And it’s a doozy. From 1900 BC:

It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”

Undoubtedly older jokes exist of course, but if they were written down, they haven’t been found yet.

The popularity of potty humor is hard-wired; I read once that chimps will enjoy a good laugh if someone gets pooped on or peed on, or say, falls down. That kind of thing has always been hilarious, humans didn’t invent it.

You would think that they would get a clue and accept that the world doesn’t want this stuff. Is it really going to take a genetic holocaust before we stop this insanity? I really hope that people can stand up and not allow any legislation of his sort to follow through.

Ya gotta give credit to these scientists using rap as an educational tool.

One of the coolest musical pieces you will hear today.

Greg Patillo (beatboxing flute) and Eric Stevenson (cello).

Enjoy.

Duct-Fan Powered ‘Jet-Pack’ Unveiled

Short version: Venus could have life and Earth could have Venus’ life too.

LONDON - Security has become by far the largest cost for field trials of genetically modified crops in Britain as researchers seek to protect sites against vandalism, a scientist said on Monday.

Howard Atkinson of Leeds University, who has been running a field trial on GMO potatoes, said the trial itself cost 25,000 pounds but there was a “six figure” bill for security around it.

Atkinson is due to meet with Phil Woolas, the UK minister responsible for GMO crops, in early September. He said he would ask Woolas for either the government to no longer give the location of small-scale trials or pay a share of security costs.

He told reporters at a media briefing that it was difficult for universities to justify such a large security cost “to protect against zealots.”

Zealots would be a good name for a sports team. Go Zealots!

A cartoon exhibition featuring everyone in town except Chris Monroe.

Friday, August 1st, 6-9pm

Starfire Screenprinting, 1131 E. 4th St, Duluth

Beer tasting by Lake Superior Brewing

Another anomaly for mainstream planetary astronomy:

A newly discovered planet seems to have a surprisingly powerful influence on its parent star, forcing the star to rotate at exactly the same rate as the planet orbits. The planet’s day is also the same length, so the pair are fixed in a face-to-face whirl.

The puzzle is how this planet, called COROT-Exo-4b, could have so dominated the vastly larger star, which is bigger than our Sun.

The mystery disappears if we eject the mainstream view of planetary formation, in which planets accrete in a disk of leftover material around their parent star. What if planets are “spun off” from their parent stars instead - then might not they initially share rotation rates and day lengths, as hypothesized here by radical astronomer Tom Van Flandern? I’m no physicist but it seems more likely that COROT-Exo-4b is a brand-new baby planet, freshly spun off from its mother star. Otherwise astronomers need to assume the much larger star has somehow been gravitationally dominated by a much smaller planet - clearly nonsensical and requiring certain ugly theoretical backflips. It is exactly backwards. Maybe what makes the most sense in this case is to junk the mainstream theory of planetary formation.

No shit.

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

Obama tells the media to eat shit here and here.

Obama said knock you out.

…And then there’s this - “TN Shooter Influenced By Right-Wing Pundits”

…Threats to Obama rose during the “McCain/Palin stoking the rabid crowds era.”

New Scientist has published seven critiques of reason (with a bunch of online-only extras).

Laudable to publish such things.

In brief, here they are, and the gonzo response to each:

1. Reason Stands Against Values and Morals. Response: Screw you, does not.

2. No One Really Uses Reason, i.e. We Do Most of Our Thinking Without Being Conscious of it. Response: This is a dodge - is reason the best we’ve got or not? Answer: yes.

3. I Hear Reason, I See Lies. Response: This one is right on; science must not become a stooge of the military-industrial-corporate-prison-entertainment-advertising complex.

4. Reason Excludes Reason Creativity and Intuition. Response: Not if done properly.

5. People Don’t Live Their Lives According to Cold Rationality. Response: Again, if done properly (i.e. a holostically integrated reason) this shouldn’t really be a problem unless these people don’t have enough reason.

6. Reason Contradicts Itself. Response: But it is the best we’ve got.

7. Reason Is Just Another Faith. Response: Sorry, not really. Reason is faith plus testability.

More.

The origin of magnetic fields in galaxies is still a mystery to astronomers. Popular theories suggest continual strengthening over billions of years. The latest results from Simon Lilly’s group, however, contradict this assumption and reveal that young galaxies also have strong magnetic fields.

LA PAZ - Bolivian President Evo Morales has voiced suspicions about the crash of a helicopter he used last week that killed five people, saying the incident was “probably not accidental”.Morales flew aboard the Super Puma on Sunday in southern Bolivia and was scheduled to use it again on Monday to travel from La Paz to the northern city of Cobija, said Defense Minister Walker San Miguel.

But the helicopter, lent to Morales by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, crashed one hour after Morales got off on Sunday.

The four Venezuelan military personnel and one Bolivian major aboard were all killed in the crash, said Defense Minister Walker San Miguel. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Morales told a political rally that the disaster was “probably not accidental,” bolstering his supporters’ claims that it was an attempt to harm the leftist leader.

Thats life in politics for ya.

Inconclusive so far but “potentially very exciting”:

Both Mr Redmond and Ms Nekaris agree there is “every chance” they could belong to an unknown species of primate.

“Only two years ago a new species of macaque was discovered in northern India. It’s perfectly possible that there are pockets of jungle there where a previously undiscovered primate could exist,” he said.

The two scientists also pointed out that not that long ago a huge species of ape known as gigantopithecus roamed around the area.

This species was not known about until relatively recently, Mr Redmond explained, and had no fossil record.

“It was only identified 80 years ago when Western scientists discovered teeth found in Chinese apothecaries which it was claimed were dragons’ teeth to be used for medicinal purposes.

“The teeth were examined and it was revealed that in fact they belonged to a an ape-like creature estimated to be 3m tall which was named gigantopithecus,” he said.

The scientists say that if the Meghalayan yeti does exist it is not impossible that it was some kind of descendant of this creature.

“It could easily be an unknown primate even if it’s not a yeti,” said Mr Redmond. The DNA tests should cast more light on the matter.

This site is a few years old but still freaks me out.

I guess if I wasn’t so scared of our own freakin’ government, I might, and I stress might, consider worrying about people half-way around the planet attacking me. I’ve noticed that Yahoo news doesn’t get much exposure on this site. I have to admit, although being quite left-wing, I do manage to find some pretty intriguing stories on their main page.

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.

‘I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real,’ Dr Mitchell said.

‘It’s been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it’s leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

The story.

Previous posts on Mitchell.

I consider Mitchell to have a high level of credibility to make such a claim but until aliens land on the White House lawn I resolve not to care very much. Although when they do land, the first thing I’m going to ask them is who killed JFK.

Jumping Robot

The Truth About Obama

“No one has found evidence that biotech foods currently on supermarket shelves present a danger to human health.”

-The Flint Journal

You know why that sentence, or any of its variants, should not be used when covering biotech foods? Because it’s bullshit.

Thought you should know.

To investigate whether someone like Bruce Wayne could physically transform himself into a one-man wrecking crew, ScientificAmerican.com turned to E. Paul Zehr, associate professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a 26-year practitioner of Chito-Ryu karate-do. Zehr’s book, Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero (The Johns Hopkins University Press), due out in October, tackles our very question….

Wouldn’t fighting Gotham’s thugs every night take its toll?
The biggest unreal part of the way Batman’s portrayed is the nature of his injuries. Most of the time, in the comics and in the movies, even when he wins, he usually winds up taking a pretty good beating. There’s a real failure to show the cumulative effect of that. The next day he’s shown out there doing the same thing again. He’d likely be quite tired and injured.

Is there any indication in the comics of how long Batman’s career lasts?
The comics are really vague on this, of course. In Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, he deliberately shows an aging Batman coming back after he’s retired, and he highlights him being tired and weaker. Somewhere around age 50 to 55, he should probably retire. His performance is going down. He’s always facing younger adversaries. That is well at the end of when he’s going to be able to defend himself and be able to not have to deal that lethal force. This was actually shown in an animated series called Batman Beyond.

Interview here.

Below- Scene from end of Kingdom Come where an aged Bruce Wayne confers with Supes and Diana. Note Wayne’s exoskeleton, required by a lifetime of constant injury.

This elephant is a freaking expressionist.

The elusive Dr. Vallee speaks here.

Next lesson: The Ventures- Live in Japan, 1965. Only about 124 years ahead of their time. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to see them in a small club back then. This is the kind of music that will never go out of style. Can it be that it was all so simple then?

This guy should know.

Set weapons on “stun.”

Charges of scientific misconduct. Or is this a case of run the heretics out of town…?

“Is Bigfoot An Alien?”

No.

This has been Simple Answers to Stupid Questions.

Russia’s Undead Monk

Comments from the peanut gallery?