Physorg.com:
Brain’s Filing System Uncovered. What happens when I run out of file folders?
CSM:
When genetically modified plants go wild. “Some amount of movement of GM crops outside their containment areas ‘is virtually inevitable’ ... [snip] ... bentgrass may pose no significant danger, he says, but ‘would we feel differently’ if it were a plant that produced pharmaceuticals?”
NY Times Health:
Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn’t Just in Genes. Here I always assumed my parents and grandparents would determine my longevity. Good thing I exercise and work to ‘eat right.’
CBC.CA:
Ancient Arctic rock carvings need protection, experts say.
SF New Mexican:
Scientists pinpoint polar cataclysm date. I’m getting kinda curious about how fast global cooling happened, to create those subglacial lakes.
NY Times:
Blistering Drought Ravages Farmland on Plains. The interactive map doesn’t tell anywhere near the whole story, if you look at the Santa Fe area of New Mexico. “No drought.” Hah. In spite of all the water we’ve had (and we’ve had a generous amount), it will take a couple of years of this to bring us back to ‘normal.’
Reuters:
Fossils of new dinosaur species found in Brazil.
Cosmos:
“Nuclear energy produces no greenhouse gases, but it has many drawbacks. Now a radical new technology based on thorium promises what uranium never delivered: abundant, safe and clean energy - and a way to burn up old radioactive waste.”
CNN:
We now only have eight planets. Pluto has been downgraded to “dwarf planet.”
WSI.com:
Ever wonder how much a cloud weighs? Holy elephant ...
Times Online.UK:
Protein block that makes the old less able to adapt to the new. No, no, no ... it’s not true. I don’t believe it!!! [heh.]
NY Times Science:
Report Reignites Feud Over ‘Little People’ as Separate Species. “They also noted features of two jaws and some teeth that ‘either show no substantial deviation from modern Homo sapiens or share features (receding chins and rotated premolars) with Rampasasa pygmies now living near Liang Bua Cave,’ where the discovery was made.”
Institute for Humanist Studies:
God would be an atheist: Why can’t we all be Japanese? Isn’t Japan mostly Shinto and Buddhist?
Boston Review:
The Forbidden Experiment. Hmmm. What of Helen Keller?
CNN:
Scientists: Ozone layer recovery will take longer.
LA Times:
Altered oceans. “Albatross fly hundreds of miles in their search for food for their young. Their flight paths from Midway often take them over what is perhaps the world’s largest dump: a slowly rotating mass of trash-laden water about twice the size of Texas. [snip] Located halfway between San Francisco and Hawaii, the garbage patch is an area of slack winds and sluggish currents where flotsam collects from around the Pacific, much like foam piling up in the calm center of a hot tub.”
Later: This reminds me of how I used to torture a former assistant ...
B: I don’t like swimming in the ocean.
V: Why not?
B: All those ... creatures.
V: Oh, come on. You eat sushi.
B: Yes, but where do they go to the bathroom? Hmmm?
V: Fish spit?
B: Oh no ...
V: Jellyfish earwax?
B: Stop ...
V: Octopus armpit sweat ... eight armpits per octopus ... probably why the ocean’s warm.
B: (faints in a swoon on the floor)
Vwho.net:
Meteor hits Australia, captured on video.
Yahoo News:
Scientists find brain evolution gene.
Brietbart.com:
‘Hybrid Mutant’ Found Dead in Maine. More from the local paper.
Later, a day later: Article with photo. Feral dog.
Guardian.UK:
2,500-year-old figures may be terracotta army models.
Boston Globe:
Blood on the tracks. “... in our moral decision-making, reason and emotion duke it out within the mind.”
SF New Mexican/AP:
Engineered grass found growing in wild. “... Ellstrand noted the engineered bentgrass has the potential to affect more than a dozen other plant species that could also acquire resistance to Roundup, or glyphosate, which he considers a relatively benign herbicide. Such resistance could force land managers and government agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, which relies heavily on Roundup, to switch to ‘nastier’ herbicides to control grasses and weeds ...” Like erosion management in the distant past, we consistently underestimate Mother Nature. You’d think we’d learn by now there are no ‘closed systems.’
Reuters:
The curse of being an ugly sheep. Should I ponder the ram-ifications of that link?
Stranger Fruit:
“Science has just published a short comparative study of international acceptance of evolution.” Via RC3oi.
Related: The bleached flamingo.
NY Times Science:
Archaeologists Challenge Link Between Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Sect. Hardly ‘revisionist.’ These suspicions have been well-founded over the life of the controversial ‘protection’ of the scrolls. The divergence the scrolls reveal within Judaism is apparently troublesome, and allegedly that is why the Essene link is being pushed so hard.
