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POPSWhen Good Lizards Go Bad Read the whole article. It's just the latest example of ignorant pseudo-science do-gooders wrecking the planet. So-called 'environmentalists' feel that they have to ruin everything, including the environment, to 'feel good' about themselves. From organic food, to ethanol, to anti-hunting laws, these nutjobs think they are 'helping' when they are doing the exact opposite.
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POPSEntrances to Hell. oh, my word limit ran out >.< anyways yeah, this was ok... the first image is definitively the worst.
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POPSRare 111-year-old lizard 'a real Jack the Lad' It's never too late to start living, to get out and have some fun. The sun will be just as shiney in the morning, as the first day the world began. Henry is now enjoying the company of three females in his enclosure, with the next breeding season due in eight months.
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POPSAboriginal Rock Art at Risk But the peninsula is also seeing increasing industrial activity, including a gas processing plant, a fertiliser factory and iron ore port facilities, making it the only place in Australia to feature on the World Monuments Fund's list of the most endangered sites. Smalldon believes the rock art has suffered since mining took off in the Pilbara, which holds some of the richest mineral deposits on earth, in the 1960s. "We had nearly one million panels of rock art," Smalldon said.
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POPSDinosaur evolutionary tree unveiled It remained at that low level throughout the following Cretaceous period, a time of plenty in Earth's terrestrial history in which flowering plants, lizards, snakes, birds and mammals all became much more numerous. Dinosaurs apparently did not take advantage of the abundant food supply that emerged during the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. "Our supertree allows us to look for unusual patterns across the whole of dinosaurs for the first time," says Lloyd. "It is the most comprehensive picture ever produced of how dinosaurs evolved."
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POPSDinosaurs Diversified Over Time, not Suddenly During this epoch of riotous biodiversity, flowering plants, social insects, butterflies, modern groups of lizards, mammals, and possibly birds, too, all emerged. Some experts have suggested that dinosaurs were also part of the show, as so many weird fossils, such as duckbilled hadrosaurs, horned ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs and other wonders, date from this time. But a new study, published on Wednesday in a British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, says that dinosaurs were less than a sideshow in the DNA spectacular. Researchers led by Graeme Lloyd of the University of Bristol, western England, devised a "supertree" of dinosaur evolution, patiently analyzing how more than 450 species -- about 70 percent of the known finds -- developed.
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POPSDino diversity earlier than first thought Maybe there is the idea that species including the dinosaurs were trying to deal with conditions brought about by the meteor, so many adaptations arose, but nature loves nothing more than competition, even when times are good.
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POPSThe Seven Sweetest Fictional Theme Parks Pt 2 (#4 - #1) Ah, we saved the best for last.... Yes, if you have not guessed what number one is by now I have this to say: Did you see ANY movies in the early to mid 90s when this one started the new Dinosaur craze? We even had to endure Brendan Fraser as Encino Man due to this one! By now I am sure you know Michael Crichton's Magnum Opus is number one. and no, it is NOT Congo! Enjoy!
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POPSEncoded fear An interesting research, pointing to a non physical trait that is kept through centuries. i wonder where does it lie, is it in the genes? neuronal structure, or a memetic inheritance?
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POPSWill Our Future Brains Be Smaller? Why does the brain need these two decision-making areas? What benefit does the new cortex bring? After all, extra brain means extra weight and energy required to carry it around. Furthermore, is the older sub-cortical system now largely redundant? If so, could we expect it to atrophy in future humans so our brains become smaller? The results of their modelling showed that when the threat level is high, such as the risk of being attacked by a dangerous animal, it is very useful to have the fast-acting, if inaccurate, system. But when dealing with situations which don't occur very often, or complex scenarios with many conflicting cues such as social situations, the cortical system is of more use than the sub-cortical system.
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POPSSome Flaws In Evolutionary Theory "One of the classic arguments in favor of the evolutionist claim that all species have a common origin is that species show all sorts of similarities which can't be due to chance. Indeed, the enormous mass of odd similarities that he found in his studies of nature around the world is what convinced Darwin of the common origin of all species, and he didn't know half of the similarities that we know today. Thus, the standard evolutionist argument is: If all those species are much more similar than mere chance would allow, then they must be related. However, a greater than chance similarity between organisms only proves precisely that: greater than chance similarity between organisms. There exist other possible non-evolutionist explanations for the same facts, the most popular of which is that species were designed by some kind of ultra-powerful being. However, we don't need to go to such extremes to put the argument under stress."
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POPSRoberto Osti's View Of The World In Watercolors Osti, who now teaches scientific illustration at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and at the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew University in Madison, N.J., began illustrating for Scientific American in 1993. His highly detailed and wonderfully composed paintings delighted both readers and authors, many of whom wondered over the years if the originals were for sale. His work has been exhibited in Bologna, Milan, New York City and Philadelphia.
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POPSRocky The Robo-Squirrel an ornithologist with Cornell University, was able to talk to a parrot through speakers hidden in a bush. The parrot was later seen encouraging other parrots to follow a set of commandments. At Indiana University, researchers were even able to build a robot that could successfully challenge male lizards to push up contests. Can complete control of the reptile psyche be far behind? “Whether it's a bunch of squirrels in a field or humans in a mall, there are general principles of behavior that seem to hold up across species lines,” said Greg Demas, director of Indiana University's Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior. This indicates just one eventual outcome of this line of research: creating robots that can successfully challenge humans to push up contests.
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POPSBizarre Foods Unbelievable what people will eat watch the vids you will not believe your eyes.
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POPSBritannica Widgets The Encyclopaedia Britannica recently launched its Britannica WebShare program with free online access for Web publishers, a Twitter stream and blog-friendly widgets.
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POPSThe Frog from Hell Prof Susan Evans, who studied Beezebufo with Dr Marc Jones at UCL says: "This frog, a relative of today's Horned frogs, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely haveconsisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it's not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling orjuvenile dinosaurs."
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POPSCane Toads
Cane toads were introduced into Australia as a pest control measure and are taking over the country. There were no predators when they arrived, they kill just about anything that eats them (including the tadpoles) and while the gif of their spread goes to 1980, it is estimated they spread at 40k (25M) per year. Snakes have evolved smaller jaws to avoid swallowing them, and populations of goannas (lizards) that swallow them whole are being wiped out. Goannas also ate crocodile eggs, but they're not sure what the long term effect will be. They have contributed significantly with other introduced pests to the breakdown of many Australian ecosystems. They eat whatever they can fit into their mouth and while attempts have been made so far there has been little impact on their spread. Apart from the primary chemical Bufotenin other toxic chemicals are also expressed by the poison glands at the back of the head. They are said to taste like chicken (reminds me of Fugu. Export them to Japan?)
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POPSFunny Lizards Actually not just funny, but highly trained and skilled models whose photos are created by one Henry Lizardlover of Los Angeles, California. Read all about it in the Life in the Fast Lane weblog. Below some funny pictures.
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POPSThe end of Men? A surprising number of animals can reproduce without male involvement if there is no other option. Sharks and lizards have demonstrated this ability in captivity. It was previously believed that the process was impossible in mammals such as humans because male sperm cells and female egg cells undergo a process called imprinting. In imprinting, sections of each cell’s genome are silenced to allow the set of genes from the other parent to be expressed, so that when the egg and sperm cells combine, the genes in the resulting embryo are not competing with each other. It has now been discovered that it is possible to interrupt this process by deleting just two sections of genetic material on the genomes of female mice – animals very similar, for reproductive purposes, to humans.
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