Sunspots 448

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
The Arts: The Piano Guys show how to play a piano in some really unusual ways. It's Christmas music. Warning -- they try to sell you a CD at the end.
Christianity: (And animal husbandry) An article in Wired criticizes the planned Noah's Ark exhibit in Kentucky for not being designed to take good care of the animals that may be exhibited there.
Politics: An eye-opening post "20 things the poor really do every day," with linked documentation. The poor aren't particularly lazy, and aren't particularly on drugs, and aren't particularly likely to vote Democrat.
Science: National Geographic reports on the sequencing of DNA from ancient humanoids, which is remarkable enough in itself, but the results have apparently shaken up the prevailing views of how humans, Neanderthals, and others are related.
The Los Angeles Times reports that lemon sharks return to the place where they were born to give birth themselves.
National Public Radio reports that the US Department of Agriculture hopes to control the brown tree snake population on Guam by giving the snakes access to dead mice which are dosed with acetaminophen (aka tylenol) which is poisonous to snakes, but not to most other animals, including humans.
Wired reports on a parasite that lives in the heads of fire ants, changing their behavior in favor of the parasite, and eventually killing the host ant.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 409

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Health: An article on healthy snacking, and which says that snacking helps you lose weight, in AZSCentral.

Science: Fire ants can sting. I knew that, from experience. But NPR reports that there are people who are allergic to the bites, which can be life-threatening. There's also a link to a news report that a South Carolina high school football game was postponed because there were too many fire ant nests on the field. (See here for my own photo of a fire ant nest.)

NPR also reports on a very scary "superbug," a bacterial type that is resistant to almost everything, and can pass that resistance on to other types of bacteria.

Scientists have been able to get human glial cells (see Wikipedia article on those) to grow in mouse brains, according to a report by NPR. These mice acted normally, as far as could be determined, but were able to learn much more quickly.

NPR also reports that bees like caffeine, and that it helps their memory.

Image source (public domain)