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This spring, the world learned of a newly discovered missing link between microbes and humans called Lokiarchaeota. The actual story is that the microbe Lokiarchaeota, discovered on the deep sea floor by a hydrothermal vent called Loki’s Castle, shares features with both bacteria and us. The spin is that this makes it a missing link between the two. Microbiologists have been discreetly quiet about this narrative fiction; although the microbe is fascinating, and so deserves the spotlight, it is no more a missing link than the platypus is a missing link between ducks and humans. This missing link imagery,...

In a remarkable technical feat, researchers have sequenced DNA from fossils in Spain that are about 300,000 to 400,000 years old and have found an ancestor -- or close relative -- of Neandertals. The nuclear DNA, which is the oldest ever sequenced from a member of the human family, may push back the date for the origins of the distinct ancestors of Neandertals and modern humans, according to a presentation here yesterday at the fifth annual meeting of the European Society for the study of human evolution. Ever since researchers first discovered thousands of bones and teeth from 28 individuals...

How did life on Earth begin? It's been one of modern biology's greatest mysteries: How did the chemical soup that existed on the early Earth lead to the complex molecules needed to create living, breathing organisms? Now, researchers say they've found the missing link. Between 4.6 billion and 4.0 billion years ago, there was probably no life on Earth. The planet's surface was at first molten and even as it cooled, it was getting pulverized by asteroids and comets. All that existed were simple chemicals. But about 3.8 billion years ago, the bombardment stopped, and life arose. Most scientists think...

Researchers report that they've found the missing link between an ancient aquatic predator and its ancestors on land. Ichthyosaurs, the dolphin-like reptiles that lived in the sea during the time of the dinosaurs, evolved from terrestrial creatures that made their way back into the water over time. But the fossil record for the lineage has been spotty, without a clear link between land-based reptiles and the aquatic ichthyosaurs scientists know came after. Now, researchers report in Nature that they've found that link — an amphibious ancestor of the swimming ichthyosaurs named Cartorhynchus lenticarpus. "Many creationists have tried to portray ichthyosaurs...

Frantic zoo keepers in Tenerife rushed to call an ambulance after a vet shot a tranquilizer dart at a man dressed as a gorilla. Police on the Spanish island received a call from a panicked member of the public, who said that a gorilla had escaped from its pen in Loro Park zoo, and was seen running around the theme park. A vet was called, and on spotting the creature fired a tranquilizer dart at its leg with enough sedative to fell a 200kg beast. But to his horror, the vet - who had only been in the job for...

Researchers have discovered a protein that they claim is the missing link to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. They found that blocking this protein with an existing drug can restore memory in mice with brain damage that mimics the disease. The findings could offer hope of developing drugs to slow the degenerative illness.'What is very exciting is that of all the links in this molecular chain, this is the protein that may be most easily targeted by drugs,' said the study’s senior author Stephen Strittmatter at Yale School of Medicine.'This gives us strong hope that we can find a drug...

The new Jane's All the World's Aircraft now lists Gustave Whitehead as the first to fly a powered airplane. "...Today, it seems impossible that a vast cache of documentary evidence, such as those newspaper reports, can be overlooked by the world at large. True, there are small museums to Whitehead in both his homeland and adopted homeland (and gratitude is expressed to Flughistorische Forschungsgemeinschaft Gustav Weisskopf at Leutershausen for copyright photographs used here) but it is too easy to dismiss them as municipal monuments to a local boy. The reasons for the vanished recognition are several. The first is that...

The missing link… Commonly thought of as a hypothetical ape-like creature. This evolutionary rock star is supposed to bridge the gap between man and ape. But there are missing links all over Darwin’s evolutionary tree. And guess what… they are still missing...

For centuries, the small Muslim country has been subject to a series of Russian occupations. Expect Vladimir Putin to use the marathon bombing to further rationalize Moscow's brutal rule. Breaking reports indicate that the alleged perpetrators of the horrific Boston Marathon terrorist attack were born in Chechnya. This Russian-occupied, landlocked Muslim nation of 1.3 million is the center of a Russian war that has taken the lives of more than 200,000 people over the last two decades. It is also one of the world's most poorly understood conflict zones. On social networking profiles, the Boston bombers reveal themselves as supporters...

U.S. citizens should have a right to take jobs in Mexico under Marco Rubio’s immigration compromise, American Border Control is demanding. Florida Senator Marco Rubio and a ‘Gang of Eight’ liberal Senators are expected to announce a compromise on amnesty for illegal immigrants this week. Mexico’s unemployment rate dropped to 4 . 7 % in September 2012, reported England’s Financial Times on October 19, 2012, then dropped to 4 . 47 % in December. Yet U.S. citizens do not have the same right to work in Mexico as Marco Rubio, John McCain, and liberal Democrats are pushing for on behalf...

Scientists claim to have identified the missing link between human speech and monkey chatter. Researchers analysed the distinctive "lip-smacking" sounds made by wild gelada baboons of the Ethopian highlands and found striking similarities to human speech. Their noises are so human-like that Thore Bergman, an assistant professor with the University of Michigan, thought he heard people talking while he was hanging out with the creatures. "I would find myself frequently looking over my shoulder to see who was talking to me, but it was just the geladas," he said. "It was unnerving to have primate vocalizations sound so much...

The other samples containing the deadly H7N9 virus were collected from two marketplaces selling agricultural products in the down river Yangse delta, Shanghai. After gene sequence analysis, the national avian flu reference laboratory concluded that the strain of the H7N9 virus found on those 19 samples was highly congenetic with that found on a pigeon on Thursday. The ministry ordered Shanghai to shut down the marketplace and cull all (living poultry) chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons.

MARCH 30, 2013 The King Is Sleeping On this day between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection the whole earth keeps silence. By George Weigel (snip) On the morning of Holy Saturday, however, the Church of the first millennium kept “station” not at a particular basilica made holy by the relics of martyrs and the prayers of those who have venerated them, but in her religious imagination. There was no Mass during the day, as there was no Mass on Good Friday. (snip) • The second selection for Holy Saturday in the Office of Readings is taken from an ancient Greek...

<p>VATICAN CITY – Here is the English text of Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve homily, delivered in Italian. Spelling and style are the Vatican's. ___ Dear Brothers and Sisters! Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.</p>

<p>A man who was paroled just two days earlier was ordered held without bail Saturday in the 2005 murder of a 23-year-old Cicero woman.</p> <p>Travon D. McDonald, 29, of Hickory Hills is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nayely Murry. He is charged with suffocating Murry, hiding her body in the trunk of a car and trying to set the car on fire.</p>

Eliminate armed guards for the President, Vice-President, and their families, and establish Gun Free Zones around them Gun Free Zones are supposed to protect our children, and some politicians wish to strip us of our right to keep and bear arms. Those same politicians and their families are currently under the protection of armed Secret Service agents. If Gun Free Zones are sufficient protection for our children, then Gun Free Zones should be good enough for politicians. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-armed-guards-president-vice-president-and-their-families-and-establish-gun-free-zones/6RDGkxLK

Editorial Obama's video game mentality when it comes to National Security. It's no big secret the the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue always has the glowingest of things to say about our Armed Forces. You know the real 1 percenters the liberal media seems to forget about on a daily basis. But I digress, Barry-O recently heaped faux tele-zombied praise on our Warriors during the most recent State of the Union Address: "At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down they exceed all expectations." Awww... I dunno 'bout you, but I'm feeling all warm...

In May 1964, Nels and Irene Highberg bought their first and only home. It was a modest, brick rancher -- no garage -- on a pleasant cul-de-sac on the edge of East Petersburg. The Highbergs raised two sons there. They entertained neighbors there. They grew old there. After 48 years at 6312 Miriam Circle, the Highbergs -- Nels is 92, Irene is 89 -- figured they could manage a while longer. Family and friends agreed. But the county Office of Aging stepped in last summer, saying for safety reasons the Highbergs must move to a nursing home. "I ain't going...

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/the-gop-s-biggest-loss-179849271.html ---link only----