“Female hammerhead sharks can reproduce without having sex, scientists confirm.
“The evidence comes from a shark at Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska which gave birth to a pup in 2001 despite having had no contact with a male.
“Genetic tests by a team from Belfast, Nebraska and Florida prove conclusively the young animal possessed no paternal DNA, Biology Letters journal reports.
“The type of reproduction exhibited had been seen before in bony fish but never in cartilaginous fish such as sharks.
“Parthenogenesis, as this type of reproduction is known, occurs when an egg cell is triggered to develop as an embryo without the addition of any genetic material from a male sperm cell….”[Rest of article]
I’ve written before about social entrepreneurship in Africa, and read several books this year about using capitalism to end poverty and change the world. PBS is airing a series of programs about this phenomenon starting Friday:
“Can the quality of healthcare in developing nations be transformed by the same principle that makes fast food such a success here? On Friday, May 25 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW travels to Kenya to investigate an enterprising idea: franchising not burger and donut shops, but health services and drugs in rural Africa. American businessmen are teaming with African entrepreneurs to spread for-profit clinics around the country in the hopes of providing quality, affordable medical care to even Kenya’s poorest people. But can they overcome obstacles like extreme poverty, corruption, fraudulent services, and long distances to establish a sustained solution to a chronic problem?
“If we had as many franchise outlets delivering health care in developing countries as Subway has sandwich shops, we’ve estimated that we could serve about 120 million people a year,” Businessman Scott Hillstrom, who conceived the idea, told NOW’s David Brancaccio.
“This episode is part of a new beat on NOW and NOW Online called “Enterprising Ideas” that focuses on innovative solutions to social problems around the world. For the next two years, NOW will devote time to examining how people are applying business skills toward a new kind of bottom line: Making the world a better place.”
Here’s the trailer for the upcoming show. Watch it!:
This time it is Parke Bancorp, Inc. (PKBK)–a bank holding company. Again, I’m a little concerned that I may be loading up too much on financial stocks, but then…they have been working out well for me.
I took a real close look at the liltingly-named Compagnie Generale de Gophysique-Veritas (CGV), which is some French company that provides services to the oil and gas industry overseas. Not ready to pull the trigger on that one, though–but you might want to check it out. [Update: Ah, what the heck…I ended up taking a smaller position in this one after all]
