From the BBC we get news that scientists have managed to observe fruit fly sperm that they have made glow either red or green and watched them duke it out in the sexual selection process. They believe this breakthrough may help advance theories on evolution and could provide solutions to human infertility:

In nature, monogamy is often the exception, promiscuity usually the rule, the BBC's Matt McGrath reports.

But whenever a female of any species mates with more than one male there is a battle between the sperm of the potential fathers as they attempt to fertilise the eggs.

Scientists regard this type of sexual selection as a very important force for evolutionary change.

...snip...

Prof Scott Pitnick says it was a jaw-dropping moment when he saw the multicoloured sperm through the microscope for the first time.

"It turns out that they [the sperm] are constantly on the move within the female's specialised sperm-storage organs and exhibit surprisingly complex behaviour," Prof Pitnick said.

Below the fold are some other stories on this breakthrough and other related fields of study as recommended by the BBC.

The exchange between the Grayson campaign and Sarah Palin is downright humorous ...

From the Grayson campaign site:

PALIN: "I got to meet quite a few candidates who are lining up in a contested primary who want to take out Alan Grayson. And I think Alan Grayson -- what can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won't say anything about Alan Grayson that can't be said around children.

-SNIP-

Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. 

Very entertaining ...

We have a broadband connection at our house so it isn't too bad on downloading information even in comparison to the rest of the world that is burning up the internet with speed. But for the most part the USA is lagging versus the parts of the world that have truly embraced the high speed connection world. Go ahead and take this test to compare where you stand in your State, in the nation and in comparison to internet connections around the world. And please remember that many of the nations that have better or similar connections than you are paying less for it.

When I look at my own results, where our internet connection and most US users' internet connections really lag is in the uploading of information. Something that can be considered a serious issue when you think about Freedom of Speech and getting information out in any Citizen Journalists' world. And when you consider that we have the fiber optics and technology to hit some serious Terabits for connection speeds, it makes setting standards of 100 Megabits for ten years down the road seem like a slow walk that won't even keep pace with the parts of the world that invest heavily in moving forward quickly on this stuff.

In other words, by the time we reach the FCC goals those standards will probably be near obsolete in other parts of the world. And we will still be lagging.

Below the fold are some recent articles from SpeedMatters.org's Blog where they are embracing the FCC's new standards which will be an improvement. But I honestly think we can and should do better and it starts with thinking faster NOW.

And compared to the previous scores of both the Senate and House versions... The costs are down even more:

Brett Baier proves himself to be an ignorant, arrogant, disingenuous asshole by disrespecting the President, the office and the nation with his childish Teabagger behavior. Watch:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Disgraceful.

As Cantor sings deliriously about what he does not understand*, over on the FOX "News" side, where unlike the "opinion" right wing activists they supposedly deal in facts, they can't seem to get the facts straight about whether or not there is a vote:

There is a vote on Healthcare Reform when someone flips their vote on Healthcare Reform but there isn't a vote minutes later when the Dems are using magic** by taking what the GOP calls the unprecedented*** move of deeming a bill passed.

Almost sounds like dizzy political opinion that doesn't reconcile with the truth, eh? But FOX says it is just the "News" and facts in that slot.

* Where understand means Cantor does not like political reality smacking his argument up-side the head with a vote moving ahead.

** Where Magic means evil things only the Democratic party could ever do. If the GOP were to do it it would be called "doing God's work".

*** Where unprecedented means it has been done thousands of times before by both parties BUT it is outrageous that the Dems might do it now.

Image © BBC: Iran and Pakistan sign 'historic' pipeline deal:

Correspondents say the deal is not likely to be welcomed by the US - because of Tehran's suspected ambitions to build nuclear weapons.

I wondered how they could have stretched and tortured that logic to go from a pipeline to nukes. Then it hit me: aluminum tubes. The same people that brought us the tubes will now try to convince us that pipeline parts are actually going to be used to manufacture 'nukular missiles'.

WTF, the tea-partiers'll buy it.

AP: House leaders joust over use of parliamentary rule

Hoyer's Republican counterpart, Rep. Eric Cantor, acknowledged that such a process is permissible under House rules. . [but] said he couldn't understand why Democrats would use such a parliamentary detour with a bill of this magnitude and reach.

So after spending close to fifteen months, more hearings in more committees with more hours of debate than in the entire period of Reep-Rule, and using the most obstructionist tactics by one party in the history of the House, Cantor "can't understand"?

Quick, get that man a procto-neuro-surgeon.

Photo © Lee Williams/CRES

Alana Semuels/LAT: More homeowners are opting for 'strategic defaults':

There are consequences to walking away. A default will knock down a credit score by at least 100 points, said Craig Watts, a spokesman for FICO, the company that developed credit scores.

DAYTON, OH – University of Dayton graduate student and Dayton Christian Center (DXC) Fellow Drew Formentini has been selected as a participant in the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative to be held April 16-18 at the University of Miami, FL.

Via The Existentialist Cowboy, A court case concerning an attempted arrest of Bush in Canada gets about as politically charged as it can get:

Today the trial of Splitting the Sky commenced. Splitting the Sky attempted a citizens' arrest on credibly accused war criminal George W. Bush on March 17, 2009, and was arrested and jailed for doing so by police. Try as its representatives might to disguise their motivations with the kind PR spin doctoring we witnessed in the court today, the Calgary Police, the RCMP and its contractors were under the Harper government's strict political orders to protect the Alberta home turf of the current minority government that came to power as the holder of the Bushite franchise in Canada. Some have termed this historic proceeding as "The Trial of Splitting the Sky versus George W. Bush." From what I witnessed firsthand on day one, the government attempt to manage this highly volatile convergence of law and politics was an exciting affair.

For those of you that might try to point out the lack of the word "alleged" in front of the "Bush War crimes" part of the title, this has already been dealt with legally as Canada had already documented some war crimes of the Bush administration previously in court leading to their placing the USA on its torture watch list:

From the blog of Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners:

Last week, when radio and television talk show host Glenn Beck said that social justice is a “code word” for Communism and Nazism, and urged people to leave their churches if they teach social justice, I decided that message needed to be challenged.

[...snip...]

In fact, on Friday, I sent Glenn a letter proposing that the two of us sit down together and have an open and public discussion on what social justice really means and how Christians are called to engage in the struggle for justice. I said, “let’s make this a civil dialogue and not engage in personal attacks on each other — which is never helpful in trying to sort out what is true. So let’s talk about the heart of the matter.”

Beck, the unstable lunatic that he is, responded on-air yesterday, the Ides of March. An excerpt of his response, again from Wallis's blog:

So Jim, I just wanted to pass this on to you. In my time I will respond — my time, well, kind of like God’s time, might be a day, might be a week to you, I’m not sure. But I’m going to get to it in my time, not your time. So you go ahead and you continue to do your protest thing, and that’s great. I love it. But just know — the hammer is coming, because little do you know, for eight weeks, we’ve been compiling information on you, your cute little organization, and all the other cute little people that are with you. And when the hammer comes, it’s going to be hammering hard and all through the night, over and over…

Um, sure Glenn.

You're a perfect example of insanity and extremism, living in a world fabricated to achieve maximum delusion.

Go get 'em.

On a final, ending note, from Lordrag of DelphiForums -- my new favorite quote about Beck:

When Glenn Becks looks into the Abyss, the Abyss shudders, and says, 'That guy is fuckin creepy.'

Yeah, he is.

If your name is not Anthony Weiner, Dennis Kucinich or self-evidently Alan Grayson as you will read below the fold... And you are a member of the Democratic party, then this note is directed at you:

GROW A SPINE, DAMNIT!

Now... Things you can say to show that you may actually have one?

From Rep. Alan Grayson and, YES, he (and most in the left because we have spines) approves of this message taken from his own site:

Michael Collins

Leaks from a recent top level briefing by General David Petraeus are causing quite a controversy. The general pointed out that, "Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region." Mark Perry reported this on March 13 in Foreign Policy. Perry said, "No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue... "

When I read a statement like that, it's like hearing the opening music for The Twilight Zone. What on earth is Perry talking about? Every CENTCOM commander, from General Tommy Franks, through Petraeus, has endorsed the continuation of the Iraq war and occupation. That's as essentially political as you can get.

There was no basis for invading Iraq:

Thomas H. Maugh II/LAT: Erectile dysfunction is strong predictor of fatal heart ailments, German study finds

The best one-liner I've heard in a long time.