I posted about the Giant Rats and tiny Opossums before, but here they are in picture form!
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Giant Rat, Tiny Possum discovered in Indonesia
Greetings, friends, as you can see, my size-altering experiments are proceeding as planned. I have successfully created rats of enormous size as well as begun work on the miniaturizing rays as well. Soon nothing will be it’s original size again, and I will corner the market on custom alterations, thus funding my plans to rule the world!!! MuHAHAHAHAHA!
Giant rat discovered in Indonesia jungle
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science, underscoring the stunning biodiversity of the Southeast Asian nation, scientists said Monday.
Unearthing new species of mammals in the 21st century is considered very rare. The discoveries by a team of American and Indonesian scientists are being studied further to confirm their status.
The animals were found in the Foja mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province in a June expedition, said U.S.-based Conservation International, which organized the trip along with the Indonesian Institute of Science.
“The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat,” said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. “With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip.”
The possum was described as “one of the worlds smallest marsupials.”
A 2006 expedition to the same stretch of jungle — dubbed by Conservation International as a “Lost World” because until then humans had rarely visited it — unearthed scores of exotic new species of palms, butterflies and palms.
Papua has some of the world’s largest tracts of rainforest, but like elsewhere in Indonesia they are being ravaged by illegal logging. Scientists said last year that the Foja area was not under immediate threat, largely because it was so remote.
“It’s comforting to know that there is a place on Earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature,” said expedition leader Bruce Beehler. “We were pleased to see that this little piece of Eden remains as pristine and enchanting as it was when we first visited.”
New Review – Return of the Ghostbusters
A review of a fan film because it’s free and it’s unusual and it doesn’t suck (the most important part!)
Complete with movie clip
Check out Return of the Ghostbusters!
Return of the Ghostbusters (Review)
Return of the Ghostbusters
2007
Directed by Hank Braxtan
The Ghostbusters are back, and they’re now in fan film form! Wait a minute…. A Ghostbusters fan film? Feature length? That’s crazy! What’s even crazier is it is a sequel! The original production was a half-hour fan film entitled Freddy Vs Ghostbusters, and that spawned this stand-alone sequel that attempts to remain true to the themes of the original Ghostbusters films while still trying to be not a carbon copy. Now, as this is a fan film, we can expect some of the acting to be a bit off. I won’t focus on wooden performances, but if someone is so bad they actually make it painful to watch their scenes I am going to point them out, because that’s what I do: be a jerk on the internet. But back off, man, I’m a scientist. Really, I am, which is great because I can use that line ironically and nonironically at the same time.
The film was produced by
I am a fan of the Ghostbusters franchise. I grew up with the films, I watched the cartoon, I drank the Hi-C, I own some Ghostbusters kids books. When the movie was released on DVD I rented it to watch the commentary, and my roommate at the time had never seen the film, so we watched it regularly. He was from China, and didn’t understand the term “ghostbuster” which wasn’t in his dictionary, but I explained what was going on and he enjoyed it.
We’ve had a fan film here before (Star Wars: Revelations) and will have some more later, but for now this Ghostbusters fan film is our focus. So whip out your Ecto Cooler, leash up your class-5 full roaming vapors, and prepare for a ride into fanfilm land with the Ghostbusters! Just remember not to cross the streams.
RiffTrax megaupdate
There seems to have been a whole ton of RiffTrax put out since last time I did an entry on them. Let’s see what I missed thanks to the magic of me finally getting off of my lazy, busy butt and upping the posters!
The third and best prequel gets nailed with a RiffTrax featuring all three of the MST3K guys.
A special DVD edition that I haven’t seen, with Mike and the always funny Fred Willard taking on the classic garbage scow of a film Missile to the Moon.
Nic Cage’s terrible vehicle gets blasted by Mike and his wife Bridget.
The three MST3k Guys take on the first Indiana Jones film. I’ve not seen this one.
Harry Potter movie one gets what it deserves, by all three of the MST3K guys.
Spiderman gets stuck in the MST3K web
The terrible, terrible Transformers movie is riffed and riffed again.
The most recent RiffTrax, and among the best ever. Seriously, this was so awesome! I never thought I’d ever watch this again after suffering through it before, but now I have seen it again with Riffs, and will probably watch it several more times, the Riffs are that good.
And coming next….
Get some RiffTrax today at RiffTrax.com
Malaria, Sickle Cell, and HbC alleles
Malaria is a disease caused by several blood-dwelling protozoans, of the Plasmodium genera. Humans are generally infected by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, and sometimes Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malariae, and Plasmodium knowlesi. Transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, it is among the most common of mosquito-borne diseases and ravages much of the world still, despite near eradication in the US and Europe. During part of its life cycle, Plasmodium reproduces in Red Blood Cells, eventually destroying the cells. This step in the infection process is where a form of resistance has been selected for. Sickle Cell is a genetic condition in which red blood cells that are infected with Plasmodium shrivel into a sickle shape, causing the cell to be destroyed and the parasite to be unable to complete its life cycle. One unfortunate side effect with the Sickle Cell genetics is that if you are homozygous for the Sickle Cell gene (that is, you inherited a copy from both your mother and your father) you instead develop Sickle Cell Anemia, a disease that causes your blood turn into the sickle shape during any physical activity. Heterozygous individuals have an advantage, but due to the high disadvantage of homozygous sickle individuals the population does not become fixed for either allele. Therefore, Sickle Cell has become a poster child for Heterozygous Advantage.
What usually isn’t reported in all of this is there are other alleles that can cause Malaria resistance. One such allele is called C or HbC. HbC is resistant to Plasmodium and also does not cause anemia if it is homozygous in an individual. However, an individual who is heterozygous for HbC and Sickle Cell trait does develop anemia, but not as severe as a homozygous sickle cell individual. HbC’s advantage in not having heterozygous anemia is railroaded by the interaction with the sickle cell trait. The main factor preventing HbC from fixing in populations affected by malaria is that the sickle cell trait evolved much earlier and became well established in the population. Then, when new individuals arrived with the HbC trait, they do not have the population size to overcome the heterozygous disadvantage an HbC/Sickle Cell individual would have. Another similar allele is HbE which has much the same story.