factsandchicks:

Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali would go two months without sex before a big fight, saying it made him unbeatable in the ring.

source

tacotwerker:

doctor-donna-detective:

bemeans:

Each morning, like clockwork, they board the subway, off to begin their daily routine amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.

But these aren’t just any daily commuters. These are stray dogs who live in the outskirts of Moscow Russia and commute on the underground trains to and from the city centre in search of food scraps.

Then after a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.

Experts studying the dogs, who usually choose the quietest carriages at the front and back of the train, say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop – after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.

Scientists believe this phenomenon began after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, and Russia’s new capitalists moved industrial complexes from the city centre to the suburbs.

Dr Andrei Poiarkov, of the Moscow Ecology and Evolution Institute, said: “These complexes were used by homeless dogs as shelters, so the dogs had to move together with their houses. Because the best scavenging for food is in the city centre, the dogs had to learn how to travel on the subway – to get to the centre in the morning, then back home in the evening, just like people.”

Dr Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute. He said: “They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking their tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and get off at the wrong stop.”

The dogs have also amazingly learned to use traffic lights to cross the road safely, said Dr Poiarkov. And they use cunning tactics to obtain tasty morsels of shawarma, a kebab-like snack popular in Moscow.

With children the dogs “play cute” by putting their heads on youngsters’ knees and staring pleadingly into their eyes to win sympathy – and scraps.

Dr Poiarkov added: “Dogs are surprisingly good psychologists.”

Holy butts dogs are freaking smart

VERY smart.

factsandchicks:

If caught having sex on an airplane in the 60’s and 70’s crew members occasionally greeted couples returning from the bathroom with a glass of champagne and a cigarette and officially welcomed them to the mile-high club.

source

theolduvaigorge:

Shocking new theory: Humans hunted, ate Neanderthals

• by Larry O’Hanlon

Humans today eat gorillas and chimpanzees, so why would our prehistoric ancestors flinch at sitting down to a nicely roasted Neanderthal?

That’s the shocking new hypothesis being raised by anthropologists in Spain who wonder if our closest extinct relative was exterminated in the same way as 178 other large mammals, so called megafauna, which are suspected of going at least partially by the hand of hungry human hunters.

“Except in its native Africa, in the other continents Homo sapiens can be considered as an invasive alien species,” write researchers Policarp Hortolà and Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain. They published their hypothesis in the May issue of the journal Quaternary International.

Faces of Our Ancestors

Today there are endless cases of invasive species decimating native species all over the world. So perhaps at the end of the Pliestocene, it was the same when humans spread into Europe and Asia where Homo neanderthalensis was just another big, slow-reproducing mammal.

“We think that modern humans, who occupied (a) similar ecological niche as Neanderthals, but with more evolved technology, in their colonization of the new European territories directly competed with Neanderthals for the food and other natural resources,” writes Martínez-Navarro, in an emailed response to Discovery News.

There are other examples of very similar species overlapping and eventually one of them getting pushed out, explained Martínez-Navarro, especially involving carnivores out of Africa.

The African species of saber toothed tiger, for example, spread into Eurasia around 1.8 million years ago and lead to the demise of a very closely related species there. And the arrival of the African spotted hyena into Eurasia matches the extinction of the giant short facet hyena about 800,000 years ago.

Of course, this is only suggestive, and not hard evidence that Homo sapiens followed the same pattern as other African predators.

“The only manner to test it is to find direct evidences of modern human eating marks on Neanderthal remains, such cut or broken marks on bones in … artifacts made by modern humans,” explained Martínez-Navarro.

Humans Vs. Neanderthals: How Did We Win?

So far, the evidence is not quite there, explained paleo-ecologist J.R. Stewart of Bournemouth University in the U.K.

“This is interesting because in actual fact the Neanderthal remains with cut marks are generally found in deposits full of Neanderthal artifacts and not with human artifacts,” Stewart said. “This suggests they were eaten by Neanderthals.”

That doesn’t disprove the hypothesis either, it just means we’ll have to see if any evidence is found to back it up.

Neanderthals Lacked Social Skills

“The idea that humans hunted Neanderthals to extinction as part of the megafaunal extinction is new,” said Stewart. “Not that humans killed them all in a ‘genocide,’ which has already been suggested.”

And although Stewart isn’t considers the new hypothesis “unlikely,” he agreed that all hypotheses “need to be voiced and considered.”

***So then there was this in the news today…and um. Well, we had the bunny hypothesis of Neandertal extinction, the big eyes hypothesis. What else was there? Oh, yeah. They weren’t social enough, so that’s one way we maybe “won” a literal race war. But nope. I don’t buy any of them. We ate the Neanderthals into extinction. We snacked until there was nothing left but a few cut marks on a cranium. That’s it. We’ve nailed it this time. Pop science journalism has solved the enigma for us. Didn’t I just post about this rubbish yesterday?

(Source: NBC; not that anyone should take credit for this)

aladyloves:

105/365 films in 2013

Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)

(Source: aspeckamongdots)

factsandchicks:

Tupac Shakur shot two off duty police officers who were assaulting a  young man.

source (video)

greekprick:

daenerystaygaryen:

To just sleep in a car like this, with your best friend or boyfriend and not worry because its just you two and tomorrow you’re just going to climb out of bed and into the front of the car where you’ll drive off. Another day on your road trip together, living, laughing, loving.

the-edm-era:

Rave Babe with a different kind of dance style… 

itsjumpbetch:

greatest photo ever.

(Source: ill-rock-your-steady)