no boobies, but...

[ilanarama]

Britt and I saw March of the Penguins yesterday. Now I dead from cute.

Walking back home we discussed how the existence of Emperor Penguins pretty much disproves "Intelligent Design." Maybe "Ridiculous Crackheaded Design," yeah.

Which reminds me of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Comments

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

"Ridiculous Crackheaded Design" indeed. Someone remarked to me, "We could all learn something from the Emperor Penguins." I wasn't in the mood for a beatific "love and dedication" conversation, so I pointed out that the Emperor Penguins could learn a thing or two from us, too; like, if they'd just build some nice condos with central heating and refrigerators, their existence might not be so arduous. Or, barring that, what about at least a light rail service between the breeding grounds and the sea? Either way, may the FSM bless them all with his noodly appendages.

[boutell.livejournal.com]

Also pretty much disproves the objection that evolution is too ugly, doesn't it. What a gorgeous collection of improbable stalactites those birds are.

While we're on the subject, the claws on those suckers! Have you ever seen anything so unambiguously reptilian? There's your descent from dinosaurs all right.

Did you happen to catch this (http://www.livejournal.com/users/boutell/278178.html)?

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Spearguns for impertinent leopard seals...

[saramwrap.livejournal.com]

I have a special new love for penguins now. LOOK AT THE LOVE! I only cried a little when penguins died and eggs froze and all.

I have been told that the original French narration is different... less of a bystander's voice and more like, "I am a cute leetle fuzzy peen-guin. Zat eez mah momma and poppa." But that came from a crazy French friend, so I'm not sure what to believe.

There are many things in nature that seem to go directly against "Intelligent Design." Unless your Creator of choice was a sadist or had a really sick sense of humor.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Condos would be nice. But hey, there are actual features in the snow - why are they huddled on an open plain rather than against a cliff? Birds build nests, why don't they make snow caves?

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for the link! I have not been reading my flist on this journal lately.

And YES those CLAWS! We were saying that exact thing, dinosaur footies, absolutely.

As far as evolution goes, what impresses me is that the world is full of really improbable niches that are filled with life. Antarctica, deep-sea trenches, deserts. What this tells me is not that somebody created it all, but that evolution and adaptation are remarkable forces.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Most baby birds are rather ugly, but OMG cute leetle fuzzy baby penguins!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I wanna know how they got all those great open mouth and snapping jaw shots. Yikes.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually seen the film (it's on the mental "to do" list, but that depends on it reaching Lancaster). However, I remember seeing a "making of" feature on the BBC's major wildlife series which was based in the Antarctic. At that time, the leopard seal had a reputation as one of the most dangerous creatures in the sea (with good reason: since then, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey has been killed by one), so most of the underwater shots for that series were taken from a shark cage. Above water, they had shots of a seal on the ice playing "catch", as its partner chased penguins out of the water, plucking them from the air.

Then the cameraman had a moment of madness and decided that he wanted to get closer to the seals. He went in, sans cage, and the first thing the seal did was to engulf the camera lens *glomp*. Perhaps it didn't like the taste, because it didn't bother the cameramen after that...

[alembicresearch.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten around to seeing it yet ...
but I haven't gotten around to seeing the new Star Wars movie
yet either.

I will probably end up seeing both on DVD later this year.

I watched "Bride and Prejudice" on DVD a few nights ago ...
talk about something "completely different".

On evolution: a couple of years ago I had fun debating it
every day at lunch with a guy here at work here who was a fundamental
christian, and did not believe in evolution.
This guy did not believe any *any* evolution, let alone Darwinian,
or any of the more modern updates on the theory.
Literally, nothing ever evolved ... never, ever ...
not since the universe was created 6000 years ago!

You may wonder why a fundamentalist christian was working at NASA ...
well, he was a computer programmer ... and didn't know a heck a lot
about science in general ... one of his arguements that the universe
was only 6000 years old, was something along the line of, it could
not be much older, because there isn't that much fuel in the Sun ...
apparently he was still using assumptions from before 1900 ... and
the discovery of radioactive materials.

It was very educational learning about how humans think (or
how some don't actually) ...

[goldispikes.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I can withstand TEH CUTE, so I haven't seen the film. That link is awesome!! The irony, oh the irony!

[mulberryfields.livejournal.com]

OMG, march of teh penguins. I saw it with idlerat, and we were "awwing" a ridiculous amount just looking at the poster, before we even got into the theater. It was just crazy, crazy, amounts of cute.