Teh Newz

I'm paying too much attention to the news lately. It's an entirely depressing activity. There used to be a time when I'd be delightfully unaware of the major happenings in the world. These days though, there's one major hurricane after another, highlighting once again the gap between the haves and the have-nots in this country, all on top of the ongoing daily dose of death tolls from Iraq and the latest step towards peace between Israel and Palestinians stepping directly on a landmine. Not to mention the little things like bus explosions and deadly van crashes. For somebody who'd like to believe that the world is generally an alright place this is all a bit much.

The latest straw:

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Construction workers have found bone fragments that may be the remains of those who died in the World Trade Center attacks on the roof of a neighboring skyscraper damaged on September 11, 2001, a city official said Tuesday.

Cheery. Wonderful. Over 4 years later and we're maybe still finding human remains laying about. It's always reassuring when real life mimics post-apocalyptic fiction. Welcome to the Shattergraves.

However, there are occasionally heartwarming bits. For example: Take a horrible aftereffect of war that normally inflicts hundreds of civilian casualties years later: Minefields. Now take one of the cutest and strangest animals around: Penguins, especially baby penguins. Now, amazingly, this combination doesn't involve exploding penguins. Instead, minefields are protecting penguin mating grounds. That's right, penguins are mating and raising baby penguins in the middle of land mines! That's hardcore.