evolution

A Virus With Shoes

Submitted by editor on Sat, 01/09/2010 - 20:38.
in

endoretro_hiv1.jpgPeople suck, and that's my contention. We're a virus with shoes.

—comedian Bill Hicks

I actually like quite a lot of people, but there's much to recommend Hicks' notion that people are viruses with shoes. It's a fact that well over 40% of the human DNA chain is viral in origin, as Michael Specter writes in a fascinating New Yorker article, "Darwin's Surprise":

Here Comes the Ocean (and the Triumph of Slime)

Submitted by editor on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 06:11.
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060119_jellyfish.jpgClimate change is causing the sea to rise far faster than expected, potentially a meter or more by 2100. Perhaps that doesn't seem so dire to you. Perhaps you read that sentence and think: "Pity; there go some beaches and beach-front real estate." Maybe you think: "You know, I've always liked the ocean more than New York City anyway..."

Birds Attack!

Submitted by editor on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 17:53.
in

crows.jpgBirds, who once were dinosaurs, could take over the world (again) if they wanted to. And not just in the movies, a la Hitchcock's 1963 terror, The Birds. (If you haven't seen the movie, check out this well-edited one-and-a-half-minute version of it.)

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