Odious and Peculiar do not typically go in for the political agitation line. But on occasion even we are distracted from our Chinese poetry, geomorphology and cephalopod attacks. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is certainly such a distraction. Best case scenario seems to be that it will spell the end of any cottage industry producing children's products. Worst case, it may spell serious trouble for children's clothes in thrift stores and even children's books in libraries*. Hysteria over toxins in plastic crap from China may soon make plastic crap from China the only legal game in town. Read more here and, if you see fit, importune your humble servants in Washington.

*Note the absurdity of the devil's advocate statement in the Forbes piece: "Defenders of the law point out, for example, that item-by-item enforcement at thrift shops is unlikely to be an enforcement priority any time soon for the Consumer Product Safety Commission's 100 field investigators." Lord willing; but if it's not intended to be enforced, change the damn law! If it is law, it will eventually be enforced somewhere, whether such was intended or no.

John Derbyshire discovers a modern-day McGonagall.

Painting the Polar Landscape: a collection of Arctic and Antarctic paintings from the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

To see the 21st Century holding its own, check out Tony Foster's work (more, scroll down).

Frankincense found to be psychoactive.

Glad I'm going to Vespers tonight!

Credit due to Chas.

This video is allegedly famous, but it's news to me. Morals of the story?

1. Africa is one hell of a tough neighborhood.
2. Do not screw with cape buffalo.

Mountaineers measure lowest human blood oxygen levels on record.

The expedition found the average arterial oxygen level to be 3.28 kilopascals or kPa (with the lowest value being 2.55 kPa); the normal value in humans is 12-14 kPa and patients with a level below 8 kPa are considered critically ill.

Cool!

Also, a landslide the size of the U.S., though it disappointingly happens to be on Mars.

Hat tips for both to The Adventure Blog.

Colorado Winter Weirdness:

Ever imagine what would happen if you went off the road on Red Mountain Pass? Why the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team would be along in five minutes, of course, on their way to make some turns.

When you go skiing, be polite to the lifties. Why? Because bad lift karma will leave you upside down and pantless. As former lifties, Odious and Peculiar make no apologies for their schadenfreude.

Happy New Year! As you've no doubt heard, Yellowstone is doing some very entertaining things lately. I must say, it's rather tempting to head up that way: there might be some splendid spectacle to be had, and in the worse case scenario it would be one of the less unpleasant places to be. What would you give to be a fly on the wall of the Church Universal and Triumphant right now?

If you're the type who would enjoy them, Fresh Bilge is posting frequent Yellowstone updates. We're also in his sidebar: rather generous of him, I'd say. I guess he liked my Manzano Mountains post a couple years back. Thanks! Our site meter has been non-functional and ignored for quite a while now, so I have no idea who may have been linking us. Linkers, feel free to say hi in the comments if you like.