Great Portraits:

Mr Heidelbergensis

 

and

An unhappy Mr Floresiensis

 

Plus

A happy Mr Ergaster

And finally, my good buddy and distant relative (per current DNA science)…..Mr Neanderthal….

My very happy good buddy... Mr Neanderthal

 

You guessed it. Recent renderings based on all these “prehuman” skulls.  Of course, I see living people that look like these good gentlemen on a regular basis.  And, DNA researchers are claiming modern humans have “Neanderthal” DNA “markers” in their DNA.  Of course, the obvious question is: “If we have Neanderthal DNA in us, then what makes that DNA distinctly Neanderthal?”  I mean, it means we’re the same, not different.  Which is the first thing I think when I see these amazing renderings!

Once again life is too complicated to understand.

Deep science in this article.  The scientists are attempting to understand photosynthesis.  In my high school biology class we studied several things in detail.  I remember distinctly three subject matters that I was interested in: Kidneys’, muscles, and photosynthesis.  In each one, as we studied them in deeper detail, we ended with “somehow” they worked.  Essentially, the science of the day admitted that they didn’t have a clue as to how muscles expanded or contracted, how the kidney performed reverse osmosis (or something like that) or how photosynthesis could function.  From this article I’d say they’ve made some real progress in the photosynthesis study.  I don’t really understand it very well, but it sounds like there’s some quantum mechanics going on that’s really amazing scientists’.  And to think some people believe a life process this complex started in some muddy/salty water!

Here’s the headline, link, and a few choice paragraphs:

Untangling the Quantum Entanglement Behind Photosynthesis

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Untangling_the_Quantum_Entanglement_Behind_Photosynthesis_999.html

Green plants and certain bacteria are able to transfer the energy harvested from sunlight through a network of light harvesting pigment-protein complexes and into reaction centers with nearly 100-percent efficiency.

Speed is the key – the transfer of the solar energy takes place so fast that little energy is wasted as heat. In 2007, Fleming and his research group reported the first direct evidence that this essentially instantaneous energy transfer was made possible by a remarkably long-lived, wavelike electronic quantum coherence.

Using electronic spectroscopy measurements made on a femtosecond (millionths of a billionth of a second) time-scale, Fleming and his group discovered the existence of “quantum beating” signals, coherent electronic oscillations in both donor and acceptor molecules.

An X-Ray photograph that demonstrates Quantum Entanglement... you can google it if you want to read up on it...

These oscillations are generated by the excitation energy from captured solar photons, like the waves formed when stones are tossed into a pond. The wavelike quality of the oscillations enables them to simultaneously sample all the potential energy transfer pathways in the photosynthetic system and choose the most efficient.

Continuing my NMPC (New Most Pitiful Career):

Barbara Mikulski is jealous she wasn't included in the "Lords of Entitlement" editorial.

 

A recent article labeled Stenny Hoyer as a “Lord of Entitlement.”  I wanted to do a cartoon of Stenny Hoyer (I live in his district) and Senator Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski dressed up as medieval Lords and Ladies.

A continuation of my NMPC, (New Most Pitiful Career).

Mikulski's Election Cycle

My first attempt at Political Cartoonery

My Crudely-Drawn Political Cartoon Why Sen Mikulski Won't Be My Friend

Actually I am a fan (in a facebook way only) of Sen Barbara Mikulski (Democrat Maryland).  However, after I posted several challenging messages on her wall I discovered a change in our “relationship.” 

Now I cannot post anything at all, not comments, not wall posts, nothing.  She can send me updates, messages, but I can’t respond.  So, here’s my pitiful attempt to respond to Senator Mikulski.

NOAA

Okay, this poor methodology is right on the web page for anyone to see.  Who’s doing these calculations? Either a right brain handled the writing and muddled the math or…something worse….  First the citation from the NOAA news web site:

Arctic sea ice covered an average of 5.8 million square miles (15.1 million square kilometers) during March. This is 4.1 percent below the 1979-2000 average expanse, and the fifth-smallest March coverage since records began in 1979. Ice coverage traditionally reaches its maximum in March, and this was the 17th consecutive March with below-average Arctic sea ice coverage. This year the Arctic sea ice reached its maximum size on March 31st, the latest date for the maximum Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979.

Specifically, let’s look at the records source, 31 years since 1979, so 31  data sets. 

Then the statement: “this was the 17^th consecutive March with below-average Arctic sea ice coverage.”

Then we’ll check the math methodology.  So if this was the 17^th consecutive March that takes us back to 1993 when the trend started.  There are only 14 years from 1979 to 1993. So they are comparing an average developed over 14 years to data 17 years in the future.  Hello, my left-brain is freaking out, tell me I missing something because at first read, this is pitiful analysis. 

Basically, after you exceed the sample of data used to create the average you need to recalculate the average.  Perhaps the scientists are doing that and the right brain utility that is the author of this release simplified that.  But, by simplifying it, the right brain corrupted the data.

And, of course, it is quite meaningless data.  So the oceans have a warming trend over 17 years?  Are you really going to claim its caused by human generation of CO2? Is the human CO2 somehow different from the volcanic CO2 that is spewing forth canceling air travel over Europe? You want to do something about the temperatures of the Ocean? I think you just might be over-estimating our power!

If you still like anecdotes about ice, don’t forget about Lake Erie: it froze over this year for the first time in 14 years.