HoodedHawk

A Norwegian boy was able to escape death (and save his sister) when attacked by a moose by using skills he learned playing World of Warcraft.

Seems the boy and his sister were walking in the woods when they were attacked by a moose (moose bites hurt). He shouted at the mouse to distract it from his sister (she ran away), then as the huge moose stood over him, the boy feigned death , “just like I learned to do on level 30 of World of Warcraft”. The moose apparently was fooled and trotted off.

A recent paper in Science used genetic analysis of ancient Neandertal DNA to show that at least some individuals had red hair and fair skin (similar to their modern European counterparts). The researchers were able to extract a pigmentation gene, mc1r, from the bones of two Neandertals (one from Spain, the other Italy).

The picture at right is a reconstruction of what a Neandertal who possessed these particular genes would have looked like.

The same researchers also recently isolated the FOXP2 gene from Neandertals, and showed that it was identical to modern humans. The FOXP2 gene is one of the genes known to play a major role in speech and language. Since the Neandertals had an identical version of this gene, they may well have had the capacity for speech.

The boys and I went to see a production of Macbeth this past Sunday. It was by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, based in Ellicott City, MD. The venue is a small theater (seats about 100). Acoustics are good, and I didn’t have any problem hearing the actors. It didn’t hurt, I guess, that we were in the front row. :)

The actor playing Banquo came out into the lobby before the play and using pictures and diagrams he explained the play to the kids. I like that part, since it at least gives them a fighting chance to understand what is going on (since even I have a hard time following spoken Shakespeare; an eight-year-old gets lost quickly). The play was very well-performed. I hadn’t seen Macbeth performed before so I can’t compare it to a like performance, but this acting company is excellent. If you can’t make it to Macbeth before it ends in December, I can definitely recommend any other productions by this company – I’ve been to 3 or 4 now and have never been disappointed.

I’m not usually into lolcats, but this one from “icanhascheezburger.com” (the name is from the classic lolcat) is great – in a nerdy way.

This week’s Nature has a report by researchers studying the moray eel. Seems they have found that the eels’ have a second set of jaws (ala the alien in the movie Alien) that helps them to hold on to prey. Unlike Alien, the 2nd set of jaws doesn’t pop out of the animal, but it does move forward to grab on to prey and help the eel swallow. Neat!