August 2016

Reconstruction of a Thylacoleo carnifex attacking a Diprotodon (Image roman uchytel)

2

An article published in the journal “Paleobiology” describes a research on Thylacoleo carnifex. Commonly known as the marsupial lion, it was a predator native of Australia that lived between the Paleocene period and the beginning of the Pleistocene period, about 50,000 years ago. Christine Janis at the University of Bristol along with Figueirido Borja and Alberto Martín-Serra of the University of Malaga examined this animal’s elbows and concluded that it had a unique hunting style.

1

The novel “The Transmigration of Timothy Archer” by Philip K. Dick was published for the first time in 1982.

Bishop Timothy Archer has highly unorthodox ideas about the history of Christianity and the history of Jesus of Nazareth. The discovery of Zadokite scrolls suggests that two centuries earlier what is attributed to him was already preached. To find out the truth and the anokhi scrolls they talk about, Archer wants to go to Israel to research in person.

Angel, Timothy Archer’s daughter-in-law, reamined in contact with him after the death of her husband Jeff but in the course of her life she already had various problems. Being in the midst of the romance between the bishop and his secretary Kirsten and getting involved in the man’s religious quest become an additional burden.

Markers of wrists and digits in a mouse (left) and in a fish fin rays (right) (Image courtesy Shubin laboratory)

1

An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a research on the evolution of from fins to hands. A team of scientists coordinated by paleontologist and developmental biologist Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago, Illinois, used the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic engineering technique to show that the same cells that generate fish fin rays have a central role in the formation of tetrapods fingers and toes.

Part of the Venus Table in the Dresden Codex (Image courtesy University of California - Santa Barbara)

0

An article published in the journal “Journal of Astronomy in Culture” describes a research on the Venus Table contained in the Dresden Codex, one of the few Maya codices still existing today. According to Gerardo Aldana, a professor of anthropology at the University of California – Santa Barbara, it contains significant innovations in mathematics and astronomy, so much to compare its author to Copernicus.

Patrick Fugit in 2006

1

On August 12 the first season of the show “Outcast” ended.

The TV show is adapted from the comic book series – which I personally haven’t read so I can’t make comparisons – “Outcast” written by Robert Kirkman, the creator of “The Walking Dead”. The first episode was offered on the Internet on May 20, 2016 then broadcast on June 3, 2016 in the USA. The first season consists of 10 episodes.

The story has as protagonist Kyle Barnes, whose life was greatly influenced by the demonic possession that struck his mother when he was a child and years later his wife Allison. Because of those events Kyle is a misfit who preferred to isolate himself as much as possible after the divorce from his wife.

To protect his ex-wife and their daughter Amber from what happened when she was possessed, Kyle chose to take all the blame passing for a bastard who beat his wife and daughter, even if that made him disliked by many residents of Rome, the West Virginia town where he lives.