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Mule Gives Birth
!splut writes "Thumbing it's nose as science, a Moroccan mule has given birth. Mules, hybrids between horse and donkey, are normally infertile, due to differences between the number and structure of horse and donkey chromosomes. Nevertheless, for reasons not well understood, fertile mules do occur, infrequently, with some 60 documented live births since 1527."
I didnt even know her nime months ago.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
The Second Foundation barely saved the Seldon plan from the Mule the last time. This kid could ruin everything!
Well, the conditions of where life is created is scientifically known as 'bonking' or 'squelching' or 'doing the dirty' and it is fully expected that a similar route was followed here, although research involving staring at pictures of mixtures of animals is no doubt ongoing, but is having problems obtaining funding.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Yeah! And what's the deal with this mule having a thumb? Where'd she get that from?
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security
"The donkey has 62 chromosomes (31 pairs), the horse 64 (32 pairs) and the mule and hinny each have 63 chromosomes - of which many pairs are unevenly matched. It is not just the number of chromosomes which is different in donkeys and horses, but their structure: they have developed slightly differently over evolutionary time....The donkey and horse chromosomes are almost completely unable to pair up."
It's amazing that mules turn out as well as they do. If carrying heavy packs all day and being beaten daily by a bowlegged man with whiskey breath is your idea of turning out well.
Now that's some half-assed science.
"We must cultivate our garden." -- Voltaire
My parents met in Venezuala, working for shell oil, in the late 1940s. Shell had a company store where the North American employees could buy stuff you couldn't normally get in Venezuala. They had North American bungaloes for the North American employees. They had a little school with a North American teacher (my mom) for their children.
Like other North Americans my parents had a local cleaning lady. Unlike some of the other North Americans my parents learned Spanish.
My mom told how she taught Dahlia, how to prepare potatoes North American style. Including baking them. You peirce the skin so the steam can escape. I know most people do this by poking them with a fork. But in my family we cut a small X in the skin.
My mom's spanish wasn't yet sufficient to explain why you cut an X however.
A couple of days later there was an explosion in the kitchen. Dahlia is standing over the oven door, covered with exploded baked potatoe.
She was hysterical, and very apologetic. She told my mother that she realized she must have been very religious. But, she was in a hurry, and just this once, she thought that God would forgive her if she blessed the potatoes by putting the sign of the cross in them after they were baked, not before.
Dahlia couldn't explain this explosion, except to think it was a miracle. God punished her for not blessing the potatoe with a cross.
So, was it really a miracle? Of course not. Does an inability to explain a phenomenon mean that it is the reuslt of supernatural intervention? Of course not. Not with exploding potatoes, or with unexplained births.
I like breaded mule, especially the chicken-fried I had at Outback. Oh, you mean breeding!
Sorry, corny joke. Had to do it. So sorry. :)
Okay. That's it. That's the last time anybody on Slashdot ever gets away with saying "Building a watercooled PC rig out of Kraft Dinner and installing cold cathode lights in their hard drives? Those silly PC hobbyists have too much time on their hands!" :)