Reading Update

What have I been reading lately?

ANIME ThunderCats for Trailer 2011

Thundercats was such a huge part of my childhood that when I saw this I was both super excited and full of dread. It looks different and I have to remind myself that the original series although an American show had a lot of anime influences (just check out that old intro) so this is a natural progression on that genre. And you know what it looks amazing. Can't wait to watch it.

Eagle Watching

Bald Eagle
Originally uploaded by alexthoth

Took Ami to see the Bald Eagles in Pembroke Pines and it turned into a lesson is DDT and Wildlife Conservation.

Cardinal

Cardinal 2
Originally uploaded by alexthoth

Got some great pictures of a cardinal this morning. A male and a female were darting around the bushes by where I run and I went back in the house and grabbed the camera. The female didn't stay still enough for me to capture her but I got a few good shots of the (more vividly red) male.

Fossil genome reveals ancestral link

A distant cousin raises questions about human origins.

The ice-age world is starting to look cosmopolitan. While Neanderthals held sway in Europe and modern humans were beginning to populate the globe, another ancient human relative lived in Asia, according to a genome sequence recovered from a finger bone in a cave in southern Siberia. A comparative analysis of the genome with those of modern humans suggests that a trace of this poorly understood strand of hominin lineage survives today, but only in the genes of some Papuans and Pacific islanders.

More here: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101222/full/4681012a.html

And Discovery News: http://news.discovery.com/human/human-ancestor-bred-neanderthals-siberia-101222.html

Consider Phlebas

Okay, I finally got my hands on a copy of Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks and enjoyed it immensely. The story is great, lots of really cool bits and despite the large size of the volume, it's all very fast paced. I love the ambiguity of it all. My one gripe: Most of the characters are total assholes. I found the snippy little robot to be the most likable character.

More on Human-Neanderthal Hybridization

Just read two articles concerning Human-Neanderthal hybridization.

The first was in Discovery News about remains they've found in China with a mix of baseline human and neanderthal features.

The second more amusing article in Scientific American is about Ozzy Osbourne's genomes containing Neanderthal hints of DNA.