Octopodial Chrome

Reason magazine points out the disturbing prevalence of cops killing animals—and the disturbing fact that people don’t care nearly as much for the indignities visited upon their fellow citizens as those visited upon beasts.

Wired magazine has great quotes from neophobes throughout the ages. My favourite is this:

The indecent foreign dance called the Waltz was introduced…at the English Court on Friday last…It is quite sufficient to cast one’s eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs, and close compressure of the bodies…to see that it is far indeed removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is…forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion.

The Times of London, 1816

Good stuff!