[QUOTE=Xyzzy;374011][url]http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/science/a-theory-on-how-flightless-birds-spread-across-the-world-they-flew-there.html[/url][/QUOTE]

Subscriber-only:

[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/whole-lotta-shakin-goin-busy-stretch-large-earthquakes-165008401.html"]Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On: Busy Stretch for Large Earthquakes[/URL]

[QUOTE]How about May? There were 17 magnitude-6 or larger earthquakes globally between May 1 and May 20, following a busy April that saw 26 temblors in that same magnitude range. By comparison, there were only six earthquakes this big in February, eight in January and just two in December.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=science_man_88;374016][URL="http://news.yahoo.com/whole-lotta-shakin-goin-busy-stretch-large-earthquakes-165008401.html"]Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On: Busy Stretch for Large Earthquakes[/URL][/QUOTE]

So?

What many people don't appreciate is you *want* earthquakes regularly.

One should start to get seriously nervous if there /hasn't/ been one for awhile....

[QUOTE=ewmayer;374014]Subscriber-only:[/QUOTE]

Strange. It worked for me. Do you have cookies disabled or blocked?

I thought that the Times allowed links from blogs etc. to display the page referenced, but maybe they've changed. In that case, I may be getting in on the "ten stories per month" quota. Thing is, I regularly read Krugman's column referenced from Reader Supported News. This would add up to a lot more than ten stories. :huh:

[QUOTE=kladner;374018]Strange. It worked for me. Do you have cookies disabled or blocked?[/QUOTE]

I thought I had NYT set to "allow" in my cookie site-specific-exceptions ... ah, I cleaned out a bunch of sites-I-no-longer-use from there over the weekend and must've gotten a little too quick on the select-and-delete. Now it works - thx. But...
[quote]“You can’t get from Madagascar to New Zealand without flying,” said Dr. Cooper. “There isn’t any other way.”[/quote]
Now admittedly, drifting across the ocean would seem a low-probability thing due to the long times involved, but still, 100% ruling it out?

[QUOTE=ewmayer;374039]Now admittedly, drifting across the ocean would seem a low-probability thing due to the long times involved, but still, 100% ruling it out?[/QUOTE]God did it. Can't prove she didn't.

In fact, there's a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean_Gyre]dedicated conveyor belt[/url] between Madagascar and the oceanic currents around Australia, which boosts the odds of the seaborne scenario:
[quote]The Indian Ocean Gyre, located in the Indian Ocean, is one of the five major oceanic gyres, large systems of rotating ocean currents, which together form the backbone of the global conveyer belt.

Normally moving clockwise, in the winter the Indian Ocean gyre reverses direction due to the South Asian Monsoon.[/quote]

Smallest, fastest, and longest-running nanomotor yet
 

[url]http://www.gizmag.com/nanomotor-for-nanobot-drug-delivery/32160/[/url]

Small enough to fit inside a cell, up to 15 hour run-time, 18K RPM.

Not really news (though some of it was news to me) - but some fascinating physiological facts from the Wikipedia article on cats:
[i]
"As cats are familiar and easily kept animals, their physiology has been particularly well studied; it generally resembles that of other carnivorous mammals but displays several unusual features probably attributable to cats' descent from desert-dwelling species. For instance, cats are able to tolerate quite high temperatures: Humans generally start to feel uncomfortable when their skin temperature passes about 38 °C (100 °F), but cats show no discomfort until their skin reaches around 52 °C (126 °F), and can tolerate temperatures of up to 56 °C (133 °F) if they have access to water.

...Cats' feces are comparatively dry and their urine is highly concentrated, both of which are adaptations that allow cats to retain as much fluid as possible. Their kidneys are so efficient that cats can survive on a diet consisting only of meat, with no additional water, and can even rehydrate by drinking seawater."
[/i]
Another interesting factoid from the same page:
[i]
A group of cats is referred to as a "clowder" or a "glaring".
[/i]
I did not know that. :o

A final interesting factoid: The 2nd part of the Linnean species name for wildcats (and domestic cats, though there the S. part is often dropped to yield just [i]F. Catus[/i]), [i]Felis Silvestris[/i], does not derive from the Latin word for "forest" as is generally supposed, but rather is an homage to the famous cat from the Warner Brothers [i]Sylvester and Tweety[/i] cartoons.

[spoiler]OK, I admit I made up that last bit. Interestingly though, there is such an homage involved - but it's [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_%28Looney_Tunes%29]the other way around[/url].[/spoiler]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;374145] For instance, cats are able to tolerate quite high temperatures: Humans generally start to feel uncomfortable when their skin temperature passes about 38 °C (100 °F), but cats show no discomfort until their skin reaches around 52 °C (126 °F), and can tolerate temperatures of up to 56 °C (133 °F) if they have access to water.[/QUOTE]One of our cats, an old lady of 16, loves to join SWMBO in the sauna. She (Brni, not SWMBO) sometimes asks for the sauna to be switched on for her.

My sister's "grey eminence" cat (think Russian-blue-looking, but this was a delightful mutt who ended up with an elegant coat) used to love to sit on the hearth so close to the fire that his fur was literally too hot to touch without significant pain. Obviosuly fur's insulative value works both ways; our main concern was a stray ember somehow getting through/over the steel mesh curtain. Never happened, thankfully.

I was most interested to read about the able-to-drink-seawater aspect of the physiology - apparently humankind's ancestors were sufficiently good at finding fresh water that we never underwent selection for such an adaptation.