- Science can be useful from time to time. This is one of
those times. Woolly mammoths haven’t been around for a while and to be blunt,
mankind would probably like them. After dying off during the last ice age,
these massive mammals have been AWOL as the planet marches forward. Researchers from
the Northeast Federal University in Yakutsk are one step closer to filling
Earth’s mammoth (pun intended) void following the discovery of liquid blood in
a well-preserved mammoth carcass in Siberia. The research team located the
10,000-year-old female mammoth buried in ice on the Lyakhovsky Islands off the
coast of northeast Russia. When they poked the frozen creature with a pick, dark
liquid blood flowed out. "The fragments of muscle tissues, which we've
found out of the body, have a natural red color of fresh meat. The reason for
such preservation is that the lower part of the body was underlying in pure
ice," said project leader Semyon Grigoriev, head of the university's
Mammoth Museum. "The blood is very dark, it was found in ice cavities
below the belly and when we broke these cavities with a poll pick, the blood
came running out. Interestingly, the temperature at the time of excavation was
-7 to -10ºC. It may be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some
cryoprotective properties." For the science-ignorant, cryoprotectant is a
substance found in modern fish and amphibians living in the Arctic and
Antarctic that minimizes the damage to the creatures' tissue in freezing
temperatures. According to Grigoriev, this is the first time mammoth blood has
been discovered and it represents "the best preserved mammoth in the
history of paleontology." He theorized that the mammoth may have fallen
into water or become trapped in a swamp. That would explain how the lower part
of the body, including the lower jaw, and tongue tissue, was preserved so well.
Northeast Federal University is working on a joint project with South Korean
scientists who are hoping to clone a woolly mammoth and their Sooam Biotech
Research Foundation is hoping to bring back the majestic beast. The mammoth carcass
has not been moved yet for fear of damaging it, but will eventually be
transported to a research facility……..
- One of the longest-running constants in punk rock is no
more. Pixies
bassist Kim Deal has quit the band, ending a 25-year run that has featured the
requisite amount of drama, twists, turns and break-ups. Deal is currently
touring the 20th anniversary re-release of “Last Splash,” the best-known
release of her other band, The Breeders. Fellow Pixies members Black Francis,
Joey Santiago and David Lovering released a statement on their official Facebook
page confirming that Deal is no longer part of the band. "We are sad to
say that Kim Deal has decided to leave the Pixies,” the statement reads. “We
are very proud to have worked with her on and off over the last 25 years.
Despite her decision to move on, we will always consider her a member of the
Pixies, and her place will always be here for her. We wish her all the
best." Deal has been with the Pixies through a contentious split in 1993,
a reformation in 2004 and a tour spanning 2009-11 that was built around their
1989 album “Doolittle.” She has in some ways been the female Jack White,
working with numerous bands and side projects and trying to be the busiest
person in rock and roll. She recently collaborated with Brooklyn-based indie
rockers The National on their “Long Count” project and teamed with her sister
and fellow Breeders member Kelly Deal on the effort. The Pixies haven’t
performed live since the end of that 2011 tour, so hearing that Deal is leaving
isn’t completely shocking news. Francis isn’t sitting around weeping over Deal’s
departure. He’s working on a new rock supergroup named Thriftstore Masterpiece. He described the project d as "an
all-star music collective devoted to paying homage to the underdog records of
years past" and its members include Pete Yorn, Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse,
Courtney Taylor-Taylor of Dandy Warhols and Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos. The
group’s first album, a remake of Lee Hazlewood’s 1963 debut “Trouble Is A
Lonesome Town,” drops on July 8……..
- Italy provides the world with some great wine. Most that
wine comes from vineyard owners who, you know, aren’t currently incarcerated on
a small
Mediterranean island. That makes Gorgona, the smallest of the Tuscan
archipelago that also includes Elba, so unique. The island in home to monks who
have dwelled there for 1,500 years…and a penal colony since 1869. The inmates
on the island are now producing their own brand of wine. They have just churned
out 2,700 bottles of a crisp white wine called Gorgona with the help of a
700-year-old Italian wine dynasty. Their brew must be decent, as a Michelin
three-star restaurant in Florence is among the buyers for the first crop. Getting
to the island takes some doing – and not just because the only boat allowed
near the rocky coast is a weekly ferry that brings family members for visits
and even that boat is not permitted to dock, forcing passengers to be taken off
on police launches. No, the island is difficult for convicted criminals to get
to because there is a long waiting list to be incarcerated there. It is a
highly desirable location compared with most of Italy's chronically overcrowded
jails. Prisoners are only locked up at night and during the day, they are able
to roam free and in this case, tend to their vineyards and harvest the grapes
needed to make their wine. Gorgona is home to just 40 inmates, many of them
convicted of murder, who also produce high-quality pork, vegetables, chickens,
olive oil and cheese. Their win sells for $66 a bottle and it comes with an
interesting back story courtesy of its unusual point of origin. The island
itself is named after monstrous sisters in Greek mythology with snakes for hair
and it is also the place where Napoleon was incarcerated. It is extremely
isolated and peaceful, even when one factors in the fact that it is populated
largely by convicted killers……..
- You can have my flopping when you pry it from my cold,
dead hands. That’s the message Dallas
Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki delivered late last week when asked about the
NBA’s efforts to rid the game of flopping. The league has implemented a system
in which floppers are fined $5,000 for their first offense and penalties
escalate from there, potentially growing to include a suspension for repeated
violations. Commissioner David Stern said the current penalties are “not enough”
during his annual pre-NBA Finals news conference earlier this month.
"You're not going to cause somebody to stop it for $5,000 when the average
player's salary is $5.5 million. And anyone who thought that was going to
happen was allowing hope to prevail over reason,” Stern said. However, Nowitzki
believes flopping is an integral part of the game and that the NBA will never
fully eliminate the practice from basketball. "We're never going to get
rid of it. You don't want the obvious ones, the really, really bad one,"
Nowitzki said. "I think we'd love to get rid of those. But if somebody
really does get shoved or hit a little bit, just to sell it a little for the
referees so it does get the call, I don't have a problem with that. I think
that's part of the game." Ironically, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently
announced that he would provide $100,000 to Southern Methodist University for an 18-month
investigation of the forces involved in basketball collisions in the wake of Stern's
call for better solutions to flopping. Any technological intrusions into the
process would likely be far off, but Nowitzki’s remarks back up the comments
made by LeBron James earlier in the playoffs, when the Miami Heat star
described flopping as an effective defensive technique and intimated that he
didn’t have a problem with it. Adding larger fines and automatic suspensions
for serial floppers may be necessary to solve this riddle……
- California has a well-deserved reputation as one of
America’s premier stoner states. The city of Riverside isn’t helping maintain
that image and its city council is looking to take a wrecking ball to a key
part of it. The Riverside City Council recently voted in favor of a ban on
deliveries of ganja to the homes of medical marijuana customers. Dispensaries
are no longer allowed to drop off pot packages at patients’ place of dwelling
and the decision continues Riverside’s long-standing traditions of being a
community of backwards-thinking ass hats, er, taking a hard line on medical
marijuana dispensaries. Council members continually point to the fact that
statistics – which are fun to manipulate so they back up whatever side you
choose on an issue – suggest violent crime — like armed robberies — are
directly linked to marijuana sales. Never mind the fact that those numbers are
more related to the sale of chron on the street than from license dispensaries because
dammit, the stats can be used to bolster their otherwise feeble decision to
prevent dispensaries from delivering marijuana to patients who otherwise might
not have the strength of stamina to make the trip to the dispensary to pick up
their stash. The new law went into effect immediately following the vote, but many
clinics are defying the ban. Some are doing so under the pretense that not
everyone can afford prescription medication, while others say that they are
concerned about potential dangers patients will face if they cannot get ganja
delivered to their home and have to seek it out the old-fashioned way. There is
a certain irony that people can get bargain-basement pizza to their door, but
they can no longer have the chron they need to complete their night of stoner
laziness brought to them……..
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