The New York Times yesterday ran a shocking article about how freedom of the press simply doesn't exist when it comes to Russian television.

This photo, from the article, shows a pundit who was digitally removed (that's his disembodied hand and leg next to the microphone guy) from a broadcast because his opinion was not Putin-approved.

It makes you appreciate the U.S., doesn't it?

My first volunteer is Rommel Santor or as we call him on the Sift Lucky760. Since Lucky is the blogger and I am merely milking his work, I sent Rommel a $25 gift certificate to Kiva.org so he can try his hand at Microloans.

Turning Foxes Into House Pets by Lucky760

Here is a 3 minute clip from NOVA about the experiment (which has been submitted to the Sift here):

A rather fascinating experiment that was started over half a century ago by geneticists in Siberia (at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk) has yielded some truly awe-inspiring results, including what can be considered indisputable proof of evolution.

The experiment accomplished in foxes what Mother Nature took thousands of years to do with wolves. It began with wild foxes that were captured and kept in captivity. Not surprisingly, most of them were very aggressive toward all humans. The experimenters selected only those which exhibited the least aggression and bred them.

This is essentially how the study continued for generation after generation of breeding over several decades. The foxes were never given much contact with any humans except for brief studies. After selecting 45,000 foxes over 35 generations, some amazing observations were made.

The foxes were not only more tame showing little to no aggression toward humans, the obvious intent of the study, but several physical changes started to happen: coats were no longer camouflaged, but had lots of different colors and even started having patterns in their fur; straight, pointy ears became floppy; legs became shorter; tails were no longer straight and long, but short and curly.

This is clearly reminiscent of the way wolves evolved into such a vast plethora of breeds that vary so greatly from one another, except this evolution occurred in only a few decades rather than the assumed several millennia it took to change wolves into dogs.