It's Randomonium!

This is the very, very well written story of a 13-year-old with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a very rare disease expressed by excessive hunger and food preoccupations.

Max, 13, pads down the stairs from his bedroom on the second floor of the house he and Lon share in Elkridge, yawning and running his hand through his hair, seeking breakfast.

Max is hungry, but his hunger is not like that which most people feel when they wake in the morning, that low rumbling. Max’s hunger is more profound.

Indeed, psychologically, Max is indistinguishable from a person suffering from starvation.

Follow the link for the video. Simply amazing storytelling.

In 2005, South Dakota passed an unprecedented abortion law. The statute purports to be about ensuring that patients give informed consent. Planned Parenthood characterizes it differently: as an intrusion on the doctor-patient relationship, forcing doctors to give inaccurate medical facts and to be the state’s ideological mouthpiece. Now, following a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, the law is about to go into effect for the first time. And the question is how it will change the experience of going to get an abortion—and whether it will open a new front in the abortion wars by encouraging other states to follow suit.

The Spanish parliament heads to pass a resolution giving several species of apes similar rights as humans.

The resolution, approved last week by a parliamentary committee with broad support, urges the government to implement the agenda of the Great Ape Project, an organization whose founding declaration says apes “may not be killed” or “arbitrarily deprived of their liberty.” No more routine confinement. According to Reuters, the proposal would commit the government to ending involuntary use of apes in circuses, TV ads, and dangerous experiments.

I think of the double-sided koan in Daniel Quinn’s excellent book Ishmael:

With man gone, will there be hope for Gorilla?

With Gorilla gone will there be hope for Man?

Nearly half think that hardship will be serious. To cope, most are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas. U.S. auto companies are closing plants that make pickups and SUVs that people have stopped buying.

More evidence the market works. Also, am I the only person who sees all this as good news?

Personifying animals is fun enough, but what if you ask them about their understanding of life and humans? You get this.

Funny stuff from New Yorker.

A blog about blogs that only post once.

The internet is getting so meta my head hurts.