Scientists have announced the discovery of the oldest known fossils of both apes and monkeys. The finds date to about 25 million years ago, which puts them much closer to the predicted split between the two genera than anything else found to-date. The fossils themselves aren't much... a jaw fragment and a single tooth. However, now that they know where to look for these sorts of fossils, I'll bet there will be better finds on the way.

Neil deGrasse Tyson has been tapped to host an upcoming "reboot" of the iconic series, Cosmos. There've been several thinly disguised copies of the show created over the years. I think Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole came closest to the balance of wonder and fact that made the original so captivating. Tyson himself hosted another, although its title escapes me. It'll be interesting to see what he brings to the explicitly titled comeback.

On the anniversary of one of the most remarkable raids in WWII, the BBC is taking a look at just how effective the "dambuster" raids really were. Sometimes I think all these "aerial bombardment didn't do any good" histories were all written by, I don't know, navy people or something.

A new fossil study has revealed that even our oldest relatives had ears that resembled ours. No, not the fleshy bits on the outside, but apparently one (and only one) of the three ear bones quite strongly resembled our own. No, I don't know what it really means, either. I guess we'll get the answer file when they get their grant renewed.

Yet another childhood milestone of mine has passed into the "you might be surprised to find..." category. Hell I can remember watching John Belushi's Weekend Update segment about this. Hello? John Belushi? Cheeburger? No?

Well then, get the hell off my lawn!

A carnivorous relative of the tomato seems to be the most genetically "pure" living thing found to-date. In other news, the common tomato has a carnivorous cousin. Can Attack of the Killer Humped Bladderwort be far behind? I think not!

A new book is providing new evidence that women's sexual desires are far from politically correct. Take-away for men: even women don't understand women. Isn't that a comforting thought?

It looks like China may finally be willing to turn a few screws to get "Best Korea" to behave. Yeah, it looks like the move is more symbolic than functional, but this is North Korea we're talking about here. They almost literally live and breathe on symbols. It'll be fun to see what sort of gyrations their propaganda goes through over this.

It seems the effort to grow meat in a vat has taken another step forward. Cattle take up a lot of space, and the whole business of the slaughterhouse makes me a bit queasy. If this ends up costing, say, .00001% of what it costs now, hell I might even try it.