Everybody else is doing it...

I wasn't going to post one of these, though I've posted a few in other people's comment threads. Now while I wait for the laundry to finish, I'll post two new episodes because, for tonight, I'm a sheep. Baa.

My LiveJournal Sitcom
Taking Care Of hummingwolf's professor (SHOWTIME, 4:30): hummingwolf (Harvey Keitel) and hohum (John, Olivia Newto) kiss at the college. Later that day, moonriver (John Cusack)'s new shirt bleeds in the wash and stains all of scienceblog (Mariel Hemingway)'s underwear pink. Afterwards, bhayes1016 (Scott Baio) accidentally breaks sophy (Al Pacino)'s teabag. Later, danalog (Shirley Temple) thinks nature_science (Martin Short) has a Brooklyn accent. That night, grammargasm (Kelly Hu) and cantinera (Phoebe Cates) perform slapstick at the theatre. Presented in HDTV.
What's Your LiveJournal Sitcom? (by rfreebern)

My LiveJournal Sitcom
hummingwolf's hairspray canister (SHOWTIME, 4:30): hummingwolf (Harvey Keitel) tries to seduce msggoat (Jon Voight) at the Eiffel Tower. At the same time, writty (Kevin Smith) dances with hai_kah_uhk (Ed Harris). Also, frawst (David Schwimmer) hypnotizes jeweldevil (Will Ferrell) but it doesn't work. Nearby, scienceblog (Mariel Hemingway) burns eilandesq (Kim Cattrall)'s Klondike bar. Then, scientific_amer (Forest Whitaker) discovers that penguinboi (Colin Firth) is taking Lovecraftian horror lessons. (Part 2 of 2.)
What's Your LiveJournal Sitcom? (by rfreebern)

Note: Having met danalog face to face, I must say that the idea of him being played by Shirley Temple is amusing as heck. And while xforge didn't appear in either of these sitcoms, I've seen him cast elsewhere as Jeri Ryan and, again, having met him in person, I'm mightily amused. On the other hand, the bit about penguinboi and Lovecraftian horror makes perfect sense.

This has been your utterly useless post of the night.

News link of the morning

This brainless mud worm is a long-lost relative of human beings, scientists have discovered.
It appears the slug-like creature found living at the bottom of a Swedish lake shares its ancestry with people.

It does not have a brain or even sex organs and scientists are baffled about how the Xenoturbella procreates....

"We have now been able to show that, amongst all of the invertebrates that exist, Xenoturbella is one of our very closest relatives.



Edit: Scientists previously thought it belonged to the same group as bivalve molluscs because it carried mollusc eggs, but in fact it had eaten them.

According to Nature:

It is the most primitive existing member of the group to which humans belong, called the deuterostomes, the authors argue. "It tells us what we evolved from 500 million years ago," says Telford. Deuterostomes include mammals, fish, starfish and worms.

The creature's rocky road to recognition began with its discovery more than 80 years ago. It's lack of recognizable features - it has no separate mouth or anus and no body cavity - led to its first labelling as a primitive flatworm.

Subsequent studies related it to acorn worms and starfish, because of similarities in its diffuse nerve network and outer epidermal layer. Then, in 1997, it received the lamentable mollusc moniker.

A preference for sludgy sea habitats makes Xenoturbella difficult to find, so researchers can only guess at their numbers. "Quite possibly, they're everywhere," says Telford, "but they're not the sort of thing you trip over on a beach."


I love following scientific research, I really do.