Dog Domestication May Have Begun Because Paleo Humans Couldn’t Stomach the Original Paleo Diet

A new theory described today in Scientific Reports posits that hunter-gatherers whose omnivorous digestive system prevented too much protein consumption likely shared surplus meat with wolves. Those scraps may have initiated a step toward domestication. Scientific American reports: [Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher at the Finnish Food Authority and a visiting scholar at the Finnish Museum of Natural History] did not…

Disney Will Test the Limits of ‘Franchise Fatigue’ in 2021 and 2022

An anonymous reader shares a report: In November 2019, just a few days after Disney+ launched, Netflix (NFLX) content chief (now co-CEO) Ted Sarandos, speaking at a Paley Center for Media event, said that Disney (DIS) is “bound by” its content universes, a reference mostly to Marvel and Star Wars. He continued: “I do think the risk of being bound in…

Discovery of ‘Cryptic Species’ Shows Earth is Even More Biologically Diverse

A growing number of “cryptic species” hiding in plain sight have been unmasked in the past year, driven in part by the rise of DNA barcoding, a technique that can identify and differentiate between animal and plant species using their genetic divergence. From a report: The discovery of new species of aloe, African leaf-nosed bats and chameleons that appear similar to…

Facing Overwhelming Demand, Non-Profit ‘RPG Research’ Looks for Help

Software developer/sys-admin Hawke Robinson is the CEO of RPG Research, a 501(c)3 non-profit, volunteer-run, charitable organization founded in 1977. He’s also long-time Slashdot reader kmleon, and shares this story from the gaming-news site The Gamer: RPG Research recently sent out an urgent call requesting more volunteers, more warehouse space, and more donations to help meet the overwhelming demand it is currently…

Lockdown Gardening in Britain Leads To Archaeological Discoveries

Gardeners in Hampshire, a county in southeast England, were weeding their yard in April when they found 63 gold coins and one silver coin from King Henry VIII’s reign in the 16th century, with four of the coins inscribed with the initials of the king’s wives Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. From a report: The archaeological find was…

Chuck Yeager, Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Dies At 97

jowifi shares a report from NPR: One of the world’s most famous aviators has died: Chuck Yeager — best known as the first to break the sound barrier — has died at the age of 97. Yeager started from humble beginnings in Myra, W.Va., and many people didn’t really learn about him until decades after he broke the sound barrier –…

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Course Partner The Science of Well-Being  Yale University COVID-19 Contact Tracing  Johns Hopkins University Technical Support Fundamentals Google Machine Learning Stanford University Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects McMaster University UC San Diego   Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) University of Michigan Financial Markets Yale University Measuring and […]
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Dinosaurs Were Not on the Way Out Before Asteroid Hit, Study Claims

New analysis has refuted the claim that dinosaurs were in decline at the time of their extinction. If an asteroid had not hit Earth 66m years ago, dinosaurs might have continued to dominate the planet, according to new research. From a report: A team from the University of Bath and the UK National History Museum has published a study to Royal…