The first Europeans came from Asia (actually Russia), not directly from Africa.

A man with no brain is a successful French civil servant. Color me shocked. The jokes pretty much write themselves. I expect George Bush to appoint him to something or other any moment.

Seriously, I do think this reveals how much about the human mind that we still don’t understand (and once again gives pause about subjects like Terri Schiavo).

[Afternoon update]

And of course, what would a topic like this be without a Free Republic thread, complete with several examples of the concept.

I had no idea there were so many weird and/or ugly and/or scary things living under the ocean surface.

I’d previously heard of very few of these.

I had no idea there were so many weird and/or ugly and/or scary things living under the ocean surface.

I’d previously heard of very few of these.

I had no idea there were so many weird and/or ugly and/or scary things living under the ocean surface.

I’d previously heard of very few of these.

An interesting way of looking at it. But if so, they’re pikers compared to grass. Grass has bred us over thousands of years to help it spread in all sorts of places where it never would be able to grow otherwise. We grow it for our bread, for our beer and whiskey and sake, for our cereal, and purely for aesthetics. It has us trained well to do its bidding.

This is pretty cool:

While the smallest of the rat-tail fish was still alive — until the octosquid made a meal of it — the other creatures were dead. War said the fish that come up the NELHA pipeline quickly die or are already dead because the change in atmospheric pressure expands and eventually ruptures a fish’s swim bladders.

But invertebrates — animals with no backbones — are seemingly unaffected by the pressure change. The light may have bothered the octosquid, though, since it is pitch black at the 3,000-foot depth. War said the exceptionally clear waters off Keahole Point allow light from the sun to penetrate to about 500 and 600 feet.

When we were diving in Kona last fall, we went down to the top of the pipeline, which is at a depth of about sixty feet. It’s kind of eerie to look down it, and then look at the outside of it, as it descends almost half a mile into the depths, down the undersea slope of Mauna Kea.

Here’s an interesting story about how cats became domesticated. Apparently it only happened once.

Our current feline companion, Jessica, is less cat-like than many others I’ve known. She’s very affectionate, and even though she has a door, she rarely goes out, and never leaves the yard. She does, though, as the article points out, have the standard feeling of ambiguity about which side of the door she wants to be on.

An interesting (albeit slightly disgusting) article on parasites. And no, we’re not talking about trial lawyers.

“Mr. Wizard” is no more.