Random Photo

Darwin's Neon Orange Golf Balls

If you're wondering what in the world are those neon orange balls growing on a beech tree, you're in good company. See, it was Charles Darwin himself who first encountered the strange balls when he landed in Tierra del Fuego during his voyage on the HMS Beagle.
Turns out, the neon-colored balls known as "beech orange" are actually a fungus named Cyttaria darwini (yes, named after the biologist in his honor). But that's not the strangest thing about the fungus. Turns out, you can make an alcoholic drink out of them!

Darwin himself noted they made up a substantial portion of the diet of the natives of Terra del Fuego and grew “in vast numbers on the beech trees”. He observed that the women and children collected their beech oranges when “tough and mature”, and that they had a “mucilaginous, slightly sweet taste, with a faint smell like that of a mushroom.”
Another South American group — the Araucans of Chile — discovered and capitalized upon the happy fact that Cyttaria harioti contains up to 15% fermentable sugars and that, like grapes, come naturally coated with the yeast Saccharomyces. This would be the same Saccharomyces that has made the fortunes of Fleischman’s, Budweiser, and half of France.
After drying, grinding, and mixing beech oranges with warm water and allowing nature to take its course, the Araucans enjoy an alcoholic beverage called chicha del llau-llau made from the ripe fruiting bodies, according to Bryce Kendrick’s The Fifth Kingdom.

Jennifer Frazer of Scientific American's The Artful Amoeba blog has the post: Here.

The Southern Hemisphere's collection of alternate-universe creatures is not limited to emus, echidnas, and monkey-puzzle trees. There are also crazy down-under fungi. And one of them was first encountered and collected for science by none other than Charles Darwin.

Darwin was on his course-of-western-history-altering Beagle cruise when he was probably captivated by the odd appearance of Cyttaria darwini, the 'beech orange,' in Tierra del Fuego. This fungus grows in association with the southern hemisphere genus Nothofagus, the 'southern beeches,' and it is not subtle in going about it.

Awesome Pictures

The evolution of white fur and an animal sex scandal

Up north — in Canada and other places where snowy winters are reliable (and reliably heavy) — you find more animals whose fur comes in various shades of white. This is true even for species that are brown or black further south. The difference is obvious. But how does it happen? Carl Zimmer presents two possible paths to paleness — random mutation, and fortuitous cross-species mating. In related news: Golden retrievers are probably getting it on with Canadian coyotes.

The Merfolk?

Grandpa Fish: Another possibility is that Merfolk were inspired by fish with roughly human-looking faces. This little fish, for instance. As for what this fish is, I don't know. I couldn't even find the origin of the image. It's just one of those floating around the Internet. Could even be a photoshopped hoax for all I know. But it makes a certain point: Some fish can look humanoid. That would be enough to get superstitious sailors started.

Woman hurt after dead horse falls on top of her

A woman is in the hospital after a horse died and fell on top of her at a park in Bucks County.
More

The First Known Solar-Powered Vertebrate

Some animals, such as particular sponge and coral species, use photosynthesis to produce energy. But only recently have scientists confirmed that a vertebrate--an animal with a backbone--does so as well. When spotted salamanders lay eggs, algae colonize the egg clusters and provide the means for photosynthesis:

A close examination of the eggs revealed that some of the algae were living within the embryos themselves, and in some cases were actually inside embryonic cells. That suggested the embryos weren't just taking oxygen from the algae: they might be taking glucose too. In other words, the algae were acting as internal power stations, generating fuel for the salamanders.

To find out if that was happening, Erin Graham of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and colleagues incubated salamander eggs in water containing radioactive carbon-14. Algae take up the isotope in the form of carbon dioxide, producing radioactive glucose.

Graham found that the embryos became mildly radioactive – unless kept in the dark. That showed that the embryos could only take in the carbon-14 via photosynthesis in the algae.

The algae do not seem to be essential to the embryos, but they are very helpful: embryos deprived of algae struggle. "Their survival rate is much lower and their growth is slowed," says Graham.

More

The Tortoise Beetle

Amazing Metallic Arthropods

They look almost manufactured. Many tortoise beetles have transparent cuticles, the tough but flexible outer covering which gives the insect family its name protects the delicate creature within.

The living tissue is often metallic in color and can in some species even change color. The combination is as diverse as it is extraordinary - many look like tiny robots assembled to infiltrate, the ultimate bug. Take a look in at the amazing variations of tortoise beetle our world holds.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Good question!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Karachi, Pakistan 

Makati, Philippines

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Panevezys, Lithuania

Albertslund, Denmark

Jakarta, Indonesia

Kajang, Malaysia

Tunis, Tunisia

Amman, Jordan

Monterrey, Mexico

Kuanas, Lithuania

Butterworth, Malaysia

Caracas, Venezuela

Haifa, Israel

Cape Town, South Africa

Paka, Malaysia

Islamabad, Pakistan

Ankara, Turkey

Batu Pahat, Malaysia

Bogota, Colombia

Minsk, Belarus

Vancouver, Canada

Kingston, Jamaica

Novi Sad, Serbia

T, Philippines

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Kiev, Ukraine

Al Jizah, Egypt

Subang Jaya, Malaysia

Manila, Philippines

Nicosia, Cyprus

Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria

Sialkot, Pakistan

Taytay, Philippines

Belgrade, Serbia

Seremban, Malaysia

Kuwait, Kuwait

San Pedro, Philippines

Algiers, Algeria

Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Slavutich, Ukraine

Tirana, Albania

Sofia, Bulgaria

Jawa, Indonesia

Today is National Disc Jockey Day

 Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1327		Edward II of England is deposed by his eldest son, Edward III.
1616		The French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrives to winter in a Huron Indian village after being wounded in a battle with Iroquois in New France.
1783		Britain signs a peace agreement with France and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence.
1908		The Sullivan Ordinance bars women from smoking in public facilities in the United States.
1930		Charles Lindbergh arrives in New York, setting a cross country flying record of 14.75 hours.
1935		Belgium arrests some Nazi agitators who urge for a return to the Reich.
1941		Hitler meets with Mussolini and offers aid in Albania and Greece.
1942		Nazi officials meet in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to decide the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
1944		Allied forces in Italy begin unsuccessful operations to cross the Rapido River and seize Cassino.
1945		Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term.
1945		The Allies sign a truce with the Hungarians.
1946		France's Charles DeGaulle hands in his resignation.
1952		British troops occupy Ismalia, Egypt.
1954		Over 22,000 anti-Communist prisoners are turned over to UN forces in Korea.
1977		President Jimmy Carter is sworn in and then surprises the nation as he walks from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.
1981		Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president at the same time 52 American hostages are released from their captors in Tehran, Iran.

Non Sequitur

Basic Barbecue Dipping Sauce

Makes 2 cups of sauce.

• 1 cup ketchup
• ½ cup tomato puree
• ½ cup tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic
• 2 teaspoons light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 6 ounces water

Combine all ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove pan from heat, then let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Oh, by the way ...

In the last 32 years ...
Just who raised the debt ceiling, how many times

 

And another thing ...

 

He tripled the debt, but...he was White, so it's OK.

Assad's overthrow "red line" for Iran

A senior aide to Iran's supreme leader warned against the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, saying his fate was a "red line", in one of the Islamic state's strongest messages of support for the Damascus government.Iran has steadfastly backed Assad's rule since an uprising against his rule began almost two years ago and regards him as an important part of the axis of opposition against arch-foe Israel.
"If the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, the line of resistance in the face of Israel will be broken," Ali Akbar Velayati, who is seen as a potential contender in Iran's June presidential election, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
"We believe that there should be reforms emanating from the will of the Syrian people, but without resorting to violence and obtaining assistance from the (United States of) America," he told Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen satellite television.
Asked if Iran sees Assad as a red line, Velayati said: "Yes, it is so. But this does not mean that we ignore the Syrian people's right in choose its own rulers."
More than 60,000 people have died in the uprising against Assad, part of the Arab Spring protests that have swept aside four heads of state since 2011.
Iran, a regional Shi'ite Muslim power which backs Lebanon's Hezbollah group, describes many Syrian opposition groups as "terrorists" who are backed by Western and Arab states. Assad follows an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Velayati blamed what he called "reactionary" Arab states for the violence in Syria and singled out Qatar, accusing it of bringing in fighters from Somalia and Afghanistan to help topple Assad.
Velayati said all parties linked to the crisis in Syria needed to negotiate.
"Anyone who comes to the talks cannot negotiate on the table and support the armed elements, but must enter the negotiations and stop supporting the armed elements," he added.
The Islamic Republic has sought international backing for its six-point plan to resolve the Syrian conflict. The plan calls for an immediate end to violence and negotiations between all parties to form a transitional government, but does not call for Assad to step down.

***

As if we give a rats ass what the Iranians think or want.

Except maybe this particular Iranian.

And I Quote

Three wounded at shooting at Dixie Gun & Knife Show

No personal gun sales when Dixie Gun & Knife show reopens Sunday

 

One of the region’s largest gun shows will reopen Sunday at the N.C. State Fairgrounds under new rules following an accidental shooting that injured three people the day before.

Police say a security guard and two others were wounded Saturday afternoon at the Dixie Gun & Knife Show after a shotgun went off as it was being checked in. The gun owner was planning to sell the weapon at the show, which attracts thousands of people to the fairgrounds in West Raleigh.
Police said that private gun sales will not be allowed at the show Sunday. Personal guns will not be allowed on property. Gun sales will be allowed only by licensed dealers within the Jim Graham Building.
“If we thought it was a problem, or it was a hazard, or it was dangerous, we would not have this show,” Joel Keith, police chief of the state Agriculture Department, said at a news conference at the fairgrounds. “Let’s keep in mind, as I said before, this was an accident, and I’m sure there’s nobody hates this any more than the guy that owned that weapon. But it’s also a responsibility of us to evaluate what we are doing and see what we can do better.”
Keith said no decision has been made yet whether private gun sales will be permanently banned.
He said private gun sales represent a “minuscule” amount of the market at the Dixie Gun & Knife Show, a quarterly event at the fairgrounds for decades.
‘We see … an accident’
Sunday’s new rules affect people such as Paul Milligan of Raleigh, who planned to sell three guns at the show to a dealer. Milligan, who said he wanted to sell the guns to help pay his bills, said police are overreacting by implementing the new rules.
He said the gun owner never should have brought a loaded weapon into the show.
“This is just a mess,” he said. “One guy gives all of us a bad reputation because he can’t follow fifth-grade safety rules.”
The 12-gauge shotgun discharged shortly after 1 p.m. inside the Jim Graham Building when its owner unzipped its case on a table for a security officer to check it at the main entrance, Keith said. The police chief emphasized that the gun went off before the security officer had a chance to examine the weapon.
Keith said birdshot pellets hit Janet Hoover, 54, of Benson, in the right torso; Linwood Hester, 50, of Durham, in the left hand; and Jake Alderman, a retired Wake County sheriff’s deputy from Wake Forest, in the hand. Hoover and Hester were taken to WakeMed, where an official said both were in good condition Saturday night and expected to be released soon.
Alderman, who was working security at the show, was treated and released at WakeMed North Healthplex.
Gary Lynn Wilson, 36, of Wilmington, who brought the shotgun, is being questioned by the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, which Keith asked to handle the investigation. Sheriff Donnie Harrison said investigators will consult with the district attorney’s office about whether charges should be filed.
“Right now, what we see is an accident,” Harrison said. “If there’s something he may be charged with, we’ll find that out.”
The shooting takes place amid a time of heightened tension about gun control following last month’s school shooting in Connecticut in which a gunman killed 20 children and six school staff members. Gun-rights supporters fear that new gun control restrictions will be implemented.
Protest at Capitol
As part of Saturday’s national Gun Appreciation Day, gun-rights supporters marched around the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh. State Capitol Police estimated the crowd numbered around 200 people.
Protesters held signs such as “The Reason We Have a Constitution Is To Protect Us from Presidents like Barack Obama” and “I (Heart) My AK-47.” One sign had the words “Come and Take It!” over the image of an assault rifle equipped with a scope and bayonet.
Over at the fairgrounds, people faced long lines of an hour or more at the gun show, which closed early because of the shooting.
“I didn’t even get in the door,” said Christopher Kent of Tarboro. “I have been looking forward to this for a while.”
There were two other shootings at gun shows Saturday, The Associated Press reported. In Indianapolis, a man unloading his .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun shot his hand, and in Medina, Ohio, a gun dealer checking out a semi-automatic handgun he had bought accidentally pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off the floor and struck a friend’s arm and leg.

Sad, but true

SWAT standoff in Georgia uncovers dismembered body

Police went to Chad Moretz's home to ask him about a friend who had gone missing and quickly found themselves in a tense standoff when a relative answered the door and whispered: "He's got a rifle. He's going to kill y'all."

It was at least the fourth time in 18 months deputies had gone to see Moretz. Neighbors and relatives had accused him of chasing his wife with a machete, threatening to kill a man with a handgun and stabbing a dog with a pocket knife. But none of that prepared investigators for what they found Jan. 11 after Moretz walked onto his front porch with an assault rifle and was killed by a SWAT team sniper.

Inside the home, amid filth and roaches and foul odors, police found the missing man's severed head and two hands hidden behind a kitchen cabinet inside a hole in the wall. The rest of the body, dismembered by a power saw and wrapped in bags, was discovered in a storage locker a half-hour away in neighboring South Carolina.
"I don't believe there was a motive," said David Ehsanipoor, an investigator for the Effingham County Sheriff's Office. "It wasn't a drug deal gone bad or a love triangle. Chad was just crazy."

Medical examiners confirmed the body belonged to Charlie Ray, 35. Ray had been a friend of Moretz, and his family had been searching for him since New Year's Eve.

An autopsy showed Ray was stabbed more than 40 times and had been dead more than a week before his remains were found. Moretz's wife told investigators her husband and Ray had been drinking and talking, then started arguing. She said Moretz grabbed a knife and started repeatedly stabbing Ray in their kitchen, Ehsanipoor said. Investigators suspect Ray's body was dismembered to make it easier to hide.

Ray's mother, Sandi Ray, said in a brief phone interview her son struggled with Tourette's syndrome.

Megan Edgerly, a friend of Ray's since childhood, said the debilitating brain disorder left him unable to drive or to hold down a job. She said he handled his tics — flailing arms and vocal outbursts — with grace and humor and treasured friends who accepted him in spite of it.
"Charlie never had a frown on his face," Edgerly said. "He was dealt a bad hand, but he always maintained a real positive attitude throughout all of it."
Moretz lived about 20 miles from where Ray lived with his parents. Moretz had moved there from southwest Florida, where violence devastated his own family a year and a half ago.

His father is scheduled to stand trial in April for the slaying of Moretz's mother in Naples, Fla. Police said Jeffrey Moretz, 55, followed his estranged wife, Christine Moretz, to a hospital and fatally shot her while she was visiting a friend on July 5, 2011. He then shot himself, but survived. Court records show Jeffrey Moretz filed for divorce in Collier County, Fla., two weeks before his wife's slaying.

One of Chad Moretz's neighbors, Ross Maruca, said Moretz didn't work and let his grass grow knee-high before Maruca decided to cut it himself. He said Moretz once showed up at his door and asked his wife for food and money. She gave him $20, he said, and Moretz later paid it back.
"You could look at him and tell something was wrong, just the look he had," Maruca said. "He looked like he was dazed all the time."
Deputies jailed Moretz on July 23, 2011 — not quite three weeks after his mother was killed — when his brother-in-law told police he'd received a frantic phone call from his sister saying Moretz was chasing her with a machete. Moretz's wife denied the story. Deputies charged Chad Moretz with trespassing when they found him hiding by a shed in a neighbor's yard.
Last May, neighbors called the sheriff's office when they said Moretz stabbed a dog that had gotten loose after he was bitten several times. In November, a friend told police Moretz asked for a ride, and when he refused, he pointed the gun at him and threatened to kill him and his family.

Deputies arrested Moretz on charges of making terroristic threats on Dec. 22. Jail records show he was released on $3,500 bond the same day.

Almost two weeks later, Maruca called police after seeing a TV news report that Charlie Ray was missing. Maruca knew Ray because he had lived at Moretz's house for two or three months the previous summer. The neighbor said he saw Ray at the house Jan. 2.

Police initially talked to Moretz's wife, who said Ray wasn't there. Days later, they decided to return to the suburban neighborhood of modest brick homes talk to Moretz himself. His brother-in-law, Kevin Lambert, met detectives at the door and whispered a warning.

"He said, 'Chad's in here, he's got a rifle, he's going to kill y'all,'" Ehsanipoor said.

Detectives dragged Lambert out of the house and retreated. Moretz, armed with an assault rifle, refused to come out or to let his wife leave. A hostage negotiator and a SWAT team were brought in.

After more than four hours, Moretz's wife ran outside through the front door and collapsed in the yard. Then Moretz emerged with an AR-15 rifle. Ehsanipoor said he was raising the gun when a sniper shot him.

Though investigators say they believe Moretz alone killed Ray, his wife and brother-in-law have been charged with helping conceal the death. Kimberly Moretz did not immediately return a message left at a phone number listed for her on a police report. Lambert did not have a listed phone number.

Investigators said it was one of the siblings who told authorities during the standoff that Ray's remains were hidden in a storage locker in nearby Jasper, S.C.

"Everybody's still in a state of shock," said Edgerly, Ray's longtime friend. "This isn't supposed to happen."

Awesome Pictures

Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

 

Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.

A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.

An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for the 40 percent of American private-sector workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.

Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.

Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.

The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.
Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.
But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.
Michael Sinesky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."
"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinesky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.
Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.
To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.
"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.
Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.
In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.

The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.

Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.
While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.
"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."

Daily Comic Relief

Do we really need deodorant?

New research shows that more than 75 per cent of people with a particular version of a gene don’t produce...

Continue Reading 

In The News

The Science of Flu Season

Flu season is in winter. Okay, great. But why? (Consider this an open thread for all your favorite humidifier recommendations.) 

How chili peppers can kill 

In the latest "dose makes the poison" news: If you consume enough chili peppers (or even chili powder), it can act as a neurotoxin. 

Great moments in pedantry: Canada puts the wrong maple leaf on its $20 bill 

Hey, that's not a Canadian sugar maple leaf! That is very clearly the leaf of the invasive Norway maple. 

Tree and human health may be linked

Evidence is increasing from multiple scientific fields that exposure to the natural environment can improve human health. In a new ...

Continue Reading 

Can The Plague Rise Again?

The short answer is: Yes!

There's no doubt that the plague has staying power. The deadly bacterium has probably been infecting people for 20,000 years. And, its genes have hardly changed since it killed nearly half of Europe's population during The Black Death.

Now microbiologists have evidence that strains of the plague may be able to reactivate themselves and trigger new outbreaks - even after lying dormant for decades. That's the conclusion of a study just published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, which looked at recent plague outbreaks in Algeria and Libya.

Rare tropical disease close to eradication

A rare tropical disease called Guinea worm is closer to being eradicated, according to former President Jimmy Carter and other experts.

 More

Bats are Reservoir for Ebola Virus in Bangladesh

EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that focuses on local conservation and global health issues, released new research on Ebola virus ...

Continue Reading 

Colorful People

The colorful faces of Kathmandu’s Yomari Puni festival

The Caucasus

The Caucasus are associated with snowy peaks, turbulent mountain rivers, Narzan (local mineral water), glaciers and old double-peak Elbrus. It's where you constantly hear rockfalling sounds, crackling glaciers and see the stars which seem to be so close that you can touch them with your hands. More

The History Behind Singapore's Only Surviving WWII Bomb Shelter

For some 70 years, the tunnels and chambers of Singapore's last remaining WWII air raid shelter have gathered dust, only recently to be rediscovered. More

'Astonishing' Ancient Amazon Civilization Discovery Detailed

Recently, new satellite imagery detected a hidden kingdom in the Amazon that had eluded explorers for nearly 500 years.

 

Some called it El Dorado, others, like Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett (a British version of Indiana Jones) cryptically named it the "City of Z."
The jungle swallowed them all, and no evidence has ever been produced that such a place existed.
Now the satellite imagery of deforested sections of the upper Amazon Basin revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks. Sculpted from the clay rich soils of Amazonia as perfect circles and squares,
these structured earth mounds, or "geoglyphs," are located on the east side of the Andes and span a distance of 155 miles. Built long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the new world — the sites date from 200 to 1283 A.D.– the earthworks are the remains of roads, bridges and squares that formed the basis for a lost civilization, according to a study published in the journal Antiquity.
Denise Schaan, co-author of the study and anthropologist at the Federal University of Pará, in Belém,
Brazil, talks about this intriguing finding.

Denise Schaan: The geoglyphs are an astonishing discovery. They do not represent the ancient city full of gold long sought by the early explorers of the Amazon, but they are indeed an El Dorado to archaelogists: they are the vestiges of a sophisticated pre-Columbian monument-building society.

According to Schaan and colleagues Martti Parssinen from the University of Helsinki and Alceu Ranzi from the Federal University of Acre, Rio Branco, Brazil, the structures are formed by ditches about 36 feet
wide and several feet deep, lined by earthen banks up to 3 feet high.

Denise Schaan: We are talking of enourmous structures, with diameters ranging from 100 to 300 meters, connected by straight orthogonal roads. They are strategically located  on plateaux tops above the river valleys. Their builders took advantage of the natural topography in order to construct spaces that were full of symbolic meaning.

But who built the structures and what functions they had remains unclear.

Denise Schaan: They were probably villages, ceremonial centers, gathering places and point to a society of a complex nature. Indeed, to build these structures you need organization, planning, and large labor force. Amazingly, this suggest that quite substantial population was living in an area long believed to be too harsh to sustain permanent settlements.

Schaan and colleagues estimated at least 300 people would be needed to build a geoglyph. This points to a regional population of around 60,000 people, which was then wiped out by diseases brought by European conquistadores in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Denise Schaan: We were used to find vestiges of large populations along the main rivers, in the Amazon floodplain. Now we see that the interfluvies were also highly populated. We are finding new structures every week, and I got the impression this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The researchers believe that the sites already found make up only 10 percent of what is actually there.

Denise Schaan: Actually, there may be another 2,000 structures hidden in the jungle. It is clear for us that the search does not end here. We will carry out extensive excavations to investigate more deeply the activities that took place in these places.

A Giant Mystery

A Giant Mystery: 18 Strange Skeletons Found in Wisconsin

The dig site at Lake Delavan was overseen by Beloit College and it included more than 200 effigy mounds that proved to be classic examples of 8th century Woodland Culture.

  More

Should We Clone Neanderthals?

Given the advances in biotechnology, it's just a matter of time before humanity can bring the Neanderthals back from the dead. Whether we should is a completely different story, according to genomics and synthetic biology pioneer George Church of Harvard University.
In this intriguing interview with Der Spiegel, Church explained that using synthetic biology to bring the Neanderthals back from extinction may actually benefit society:

SPIEGEL: Wouldn't it be ethically problematic to create a Neanderthal just for the sake of scientific curiosity?
Church: Well, curiosity may be part of it, but it's not the most important driving force. The main goal is to increase diversity. The one thing that is bad for society is low diversity. This is true for culture or evolution, for species and also for whole societies. If you become a monoculture, you are at great risk of perishing. Therefore the recreation of Neanderthals would be mainly a question of societal risk avoidance.

But first, you'd need an "extremely adventurous female human" to serve as a surrogate mother:

SPIEGEL: Setting aside all ethical doubts, do you believe it is technically possible to reproduce the Neanderthal?
Church: The first thing you have to do is to sequence the Neanderthal genome, and that has actually been done. The next step would be to chop this genome up into, say, 10,000 chunks and then synthesize these. Finally, you would introduce these chunks into a human stem cell. If we do that often enough, then we would generate a stem cell line that would get closer and closer to the corresponding sequence of the Neanderthal. We developed the semi-automated procedure required to do that in my lab. Finally, we assemble all the chunks in a human stem cell, which would enable you to finally create a Neanderthal clone.
SPIEGEL: And the surrogates would be human, right? In your book you write that an "extremely adventurous female human" could serve as the surrogate mother.
Church: Yes. However, the prerequisite would, of course, be that human cloning is acceptable to society.

Read the full interview over at Der Spiegel

Random Photo

Manchurian robots rising from the ocean floor

(OK, they're "non-lethal")

The US Department of Defense is launching a research effort to develop underwater robots/sensor platforms that would hibernate on the ocean floor until they "wake up when commanded, and deploy to surface providing operational support and situational awareness." DARPA has dubbed the research effort the Upward Falling Payloads program. (The image below, from the DARPA press release, seems to be illustrating, um, a robot's-eye-view as it's surfacing.) From their announcement:

Depending on the specific payload, systems would provide a range of non-lethal but useful capabilities such as situational awareness, disruption, deception, networking, rescue, or any other mission that benefits from being pre-distributed and hidden. An example class of systems might be small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that launch to the surface in capsules, take off and provide aerial situational awareness, networking or decoy functions. Waterborne applications are sought as well.

"FALLING UP: DARPA TO LAUNCH JUST-IN-TIME PAYLOADS FROM BOTTOM OF SEA"

Sundogs

Spots Of Color Beside The Sun

A sundog (scientific name: parhelion) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun. Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos.

They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.

Yaks may be on the comeback

A team of American and Chinese conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and University of Montana recently counted nearly 1,000 ...

Continue Reading 

 

Facts About Seahorses

The best part of this video is that all the facts presented in it are in fact true - as far as we can tell.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Can't beat the Classics

Some of our readers today have been in:

Vancouver, Canada

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

T, Philippines

Jakarta, Indonesia

Al Jizah, Egypt

Amman, Jordan

Nicosia, Cyprus

Butterworth, Malaysia

Makati, Philippines

Cape Town, South Africa

Albertslund, Denmark

Ankara, Turkey

Tunis, Tunisia

Minsk, Belarus

Kaunas, Lithuania

Novi Sad, Serbia

Haifa, Israel

Manila, Philippines

Islamabad, Pakistan

Kiev, Ukraine

Bogota, Colombia

Sialkot, Pakistan

Kingston, Jamaica

Belgrade, Serbia

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Kuwait, Kuwait

Subang Jaya, Malaysia

Algiers, Algeria

Taytay, Philippines

Slavutich, Ukraine

Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria

Sofia, Bulgaria

San Pedro, Philippines

Tirana, Albania

Seremban, Malaysia

Jawa, Indonesia

London, England

Pekanbaru, Indonesia

 

Today is Tin Can Day 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1523		In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli publishes his 67 Articles, the first manifesto of the Zurich Reformation which attacks the authority of the Pope.
1783		William Pitt becomes the youngest Prime Minister of England at age 24.
1847		New Mexico Governor Charles Bent is slain by Pueblo Indians in Taos.
1861		Georgia secedes from the Union.
1902		The magazine "L'Auto" announces the new Tour de France.
1915		The first German air raids on Great Britain inflict minor casualties.
1923		The French announce the invention of a new gun that has a firing range of 56 miles.
1931		The Wickersham Committee issues a report asking for revisions in the dry law, but no repeal.
1937		Howard Hughes flies from Los Angeles to New York in seven hours and 22 minutes.
1937		In the Soviet Union, the People's Commissars Council is formed under Molotov.
1945		The Red Army captures Lodz, Krakow, and Tarnow.
1947		The French open a drive on Hue, Indochina.
1949		The Chiang Government moves the capital of China to Canton.
1950		Communist Chinese leader Mao recognizes the Republic of Vietnam.
1968		Cambodia charges that the United States and South Vietnam have crossed the border and killed three Cambodians.
1981		The United States and Iran sign an accord on a hostage release in Algiers.
1983		The New Catholic code expands women's rights in the Church.

Non Sequitur

Did you know ...

That if you aren't alarmed about the climate, you aren't paying attention

That a man upset about his kid's school pledge of allegiance, threatens "I have spilled blood before"

About the hoax about 'entitlement reform'

And why not go to a national park on Martin Luther King Day? it's free!

That the anti-gay activist lawyer was convicted of child pornography

That American Express is cutting 5,400 jobs

That an artist takes every drug known to man, draws self-portrait while on each one

Yes to Katrina, No to Sandy

Teabaggers want The Un-United States

The hypocrisy of House repugicans was on full display Tuesday, when Congress finally
passed $51 billion in Hurricane Sandy relief that they should have passed months agos.
But instead, 179 repugicans decided that emergency disaster relief must be offset by spending cuts.
Funny how tax cuts for the rich never needed any "offsets."

But many of the repugicans who fucked New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Sandy
voted for disaster relief when Katrina hit. Mother Nature doesn’t choose between blue states
and red states, but teabaggers do.

The worst offender was Rep. Mick Mulvaney (r-bagger), whose proposal to cut $20.4 billion
to offset Sandy relief was rejected. Mulvaney wasn’t in office for Katrina, but he did accept
a federal disaster relief loan 15 years ago.

We should win every national election by 30 points.
The fact that sometimes it's close (or they actually win) should be shaming moments for all Democrats if they can't even beat the most vile and despicable people in the country.

It's like barely beating Jerry Sandusky for a job with the Boy Scouts.

More

The truth hurts

TSA to remove controversial X-ray scanners

 

Those airport scanners with their all-too revealing body images will soon be going away.

The Transportation Security Administration says the scanners that used a low-dose X-ray will be gone by June because the company that makes them can't fix the privacy issues. The other airport body scanners, which produce a generic outline instead of a naked image, are staying.
The government rapidly stepped up its use of body scanners after a man snuck explosives onto a flight bound for Detroit on Christmas day in 2009.
At first, both types of scanners showed travelers naked. The idea was that security workers could spot both metallic objects like guns as well as non-metallic items such as plastic explosives. The scanners also showed every other detail of the passenger's body, too.
The TSA defended the scanners, saying the images couldn't be stored and were seen only by a security worker who didn't interact with the passenger. But the scans still raised privacy concerns. Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June.

On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray, or backscatter, scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn't be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said Friday that it ended its contract for the software with Rapiscan.

The agency's statement also said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, used millimeter waves to make an image. The company was able to come up with software that no longer produced a naked image of a traveler's body.

The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they're used in now. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.

Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors. That's what most airports used before scanners were introduced.

The Rapiscan scanners have been on their way out for months, in slow motion.

The government hadn't bought any since 2011. It quietly removed them from seven major airports in October, including New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, and Los Angeles International. The TSA moved a handful of the X-ray scanners to very small airports. At the time, the agency said the switch was being made because millimeter-wave scanners moved passengers through faster.

Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems Inc. said it will help the TSA move the scanners to other government agencies. It hasn't yet been decided where they will go, said Alan Edrick, OSI's chief financial officer, in an interview.

Scanners are often used in prisons or on military bases where privacy is not a concern.

"There's quite a few agencies which will have a great deal of interest" in the scanners, Edrick said.

OSI is taking a one-time charge of $2.7 million to cover the money spent trying to develop software to blur the image, and to move the machines out of airports, Edrick said.

The contract to change the software on the scanners came under scrutiny in November when the TSA delivered a "show cause" letter to the company looking into allegations that it falsified test data, which the company denied. On Thursday it said final resolution of that issue needs approval by the Department of Homeland Security.

The agreement with the TSA is an indication that OSI Systems will be cleared of the issues raised by the agency, Roth Capital Partners analyst Jeff Martin wrote on Friday. OSI shares soared $2.37, or 3.5 percent, to close at $70.02.

Besides the scanners being dropped by TSA, Hawthorne, Calif.-based OSI Systems makes other passenger scanners used in other countries, as well as luggage scanners and medical scanners.

If You Believe These Wingnut Lies, You Shouldn’t Own a Gun

It’s America’s first ever “Gun Appreciation Day” brought to you by the gun lobby, so all you parents out there need to run out and get your 4 year old the NRA’s new “game” and hope your kids don’t succumb to the evils of violent videos that are to blame for gun violence in this country (according to same NRA). The NRA doesn’t do irony.In the meantime, I’ve gotten orders from Czar Obama to round up wingnuts who post false gun memes on the Interwebs, and since I don’t want to end up in one of Bachmann’s FEMA camps, I’m complying.

1) No, baseball bats don’t kill more people than guns. No, the FBI did not say that. Yes, if it sounds too wacky to be true and it’s being sent to you via email in all caps by someone who never responds when you fact check them, you would be wise to report them to Central for proper processing in the “Should not be allowed to have a gun” category. Too dumb to fact-check? Too dumb to own a gun.

2) Adolf Hilter came after guns! Hilter (just equating the name Hitler with something you do not like does not automatically win the argument) said “To conquer a nation, you must first disarm its citizens.” NO, he did not say this. Hitler loosened gun ownership laws for non Jewish Germans.
Hitler is not at issue here. Obama is nothing like Hitler and Obama has not presented one single idea that has not been done BEFORE in this country by repugicans and Democrats. Failure to comprehend this renders you automatically downgraded from the “Can handle a weapon” category that the Czar and Soros are going to impose on the nation one of these days.

3) You are not the President. Your children are not being threatened like the President’s children are. Every President’s family requires Secret Service protection as a part of NATIONAL SECURITY (you loved the Homeland when it was ruled by a Republican, what gives, precious patriots?). “After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress directed the Secret Service to protect the President of the United States. Protection remains a key mission of the United States Secret Service.”

Please note that the President’s daughters’ school does not have armed guards, no matter what the NRA tells you. “While some news organizations reported that the ad was referencing the Secret Service protection provided to the Obama family — as required by federal law — the longer ad makes it clear that the NRA is specifically referring to the security force at Sidwell Friends.” Also, the President never said he was against armed guards in schools. He said, “I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools.” ONLY. See qualifier. (Do you ever wonder why they lie to you and make you look like a fool for repeating lies?)

However, if this really bothers you, and you think that you, living in your mom’s basement and trolling the Internet with your “I am the military” fictional persona, are just as important to national security and thus you need the same protection as the President, I say to you YES YOU CAN.
Here’s how you do it: Gather up ye’ fellow patriots and pledge to stop threatening the President and his family (for that matter, stop threatening Congresspeople — just STOP, you look insane and it’s not working). Then, pledge to stop believing every lie you hear about the Black Czar. Turn off Fox News and stop reading Breitbart.com. Avoid Beck and Rush. Give it a few months to cleanse your brain of residual insanity.
Now that you have achieved a somewhat normal state of mind, go train on these weapons. Get back to us when you’ve passed all of the tests and classes the Secret Service has. Bonus: You have now done something with your life other than fall victim to every conspiracy hoax your right wing leaders generate in order to make money off of you. You are no longer a victim and your brain is working again. You no longer need to pretend to be a dangerous nut job on the Internet. Now you know how silly you sounded to the people who know better. YOU may just qualify to own a gun!
This is what you look like to the rest of us, “19 Second Amendment Fails” via cizgifilmizzle on Youtube:

In summation, if you believe easily debunked hysteria offered up by right wing cons and grifters (aka, “pundits”, “politicians” and “entertainers”), you are a victim of your own failure to think and hence should not be allowed to own a dangerous weapon. If you are threatening to murder people (including Democratic Congersspeople – new low, “patriots” don’t threaten to murder people over legislation. Really.) who disagree with your version of reality, you are only bringing attention to the fact that you should not own a gun because you are a threat to other citizens.
Remember, patriots, your second amendment does not trump others’ first amendment rights. When you show respect for all of the amendments and the rights of other human beings, you will be making a much better argument for paying attention to what you have to say.
No, I’m not an elist, but if you think I am, you’re just demonstrating how low you set the bar for yourself. Man up, patriots. It costs nothing to educate yourselves and yes, we expect a modicum of sanity and working brain cells before we hand you weapons of mass destruction because guess what, our right to live trumps your right to be an idiot. Cry us a river.
Psst: Real, lasting liberty is won through ideas, not guns. “Loving your country” for real implies that you be educated about basic history and civics (immigrants have to know these things when they become citizens, why not you American exceptionalists?). Ponder that the next time you refer to yourself as a patriot.
Prove your worthiness by sounding somewhat reasonable, and then you won’t frighten the nation so much and they won’t awaken to the threat you pose in your primitive state. You’d better pray that nothing happens to any of the people you’re threatening right now, because if it does, it’s all over for your rights to own a weapon of mass destruction (Reagan/Brady ringing a bell?). It’s called losing big time. Go with sanity — it’s better for everyone.

Happy Gun Appreciation day, patriots.

Notice for Patriots: The Dixie Gun and Knife Show has been closed today due to an accidental shooting.

Rinse, repeat.

Wingnuts Obama a Dictator, but Sarah Palin Disarmed the Alaska Civil Militia

In 2008, the Anchorage Daily News ran this deck bellow the headline: “NO MORE GUNS: Alaska State Defense Force stripped of many powers.”
Irony knows no bounds when it comes to the tea party.
In 2008, tea party queen and Shoot ‘Em Up and Hang ‘Em Governor Sarah Palin (r-AK) disarmed brigade members of the Alaska State Defense Force (think volunteer militia) at the recommendation of the state military officials, based on a report by an investigator with the Washington National Guard.

(I)n a major decision proving unpopular with at least some of the force’s roughly 280 members, the state is taking away the brigade’s guns.

Yes, Sarah Palin, as executive of the state, took away their guns. And no, wingnuts, you can’t have it both ways. Clearly they gave Sarah Palin the report and she took executive action on it (also known as “tyranny” when a Democrat does it).

“The report does not say Westall was a bad commander,” Campbell said. “The report says the state defense force, it’s a voluntary organization, it’s part time, it’s dedicated volunteers serving their state, but they don’t have the intensity of training, the skill sets the National Guard has.”
As a result, Campbell recommended to Gov. Sarah Palin that brigade members should no longer be armed.

The state also read a report on said militia, and yet the state was not accused of hating repugicans. Do not try this on a national level.
A report ordered by the shrub’s Department of Homeland Security warned of right wing domestic terrorism, writing that “the economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment.” This caused massive right wing hysteria by the usual suspects. Michelle Malkin quickly donned her repugican Poutrage, and the Drudge and Breitbart followed with their angry misunderstandings of reality.
The report was unveiled in April of 2009, during the beginning of the Obama administration, and so naturally repugicans screamed and hollered about how it hurt their feelings to have a federal agency report the facts until the agency decided not to distribute the report to law enforcement. (No such whining when the same agency released a report on left wing terrorism.) This was before the Obama administration figured out that catering to crazy only enables it.
Sarah Palin has a reputation as a great gun freedom fighter of the lunatic fringe (in spite of her struggles with actually shooting a gun on her reality TV show). The fact that she directed her administration to disarm the militia in 2008 and yet we heard nothing of this during the 2008 election suggests that disarming the militia is equated with “liberty” and “loving the second amendment” when a repugican does it.
When a repugican is in charge, the cult salivates at the use of dictatorial power. It’s a form of security for them, resulting in what psychologists describe as an urge to be dominated and controlled, stemming from their deeply shameful suspicion that they can’t control themselves.1
We must remember Sarah Palin’s affectionate relationship with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is sending out his civilian armed posse to patrol for “illegal immigrants” and to “protect” the schools. It’s a wonder Palin didn’t explain to him that in her own state, they found that “administering a part-time civilian force brings a high liability risk to the state.” Yes, really.
Why is that? Because they are not trained as well as the professionals. Go figure. This conclusion comes dangerously close to suggesting that education matters, gravity exists, there is such a thing as expertise and that not everyone should be armed with a gun. But outside of their own actual records, repugican exceptionalism demands that we attribute equal weight to non-exerts and arm chair wannabes, lest we be called “elitists”.
All you need to do in order to represent second amendment “freedom” is pose with guns and put cross hairs on your opponents. You can disarm the militia in your state without DESTROYING THE CONSTITUTION so long as you have an “r” after your name. Also, posing while leaning on the flag in short shorts helps (warning: do not try this as a Democrat or you will be branded a hater of the troops and an enemy of freedom).
If you have a “D” after your name, don’t you dare even mention enforcing the existing gun safety laws, or else the tea party will denounce you as a “dictator” and threaten to throw you in jail for violating their imaginary Constitution.
Remember patriots, image is everything. Substance zero.

Update: This is for the Palin fans. The question is, what would the right’s reaction have been if this same scenario had happened under President Obama. With a title reading “NO MORE GUNS” they would have gone insane. They’ve already jumped the “tyrant Hitler” shark over 23 executive actions that do little more than direct gun safety commissions and enforce existing laws. Only two address limiting the availability of a category of gun or a magazine capacity. If Obama ordered Arpaio’s posse to be disarmed because they were a “liability”, would the wingnuts be defending that as they are Palin’s actions?

1. Note: These are real psychological theories on authoritarianism that are worth a look if you want to understand the consistent hypocrisy of the right. The conservative base can be seen as suffering from a desire to submit to an authoritarian who represents “traditional values”. The underlying theory is that the authoritarian personality has a weak ego unable to manage their id impulses.
Alfred Adler proposed an alternative theory that power-over seekers are compensating for a feeling of inferiority, which might explain why repugican leaders are able to manipulate their base by stoking resentment of “liberal elitists”. Professor Bob Altemeyer expands on this theory in his book “The Authoritarians”. John W. Dean’s book, “Conservatives Without a Conscience” discusses the psychology of obedience to authority. For more on how the repugican fear that they can’t control themselves causes them to seek policies that impose rigid moral control, read “Red State Blue State”.

The truth be told

Why the FDA Banned Sneezing Powder in 1919

Why the FDA Banned Sneezing Powder in 1919

Inventor S. S. Adams liked to test his sneezing powder on rooms full of executives.

Body Language Reveals How We Really Feel

To figure out how someone is really feeling, don't just read their lips, watch their body language. In a recent study, researchers from Princeton University asked participants to determine from photographs if people were experiencing feelings such as loss, victory, or pain from facial expressions or body language alone, or from both.

In four separate experiments, participants more accurately guessed the pictured emotion based on body language - alone or combined with facial expressions - than on facial context alone.