Maybe Romney took too much LDS in the 60s

(H/T for the ingenious title to reader Feralboy12 ) To really get insight into Romney’s incessant memory lapses, last night a panelist on MSNBC relayed a story from the 90s when Romney ran against Ted Kennedy for a MA senate seat and had to convince voters he wasn’t a wingnut. Word is Mittens got all bleary-eyed during a campaign event of some sort, saying he knew a woman who died from a back-alley abortion. So he would always uphold a women’s right to choose, even adding, “on that you will not see me waver.”  That’s how big of a credibility and/or mental recall problem Romney already had. Or, the other possibility is that Mitt just lies a lot. This week that practice may have finally caught up to him: [Read more…]

Australopithicus sebida found in old lab rock

A site first discovered by the nine year-old son of a fossil hunter in 2008 just keeps on giving. The Malapa has produced some of the most complete human ancestor fossils ever discovered, and some of the final missing pieces were just found in a boulder sitting quietly in a lab for the last three years. Until a researcher noticed what looked like a hominid tooth protruding from the rock: [Read more…]

Did Romney perjure himself?

Update: it’s getting ugly fast. According to documents and statements signed and made by Romney he was a sole shareholder, CEO, president, and drew a mininum of 100k/year salary … but he didn’t work there, no, not at all. Holy smokes, that’s his story, and wouldn’t you love that fucking job? So he was either lying to shareholders and the SEC, unlikely, or he’s been lying through his teeth for the last several years to media and the entire nation, which I hereby decree is a near metaphysical certainty.

We briefly discussed Mitt’s Bain reign and why it both poses a problem for him and servers as an illustration of the many versions of Romney. It turns out he may have also told two exclusive tales under de facto oath. America blog connects the dots: [Read more…]

Giant snake lived with giant turtle cousin

Remember Titanboa from a few months ago? It turns out the giant snake had a giant shelled cousin living in the same neighborhood, and the turtle’s shell may have evolved to resist the snake:

Fox News — Named Puentemys mushaisaensis after the pit where it was found, the turtle, whose shell would have extended 5 feet (1.5 m) across, adds to growing evidence that tropical reptiles ballooned after the dinosaurs were wiped out.

Even with its mouth wide open, Titanoboa wouldn’t have been able to down this turtle, not whole at least. And its round, low-domed shape would have increased the surface area exposed to the sun to keep the cold-blooded turtle warm, said study researcher Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. “The shell was far more rounded than a typical turtle,” Jaramillo told LiveScience.

Of female orgasms and religion

If that header doesn’t grab you, then you my friend have bigger problems than sex and religion can solve. Unfortunately, I may not deliver on the headline. It refers to a new book, Homo Mysterious by evolutionary psychologists Davd Barosh, that I have on order. Female sexuality is one of the topics the author writes about, but there is another graf in the review that caught my eye: [Read more…]