The mysteries of the animal world are plentiful with much about the inner workings of the lives of Earth’s animals still to be uncovered. In the sea slug department, however, there has been something of a breakthrough, as scientists have successfully reared a chromodorid sea slug from egg to adult in a lab for the first time.Nudibranchs, or sea slugs, are mollusks and are popular for their bright colors and funky appearances. Surprisingly, sea slug young have shells immediately after hatching that they lose as they settle on reefs. At this stage of development, they shift from a floating lifestyle to becoming creatures at the bottom of the sea bed. While the stages of development between floating and seafloor life ages are understood in some species they had remained something of a mystery in the species Hypselodoris festiva. The reason why it is so difficult to rear sea slugs in the Chromodorididae family, which includes H. festival, is that they are picky eaters, with each species having a very specific diet, some of which are unknown. Therefore getting the appropriate food for the adults to create an egg mass has been challenging. Nudibranchs are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning they have both sex organs. Adult individuals spawn masses of fertilized eggs after mating. Scientists collected adult H. festiva from tidal pools in Japan and reared them in a laboratory setting. Just six days later several thousand floating larvae hatched. Fed on a diet of microalgae the young continued to grow, metamorphosing about three weeks after their hatch date. Metamorphosis involved the loss of their shells and the known switch of lifestyle from floating to sea floor dwellers. At this time they also ate the same food as adults, namely sponges, and developed their characteristic coloration at around 36 days after hatching. They started to form the feathery sensory structures known as rhinophores as well as gills around 42 days after hatching. The chemosensory organs called rhinophores forming in stages during development.Image Credit: Hayashi, M & Nakano, H. Scientific Reports (2024) CC BY 4.0Observing their growth in the lab setting allowed researchers to create nine stages of growth for the sea slugs, which include two metamorphic stages and seven juvenile ones. The study also revealed more about sea slug bottoms. Prior to the study, the anus was believed to be on the dorsal side of the sea slug and did not move much during growth. However in H, festiva the anus appeared on the ventral side as a juvenile and the adult stage anus was on the dorsal side, meaning the sea slugs had, for a time, two anuses. The team speculates that the internal organs detach from the juvenile anus and move to the adult position. There are more than 395 species in the Chromodorididae family, and the full life cycle of none of them had been fully understood before now. The team is proposing H. festiva as the model organism for chromodorid research and the methods applied to rear this species could be applied to other sea slugs in the future.  The paper is published in Scientific Reports.

It’s always eye-opening when The Washington Post is so liberally biased that you’ll find it in their Food section! Writer Emily Heil – who used to gush over Michelle Obama as a Post gossip columnist – penned this sugary piece: “Kamala Harris’s cooking wisdom: 7 tips from her kitchen videos.” This is a bit odd, since Harris hasn’t made a cooking video in four years. But any opportunity for fawning can’t be missed. Heil starts off with “chef and humanitarian Jose Andres,” a Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton donor. Heil began: “I’m just a home cook,” Vice President Harris says in one of the videos posted on her YouTube page in which she prepares food with famous chefs and regular folks alike. That line, from a 2020 video, came in response to chef and humanitarian José Andrés telling her that she has a “big reputation ... as a chef,” a designation she first earned for a viral pandemic-era video in which she schooled Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) on the finer points of tuna-sandwich making (after her colleague’s chaotic and sloppy sandwich horrified the internet). Harris, now the likely Democratic presidential nominee, long ago proved that politics and cooking can mix. And despite her modesty, the culinary prowess that Harris displays in the videos — including an impressive one-handed egg-crack and deft knife skills — says otherwise. Liberal journalists really prove their utility by touting a national politician's modesty as genuine. One can guess that Emily Heil is not a cook, because she’s dazzled that Kamala uses bacon “as a flavor” and puts mayonnaise on the outside of grilled cheese sandwiches, which is not a mysterious cooking hack at all. Heil touts her as a Woman of the People because she professes to like Miracle Whip and fried bologna. “Harris’s cooking videos are more than political stunts,” Heil proclaimed, which is humorous, since the cooking videos are clearly meant to “humanize” her for voters. But her point was she also chats about policy on the cooking videos with her favorite Democrat chefs (there’s always Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio for celebrity vibes). Against the backdrop of their kitchens, Harris dove into pandemic restaurant relief with Tom Colicchio, and hunger and food-insecurity policies with Andrés. She talked about her own Indian heritage with [actress Mindy] Kaling as the two chopped and sauteed. “People have these ... misconceptions about who Indians are,” she said. She bonded with a supporter over a butter-stained family cookie recipe. And she discussed breaking gender barriers after preparing flapjacks. “I eat ‘no’ for breakfast,” she said in the latter video, as she dug into the meal she had just made. “And apple pancakes with some bacon.” Don't get me wrong, knowing how to cook is a cool skill, and it beats feminists like Hillary Clinton exposing themselves of thinking that's a skill for housewives, not career women. But everything about these videos is political, which is why the Post is trying to reintroduce them as one of many, many puff pieces for the general-election campaign.  PS: Jazz Shaw at Hot Air has thoughts about mocking Kamala's cooking.

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris have come to a close, and while countless athletes shined, the games' organizers brought shame to this global event. Ominous signs began even before the opening night of the games. The opening ceremony's creators told French media in July that their show would be an anti-"Puy-du-Fou." Puy-du-Fou is a popular French theme park in the more conservative Vendée region with spectacular shows that celebrate French history, culture, and religion. Why would the creators want to make the opposite of that? Then in the days before the opening ceremony, a drag queen with a ridiculous wig, fake breasts, and clown makeup took the torch in Paris. They give the Olympic flame to a man and a man dressed as a woman. Instead of choosing a real woman, they chose a man with a bunch of clown makeup and a wig. A mockery of womanhood and insulting to women everywhere. pic.twitter.com/QrUppzTlEY — Dr. Abby Johnson (@AbbyJohnson) July 24, 2024 It all went downhill from there. The awful opening ceremony included, among other things, a drag queen representation of the Last Supper. The grotesque mockery of France’s Catholic heritage that transformed into a bizarre Dionysian feast with a blue Smurf-like man as the center of the meal. The following night, numerous regions of Paris fell into an unexpected blackout. An area of the city with the stunning Basilica of the Sacred Heart remained lit, creating a beautiful image of the church’s light against the city’s darkness. Many on Twitter saw it as a sign. After the opening debauchery, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) continued to insult athletes and spectators by allowing two allegedly biological men, Algeria’s Imane Khelif (middleweight) and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting (featherweight), to compete against biological females in women’s boxing. The world saw the heartbroken face of Italy's Angela Carini after she forfeited her match against Khelif to "save her life." Khelif then inappropriately patted Carini's breasts in the ring after he was announced the winner. Some of the female boxers registered their dissent against the IOC’s despicable decision to allow the alleged men to compete against women. Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori shared a picture of a horned beast in the ring on her Instagram before fighting Khelif. Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman and Bulgaria’s Svetlana Kamenova Staneva made the XX symbol after their matches with Yu-Ting to signify the importance of female chromosomes. In the end -- surprise -- the two allegedly biological men defeated their female opponents and won gold medals in their divisions. Khelif’s coach carried him over his shoulders for the camera. No woman in muslim society will ever be allowed to pose like Imane Khelif. What is so special about Imane Khelif that "she" is allowed to sit on shoulders of non-Mahram men? pic.twitter.com/Xgfct5AJ5e — Incognito (@Incognito_qfs) August 10, 2024 The boxing catastrophe was not the only insult faced by Olympic athletes. For crazy climate change reasons, the IOC attempted to deprive international competitors of necessary protein by providing them with mostly vegan meals. They did so to lower the games’ “carbon footprint.” Only after multiple teams protested, with some bringing in their own meat sources, did Olympics organizers relent and up the animal protein available to athletes. Notably, one of the athletes not at this year’s games was the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark. Despite being the best female basketball player in the United States, she was not asked to join this year’s Olympic team, presumably for committing the cardinal sin of being straight, white and openly Christian. That is the trifecta of "diversity" demerits in women's basketball. Brittney Griner did participate on the U.S. women’s basketball team. She cried tears of joy during the U.S. national anthem. Time in a Russian prison will drive anti-American wokeness out of even the most hardline leftist. It's sad that the organizers of the games ruined so much of what should have been a joyous celebration of human accomplishments. Great athletes acquitted themselves with grace and class and gave the world wonderful moments of sportsmanship.  They deserved better than the vulgarity and humiliations with which the organizers dishonored the Olympics this summer.

Just last week rumors emerged of there possibly being two new budget AMD Radeon GPUs, the RX 7400 and RX 7300. However, fresh rumors are now suggesting that whatever those cards might have been, they're not actively being worked on as new budget graphics cards for the gaming market. It's a sad development, as the best graphics card lists of the world are crying out for some truly budget options to recommend to buyers. AMD's current Radeon RX 7600 props up our list as the top option for buyers on a budget, but it's still a $250 card. An RX 7400 or RX 7300 that offered basic 1080p performance for closer to $150 would've been a very welcome addition. Continue reading The latest AMD Radeon RX 7400 and 7300 leak isn’t good news MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

Steam Deck updates are frequent, but many pass by with just a few lines of fixes targeted toward specific issues. This latest update, referred to as "Megafixer" brings a lot more to the table, with 20 fixes or adjustments addressing controller support, blank screen issues, and most importantly, a faster cold boot time to get you into your games quicker when your console is turned off. There is a reason the Steam Deck continues to be the best handheld gaming PC despite strong competition from the likes of the Asus ROG Ally X. The frequency of updates and continued development on features such as 1200p support, are unmatched by any competitor. Continue reading Get gaming faster with the new Steam Deck update MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

Adam Kinzinger's Wife Makes Things WORSE Shaming MAGA Because Her Hubby Wrote a Check His Butt Can't Cash

It's Over. Done. KAPUT! Tim Walz's Commanding Officer Just DROPPED the Mother of All Truth Bombs and DAMN

A recent rumor based on a retailer listing suggests that Goat Simulator 3 is set to release on Nintendo Switch this November. While the listing has since been deleted, it also included a mention of digital and physical versions of the game.

Trump Plans to Sue DOJ for $100 Million for 'Political Persecution' Over Search of Mar-a-Lago

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta and Universal Music Group (UMG) are refreshing their licensing agreements to expand the use of the publishing giant’s content on more Meta social apps. The new multiyear agreement announced on Monday now includes licensed media in content like shortform videos on Threads and WhatsApp as well as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Horizon. In a press statement, Meta’s VP of music and content business development, Tamara Hrivnak, says the partnership between Meta, UMG, and Universal Music Publishing Group will work “closer” together and “in new ways on WhatsApp, and more.” The companies have not revealed many details about the agreement but do say the partnership is “multifaceted” and will address “unauthorized AI-generated content... Continue reading…