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Mule Gives Birth

Posted by timothy on from the new-twist-to-asimov-books dept.

!splut writes "Thumbing it's nose as science, a Moroccan mule has given birth. Mules, hybrids between horse and donkey, are normally infertile, due to differences between the number and structure of horse and donkey chromosomes. Nevertheless, for reasons not well understood, fertile mules do occur, infrequently, with some 60 documented live births since 1527."

3 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Not again by Boglin · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Second Foundation barely saved the Seldon plan from the Mule the last time. This kid could ruin everything!

  2. A Mule giving birth by kcavness · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now that's some half-assed science.

    --
    "We must cultivate our garden." -- Voltaire
  3. No explanation != failure of Science != a miracle by geoswan · · Score: 5, Funny
    Let me tell you about another miracle.

    My parents met in Venezuala, working for shell oil, in the late 1940s. Shell had a company store where the North American employees could buy stuff you couldn't normally get in Venezuala. They had North American bungaloes for the North American employees. They had a little school with a North American teacher (my mom) for their children.

    Like other North Americans my parents had a local cleaning lady. Unlike some of the other North Americans my parents learned Spanish.

    My mom told how she taught Dahlia, how to prepare potatoes North American style. Including baking them. You peirce the skin so the steam can escape. I know most people do this by poking them with a fork. But in my family we cut a small X in the skin.

    My mom's spanish wasn't yet sufficient to explain why you cut an X however.

    A couple of days later there was an explosion in the kitchen. Dahlia is standing over the oven door, covered with exploded baked potatoe.

    She was hysterical, and very apologetic. She told my mother that she realized she must have been very religious. But, she was in a hurry, and just this once, she thought that God would forgive her if she blessed the potatoes by putting the sign of the cross in them after they were baked, not before.

    Dahlia couldn't explain this explosion, except to think it was a miracle. God punished her for not blessing the potatoe with a cross.

    So, was it really a miracle? Of course not. Does an inability to explain a phenomenon mean that it is the reuslt of supernatural intervention? Of course not. Not with exploding potatoes, or with unexplained births.