Stone-age chimp tech has produced a multi-purpose tool:

…They found that the chimps built and used five different types of tools to help them find beehives and extract honey: thin, straight sticks to probe the ground for buried nests; thick, blunt-ended pounders to break open beehive entrances; thinner lever-like enlargers to break down walls within the hive; collectors with frayed ends to dip honey from the opened hive and bark spoons to scoop it out. Various tools were often found near the same hive, suggesting that the chimps employ them in sequence (Journal of Human Evolution, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.04.001).

A few tools even appeared to have two uses, with enlargers at one end and collectors at the other. This is the first example of a non-human species constructing multipurpose tools.

Chimps use bark spoons? Little face-eaters.

At issue is the rest position of the long-necked dinosaurs, and as the article says, there’s “more than one way to assemble a dino-skeleton”:

….”But we can be confident that they held their heads upright.”

Many scientists, however, still maintain a more horizontal view.

And a recent paper, published by Australian scientist Roger Seymour in the journal Biology Letters, went even further.

It suggested that the creatures would not actually be able to lift their heads up to eat from high trees, because this would raise their brains so far above their hearts that their blood pressure would have to be elevated to a dangerous - possibly lethal - level.

But Dr Taylor is not swayed by this argument.

They can argue all they want, it’s all a moot point if gravity used to be weaker.

With photos. Some speculation these anaerobic ecosystems may exist in the other Great Lakes too.

Hidden beneath the U.S. West’s Great Basin, scientists have spied a giant blob of rocky material dripping like honey.
…the blob is between about 30 miles and 60 miles in diameter (between 50 km and 100 km) and extends from a depth of about 47 miles to at least 310 miles (75 km to 500 km) beneath Earth’s surface.

The team thinks this drip started some 15 million to 20 million years ago and probably detached from the overlying plate only recently.

At first, it was hard for the team to reconcile their discovery with what scientists knew about the region. Over the past tens of millions of years, the Earth’s crust in the Great Basin has undergone extension, or stretching.

I for one welcome our new blob overlords.

In a comment section by Robin Room, professor of social alcohol research at the School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Australia, and director of the AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Melbourne, New Scientist gives voice to the growing consensus that the drug war is a dismal failure.

A regulated cannabis market offers more options than prohibition for acting to limit harms from use. We need to move beyond the deadlock on drug policy, to transcend the polarisation, and to give serious consideration to the options for change. Cannabis would be a good place to start.

Common sense is on the rise.

Exceeding the abilities of chimps yet again, some rooks (like crows, part of the corvid family, but unlike crows in that rooks are not known to use tools in the wild) have spontaneously used (and made) tools in the lab, perplexing everyone. With video.

“Cool” Brad Rozman has died in Duluth. He was a friend to all of us here at Gonzo Science, and his passing will be mourned. He was the best drummer I knew, and his informal practice of the “laughing yoga” was a source of true inspiration. Rest in peace buddy. You stomped terra, as Hunter S. would say.

UPDATE: Funeral info

Monday June 1st at Landmark Funeral Home in Virginia, MN, 1p.m
call the funeral home for more details at 218-741-3225

UPDATE 2: The comments section has automatically turned off after 14 days, but if you have any other comments or memories of Brad, please send them to us at , and we will put them here. Thank you. I’ll go ahead and take this moment to mention that Brad got the nickname “Cool Brad” during his stint as the refrigerated/frozen foods buyer at Whole Foods Co-op. It was a great stage name for him as he mercilessly pounded those drums.

UPDATE 3: “Hi, this is Brad’s sister Heather.  I am having one of those days where I just miss Brad so much it hurts deep down in my soul.  I wanted to take a minute to thank all of you, his friends and the very special people who were such a big part of his short but great life.  I want each and every one of you to know that you have brought me and my parents such a great sense of comfort with your words and caring hearts.  You have helped make a horrible and difficult time become a time to remember the greatness that Brad brought into our lives.  I have heard many of you comment on his up beat nature and joyous laugh and that is what I try to think about at times like these.  I know that Brad will forever live on in each and every one of you.  We now must live our lives even fuller as we live for him as well.  Thank you again and know that you will always have a place in the hearts of Brad’s family.  82 forever!!!!       much love,  Heather”

UPDATE 4: (Sorry I posted the following late by a few days - Jim R.)

This is for the “Cool Brad” RIP Memorial page, 
thanks again for having a space where friends and family can share memories, shed tears, laugh and remember. 

Brad-  A fond memory goes back to the first time I met you,  on Madeline Island.  I had driven up with LeeAnn and already met the rest of the Ranger crew in st. cloud,  that evening while sitting around the campfire, listening to MMW, You were rocking out the ‘air drums’, getting more and more into the song,  I had just got two new camping chairs, one of them you were sitting in,  and as the climax of the song began, you were jammin so intensely that you fell right over and broke the chair,  we all laughed , but not as much as you did.

Every time I was in your presence, my fun, sneaky, gnome-ish, silly side came out, 
Your laugh was so pure and real, a big older buddha brother you are to me, and to my family, who adopted you in heart style five and a half years ago, 
You read the “Namaste” reading at our wedding, You were just four blocks away from my brother’s new house when you left this world, on that day my Nana & Papa, parents and brother where there on that day too, just four blocks away,  ….  but they didn’t know.  Now, we are all healing and helping each other cope with your loss,  by looking back at pictures, telling stories of which are all hilarious and crazy, funny and amazing. 
I
 often hear your voice and see your face during the day, and at night,   and think back to the two of us standing at the end of the driveway, on the dead end road at the MyersRanch, watching the NortherLights AuroraBorealis in her finest display in the wee hours when all is silent and only our heart beats can be heard,  deep peace….
Percussion and the rhythms of all living things, and all made living by human hands and inspired creation,  all of this you Loved,   Lukah loves playing the drum, and tambourine, and we talk of you often, even though you did not get to meet her, we know she knows you. 
On the day of your service, my Mom wanted to be there but was working, driving home at a few minutes into the service, on a dusty road in wisconsin, the only other vehicle on the road infront of her was a dump truck or work truck,  there were no words on the back,  the only marking was in the center, as she got closer she saw that it was an 82.       
You are everywhere now, in our hearts always and forever, helping us to grow and evolve and live every moment to the fullest, Love you Buns,  Keep on Shining you crazy diamond………
82……………—Papa KC

happy memorial day everybody

ernie and bert NSFW

This is a surprising find, and as usual with surprising finds, it is flummoxing some in the affected discipline:

If the hypothesis is true, it would revolutionise our ideas of what’s happening far below our feet. Independent scientists contacted by New Scientist were split, with some scornful …. several geologists contacted by New Scientist said they could not explain how the enormous pulses of heat required could be generated in the core.

Whatever you do, don’t switch paradigms! But if you feel like shopping around, here are a couple of alternatives that are only made more plausible by this new data: Planetary Expansion Tectonics and the Exploding Planet Theory.

Some corals seem to be upgrading their climate-change resistance. Continue polluting as normal.

Conservative gets himself tortured, turns into empathetic socialist.

By Henry Gee, evolution editor of the incredibly conservative “Nature”, in 2004:

…Another argument in favour of such searches comes from the recent discovery of several new species of large mammal, notably in Southeast Asia.

For example, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, a species of ox from the remote Vu Qiang nature reserve on the border between Vietnam and Laos, was first described from hunting trophies in only 1992.

…If animals as large as oxen can remain hidden into an era when we would expect that scientists had rustled every tree and bush in search of new forms of life, there is no reason why the same should not apply to new species of large primate, including members of the human family.

….If it turns out that the diversity of human beings was always high, remained high until very recently and might not be entirely extinguished, we are entitled to question the security of some of our deepest beliefs.

Does this mean they’re going to stop passing up Jeffrey Meldrum for a promotion at last?

Meldrum, an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, is an expert on foot morphology and locomotion in monkeys, apes and hominids. He has studied the evolution of bipedalism and edited From Biped to Strider (Springer, 2004), a well-respected textbook. …. (he) has been lambasted by colleagues and passed over for promotion twice …. Disotell gets Bigfoot jibes over beers sometimes, but nothing similar to what Meldrum experiences: “I think what is happening to him is a shame.”

Forwarded by Gonzo Science informant ironic1, who knows of such things.

Previously unknown, the venom glands of the Komodo Dragon have been discovered. Already known to have a filthy mouth that can kill with its bacteria alone, the discovery of venom glands makes these monsters even more formidable.

How were these “not trivial … big” glands missed for all this time? It’s an embarrassment for sure:

The venom gland “is not a trivial structure, [but] a big bulge” on the lower jaw, says Fry, who compares previous ignorance of the Komodo dragon’s venomous capabilities as akin to “missing the teeth on great white sharks and saying they are plankton eaters”.

Just so everyone’s aware that this hasn’t gone away, I’m going to keep you updated as the story of the “mystery barrels” unfolds.  This is the most comprehensive list of info on the subject I could find (courtesy of Nukewatch).  I’ve also included a pdf from the MN Dept. of Health which is chock full of tasty info including maps and pictures.  Hopefully they’re just full of zombies…

This argument has never been settled:

In the journal Zoology, Professor Graham Mitchell of the University of Wyoming, in Laramie, US, and colleagues Professor John Skinner and Dr S J van Sittert of the University of Pretoria in South Africa report that there is still no consensus on the origin of the giraffe’s neck.

Always amazes me the simple things we don’t have figured out as good as we thought. You mean we don’t have RAIN figured out yet? What other basic assumptions are wrong!?!

Latest in personal submarines.

Photo gallery here: “the Ferrari of the Oceans” (aka “Monster Bait”)

An Australian researcher claims the swine flu, which has killed at least 64 people so far, might not be a mutation that occurred naturally but a man-made product of genetic experiments accidently leaked from a laboratory — a theory the World Health Organization is taking very seriously.

My goodness. And is everyone familiar with the proposed alternative name for swine flu? Wait for it…Hamthrax.

Top 10 Real Life Spy Gadgets.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting “a war on drugs,” a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.

In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation’s drug issues.

“Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,” he said. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”

This is an extremely surprising development and a very welcome display of integrity. Let’s hope the change in rhetoric leads to substantive policy changes.

New York Times.

Good thing people never get aggressive on psychotropic drugs.

weekly Science of Sex column at Livescience.com 

Humans made jewelery at least 110,00 years ago, smashing a timeline that had already just been smashed.

The point of tracking revised timelines being: everything is older than previously believed possible. That seems to be the trend.

Now that we know hobbits were alive until at least 8,000 years ago, and the evolution editor of the incredibly conservative “Nature” is admitting that this is making him reconsider whether or not Bigfoot is just folklore, I thought I’d revisit the most scientific Bigfoot material on the web: the work of Jeff Meldrum (now linked to in our sidebar under Cryptozoology). Additionally, here is “Scientific American” evaluating the Meldrum situation, from December 2007 (after the hobbits were discovered, but before they were generally accepted as a real human species - an acceptance that has seemingly rapidly dawned just this year in the face of multiple studies).

The point: the discovery of hobbits has strengthened the case for Bigfoot. The evolution editor of “Nature” said it, not me.

…looks like Loren Coleman (”America’s Greatest Living Cryptozoologist”) and his Cryptomundo site have been on this story for a while. Here’s the search results for “hobbit” at Cryptomundo.

200 million years older than the last “earliest” animal traces.

And that’s pretty dangerous. This one marks the first time an emergency back-up shuttle will be ready to save the ass of the first if needed.

‘It’s a belt-and-suspenders kind of approach - but when your suspenders fail, you’re glad to have the belt,’ said Cdr Altman, who is due to launch with his crew from Kennedy Space Centre at  Cape Canaveral tomorrow evening, returning in 11 days.

Better wear two pairs of diapers with that, Commander.

This mission is being described as “brain surgery in space” and the “Mt. Everest of space missions.”

UPDATE: They’re back.

On video at this link. I was just gonna say it myself: you mean to tell me we have Hobbit bones from only 8,000 years ago, but there’s NO WAY there’s Bigfoots around?

Freaking evolution editor of “Nature” thinks so too!

Beefy article with some cool videos of crows making tools etc, including some still photos of birds looking thoughtfully at things.

Here is a link to an exchange of letters in the Zenith City Weekly about a column we have not released here, but it was essentially a review of the revised timelines of the past year, and you can get a feel for the flavor of it if you click “Revised Timelines” under Categories.

The exchange concerns a recent find of a skeleton in Mexico that until very very recently would have been considered Too Old To Be There.

Not sure how long this link will remain active, although it may do so.