Snoring and phylogenetic selection

Contrary to what your sleeping partner says, snoring is not a crime and tonsils vestigial organs? Guess what, Buster, humans might not have been such successful survivors in a predator-infested environment for 500,000 years without evolving the capacity for snoring.

Imagine a family group huddled in a riverbank overhang to sleep while hyenas, crocodiles, and wolves hunted them relentlessly. Now imagine an entire clan sawing away and how scary that would be to a tiger on the prowl.

See? I rest my case.

But, I rather like sleeping with a goddess who only purrs subtly when she sleeps (although the French Bulldog at her feet is way louder than the man is); now a freakin' syndrome has developed as a result of my being a famous snorer. Thankfully, the hyenas have mostly withdrawn and NPR's Patty Neighmond tells us that medical science has brought a robot to the rescue:

At 32, it just didn't make sense that Daniel Sheiner was exhausted literally from the moment he woke up. According to Erica Thaler, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Sheiner's sleep study found that he woke up about 112 times every hour. That meant Sheiner stopped breathing for at least 10 seconds about two times every minute. So Thaler suggested suggested a type of robotic surgery currently used to remove cancerous tumors at the back of the throat. Thaler was starting to perform it on sleep apnea patients, to remove tonsils and excess tissue. "What the robot allows you to do is get into a small confined space without using hands," Thaler says. "Human hands are huge and robot hands are tiny and yet they can do exactly the same thing if you control them remotely."

So give the snorer in your family a break and thank your ancestors for evolving to pass PPACA!

Dennis Kucinich building email support for House Concurrent Resolution 28 to end the war in Afghanistan.

4:45, breaking from YPR and the Flathead Beacon:

HELENA – A measure to repeal Montana's medical marijuana law has stalled in a state Senate committee. Republican Committee Chairman Sen. Terry Murphy voted against the measure and says the panel will look into creating a reform bill to tighten regulation of the industry.