Random links

So as a copy editor, when there's downtime and I don't have stories to read, I spend a lot of time looking around Google news. I figure that way, I'm sort of still doing my job. Keeping myself informed about the world. Sometimes, I come across some interesting articles. I thought I'd share.

1. A Wall Street Journal blog on what might happen to the person who catches Barry Bonds' record-breaking home run ball.
The question at hand is, if you had to pay taxes on the ball, estimated to fetch a half million dollars, when would you have to pay them?
When I found out that I was coming to the east coast, I checked the schedules of all the baseball teams I might be able to go see this summer (the Orioles, Nationals, Yankees, Mets, etc), hoping I could catch the Giants at a time when the record might be coming. As it turns out, he may break it against the Nationals, but in San Francisco. I hate Barry Bonds, but I've always liked baseball and I'm a sucker for the record-breaking moments. I also confess to having had a fantasy that I could catch the ball and suddenly my student loan problems would be solved.
Anyway, I thought the question posed was interesting.

2. This article on bonobos from the New Yorker is fascinating, but a bit long. If you have been living in a cave for several years and don't know, bonobos are relatives of chimps (and supposedly, our closest relatives). Unlike chimps and humans, bonobos are very peaceful and have no "warfare" amongst themselves. They live in a female-dominated society and solve all problems (or celebrate everything) with sex. They're very happy creatures. The downside is that the bonobos are endangered and difficult to study, in part because they live in the Congo, where civil war has destroyed the country and their habitat. They're also hunted for food.
The sad part aside, a world in which women are in charge, there's no war and all conflicts are solved through sex . . . sounds like a damn good lifestyle to me.

3. But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? UFO's sighted at Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace . My deepest apologies for the lame joke.