- It turns out that plants can do math. Unlike the average
American third grader – just kidding, third graders – plants have a built-in capacity to do math, which helps them regulate food
reserves at night, according to British researchers at the John Innes Centre.
Researchers said they were "amazed" to find an example of such a
sophisticated arithmetic calculation in biology. Using mathematical models,
they were able to show that the amount of starch consumed overnight is
calculated by division in a process involving leaf chemicals. For their
research, the JIC team studied the plant Arabidopsis, widely regarded as
a model plant for experiments. During night hours, the plant cannot use energy
from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and starch and therefore
must regulate its starch reserves to ensure they last until dawn. In
experiments at the JIC, located in Norwich, the plant adjusted its starch
consumption so precisely that it had to be performing a mathematical
calculation - arithmetic division. "They're actually doing maths in a
simple, chemical way - that's amazing, it astonished us as scientists to see
that," study leader Alison Smith said. "This is pre-GCSE maths
they're doing, but they're doing maths." Smith and her crew used
mathematical modeling to investigate how a division calculation can be carried
out inside a plant. What they found was that during the night, certain mechanisms
inside the leaf measure the size of the starch store and an internal clock,
similar to the human body clock, provides information about time. The researchers postulated that this process is mediated by the concentrations of
two kinds of molecules called "S" for starch and "T" for
time. In their theory, S molecules stimulate starch breakdown and T molecules
prevent this from happening. Therefore, the rate of starch consumption is set
by the ratio of S molecules to T molecules, or S divided by T. In addition to
plants, the resarch team believes similar mechanisms may operate in animals
such as birds to control fat reserves during migration………
- Do they have bunga-bunga parties in prison-prison? Former Italian
prime minister Silvio Berlusconi should find out the answer to that question
because eventually, he may be headed to the big house after a lower court in
Milan sentenced him to seven years in jail for paying for sex with a minor and
covering it up. That doesn’t mean Berlusconi will be going to prison soon, but the
76-year old billionaire was found guilty by a panel of three female judges. Those
three (possibly vindictive) ladies also banned him from holding public office.
However, Italy’s three-tiered court system means that a trial that lasted for
two years is merely the first step in a process that yielded a verdict that will
only come into effect if it is upheld by two other courts after a lengthy
appeals process. As the verdict was read, a small group of protesters started
celebrating in front of Milan’s tribunal while politicians from Berlusconi’s
center-right People of Freedom party quickly set aside the sentence as the
latest miscarriage of justice in Berlusconi’s “persecution” at the hands of
Italy’s leftist judiciary. For the man who has spent 20 years in the thick of
Italian politics and served as prime minister four times, being convicted is
nothing new. Just last May, Berlusconi had a four-year sentence for tax fraud
confirmed by an appeals court. That sentence is still awaiting review by Italy’s
highest court. His new conviction centers on notorious hooker “Ruby the
Heartstealer,” a Moroccan nightclub dancer who attended “bunga bunga” sex
parties in Berlusconi’s luxurious villa outside Milan. According to his
conviction, Berlusconoi paid her for sex while she was a minor, a fact both
involved parties have denied. Prosecutors used witnesses and wiretaps –
including more than 30 women who claim they were paid thousand dollars each to
perform strip teases, “burlesque dances” and allegedly the former prime
minister’s junk during these parties – to prove their case. The conviction also
includes claims that Berlusconi abused his power by having his favorite hooker
released from a Milan jail after she was arrested for theft. He has long
expressed a distrust of the legal system and has remained oddly popular despite
sex-related scandals, a sort of Italian Bill Clinton in a sense. His country
remains in a governmental clusterf*ck with or without him, but more drama is
always entertaining for the rest of the world…….
- Does Jim Carey have any real voice when it comes to what
should or should not be on a movie screen these days? When was the last time
Carey actually made a movie worth watching? Maybe the upcoming “Dumb and
Dumber” sequel will reverse that trend, but for now Carey continues to be known
as the dude who makes terrible movie after terrible movie, with no end in
sight. Yet there’s Carey, whining about the level of violence in his next film, “Kick-Ass
2.” In the humorous superhero sequel, Carrey plays a "badass"
called Colonel Stars And Stripes who joins forces with Aaron Johnson's Kick-Ass. The movie hits theaters on Aug. 14 when
it arrives at the local multiplex, it will do so tagged with critical remarks
by one of its stars. Carey took to Twitter to share his doubts about the film's
content. “I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I
cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to e,” Carey tweeted in his
first message about the movie, He later added, “I meant to say my apologies to others
involve with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a
change in my heart.” It didn’t take long for Mark Millar, creator of the original Kick-Ass comic books
and an executive producer on the movies, to respond to Carey’s complaints and
to do so in a long-form diatribe that bordered on a mini-manifesto. "Ultimately,
this is his decision, but I've never quite bought the notion that violence in
fiction leads to violence in real-life any more than Harry Potter casting a
spell creates more Boy Wizards in real-life," Millar wrote in part of a
lengthy post on his website. “Jim, I love ya and I hope you reconsider...
You're amazing in this insanely fun picture." Both films are based on Millar's
comic book and the first “Kick Ass” told the story of an ordinary teenager who
reinvents himself as a real-life superhero. It attained only modest box office
success but has done well on DVD and Blu-ray. Director Jeff Wadlow shot the
sequel in Toronto for three months beginning in September of last year and
along with Carrey and Johnson, it stars Chloë
Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, John Leguizamo and Donald Faison………
- The (not really a) national nightmare ended less than 24
hours after it began. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo has found the red panda
named Rusty and aside from the embarrassment of losing a rare and valuable
piece of wildlife cuteness, the zoo is no worse for the drama. According to zoo
officials, Rusty escaped his enclosure and went on the lam around 6 p.m.
Sunday. They refused to rule out the possibility that someone could have
taken him, but initial speculation was that Rusty was likely hiding in a tree
somewhere nearby. "Red pandas typically spend the warm daytime hours
resting, so it's likely Rusty is somewhere in or near the Zoo hiding in a
tree," the National Zoo's Twitter account said. That theory proved to be
false as a woman with the Twitter handle @AshleyFoughty tweeted Monday
afternoon: "Red panda in our neighborhood! 20th NW and Biltmore. Please
come save him! @nationalzoo1 pic.twitter.com/llQF7P9QH5" The attached
picture showed what appeared to be a red panda in the Adams Morgan neighborhood
not far from the zoo and indeed, it was Rusty. Zoo employees made the short journey
to retrieve the AWOL panda and were able to take the fugitive mammal into
custody without further incident. Shortly after 2:20 p.m., the Zoo tweeted
"the red panda has been recovered, crated & is headed safely back to
the National Zoo!" The zoo needs to say its prayers and thank the Almighty
for housewives and stay-at-home moms who have little else to do during the day
than hang out at home and look out their windows for escaped wildlife from the
local zoo……..
- Hopefully, Rafael Nadal didn’t pay for an extended stay
in his London hotel room. The ailing Spanish tennis star was on the wrong end
of Wimbledon's greatest upsets ever Monday
when he was toppled by Steve Darcis of Belgium. Darcis, ranked 135th in the
world, downed the two-time champion 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 6-4. It was Nadal’s first
loss in the opening round of a Grand Slam event and came after losing in the
second round of Wimbledon last year. by 100th-ranked Lukas Rosol. Nadal was also sidelined for seven
months with a left knee injury and seemed to be laboring throughout the match,
proving unable to turn on the speed or use his legs to spring into his
groundstrokes. Darcis admitted that he was as surprised as everyone else with
the result. "Rafa Nadal didn't play his best tennis today," the Belgian
said. "The first match on grass is always difficult. It's his first one.
Of course, it's a big win. I tried to come to the net as soon as I could, not
play too far from the baseline. I think it worked pretty good today.” The
humbling defeat came one month after Nadal won his eighth championship at the
French Open, but he bore little resemblance to the player who has won 12 Grand
Slam titles and established himself as one of the greatest players of his
generation. Following his defeat at Wimbledon last year, Nadal took the rest of
the year off to recover from the knee problem. He had just begun to resemble
his old self of late and made it to the finals of all nine tournaments he
entered since returning, winning seven. However, he pulled out of a grass-court
tune-up in Halle, Germany arrived at Wimbledon without any serious grass-court
preparation. Still, he refused to blame any injury and gave full credit to
Darcis, who had never beaten a top-5 player or advanced beyond the third round
of any Grand Slam. "I don't ... talk about my knee this afternoon,"
Nadal said. "Only thing that can say today is congratulate Steve Darcis.
He played a fantastic match. Everything that I will say today about my knee is
an excuse, and I don't like to put any excuse when I'm losing a match like I
lost today.” Losing with class is always the right play…….
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