Nine Romney Advisers You Need to Know About

Want to know what a Romney presidency would look like? 

Check out these guys' records.

By Dana Liebelson and Adam Serwer

One way to understand what a presidential candidate might do if elected is to look at his advisers. Here are nine advisers who are shaping Mitt Romney's views—and could end up shaping his presidency. You may not have heard of them, but you should know about them.

Cofer "head on dry ice" Black

Position: Foreign Policy Adviser
His Qualifications: Black was head of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center when Al Qaeda brought down the towers and is a former executive for the "private security" company Blackwater.
What You Need to Know: Black has long been associated with the shrub cabal’s "dark side," including torture and extraordinary rendition. He's also a fan of colorful speech, having said that he wanted to "Capture Bin Laden, kill him, and bring his head back in a box on dry ice." That didn't happen, but a 2005 CIA inspector general's report did chastise the CTC for not sharing information with other agencies that could have lead to the discovery of the 9/11 plot before it occurred.

Walid "LEbanese warlord advisEr" Phares

Position: Foreign Policy Adviser
His Qualifications: Phares has worked as a professor, counterterrorism adviser, author, and pundit for Fox News.
What You Need to Know: As Mother Jones first reported last year, Phares "was a high ranking political official in a sectarian religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's brutal, 15-year civil war." Phares has tried to downplay his involvement in this messy war (which resulted in more than 100,000 fatalities) but according to Régina Sneifer, who served in the Lebenese Forces' Fifth Bureau, "Mr. Phares was aware of the crimes of Samir Geagea [a ruthless militia leader] and he was still close to him."

Robert "saturday night massacre" Bork

Position: Judicial Adviser
His Qualifications:  Bork was a failed Supreme Court nominee under President Ronald Reagan and played a controversial role in the Watergate scandal.
What You Need to Know: Bork, then solicitor general, agreed to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was close to cracking open Watergate. (Bork's colleagues, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, had refused to fire Cox and resigned on principle.) Ted Kennedy later said that "Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids [and] schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution." Bork has also proposed reducing the scope of the 14th Amendment, and says it's "silly" to think: "Gee, [women are] discriminated against and we need to do something about it."

Kris "birther flirter" Kobach

Position: Immigration Adviser
His Qualifications: Kobach is the secretary of state for Kansas.
What You Need to Know: Kobach is the intellectual architect behind harsh Arizona-style immigration laws all over the country. Kobach has flirted with birtherism and even sought to abolish birthright citizenship. But illegal immigration isn't Kobach's only hobby horse: At the repugican convention, he dipped his toe into Shariah panic by urging the adoption of an anti-Shariah plank to the repugican platform.

Paul "you're a taker" Ryan

Position: Domestic Policy Adviser/Vice Presidential Candidate
His Qualifications: Ryan is a repugican congressman from Wisconsin and the chairman of the House Budget Committee.
What You Need to Know: Technically he's the veep pick, but in choosing Ryan, Romney tied himself to Ryan's policy agenda. In the past, that agenda has included turning Medicare into a voucher system so that seniors have to pay more for their health care, slashing Medicaid so that states have less money to cover medical services for the poor, old, and disabled, and all while cutting taxes on the wealthy. Where does Ryan's plan make up that extra revenue? In part by raising taxes on the poor. There's no one on Romney's team who embodies the "half the country are moochers" mindset expressed by Romney on that 47 percent video more than Ryan does.

Advertise on MotherJones.com

John "it's never a bad day to bomb Iran" Bolton

Position: Foreign Policy Adviser

His Qualifications: Bolton is a lawyer and diplomat who served under George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush.

What You Need to Know: It's never a bad day to bomb Iran if you're John Bolton, the walrus-mustachioed Bush-era ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton has been pushing for an Iran strike for years, he recently said he thought the Israelis should have bombed Iran "three and a half years ago." A favorite of anti-Muslim activists like Pamela Geller, Bolton likes a good conspiracy theory himself, recently warning that a UN small arms treaty could take Americans' guns away.

General Tommy "where's bin Laden?" Franks

Position: Military Adviser

His Qualifications: Franks, a retired commander of the US Central Command, led the 2003 invasion of Iraq…and came in at No. 4 on Foreign Policy's "worst general in American history" list. 

What You Need to Know: It's hard to know where to start with Franks: He didn't tell the American public he was planning on invading Iraq and then he helped spread the big fat lie that there were actually weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Once the war was over, he had no plan to deal with the aftermath. Oh, and he lost Osama bin Laden.  

Harold "drill baby drill" Hamm

Position: Energy Adviser

His Qualifications: He's a self-made American oilman worth $9.7 billion, as of September 2012.  

What You Need to Know: Hamm would end federal control of drilling on government land, a policy Theodore Roosevelt ushered in to help protect wildlife and America's most beautiful places. Instead, states would have the authority to frack and mine government lands. The New York Times calls this "a radical shift from decades of policies under both Democrat and Republican presidents." According to Rolling Stone, Hamm has also given nearly $1 million to Romney's super-PAC. 

Kevin "Dow 36,000" Hassett

His Position: Economic Adviser
His Qualifications: Hassett was a senior economist for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
What You Need To Know: Hassett is your typical right-wing economist: He favors stimulus when repugican presidents are in office and austerity when Democrats are in office, and in that sense he's kind of a perfect adviser for Mitt Romney, who is known for changing his mind on big issues when it's convenient. Hassett is most infamous, though, for writing (with James K. Glassman) the 1999 book Dow 36,000, in which he predicted an ever-rising stock market. "Stocks are now in the midst of a one-time-only rise to much higher ground," Hassett and Glassman wrote, which is true if you ignore subsequent downturns including the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. With a track record like that, how can Hassett's assertion that Romney's jobs plan will create "millions of jobs" possibly be wrong?

An Avalanche of repugican Voter Suppression and Fraud is Threatening the Election

Human beings are programmed with a need to control their environment whether it is in their place of abode, their job, or their community. There are countries in the world where government is chosen by military might, religious institutions, or by royal birth, but the people have little control of their own lives. America’s founders did not believe every resident had a right to choose their representatives, and it has taken over two hundred years to give every citizen a voice in choosing their representatives in government. When America invaded Iraq, one of the first tasks the military accomplished was providing Iraqi citizens with free and fair elections for the first time in decades, and it was a watershed moment for the people who suffered under the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein. It is ironic then, that in America, the prospect of free and fair elections is being threatened by an avalanche of reports of voter suppression and fraud by the repugican cabal.
The repugicans are notorious for projecting their beliefs and practices on their opponents, and for the past two years their state legislative arm, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) passed restrictive and harsh voter ID laws to combat what they claimed was massive voter fraud. Over the past few months, reports of voter suppression and registration fraud have built up to the point that, like Iraq, this country’s election will be monitored by an international group to stop fraud and intimidation. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is a United Nations affiliate that will deploy 44 observers around the country on Election Day and an additional 80 to 90 members of parliament from nearly 30 countries to monitor American elections. The OSCE election monitors are from its human rights office that focuses on democratization, and they will be looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups.
Americans should be embarrassed the country best known for promoting democracy around the world requires human rights monitors to ensure free and fair elections at home. The founder and leader of True the Vote, a conservative group seeking to crack down on election fraud was outraged and said, “activist groups sought assistance not from American sources, but from the United Nations,” but after months of reporting fraud, and repugican leaders refusing to follow court orders, there was little choice but to appeal to an outside source. The Justice Department cannot possibly keep up with the overwhelming number of cases committed exclusively by repugican groups who claimed voter fraud had reached epidemic proportions, but as usual, it is repugicans committing fraud.
OSCE is monitoring the elections after reports of “coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities” that makes it a civil rights as well as an election issue. It has been widely reported (in liberal blogs) that the RNC hired a known repugican strategist with a reputation of voter registration fraud and attempts to suppress Democratic voter turnout for $3.1 million. Reports of destroying voter registration forms in Virginia last week drew minor attention from local media, and on Friday in Ohio, a repugican election official blamed a computer glitch for sending out notices to three precincts with improper polling places and news the election was Thursday, November 8 instead of Tuesday, November 6. There are myriad reports of voter suppression and fraud that one expects in young democracies like Iraq, and over the weekend two Iraq combat veterans noticed a parallel between elections in America and Iraq.
The young men served in Iraq leading up to the nation’s first free and fair elections, and it was their only source of pride at having served in Iraq. Although they felt betrayed and deceived at being sent to war over a lie, they said it was worth it to see Iraqis participating in their first fair election. Both men felt betrayed that after fighting to give Iraqis the right to participate in a fair election, their party was guilty of suppressing the vote and wondered if they should be deployed to protect Americans’ right to vote. They had heard a World War II veteran was purged from voter rolls in Florida, and opined that the President should send a squad of Rangers to guarantee the veteran was allowed to vote.
Americans should be outraged at repugican attempts to suppress votes, but the media has been negligent by not reporting the rampant voter suppression. In a large newspaper in Central California, there has not been one article or story reporting voter registration fraud or suppression efforts throughout the campaign. The paper said it was not “that big of a deal” and that it would cast unfair aspersion on repugicans so close to the election, so they would not report on it. Recently, it was brought to their attention the repugican chair of the Committee on Legislative Ethics committed voter fraud and faces removal from the ballot, but they demurred again because “it was a Southern California senator and not that big of a deal.”
Therein is the problem, and why repugicans continue flaunting the law, suppressing votes, and committing fraud; because “it’s not that big of a deal.” However, it is a big deal to the American people who lose their right to vote, and it is a big deal to an international human rights organization or they would not send monitors to stop “a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities.”
It is a sad commentary when America needs an international organization to monitor a general election, but it is crucial to save our democracy from repugican malfeasance.  The founders believed only wealthy land owners deserved the right to vote, and after valiant struggles and Constitutional amendments, instead of celebrating every American’s right to vote, repugicans are suppressing voting rights. Hopefully with international monitors in place, every American who wants to vote will get the opportunity, but at the rate the repugican cabal has suppressed the vote, it does not look very likely. It is a shame that the country that sent its soldiers to protect Iraqis right to vote cannot deliver that assurance to its own people; maybe the United Nations will do the job and save America’s democracy.

This is fraud....election fraud

And it is done on purpose.

 It is un-American. people need to go to jail for this crap.

2,300 voters in the northern Ohio county of Ottawa received the notice informing them the election was November 8 and that their precinct was relocated to a different building. the deputy director called it a “costly mistake,” and said they were reissuing the mailer with the correct information. President Obama won Ottawa county in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote.

More

Did you know ...

The 9 most racist moments of the 2012 election

That you don't have to worry about the huge fines Wall Street banks have to pay: the banks can write them off

That's no primate, that's a fish

That the FBI had a file on Hunter S. Thompson

And rest in peace Native American activist turned actor Russell Means

Ann Coulter's backward use of the 'r-word'

Wingnut talking head Ann Coulter lit up the Twitterverse after last night's presidential foreign policy debate with the comment that she approved of "Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard," in an apparent response to critiques of Mitt Romney's performance.

  More

*** 

What can one say when a retard gets it backward? The shrill shrew has never been correct about anything and neither is she (it?) now.

Good Question

So, do I call an electrician or a plumber?

NYPD officers beat homeless man to a pulp

Radley Balko says: "And it wouldn’t be a police beating without the obligatory charge against the victim for assaulting the police officer’s fist with his face."

Two officers from the 71st precinct, one male and one female, arrived and woke the man. Confused as to why he was being accosted by police, the man refused the officers’ attempts to escort him outside, insisting that he had permission to be there and asking that they allow him to prove it.
His pleas fell on deaf ears, and they proceeded to place him under arrest.
When he resisted arrest, the male officer flew into a rage and began to beat the defenseless man. As can be seen in the video below, the officer assumed a boxing stance and then lurched towards his victim, pummeling him from all sides.
Over the next couple of minutes the man is also pepper-sprayed and beaten with a truncheon by the female officer, all while posing no threat to the officers’ well-being whatsoever.

Cops Beat Homeless Man

Man found with drugs in pocket claimed trousers weren't his

A neighborhood beat deputy patrolling an area in Grove City, Florida, in which had recent burglaries had been committed stopped a man on a bike, James Edwin White, whom he did not recognize, according to a news release from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

White’s hands were shaking; he was also trembling and stuttering, according to the deputy.

White gave the deputy permission to search him for any illegal weapons or drugs and denied having any contraband on his person. Twice. The deputy then reportedly found a cellophane wrapper with nine Oxycodone pills inside his right side pocket.

Just as the deputy discovered the pills, the 30-year-old Englewood man allegedly stated, “Oh, wait, these aren’t my pants!” explaining the pants belonged to his uncle and he had no knowledge of the pills. The deputy also found a blue straw, commonly used to snort drugs narcotics, which had a powdery residue inside.

Bank robber caught after returning to complain he'd been shortchanged

A bank robber was quickly captured on Monday morning when he returned to Alliance Bank, the scene of the crime, after discovering the teller had not given him the full $20,000 he had demanded, Syracuse police said.

Arthur Bundrage, 28, of East Syracuse, New York, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny. He is being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center pending arraignment in Syracuse City Court.

Police say that at about 9 am, Bundrage entered the Alliance Bank at 1001 James St., walked up to a teller and demanded $20,000 in cash. The teller told him no. When Bundrage demanded again, the teller gave him an undisclosed amount of cash. Bundrage then left and the bank immediately called 911.

As officers were responding, Bundrage discovered the teller had not given him the full $20,000 amount he had asked for. Officers found him standing at the front door attempting to get back in. He was taken into custody without incident.

Woman burned down house because of attic noises

A Carlsbad, New Mexico, woman was arrested on Friday after a nearly six-month investigation into an arson fire at her home. Carlsbad police say Valerie Hernandez, 33, burned down her home on May 18. Hernandez moved into the home in March and told police she never liked living there because she believed someone was living in the attic, though a police investigation earlier in the year revealed no such thing. Hernandez said she felt like someone was constantly watching her and had bugged the house to listen to all of her conversations. She repeatedly asked Sgt. Blaine Rennie if the person in the attic had died during the fire.

Police and fire officials say Hernandez gave them several stories about how her house caught on fire. She first told an officer she had walked to a convenience store not far from where she lived, to buy a soft drink. On her way back, she heard a loud explosion and saw smoke coming from her house. Sgt. Adrian Rodriguez attempted to confirm her story at the store, but receipt records showed she had purchased a bottle of lighter fluid instead of a soda. Hernandez then admitted that she indeed purchased the lighter fluid, but she said it was for a barbeque. She was on her way to her friend's house for a cookout when she heard the explosion and ran home to find her bedroom on fire. But Hernandez's neighbours denied hearing any type of explosion.

Hernandez's neighbour, Cody Grady, said he did not know her well, but he remembers some strange activity across the street during the weeks leading up to the fire. "She (Hernandez) would knock on my door five or six times a day and then just walk back to her house." According to the police report, the fire originated on a mattress near the southwest wall of the home. Maxwell said there was no heat source located near the area of origin, and therefore the fire had been caused by an accelerant. Police looked outside Hernandez's bedroom window to find several documents and clothes lying on the ground which appeared to have been purposely saved from the fire.

During a second meeting with police, Hernandez again admitted to buying the bottle of lighter fluid, but this time she said she returned home after buying it, staying in her room because she was scared of the person living her attic. When she gained courage, she ran out of the house and dropped the lighter fluid by the front door. Hernandez denied setting fire to her house, and she suggested that perhaps the old Christmas lights and ceiling fan in her closet could have started the fire. Hernandez's mother, Elia Hernandez, said she purchased the residence along with her daughter but moved to Clovis to get away from her. Hernandez will appear before a judge on Thursday. And as for her house, police say it is a total loss.

Superman Quits Newspaper Job to Become a Blogger

DC Comics is planning major changes for the life of Superman/Clark Kent. For example, he's going to quit writing for the Daily Planet and engage in independent journalism. Comic book writer Scott Lobdell explains:

"Rather than Clark be this clownish suit that Superman puts on, we're going to really see Clark come into his own in the next few years as far as being a guy who takes to the Internet and to the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth."
Entertainment reporter Cat Grant also quits the Planet with him, and Lobdell says she'll be bringing "a whole other set of skills" to their next venture. It probably won't be at another media outlet in Metropolis, though.
"I don't think he's going to be filling out an application anywhere," the writer says. "He is more likely to start the next Huffington Post or the next Drudge Report than he is to go find someone else to get assignments or draw a paycheck from.

Yeah, he'll make a fortune in the blogging business. Once again, DC is appealing to unrealistic fantasies.
More

Random Photo

The Wheel of Urine

Feeling ill? Urine luck! Spin the Wheel of Morality Urine. Doctors in the Fifteenth Century used it to evaluate a patient's health:

The Urine Wheel was used for diagnosing diseases based on the color, smell, and taste of the patient’s urine in the early 16th century....Many diseases affect metabolism and many changes in metabolism can be detected in the urine. For example, diabetics will excrete sugar in their urine–sometimes enough sugar that it can be fermented into whisky. There are many other diseases that change the smell of a person’s urine, including the very descriptively named Maple Syrup Urine Disease or Sweaty Feet Syndrome, now much more likely to be diagnosed by electronic sensor arrays than actually tasting the urine.

More

Amino acid necklace spells out "we are star-stuff"

Colette Taylor is a molecular biologist and crafter who makes some rather lovely pieces, including the amino-acid inspired necklace shown here (which I saw in person tonight), which reads "We are star-stuff."

There are certain phrases or ideas which sometimes need reminding. Just to keep us sane, to remind us what is important. This is We Are Star Stuff in Amino Acids. This is a big one for me, a reminder from Carl Sagan that we are all made of the same building blocks, and the same amazing pieces. Not only are we made of the same stuff, it is particles of the universe. This is a reminder of not just how insignificant an individual is, it’s a reminder that every individual is a beautiful and brilliant thing. It’s so awesome that a person, made of the same thing as everyone else, manages to carve out a unique and original existence. This is a reminder that being is pretty much the coolest thing ever, and should never be taken for granted.

The Efforts of a Scientist and Compulsive Crafter

Exercise Your Brain

Brains have a tendency to shrink as people get older, but regular exercise can help to prevent that from happening. Read more

Watermelon shown to boost heart health, control weight gain in mice

Eating an apple a day may keep the doctor away, but eating watermelon may just keep the cardiologist at bay.

Continue Reading

Hyenas and humans live in harmony

Hyenas and humans live in harmony

Large hyena populations are living alongside human communities in Africa without coming into conflict, a study finds. BBC Nature

• Hyenas persuade friends to help Earth News
• In pictures: Family matters to hyenas

US may soon become world's top oil producer

By JONATHAN FAHEY 

Driven by high prices and new drilling methods, U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons is on track to rise 7 percent this year to an average of 10.9 million barrels per day. This will be the fourth straight year of crude increases and the biggest single-year gain since 1951.
The boom has surprised even the experts.
"Five years ago, if I or anyone had predicted today's production growth, people would have thought we were crazy," says Jim Burkhard, head of oil markets research at IHS CERA, an energy consulting firm.
The Energy Department forecasts that U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons, which includes biofuels, will average 11.4 million barrels per day next year. That would be a record for the U.S. and just below Saudi Arabia's output of 11.6 million barrels. Citibank forecasts U.S. production could reach 13 million to 15 million barrels per day by 2020, helping to make North America "the new Middle East."
The last year the U.S. was the world's largest producer was 2002, after the Saudis drastically cut production because of low oil prices in the aftermath of 9/11. Since then, the Saudis and the Russians have been the world leaders.
The United States will still need to import lots of oil in the years ahead. Americans use 18.7 million barrels per day. But thanks to the growth in domestic production and the improving fuel efficiency of the nation's cars and trucks, imports could fall by half by the end of the decade.
The increase in production hasn't translated to cheaper gasoline at the pump, and prices are expected to stay relatively high for the next few years because of growing demand for oil in developing nations and political instability in the Middle East and North Africa.
Still, producing more oil domestically, and importing less, gives the economy a significant boost.
The companies profiting range from independent drillers to large international oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, which increasingly see the U.S. as one of the most promising places to drill. ExxonMobil agreed last month to spend $1.6 billion to increase its U.S. oil holdings.
Increased drilling is driving economic growth in states such as North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana and Texas, all of which have unemployment rates far below the national average of 7.8 percent. North Dakota is at 3 percent; Oklahoma, 5.2.
Businesses that serve the oil industry, such as steel companies that supply drilling pipe and railroads that transport oil, aren't the only ones benefiting. Homebuilders, auto dealers and retailers in energy-producing states are also getting a lift.
IHS says the oil and gas drilling boom, which already supports 1.7 million jobs, will lead to the creation of 1.3 million jobs across the U.S. economy by the end of the decade.
"It's the most important change to the economy since the advent of personal computers pushed up productivity in the 1990s," says economist Philip Verleger, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.
The major factor driving domestic production higher is a newfound ability to squeeze oil out of rock once thought too difficult and expensive to tap. Drillers have learned to drill horizontally into long, thin seams of shale and other rock that holds oil, instead of searching for rare underground pools of hydrocarbons that have accumulated over millions of years.
To free the oil and gas from the rock, drillers crack it open by pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure, a process is known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
While expanded use of the method has unlocked enormous reserves of oil and gas, it has also raised concerns that contaminated water produced in the process could leak into drinking water.
The surge in oil production has other roots, as well:
— A long period of high oil prices has given drillers the cash and the motivation to spend the large sums required to develop new techniques and search new places for oil. Over the past decade, oil has averaged $69 a barrel. During the previous decade, it averaged $21.
— Production in the Gulf of Mexico, which slowed after BP's 2010 well disaster and oil spill, has begun to climb again. Huge recent finds there are expected to help growth continue.
— A natural gas glut forced drillers to dramatically slow natural gas exploration beginning about a year ago. Drillers suddenly had plenty of equipment and workers to shift to oil.
The most prolific of the new shale formations are in North Dakota and Texas. Activity is also rising in Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio and other states.
Production from shale formations is expected to grow from 1.6 million barrels per day this year to 4.2 million barrels per day by 2020, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm. That means these new formations will yield more oil by 2020 than major oil suppliers such as Iran and Canada produce today.
U.S. oil and liquids production reached a peak of 11.2 million barrels per day in 1985, when Alaskan fields were producing enormous amounts of crude, then began a long decline. From 1986 through 2008, crude production fell every year but one, dropping by 44 percent over that period. The United States imported nearly 60 percent of the oil it burned in 2006.
By the end of this year, U.S. crude output will be at its highest level since 1998 and oil imports will be lower than at any time since 1992, at 41 percent of consumption.
"It's a stunning turnaround," Burkhard says.
Whether the U.S. supplants Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer will depend on the price of oil and Saudi production in the years ahead. Saudi Arabia sits on the world's largest reserves of oil, and it raises and lowers production to try to keep oil prices steady. Saudi output is expected to remain about flat between now and 2017, according to the International Energy Agency.
But Saudi oil is cheap to tap, while the methods needed to tap U.S. oil are very expensive. If the price of oil falls below $75 per barrel, drillers in the U.S. will almost certainly begin to cut back.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that global oil prices, which have averaged $107 per barrel this year, will slip to an average of $89 over the next five years — not a big enough drop to lead companies to cut back on exploration deeply.
Nor are they expected to fall enough to bring back the days of cheap gasoline. Still, more of the money that Americans spend at filling stations will flow to domestic drillers, which are then more likely to buy equipment here and hire more U.S. workers.
"Drivers will have to pay high prices, sure, but at least they'll have a job," Verleger says.

 

Hawaii Volcano's Lava Lake Threatens to Overflow

The lava lake inside Halema'uma'u crater, at the top of Mount Kilauea in Hawaii, is closer than ever to spilling out over the crater floor. Read more

Awesome Pictures

How The Octopus Got Its Rings

Imagine for a moment that you're snorkeling in the exquisite cerulean waters off the coast of Australia, when you notice amidst the rocks a small octopus. It's well camouflaged against its background, but, upon seeing you, the startled cephalopod's body suddenly lights up in a brilliant pattern of blue rings.

Instead of recognizing what is obviously the animal's colorful warning display and backing off, you move in to get a closer look, at which point the panicked animal promptly bites your outstretched hand. You've just been bitten by the blue-ringed octopus - one of the more venomous creatures in the Pacific Ocean.

Ancient Armored Fish Had The First Teeth

Around 430 to 360 million years ago, fierce-looking armored fish called placoderms roamed the world's oceans. Most illustrations show them with jaws and teeth. But whether or not they actually had what we'd now describe as teeth has long been the subject of intense debate among scientists.

Now, using a particle-accelerator called a synchrotron, a UK-led team of researchers from the University of Bristol has discovered that these early jawed fish did indeed have pearly gnashers. And probably sharp ones at that.

Live shark found wriggling around on 12th tee of golf course

A 2-foot-long shark was spotted thrashing about on the 12th tee box of at San Juan Hills Golf Club, California, on Monday. The shark was discovered at around 4 pm by an on-duty course marshal, who immediately called the clubhouse to report the displaced fish.
“It was just wriggling around,” Director of Club Operations Melissa McCormack said. “Honestly, this is the weirdest thing that’s happened here.” The marshal picked up the shark, placed it in the back of his golf cart and drove it back to the clubhouse.

There, staff placed the shark briefly in some fresh water before an employee drove it out to Dana Point, where it was released back into the ocean. McCormack believes the shark was picked out of the water by a predatory bird and was dropped onto the course, which is less than 4 miles away from the Pacific Ocean.

The shark was found bleeding from puncture wounds near its dorsal fin. “It had a little blood on it, but it was still alive,” McCormack said. “We didn’t want to waste any time. Poor guy, he got dropped onto a golf course.” McCormack said the shark was light brown in color with black spots and could have been a leopard shark.

Animal News

The Great Chimp Tech Boom

Chimp tech isn't at the level of the iPad Mini, but some clever primates are innovating and spreading their methods. Read more

Why Dung Beetles Like to Chill on Poop Balls

Dung beetles use their balls of feces to protect their tootsies from the hot sands of the South African desert. Read more

Bigfoot Vandalizes a Winnebago

A long history of people have blamed the hairy humanoid for attacking personal property. Read more

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. ~ Peter Marshall

Some of our readers today have been in:

Kiev, Ukraine

Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Islamabad, Pakistan

Minsk, Belarus

Gdynia, Poland

St. Petersburg, Russia

George Town, Malaysia

Doha, Qatar

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Kingston, Jamaica

Hanoi, Vietnam

Cairo, Egypt

Bangkok, Thailand

Kota, Kinabalu, Malaysia

Krakow, Poland

Zagreb, Croatia

Makati, Philippines

Manama, Bahrain

Warsaw, Poland

Tirana, Albania

Ankara, Turkey

Sampaloc, Philippines

Tunis, Tunisia

Gdynia, Poland

Rabat, Morocco

Paris, France

Tallinn, Estonia

Carthage, Tunisia

Bydgoszcz, Poland

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

4004 BC		According to 17th century divine James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on this day, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.
1641		Rebellion in Ireland. Catholics, under Phelim O'Neil, rise against the Protestants and massacred men, women and children to the number of 40,000 (some say 100,000).
1694		American colonial forces led by Sir William Phips, fail in their attempt to seize Quebec.
1707		The first Parliament of Great Britain meets.
1783		Virginia emancipates slaves who fought for independence during the Revolutionary War.
1861		President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for all military-related cases.
1918		President Wilson feels satisfied that the Germans are accepting his armistice terms and agrees to transmit their request for an armistice to the Allies. The Germans have agreed to suspend submarine warfare, cease inhumane practices such as the use of poison gas, and withdraw troops back into Germany.
1929		The first transcontinental air service begins from New York to Los Angeles.
1942		The Western Task Force, destined for North Africa, departs from Hampton Roads, Virginia.
1952		The Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded to Ukranian-born microbiologist Selmart A. Waksman for his discovery of an effective treatment of tuberculosis.
1954		In Paris, an agreement is signed providing for West German sovereignty and permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western European Union.
1973		A U.N. sanctioned cease-fire officially ends the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Syria.
1983		A truck filled with explosives, driven by a Moslem terrorist, crashes into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The bomb kills 237 Marines and injures 80. Almost simultaneously, a similar incident occurs at French military headquarters, where 58 die and 15 are injured.

Non Sequitur

Dying man casts final vote

A photo of World War II veteran Frank Tanabe casting what will likely be his final ballot in a presidential election has gone viral --and captured the hearts of thousands.

More

The truth hurts

Romney’s best debate moment was when he lied

The Apology Tour

A repugican cabal official tells us today what we already knew: repugicans are at their best when they lie. The truth, on the other hand, has a liberal bias.
From Greg Sargent at the Washington Post:

Romney’s new ad features footage of him at yesterday’s debate attacking Obama for his … fictional apology tour.

In reprising these lines — that Obama apologized for America and has yet to visit Israel — the Romney camp is again attacking an Obama that mainly exists in the minds of the Obama-hating repugican base, and probably doesn’t really exist in the minds of undecided voters, who have watched this president for four years and don’t share the base’s suspicions about his commitment to America.
At least one rnc official is calling this Romney’s “best moment of the debate.” It’s a curious choice: With two weeks to go until the election, Romney’s best moment wasn’t an affirmative one where he laid out his own agenda vis a vis America’s role in the world; it’s one where he attacked Obama for an apology tour that never happened. The fact that a criticism of Obama that has been has been completely debunked is seen by the Romney camp as his shining triumph of last evening is fitting. It will be interesting to see if this is how the Romney campaign intends to close out the race. If so, it contrasts sharply with the Obama pivot to an affirmative case for a second term agenda that is now underway.

Romney Stands by a Lie That’s Already Been Debunked

People like to say that all politicians lie, but maybe the truth is closer to what the fictional TV character House alleges: “everyone lies.”  The thing that’s so amazing about repugicans, and Mitt Romney exemplifies the problem, is that they continue to lie even when publicly called out on their lie, repeatedly.  And the media tends to still let them get away with it.
Sure, the fact checkers have yet again retooled the same old pieces confirming that President Obama never did an “apology tour” at any time during his presidency, or before.
You’ve got CNN’s fact checker:

Back in December, Michael Cohen, a columnist for Foreign Policy’s Election 2012 Channel, called the “apology tour” claim “a lie that has been reiterated so often that it has become conventional wisdom on the right. ”
“The apology canard has been dis-proven practically as often as it has been made.”
Romney’s claim is false.

The Washington Post’s fact checker:

The claim that Obama repeatedly has apologized for the United States is not borne out by the facts….
Note to repugican speechwriters and campaign ad makers: The apology tour never happened.
Four Pinocchios

Politifact:

It’s ridiculous to call Obama’s foreign visits and remarks “an apology tour.” We rate this statement Pants on Fire!

So it’s conclusive that not only did Mitt Romney lie last night, but it’s a lie he’s been called out on repeatedly, yet still keeps telling, and today, after the lie has been repudiated again, Romney launches an ad based on it.

The Media’s Own Apology Tour

So how does the media treat Romney’s bizarre penchant for making a lie his central argument following the debate? Just look at Michael Finnegan writing in the LA Times. The LA Times does an entire story on the Romney accusation, and the first four grafs simply reiterate Romney’s false charge. Then, finally, in paragraph five – if the reader got that far – the LAT deigns to include an Obama quote saying it’s not true. Nowhere in the entire piece does the LAT notify their readers that the claim is actually false, and has been debunked by every fact checker, repeatedly, yet for some reason Mitt Romney keeps reiterating the lie.
Nowhere.
The LA Times is playing Romney’s stenographer. They’re happy to repeat a lie, and then bury the denial, because in their minds, so long as they include a quote from the other side, it’s journalism!
What else should the LA Times have done?
1) Put the denial in the first graf.
2) Mention the fact, immediately, that every fact checker on the planet has found Romney’s statement to be an utter lie.
3) Note in the piece the question as to why Romney would insist on making a serial lie his central argument leaving the third and final debate.
Here, let me show you.
Original LA Times lede:

Mitt Romney touched off one of the most contentious exchanges of the final presidential debate between him and President Obama by accusing the incumbent of projecting weakness in the world and traveling across the Middle East on an “apology tour.”

What the Times should have written:

Mitt Romney touched off one of the most contentious exchanges of the final presidential debate between him and President Obama by falsely accusing the incumbent of projecting weakness in the world and traveling across the Middle East on an “apology tour,” even though the allegation has been soundly refuted.
“The fact that Mitt Romney has decided to make a lie the center piece of his argument for the presidency, speaks volumes to what he has to offer, or not, as president,” said presidential historian Blah Blah blah.

By printing the lie, and giving it four paragraphs, and then only printing the President’s refutation, and doing so in the fifth paragraph, not earlier, the Times effectively makes this a he-said-she-said, legitimizing the lie in the public’s mind.

Print No Lies

At some point, reporters need to get beyond Journalism 101 (he-said-she-said) and move on to Journalism 102 (don’t report a lie).   The LA Times aided and abetted Romney’s lie last night.
But what about the other reporters, the ones who dutifully mention the “fact checks”?  They’re helping Romney too, and here’s why.  The press shouldn’t simply be reporting that Mitt Romney’s statement last night about the apology tour was untrue,  They should be asking the Romney campaign, incessantly, why they’re making a known lie the centerpiece of the candidate’s argument.
What does it say about Mitt Romney, about how he views himself and his qualifications to be president, about how he views the American voters, if he has decided that a lie, rather than the truth, is the more effective way for him to move into the Oval Office?  A real journalist would ask that question by this point.  It’s that failure to ask, the penchant to simply “report” the back and forth, even when reporters know that the strategy behind the lie is to simply get the back and forth in print so the public thinks some of the accusation must be true, that was behind the Swift-boating of John Kerry, death panels, and every other repugican lie.
The lies worked because the media let them work.
At some point, reporters needs to start asking the Republicans why they think the truth has a liberal bias, and why they think their candidate’s best argument for becoming president is a lie.  At some point, reporters need to stay true to their own version of the Hippocratic Oath:

Print No Lies.

The truth be told

Romney/Ryan voters try to destroy “photo op” soup kitchen – Democrats stop them

Reminiscent of the time repugicans tried to destroy a pizza joint where President Obama got a bear hug from its owner, repugicans have spent the last week harassing, and trying to destroy, a soup kitchen where Paul Ryan held a now-infamous photo opp.Huff Post’s Jason Cherkis reports:

Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, confirmed that donors have begun an exodus in protest over Ryan’s embarrassment. The monetary losses have been big. “It appears to be a substantial amount,” Antal said. “You can rest assured there has been a substantial backlash.”

Ryan supporters have now targeted Antal and his soup kitchen, Antal said, including making hundreds of angry phone calls. Some members of Antal’s volunteer staff have had to endure the barrage as well, he said. “The sad part is a lot of [the callers] want to hide behind anonymity,” he said, adding that if someone leaves their name and number he has tried to return their call. In addition to phone calls, people have posted a few choice words on the charity’s Facebook wall, including statements like “I hope you lose your tax [sic] emempt status,” Anyone who is thinking about donations to you should think twice” and “Shame on you Brian Antal!”

Thankfully, per Huff Post Hill, Democrats have risen to the challenge and saved the soup kitchen that Romney/Ryan supporters tried to put out of business.

 ”The soup kitchen facing a donor backlash in the wake of Paul Ryan’s embarrassing photo op has been rescued by the internet. The day after HuffPost broke the kitchen’s sad news, Corey Snow of Olympia Washington, organized an online fundraising drive on the charity’s behalf. In about 30 hours, Snow had raised $10,000. By Monday morning, donations had reached more than $12,600. Snow said that he was upset that the most needy would become pawns in presidential politics.‘People are hungry regardless of whether you vote Democrat or repugican,’ he said. ‘I thought it was not cool that they were pulling donations.’ Snow, who has talked with the charity’s director, plans on keeping the campaign going long past the election. He plans on turning in his donations to the soup kitchen by mid December. ‘The election will still be over but people will still be hungry,’ he said. The campaign site link is http://www.indiegogo.com/svdp-soupkitchen. There is also a direct donation site set up by the Mahoning County Society of Saint Vincent de Paul at http://mahoningsvdp.org, and of course the national site at http://svdpusa.org.

It’s really kind of astounding, and speaks volumes to what the repugican cabal has become,
that Romney/Ryan supporters would try to destroy a soup kitchen that feeds the poor and the homeless.

The repugicans and the Facts

I caught this exchange in the comments on a repugican cultist website:

1st Commenter, October 22, 2012 - 9:48 pm:

"Presenting failure as success is an amazing talent.

"Our economy is rebounding, employment is up, oil is gushing, our enemies are in retreat and it will only take four more years in the White House for Obama to clear up Bush’s mess. Obama loves Israel, supports our military, is revered by our allies and feared by our enemies.

"I can’t imagine how anyone can even think of not giving this great President four more years."

2nd Commenter, October 23, 2012 - 2:32 am:

"It might be because everything you just said is untrue. The economy is stagnant, jobs are down, as is oil production on public land. Our enemies clearly don’t fear him, because they blatantly attacked us. Most of the people from other countries whom I’ve spoken to do not like Obama. They call him “weak” at best, and “insane” at worst.

"I don’t see how anyone who is thinking clearly and analyzing the actual record could possibly want to give this man another four years to do more damage.

"The only reason I see anyone voting for Obama is either confirmation bias (due to voting him in and not wanting to be wrong), or utter ignorance of the facts."

Sigh. A tale of two voters - one informed by the facts, the other apparently getting his "facts" from Faux News.

Voter fraud is a fraud

The New Yorker's "Voter-Fraud Myth" by Jane Mayer is a good, fair, investigative piece tracking the rise of the repugican orthodoxy that says that voter fraud is rampant, and that it favors Democrats. Mayer makes a reasoned, factual case to show that there is no substantial voter fraud problem (much-vaunted incidents like the scores of dead voters in Georgia were later revealed to not have a single verifiable instance of a dead person voting). Mayer also shows how anti-fraud measures disproportionately target young people, poor people, and visible minorities. This is a great piece to refer to when discussing the subject with friends who've been convinced that voter ID laws amount to anything other than partisan voter suppression.

Von Spakovsky offered me the names of two experts who, he said, would confirm that voter-impersonation fraud posed a significant peril: Robert Pastor, the director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management, at American University, and Larry Sabato, a political-science professor at the University of Virginia. Pastor, von Spakovsky noted, had spoken to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about being a victim of election fraud: voting in Georgia, he discovered that someone else had already voted under his name.
When I reached Pastor, he clarified what had happened to him. “I think they just mistakenly checked my name when my son voted—it was just a mistake.” He added, “I don’t think that voter-impersonation fraud is a serious problem.” Pastor believes that, compared with other democracies, America is “somewhere near the bottom in election administration,” and thinks that voter I.D.s make sense—but only if they are free and easily available to all, which, he points out, is not what repugican legislatures have proposed. Sabato, who supports the use of voter I.D.s under the same basic conditions, says of the voter-impersonation question, “One fraudulent vote is one too many, but my sense is that it’s relatively rare today.”
Hasen says that, while researching “The Voting Wars,” he “tried to find a single case” since 1980 when “an election outcome could plausibly have turned on voter-impersonation fraud.” He couldn’t find one. News21, an investigative-journalism group, has reported that voter impersonation at the polls is a “virtually non-existent” problem. After conducting an exhaustive analysis of election-crime prosecutions since 2000, it identified only seven convictions for impersonation fraud. None of those cases involved conspiracy.

The Voter-Fraud Myth

Kansas case puts face on 'total identity theft'

When Candida L. Gutierrez's identity was stolen, the thief didn't limit herself to opening fraudulent credit and bank accounts. She assumed Gutierrez's persona completely, using it to get a job, a driver's license, a mortgage and even medical care for the birth of two children.

All the while, the crook claimed the real Gutierrez was the one who had stolen her identity. The women's unusual tug-of-war puts a face on "total identity theft," a brazen form of the crime in which con artists go beyond financial fraud to assume many other aspects of another person's life.

More

Pussy Riot activists sent to secret harsh labor camps

Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have been sent to regions known for hosting Russia's harshest hard-labor camps, places that once served as Soviet gulags. The 24 and 22 year old mothers -- who performed a song protesting the Russian Orthodox Church's connection to the Putin regime in a cathedral -- have been sentenced to two years of hard labor. Though the regions to which they've been dispatched is known, no one -- not even their families -- has been allowed to know exactly which prison-camps they are incarcerated in. The Guardian's Miriam Elder reports from Moscow:

"These are the harshest camps of all the possible choices," the band said via its Twitter account on Monday.
...Confusion reigned on Monday as relatives and lawyers tried to assess exactly where the women were sent. Both Perm and Mordovia host several prison camps, some of which comprised the Soviet-era gulag system. Prison authorities declined to comment on the women's whereabouts.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova had petitioned to serve their sentences in Moscow, arguing that they wanted to be close to their children. Alyokhina has a five-year-old son named Filipp, while Tolokonnikova has a four-year-old daughter named Gera.

Pussy Riot band members sent to remote prison camps

Daily Comic Relief

Can your body sense future events without any external clue?

Wouldn’t it be amazing if our bodies prepared us for future events that could be very important to us, even ...

Continue Reading

Breakthrough In World's Oldest Undeciphered Writing

The world's oldest undeciphered writing system, which has so far defied attempts to uncover its 5,000-year-old secrets, could be about to be decoded by Oxford University academics. In a room high up in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, above the Egyptian mummies and fragments of early civilisations, a big black dome is clicking away and flashing out light.

This device, part sci-fi, part-DIY, is providing the most detailed and high quality images ever taken of these elusive symbols cut into clay tablets. This is Indiana Jones with software. It's being used to help decode a writing system called proto-Elamite, used between around 3200BC and 2900BC in a region now in the south west of modern Iran.

The 10 Best Films of the 1890s

They're heavy on effects, light on dialogue, and all available thanks to YouTube. But seriously, here's how this list came about: last week, the A.V. Club posted a four-part post listing the best films of the 1990s (links available) that, of course, brought a firestorm of opinions.

As a lark, we started talking about a companion list covering the best films of the 1890s. But the more we talked about it, the more it seemed like a good idea to turn back the clock to the very beginnings of film. We selected 10 films we found artistically compelling and historically significant. And because they’re all in the public domain, available on YouTube, and short, you can easily watch them in their entirety as you read along.

Not only that, but none of these films will cause a fight over which was the most important to readers' childhoods. Don't miss my favorite of the bunch, The X-Ray Fiend (1897). More

Unusual Ukrainian Model

Models with an unusual appearance become more and more popular nowadays. Thus, girls often look like boys and boys resemble girls and such models are rather well-paid. But Masha Telnaya is not one of them. She is special because of her eyes. She is called a beautiful freak in the west, but her countrymen often joke about the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe. But the face of the Ukrainian girl is driving Paris crazy. More

Random Photo

Arizona ballot measure contests ownership of the Grand Canyon

By Tim Gaynor

When voters in Arizona go to the polls next month, they will be asked to decide a landownership tug of war: Should the Grand Canyon belong to all Americans, or just the residents of Arizona?

A controversial ballot measure backed by repugicans in the state legislature is seeking sovereign control over millions of acres of federal land in the state, including the Grand Canyon.

Proposition 120 would amend the state's constitution to declare Arizona's sovereignty and jurisdiction over the "air, water, public lands, minerals, wildlife and other natural resources

within the state's boundaries."

The measure is the latest salvo in the so-called "sagebrush revolt" by Republicans in the West aiming to take back control of major swaths of land owned by various federal agencies, much of it by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management.

State Senator Sylvia Allen, one of the repugican backers of the measure, argues that federal retention of the land hurts the economy of the Western states and leaves them struggling to fund public education, nurture their economies, and manage their forests and natural resources.

"We do not have the ability in rural Arizona to provide jobs for our citizens due to the fact that the federal government controls all the land," Allen told Reuters. "It leaves us at a great disadvantage. We're not able to bring in industry and provide for the jobs that we need," she added.

The exact area of public land targeted by the measure - which excludes American Indian reservations and federal installations such as arsenals - was not immediately clear on the Arizona Secretary of State's website.

The Sierra Club pegged the area at between 39,000 and 46,700 square miles (101,000 and 121,000 square km) - or 34 percent to 41 percent of the entire state.

BATTLE OVER LAND

The ballot measure is just the latest move in a decades-old federal-state skirmish over control of a wide range of natural resources in Western states, often pitting mining, drilling and logging companies against those seeking to protect the environment.

The efforts have had mixed success. In May, Arizona's repugican Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a state bill calling on Washington to relinquish the title to 48,000 square miles (124,000 square km), arguing that it created uncertainty for existing leaseholders on federal lands in difficult economic times.

But similar legislation was signed into law by Governor Gary Herbert in neighboring Utah in March, despite warnings from state attorneys that it was likely unconstitutional and would trigger a costly and ultimately futile legal battle.

Opponents of the latest drive to assert Arizona's ownership say that, if successful, the initiative could undermine protections provided by federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and Clean Water Act, and would saddle Arizona with lands for which it would be unable to care.

"They can't even fund and ensure that their (state) parks are protected, so how they would take on an additional 25 to 30 million acres of land is a big question mark," Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, told Reuters.

No polls have given a sense of whether Prop 120 will prosper during the November 6 election. But Bahr cautioned that, should it pass, it would inevitably trigger fresh litigation for Arizona, which recently fought a legal battle over its tough 2010 crackdown on illegal immigrants all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This one is just blatantly unconstitutional," Bahr said of Prop 120. "Does Arizona really need another lawsuit?"

Underground Magic

Ruskealsky gap is a place in Karelia. It's a huge hole about ten meters (33 ft) deep with water on its bottom. As locals say it formed in the 1960s after strong explosions in the neighboring quarry. The roof of the old waterlogged tunnels broke and fell into the water. A huge hole 20 x 30 m (65x100 ft) appeared on the surface.

More

Indonesia's Tri-Colored Lakes

Kelimutu

They are located on the same volcanic peak yet each of the three crater lakes atop Kelimutu in Indonesia is a markedly different color. It is the only place on earth where this amazing color variation takes place.

The three lakes all have different names and local people have for centuries believed that the lakes are the spiritual resting place of their ancestors. It is said the lakes change color according to the mood of the spirit - and if that is the case then the souls' moods are constantly restless.

Awesome Pictures

Lady Gaga is namesake for new fern species

By April Bethea

Lady Gaga's outfit at the 2010 Grammys reminded researchers at Duke of the gametophyte, bisexual reproductive stage of the ferns.

Fans of Lady Gaga are affectionately known around the world as “Little Monsters.”
Now, the name has been bestowed on a newly-discovered species of Fern.
Gaga monstraparva, or “monster-little” is one of 19 fern species being named after the pop music star, researchers at Duke University announced on Tuesday. The plants are found in Central and South America, Mexico, Arizona and Texas, according to a news release.
“We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression,” Kathleen Pryer, a Duke University biology professor and director of the Duke Herbarium, said in the release. “And as we started to consider it, the ferns themselves gave us more reasons why it was a good choice.”
Among the reasons cited by researchers: Part of the DNA sequence for the genus spells GAGA and a heart-shaped portion of Gaga’s Armani Prive’ costume at the 2010 Grammy Awards reminded Pryor of the bisexual reproductive stage of the ferns.
Learn more about the study at: http://today.duke.edu/2012/10/gagafern

Say Hello to Bacteria on Your Smartphone!

Think of this the next time you fiddle with your smartphone: it's a nest of germs! Caroline Porter of the Wall Street Journal explains why cell phones are not only great for sharing photos - they're also great for sharing bacteria:

Even though computers, keys, pens and landline phones can harbor germs, many people's cellphones have become extra appendages—never far from the pillow, health club treadmill or restaurant table.
"We're feeding the little creatures," says Michael Schmidt, a professor and vice chairman of microbiology and immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina. "We've all seen that greasy smear [on the touch screen]. Where there is grease, there are bugs."
A lab tested eight randomly selected phones from a Chicago office for this article. The phones showed no signs of E. coli or staphylococci bacteria. But all phones showed abnormally high numbers of coliforms, a bacteria indicating fecal contamination. Of the eight phones tested by HML Labs of Muncie, Ind., there were between about 2,700 and 4,200 units of coliform bacteria. In drinking water, the limit is less than 1 unit per 100 ml of water.

More

The Best Wildlife Photography of 2012

There were more than 48,000 entries in the Veolia Environmental Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, but only 100 winners. Luciano Candisani won the category of Behaviour: Cold-Blooded Animals with his snap of a friendly fellow that he met while snorkeling. You can view all of the winners at the link.
More

Small Worlds Never Before Seen

From bat embryos to blood-brain barriers, photographers capture images they claim are the first of their kind. Read more