???????????? ??? NOBLE ENERGY ??? ?? ?????? ????? ???? ?????

??? ??????????? ??? ???????? ??? ??? ????????? ?????????? ?????????? ??????? ?????? ??? ???????? ???????? 12, ???????? ? ???????? ??? ???????? Noble Energy, ?????? ???????????. ???? ????, ????? ????? ? ?????? ??? ????? ????????? ??????? ?????? ??? ?? Noble Energy ??? ???? ??????????? ??? ????...
???????? ?????? ??? ????????, ?? ?? ???????? ?????????? ????????????? ????????? ??? ????? ??????????? ??? ?? ????????? ?? 33 ??????????????? ?????? ?????. ? ????????? ????????? ???? ????? ??????? ????? ??????????? ??? ???????? ??? ????????? ??????? ????? ??? ????????.

??????, ???????? ??? ? Noble Energy ?????????? ?? ????? ?????????? ?? ??? ???????? ?????????.

????????, ? ???????? ??? ????????? ???????????, ???????? ??????????, ?????????? ??? ? ???????? ??? ??????????????? ??? ???????? 12 ??? ????????? ??? ????????? ??? 5 ?? 8 ??????????????? ?????? ?????.

?? ???????????? ????? ??????????????? ????????? ??? ?????????? ?? ??????? ??? ???????? ?? 40 ??????????? ?????. ??????????? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???????? ?????????? ?? ????????? ?? ??????????????? ????? ??? ???????? ??????? ??????????? ???? ??? ?????????? ??? ???????????.

Source: http://fimotro.blogspot.com/2011/12/noble-energy_29.html

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CityNews: Our video of the day, with @CityTomHayes Tornado siren interrupts wedding http://t.co/BWLJuUCB

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Stewart drops $12K on 2 guitars for Pattinson

Kristen Stewart clearly thinks boyfriend Robert Pattinson is a rock star!

The "Twilight" actress, 21, shelled out $12,000 to purchase two vintage guitars for her beau, 25, from Norman's Rare Guitars in L.A.'s Tarzana area.

PHOTOS: Breaking Dawn sneak peek

Snapping up the instruments on Dec. 23, just in time for Christmas, Stewart knew Pattinson would be impressed with her purchase.

PHOTOS: Kristen Stewart's grunge to glam evolution

"She said 'He's gonna s--t when he sees them!'" the shop's owner, Norman Harris, tells Us Weekly of Stewart, who strummed a guitar herself during her shopping session.

PHOTOS: Rob and Kristen's PDA?

The guitars ? a 1959 Fender Jazzmaster and a 1947 K&F Lap Steel ? will be put to good use, as Pattinson plans to record an album.

Copyright 2011 Us Weekly

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45817975/ns/today-entertainment/

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New phishing email scam asks you to update Apple ID billing information

The Mac Security Blog points to a phishing email scam in circulation that asks for users to update their Apple ID billing information.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/SL0aRPRuKno/story01.htm

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2011 review: The year in space

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1b5e436f/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cgallery0C0E20A110Ereview0Ethe0Eyear0Ein0Espace0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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South Carolina Looms Large (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/180647671?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Dino-chicken: Wacky but serious science idea of 2011

Paleontologist Jack Horner has always been a bit of an iconoclast. In the 1970s, Horner, the curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., and his friend Bob Makela discovered a Maiasaura nesting site, painting the first picture of dinosaurs as doting moms and dads. He's also been at the forefront of research suggesting that dinosaurs were fast growing and warm-blooded.

But Horner's newest idea takes iconoclasm to a new level. He wants, in short, to hatch a dinosaur.

Or something very much like one, at least. Horner, who served as a technical advisor for the "Jurassic Park" movies, has no illusions that the technique in that movie ? extracting dino DNA from mosquitoes in amber ? would work. DNA degrades too quickly, for one thing. Dinosaur DNA has proved impossible to extract from actual dinosaur bones, never mind blood-sucking insects.

"If you actually had a piece of amber and it had an insect in it, and you drilled into it, and you got something out of that insect and you cloned it, and you did it over and over and over again, you'd have a room full of mosquitoes," Horner said in a February 2011 TED Talk in Long Beach, Calif. TED, or Technology, Entertainment and Design, is a nonprofit focusing on "ideas worth spreading."

So Horner has another idea: Use the living dinosaurs among us to recreate creatures dead for millions of years. Anyone who's seen "Jurassic Park" knows that birds are dinosaurs, part of the evolutionary line containing those toothy Velociraptors. What's less known is that organisms carry their evolutionary history with them. Human embryos, for example, have temporary tails, which are absorbed by the body during development. Rarely, babies are born with vestigial tails, the result of scrambled genetic processes that prevent the tail from getting re-absorbed. These evolutionary remnants are called atavisms.

Enough atavisms have been discovered in birds to make the idea of "reverse-engineering" a dinosaur out of, say, a chicken possible, Horner says. You wouldn't be adding anything to the bird to make it more dinosaurlike; all the ingredients are in its DNA. Horner's goal is to figure out how to wake up those ingredients.

LiveScience talked with Horner about his "chickenosaurus" plan and what sort of dinosaur he'd like to keep as a pet. [ Infographic: How to Make a Dino-Chicken ]

LiveScience: What was the genesis of this chickenosaurus idea?

Horner: Knowing that birds descended from dinosaurs and knowing the changes that occur from dinosaurs to birds, we know that the changes that did occur occurred because of genetics.

A friend of mine, Hans Larsson at McGill University, was studying some of these changes and looking into how it was that dinosaurs lost their tails in the transformation from dinosaurs to birds. They also transformed their arms from a hand and an arm to a wing. I got to thinking, if he discovered the genes that were responsible for both of those transformations, we could just simply reverse evolution and reactivate the tail, and possibly make a hand back out of the wing.

And then what we would have by doing those two things, you'd actually take a bird and turn it into an animal that looked a lot like one of the meat-eating dinosaurs. It seemed like a good idea.

LiveScience: What kind of animal would chickenosaurus be?

Horner: It's still a chicken. It's a modified chicken. You'd really have to mess with the DNA to make it something different.

The most important thing is that you cannot activate an ancestral characteristic unless the animal has ancestors. So if we can do this, it definitely shows that evolution works.

LiveScience: You've mentioned in the past that you see this dino-chicken as a teaching tool to help people understand evolution. Do you see that working?

Horner: Of course. You bet. There are people who are misinformed, and there are people who are uninformed [about the validity of evolution]. If people are uninformed, this will probably get through to them. If they've been misinformed and don't mind being misinformed, then they probably will continue to be misinformed.

LiveScience: Either way, it'd be a pretty awesome thing to take into a classroom.

Horner: Yes, it would. Exactly.

LiveScience: Starting with a chicken, how close could we really get to what a dinosaur looked like?

Horner: We're working with an animal that has all the right stuff. It's more about subtle changes, adding a tail or fixing a hand or possibly adding teeth, what we would think of as being relatively simple changes rather than messing with physiology or something like that.

1. More science news from MSNBC Tech & Science

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A bird is really a dinosaur, so we're pretty sure that the breathing apparatus of a bird evolved from the breathing apparatus of a dinosaur, and is therefore completely different than a mammal. The physiology of a bird is evolved from a dinosaur and not from a mammal, so it's not like we're trying to take a mammal and turn it into a dinosaur.

LiveScience: Would chickenosaurus teach us anything about dinosaurs we can't learn from fossils?

Horner: It's not really about understanding dinosaurs at all. Once we learn what certain genes do and how to turn them on and turn them off, then we have great potential of solving some medical mysteries. There are a lot of ways to think about this, but it's not really about dinosaurs other than solving Hans Larsson's problem of figuring out how birds lost their tails. [ Tales of 10 Vestigial Limbs ]

LiveScience: What do you see as the biggest challenge of making chickenosaurus happen?

Horner: The biggest challenge, first off, is to find the genes. We know that in the development of a tail, there are a variety of things that have to happen, so there are a couple of ways to possibly go about this.

One, as we know, when a chicken embryo is developing in the egg, just like basically all animals, the embryo actually for a time has a tail and then the trail re-absorbs. So if we could find the gene that re-absorbs the tail and not allow that gene to turn on then we could potentially hatch a chicken with a tail.

The other method would be simply to go in and discover what Hox genes [the genes that determine the structure of an organism] might be responsible for actually adding tail vertebrae, and then to see if we could add some, either by manipulating the Hox genes or by using temperature. There have been some experiments done showing that adding heat will add a vertebra here or there.

LiveScience: Where are you in this process now?

Horner: Right now, mostly I'm looking for a postdoctoral researcher. An adventurous postdoc who knows a lot about developmental biology and a little bit about birds and has done some work about chickens to work in our lab here in Bozeman.

Me, I just go through the literature, looking for anything that might give me a clue as to what genes might be responsible for tail absorption or tail growth or something that might help me with hands.

LiveScience: The comparisons to "Jurassic Park" are easy to make, but have you ever seen the movie "The Birds?" Do we really want chickens with extra teeth and claws running around?

Horner: You can't really compare it to either movie. First off, you can go out in the Serengeti and there are all kinds of animals that will eat you, but if you're driving around in your Jeep, you're just fine. The lions and cheetahs and leopards are not going to try to get into your Jeep when there are plenty of plant-eaters out there to eat that aren't inside of a metal cage.

That's the funny thing about " Jurassic Park," right? All these dinosaurs want to eat people no matter how hard they are to get.

So we don't have to worry about "Jurassic Park," because that's just fiction. Animals don't act that way. They're not vengeful. And birds aren't vengeful either.

LiveScience: So if you could bring a dinosaur back ? the real thing, not a modified chicken ? what species would you choose?

Horner: A little one. A little plant-eater.

LiveScience: No T. rex for you?

Horner: Would you make something that would turn around and eat you? Sixth-graders would do that, but I'd just as soon make something that wouldn't eat me. And you could have it as a pet without worrying about it eating the rest of your pets.

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter@sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45804325/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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A new theory emerges for where some fish became 4-limbed creatures

Public release date: 27-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Barlow
jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481
University of Oregon

University of Oregon scientist finds evidence that the transition occurred in humid, wooded floodplains

EUGENE, Ore. -- A small fish crawling on stumpy limbs from a shrinking desert pond is an icon of can-do spirit, emblematic of a leading theory for the evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians. This theorized image of such a drastic adaptation to changing environmental conditions, however, may, itself, be evolving into a new picture.

University of Oregon scientist Gregory J. Retallack, professor of geological sciences, says that his discoveries at numerous sites in Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania suggests that "such a plucky hypothetical ancestor of ours probably could not have survived the overwhelming odds of perishing in a trek to another shrinking pond."

This scenario comes from the late Devonian, about 390 million years ago to roughly 360 million years ago. Paleontologist Alfred Romer, who died in 1973 after serving on the faculties at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, saw this time as a period of struggle and escape -- and important in fish-tetrapod transition -- to ensure survival.

Reporting in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Geology, Retallack, who also is co-director of paleontological collections at the UO's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, argues for a very different explanation. He examined numerous buried soils in rocks yielding footprints and bones of early transitional fossils between fish and amphibians of Devonian and Carboniferous geological age. What he found raises a major challenge to Romer's theory.

"These transitional fossils were not associated with drying ponds or deserts, but consistently were found with humid woodland soils," he said. "Remains of drying ponds and desert soils also are known and are littered with fossil fish, but none of our distant ancestors. Judging from where their fossils were found, transitional forms between fish and amphibians lived in wooded floodplains. Our distant ancestors were not so much foolhardy, as opportunistic, taking advantage of floodplains and lakes choked with roots and logs for the first time in geological history."

Limbs proved handy for negotiating woody obstacles, and flexible necks allowed for feeding in shallow water, Retallack said. By this new woodland hypothesis, the limbs and necks, which distinguish salamanders from fish, did not arise from reckless adventure in deserts, but rather were nurtured by a newly evolved habitat of humid, wooded floodplains.

The findings, he said, dampen both the desert hypothesis of Romer and a newer inter-tidal theory put forth by Grzegorz Niedbwiedzki and colleagues at the University of Warsaw. In 2010, they published their discovery of eight-foot-long, 395-million-year-old tetrapods in ancient lagoonal mud in southeastern Poland, where Retallack also has been studying fossil soils with Polish colleague Marek Narkeiwicz.

"Ancient soils and sediments at sites for transitional fossils around the world are critical for understanding when and under what conditions fish first walked," Retallack said. "The Darwin fish of chrome adorning many car trunks represents a particular time and place in the long evolutionary history of life on earth."

###

UO Academic Support Funds supported Retallack's research.

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Source: Gregory J. Retallack, professor, Department of Geological Sciences, 541-346-4558, gregr@uoregon.edu

Links:

Retallack: http://pages.uoregon.edu/dogsci/doku.php?id=directory/faculty/greg/about

Department of Geological Sciences: http://pages.uoregon.edu/dogsci/doku.php

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Barlow
jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481
University of Oregon

University of Oregon scientist finds evidence that the transition occurred in humid, wooded floodplains

EUGENE, Ore. -- A small fish crawling on stumpy limbs from a shrinking desert pond is an icon of can-do spirit, emblematic of a leading theory for the evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians. This theorized image of such a drastic adaptation to changing environmental conditions, however, may, itself, be evolving into a new picture.

University of Oregon scientist Gregory J. Retallack, professor of geological sciences, says that his discoveries at numerous sites in Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania suggests that "such a plucky hypothetical ancestor of ours probably could not have survived the overwhelming odds of perishing in a trek to another shrinking pond."

This scenario comes from the late Devonian, about 390 million years ago to roughly 360 million years ago. Paleontologist Alfred Romer, who died in 1973 after serving on the faculties at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, saw this time as a period of struggle and escape -- and important in fish-tetrapod transition -- to ensure survival.

Reporting in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Geology, Retallack, who also is co-director of paleontological collections at the UO's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, argues for a very different explanation. He examined numerous buried soils in rocks yielding footprints and bones of early transitional fossils between fish and amphibians of Devonian and Carboniferous geological age. What he found raises a major challenge to Romer's theory.

"These transitional fossils were not associated with drying ponds or deserts, but consistently were found with humid woodland soils," he said. "Remains of drying ponds and desert soils also are known and are littered with fossil fish, but none of our distant ancestors. Judging from where their fossils were found, transitional forms between fish and amphibians lived in wooded floodplains. Our distant ancestors were not so much foolhardy, as opportunistic, taking advantage of floodplains and lakes choked with roots and logs for the first time in geological history."

Limbs proved handy for negotiating woody obstacles, and flexible necks allowed for feeding in shallow water, Retallack said. By this new woodland hypothesis, the limbs and necks, which distinguish salamanders from fish, did not arise from reckless adventure in deserts, but rather were nurtured by a newly evolved habitat of humid, wooded floodplains.

The findings, he said, dampen both the desert hypothesis of Romer and a newer inter-tidal theory put forth by Grzegorz Niedbwiedzki and colleagues at the University of Warsaw. In 2010, they published their discovery of eight-foot-long, 395-million-year-old tetrapods in ancient lagoonal mud in southeastern Poland, where Retallack also has been studying fossil soils with Polish colleague Marek Narkeiwicz.

"Ancient soils and sediments at sites for transitional fossils around the world are critical for understanding when and under what conditions fish first walked," Retallack said. "The Darwin fish of chrome adorning many car trunks represents a particular time and place in the long evolutionary history of life on earth."

###

UO Academic Support Funds supported Retallack's research.

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Source: Gregory J. Retallack, professor, Department of Geological Sciences, 541-346-4558, gregr@uoregon.edu

Links:

Retallack: http://pages.uoregon.edu/dogsci/doku.php?id=directory/faculty/greg/about

Department of Geological Sciences: http://pages.uoregon.edu/dogsci/doku.php

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uoo-ant122711.php

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Soszynski?s retirement on hold until doc says he can?t go on

Krzysztof Soszynski appeared to have retired following his fight at UFC 140 (4:00 mark). Now we're finding out there's more to the story.

Just minutes after losing to Igor Pokrajac, Soszynski made his statement made in front of a doctor during a postfight exam. Soszynski recently admitted he didn't even remember discussing the topic that night, but that doesn't mean retirement is out of the question for the 34-year-old veteran of 39 fights.

Aside from dealing with the negative effects of multiple slugfests, Soszynski says his knees are the real problem.

"I've been having knee problems since UFC 110 - the first fight with Stephan Bonnar. Ever since then, my knees just haven't been the same. We basically beat the crap out of each other, and ever since then I haven't been the same," Soszynski told The Province. "I've basically been fighting maybe 50-60-percent capacity. I've been fighting with these obstacles now for close to two years. I've had five knee surgeries in that time - three in the last seven months or so.

Soszynski sounds like he still has some fight left in him, but it'll be up to his doctor to decide if it's worth the risk.

"I possibly have to go under the knife again - I'll go see my doctor next week - so we'll see; depends on what the doctor says. If the doctor says I can get back to fighting, I would love to have at least one more fight, and go out the proper way, not the way I did against Igor. But if the doctor says that's about it, I'm going to respect that," Soszynski said.

Soszynski's been good for the sport. He represented it well by being one of the more mature characters on Season 8 of "The Ultimate Fighter."

Chances are, whether he's fighting or not, he'll contribute as a coach or nutritional expert in the future.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Soszynski-s-retirement-on-hold-until-doc-says-he?urn=mma-wp11212

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Movistar estrena Facebook SMS

Fecha:? 20/12/2011? Fuente:? GSMspain

Todos los usuarios de la red social Facebook y clientes de Movistar podr?n recibir mensajes de texto gratuitos inform?ndoles de todo lo que ocurra en su perfil.

Facebook s? o s?, cada vez es m?s dif?cil no estar al tanto de todo lo que ocurre en la red social por excelencia gracias a nuestro tel?fono m?vil. Movistar da un paso m?s y se convierte en el primer operador que lanza el servicio Facebook SMS. Ahora, los clientes de Movistar que tengan cuenta en Facebook podr?n asociar su n?mero a su perfil, y recibir as? notificaciones gratis por SMS. ?Que alguien escribe en tu muro? mensaje recibido. ?Que alguien pincha en "Me gusta" en tu foto luciendo abdominales y piernas flacas en Ibiza? mensaje recibido. Este servicio esta sobre todo pensado para aquellas personas que no dispongan de una tarifa plana de datos y por tanto no est?n constantemente recibiendo informaci?n de lo que ocurre en Facebook. Adem?s, Facebook SMS permite contestar a estas notificaciones e interactuar con nuestros amigos, as? como actualizar nuestro estado. Basta con enviar un SMS al n?mero del servicio 225225, una vez que estemos dados de alta. Todos los mensajes recibidos con notificaciones de Facebook son gratuitos, pero los enviados tendr?n un coste de 15 c?ntimos, precio normal de un mensaje de texto. Los clientes que dispongan de una Tarifa Plana de Mensajes a Movistar o alguna de las nuevas Tarifas Planas de Internet que incluyen SMS ilimitados, podr?n enviarlos sin coste alguno. Para darse de alta en Facebook SMS, basta con enviar la letra "F" al 225225. Al instante se recibir? en el m?vil un SMS con un c?digo de confirmaci?n, que habr? que introducir en el apartado Configuraci?n de la cuenta/m?vil, dentro de la web oficial de Facebook.

Source: http://www.gsmspain.com/noticias/2342_Movistar-estrena-Facebook-SMS-Todos-los-usuarios-de-la-red-social-Face.html

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Sunday Evening Dog Blogging (Theagitator)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/179113566?client_source=feed&format=rss

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PFT: Newton the best rookie QB ever?

Reuters

All I wanted for Christmas was 14 NFL contests on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And I got it, primarily since there was little or no danger of shooting my eye out.

The best part about it?? The ability to write 10 things about what I saw while enjoying the 14 games-a-playing.

1.? ?Playoff turnover trend continues.

While the final postseason field isn?t quite yet settled, it?s already obvious from the teams that made it ? and the teams that won?t ? that the trend of 50-percent playoff turnover most likely will once again hold true.

In the AFC, the Patriots, Steelers, and Ravens have made it back again to the playoffs.? But the Colts, Chargers, and (most likely) the Jets will be left behind.

Replacing them will be the Texans and some combination of the Broncos, Raiders, Bengals, and Titans, with the Jets having a far-slimmer-than-Rex chance of dropping the turnover rate to 33 percent.

In the NFC, the Packers, Saints, and Falcons will be back.? Dumped from contention are the Eagles, Seahawks, and Bears.? Taking their places will be the Cowboys or the Giants, along with the Lions and 49ers.

Maybe we should quit calling this a trend.? Maybe it?s now the rule, and any situations in which more than half of the playoff field makes it back the next year should be regarded as the exception.

For the NFL, it?s a great development, because it creates annual hope for the 20 teams that end up on the outside looking in.? Every year, the fans of those franchises can take some solace in the notion that nearly a third of them will be playing for a Super Bowl title the following year.

Even the Bills and the Browns.

2.? Steelers face tough decision on Ben.

It?s hard to gauge the overall impressiveness of the Steelers? 27-0 win over the Rams, due to the quality of the competition.? But the decision to sit Ben Roethlisberger and start veteran Charlie Batch at quarterback couldn?t have gone much better.

So why not do it again?

The Steelers, after all, are playing the lowly Browns.? And while Pittsburgh?s arch-rivals from Cleveland would love nothing more than to keep the Steelers from winning the AFC North and clinching the No. 2 seed (even if it means seeing the even-more-hated Ravens pocket those prizes), the Steelers have the weaponry to handle the Browns with Batch or Dennis Dixon or even Terry Hanratty at quarterback.

On the other hand, getting a bye and securing home field advantage for at least the division round and possibly, if the Pats lose to the Bills in Week 17 or at home in the conference semifinals, the AFC title game carries with it tremendous value.? If, in the end, the Steelers indeed are on a collision course to play the Ravens again, it?s important for that game to be played in Pittsburgh, where the Steelers have beaten the Ravens twice in the last three postseasons.

The fact that the Bengals can get in with a win, which gives them even more motivation to beat the Ravens, should make the Steelers more willing to load up the cannon in order to beat the Browns.? Thus, while it was reckless for the Steelers to go with Roethlisberger only 11 days after he suffered the sprained ankle, Sunday?s game invites a calculated risk that, if it works out, could generate a great reward.

If it doesn?t pay off, the Steelers will be in no worse shape, since they?re locked in as the fifth seed.

Unless, of course, Roethlisberger aggravates the ankle with as little as six days to get ready for a game in Denver or Oakland.

In the end, it won?t be an easy call.? Maybe the answer will be to use Roethlisberger until the game against the Browns seems to be decided ? or until the scoreboard shows that the Ravens are handling the Bengals.

3.? AFC playoff field is flawed.

Not that long ago, all the best teams resided in the AFC.? Now, the once top-heavy conference has teams at the top that are littered with warts.

The Patriots, currently the top seed, possess a porous defense and not much of a running game.? Last time I checked, those were two key components of any serious playoff run.

The Ravens seem to be the most dangerous team of the bunch, as long as they can put it all together.? But they seem only to put it all together when playing good teams.? Saturday?s dilly-dallying with the Browns shows that the Ravens could be ripe for an upset if/when a lesser franchise comes to town.

Not long ago, the Texans were the ?it? team.? Now, many of their fans want to add an ?s? and an ?h? to that description.? With scant playoff experience on the roster, the Texans will need to make a quick adjustment when it?s time to play the big boys in the conference.

The Steelers have the tools to beat anyone, but they?re in danger of having to do it the hard way, with three hurdles to clear ? all of which most likely will come on the road ? before a earning a return trip to the Super Bowl.

The Broncos can beat anyone on any given day.? As we saw in fairly dramatic fashion on Saturday, they can lose to anyone, too.? Including a team that was riding a seven-game winning streak.? Even if the clock is striking twelve on Tebow Time, it?s hard to see this team winning in Pittsburgh/Baltimore, New England, or even Houston.

Ditto for the Raiders, who have at times looked good enough to barely win and at other times bad enough to be blown off the field.

That means the team poised to pocket the last ticket to the party ? the Bengals ? could be the most dangerous.? With a capable defense, a better-than-expected rookie quarterback, and a better-than-most rookie receiver, the team with the least to lose and the lowest expectations could string together one win after another, thanks to the deeply flawed field of candidates.

Of course, this could mean that the winner of the conference will end up being the sacrificial lambs for the Packers, Saints, or 49ers.? Unless, of course, the Ravens avoid playing down to the competition in their own conference long enough to earn a crack at the best teams in the league.

4.? Tough year for top two tailbacks.

Entering the 2011 football season, running backs in the NFL fell into two categories:? (1) Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson; and (2) everyone else.

And the season started very well for both men, who took two very different paths to getting paid a lot of money.? Johnson held out of training camp and the preseason, getting his big-money deal only days before the start of the season.? Peterson happily entered the final season of his rookie contract without creating any overt drama, even though it privately was known he wouldn?t react well to being subjected to the franchise tag in 2012.

Once the games started, it became clear that the holdout hampered Johnson.? Peterson performed well as usual, but he was underutilized at times by a Vikings team that kept blowing second-half leads.

Now that Peterson has suffered a serious knee injury, which seemed inevitable given his hard-charging running style, both men have a long way to go to prove that they remain the best tailbacks in the game.? Johnson needs to rediscover the explosiveness that allowed him to slide through a crease and hit the nitrous button; Peterson needs to get healthy.

Their experiences demonstrate that, unlike the quarterback position, which produces a tight nucleus of elite players who remain at that level for years, the best running backs have become a revolving door, with each year producing new guys who?ll enter the next season at the top of the league ? and who?ll have only a limited window to remain there.

5.? Cruz control in New York.

In his team?s first game of the 2010 preseason, undrafted rookie receiver Victor Cruz created a major stir for the Giants, with a performance that featured 145 yards and three touchdowns against the Jets in their annual exhibition.? But then the regular season started, and Cruz disappeared from view, making zero receptions before suffering a season-ending injury.

The 2011 campaign began far more inconspicuously for Cruz, with no touchdowns in the preseason and no receptions in the regular-season opener.? In Week Two, Cruz had only two catches for 17 yards.

Then came the explosion.? In the past 13 games, Cruz has generated 1,341 receiving yards.? Combined with the paltry 51 feet from the first eighth of the season, Cruz now has become the single-season receiving yardage leader in the storied history of the Giants franchise.

And the breaking of Amani Toomers? record came in perhaps the biggest regular-season game the Giants have had in years ? a cross-town/cross-stadium rivalry with the loud-mouthed Jets, in which Cruz?s nine-yard catch and 90-yard run turned the tide of a game in which the ?home? team in Green seemed to be overpowering the team that had won only one of six games.

As a result, Cruz needs to be taken seriously as one of the best young receivers in the game.? It?s a great story for a New Jersey kid who simply wanted to play in the NFL.? Cruz, through two NFL seasons, is on track not just to play but to dominate.

6.? Heaping helping of humble pie for the Ryans.

It?ll be interesting to see the relationship between the outcome of the 2011 regular season and the extent to which the Ryan twins keep talking.? For Rex, the Jets head coach, he had a chance to put up or shut up against the Giants.? Rex didn?t put up; now we?ll see whether he shuts up.

For Rob, the Cowboys defensive coordinator, another ugly loss to the Eagles and a looming winner-take-all game against the team that just beat Rex should induce caution and, relatively speaking, silence.

But guys who like to talk tend to find ways to keep talking.? Even after a season in which the Eagles scored a total of 99 points against the Ryans in three games, and with both the Jets and Cowboys facing a strong possibility of no postseason appearance for either team, it?s unlikely that they?ll change.

They can?t change; they are who they are, which is the source of their appeal to the men who play for them.? And as long as their players respond well to Rex and Rob, they?ll have a place in the league.

Besides, there?s still a chance ? slim as it may be ? that both men will extend their seasons past January 1.? For Rob, it?s a simple win-and-in proposition.? For Rex, the odds are longer, but it?s no huge stretch to think that the Jets will beat the Dolphins, the Ravens will beat the Bengals, the Texans will beat the Titans, and the Raiders or the Broncos will lose to the Chargers or the Chiefs, respectively.

If that all happens, Rex will find a way to quickly and completely digest his Christmas Eve portion of humble pie.? And now that the Jets have bottomed out for the third time this year, the boomerang effect could carry them deep into that deeply flawed AFC playoff field.

7.? It?ll be hard to keep Raheem.

The Buccaneers nearly made it to the postseason in 2010.? But for a surprising (at the time) home loss to the Lions, the 10-6 Bucs would have claimed the last seat at the NFC table, bouncing to the curb the eventual Super Bowl champions.

This year, expectations were higher, even though they were tempered by the reality that the Bucs compete with the Falcons and Saints in the NFC South.? A 4-2 start to the season, including wins over said Falcons and Saints, created a sense that the ?yungry? team from Tampa could take over the division.

And then the bottom dropped out.

Nine straight losses later, including two to a Carolina team that won only two total games a year ago, the Bucs have clinched the basement.? With coach Raheem Morris having only one year left on his contract and receiving no public or (by all appearances) private assurances that he?ll be back in 2012, it?s safe to assume that ownership will move on.

With the Jon Gruden buyout completed and Morris being paid nowhere near the top of the coaching food chain, it?ll be no problem to pay him not to coach the team in 2011.? And with the Bucs on track to finish the year with as many consecutive losses as total victories a year ago, it?ll be virtually impossible for a team that struggles to sell tickets to bring Raheem back.

But then who will they hire to run the team?? The up-and-coming coordinator who happens to be the younger brother of the guy the Bucs fired three years ago?? Another young assistant coach with low recognition, low salary demands, and, in turn, a limited ability to put butts in seats?

Or will the Glazer family decide to spend some of the money that hasn?t been devoted to player costs over the past several years on a big-name coach whose mere presence will help market the team?

We?ll all find out the answer soon.? The end result could result in even more empty seats next year at Raymond James Stadium.

8.? Lions peaking at the right time, but will it matter?

After the Lions slumped from 5-0 to 7-5, serious questions hovered regarding the team?s true ability to compete.? The loss of running back Jahvid Best to a season-ending concussion and the decision of opposing defenses to blanket receiver Calvin Johnson took the sting out of the offense.? The Ndamukong Suh imbroglio created a torrent of negative publicity, and a sense that the Lions simply weren?t ready to compete at the highest levels of the league.

Three straight wins in a row later, the Lions have made it to the postseason for the first time since 1999, and they?re being regarded as a serious threat to make some major noise when the playoffs start.

But will they?? Though Saturday?s thumping of the Chargers arguably was the most impressive victory of the season, the Lions barely held on to beat a bad Vikings team and found a way to steal a road win over the up-and-down Raiders.

It?s entirely possible that the bolt of momentum coming from the knockout blow that the Lions administered to the Chargers will help the Lions win a game or two, or maybe more, when it counts the most.? Ultimately, the Lions? fate could be influenced heavily by whether they enter the playoffs as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.

If they can hold off the Falcons for the primary wild-card spot in the NFC, the Lions will play at Dallas (where the Lions won during the season) or New York (where the Giants have a hard time holding serve, at least when they?re not the visiting team).? But if the Lions slide into the sixth spot, Detroit will have to return to New Orleans, where they lost badly in early December.

The Saints seem to be unbeatable in the Superdome.? Perhaps the Lions could find a way to beat them there, but the Lions would surely prefer not to be forced to try.

And that creates an interesting dilemma for the Packers next week.? With the top seed clinched, should Green Bay rest their starters for the postseason, or should they do everything they can to force the Lions? postseason tour to commence with the possibility of inevitable failure in New Orleans?

9.? Eventual Super Bowl teams dodged a bullet.

In less than a month, we?ll know the identities of the teams who?ll qualify for the biggest event in all of sport.? Whoever makes it should look back to Week 16, and breathe a deep sigh of relief.? (Not to be confused with the many other types of sighs.)

On Christmas Eve, two of the most potentially disruptive teams summarily were erased from postseason contention, when the Chargers saw their three-game winning streak end in Detroit and when the Eagles saw their own three-game run rendered irrelevant by the Giants? win over the Jets.

Either team could have wreaked major havoc in January.? Just as the Packers barely made it to the playoffs as the NFC?s sixth seed in 2010 and then won the whole thing, the Eagles and Chargers could have parlayed late-season surges into postseason pillaging.

Now, none of the other playoff teams have to worry about the two teams who were the hottest in the league entering Week 16.? The Eagles have gotten even hotter, and the Packers, 49ers, and Saints should be thrilled that the Eagles won?t get a chance to extend that vibe beyond Sunday.

10.? The bloom is off the Tebow.

Eight days ago, Tim Tebow had reached the pinnacle of pro football popularity and/or notoriety.? The Broncos quarterback had become the biggest name in football, joining only a small handful of football players who can cross over into major mainstream consciousness.

Today, with a pair of ugly losses in which Tebow and the Broncos offense started strong but ultimately collapsed, the national buzz has diminished, significantly.? Though Tebow can get it back by leading the Broncos to a win over the Chiefs and former Denver starter Kyle Orton, the past two weekends prove that the flavor of the month sometimes is only the flavor of the week.

At some point, Tebowmania likely will return to the top of the non-sports news cycle.? Also, he remains the hottest thing going in Denver.

Still, his inability to deliver further heroics at home against the Patriots or to stay within 20 points of a bad Buffalo team on Christmas Eve has served as a stark reminder that the latest big name in sports is at any given time only a couple of bad games away from again becoming just another face in the crowd.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/26/cam-newton-is-indestructible/related/

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Esther Wojcicki: Give Yourself A Free University Education at University of the People

Here is a Christmas-Hannukah gift you can give yourself, a loved one, a friend, or the world---A university education online for free. Is this some kind of trick?

Nope, it isn't a trick. It is a new university called University of the People (appropriately named) but the degrees are limited in scope right now since the University is fairly new. But the important ones are there.

It is the world's first tuition-free online academic institution dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education.

Just go to their website and check it out for yourself.

The vision of University of the People is that "universal access to education is a key to world peace and global economic development." I agree and I am sure most people would.

Their program is all online. In the U.S., approximately 4 million students are currently enrolled in online education many of them in University of Phoenix, a for profit institution that has a large variety of course offerings, but it is expensive. On the other hand, University of the People provides an unprecedented tuition-free online academic experience to a worldwide-audience.

So far they offer four degree programs. All of these degrees are in areas where there is job growth---business administration and computer science. In the U.S. we have hundreds of computer science jobs that go unfilled each year. We need more computer science majors to meet our technological needs worldwide. We need businesspeople to be entrepreneurs and start new businesses.

For those who are job hunting, you might want to consider signing up for one of these courses They are accessible on your computer at home for free. No commuting, no travel expenses. It is right there on your desk.

Here are the four degrees offered at the University of the People:
1)Associate (A.S.-B.A.) and 2) Bachelor (B.S.-B.A.) degrees in Business Administration
3)Associate (A.S.-C.S.) and 4) Bachelor (B.S.-C.S.) degrees in Computer Science.

How can University of the People offer degrees for free? It is a non-profit organization and it accepts donations; these donations support many of the students. The University is supported by companies, foundations and individuals. Some students pay the low fees.

Presently, it has 300 students from 50 countries around the world. It costs just $4,000K for a student to go to the university for four years. Compare that with the tuition costs of $100,000 for four years at many universities.

The founder Shai Reshef understands the education world. He is an experienced entrepreneur who was Chairman of the Kidum Group a for-profit educational services company which he later sold to Kaplan, one of the world's largest education companies and a subsidiary of the Washington Post. Business Week recently wrote an article about Shai and the university.

Those who would like to support a student at the University of the People, can donate online. Any amount is welcome and it is tax deductible. Imagine being able to change someone's life for the better. Turns out that it would cost only $6 million to educate everyone in the world at University of the People, according to Shai. Not much when you consider how much we spend on just defense.

For those of you who want give yourself a gift of a degree, go online and fill out an application to enroll. It is an exciting opportunity and the time of year to be giving.

?

Follow Esther Wojcicki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EstherWojcicki

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-wojcicki/give-yourself-a-free-univ_b_1168585.html

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Kim's last gift to NKorea: loads of fish (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? The people of North Korea's capital have received a special gift from recently deceased leader Kim Jong Il: loads and loads of fish.

North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency has reported that Kim was concerned about the supply of fish in Pyongyang, and had looked into the matter the day before he died. North Korea announced Monday that he died of a massive heart attack on Saturday.

The report, issued late Friday, said Kim's young son and heir, Kim Jong Un, "took all necessary measures to truck fresh fish to the capital city in time and supply the fish to the citizens, even in the mourning period."

North Korea is in official mourning until after Kim's funeral Dec. 28-29.

North Korean media have been flowing with eulogies for Kim Jong Il, who ruled the country for 17 years after the death of his father, North Korea's national founder and eternal President Kim Il Sung. Both Kims were the object of intense personality cults.

With Kim Jong Un poised to extend the Kim family dynasty into an additional generation, North Korea is quickly building the mythology by emphasizing his bloodline and the Kim family legacy, from its roots as revolutionaries fighting the Japanese to their spiritual role as protectors of the North Korean people.

The state media has broadcast constant scenes of public mourning, with women and children wailing, soldiers bowing before Kim's smiling portrait and senior officials lining up to view his body, which is on display in a glass case at the same funeral palace where his father's embalmed remains are on view.

North Korea has also claimed Kim's death generated a series of spectacular natural phenomena, creating a mysterious glow atop a revered mountain, cracking a sheet of ice on a lake with a loud roar and inspiring a crane to circle a statue of the nation's founder before perching in a tree and drooping its head in sorrow.

The reports have stressed how the North Korean people are deeply indebted to the largesse of their leaders, despite the deepening political isolation and economic hardship they have faced in recent years, including severe famines and shortages of electricity, food and other necessities.

"Leader Kim Jong Il is always with us as we have respected Comrade Kim Jong Un identical to him," KCNA quoted Song Hye Yong, a 42-year-old woman, as saying as she carried "a bag full of fish in her hand."

The report also quoted Kim Jong Hwa, a saleswoman at a grocery in the central district of the city, as saying she was deeply touched by leader Kim Jong Il's gift of fish to the people.

"All of citizens are deeply moved by his deep care," she said.

Despite initial jitters over possible instability, officials in Seoul and Washington are calling the political transition in North Korea smooth so far. There have been no outward signs of unrest on the streets or unusual troop movements along the borders.

The North, however, is highly sensitive to what it sees as outside threats.

Its government-run website, Uriminzokkiri, has slammed South Korea for putting its military on alert, calling that move an "insult" to a nation in mourning.

The Korean peninsula remains in a state of war because the three-year Korean War ended in 1953 in a truce, not a peace treaty. Tanks and troops still guard the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the two sides.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_re_as/as_kim_jong_il

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Mitchell 2012 Ford F-150 New Truck near Sioux Falls, SD Brookings, SD Vern Eide Ford Lincoln for $39,155

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Source: http://www.verneideford.com/2012-Ford-F-150-Mitchell/vd/8896853

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Daily Tip: How to track Santa on your iPhone or iPad

Little ones trying to figure out just how exactly they can track Santa on their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad this year? Well, Google Maps and NORAD to the rescue! They’ve got Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen — and Rudolf! — of...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/EGtAE6G3ln8/story01.htm

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Gingrich fails to qualify for Va. primary ballot

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during a campaign stop, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during a campaign stop, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich failed to qualify for Virginia's Super Tuesday primary ballot, the latest setback for a candidate whose standing in polls has been slipping. Gingrich's campaign said he would pursue an aggressive write-in campaign, though state law prohibits write-ins on primary ballots.

The state party said early Saturday that Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry had failed to submit the required 10,000 signatures to appear on the March 6 ballot.

Failing to get on the ballot in Virginia, where Gingrich lives, underscores the difficulty first-time national candidates have in preparing for the long haul of a presidential campaign.

And it illustrates the advantage held by Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who has essentially been running for president for five years. Romney's team, larger than those of most of his opponents, has paid close attention to filing requirements in each state. He will appear on the Virginia ballot along with Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who also has run a national campaign before.

Ironically, Gingrich had a slight lead over Romney in a Quinnipiac poll of Virginia Republicans released earlier in the week.

The former House speaker surged in popularity in early December and tried to use that momentum to make up for a stalled campaign organization. But his standing in polls has slipped in recent days amid a barrage of negative ads in Iowa, where the Jan. 3 caucuses begin the contest for the Republican presidential nomination.

Three other candidates ? Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman ? did not submit signatures before Virginia's deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday.

Gingrich's campaign attacked Virginia's primary system on Saturday, saying that "only a failed system" would disqualify Gingrich and other candidates and vowing to run a write-in campaign.

"Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates," Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull said in a statement. "We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice."

However, according to state law, "No write-in shall be permitted on ballots in primary elections."

"Virginia code prohibits write-ins in primaries. He can't do it," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at University of Richmond.

Tobias said Gingrich may have had trouble meeting a requirement that he must submit 400 signatures from each of Virginia's 11 congressional districts.

Gingrich's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gingrich had been concerned enough to deliver his signatures personally. Rushing Wednesday from New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Jan. 10, he had supporters sign petitions before entering a rally in Arlington, Va.

Virginia GOP spokesman Garren Shipley said in a statement that volunteers spent Friday validating signatures on petitions that Romney, Paul, Perry and Gingrich had submitted. "After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary," the party announced early Saturday on its Twitter feed. Shipley did not respond to telephone calls Saturday seeking comment.

Forty-six delegates will be at stake in Virginia's Super Tuesday primary. That's a small fraction of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination. But they could prove pivotal in a close race, especially for a candidate like Gingrich, who expects to do well in Southern contests.

Gingrich already missed the deadline to appear on the ballot in Missouri's Feb. 7 primary, though he insists it doesn't matter because the state awards delegates based not on the primary but on a Republican caucus held in March.

Meanwhile, Virginia's Democrats said President Barack Obama's re-election campaign gathered enough signatures to get him on the state's primary ballot though he was the only candidate who qualified.

___

Associated Press writers Will Lester and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-24-GOP%20Ballot/id-d7e26ae174854bc5bc0de49defb48205

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Family Photo: The Kidman-Urbans Hit the Street

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman stay in step with daughter Sunday Rose, 3?, while shopping in Soho Sunday afternoon in New York City.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/0xMgbZiEQ4A/

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Why humans are so sociable these days

ScienceDaily (Dec. 20, 2011) ? Humans have evolved to become the most flexible of the primates and being able to live in lots of different social settings sets us apart from non-human primates, suggests research by University of Oxford and the University of Auckland.

A research paper, published in the journal Nature, has provided important new clues to how humans network and socialise today by exploring the evolutionary history of social groupings among primates. The study analysed patterns of social groups among living primates, as well as examining the 'the root' of the family tree, in 217 primate species. The researchers then used Bayesian data modelling to reconstruct the most likely explanation for how the grouping behaviour of primates evolved over 74 million years.

Their key finding is that the main step change in social behaviour occurred when primates switched from being mainly active at night to being more active during the day. Primates started out as solitary foragers as by night they could survive by moving quietly on their own in the dark. However, once they switched to daytime activity, they could be seen and were more vulnerable to attack by predators unless they could show strength in numbers. This research paper provides evidence to show that this switch in activity coincided with a significant change in social behaviour as primates started to 'gang up' for the first time. The researchers conclude that social bonding began as a way of adapting to a new threat.

The paper also suggests that primates went directly from being solitary foragers into large, mixed-sex groups where group members were loosely bound together. Members could come and go as needed, suggests the research, which is a behaviour still observed in some primates, like lemurs, today. The emergence of more stable groups of primates, in which individuals formed clusters that were smaller in size and maintained close social links, is likely to have developed much later says the paper.

These findings are significant as they throw into doubt previous theories about the evolution of primate social grouping patterns. Previous studies have suggested that complex primate social groups were composed of smaller units that stacked up rather like building blocks. Others have suggested that the bond between a mother and daughter later extended to include other related females, and it was this network of relationships that underpinned the social grouping patterns of mammals.

The data, studied by the research team, included a huge range of social grouping patterns: solitary individuals, family- bonds, pair-bonds, harems, multi-male and multi-female groups. The researchers discovered that the bonding behaviour of primates was strongly determined by their ancestors, with closely related species having very similar social behaviour.

Once the transition from individual to group living took place -- 52 million years ago in the ancestral line that gave rise to humans, and later in another branch of the primate family tree -- no shift back to solitary behaviour ever occurred. Primate ancestors that subsequently began living in pairs did not switch back to group living, whereas those that began living in harems could transition back and forth with large groups. There was never a transition directly from pair to harem living or vice versa.

The researchers conclude that only humans have had the flexibility to live in a range of different, complicated social settings. Throughout history, humans have lived in monogamous and polygamous societies; in nuclear family and extended family groups. Beyond the home, they have socialised in different work settings, as well as being part of the complicated social structure of wider human society.

Lead author Dr Susanne Shultz, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford, said: 'There is an amazing flexibility in the way humans have managed to socialise, network and live together, both in groups and wider society. We have a huge variety of social settings to cope with, according to the different cultural practices and customs. This flexibility in the human lineage has not evolved to anything like this level in other primates. Our findings support previous studies that suggest that more brain power is needed for groups that have a more complicated social life.

'Co-author Kit Opie, also from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, said: 'These analyses allow us to look back in time to understand major step changes in social evolution amongst our closest relatives. We now understand why primate sociality is inherently special, as bonded social groups are unusual in mammals, yet the norm in primates.'

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Journal Reference:

1. Susanne Shultz, Christopher Opie, Quentin D. Atkinson. Stepwise evolution of stable sociality in primates. Nature, 2011; 479 (7372): 219 DOI: 10.1038/nature10601

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111220205212.htm

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