gregladen | November 22, 2008A protist is a single celled eukaryotic organism, and they are usually pretty small. You can often see them, though! Before you put that sample of pond water under the microscope, take a close look: Many protists are at the boundary of visibility for humans.
Then, there are the giant protists, grape size, living on the bottom of the sea where they roll around in the mud. It has been known for some time that there are giant deep sea protazoans that are not mobile. Here, though, is a bit of film of giant mobile protists.
A recent paper in Current Biology links these creatures to very…
gregladen | November 22, 2008Today, in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas.
I have only the vaguest of memories of this event, but I do remember it. I remember being sent home from school, and I remember anguish and uncertainty, and I remember hearing the report of Kennedy's assasin, Lee Harvey Oswald, being gunned down while in police custody.
Here is the BBC report from that time, to give you a sense of the event:
The President of the United States has been assassinated by a gunman in Dallas, Texas.
John F Kennedy was hit in the head and throat when three shots were fired at his open-topped car.…
gregladen | November 22, 2008... and there is strong evidence of shenanigans on the part of Coleman supporters (or someone).
As I mentioned earlier, the idea is afoot that there will be more of a shift towards Al Franken in geographical regions that favor Franken than in Coleman-sympathetic regions, in the current US Senate recount for Minnesota.
I disagree, and in fact, I'm going to suggest the opposite.
There seem to be two reasons proposed as a basis for this assertion. One is this: The Democratic Party is the big tent party, with lots of immigrants from countries without bubbles, new voters, and people who…
gregladen | November 22, 2008As a very hectic week settles down a bit, I can give you a little more information and perspective on the Minnesota US Senate Race recount. There are a number of misconceptions circulating about this process that I can dispel, and I have a pair of predictions for you: Taking the same exact data, we have the Democratic Party Line and the republican Party Line, wherein "line" means trend line on a graph.
[Update: See this new analysis suggesting that the Republicans cheated]
Let's start with the prediction. Given all the available data, we can now estimate what is going to happen as a…
gregladen | November 22, 2008An otter has survived a "perilous" three-mile sea crossing to the Farne Islands for the first time, the National Trust has said.
The animal, more commonly found in rivers, has swum from the coast of Northumberland despite rough seas.
Head warden David Steel said he was stunned to find 60 yards of otter tracks on Brownsman Island, which is famed for its bird colonies.
The mammal has not yet been sighted, but it is thought to be still there.
bbc
gregladen | November 21, 2008It might be a grape size protist. Those were the days...
A single-celled ball about the size of a grape may provide an explanation for one of the mysteries of fossil history.
Writing in Current Biology, researchers say the creature leaves tracks on the seabed which mirror fossilised tracks left up to 1.8 billion years ago.
Many palaeontologists believe only multi-celled organisms could have made these tracks.
This has been difficult to confirm as no multi-cellular fossils of such an age have ever been found.
But it is not a grape or even sloce. It is a protist of some sort. News story…
gregladen | November 21, 2008
NASA's Dawn spacecraft shut down its ion propulsion system today as scheduled. The spacecraft is now gliding toward a Mars flyby in February of next year.
"Dawn has completed the thrusting it needs to use Mars for a gravity assist to help get us to Vesta," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Dawn will now coast in its orbit around the sun for the next half a year before we again fire up the ion propulsion system to continue our journey to the asteroid belt."
Dawn's ion engines may get a short workout next January to provide any…
gregladen | November 21, 2008
Computer reconstruction of Copernicus from skull discovered in the cathedral in Frombork, Poland.
Researchers in Poland say they have solved a centuries-old mystery and identified the remains of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
A comparison of DNA from a skeleton in Poland and strands of the astronomer's hair found in a book in Sweden almost certainly confirm it is his skeleton.
Archaeologists found the skeleton in north-eastern Poland three years ago in a cathedral where Copernicus lived.
bbc
gregladen | November 21, 2008The 3,000 extra UN troops being sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo need to be elite soldiers from Europe, the UN's ex-peacekeeping chief says.
Jean-Marie Guehenno told the BBC there was an urgent need for an effective international force in the east.
He said an offer from Europe would send a powerful signal to the opposing forces whose conflict has displaced some 250,000 people in recent weeks.
The UN already has its largest peace mission - 17,000 strong - in DR Congo.
bbc
gregladen | November 20, 2008The United Nations Security Council has voted to send 3,000 more troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo following renewed fighting in the country's east.
The increase means the peacekeeping mission, Monuc, will have about 20,000 troops and police on the ground - the biggest UN force of its kind.
bbc
gregladen | November 20, 2008 IMOVIO launched today a smaller alternative to a subnotebook -- much smaller. The new iKIT is about the size of a PDA from ten years ago, but has a QWERTY keyboard and connects to the Internet at 3G speeds via your cell phone or Wi-Fi.
The $175 Linux-based system has a Webcam built in, as well as a range of applications, including Web browsing, e-mail and IM.
It can connect to the Internet using a standard Wi-Fi connection, or it can use your cell phone's mobile broadband connection via Bluetooth.
The company is currently pitching it to mobile network operators and retail stores.
Details…
gregladen | November 20, 2008This is a story some of you know, and the rest of you should. Saartjie (Little Sarah) was a woman variously claimed to have been San, Bushman, or Grikwa (and one can in fact be all three easily) ... but anyway, South African ... and and with a number of physical features typical for the women of her place of origin but that would be very exotic to the ignorant eyes of a typical early 19th century European. She was brought to Europe in 1810, put on display, and you can imagine the rest of the story.
But actually, better than imagining it, read about it here.
gregladen | November 20, 2008In an act of utter cynicism, continuing with the right wing mandate that has propped up the Bush Regime for the last eight years, the Winged Monkeys of the Bush Inferior Department of the Interior plans to eliminate restrictions on federal agencies carrying out projects that negatively impact endangered species.
Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don't pose a threat, under a regulation the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Obama can reverse them…
gregladen | November 20, 2008
http://www.2012draftsarahcommittee.com/
here
Click on "straw poll" in the sidebar.