Happy Whelpday

Happy Whelpday to tchall!

Neat Stuff for Today

A look at the origins of measles (part two of a series on measles).

The meat of the article: measles requires a good-sized city to survive and it looks like measles jumped to humans from a related cattle virus sometime "in the first millennium A.D."

More neat stuff

I give you the bat fly, a wingless fly that lives off the blood of bats. The amazing part? Bat flies are viviparous (i.e. live birth).

Via Parasite of the Day (a new parasite every day this year).

Privatization ... of assassination

"Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants ..." (via the New York Times)

Here's the money quote, though:

"While no legitimate intelligence operations got screwed up, it's generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond," one American government official said.

Tip of the hat to rm.

Art. Go look at it ...

Out of the cold mist, the Wolf silently appeared.
"You found me".. she said, "Finally."
"This.." said the Wolf, "is your end."

Artist: Kan Muftic
via CGSociety / CGTalk