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Women may think of men as primitive, but new research indicates that the Y chromosome - the thing that makes a man male - is evolving far faster than the rest of the human genetic code. A new study comparing the Y chromosomes from humans and chimpanzees, our nearest living relatives, show that they are about 30 per cent different. That is far greater than the 2 per cent difference between the rest of the human genetic code and that of the chimp's, according to a study appearing online Wednesday in the journal Nature. These changes occurred in the last...

Genetically Modified crops (or GM) are genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have been altered to meet a specific profile. They have also been the subject of controversy almost since their introduction two decades ago. A new study pinpoints three variations of GM corn (maize) as being linked to organ damage in mammals. The three varieties in question are Mon 810, Mon 863, and NK 603. The "Mon" is for, you guessed it, Monsanto and the NK is also a Monsanto product, being engineered for herbicide tolerance. The study was conducted by the Committee of Research and Information on Genetic Engineering...

Thoreau never had one during his lifetime. Neither did George Washington nor Albert Einstein. Today in the United States, which uses the month/day/year format for dates, there is a rare chance to celebrate a palindrome date - 01/02/2010 - which reads the same forward as it does backward. Discuss COMMENTS (40) Jan. 2, 2010, is the second such date out of 36 that occurs this millennium. The first was 10/02/2001. Aziz Inan, a University of Portland electrical engineering professor, has been studying this phenomenon and speaks with great enthusiasm as he describes the history of palindrome dates. Before 2001, he...

In the autumn of 1913, two farmers were arguing about hominid skull fragments they had uncovered while digging a drainage ditch. The location was Boskop, a small town about 200 miles inland from the east coast of South Africa. These Afrikaner farmers, to their lasting credit, had the presence of mind to notice that there was something distinctly odd about the bones. They brought the find to Frederick W. Fitz Simons, director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, in a small town at the tip of South Africa. The scientific community of South Africa was small, and before long the skull...

The social networking site, which connects old friends and allows users to make new ones online, is being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns. Divorce lawyers claim the explosion in the popularity of websites such as Facebook and Bebo is tempting to people to cheat on their partners. Suspicious spouses have also used the websites to find evidence of flirting and even affairs which have led to divorce. One law firm, which specialises in divorce, claimed almost one in five petitions they processed cited Facebook. Mark Keenan, Managing Director of Divorce-Online said: "I had heard from my staff...

DOTHAN, Ala. -- The mayor of the southeast Alabama town Taylor and a female companion have been arrested and charged with public lewdness after allegedly engaging in a sex act in a car parked at a Waffle House restaurant. The Dothan Eagle reporter that Taylor's 56-year-old Mayor Joel H. Napier and 34-year-old Cynthie Michelle Casper were observed in a state of undress in a 2008 Nissan Maxima at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday at a Waffle House on Ross Clark Circle in Dothan. Interim Dothan Police Chief Larry Draughon said an officer witnessed the couple in the front seat of the...

WORCESTER, Mass.—A Massachusetts woman who allegedly faked her own pregnancy has been charged with killing her pregnant friend, cutting her baby girl from her womb and kidnapping the infant. Julie Corey was initially charged with kidnapping after authorities found her and the baby in a homeless shelter in Plymouth, N.H., in July. A Worcester County grand jury indicted her Thursday on murder and kidnapping charges. DNA tests confirmed that the baby was cut from the womb of Darlene Haynes. Haynes, who was eight months pregnant when she was killed, was found dead in her Worcester home two days before Corey's...

A 36-year-old Boston man wanted on 13 warrants -- one of them for drug trafficking -- tried to keep police from finding him by mutilating his fingers to conceal his prints. Francis Viliar told State Police over the weekend that he paid someone $400 to cut his fingers vertically, from the fingertip to the knuckle joint, so his prints would be unreadable, said David Procopio, spokesman for the State Police. Viliar was arrested Friday night after State Police pulled him over for speeding in Brockton. When he gave them a driver's license that appeared to be fake, he was arrested...

BOSTON—It is banned in 13 states and sure doesn't come in a six-pack. See 10 Massachusetts breweries and their top beers. The maker of Samuel Adams beer has released an updated version of its biennial beer Utopias -- now the highest alcohol content beer on the market. At 27 percent alcohol by volume and $150 a bottle, the limited release of the brandy-colored Utopias comes as more brewers take advantage of improvements in science to boost potency and enhance taste. "Just part of trying to push the envelope," said Jim Koch, founder and owner of the Boston Beer Co. the...

Five years after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the local Episcopal bishop yesterday gave permission for priests in Eastern Massachusetts to officiate at same-sex weddings. The decision by Bishop M. Thomas Shaw III was immediately welcomed by advocates of gay rights in the Episcopal Church, who have chafed at local rules that allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, but not sign the documents that would solemnize their marriages. The decision is likely to exacerbate tensions in the Episcopal Church and the global denomination to which it belongs, the Anglican Communion, which has faced significant division in the wake of...

Paul Clarke, 27, a former soldier, was on the balcony of his home in Merstham, Surrey, England, when he noticed a bag in his garden that didn't belong to him. "I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges," he said, so he took his find to the police to turn it in -- "I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets," he said. As soon as he handed the gun to authorities he was arrested for "possessing a firearm." Worse, the jury for the Guildford Crown Court...

t's now official. The new generation of high-tech hovering aircraft - namely the famous V-22 "Osprey" tiltrotor and the upcoming F-35B supersonic stealth jump-jet - have an unforeseen flaw. Their exhaust downwash is so hot as to melt the flight decks of US warships, leading Pentagon boffins to look into refrigerated landing pads.g Stories of buckled flight decks caused by Osprey exhaust have been circulating for a while, but confirmation that the issue is seen as serious comes with the issue of a military request for proposals yesterday for "thermal management systems (TMS) for aircraft landing decks". The proposal makes...

Q. Does swearing relieve pain? A. Holy @//!#!, does it ever! Or so concludes a British study published recently in the journal NeuroReport. The idea for the study first occurred to psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in North Staffordshire, when he hit himself on the finger with a hammer and let loose with a few choice words. It solidified when his wife swore gustily during a breech delivery of their daughter and one of the midwives “mentioned that women often swear in childbirth, which I found intriguing,’’ said Stephens in an e-mail. So he set up an experiment in...

Two years ago, a United Nations scientific panel won the Nobel Peace Prize after concluding that global warming is "unequivocal" and is "very likely" caused by man. Then came a development unforeseen by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC: Data suggested that Earth's temperature was beginning to drop. Global climate models did not account for a drop in global temperatures since 2006, but climate scientists believe the lower temperatures are temporary. That has reignited debate over what has become scientific consensus: that climate change is due not to nature, but to humans burning fossil fuels. Scientists who...

{...}l'm a Republican. Conservative....income-support programs.....Each instance of solicitation for false testimony by attorney Orly Taitz is listed below. ... includes instances where attorney Orly Taitz advised and encouraged me to engage in other illegal activity. Each instance of attorney Orly Taitz asking me (1) to provide false testimony in civil action

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scrambling to push back the notion she lacks the votes for a “robust” public option. Pelosi (D-Calif.) called an emergency meeting of her caucus Friday morning to declare that she has not abandoned the push for including that provision in a healthcare bill. The Speaker met late Thursday night with the Progressive Caucus, the bloc of Democrats most supportive of a robust public option, and assured them that it was still on the table, according to a member in attendance. And according to attendees, Pelosi reiterated that pledge to the larger caucus at Friday's morning...

The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed Dan Rather's claims against CBS. The ruling came down Sept. 29 and appears to torpedo Rather's $70 million lawsuit against his former employer. "At the outset, we find that Supreme Court erred in declining to dismiss Rather's breach of contract claim against CBS," the decision read. Rather claimed that CBS violated his contract by not making him a full-time correspondent on 60 Minutes or its now-defunct spin-off 60 Minutes II after he stepped down as anchor of the CBS Evening News in the wake of a flawed 60...

The Swedish armed forces have been hit by a major equipment problem, according to reports. Flimsy military brassieres are unable to stand up to the strains imposed when female Swedish troops perform "rigorous exercises", routinely bursting open or even catching fire - so forcing busty young conscripts to hurriedly strip off in the field. The revelations come courtesy of the Gothenburg Post and English-language Swedish journal The Local. The Post reported yesterday on concerns raised by the Swedish Conscription Council, an organisation concerned with the rights of conscript troops in the Swedish forces. Council spokesperson Paulina Rehbinder told The Local...

The State of Alabama has just dedicated $6 million in federal stimulus money to combat a certain invasive weed, and the two men chosen to lead this ground war can already hear you laughing. Millions of dollars to kill some weeds? Sounds like another good-old-boy boondoggle. Heh-heh-heh. But we’re not talking dandelions here. This weed is the killer weed, the nearly indestructible weed, The Weed From Another Continent — a weed that evokes those old science-fiction movies in which clueless citizens ignore reports of an alien invasion, leaving the heroes to rail in frustration: The fools! Don’t they understand? This...

"The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State, to adjudicate and enforce judgments, and to request the assistance of the public forces to enforce its rulings." —Congressional Research Service, August 2009 Ever since Manuel Zelaya was removed from the Honduran presidency by that country's Supreme Court and Congress on June 28 for violations of the constitution, the Obama administration has insisted, without any legal basis, that the incident amounts to a "coup d'état" and must be reversed. President Obama has dealt...