Monday, June 27, 2011

WEB BOHEMIAN (Monday, June 27, 2011)
(1)- PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR DIES -– This unique travel writer combined the traits of a soldier, linguist and humanist, and he appreciated history and culture for their own sake even as he used that wisdom to defend civilization.

(2)- IN DEFENSE OF TEDIUM -- Peter Toohey defends drudgery. Dismissed in the past because it is not a big, passionate emotion like love or hate, boredom, he argues, tedium should be respected and cherished rather than feared and reviled.

(3)- ATLAS YAWNED – Civilization is always a fragile accommodation at best, precariously poised between barbarism on one side and decadence on the other, and as a civilization dissolves it begins to oscillate and then collapse.

(4)- MISMEASURE -- Scientists have often been accused of letting their ideology influence their results, and one of the most famous cases is that of Morton’s skulls — the global collection amassed by anthropologist Samuel George Morton.

(5)- INVISABLE WAR -- In the early years of the Iraq war, the U.S. military developed a technology so secret that soldiers would refuse to acknowledge its existence, and reporters mentioning the gear were escorted out of the country.

(6)- LADIES IN TROUBLE -- The backsliding for women began before 1997, but researchers find it has accelerated in the last decade. Experts say smoking and obesity are partly to blame.

(7)- TEST TUBE BURGERS -- Why can’t we grow meat outside of the body? Make it in a laboratory, as we make so many other things.” In-vitro meat can be made by placing a few cells in a nutrient mixture that helps them proliferate.

(8)- IT’S GENETIC -- Researchers examining female zebra finches believe they cheat on their mates due to variations in DNA handed down by male ancestors. Genetic analysis revealed promiscuous males tend to sire promiscuous daughters.

(9)- ICE AGE APPROACHES -- US solar physicists announce the Sun appears to be headed for a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth – far from facing global warming – is actually headed into a mini Ice Age.

POLITICAL CARTOON

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