Join us here Saturday evening at 6 PM PT for the Republican debate |
Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is The Millennial Squad:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- Should we ban parents from kids sporting events, by Mark E Andersen
- He holds my heart. Frederick Douglass, by Denise Oliver Velez
- US military to assess and manage risks of climate change, by Susan Grigsby
- Only fundamental change, not micromanagement, will prevent more lead poisoning after Flint, by David Akadjian
- Big corporations will always cheat (yep, I said cheat) on their taxes. Here's how to deal with it, by Ian Reifowitz
- If only Lavoy Finicum had not been a white man…, by Frank Vyan Walton
- How Bernie Sanders lost me ... and Hillary Clinton won me over, by Laura Clawson
- Presidents and cartoons: You think Obama gets dissed? Look what Abe Lincoln faced, by Sher Watts Spooner
- A rose by any other name, by DarkSyde
- Sanders, Trump, the Horatio Alger myth, and the lie of American meritocracy, by Chauncey DeVega
- Is it time for grassroots movements to coalesce around The Bernie Sanders Revolution, by Egberto Willies
Neanderthal genes affect our health: Seven years ago, it was still thought that modern humans had no trace of Neanderthal DNA and had never interbred. But in May of 2010, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published their results showing that non-African modern humans have from one to four percent Neanderthal genes. In other words, Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens had sex with each other and are the ancestors of most of us today except for people of African descent who have no European or Asian blood. Now it’s been learned through an analysis at Vanderbilt University of a database containing anonymous health records of 28,000 U.S. patients that our Neanderthal genes increase the risk for stroke, pregnancy complications and nicotine addiction (even though Neanderthals didn’t have tobacco since it comes from the Americas). Those genes contribute to other health problems as well, including neurological and psychiatric disorders, like clinical depression. Neanderthal DNA apparently has an influence on skin and hair color, freckles, warts, and calluses. The study appears in the current issue of Science and is a reinforcement of the assertion that modern humans are hybrids of interbreeding. That was a theory that existed only on the outer fringes of scientific thought before kids now in kindergarten were born. Now we know that not only did Homo sapiens interbreed with Homo neanderthalensis, but also Homo sapiens ssp. Denisova, whose genes make up as much as five percent of the DNA of today’s Melanesians and Australian aboriginals.
Einstein predicted them 100 years ago and now scientists have released the sound of one: A gravitational wave, that is. The sound was so short that the scientists had to slow it down to make it audible to human ears. Their recording caught the sound of the wave as it passed the Earth, a ripple in the fabric of the universe that appeared millions of years ago as a result of two black holes colliding. Scientists hope that they can use gravitational waves to give them more insight into how the universe began.
Darwin’s kids practiced art on the draft of On the Origin of Species: On the 207th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, it’s reprising the story of how the author had little reason to keep the handwritten draft of the book, and most of its 600 pages have been lost. But 45 pages still exist, many if them because they were recycled to provide canvases for the art projects of his 10 children. The Darwin Manuscripts Project has digitized more than 30,000 pages of Darwin's writings on evolution.
Obama designates 1.8 million southern California acres as three national monuments: Just about every time he makes such a designation, Republicans get all whiny and threaten to end presidential authority for designating national monuments without a congressional vote. But that’s the law, specifically the Antiquities Act of 1906. Congress can also do designate monuments, but that’s the last thing the Republicans in charge want at a time so many seek to reduce the amount of publicly owned land. With the addition, President Obama has brought the total number of national monuments to 120 with a total area of about 265 million acres. Some monuments, such as the Grand Canyon—designated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who was the impetus behind the act—have subsequently been redesignated as a national park or national forest. The three new monuments are Mojave Trails National Monument, Sand to Snow National Monument and Castle Mountains National Monument. They tie together three existing protected areas and 15 designated wilderness areas. Together they will form the world’s second largest preserve. Los Angeles Times reporter Louis Sagahun wrote: “The areas embrace volcanic spires, dunes, ribbons of wetlands wedged between steep canyon walls, grasslands, Joshua tree forests, historic roadways and petroglyphs. They are home to species that thrive despite withering heat and scant rainfall: bighorn sheep, tortoises, fringe-toed lizards and more than 250 types of birds.”
Mother Jones discovers hurdles in figuring out which cities have the worst lead pollution: That’s because no federal agency tracks it methodically. The magazine wanted to produce a map of lead contamination, but learned that the only data available on the subject are at the Centers for Disease Control. The centers provide money to any state that will voluntarily report how many children have high blood levels in each county. High means more than five micrograms per deciliter, which the CDC labels “dangerous.” Other experts say no level is harmless. The resulting map Mother Jones created is problematic through no fault of its makers. Only 26 states have supplied recent data, and 13 states have supplied none at all.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: “Soft-core porn” flap over latest Cruz ad. Is he abandoning the “redemption” demographic? Armando identifies his key moment of the latest Dem debate. Malheur standoff finally ends, naturally in a glorious Blaze o’ CrazyTM. In defense of superdelegates.
Find us on iTunes | Find us on Stitcher | RSS | Donate to support the show!