Blog post of the week: David Appell’s riff on dogs and the fragility of modern existence.

update: Shortly after posting, I saw this AP story:

About 40 people, mostly Somalis, have drowned while crossing the Gulf of Aden on their way to Yemen in a desperate attempt to escape gunbattles back home, security officials and witnesses said Saturday.

About 90 others survived and managed to reach the Yemeni southern shores of Shokara after their rickety vessels capsized in the waters on Thursday, said a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Fisherman Mohammed Saleh said beginning Thursday night, he saw bodies floating in the water.

“We saw mutilated bodies … scattered along the shores,” Saleh said.