ZAVibes

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.
Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.
‘Careful,’ he said, ‘CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!’
The wife stared at him. ‘What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?’
The husband calmly replied, ‘I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving.’

A Polish immigrant went to the DMV to apply for a driver’s license.

First, of course, he had to take an eye sight test The optician showed him a card with the letters

‘C Z W I X N O S T A C Z.’

‘Can you read this?’ the optician asked.

‘Read it?’ the Polish guy replied, ‘I know the guy.’

Evolutionary changes are supposed to take place gradually and randomly, under pressure from natural selection. But a team of Princeton scientists investigating a group of proteins that help cells burn energy stumbled across evidence that this is not how evolution works. In fact, their discovery could revolutionize the way we understand evolutionary processes. They have evidence that organisms actually have the ability to control their own evolution.

Let’s get a few possible misconceptions out of the way first. The Princeton group, composed of researchers Raj Chakrabarti, Herschel Rabitz, Stacey Springs and George McLendon, haven’t proven that intelligent design is a valid scientific theory. Nor are they claiming that DNA is making a set of conscious decisions about growing extra legs or wings (though that would admittedly be cool).

What they are saying is that evolution is not entirely random, as Darwin believed. The researchers were tinkering with a set of proteins forming the electron transport chain, a system that regulates energy use in cells. They discovered that the proteins were correcting any imbalance imposed on them through artificial mutations, constantly restoring the chain to working order. A mathematical analysis revealed that these proteins seem to make these minute corrections all the time, steering organisms toward evolutionary changes that make the creature fitter.

Said Chakrabarti:

The discovery answers an age-old question that has puzzled biologists since the time of Darwin: How can organisms be so exquisitely complex, if evolution is completely random, operating like a ‘blind watchmaker’? Our new theory extends Darwin’s model, demonstrating how organisms can subtly direct aspects of their own evolution to create order out of randomness.
Their work seems to confirm ideas held by Darwin’s colleague Alfred Wallace, who co-discovered the theory of evolution. Wallace believed that life forms undergoing natural selection could adjust their evolutionary course “exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident.” In other words: Wallace believed that organisms had a kind of evolutionary feedback control mechanism.

Added Rabitz:

What we have found is that certain kinds of biological structures exist that are able to steer the process of evolution toward improved fitness. The data just jumps off the page and implies we all have this wonderful piece of machinery inside that’s responding optimally to evolutionary pressure.
The researchers put together a paper recently published in Physical Review Letters, which suggests that control theory could help explain evolution. This is likely to spark a lot of debate. But Chakrabarti says their ideas fit neatly within theories of evolution:

Biological change is always driven by random mutation and selection, but at certain pivotal junctures in evolutionary history, such random processes can create structures capable of steering subsequent evolution toward greater sophistication and complexity.
In other words, organisms are evolving ways to evolve better.

Here’s more info at News At Princeton

The lovely looking Nokia BH-804 smallest Bluetooth headset was revealed some time back now and is expected to release Q4 this year, we have looked online and cannot seem to any place that you can buy it which means it is not out yet, maybe we are wrong so if we are please tell us.

The Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-804 has been designed with cutting-edge technology with genuine aluminum case; it is very slim indeed and will be a great partner with your mobile phone. The latest audio features will give you superior audio quality thanks to the digital signal processing (DSP) for background noise cancellation.

The Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-804 also features clear and crisp conversations whilst on the move two user-friendly buttons including volume level and basic call functions, it also comes with a neck strap and desk-top charger.

It is compatible with phones supporting Bluetooth wireless technology, for more information please visit www.nokia.com/bh-804

I’ve got to give it to the South Park guys yet again. Last night was the presidential election episode.

Kind of.

It picked up with Obama giving a speech after winning the count, then we see McCain’s concession. Then we cut to the people of South Park going nuts. (I really liked the way they mocked those nutjob McCain supporters who said the end of the world was here because a Muslim terrorists was elected.)

But that was only the B-plot.

The main plot was rather simple. You see, for the past decade, McCain and Obama have been the leaders of a criminal thief ring — think Ocean’s 11 with Obama as Clooney and McCain as Pitt. Sarah Palin’s actually a genius. Michelle Obama’s a security expert. And the scam was set up so that Obama or McCain would become President because there was a secret tunnel under the Oval Office leading to the Smithsonian and the room containing the Hope Diamond, which they were going to steal.

What amazed me about the episode — which for the most part was only rather average for South Park — was the turnaround time. I’m sure they’ve had it ready to go for about a week now, but I can’t help think that they actually did two versions. One version where Obama is elected, and a version where McCain is elected.

Nice work, guys. Though I’m sure that, if you would have tried, you could have found some way to really work Cartman into the show.

Cameron: …she didn’t understand, McCain aides told me today, that Africa was a continent and not a country, and actually asked them, they argue, they say, if South Africa wasn’t just ‘part of the country’ as opposed to a country in the continent….”

O’Reilly: “So her frame of reference in history and geography and current events was weak, according to your sources. And. So. That. But she can be tutored, I mean the woman’s not stupid here…”

No, O’Reilly, I’m afraid that’s pretty stupid. If you don’t know Africa is a continent, you’ve been ignoring the world since the first grade. And 16 years of education cannot be crammed into a few weeks. I knew Palin was a lightweight, but damn. Damn!