Dophins are singing the Batman theme song. I am not making this up.

Some Japanese marine biologists have taken video, for the first time ever, of a giant squid in its natural habitat:

The team led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, tracked the 26-foot long Architeuthis as it attacked prey nearly 3,000 feet deep off the coast of Japan’s Bonin islands…

…Mori said the giant squid, purplish red like its smaller brethren, attacked its quarry aggressively, calling into question the image of the animal as lethargic and slow moving.

“Contrary to belief that the giant squid is relatively inactive, the squid we captured on film actively used its enormous tentacles to go after prey,” Mori said.

“It went after some bait that we had on the end of the camera and became stuck, and left behind a tentacle” about six yards long, Mori said.

As a diver, I’m glad that they don’t often come near the surface.

Archaeologists may have discovered the tomb of Odysseus.

Were the Neanderthals wiped out by the cold?

A math professor claims that he’s got a simplified way of analyzing triangles. I’d like to see more about this.

We’re already up to Tropical Storm Ophelia, which is dumping a lot of rain on my house in Boca Raton, and it’s just the beginning of September. There are only six names left to use as we move into the heaviest part of hurricane season.

Another childhood myth demolished. Dinosaurs had feathers. This lends even more credence to the theory that they still walk (or, rather, for the most part, fly) among us. But unlike the case that would be if their ancestors still lived, we’re above them in the food chain.

[Via Alan Boyle]

Another childhood myth demolished. Dinosaurs had feathers. This lends even more credence to the theory that they still walk (or, rather, for the most part, fly) among us. But unlike the case that would be if their ancestors still lived, we’re above them in the food chain.

[Via Alan Boyle]

Another childhood myth demolished. Dinosaurs had feathers. This lends even more credence to the theory that they still walk (or, rather, for the most part, fly) among us. But unlike the case that would be if their ancestors still lived, we’re above them in the food chain.

[Via Alan Boyle]

I hate to keep beating on this drum, but it’s an error that many defenders of evolution make. Frederick Turner says:

…I did state flatly that the theory of evolution had been proved. I wanted it to be clear where I stood. Much of the mail I received protested about that statement. I hold to it, and hold to it not as my own opinion, but as a fact, like the existence of Australia, which is not my opinion but a fact. But I do know that there are many who sincerely, and given their range of knowledge, rationally, do not believe in the theory of evolution.

This ignores the (in my opinion, correct) position of one who believes in evolution, but doesn’t believe that it has been “proved.” This is because no scientific theory is ever “proved.” Proofs are for mathematics and the courtroom, not science. Scientific theories are useful in that they can be disproved, something that Creationism cannot.

I discussed this at length several months ago.