Today’s comic by Matt Bors is Lady Doritos—the chip for women:
• “Cheddar Man,” a Briton from 10,000 years ago, had dark skin, blue eyes, curly hair: His bones were found more than a century ago in a cave in Somerset and he has long been depicted with light skin. But a DNA analysis together with facial reconstruction has found otherwise. He belonged to a group called “western hunter-gatherers,” Mesolithic-era people from Spain, Hungary and Luxembourg. Today about 10 percent of white Britons are descended from that group:
The research and remodelling process was documented for an upcoming documentary called The First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000 year old man.
“For me, it’s not just the skin colour that’s interesting, it’s that combination of features that make him look not like anyone that you’d see today,” said Ian Barnes, research leader at the Natural History Museum. “Not just dark skin and blue eyes, because you can get that combination, but also the face shape. So all of this combines together and make him just not the same as people you see around today.” [...]
[Paleo artist Alfons Kennis] said: “People define themselves by which country they’re from, and they assume that their ancestors were just like them. And then suddenly new research shows that we used to be a totally different people with a different genetic makeup.”
• Billionaire buys Los Angeles Times for $500 million. Buyer Patrick Soon-Shiong, the nation’s richest doctor with a fortune worth nearly $8 billion, will take over the ownership from the company that also owns the Chicago Tribune. According to The Guardian, the purchase comes at a “time of turmoil” at the Times, but does not mention that this turmoil began in 1995.
• U.S., Israel, and France object to Poland’s new Holocaust bill: Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a bill Tuesday that bans accusations that Poland was complicit in crimes against humanity committed in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. If the law passes constitutional scrutiny, it will also bar the use of terms such as "Polish death camps" in relation to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other camps on Polish soil. Violators will face fines and up to three years in prison. Experts agree that some Polish individuals and groups collaborated in the slaughter of the Holocaust, but the government has long challenged that heavily documented claim. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the law “adversely affects” freedom of speech and academic freedom. In a written statement, he added: "The United States reaffirms that terms like 'Polish death camps' are painful and misleading. Such historical inaccuracies affect Poland, our strong ally, and must be combated in ways that protect fundamental freedoms. We believe that open debate, scholarship, and education are the best means of countering misleading speech." Researchers say that at least 3 million Polish Jews and 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish citizens were killed during the Holocaust.
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MIDDAY TWEET
• Sen. Scott Weiner representing San Francisco in legislature wants more high-rise housing:
So, with his fellow senator Nancy Skinner, he authored a bill, SB 827, that overwrites some metropolitan zoning—putting policies that had been in the hands of cities under the authority of state government—to allow medium-sized multistory and multiunit buildings near transit stops.
Lots of urbanists and housing activists believe the bill will shift California cities into a denser, transit-oriented, multi-use future. But an unlikely coalition has emerged in opposition: homeowners who don’t want their neighborhoods to change and advocates for the lower-income people of color who almost always get hurt by gentrification.
This isn’t some dry policy fight. The mayor of Berkeley called the bill “a declaration of war against our neighborhoods.”
• Long-term surveillance of Sunni Muslims recommended in Homeland Security document:
If the report’s recommendations were implemented, it would represent a vast expansion of the Trump administration’s policies aimed at many Muslim immigrants, extending vetting from those trying to enter the United States to those already legally in the country, including permanent residents.
• U.S. Navy buys pair of laser cannons for $150 million: One of these "High Energy Lasers" built by Lockheed Martin will be tested on land. The other will be installed on an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer as early as 2020, which would make it the world's first large "directed-energy" weapon. Lasers can fire more quickly and more cheaply per shot than existing conventional cannons and missile launchers. The purchased cannons are said to be able to generate 150 kilowatts of power per shot—“enough to fry boats and unmanned aerial vehicles,” reports David Axe at Vice. A laser of 300 kilowatts would reputedly have the power and range to destroy incoming missiles.
• New U.S. electricity capacity from renewables beat natural gas installations for the fourth year in a row.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reported that biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind made up 49.85 percent of all new capacity installed during 2017. That’s a total of 12.3 gigawatts worth of new renewable energy capacity. New natural gas capacity accounted for 48.67 percent, with rest being provided by waste heat (0.89 percent), nuclear (0.41 percent), and oil ( 0.16 percent). No new coal capacity was added in 2017.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Sigh. Trump wants a parade. The hugest small government military parade in history. Shutdown chances reduced, but it's not over. Greg Dworkin & Joan McCarter help survey the carnage. Hey, try the new RadioPublic player app! We might even get paid!
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