How Tigers Get their Stripes

Alan Turing was an amazing man. London researchers have recently substantiated one of his theories regarding repeated biological patterns:

[The] study, funded by the Medical Research Council and to be published online in Nature Genetics, not only demonstrates a mechanism which is likely to be widely relevant in vertebrate development, but also provides confidence that chemicals called morphogens, which control these patterns, can be used in regenerative medicine to differentiate stem cells into tissue. The findings provide evidence to support a theory first suggested in the 1950s by famous code-breaker and mathematician Alan Turing, whose centenary falls this year. He put forward the idea that regular repeating patterns in biological systems are generated by a pair of morphogens that work together as an 'activator' and 'inhibitor'.

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Some more of my favorite quotes

I periodically publish quotes I have collected. Here is the latest batch (and here is my entire collection). Not particular topic this time: "A boat is safe in the harbor. But this is not the purpose of a boat." Paulo Coelho “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” ― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It America’s “culture of death”: “a culture that embraces a soulless free-market idolatry in which the value of everything, including human beings, is determined by the bottom line. ... It is a culture of death that prevails on Wall Street, K-Street, Hollywood, and our ever expanding Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex.” Rich Broderick, journalist who writes for the online Twin Cities Daily Planet "I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs." Frederick Douglass "What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood." Aldous Huxley "Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this-that you are dreadfully like other people." James Russell Lowell (1819 - 1891) “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire. Godwins’ Law - the idea that as an online discussion grows longer the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. anon “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” Pablo Picasso “Education isn’t something you can finish.” Isaac Asimov If a thing isn't worth saying, you sing it. Pierre Beaumarchais (1732 - 1799) “Don't think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.” Voltaire "If the only thing keeping you from being a horrible person is your religion, you are already a horrible person." Someecards (on Facebook) "The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution." Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

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Fake Payday Loan Reform

Missouri and Utah are among the states in which legislators are proposing fake payday loan reform, per "States’ Attempts To Reform Payday Lending Are Often Just Smoke & Mirrors." Here's an excerpt:

Sen. Mike Cunningham, who sponsored the Missouri bill . . . says it will protect consumers from some of the practices payday lenders have utilized for so long. Missouri’s proposed reform comes less than two years after a group called Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity helped put an end to a ballot initiative that would have allowed Missouri residents to vote for or against capping the state’s interest rate at 36%. The current proposed bill does not feature any kind of rate cap, meaning interest for a typical two-week payday loan can balloon to more than 1,000%.

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Telephone scam – Man claimed he is from Microsoft and needs to fix my computer

Five minutes ago, I received a phone call from a man who claims to be "David Johnson" who said he's working from Microsoft. He had an accent that I was unable to identify, but I assumed he was from India. His phone number showed up on my cell phone as "212-414-155" (that's right - -- it's missing a digit). He told me that MY computer has been throwing out error messages that are being received by the Microsoft Server, and that we need to fix the problem. I led him on a bit. He said to hit the control key plus r, and that this is the beginning of the fix. I asked for his phone number. He wouldn't give it. He repeatedly said that he's working with Microsoft, not FOR Microsoft. He wouldn't give me his supervisor's name. I repeatedly asked for his PHONE NUMBER so I could call him back (I wanted it to report him to Microsoft). He wouldn't give it. I offered to add Microsoft to the call, and he got evasive. My assumption is that he was trying to have me give him access to my computer by installing monitoring software. I eventually called him a "criminal," and told him he was despicable, then ended the call. I recorded most of the conversation. Beware . . . . I'm including a link from Microsoft regarding phone scams.

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