Dinosaurs Are Awesome
Associate Professor John Hayman, a pathologist at University of Melbourne, published a new analysis of Ichthyosarians in the science journal, Naturwissenschaften (original PDF here). His research is trying to answer the question of why Ichthyosarians, a reptile that looks surprisingly like a dolphin, had bone lesions similar to humans that deep sea dive.
John thinks that it was not caused by sudden and rapid ascents. Instead, he asserts the lesions we caused by spending too long at deep depths causing nitrogen buildup in their bodies which leads to lesions – just like human divers… It’s brought up that the opposite might be true as well… That Ichthyosarians might have spent it’s life in the deep waters but might have been avoiding predators by going close to the surface of the water.
It seems Professor Hayman is able to hypothesise on this because the neck of modern humans are very similar to Ichthyosaurus and other prehistoric reptiles. He goes on to say: “The arterial blood supply to the humerus and other bones such as the neck of the femur is highly conserved. It has remained much the same for 250 million years.”
DB != Database
It’s really good that Douche Bags people like Congressmen Todd Akin of Missouri are hip to the doctors latest information when it comes to pregnancy almost never being caused by rape. Todd explains:
First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.
According to the newest large survey that Wolfram could find, the NCBI/PubMed reported in 1996 that over 32,000 women became pregnant by rape every year. Thankfully, more than a supermajority of republicans believe abortion in cases of rape should be allowed. Hell, even Mitt Romney’s campaign is distancing themselves when they released a statement saying,
Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.
If by chance you have not seen the clip, here you go. Straight from the jackass’s donkey’s horse’s mouth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdisTOKom5I
Of course Akin released a statement saying that he misspoke – but he never apologize. Nor did he say that there is no science or rogue doctors to back up his bullshit comments.
Holy Crap Akin is Blowin Up
Interesting side notes: Incumbant Claire McCaskill even donated to Akin’s campain before he got the republican nomination to make Akin her opponent in the upcoming election. I can only surmise this was done to give her an easier fight instead of having to face the one of the two more moderate republicans. I gotta wonder how much easier this will make the race for her.
As you could have guessed, the twitterverse and blogosphere lit the hell up when Akin’s verbal diarrhea flowed over the cable and satellite dishes. They were usually calling for Akin’s head on a platter. Republican Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin even want Akin to get out of the race completely.
Breaking news from John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee just informed Todd Akin that the National GOP will no longer help fund Akin’s campaign. Cornyn even went so far as to say that if Akin stays in the race, he will endanger the hopes of a republican majority senate. And if that ain’t enough, American Crossroads is pulling their ad campaign for Akin.
Akin is in an unusual position. If he bows out in about the next 24 hours, the Missouri GOP can replace Akin with another candidate. But if Akin stays in the running til after 5pm on Tuesday the 20th, the republicans are stuck with him til the bitter end unless the courts get involved to change his status.
I got a big ‘ole bowl of popcorn and a bottle of root beer to watch how this develops.
~Wesley
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