An improved chance of survival ...

... is the reason behind some of the common faces humans (and some animals) make.

Emotional faces weren't just for looks. The team found that a fearful visage improves peripheral vision, speeds up eye movement, and boosts air flow, potentially allowing a person to more quickly sense and respond to danger. Squinty, scrunched-up disgusted faces had the opposite effect, limiting vision and decreasing air flow, ostensibly to keep out substances that might be harmful to the eyes or lungs.

If only the earth could produce an enzyme that would defuse the Neo-Cons ...

... then again, maybe that's called Natural Selection and the Neo-Cons, along with fundamentalists of all religious stripes, will select the human race right out of existence. But not to worry, the cockroaches will probably survive.

The above thoughts were triggered by Science Magazine (AAAS, subscription required) reporting that "[w]hen bacteria colonize vertebrate intestines, the tissue produces an enzyme that appears to defuse a dangerous toxin the microbes wield."

One embarrassment from Texas in the White House ...

and another one (make that two) from Arizona.

The inbred children of the 'successful' get stupider and stupider with each generation. What a showcase reason for opening the door to immigration and no scarier reason for the stupid to want to keep them out.

When did humans start cooking and what did they cook ...

Did Cooked Tubers Spur the Evolution of Big Brains? Article from 1999 reports that Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham (and colleagues) suggest "cooking--in particular, cooking tubers--sparked a crucial turning point in human evolution."

Now, in 2007, this article (Did Primordial Chefs Feed Our Giant Brains?) reports that cooked meat --what happened to the tubers?-- is what Wrangham is proposing may have effected that "quick and dramatic evolutionary impact" on our brains.

Richard Wrangham (along with Dale Peterson) is also one of the authors Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence (Washington Post review, National Review Book Review).

Would that human males were as smart ...

So they find that female barn swallows are not as dumb as they thought:

Physorg.com: More flight than fancy?

Scientists from the universities of Exeter and Cambridge have turned a textbook example of sexual selection on its head and shown that females may be more astute at choosing a mate than previously thought.

Now if we could do something about human females (and males) who follow the dictates of a woman-hating fashion industry.