Friday, March 09, 2007
Lice on the Body Politic
Talk about serendipity! Lice DNA provides clues about human evolution. And it turns out that we're pretty lousy: humans host three species of lice, while most animals just host one.
And we seem to have acquired lice from gorillas after we diverged from our common ancestor and lost our hair. Imagine a conversation 3.3 MYA:
Male gorilla beringei beringei 1: Why her? She's so ugly. No hair!"
Male gorilla beringeir beringei 2: "Yeah, but ol'Silverback over there won't let me touch any of our girls. I'm just itching for some action!"
Male gorilla beringei beringei 1: "But she's a hominoid, for God's sake. Don't you have any standards?"
Of course, maybe it wasn't sexual contact, but that's how pubic lice (Pthirus pubis) usually get around...
Speaking of lice, those on the body politic have struck again. Biologists working for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service can't talk about climate change, polar bears, or sea ice if they're not authorized to do so. Specifically, they must be "aware" of the Bush Administration's positions on these topics.
If a biologist is talking, then he or she should present the best available scientific view of climate change. If a politician wants to make up something else, lies, I suppose, are acceptable.
Is Licex effective against politicians?
And we seem to have acquired lice from gorillas after we diverged from our common ancestor and lost our hair. Imagine a conversation 3.3 MYA:
Male gorilla beringei beringei 1: Why her? She's so ugly. No hair!"
Male gorilla beringeir beringei 2: "Yeah, but ol'Silverback over there won't let me touch any of our girls. I'm just itching for some action!"
Male gorilla beringei beringei 1: "But she's a hominoid, for God's sake. Don't you have any standards?"
Of course, maybe it wasn't sexual contact, but that's how pubic lice (Pthirus pubis) usually get around...
Speaking of lice, those on the body politic have struck again. Biologists working for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service can't talk about climate change, polar bears, or sea ice if they're not authorized to do so. Specifically, they must be "aware" of the Bush Administration's positions on these topics.
If a biologist is talking, then he or she should present the best available scientific view of climate change. If a politician wants to make up something else, lies, I suppose, are acceptable.
Is Licex effective against politicians?
