Birds Not Descended From Dinosaurs?

"Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight – and the finding means it's unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs."

"The conclusions add to other evolving evidence that may finally force many paleontologists to reconsider their long-held belief that modern birds are the direct descendants of ancient, meat-eating dinosaurs, OSU researchers say."

Boosting IQ?

"After analysing the brain as an incredibly dense network of interconnected points, a team of Dutch scientists has found that the most efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people." Could using drugs to speed up brain networks increase IQ?

R. Crumb Tackles Genesis

R. Crumb created Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and "Keep On Truckin". He wanted to do an illustrated satire on the story of Adam and Eve but a friend talked him into doing the whole book of Genesis.

Crumb said he found Genesis just too bizarre for satire, so he decided to do it straight.

The new book is excerpted in The New Yorker (sub) and you can see Crumb's famous style at work in this lo-res scan. Via Boing Boing.

Modern PR: Getting It Out On The Interwebs

In this excerpt from his book Online Marketing Inside Out, Brandon Eley explains what makes up a 21st century press release.

This Is Not Good Enough

Newfoundland & Labrador owns one of only five express tissue processor machines in Canada. From The Star:

"One of the most advanced biopsy testing systems in the world, allowing patients to have a tissue biopsy in the morning, get their pathology results in the afternoon and, if they have cancer, to immediately start a treatment plan with their surgeon. The machine, which costs about $300,000 and can process up to 120 biopsy samples per hour, analyzes breast tissue for cancer and provides doctors with ... "information on the architecture of the tumour."

The machine has sat unused in a basement in St. John's for two years.

World's Largest Model Railway

I used to think it would be a brilliant idea to have a model railway running from the kitchen counter into the TV room. Perfect for delivering beers and snacks. The question of who would be in the kitchen loading up the train never really came up. Which is why the great idea never, well, got up any steam.

But I still love the idea of model railways. Today via email, a link to a video of the world's largest model railway. Miniatur Wunderland is a tourist attraction in Hamburg. It sprawls over 4000 square meters. It has nine kilometers of track and 700 trains. There are 2800 buildings and bridges, 4000 automobiles and 160-thousand miniature people doing, er, all sorts of things. And the whole project is still only about half finished. Very cool.

Ultimate USB: Heinz Beanzawave

How about a tiny USB powered microwave designed specifically for heating packets of Heinz baked beans? It's called the Heinz Beanzawave. Is it for real? According to Gizmodo it is.

From the Comments: "They need to add a methane-capture-fuel-cell-cushion... to make the power cycle complete."

Update: Beanzawave spelling corrected.

A Young Prodigy

Via Slashdot: Moshe Kai Cavalin has graduated from East Los Angeles Community College with a degree in astrophysics. He is 11 years old.

CNN Ratings Tanking

Via Jack's Newswatch:

"CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld tells the Huffington Post (huh, why would a CNN man go there to post?) that “seven months after Barack Obama’s victory, CNN’s ratings have gone down the drain”

From the Comments:

"No one watches CNN for the same reason no one watches CBC. People don’t like to be treated to propaganda. Fox is hardly right wing. Greta, Shep Smith, Major Garret are all Liberals. Orielly tends to be a bit to the right of them but hardly a right winger. Glen Beck is most certainly conservative. If you look at their panels there is always representation from both sides of the aisle. Juxtapose that against CNN or the CBC. You simply will not find anyone remotely right of center. "

Hockey Homicide (1945)

Apropos of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Walt Disney's 1945 Cartoon classic "Hockey Homicide" starring Goofy and all his brothers and cousins. This wouldn't make it past the censors today. Talk about slapstick.

The Eco-Warriors Of The MSM?

The third annual International Conference on Climate Change took place in Washington last week. But there is an excellent chance you didn't hear about it. Why? Because the focus of the conference was to present climate scientists and economists who refute fashionable climate alarmism. So the mainstream media didn't show up.

"At the conference, the Cato Institute’s Patrick Michaels suggested that the success of alarmism had a lot to do with the absence of fact-checking in the media. But while that may be true, it seems as much due to the fact that many in the media regard themselves as eco-warriors. As such, they never let the facts stand in the way of a good, scary environmental story."

Photographing East Germany

From Spiegel Online: "They wanted to clean up the basement but found a treasure trove of photos instead. After Berlin teacher Manfred Beier died, his sons stumbled across 60,000 pictures. Their father, it turns out, created one of the best documentations of life in East Germany, and the first days of the West."

Be sure to click on the photo gallery.

Arguing Vs. Fighting: Fight!

I have always believed that arguing and fighting were not the same thing. Yet, lots of times when I thought I was just arguing, my interlocutors were furiously yelling fighting words at me because of my arguments.

I believe Jason Kottke and I could have some great arguments. He believes we should teach kids how to argue: "I had long equated arguing with fighting, but in rhetoric they are very different things. An argument is good; a fight is not. Whereas the goal of a fight is to dominate your opponent, in an argument you succeed when you bring your audience over to your side."

I just wish they would stop yelling at me all at once so I can finish my, er, argument.

Perpetuum Jazzile

Brilliant a capella choral singing from Slovenia's Perpetuum Jazzile. More about the group here.

Unseen Hitler

Never-before-seen colour Hitler photos are revealed at the LIFE archives.

America’s Best Selling Car

The Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.

Pictures From Bay Bulls

Pictures this afternoon from Bay Bulls Harbour just south of St. John's. The assymetrical and huge heavy lift ship MV Jumbo Javelin, and a local tour boat keeping station with an itinerant iceberg. People are seeing humpback whales in the area too.

Depressed? Channel Your Inner Caveman

"He doesn't care for the term "caveman therapy." But Stephen Ilardi, associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Kansas, has turned to our hunter-gatherer ancestors for clues about how to best combat major depressive disorder."

Elephants Bothering You? Get Some Bees

Or even some empty beehives.

Capitialism And Global Warmism - All The Way To The Bank

Another piece of the global warmist puzzle snaps into place via SDA:

"Fear of climate change, in fact, has been the biggest boon in insurance industry history. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the insurance industry has no interest in minimizing future risks to the public, in climate change or in any other field. To the contrary, the more that risks exist and the more that the insurance industry can charge to insure against those risks, the larger the potential market for insurance industry products."

In the comments: "[Environmentalists], anti-capitalists to the core, are willing dupes of the richest group of capitalists on Earth!"

More evidence of the Climate-Industrial Complex.