Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Grab Bag

In an effort to work through some of my Discovery News backlog, I’ve decided to do a grab bag where I give a quick overview of a whole bunch of stories that you might want to read, instead of going into a lot of detail about just one. These are ones that are shorter or I have less to say about, or they’re so old they’re risking going out of date.

  • ANCIENT MOSAICS REVEAL CHANGING FISH SIZE 13 September 2011: Using mosaics scientists have been able to infer data about fish sizes from before people kept size records, demonstrating the effects of mass fishing on fish populations.
  • LAUGHTER REALLY IS THE BEST MEDICINE 14 September 2011: Laughter increases pain tolerance, and thus improves overall health. The study does note that just laughing doesn’t work, you have actually feel the laugh and be truly joyful.
  • JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE SAVED? 14 September 2011: The half-finished telescope narrowly avoided cancellation and manages to get its funding back on track. Finally, after fools nearly decided to completely waste the money already spent.
  • BABY RHINO RESCUED FROM TREE 15 September 2011: Yes, a tree. and no, you can’t make this sort of thing up. Poor little thing freaked out after poachers shot momma and got stuck in the fork of a tree after he ran away. Poor little thing.
  • STAR TREK INSPIRATION? MEET THE REAL JEAN PICARD 17 September 2011: The article describes the historical personality that was Gene Roddenberry’s inspiration for Star Trek’s Jean-luc Picard, the 17th century astronomer Jean-Felix Picard.

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Men wired to nurture

Originally reported by Discovery News in their Blog on 13 September 2011.

The “male” hormone testosterone, known for fueling violence and aggression, has been shown by studies to drop around 30% following the birth of their children. This was shown with a sample group of 600 people who were tracked for almost 5 years. In cases in which men entered stable relationships and then produced offsprings with a steady partner are the ones in which the drop occurred.

Fascinatingly, the most significant drops occurred in men with the highest initial testosterone levels, and these high testosterone men were the most likely to produce offspring. This shows that the pair bond between males and females of our species (backed by a drop that happens following the creation of a partnership) suggests that we evolved in a way to support the pair bond.

No more does the excuse that “i’m a man, and men aren’t supposed to do that” stand. Men are just as wired as women for childcare and childrearing.

Kitsu’s Afternoon “News”: Peta endorses freedom for killer croc

Originally reported by Discovery News in their blog on 14 September 2011.

Lolong, a 21 foot long saltwater crocodile, was captured in the philippines after he was deemed responsible for the consumption of a local man and implicated in the decapitation of a small girl. The world record length crocodile is slated to become the star attraction of a tourist destination due to his record breaking length. This eco-tourism park would be located in Agusan, Mindanao.

Peta, however, is not pleased with this news and wants the animal freed. I, however, don’t understand what they’re whining about. The animal would have been killed by many a villager in many a place. Peta should be thankful that they’re not only planning to turn him into tourist dollars, but they’re planning to do it while keeping him alive. Instead of a death sentence, the people have settled on life in prison. Be happy, Peta, that people aren’t just killing the creature for being a crocodile and are instead planning to celebrate him as a crocodile.