Texas Gov Rick Perry is talking about invoking states rights, if the Obama health care agenda passes. I think that Perry and other governors should work together to show Washington that this isn’t something that everyone agrees with.

More about the 10th amendment here.

I live in Maricopa County, in which the Maricopa Freeway (typically referred to as “The 10″) passes through the middle.

Junior has been spending some time in the city of Maricopa, which oddly enough, is not in Maricopa county.

All this Maricoping made me wonder, what’s the origin of the name Maricopa?

According to wikipedia, the world’s most reliable source of information, Marciopa is the name of a Native American ethnic group that is located in Arizona. They are also known as the Piipaash.

So there.

Sporadic chaos continues.

In the last week, a former Iranian president called for a national referendum on the legitimacy of the current regime, and the “Supreme Leader” shot down the President’s pick for his VP. (Neither things good signs for the current people in power.)

On Tuesday the government shut down the cell phone networks and all Internet access for a few hours in response to several “mini protests” of a few thousand people each.

Citizens have also found new and interesting ways to protest…

But protests appear to be coordinated and to be taking other forms apart from street action: on Tuesday, for example, thousands of disgruntled Tehranis tried to bring down the electrical grid at 9 p.m. by simultaneously turning on household appliances like irons, water heaters and toasters.

Alas, it did not have quite the intended effect.

Streets lights in the eastern suburb of Tehran Pars reportedly went off shortly after this, but electricity was not interrupted in central Tehran.

Keep at it guys. Although this feckless administration doesn’t have your back, there are many of us over here that are rooting for you.

Sounds like a movie you’d find on MST3000, but it’s actually a story out of Texas…

Texas researchers across the state are finding a solution to fire ants and it is coming from South America.

The Phorid fly is a parasitic breed that finds its host in fire ants. This breed is nicknamed the “decapitating fly” for its effect on its host, and its host is nicknamed the “zombie fire ant.”

To boil it down:

• Fire ants are in Texas, and they are bad.
• Researchers have found a fly that can help kill the ants.
• The fly lays its eggs in an ant’s body.
• The ant’s head falls off.
• The ant continues to live for a while, headless, after it becomes the fly egg host. Hence, the “zombie ant.”

Researchers say the flies are nothing to worry about…

Many people ask about the danger of the flies instead of the fire ants, Puckett said.

“In fact, I have never seen a fly unless I was attracting it to something,” he said. “They don’t congregate like gnats, they appear to be nectar feeders so they are not attracted to decaying organic matter [such as maggots].”

The “decapitating fly” and “zombie ant” are not threatening species, Nester said.

“They are not anything to fear, they are not magical, they do not cause more damage, they are not genetically modified to be more ferocious,” Nester said. “[The nickname 'zombie ant'] is just a name given to a fire ant that is slowly dying, and its actions are not typical of the way a healthy fire ant acts.”

So they say. Until everything goes incredibly wrong and flies start laying their eggs in human hosts which turn into real zombies.

This doesn’t sound good for the Jupitarians…

The dark bruise that appeared suddenly near the south pole of Jupiter several days ago, likely as the result of an impact by a comet or asteroid, is as big as the Pacific Ocean, astronomers report.

A bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. Ouch. I bet that hurt.

Even though my “source” article has a similar title to my post – I SWEAR mine is original!

I didn’t know if I should be blaging about the passing of our beloved “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” dog, or the fact that said dog was actually a dog-ette, but in either case, the Harbinger of Death knocked yesterday.

Gidget, the 15 year old (in people years) chihuahua, who was the face of Taco Bells “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” campaign from 1997 to 2000, passed away yesterday of a stroke. Gidget, and the Taco Bell campaign, are credited as being largely responsible for the recent upsurge in chihuahua (read: rat deer) popularity.

There was actually a Taco Bell dog before Gidget named Dinky, but Dinky didn’t make the grade, and Gidget got the job. Dinky, and another dog named Taco, were still stand-ins for Gidget, though.

Taco Bell Dog also had 2 other catch-phrases over the years; “Drop the chalupa!” (which was often quoted on SportsCenter) and “Vivi [the inferior] gordita.”

After Taco Bell, Gidget did a Geiko commercial, and then was Bruiser’s mom in Legally Blond 2.

Finally, Gidget was featured in an episode of The Tonight Show where she was offered her choice of Taco Bell or KFC; she chose the latter.

Yo Quiero a new catch-phrase.

Source: Moon and Staci, Jeff, and then Ed – plus this article, and this wiki.

Well, it turns out nothing.

MIAMI (AP) — The body of a shark was left lying in the middle of downtown Miami street after two men tried to sell it to several fish markets.

The men apparently carried the five or six-foot-long fish around on the city’s Metromover downtown train, prompting calls to police.

News footage Tuesday night showed the dead animal in the street with police officers and cruisers nearby. Two stations reported that a pair of men had tried to sell the animal to at least three fish markets for around $10.

But it does seem that it is appropriate to call 911 if there is a dead shark on the train.

I’m surprised to find that the term gigantism (scientific name Acromeglia) has never yet graced the pages of this blog, since I run across these stories from time-to-time.

Anyway, here’s another one…

30 year old Tanya Angus is 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 476 pounds, making her one of the largest women in the world.

When she was 18, she was 5′ 8″ and quite a bit lighter, judging by the picture.

In her late teens/early 20s she began growing in odd proportions.

She went to see her doctor in the world class British health care system, but he thought she was just trying to score anti-depressants from him.

Eventually she went back to the US, where the evil capitalist doctor realized something was wrong and got her some tests.

Says the Daily Mail:

An MRI scan eventually showed a tumour the size of a grapefruit in her brain which had wrapped itself around her inner carotid artery, causing an overproduction of growth hormone.

A surgeon removed most of the tumor, but she continued to grow and eventually suffered a stroke. Her heart couldn’t keep up with her massive size.

The tumor is back again, and now it’s the size of an orange.

Doctors are stumped. She won’t respond to the usual treatments, and continues to get worse.

She has a new evil capitalist doctor now, who is committed to finding something that will help her. I really hope he succeeds.

Forget my other end of the world scenarios involving China. This is the real problem…

A giant Chinese dustball weighing hundreds of thousands of tons circled the world at high altitude in under two weeks, scientists have shown.

The dustball originated during a wind storm in the Taklamakan desert on the far west side of China.

It left there, raised to 30,000 feet, then got trapped in a polar jetstream. After 13 days, it crossed back over the Taklamakan desert again completing a full revolution around the globe.

It kept going, and eventually hit a ridge of low pressure and fell into the Pacific ocean.

No word yet on how China plans to weaponize the dust, but rest assured that legions of Chinese military scientists are working on it right now.

You’ll burst into flames…

Western Australia police said they were responding to a complaint at a house when Mitchell ran outside the house carrying a cigarette lighter and a large plastic bottle containing what they believe was fuel. When he refused to stop running toward them, one officer Tasered him, police said in a media release.

The man was immediately engulfed in flames. The officer threw him to the ground and smothered the blaze with his hands, the statement said. Mitchell was charged with assault to prevent arrest and possession of a sniffing substance.

As will be no surprise to anyone who has seen an episode of COPS, the man’s female companion decided the best thing to do at that time would be to throw rocks at the officer who was trying to put out the fire.

She was also arrested.