Limits of Tebow, FEMEN rage and chili plants' fragility

- Researchers don’t spend nearly enough time digging into life’s truly important issues. Rather than asking how to cure cancer or slow the degenerative effects of Alzheimer’s, why aren't the smart guys in lab coats focusing on key questions like why peppers are so spicy, what can be done to make them spicier and how they grow? A team of researchers led by David Haak of Indiana University understand this reality and it’s why they’ve done some vital research to discover that the spiciest peppers have the most trouble where water is scarce. These über-spicy peppers produce fewer seeds with less water and therefore leave fewer offspring, giving non-spicy chilies a distinct advantage in dry climates. "There is a trade-off. The pungent plants aren't allowed to use their water resource as well as non-pungent plants," Haak said. When the climate is flipped and the environment is extremely damp, spicy chilis are more successful and non-spicy chilies are less able to fight off fungi. For the study, Haak and other researchers grew wild chilies in a lab to study the effects of different environmental conditions. They previously made five grueling sampling trips to Bolivia from 2002 through 2009 to study the spiciness of chilies in different climates. In 2008, Haak’s team discovered that the pungency of wild peppers varies by where they are growing. Spiciness is determined by a pepper’s amount of spicy chemicals called capsaicinoids and capsaicinoids vary from climate to climate. Researchers focused on peppers from varying climates of southeastern Bolivia and sampled from regions that were dry and arid and also those that were extremely damp. They found the spice-less peppers were more abundant in areas with little water and that the opposite was true as the climate shifted. With a few sample plants in tow, researchers headed back to the lab and studied both types of chilis. The plants were deprived of water during their fruiting cycle and researchers learned that when it's dry out, production of capsaicinoids can be costly to the plants. Spicier plants ended up producing 50 percent fewer seeds if they were water-starved, while the non-hot plants were unaffected. What’s to blame for the lack of seed output? Haak said spicier chili plants had more stomata — the pores that let water and air in and out of the plant cells - and like tomatoes and other relatives, chili peppers aren't very good at regulating how these pores open and close. Losing more water led to fewer seeds. Problem solved. More on this riveting research is in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences…………

- Morons and explosives are an unavoidable and disastrous mixture. The draw explosive devices have to a person is inversely proportional to their IQ and Barratt Duncan Young of Murrayville, Ga. does not appear to rank high on the ol’ IQ scale. He was taken to a local medical facility after he attempted to modify a World War II-style pineapple grenade and in a totally unforeseen occurrence, failed miserably. According to police, Young modified the grenade and refilled it with explosive material. Somewhere along the way he made a wrong move and the grenade blew up in his hands. That led to a rather raucous explosion around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday at his home on Underwood Drive in Murrayville. In a move that still needs to be explained, Young had a friend drive him to a gas station several miles from his home and was located there by officers. The friend, who was with Young when the grenade exploded but was clearly not intelligent enough to realize the situation was literally going to blow up in Young’s face, was not injured when the incendiary device went boom. Police investigators later searched Young’s home and found materials used to make homemade explosives, according to Sgt. Stephen Wilbanks with the Hall County Sheriff's Office. Investigators then searched a second home in the area and found two more inert grenades. Young was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where he was treated for injuries and burns to his face, hands and abdomen. Once he finished there, he was arrested on several charges including possessing and manufacturing an explosive device, reckless conduct, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and consuming alcohol under the age of 21. That’s right, alcohol was involved. Who could have guessed that one? Alcohol and modified explosives, a truly winning combination. One positive from the investigation is that investigators do not believe the explosives were related to domestic terrorism, nor were they intended to be used to hurt anyone. In truth, the only person injured was the only person who deserved to be injured…………

- Even the supernatural power of one Timothy Richard Tebow has its limits. Tebow has stepped in as the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos and led them from 1-4 to 8-6 and first place in the AFC West despite his inadequacies as an actual quarterback, winning legions of maniacal followers along the way. But even he cannot overcome the morass of mediocrity that is the Buffalo Bills. Tebow’s Broncos are set to play in Buffalo on Saturday and with the Bills mired in a seven-game losing streak that has knocked them out of playoff contention, the Buffalo faithful aren't exactly beating on the ticket office window to get their seats for the game. In fact, the Bills announced Wednesday they still had about 24,000 tickets left for their final home game of the season. If fans aren't enthused enough to venture out in unnaturally good weather for late December to see their team for its last home contest of the year and see one of the biggest curiosities in all of professional sports, then maybe Tebow really isn't all that powerful. Unless something changes by the end of the day, the Bills will end their season having their last three home games blacked out. Then again, why go out and watch Tebow from some crappy nosebleed seats in the upper deck when you can sit down in front of your 50” flat screen, flip on the NFL Ticket package and watch the game via satellite…………

- There simply are not enough topless protests in the world. The Ukrainian feminist group Femen understands this and its members regularly doff their clothes to……umm…..make some point…..I think. They pick their issues, pick a place and show up sans shirts and bras. The sight is typically a welcome one for men on either side of a given issue, but the most recent Femen protest took an ugly turn and members who participated in a protest last week. Femen member Oksana Shechko claims she and other protestors were kidnapped, beaten and abused by local security officials in neighboring Belarus after a demonstration there. She alleged that Belarusian authorities were punishing them for a protest in Minsk on Monday in which they bared their breasts to bring attention to President Aleksander Lukashenko’s crackdown on the opposition. In retaliation, security forces allegedly kidnapped the women, interrogated them on a bus for 12 hours, forced them to take off the rest of their clothes in the woods in freezing temperatures and proceeded to beat them, threaten them with death and rape and smear them with paint before cutting off some of their hair and sending them on their way. “It was a real fight for survival,” Shechko said upon returning to Kiev. “We ended up in the hands of the butchers who kill and terrify the Belarusian people.” Shechko also said that she and her fellow protestors were prevented from moving or speaking while they sat on the bus and were eventually left half-naked in a freezing forest to fend for themselves. They eventually received help from local residents and were able to contact the Ukrainian embassy. When the group arrived back in Kiev, they sported bizarre hairstyles courtesy of their captors. Femen member Inna Shevchenko’s hair had been dyed green and some of it cut off in the back. Do they now regret staging a demonstration on the steps of the KGB headquarters? Not according to Shechko, they don’t. The more pressing question is when Femen will be bringing its act to the United States……………

- TV series die every day……or maybe it just seems that way. Series debut and are canceled with whiplash speed and quite a few don’t even survive one season on the air. By the current standard, HBO’s “Bored to Death” is a virtual senior citizen of the airwaves. However, its run is about to end and series creator Jonathan Ames wants to send the show off in style. No, he’s not pushing for a massive budget for the series finale or trying to craft the perfect dramatic storyline to make the finale truly memorable. Instead, Ames wants to use the finale as a means of connecting with the show’s loyal fans. After HBO announced it was canceling the series effective at the end of the current season, Ames has invited viewers to celebrate its three-year run with a drink. He invited fans of the half-hour comedy to join him for a drink - as long as they’re going to be in the greater Manhattan area Wednesday night. "I invite all fans of Bored to Death to come to the Brooklyn Inn tomorrow night, Wednesday, and I'll buy you a drink," Ames said after the announcement. "John Hodgman will be joining me and perhaps other local New York City actors from the show will be there, and we can all toast Bored to Death and a completely loony and improbably three-year run." The gathering will begin around 10 p.m. and go until there aren’t any more drinks to buy. “Bored to Death” debuted on HBO on Sept. 20, 2009, starring Jason Schwartzman as a fictional version of Ames. Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis were part of the cast along with Hodgman. The series third and final season debuted on Oct. 11………….