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Dampwood termite worker head capsule and brain. Credit: Sean O'Donnell, Drexel UniversityNew research on dampwood termites (Zootermopsis angusticollis and A. nevdensis) shows select members of the colony will experience brain changes in anticipation of cognitive demand.In a dampwood termite colony only a select few will, quite literally, see the light. The insects are unique due to their mating flights and the adaptability of their role within the colony, which is based on the overall needs of the group. King and queen termites must leave the nest and are the only members to go outside—briefly —to partner off and tunnel into...

A follow-up to this headscratcher that only deepens the suspense. Mike Pence was on Air Force 2, ready to depart for New Hampshire on Tuesday for an event on opioids, when he was called back to the White House urgently. What was the emergency? Pence wouldn’t say. Neither would the White House. No one has leaked it to the media in the days since, which is uncharacteristic. Marc Short insisted cryptically at the time that it would be weeks before they’d be able to tell us. Now here’s the president acknowledging a “very interesting problem” that arose in New...

It is my birthday today, so I get to post the live thread. :) Some places to watch: NYT Dashboard.BallotpediaCNNPolitico HousePolitico SenateReal Clear Politics538

I know a guy who says, “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go first.” Unfortunately, that’s probably how most of us, including believers, feel. What if we changed our thinking instead and looked at it exactly the opposite way? Think back to when you were a child anxiously counting the days in anticipation for Christmas or your birthday party or your first trip to Disney…. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I remember as a little girl lying under the tree, staring at the twinkling lights and glistening ornaments. I remember hearing the reindeer on...

<p>In response to questions about the MD4BUSH affair, in which a democrat operative got an aide to the governor to comment online about infidelity rumours of Baltimore Mayor Martin Omally, the Governor became angry over the double standard. "When this thing broke I had cameras and mics stuck in my face, now that it seems MD4BUSH is a democrat operative working in conjunction with a major media outlet...its a set-up...where are the cameras now?"</p>

Opinion Journal story embargoed til 12:00m.

With the first-ever Constitution Day being held Saturday, students and bystanders on campus shared their opinions on - and knowledge of - the U.S. Constitution. Constitution Day exists because of a federal statute signed into law last December by President Bush. The day is required to be celebrated by all federally funded institutions, according to www.constitutionday.com. Saturday was chosen to commemorate the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. Q: What are your reactions to Iowa State celebrating Constitution Day tomorrow? "I honestly have no idea what Constitution Day is." - Paul Armenakis, sophomore in pre-computer science "I support...

Ever since the Drudge Report and the non denial denial on Imus, a funny thing appears to have happened......The aways visible Mrs. Ketchup is MIA......Always on the stage, on the plane, on the bus, and visible, (though strangely silent on TV, could it be that foreign accent that might turn off the people who won't want a 1st lady with an accent from another country) even last night in victory, no ketchup.......They say she went to Europe.....was it for a divorce?

AT NINE o'clock on the morning of September 11th 2001, President George Bush sat in an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, listening to seven-year-olds read stories about goats. “Night fell on a different world,” he said of that day. And on a different America. At first, America and the world seemed to change together. “We are all New Yorkers now,” ran an e-mail from Berlin that day, mirroring John F. Kennedy's declaration 40 years earlier, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, and predicting Le Monde's headline the next day, “Nous sommes tous Américains”. And America, for its part, seemed to become more...

Scientists have finished the first human trial of an AIDS vaccine, a mammoth $200 million, 5,400-patient effort more than a decade in the making. Within three months, the vaccine's maker, California-based VaxGen Inc., will reveal whether simple injections can protect against the world's most feared viral killer. Already, the Food and Drug Administration has granted the vaccine fast-track status that would speed it through the approval process, if it proves effective, for public availability. Public health researchers have long believed that only vaccines can reverse the global HIV epidemic infecting more than 30 million people, most in the developing world....