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Hey! Who you callin' a Neanderthal?

The Times reports today that scientists are reconstructing the Neanderthal genome, which has led to lots of debate about whether we should clone one, were that possible. Putting aside what society would actually do with a cloned Neanderthal (put him in some unholy Pleistocene Park? cast him in a Geico commercial?), the guy would need some major image rehab, because over the years his species has been scientifically slandered. Here, courtesy of Channel 4, are 10 Neanderthal myths that need debunking:... READ ON

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Only the greatest magazine titles of all time

According to BoingBoing, Amazon.com has been threatened with a lawsuit from the American Humane Society for choosing to hawk subscriptions to two cockfighting magazines on their site: The Gamecock (currently the world's #1 cockfighting magazine) and The Feathered Warrior. While I'm definitely curious about the content provided in these magazines (supposedly they're about rooster grooming and maintenance), and I'm disgusted by the "sport," I do love the name The Feathered Warrior. The staff used... READ ON

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Just Plain Bananas

How is it that I've never stumbled across The Tattooed Banana site before? Billed as the only website "dedicated to the emerging appreciation for banana art," the site is chock-full of potassium, vitamin C, and hilarious art involving my favorite of the yellow fruits (sorry lemons!). My favorites from the page include an ultrasound of a pregnant banana (carrying a baby banana in tow), and the fake i-Pod baNano pictured here. Of course, what I did notice was lacking from the site was a... READ ON

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Is this how we'll take medication in the future?

According to the New Scientist Inventions Blog (which scours US patent applications for interesting finds), Hewlett-Packard is attempting to help control prescription drug abuse by creating an inhaler/printer that can be placed on a patient's tongue to deliver medications. The print head is supposedly similar in design to that of an ink jet, and the drugs are also contained in replaceable cartridges, not unlike those that contain ink. So, aside from the novel dispenser-aspect of it, what makes... READ ON

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My one and only celebrity tribute to Hockessin, DE (and the surrounding areas)

I'm definitely not trying to turn this page a Flosser Stalker site (c.f. Gawker), but I couldn't resist posting about this: my favorite newspaper in Delaware, The News Journal, is reporting that actress Reese Witherspoon has been sighted(!) in my hometown of Hockessin. Everyone in the community is apparently buzzing over the fact that she visited Tomm's Produce. (Home of some fantastic iced beverages. And produce). Anyway, because everyone's always knocking The First State... READ ON

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Amuseum

The Kircher Society has been running a feature on Lesser-Known Museums all week, including today's Frog Museum, "a collection of 150-year-old satirical tableaus of domestic life in the 19th century "“ all involving stuffed frogs." We thought we'd join in: Take two trips to the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices and call us when you've lost all faith in the medical profession. Those in search of history's quack science can find what they're looking for in the St. Paul tourist attraction,... READ ON

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Fast food facts

I've posted a couple times on obesity in America so I thought I'd continue by sharing some fast food facts I read in flipping through Paul Grobman's Vital Statistics: Odds that an American eats at a fast-food restaurant on any given day: 1 in 4 Odds that an American kid eats at a McDonald's in any given month: 9 in 10 Number of hamburgers the average American consumes each week: 3 First fast-food chain: White Castle (1921 - first one opened in Wichita, Kansas) Year McDonald's first allowed... READ ON

5 Questions: The Name of the Rose

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Coupon Crazy

So I just went down to get the mail and was once again completely overwhelmed with the amount of coupons in my mailbox. There were so many colorful circulars, both glossy and newsprint, for the most inane products and services (honestly, do I really need a box of "Softeeze" finger and toe bandages?) that there's a good chance I accidentally threw away an important piece of mail, which could have been buried within. If so, it wouldn't be the first time. Which got me thinking: Who invented... READ ON

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That's why you've got a fork and knife

Yahoo News is reporting that a 12-foot Burmese Python named Houdini screwed up a magic trick when he tried to make his electric blanket disappear. The python, who decided to gulp down the blanket as a main course, needed emergency surgery to have it removed (apparently, the Heimlich doesn't have much of an effect on snakes). What was amazing to me in reading the article was: a) it took Houdini 6 hours to get the queen-sized blanket into his belly b) the surgery to remove the blanket needed an 18-inch... READ ON