Crocodile blood may yield powerful new antibiotics

I just like how the scientists in this story talk like a bunch of guys drinking beers at a barbeque:"The crocodile has an immune system which attaches to bacteria and tears it apart and it explodes. It's like putting a gun to the head of the bacteria and pulling the trigger," he said ( Read more... )

This is probably st@le by now, but witness Machine translations into Chinese and back into English of Star Wars ep III.

Report Finds Transit for Disabled InadequateThis is probably not that much of a surprise to anyone, but what was a surprise to me is how much better it is in the US than it was in England. On the tube, for instance, only something like 1 out of every 5-6 stops was accessible. I'm a complainer, but I can clearly see we've really made a lot of ( Read more... )

Dolphins use tools!I'm back, how dumb is that? I wish I were still in Iceland, gettin' rained on and eatin' yogurt ( Read more... )

Guess the Google

I got up to 383, after playing it 10 times in a row. By then my heart was palpitating so fast I decided to give myself a break. Right now I'm 2nd place, how long will that last?

jmhm has kept up with the case of Spiro Nikolouzos here - go look at her page and the blog she links. He's one of the many people who was supposed to be taken off life support due to the Texas Futile Care Law, which Bush signed while he was governor. The Law states that a hospital can take someone off life support against their wishes and the wishes of ( Read more... )

Alabama Bill Targets Gay AuthorsGerald Allen wants to prevent Alabama public school libraries from acquiring any books by gay authors, or about gays. Oscar Wilde and Langston Hughes would have to go of course, not to mention Plato. Allen was thinking of the classics, though; originally he wanted to ban "some Shakespeare" as well, though it doesn't ( Read more... )

Language Log beats down Simon Baron-Cohen. Yeah dude, yeah! I've been reading up on autism off and on in the last 4 months, and SBC's name kept coming up, but associated with the most obnoxious theories. Not that he's not a brilliant guy and all, but he reminded me of all those frilly-collared pre-Enlightenment 'scientists' who would use the Method ( Read more... )

I don't feel that sufficient hilarity was granted to the GREATEST AMAZON FLAME EVAR, which I linked a few days ago:AFTER READING THIS BOOK YOUR IMPRESSION IS FRANKLIN PIERCE IS THE GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER. THIS BOOK IS VERY ONE-SIDED. I WONDER WHAT THE AUTHOR RESEARCHED: NOT PIERCE.
See, in 1852 Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrious author of The Scarlet ( Read more... )

I found myself looking for copies of not-the-saga-of-the-volsungs Icelandic Sagas with facing translations in Old Norse and English this morning, since I decided that since I'm going to Iceland, I should read their literature and make a stab at learning their language. (Written Old Norse is surprisingly similar to modern Icelandic. Apparently, ( Read more... )