Cartoon – The Evolution Good Samaritanism

Researchers have discovered a new map of the octopus genome that is so strange that it could actually be an “alien”. The first whole cephalopod gene sequence shows a striking level of complexity with 33,000 protein-coding genes identified – more than in a human. Not only that, the octopus DNA is highly rearranged – like cards shuffled and reshuffled in […]
Read moreDear John (the Sophie to Der Rosenkavalier) By Frank De Canio Just like the Marschallin had been resigned to cede her lover to the ingénue to whom his heart would later be inclined, so Marietta’s mistress bade adieu to her so that her “Quinquin” could pursue no younger woman but a different sex than formerly she’d been accustomed to. Perhaps […]
Read more“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” – Joseph Brodsky
Read moreFeeling itchy from a sunburn, a bug bite or some other skin irritation is miserable, but the pleasure you get from scratching it isn’t just the absence of pain. It feels legitimately good to scratch, and the reason is fascinating. A 2008 study at Wake Forest University hooked people up to a MRI scanner and monitored brain activity when they […]
Read moreClimatologists have started to drill into the oldest ice core in Antarctica to find some air that may have been there around 1 million to 900,000 years ago. The teams are from Australia, China, and Europe in a friendly type competition to find samples of air that is about 1.5 million years old. They would like to find out what […]
Read moreBritain’s “decayed seaside resorts” have become a dumping ground for society’s outcasts, said Libby Purves. Towns like Blackpool, Margate, and Clacton-on-Sea were holiday destinations for generations of English families. But they began to decline in the 1970s, when package tours abroad became cheap and popular. Housing prices fell, and authorities began seeing the towns as places to warehouse people difficult […]
Read moreYou have to keep going. It’s okay to turn around and look at the view take a few breaths –but the goal is the top and it’s a long way off and the sun is moving –You have to keep trucking over rocks and boulders, sand and snow. In the Northeast Kingdom or the Inland Empire, Sierra Nevada or […]
Read moreA tiger briefly escaped from a Kansas circus and gave a patron quite a scare when it wandered into the ladies’ room. Jenna Krehbiel had just finished watching the big cat show and went into the bathroom, not knowing one of the cats had gotten away from its handlers. “You don’t expect to go in a bathroom door, have it […]
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