SimNGO -- In order to develop the next generation of humanitarians, the UN World Food Program has designed a PC/Mac game called Food-Force. Is it just me or does Rachel Scott, field operative, bear a striking resemblance to Lara Croft, tomb raider? (HT: Bene)

A Buggy Honor -- Entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller have named three species of slime-mold beetle after the President, Vice President, and Secretary of Defense. They chose to dub the new species A. bushi, A. cheneyi, and A. rumsfeldi to honor the three men’s “[willingness] to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular.”

While it might be a dubious honor, it could certainly be worse. If Wheeler and Miller were Democrats they might have named the trio after new species of dung beetles. (HT: Letters to Babylon)

I had a professor once note that writers use the term "surely" to indicate some proposition that seems all but irrefutable to the writer, but for which he or she has no actual evidence. It's a remarkably good rule of thumb.

Jesus, Gun-Nut -- Alec Rawls thinks that Jesus called for civil disobedience against disarmament laws. While I’m a bit skeptical of Alec’s exegesis, it’s interesting to imagine how the NRA could use that in its promotional material. Instead of asking "What Would Jesus Drive?" they could ask "What Caliber Heat Would Jesus Pack?"