If you have to lie to scientists to get them to be in your faux-documentaries, you’re doing documentary filmmaking wrong.
Besides that, it might be easier—and not significantly more expensive—just to hire actors to pretend to be scientists. Plus, you’ll avoid any potentially pesky fraud or defamation claims.
The Domestic Cat Genome Has Been Fully Sequenced, and It’s Fascinating, Annalee Newitz, io9, August 11, 2014
Now that we have this complete, annotated genome sequence, scientists will be able to analyze cat genetics much more effectively. Cats suffer from many of the same diseases as humans, including versions of leukemia and AIDS, so the cat genome may help us understand the development of these conditions better. Don’t worry — that doesn’t mean scientists will be experimenting on kitties. It just means that we can compare their genomes to ours to see whether there are similarities that shed light on why we are vulnerable (or not) to the diseases.
Cats also have what biologists call “a highly conserved ancestral mammal genome organization,” which means that many stretches of their genome haven’t changed much over evolutionary time. Put simply, domestic cats haven’t changed much since they first evolved. This could allow us to understand mammal evolution better. It could also answer a question that remains a mystery: why did dog domestication change canines so much, whereas cat domestication didn’t change cats much at all?
As migrant children face backlash, communities mobilize to drown out hate, Laurie Smolenski, Waging Nonviolence, August 10, 2014 (via Yes! Magazine)
I got an email the other day about a petition started by Greenpeace urging LEGO, the world-famous toy company that was a mainstay of my childhood (continuing on into my adulthood), to cut its ties with Shell, the world-infamous oil company that has faced major opposition for its plans to drill in the Arctic. I am a huge fan of LEGO, and not at all a huge fan of Shell, but I decided to look into this campaign a bit more, in part because the LEGO/Shell partnership didn’t seem like a new deal to me. In fact, I was pretty sure I had a LEGO Shell gas station as a kid.
I was close. It was a LEGO Exxon gas station.
Via Brickipedia
According to Brickipedia, LEGO had a licensing deal with Exxon for sets sold in the U.S., beginning as early as 1979, when it released a fuel tanker set. It released the gas station set in 1980, along with a tow truck that had Exxon logos on the doors. It also released another fuel tanker set—with room for the minifigure to sit behind the wheel—in 1984. I’m pretty sure I had all of these sets. LEGO used the Esso brand until the Exxon brand largely replaced it in the U.S. in the 1970’s.
As for Shell, I remembered seeing Shell sets in LEGO catalogs. LEGO began making Shell-branded products, such as the “Shell Service Station,” in 1966: Continue reading
Why it Matters What Liberal Validators Say on GMOs, Keith Kloor, Collide-A-Scape, August 4, 2014
When Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks, people listen. I was on vacation when America’s most prominent scientist made news for railing against GMO fearmongers. “Practically every food you buy in a store for consumption by humans is genetically modified food,” he told a French interviewer. It was an impromptu, oversimplified response on a complex, hot-button subject, but Tyson’s stance was clear to all: GMOs are nothing to be afraid of.
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Much of what constitutes criticism of GMOs from consumer and environmental groups is, to put it charitably, disingenuous. At best, groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth cherry-pick science to emphasize uncertainty (straight out of the climate denial playbook), at worst, they scare-monger and demagogue, using Monsanto as the great bogeyman. In short, mainstream consumer and green groups pollute the discourse on GMOs in the same way that climate skeptics pollute the conversation on global warming.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson is obviously a huge breath of fresh air in the noxious GMO debate. He is a major “validator” for those with unformed beliefs on GMOs. So he is a potential game changer.
Abortions For “Funsies!” Feminace, Seriously?!?, August 2, 2014 Continue reading
Paul Ryan’s “insult” strategy: Why his anti-poverty contract is so grotesque, Simon Maloy, Salon, July 24, 2014
The entire document is premised on the notion that the poor are poor largely because they lack sufficient incentive to improve their station in life. Blame for this is, of course, foisted upon the government programs themselves. “The biggest snag in the safety net is that it discourages work,” Ryan’s document observes. “Many federal programs are means-tested, so as families earn more money, they get less aid. Any system that concentrates on the most vulnerable will face this tension.”
If that’s “the biggest snag,” then the safety net is doing pretty well. Ryan and the GOP have been pushing this argument that government benefits breed complacency among their recipients for quite some time, but the evidence just isn’t there to back it up.
No One I Know Will Ever Be Arrested For Smoking Pot, Atrios, Eschaton, July 27, 2014 Continue reading
A Congressman Questioned A Woman Living In Poverty And Revealed A Lot About Himself, Bryce Covert, ThinkProgress, July 11, 2014
On Thursday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) held his fifth hearing on the War on Poverty, and for the first time he allowed a person actually living in poverty to testify. Tianna Gaines-Turner shared her personal experiences struggling to make ends meet and provide food for her three children who suffer from medical conditions along with her husband. She works as a seasonal employee with children for $10.88 an hour, while her husband works at a grocery store for $8.50.
But when Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) got the chance to ask questions of Gaines-Turner and the two other witnesses, he directed much of his attention toward calling into question whether she is dependent on government programs, whether she has tried to find more work, and if she is partisan. He gave a “theoretical example” in which the government would increase spending on government programs like food stamps and welfare by 500 percent and asked, “They [people on the programs] would be out of poverty and that would be a good thing?” to which Gaines-Turner responded, “Yes, the programs work, yes it would be good to move them out of poverty.”
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Rokita’s questioning seemed to imply that Gaines-Turner could make more money and escape her “dependence” if she worked harder. But for many of those living in poverty, that’s just not the case. The majority of adult, able-bodied, non-elderly poor people work. But in this economy, finding extra work, or any work at all, can be nearly impossible. In May, the most recent month for which there is data, there were more than two times as many job seekers as job openings. And unemployment rates are even higher for those with less education, who also tend to have lower incomes.
The Senate flunks basic biology: Inside a disgraceful hearing, Andrea Flynn, Salon, July 20, 2014
Such as when it leads this kind-hearted Craigslist user in Richmond, Virginia to refer to a ferret as a “cat snake” (h/t Paul):
Click to embiggen.
If you can’t see the screenshot, and the Craigslist post gets removed, here’s what it says:
Found! Cat Snake? (Richmond)
Found (assuming) pet. Some sort of cat snake? Long and nimble but with dryish fur and cat teeth. Seems to like cat food, but isn’t a cat. Please come take this off my hands it smells weird.
I hope the cat snake finds its way home.
(To be fair, ferrets are also sometimes known as polecats, and the possible origin of that name just became clear to me.)
(Yes, I realize there’s an above-even chance that the Craigslist post is a joke. It doesn’t alter the likelihood that many, many people don’t know what a ferret actually is. I’ve spoken to people who think they are rodents. They’re actually much more closely related to cats, and would probably take offense at either comparison.)
Forty-five years ago today, we accomplished something astonishing.
Then we stopped dreaming.
Then the Moon got lonely.
Photo credits: “Tyson – Apollo 40th anniversary” by NASA/Bill Ingalls [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; “sad moon” via I fucking love science on Facebook.
Family That Walks On All Fours Not A Product Of ‘Reverse Evolution’, George Dvorsky, io9, July 17, 2014
In Turkey, there’s a family with an apparent genetic disorder that causes them to walk on all fours. Scientists have speculated that they’re an example of “devolution” — a backwards step towards our quadrupedal past. A new paper challenges this assumption, offering a far more reasonable explanation.
[Ed. note: What “scientists” would speculate about something like “devolution”?]
Deadbeat 1 percenters endanger U.S. democracy, Robert Reich, Salon, July 17, 2014 Continue reading
A member of a documentary film crew managed to escape with only cuts and scratches when a lioness attacked him in someone’s living room last November, as reported by News 4 San Antonio (h/t Lindsay).
No. No no no no no. In fact, no × ∞.
“Domestication” takes multiple generations—it’s the process by which the wolf became the dog, the junglefowl became the chicken, the aurochs became the cow, or the cat became the, uh……cat.
I think they meant to say that this particular lion was born in captivity. Even that doesn’t necessarily mean that she has been tamed, and it absolutely does not mean that she has been “domesticated.”
Do not bring a lion into your living room. Just don’t. Please.
For additional information, see these charts on how to pet an animal properly. For example, here’s the chart explaining how to pet a wolverine:
Here’s a hint: do not attempt to pet a wolverine.
