What's queer about this is that some people don't get it.

Town Unveils $8,000 Statue of Local Feline Celebrity -- Cat Ladies Nod in Approval

Posted: 05/02/2014 12:48 pm EDT Updated: 05/02/2014 12:59 pm EDT

  Last month the Scottish town of St. Andrews unveiled a new statue of their local cat celebrity — the lovable 14-year-old ginger stray, Haimish McHamish.

More than $8,000 was raised by the community to immortalize the fuzzy feline, who has spent the last several years adventuring nomadically around town. Don't worry cat-lovers, Hamish's previous owner, Marianne Baird, makes sure he gets yearly trips to the vet, explaining that Hamish is at his happiest being the town's kitty mascot.

The idea to create the statue was a no-brainer, and when Flora Selwyn created the fundraiser, the rest of the town rallied around the idea, with their wallets in hand.

"Our statue is a way of saying thank you to Hamish for being so 'purrfectly' adorable and to celebrate him and the joy he brings us," she explained.

Hamish himself attended the unveiling event, and arrived to greet his adoring fans in a convertible, his fluffy ginger mane blowing in the wind.

If you're interested, the statue can be found at the center of Church Square, where it will remain as a reminder that cats really do own their owners.

I'd like to ...

Melons for men

A new study published in the journal Urology has found that watermelon juice can act as a natural treatment for erectile dysfunction. Citrulline is an amino acid found in high concentrations of watermelon that is believed to help improve blood flow to the penis. A team of Italian researchers at the University of Foggia conducted the latest study. They observed the effect of citrulline supplementation on men who suffered from mild to moderate erectile dysfunction. 24 men with a mean age of 57 participated. They were each given citrulline for one month. Afterwards, half of them were healed of their erectile dysfunction and reported an increased libido.

For what it's worth, the watermelon crop may be late this year in the States due to the weather. And I am not sure how much watermelon you need to eat to get, say, the boost you get from one 100 mg Viagra.

On the other hand, one Viagra can easily cost you $30. You can eat a lot of watermelon for that much money.

Of course, if you do eat that much watermelon, you may have other problems that will interfere with the joy of sex.

Warning: Damien's Queer World is NOT recommending you try watermelon to treat any disease or dysfunction!  You should always consult with your health care professional or your green grocer before beginning any plant-based regimen.

Otto the Merry -- and no, he's not a character from Lord of the Rings.

Otto IV, the Merry (July 23, 1301 – February 17, 1339) was a Duke of Austria and the youngest son of Albert I of Germany and Elisabeth of Tirol.

Otto was born in Vienna. He had two brothers, namely Frederick the Handsome and Albert the Wise. From 1330 onwards, he ruled jointly with Albert.

After the death of Henry of Carinthia, Emperor Louis the Bavarian gave him Carinthia (southernmost state in Austria) and the southern part of the Tyrol as an imperial fief on May 2, 1335, in Linz. Otto was enthroned as duke in accordance with the old Carinthian rite on the Zollfeld, and, from that time onwards, took care of Carinthia rather than of the Duchy of Austria. He founded the Neuberg Abbey at Neuberg an der Mürz in Styria and the Chapel of Saint George in the Augustine Church in Vienna. In February 1335, he married Anna, the sister of Emperor Charles IV in Znojmo. In 1337 he founded the knightly order Societas Templois for the crusade against the pagan Prussians and Lithuanians.

His nickname the Merry refers to the festive life at his court. Funny, he doesn't sound all that festive, what with founding all those churches and running crusades against the pagans, even if they were Prussians and Lithuanians.

Since one brother was "the handsome" and the other was "the wise", I guess "the merry" was the best they could come up with for Otto. The portrait of Frederick the Handsome (or the Fair) on the right is an idealized (???) one done in the nineteenth century. I am not sure he is all that handsome, but the stunned look on his face may explain why he was not the wise.

Otto died at Neuberg an der Mürz in 1339. His son and titular successor was Leopold II, Duke of Austria; however, Leopold died before coming of age, and the line became extinct.

Why does he grace our page today? May 2 is the anniversary of his reception of his imperial fief.

Talk about your mighty mites!

Mite Paratarsotomus macropalpis is World’s Fastest Terrestrial Animal, Study Says

Apr 28, 2014 by Sci-News.com

The Southern California erythracarid mite species, Paratarsotomus macropalpis, which is smaller than sesame seed, can run up to 322 body lengths per second, according to a study led by biologist Samuel Rubin of Pitzer College, Claremont. The previous record-holder, the Australian tiger beetle, can run at 171 body lengths per second. By comparison, a cheetah running at 100 km per hour attains only 16 body lengths per second.

Paratarsotomus macropalpis. Image credit: Grace C. Wu et al. 2010. The Journal of Experimental Biology; doi: 10.1242/jeb.024463.

“It’s so cool to discover something that’s faster than anything else, and just to imagine, as a human, going that fast compared to your body length is really amazing,” said Mr Rubin, who is the first author of a paper published in the FASEB Journal.

Paratarsotomus macropalpis is a large (up to 0.7 mm long) mite belonging to the family Anystidae. It has long legs and a body nearly twice as long as broad.

This species is an endemic to California, the United States, and often found running along rocks or sidewalks.

Mr Rubin, his advisor Prof Jonathan Wright of Pomona College, and their colleagues used high frame-rate video cameras to record the mites’ sprints in the lab and in their natural environment.
They were very surprised to find that the Paratarsotomus macropalpis’ speed is equivalent to a human running roughly 2,100 km per hour. [That's just over 1300 miles per hour.]

They were also surprised to find the mites running on concrete up to 60 degrees Celsius, a temperature significantly higher than the upper lethal temperature of most animals. [Yeah, like 140 Fahrenheit!]

“They’re operating at temperatures that seem to preclude activities of any other animal group. We’ve seen them running where there were no other animals visibly active,” Prof Wright said.

The mites also are adept at stopping and changing directions extremely quickly, attributes the researchers are investigating further for potential insights that may be relevant to bioengineering applications.

One could see this coming ...

 
For years I have been telling Daniel that eventually a gay-friendly church like the United Church of Christ would sue a state over same-sex marriage bans on the grounds that such bans violated the church members' religious freedom. And now ...

In 2012, the people of North Carolina voted to write discrimination directly into their constitution by banning same-sex marriage. Today in federal court, one Christian denomination is suing the state for violating its First Amendment rights to religious liberty as a result of implementing that ban.
Amendment One, which was pushed onto the people of North Carolina in an ugly and lie-filled battle fueled by the National Organization For Marriage, makes it illegal for ministers or pastors or any faith leader to even perform a same-sex commitment ceremony, even though it would have no legal meaning. Rev. Emily C. Heath of the United Church of Christ, the group suing the state, quoting the law writes that “any member of the clergy who officiates at a same-sex marriage in the state may be sentenced to ’120 days in jail and/or probation and community service.’”

In other words, the state of North Carolina is telling clergy that it is illegal to pray in the manner in which they see fit.
For those of us who are people of faith, marriage is more than just a civil ceremony. It is also a religious one. And under the current law, even if a member of the clergy is only intending to perform a religious ritual, and not to legally marry a same-sex couple, they could be arrested.

In other words, North Carolina state law is making it a crime for some Christians to freely exercise their religion.

We often hear that religious liberty is under attack in our country. Often the fact that same-sex couples are allowed to marry is cited as evidence of this attack. But, as this law makes clear, the religious liberty of same-sex couples and their officiating clergy is being attacked.

The long list of plaintiffs includes Betty Mack and Carol Taylor, a couple int their 70s who have been together more than 40 years.

The United Church of Christ has also launched a campaign surrounding their lawsuit, called, I Do Support Religious Freedom.

It would seem that the main lesson from this is that claims to religious freedom can be a very slippery slope that slides in many directions.