the two original samples. Either way, it does nothing to excuse the internal inconsistencies within the first story–though they are smaller than I originally thought–nor the abject innumeracy of the second.