(picture from New Scientist)


Males have only one X chromosome, which is necessary for reproduction. As is often the case with hybrids, the male offspring from these unions would probably have been infertile.

But the females, which have two X chromosomes, would have been fertile. If some of those hybrid females then bred with proto-chimp males, some of their male offspring would have received a working X from the chimp side of the family. They would have been fertile -- and with them the hybrid line would have been off and reproducing on its own. (Washington Post)

Ben's notes:
At first this just clarified to me the slutty nature of proto-human women and human females' propensity for ending up with the stupid dominant ape, but after pondering it awhile I tend to think that it shows more the unquenchable sex drive of male proto-chimps, which in turn is evident in its male human descendants.

NEW WORDS FOR 2006:

Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewhere)

1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise,
craps on everything, and then leaves.

3. ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss, rather than working hard.

4. SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream, only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

6. PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato

8. SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.
What Yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9. STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed
out and whiny.

10. SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless
because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11. XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for stealing free photocopies from one's workplace.

12. IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The J-Lo and Ben wedding (or not) was a prime example - Michael Jackson, another.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

15. 404: Someone who is clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake.)

18. WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through
a Cube Farm.

Sniffle, sniffle... Those poor drunken monkeys will be testing the drugs that may someday save me from withdrawl when I finally decide to come down.

A new computer!!! I have been without my own computer now for about 2 years. I suppose I had a company laptop when I worked for the prison, but no internet. I still don't have internet, but I believe I will be hooked up by June. My Dell is sitting next to me at work in boxes. (I still can't rely on getting any mail at my New Orleans address) Looks like a big game of Age of Empires III tonight. My niece and nephew gave that game to me for Christmas thinking, "everybody has a computer, right?" Anyway, I didn't go top of the line this time (actually nowhere near it), but I still like it. Cost me (roughly)$75 a month for 18 months/ no interest. $1,208. Here are the stats.

XPS 400 Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)

Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs

Monitors 19 inch Ultrasharp™ 1907FP Digital Flat Panel

Video Cards 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800

Hard Drives 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition

Network Interface Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet

Single Drive: 16x DVD+/-RW with double layer write capability

Dell AS501 10W Flat Panel Attached Spkrs for UltraSharp™ Flat Panels

Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1