# evol: high-latitude and low surface temperatures cause the fastest rates of fish speciation

<< the fastest rates of speciation occur in species-poor regions outside the tropics, and that high-latitude fish lineages form new species at much faster rates than their tropical counterparts. High rates of speciation occur in geographical regions that are characterized by low surface temperatures and high endemism. >>

AA << results reject a broad class of mechanisms under which the tropics serve as an evolutionary cradle for marine fish diversity and raise new questions about why the coldest oceans on Earth are present-day hotspots of species formation. >>

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0273-1

Daniel L. Rabosky, Jonathan Chang, et al. An inverse latitudinal gradient in speciation rate for marine fishes.
Nature. July 4, 2018. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0273-1

<< Our results are counterintuitive and unexpected, because we find that speciation is actually fastest in the geographic regions with the lowest species richness. (..) Extinction is the missing piece of this puzzle >> Daniel Rabosky

Frigid polar oceans, not balmy coral reefs, are species-formation hot spots. University of Michigan. July 4, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-07-frigid-polar-oceans-balmy-coral.html

also

# s-evol: early life in cold ocean. March 20, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/03/s-evol-early-life-in-cold-ocean.html

# esobio: #ufo, this phenomenon was a lot more than nuts and bolts machines ...

<< The investigative "I-Team" for CBS affiliate KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, NV has brought forward new documents related to the secret Pentagon UFO program first revealed by the New York Times in December. >>

<< The investigations by BAASS (Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies) provided new lines of evidence showing that the UFO phenomenon was a lot more than nuts and bolts machines that interacted with military aircraft (..) The phenomenon also involved a whole panoply of diverse activity that included bizarre creatures, poltergeist activity, invisible entities, orbs of light, animal and human injuries and much more. >>

Andrew Whalen. Pentagon's Secret UFO Program Investigated Poltergeist  Connection To Alien Mystery. Newsweek. May 29, 2018.

http://www.newsweek.com/pentagon-ufo-program-disclosure-aliens-poltergeist-top-secret-bigelow-948051

Ralph Blumenthal. On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program. Dec 18, 2017.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html

Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, Leslie Kean.  Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program. Dec 16, 2017.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html

Dave Roos. How Do You Become a Ufologist? Jun 11, 2018

https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/unexplained-phenomena/do-become-ufologist.htm

<< I'm not surprised that the Pentagon's UFO program looked at poltergeist activity (..)  >> Nick Pope. May 29, 2018

https://twitter.com/nickpopemod/status/1001557546128179201

# behav: the social / antisocial flexibility of yellow-bellied marmots (M. flaviventer)

<< Humans in strong social relationships are more likely to live longer because social relationships may buffer stressors and thus have protective effects. However, a shortcoming of human studies is that they often rely on self-reporting of these relationships. >>

AA << focused on socially flexible yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) and asked whether female longevity covaries with the specific nature of social relationships. >>

AA << found a significant negative phenotypic correlation between affiliative social relationship strength and longevity; marmots with greater degree, closeness and those with a greater negative average shortest path length died at younger ages. >>

<< sociality plays an important role in longevity, but how it does so may depend on whether a species is obligately or facultatively social. >>

Daniel T. Blumstein, Dana M. Williams, et al.   Strong social relationships are associated with decreased longevity in a facultatively social mammal. Proc Royal Soc B. Biol Sci. Jan 17, 2018. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.1934.

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/285/1871/20171934

Douglas Quenqua. Being Antisocial Leads to a Longer Life. For Marmots. NYTimes. Jan. 17, 2018.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/science/marmots-antisocial-lifespan.html

# acad: Prometheus vs Pandora interplay

<< Some of the most important rules we need to discover are about how to use technology and, just as importantly, how not to use it. >>

<< The great institutional economist Clarence Ayres wrote about how technology becomes incorporated into our lives in a way that is roughly equivalent to the way tribal societies use totems to interact with each other. >>

<< Every inventor is both a Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, and a Pandora unwittingly releasing a swarm of potential evils on the world. The competition of ideas between hype and doomsaying allows us to discover helpful rules which deal with both. >>

<< Technology doesn't come with a ready-made rulebook for how to use it. We have to discover this in a process of trial, error and argument. And for this the doomsayer is just as vital as the visionary. >>

Brendan Markey-Towler. Doomsaying about new technology helps make it better. Jun 21, 2018.

https://theconversation.com/doomsaying-about-new-technology-helps-make-it-better-98623  

# life: Hopeful Entities are waiting at La Martella Railway Station

La Martella Railway Station, Ferrandina, Matera, Italy, 2017.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/slideshow/2018/06/25/t-magazine/italys-abandoned-buildings-in-photographs/s/14tmag-sicily-slide-EKIB.html  

Merrell Hambleton. An Ode to Italy's Absurdly Beautiful Modern Ruins. NYT. Jun 25, 2018.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/t-magazine/travel/italy-sicily-unfinished-architecture-ruins-photos.html

# gene: the genetic stochastic kernel inside A. asiatica

AA << report the first example of dual coding: Ascoidea asiatica stochastically encodes CUG as both serine and leucine in approximately equal proportions >>

Stefanie Muhlhausen, Hans Dieter Schmitt, et al.  Endogenous Stochastic Decoding of the CUG Codon by Competing Ser- and Leu- tRNAs in Ascoidea asiatica. Current Biology 28, 1–12 Jul 9, 2018 doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.085

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30557-8

Microbe breaks 'universal' DNA rule by using two different translations. University of Bath. Jun 14, 2018

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-06-microbe-universal-dna.html

# life: i tremiti (vortici?) previsionali di Giancarlo, by Alessandra Paola

<< Giancarlo Giorgetti, sottosegretario di Palazzo Chigi nel governo di Giuseppe Conte, pare abbia detto ai leghisti presenti nell' esecutivo di tenere una foto di Matteo Renzi come monito sulla scrivania. Per non dimenticare che quattro anni fa il Pd aveva conseguito il 40%, pari a 11 milioni di voti, alle elezioni europee >>

SOGNO O SONDAGGIO? PARLA PAOLA GHISLERI (..). Dagospia. 21.06.2018.

http://m.dagospia.com/salvini-la-lega-che-cresce-fi-e-pd-privi-di-strategie-berlusconi-fede-parla-paola-ghisleri-176827