Humanity’s genetic split from an ape-like ancestor came about 13 million years ago, far earlier than the long-supposed era of a common ancestor of early humans and apes, suggests a first study of chimp gene mutations.
Along with shining a new genetic light on human origins, the findings published on Thursday in the journal Science point to the role that evolution plays in fostering mutations, some linked to inherited diseases, in our genes.
On the surface, this and other recent studies contradict the general consensus suggested by the fossil record: that the last common ancestor of the two species, a flat-footed ape, lived some seven million years ago.
Frankly, My Dear
h/t Don B.
Reader Tips
In tonight’s write-your-own-words juvenility, It’s About Time, it’s about space, it’s about…
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
The Sound Of Settled Science
New paper predicts temperature decrease by 2020 of up to 1C due to low solar activity
Taxpayers’ To Take Another Bullet To The Chest
How much bigger should the discrepancy in salaries & benefits get between private sector taxpayers and public employees?
Teachers are “falling ill in record numbers. This troubling, pernicious illness tends to strike hardest on Fridays and Mondays, particularly when the sun is shining.”
BC Teacher’s massage demand alone could potentially cost $120 million a year.
Will taxpayers stand up to financial shock of these lavish wages & benefits?
It’s Probably Nothing
Sabotaged Speech and Other Matters
Greg Collins notes the advantages of siding with the campus hive mind, and artist Franklin Einspruch tries to sell free speech to his peers.
For a long while I’ve been trying to interest my friends in the art world to get behind freedom of speech in a bigger way… This usually doesn’t persuade anyone who isn’t already liberty-minded to begin with. So next I resort to self-interest. We creative types rely on that openness to function… If injured feelings take on the seriousness of injured bodies, we will become a society that pulls art off of walls, cancels performances, and strikes essays from public view. Sadly, this usually doesn’t work either, because the targets of accusations of hate speech typically lean right, and the art community leans left.
Operation Empty Chair
Via Gateway Pundit;
Ayad Jamal Al-Din: I was very surprised by the American statement, which pledged to support Iraq in keeping with the strategic agreement. On the same day, the U.S. declared that it would weaken… The war in Syria and the war in Iraq are one and the same – both in Syria and in Iraq, it is a war against ISIS. The U.S. strives to weaken the Syrian regime, and this benefits ISIS, but in Baghdad, it supports the regime against ISIS. This is suspicious and perplexing, to tell you the truth.
[…]
ISIS is composed of the same terrorists who are fighting in Libya, in Somalia, in Syria, in Afghanistan, in Nigeria, and elsewhere. The names of the organizations may vary, but their terrorism is one and the same.
Reader Tips
Tonight we limber up for the Tips thread by Prancercising® to a snippet of the Queens of the Stone Age song Smooth Sailing.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
Bolivian Kick boxer meets U.S. Marine
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
“I just thought that this was a thing that happens all the time on the tours.”
This Is Not Your Grandma’s Humane Society
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
After the state House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 310 in May, Gov. John Kasich signature was all that was missing to ensure Ohio’s clean-energy fall from grace. The standards–first passed in 2008 and reauthorized two years ago–previously required the state’s utilities to sell more solar and wind energy each year and charged them with finding efficiency solutions for their customers. Kasich’s signing means the standards are put on hold until 2017, when a committee formed by the bill’s passage could agree to permanently freeze them.
Kasich signed the bill Friday without any comment to the media…
Do consider dropping a few words in their comments.
“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal”
All this time I thought Lois Lerner had incriminating information. Now I believe she has presidency-ending information. #DeleteGate
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) June 14, 2014
Making The Modern World
More here.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Once up a time (June of 1978 to be precise) if you downloaded Environment Canada’s monthly summaries, you would have found 313 stations with “Bright Sunshine” hours.
Now there is one.
H/T to reader Bruce – “If you want to find out if sunshine in Canada is correlated to temperatures, you can’t”. Well, that’s convenient.
Flashback: the Great Dying of the Thermometers
Reader Tips
Tonight we watch as the Ontario Liberals celebrate their victory, only to find themselves drowning in an ocean of debt The Morning After.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
The Mathematics of Boneless Pork Rectums
“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal”
What’s the big deal? It’s just a few minutes of tape.
You don’t say! A veteran IT professional tells TheBlaze that the IRS’ claim that the agency lost two years’ worth of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s emails is “simply not feasible.”