TORONTO - Millions of people across Canada and around the globe are expected to turn out their lights Saturday evening to raise awareness about pollution and global warming in an initiative known as Earth Hour.
It will be hard to get by without electricity for an hour, but I intend to tough it out by the warmth of a pile of burning tires.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The price of corn could either stabilize or continue to soar depending on how much corn American farmers choose to plant this season.
Yeah, you all laughed when I started hording Doritos, but who’s laughing now?
No one wants to say it, but the next time you go for a corn cob pipe, it might not be there.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Plagues, Canadian Institutions, and fat lazy gorillas
OTTAWA - Industry Minister Jim Prentice says he won't approve the sale of iconic Canadian space technology, the 'Canadarm', to a major American arms-maker unless it has a "net benefit" to Canada.
The financial gain would have to be considerable, he argued, to compensate for the trouble of having to re-write all of the Canadian edition Trivial Pursuit questions that include it in some way, let alone the social studies textbooks.
CHICAGO - In the face of mounting research on wild animals' food needs, today's zoo staffers are trying new feeding tricks to keep their lions and tigers healthy and happy, with fewer sugary snacks.
In a more advanced tactic, zoos in LA are training keepers to ridicule the animals until they develop anorexia.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Snakes — including one 10-foot anaconda — are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon’s largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government’s environmental protection agency said Tuesday.
Government spokespeople downplayed the issue, noting that "It's not an actual plague until there are frogs and/or locusts."
The financial gain would have to be considerable, he argued, to compensate for the trouble of having to re-write all of the Canadian edition Trivial Pursuit questions that include it in some way, let alone the social studies textbooks.
CHICAGO - In the face of mounting research on wild animals' food needs, today's zoo staffers are trying new feeding tricks to keep their lions and tigers healthy and happy, with fewer sugary snacks.
In a more advanced tactic, zoos in LA are training keepers to ridicule the animals until they develop anorexia.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Snakes — including one 10-foot anaconda — are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon’s largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government’s environmental protection agency said Tuesday.
Government spokespeople downplayed the issue, noting that "It's not an actual plague until there are frogs and/or locusts."
Monday, March 17, 2008
Cocaine, and powerful sex messages
Coca plantations and a cocaine laboratory have been found for the first time in a Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest, provoking worry that if there was not an immediate crackdown, it might even become a new source of deforestation.
So do your part: make sure your dealer is pushing fair trade, sustainably produced cocaine, or take your business elsewhere.
A University of Calgary scientist will receive more than $1 million over the next seven years in his bid to determine whether chemical messages transmitting sexual attraction can be harnessed to repair brain-cell damage and give back the disabled use of their limbs.
Here’s hoping it can, because otherwise it’s just cruel to get a bunch of people who can’t move, really turned on.
So do your part: make sure your dealer is pushing fair trade, sustainably produced cocaine, or take your business elsewhere.
A University of Calgary scientist will receive more than $1 million over the next seven years in his bid to determine whether chemical messages transmitting sexual attraction can be harnessed to repair brain-cell damage and give back the disabled use of their limbs.
Here’s hoping it can, because otherwise it’s just cruel to get a bunch of people who can’t move, really turned on.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Glowing pigs: TNG
Researchers in Denmark report that the Alcon butterfly has managed to produce larvae with a chemical coating similar to that of the local Myrmica rubra ants, tricking the ants into feeding the young.
But the jig will be up when the ants and butterflies settle it once and for all, on next week’s Maury!
BEIJING - A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported.
There was no immediate word on when the researchers might start to attempt to breed pigs with useful mutations instead of cool ones.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A trail of chicken bones left at a burglary scene more than a year ago has led investigators to a Kansas prison inmate with a long rap sheet and a hefty appetite. Police tracked down the suspect through DNA left on six chicken bones strewn throughout a Gladstone apartment where several firearms were stolen in November 2006.
The chickens have yet to be identified but hopefully, soon, their families can have some measure of peace.
SINGAPORE - Male macaque monkeys pay for sex by grooming females, according to a recent study that suggests the primates may treat sex as a commodity.
So, guys, if you want to get laid, it’s time to learn to do pedicures.
But the jig will be up when the ants and butterflies settle it once and for all, on next week’s Maury!
BEIJING - A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported.
There was no immediate word on when the researchers might start to attempt to breed pigs with useful mutations instead of cool ones.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A trail of chicken bones left at a burglary scene more than a year ago has led investigators to a Kansas prison inmate with a long rap sheet and a hefty appetite. Police tracked down the suspect through DNA left on six chicken bones strewn throughout a Gladstone apartment where several firearms were stolen in November 2006.
The chickens have yet to be identified but hopefully, soon, their families can have some measure of peace.
SINGAPORE - Male macaque monkeys pay for sex by grooming females, according to a recent study that suggests the primates may treat sex as a commodity.
So, guys, if you want to get laid, it’s time to learn to do pedicures.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Intelligent chimps, deathly stupid/brave mice
TOKYO - Using genetic engineering, scientists at Tokyo University say they have created mice that display no fear of cats.
The specimenes were not on hand, as the researchers were not successful in their attempts to breed cats that don’t love eating fearless mice.
A young chimpanzee has resoundingly outperformed college students in memory tests in an experiment at Kyoto university.
Critics of the study suggested that the researchers didn’t compensate for the years of superior schooling enjoyed by the chimpanzee.
Researchers are excited for the next phase of the experiment, in which they use college students who aren't high.
It remains unclear whether or not chimpanzees are intelligent enough to be really pissed off that we’re still the Earth’s dominant species, and still messing it up huge.
The specimenes were not on hand, as the researchers were not successful in their attempts to breed cats that don’t love eating fearless mice.
A young chimpanzee has resoundingly outperformed college students in memory tests in an experiment at Kyoto university.
Critics of the study suggested that the researchers didn’t compensate for the years of superior schooling enjoyed by the chimpanzee.
Researchers are excited for the next phase of the experiment, in which they use college students who aren't high.
It remains unclear whether or not chimpanzees are intelligent enough to be really pissed off that we’re still the Earth’s dominant species, and still messing it up huge.
black widow biochem, magical places
LOS ANGELES - A biochemist who killed her husband by knocking him out and pouring hydrochloric acid on him was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder.
Wow, dissolving a body in acid. No one would expect that. Unless of course, you’re a BIOCHEMIST.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science.
“It’s comforting to know that there is a place on Earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature," said expedition leader Bruce Beehler.
"Now we're going to helicopter in and clearcut a spot for a research centre."
The possum was described as “one of the worlds smallest marsupials.”
Sadly, now Paris Hilton wants one.
Wow, dissolving a body in acid. No one would expect that. Unless of course, you’re a BIOCHEMIST.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science.
“It’s comforting to know that there is a place on Earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature," said expedition leader Bruce Beehler.
"Now we're going to helicopter in and clearcut a spot for a research centre."
The possum was described as “one of the worlds smallest marsupials.”
Sadly, now Paris Hilton wants one.
Hippos, manatees, and some non-cute things
AYIA NAPA, Cyprus - Paleontologists have unearthed an estimated 80 dwarf hippos in Cyprus.
The miniature hippos were land-based, and occupied the island about 10000 years ago, during what scientists have termed the Cute Period.
KEY LARGO, Fla. - Manatees will remain on Florida's endangered species list for now. The commission had been considering whether to reclassify the manatee as a "threatened" species instead of "endangered."
They also retain their “animals that are on calendars all the time” designation, though they have slipped in ranking of “animals that girls draw on their binders.”
Researchers at Stanford University, who studied sedentary people for a year, found that automated exercise reminder phone calls had about the same get-up-and-go power as calls from human counsellors.
The researchers next project? To discover whether computer-generated messages of judgement and criticism can create self-hatred as consistently as those of actual teenage girls.
The miniature hippos were land-based, and occupied the island about 10000 years ago, during what scientists have termed the Cute Period.
KEY LARGO, Fla. - Manatees will remain on Florida's endangered species list for now. The commission had been considering whether to reclassify the manatee as a "threatened" species instead of "endangered."
They also retain their “animals that are on calendars all the time” designation, though they have slipped in ranking of “animals that girls draw on their binders.”
Researchers at Stanford University, who studied sedentary people for a year, found that automated exercise reminder phone calls had about the same get-up-and-go power as calls from human counsellors.
The researchers next project? To discover whether computer-generated messages of judgement and criticism can create self-hatred as consistently as those of actual teenage girls.
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