By James Furbush | November 21st, 2008 | 6:20 am PST
Perhaps one of the most fascinating things I’ve read in a few weeks. “This is not a political blog. However, this is a story I couldn’t pass up: the story of how voting patterns in the 2008 election were essentially determined 85 million years ago, in the Cretaceous Period. It’s also a story about how soil science relates to political science, by way of historical chance.” There are also maps involved. Lots of maps. The convergence of history, geography and politics - what more could you want? [Vigorous North via Kottke]
By James Furbush | November 19th, 2008 | 6:12 am PST
The kangaroo and human genomes are more similar than scientists imagined. But the question is how similar? Is this like baboons and humans or pigs and humans? On the sliding scale of human genome similarity where does the kangaroo fit. Also, if my kidney shuts down can I use a kangaroo kidney?
Scientists said they had for the first time mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials and found much of it was similar to the genome for humans, the government-backed Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics said.
“There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same order,” centre Director Jenny Graves told reporters in Melbourne.
“We thought they’d be completely scrambled, but they’re not. There is great chunks of the human genome which is sitting right there in the kangaroo genome,” Graves said, according to AAP.
Humans and kangaroos last shared an ancestor at least 150 million years ago, the researchers found, while mice and humans diverged from one another only 70 million years ago.
Okay that helps answer my questions a bit. I think.
This might lend a new definition to the infamous Patrick Ewing Theory, that a team is better off without it’s star player; the theory is not inclusive enough. Would the world be better off after Patrick Ewing breezed through definitive historical moments?
One of the NBA’s greatest centers, Patrick Ewing, has discovered a time machine and rather than go back and change the outcome of his great (but sorta disapointing career - c’mon Knicks fans you know it’s true!) career, he decided to embark upon the greatest adventure mankind has ever witnessed. Perhaps even greater than when Bert went evil on us.
Upon inspection, Patrick realized that this unexplainable object was in fact a time machine. Unable to resist, Patrick began a journey through time, hoping to catch glimpses of the world’s most famous events. Patrick swore not to interfere, knowing that even a tiny change could severely alter the present that he had previously known. Patrick did, however, swear that he would prove that his magical journey did happen, and today, for the first time, we are privileged to see pictures from Patrick Ewing’s spectacular journey.
Patrick Ewing 1 History 0. Unfortunately, Ewing did interfere with history and things have never been the same. Where else did Patrick go? MORE »
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