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OMG! PLANT BEASTS!
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Wildly bizarre half-plant/half-animal creature – with a lovely name “Eastern Emerald Elysia”
This beautiful leaf-shaped sea slug Elysia chlorotica lives in shallow pools along Atlantic coast of North America, eats algae with gusto – one meal is enough for its lifetime! – and by using photosynthesis like any other plant, shatters the most basic definition between the “animal” and “plant” kingdoms.
(images credit: PNAS, via, Nicholas E. Curtis and Ray Martinez, via)
It may not be “easy being green”, but for this slug it turned out to be highly efficient!
This is the ONLY natural example of genes shared between the living kingdoms of “plants” and “animals”
Shaped like a leaf? Check. Totally colored green? Check, although the young slugs are still colored brown until they eat their first “green” meal… but right after that, they’re ready to make pigment chlorophyll a all by themselves for the rest of their lives!
One thing about Elysia chlorotica, “a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant” (via)… They don’t just use chloroplasts from the algae they eat – this phenomenon, though rare, is known as kleptoplasty. What’s more, they seem to have the particular genes that make them able to keep processing these chloroplasts in a consistent and sustainable way:
(images credit: Patrick Krug Cataloging Diversity in the Sacoglossa LifeDesk)
What sort of surprises can be found in a humble shallow pool? Turns out, quite an awful lot! Elysia chlorotica likes to inhabit “salt marshes, tidal marshes, pools and shallow creeks, at depths of 0 m to 0.5 m”. All this should serve as a good encouragement to look closer into swamps and marshes (provided they are not haunted by any mad scientist apparitions, or the feral Hounds of the Baskervilles). There is positively astonishing microscopic biodiversity to be discovered all around your feet!”
Via Dark Roasted Blend
Gap Between Rich And Poor: 8th Wonder Of The World
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PARIS—At a press conference Tuesday, the World Heritage Committee officially recognized the Gap Between Rich and Poor as the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” describing the global wealth divide as the “most colossal and enduring of mankind’s creations.”
“Of all the epic structures the human race has devised, none is more staggering or imposing than the Gap Between Rich and Poor,” committee chairman Henri Jean-Baptiste said. “It is a tremendous, millennia-old expanse that fills us with both wonder and humility.”
“And thanks to careful maintenance through the ages, this massive relic survives intact, instilling in each new generation a sense of awe,” Jean- Baptiste added.
The vast chasm of wealth, which stretches across most of the inhabited world, attracts millions of stunned observers each year, many of whom have found its immensity too overwhelming even to contemplate. By far the largest man-made structure on Earth, it is readily visible from locations as far-flung as Eastern Europe, China, Africa, and Brazil, as well as all 50 U.S. states.
“The original Seven Wonders of the World pale in comparison to this,” said World Heritage Committee member Edwin MacAlister, standing in front of a striking photograph of the Gap Between Rich and Poor taken from above Mexico City. “It is an astounding feat of human engineering that eclipses the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza, and perhaps even the Great Racial Divide.”
According to anthropologists, untold millions of slaves and serfs toiled their whole lives to complete the gap. Records indicate the work likely began around 10,000 years ago, when the world’s first landed elites convinced their subjects that construction of such a monument was the will of a divine authority, a belief still widely held today.
Though historians have repeatedly disproved such claims, theories still persist among many that the Gap Between Rich and Poor was built by the Jews.
“When I stare out across its astounding breadth, I’m often moved to tears,” said Johannesburg resident Grace Ngubane, 31, whose home is situated on one of the widest sections of the gap. “The scale is staggering—it makes you feel really, really small.”
“Insignificant, even,” she continued.
While numerous individuals have tried to cross the Gap Between Rich and Poor, evidence suggests that only a small fraction have ever succeeded and many have died in the attempt.
Its official recognition as the Eighth Wonder of the World marks the culmination of a dramatic turnaround from just 50 years ago, when popular movements called for the gap’s closure. However, due to a small group of dedicated politicians and industry leaders, vigorous preservation efforts were begun around 1980 to restore—and greatly expand—the age-old structure.
“It’s breathtaking,” said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, a longtime champion and benefactor of the rift’s conservation. “After all we’ve been through in recent years, there’s no greater privilege than watching it grow bigger and bigger each day. There may be a few naysayers who worry that if it gets any wider, the whole thing will collapse upon itself and take millions of people down with it, but I for one am willing to take that chance.”
Added Blankfein, “Besides, something tells me I’d probably make it out okay.”
–LINK to original article in THE ONION. http://www.theonion.com/articles/gap-between-rich-and-poor-named-8th-wonder-of-the,18914/
Menstruation
A Short Introduction to the History of Stupidity (574 pages)
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Excerpts from the book, “A Short Introduction to the History of Stupidity” by Walter B. Pitkin (1932):
“Stupidity can easily be proved the supreme Social Evil. Three factors combine to establish it as such. First and foremost, the number of stupid people is legion. Secondly, most of the power in business, finance, diplomacy and politics is in the hands of more or less stupid individuals. Finally, high abilities are often linked with serious stupidity.
Since 1929 even some cloak and suit salesman have learned that stupid folk still rule the world. Stupid presidents write messages to stupid parliaments. Stupid bankers lend millions to stupid investors. Stupid newspaper editors hide painful facts. Stupid taxpayers shell out billions of dollars for battleships, fortresses, shells, and stupid second lieutenants. Stupid manufacturers build factories three times too big. Stupid retailers sell third-rate goods at first-rate prices.
Liberalism is the last refuge of the stupid. Thither rushes every fool in trouble. He leaves patriotism to the scoundrel seeking safety, for the fool knows — in spite of his folly — that liberalism is founded on the rock of truth and is almost impregnable. If ever a census enumerator penetrates this temple, I suspect that he will find dwelling there five sons of Cyclops for every intelligent inmate. Worse luck for the latter!
The young adventurers of Tomorrow will be rash enough to enter the dark homes of these humanesques and treat them as if they were full-statured men. And, as ever before, Cyclops will consume them to the last bone unless youth strikes the monster blind. For between the children of light and the humanesques there can never be peace. One or the other must survive. One or the other must perish.
Which shall it be?”