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Ain't that a shame? Fats would totally agree
By dwray in The nature of things
May 18, 2011

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Aliens! Bats! Fats!

Lately it seems like all I think about is fracking. In fact, since I started working about this series on the Eagle Ford Shale, "frack" has become a favorite word around this place.

In the immortal words of Fats Domino, "ain't that a shame," because there is a ton of stuff going on out there that has nothing to do with oil. (By the way, his song got all famous when Pat Boone covered it. Boone tried to change the title to "Isn't it a Shame?" I don't know that Fats snorted when he said no, but let's go ahead and believe it.)

Even though it seems like oil is all that is or should be on the mind these days, there's a ton of other stuff going on out there in the great wide world, so take a few minutes to take note of a few things. It'll make you sound extra-smart at dinner parties. Well, maybe just extra-dorky, but that's kind of the same thing, right?

In our own backyard, the Texas House just gave the OK for Andrews, a town in West Texas, to take in nuclear waste from other states. Yep, that means low level nuclear waste from 36 states gets to make like Davy Crockett and go to Texas. And yes, I sound offended because, well, I am. You can read about it here.

In other news, if you've been for those aliens you spent so many magical nights with to phone you might miss the call. The scientists working at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, aka SETI, aren't getting much in the way of funding from California's struggling state government.
NPR is talking more about SETI here.

But don't despair! Here's E.T.! On a pumpkin!

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Also, there's this thing called white nose syndrome in North American bats. It's killing lots of them but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced a plan to combat the disease. The Environmental News Service reports about it here. We still aren't entirely sure what causes the disease, or how it kills the bats, but, well, at least there's a plan.