NEW YORK (AP) ? Fred Armisen has confirmed he has left "Saturday Night Live" after 11 years.
Armisen dispelled any doubt about his exit in an interview posted Monday by comedy website Splitsider.
"SNL" often doesn't announce its cast changes, but the show's season finale in May concluded with a farewell for Armisen and Bill Hader.
Armisen says he felt as though his departure from "SNL" was "obvious" considering in his last sketch he sang "It's been a lovely night with you" as British punk rock character Ian Rubbish. He was accompanied by several friends and musicians including Carrie Brownstein, his co-star on the IFC sketch show "Portlandia."
Armisen says he left partly because "Portlandia" was demanding more time and because "it felt like a very healthy, good time to do it."
BERLIN (AP) ? Random House Inc. and Penguin Group have completed a planned merger that creates the world's largest publisher of consumer books.
Parent companies Bertelsmann and Pearson said they signed the final contracts on Monday to combine the global activities of the two publishers and create Penguin Random House. Random House parent Bertelsmann will hold 53 percent of the new company and Penguin owner Pearson 47 percent.
Penguin Random House will include top-selling authors such as Dan Brown and Ken Follett and a vast back catalog ranging from John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" to Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man."
Random House chief executive Markus Dohle becomes CEO of the privately held new group, based in New York. Penguin's CEO John Makinson will be the chairman of its board of directors.
Curious mix of precision and brawn in a pouched super-predatorPublic release date: 1-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Deborah Smith deborah.smith@unsw.edu.au 61-293-857-307 University of New South Wales
SYDNEY: A bizarre, pouched super-predator that terrorized South America millions of years ago had huge sabre-like teeth but its bite was weaker than that of a domestic cat, new research shows.
Australian and American marsupials are among the closest living relatives of the extinct Thylacosmilusatrox, which had tooth roots extending rearwards almost into its small braincase.
"Thylacosmilus looked and behaved like nothing alive today," says University of New South Wales palaeontologist, Dr Stephen Wroe, leader of the research team.
"To achieve a kill the animal must have secured and immobilised large prey using its extremely powerful forearms, before inserting the sabre-teeth into the windpipe or major arteries of the neck a mix of brute force and delicate precision."
The iconic North American sabre-toothed 'tiger', Smilodon fatalis, is often regarded as the archetypal mammalian super-predator.
However, Smilodon - a true cat - was just the end point in one of at least five independent 'experiments' in sabre-tooth evolution through the Age of Mammals, which spanned some 65 million years.
Thylacosmilusatrox is the best preserved species of one of these evolutionary lines - pouched sabre-tooths that terrorised South America until around 3.5 million years ago.
For its size, its huge canine teeth were larger than those of any other known sabre-tooth.
Smilodon's killing behaviour has long attracted controversy, but scientists now mostly agree that powerful neck muscles, as well as jaw muscles, played an important role in driving the sabre-teeth into the necks of large prey.
Little was known about the predatory behaviour in the pouched Thylacosmilus.
To shed light on this super-predator mystery, Dr Wroe's team of Australian and US scientists constructed and compared sophisticated computer models of Smilodon and Thylacosmilus, as well as a living conical-toothed cat, the leopard.
These models were digitally 'crash-tested' in simulations of biting and killing behaviour. The results are published in the journal PLoS ONE.
"We found that both sabre-tooth species were similar in possessing weak jaw-muscle-driven bites compared to the leopard, but the mechanical performance of the sabre-tooths skulls showed that they were both well-adapted to resist forces generated by very powerful neck muscles," says Dr Wroe.
"But compared to the placental Smilodon, Thylacosmilus was even more extreme."
"Frankly, the jaw muscles of Thylacosmilus were embarrassing. With its jaws wide open this 80-100 kg 'super-predator' had a bite less powerful than a domestic cat. On the other hand - its skull easily outperformed that of the placental Smilodon in response to strong forces from hypothetical neck muscles."
"Bottom line is that the huge sabres of Thylacosmilus were driven home by the neck muscles alone and - because the sabre-teeth were actually quite fragile - this must have been achieved with surprising precision."
"For Thylacosmilus - and other sabre-tooths - it was all about a quick kill."
"Big prey are dangerous even to super-predators and the faster the kill the less likely it is that the predator will get hurt or for that matter attract unwanted attention from other predators."
"It may not have been the smartest of mammalian super-predators but in terms of specialisation Thylacosmilus took the already extreme sabre-tooth lifestyle to a whole new level," says Dr Wroe.
###
Media Contacts:
Dr Stephen Wroe: +61 (2) 4969 3006, s.wroe@unsw.edu.au
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Curious mix of precision and brawn in a pouched super-predatorPublic release date: 1-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Deborah Smith deborah.smith@unsw.edu.au 61-293-857-307 University of New South Wales
SYDNEY: A bizarre, pouched super-predator that terrorized South America millions of years ago had huge sabre-like teeth but its bite was weaker than that of a domestic cat, new research shows.
Australian and American marsupials are among the closest living relatives of the extinct Thylacosmilusatrox, which had tooth roots extending rearwards almost into its small braincase.
"Thylacosmilus looked and behaved like nothing alive today," says University of New South Wales palaeontologist, Dr Stephen Wroe, leader of the research team.
"To achieve a kill the animal must have secured and immobilised large prey using its extremely powerful forearms, before inserting the sabre-teeth into the windpipe or major arteries of the neck a mix of brute force and delicate precision."
The iconic North American sabre-toothed 'tiger', Smilodon fatalis, is often regarded as the archetypal mammalian super-predator.
However, Smilodon - a true cat - was just the end point in one of at least five independent 'experiments' in sabre-tooth evolution through the Age of Mammals, which spanned some 65 million years.
Thylacosmilusatrox is the best preserved species of one of these evolutionary lines - pouched sabre-tooths that terrorised South America until around 3.5 million years ago.
For its size, its huge canine teeth were larger than those of any other known sabre-tooth.
Smilodon's killing behaviour has long attracted controversy, but scientists now mostly agree that powerful neck muscles, as well as jaw muscles, played an important role in driving the sabre-teeth into the necks of large prey.
Little was known about the predatory behaviour in the pouched Thylacosmilus.
To shed light on this super-predator mystery, Dr Wroe's team of Australian and US scientists constructed and compared sophisticated computer models of Smilodon and Thylacosmilus, as well as a living conical-toothed cat, the leopard.
These models were digitally 'crash-tested' in simulations of biting and killing behaviour. The results are published in the journal PLoS ONE.
"We found that both sabre-tooth species were similar in possessing weak jaw-muscle-driven bites compared to the leopard, but the mechanical performance of the sabre-tooths skulls showed that they were both well-adapted to resist forces generated by very powerful neck muscles," says Dr Wroe.
"But compared to the placental Smilodon, Thylacosmilus was even more extreme."
"Frankly, the jaw muscles of Thylacosmilus were embarrassing. With its jaws wide open this 80-100 kg 'super-predator' had a bite less powerful than a domestic cat. On the other hand - its skull easily outperformed that of the placental Smilodon in response to strong forces from hypothetical neck muscles."
"Bottom line is that the huge sabres of Thylacosmilus were driven home by the neck muscles alone and - because the sabre-teeth were actually quite fragile - this must have been achieved with surprising precision."
"For Thylacosmilus - and other sabre-tooths - it was all about a quick kill."
"Big prey are dangerous even to super-predators and the faster the kill the less likely it is that the predator will get hurt or for that matter attract unwanted attention from other predators."
"It may not have been the smartest of mammalian super-predators but in terms of specialisation Thylacosmilus took the already extreme sabre-tooth lifestyle to a whole new level," says Dr Wroe.
###
Media Contacts:
Dr Stephen Wroe: +61 (2) 4969 3006, s.wroe@unsw.edu.au
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
July 1, 2013 ? The agriculture industry is researching new technologies to help feed the growing population. But feeding the world without harming air quality is a challenge.
According to a new article in Animal Frontiers, biotechnologies increase food production and reduce harmful gas output from cattle.
"We are increasing the amount of product with same input," said Clayton Neumeier, PhD student at University of California, Davis, in an interview.
In the Animal Frontiers paper, Neumeier describes a recent experiment using biotechnologies. In the experiment, a test group of cattle were treated with biotechnologies. Different groups of cattle received implants, Ionophores and Beta-adrenergic agonists. These biotechnologies help cattle grow more efficiently. A control group of cattle were not treated with any of these biotechnologies.
Researchers measured gas output by placing finishing steers in a special corral that traps emissions. Each treatment group was tested four times to ensure accurate results.
The researchers also tested a dairy biotechnology called rBST. This biotechnology is a synthetic version of a cattle hormone that does not affect humans. Many producers inject cows with rBST to help them produce more milk.
In their experiment, the researchers gave rBST to a test group of cows and gave no rBST to a control group of cows. They discovered that the rBST group produced more milk per cow. When cows produce more milk, greenhouse gas emissions decrease because farms need fewer cows.
Dr. Kim Stackhouse, National Cattleman's Beef Association Director of Sustainability, said animal agriculture has reduced emissions through the use of technologies. Technologies that improve animal performance, crop yields, and manure management and the installation of biogas recovery systems have all contributed to reducing the environmental impact of beef.
Biogas recovery systems are used in processing facilities to produce energy from animal waste. Animal waste is collected in lagoons, where the gas is captured. The gas is transported through an internal combustion area that produces energy for heat and electricity.
"I expect there to be more improvement as we continue be more efficient, continue to do more with less and also strive to find new improvement opportunities," Stackhouse said.
Some consumers do not like the use of biotechnology in food production. Neumeier thinks these consumers are unaware of the benefits of biotechnology. His research shows that biotechnology can produce more food and lower gas emissions.
"We need to inform them that these are valuable tools for those two reasons and not be turned off by the use of biotechnology," Neumeier said.
Oh, you thought Yahoo was done with the whole acquire-everything-in-sight bit? Nope! Yahoo has announced that they've acquired Bignoggins Productions, a one-man iPhone development shop which had previously built a handful of fairly popular Fantasy Sports mobile apps.
Director Roland Emmerich tells MTV News Tatum is 'totally down-to-earth, super smart and he looks like a million dollars.' By Todd Gilchrist, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Channing Tatum in "White House Down" Photo: Columbia Pictures
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Public release date: 1-Jul-2013
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Oh, you thought Yahoo was done with the whole acquire-everything-in-sight bit? Nope! Yahoo has announced that they've acquired Bignoggins Productions, a one-man iPhone development shop which had previously built a handful of fairly popular Fantasy Sports mobile apps.