From Around the Net

Want a low-polluting high-performance electric car that travels 400 miles on a single charge of its batteries?  That future might closer than you think.  The University of Standford has come up with a new battery that could make such cars real.  Decrepit Old Fool has the details here.

How many species of giraffes are there?  One? Guess again!  Recent genetic studies count a minimum of six species.  Coturnix posts about the newly found giraffes here.

Charles Pringle over at The Surrealistic Side of Japan blog has posted an excellent, easy to read article on the art form known as Shunga.  Shunga are antique Japanese woodblock prints that illustrate most of the 10,000 known variations of human sexuality.  His article is fascinating not only for what he says about Shunga, but also for what he writes about the interplay of traditional Japanese and Western sexual values.   Click here to go to the article.

The most frightening Christmas card ever is on display over at Tales of an Ordinary Girl.   Click here and grab onto your wits!  (It’s actually the funniest joke I’ve seen this season.)

When a British school teacher working in Sudan was imprissioned last month for allowing her class to name a teddy bear after the Prophet Mohammad, the world was outraged.  Missed in that uproar, however, was the response of millions of moderate Muslims who were just as outraged over the actions of the Sudanese Government as anyone.  You can read about one small, but very interesting, part of the moderate Muslim backlash here.  From the blog Umm LOLCats.

Want to hear about a good film that’s just out?  Check out AOS’s well written and intriguing review of “Atonement” here.  And if the movie is not as good as he says it is, we can all send him Ordinary Girl style Christmas cards next year.

Steve from Inane Ramblings has done it again.  An excellent photograph well worth pointing out to you for your enjoyment.  This photo strikes me as beautiful and pensive with a hint of adventure.  Check it out here.

Steve is also experiencing a bit of Akismet trouble this week.  The anti-spam software has him blacklisted as a spammer.  It should be cleared up soon, but in the meantime please check your spam files if you’re on WordPress and use Akismet to block spam.  Free “Steveo”!

Ed Yong’s Not Exactly Rocket Science is arguably the best science writing I’ve yet to come across on the net — or anywhere else.  His articles can be enjoyed even by those of us who do not normally care that much for science because they rival literature for their quality of writing.  Just in cased you missed any of his fascinating articles, Ed has put up brief reviews of those he published in 2007 here.

If I had to pick just two excellent photos to make me feel the winter in the Eastern US, I could do no better than Robin’s beautiful work over at Bountiful Healing.  The photos are here and here.

Why is it that sometimes we do something with effortless, fluid grace, while at other times we seem the clumsiest of people when attempting to do the very same thing?   Loren over at In a Dark Time … The Eye Begins to See revealingly tackles the issue from a Taoist perspective here.

Marka has put up a fascinating photo here at her site Markablue that evokes so many emotions in me I could hang it on my wall and enjoy it forever.   Among other things, Marka is excellent at taking a common, often neglected, object and charging it with significance and beauty.

Carl Zimmer over at The Loom has put up an article that clarifies the relationship between today’s whales and the small deer like mammal that 47 million years ago was a close relative of the animal whales evolved from.  Click here.

“From the tips of my toes
my whole body
burns with cold.”

So speaks Kiji Kutani in his beautifully evocative poem, “Chill”, which can be found in its entirety here, at The Hour of Poetry blog.

Have you ever wondered whether it is really worth it to wrap presents?  It turns out some scientists have actually performed experiments to find out how wrapped presents affect us.  Read about gift wrapping in an informative article which can be found here at Living the Scientific Life blog.

Brian writes beautifully and accurately of human nature and overcoming our frustration at the world’s problems here.  From his blog, Truth is Freedom.

Got a dry sense of humor today?  Been wondering why God doesn’t make life better than it is? Then you should read, “The Problem of Niggling Inconveniences“, which is from The Secular Outpost blog.

“Life is better than sorrow”, says the Poetman in his freshly published, “(While You Try To Live) A Letter Arrives….”.  One commentator called the poem, “A mystical version of mundane reality”, and I think he might have been spot on.  Check it out for your pleasure here.

As you probably know, Sun Tzu is among the greatest strategic thinkers of all time.  The Useless Tree applies his concepts to the question, “Is the Coalition surge in Iraq working?” and comes up with an insightful answer.  Article here.

Nita at A Wide Angle View of India has generated an informed and lively commentary on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto here.  People from both the region and the world at large are sharing their perspectives on the tragedy.  It’s a good place to go to make sense of what’s happened.

Care for some accurate, hard-hitting, and scathing commentary on the behavior of American journalists and politicians in 2007?  Glenn Greenwald hangs them high using their own idiotic words here.  If you still have any doubts this nation is being run by fools, fools, and more fools, you really should read Greenwald’s wrap of 2007.  It’s eye-opening.

Webs has put up an impassioned but analytic post debunking some of the political propaganda surrounding taxes and the rich in this country.  Check it out here.

Greta Christina spares no mercy in taking apart presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rudi Giuliani on the issue of gay rights.  Put on your flame retardant clothing and read her scorching essay here.

The refreshing thing about Gary over at Follow Your Bliss is that he’s a dedicated and brilliant teacher who has found his excellence in life.  So is his co-teacher and sometimes co-blogger, Lauren.  Together the two of them quietly go about improving this world through the children they teach.  You can read about their spontaneous field trip here.