GOVERNMENT forces have fallen back from positions in Swindon and Wiltshire, abandoning the town to the Badger Army.

Big study done on the mitochondrial genetics of lions with a report at the BBC and the original article at BMC Evolutionary Biology being open-access, hurrah!

A lovely piece of inventive dubbing. The original was less scary, here is the full episode:

The others are not sf themes but my gods they are...something. Thanks to The Bloggess for pointing at them and laughing.

I was not terribly impressed. Some of them were making a good effort but it didn't have the spark of the original for me.

At the Salt, just like March Madness on io9.

"It's strange really. We haven't built a long barrow for 5,000 years, but then about six weeks ago we had another enquiry for one." said Geraint Davies, stonemason.

I don't know if this has been seen around here before.

Why else would we have had the Twilight films? We are living in...

Not lovely Cher. Some people have complained about the cute spider and other pretty pictures I have occasionally posted in the past but this, this I won't share as a picture here. Follow this link to The Bloggess if you dare.

...for reasons, good scientific reasons. Honest.

Of course you have. 5 starter facts from the BBC to get you on your way googling on Scholar.

Apparently tests done by Aston University in Birmingham show that 5 seconds is probably safe enough, though some foods can be eaten safely after 30 seconds, depending on the flooring. Carpet is safest.

The two chemistry references are obvious in today's SMBC but what is with the binary?

Hal Douglas, trailer voiceover master, has died at the age of 89. RIP

Police are baffled as to who has been repeatedly stealing the road signs for the village of Gotham in Nottinghamshire (near where I was born). They are not ruling out a connection to a well-known American vigilante.

A battered diamond found in Juina, Mato Grosso, Brazil that came from 500km deep and formed at about 200,000 atmospheres of pressure (gem quality diamonds come from about 130-200km deep) has been shown to contain a microscopic speck of ringwoodite. Ringwoodite had been suspected to exist there but now we have proof.…