He also decides how much they get paid and what the contract details will be. So Robert Guerrero was somewhat prepared when Mayweather picked him to be the opponent for his first fight in a year Saturday night at the MGM Grand hotel.

What he wasn't prepared for was what Mayweather's camp insisted on putting in the contract.

"He asked for a rematch clause. That was the very first thing," Guerrero said. "It just shows me where his head is at."

Where Mayweather's head is at has, of course, been the topic of many conversations over the years. When he fought last May against Miguel Cotto the worry among his fans was that he would be distracted by an upcoming jail sentence, though that turned out to be unfounded.

Talk to Mayweather now, and his head seems to be fine. So, too, are his reflexes at the age of 36, at least judged by a sparring session last week where he practiced landing right hand leads against a fighter mimicking Guerrero's southpaw style.

He has to lose sometime because nearly every fighter not named Rocky Marciano lost at some point in their career. But Mayweather has a new six-fight television deal that should cement his status as the world's highest paid athlete, and he doesn't seem terribly concerned about a loss or a possible rematch of their welterweight title fight.

"I've done this my whole life," Mayweather said. "This is what I love to do."

Though Mayweather sees Guerrero as just the latest opponent for yet another huge payday, Guerrero sees things quite differently. He believes he is the fighter who will be the first to beat Mayweather, and he's eager to earn both the recognition and the money that would come with such a win.

At the final pre-fight press conference Wednesday he said Mayweather made a mistake by picking him as an opponent.

"They talk about this as Floyd Mayweather's home," Guerrero said. "Well, this is a home invasion."

Oddsmakers don't share Guerrero's confidence, making the former champion in three weight classes a decided underdog in the biggest fight of his career. But the once-beaten (31-1-1) fighter from Gilroy, Calif., said he's been underestimated his entire career.

"The only thing that means something is what you do in that ring," he said. "I just can't wait to get in that ring."

Both fighters were on their best behavior at their final press conference, though their fathers almost mixed it up. Floyd Mayweather Sr.and Ruben Guerrero who both train their sons exchanged words after Reuben Guerrero went into a rant about Mayweather being a woman beater for the altercation with the mother of his children that got him jailed for 70 days last year.

There is an undercurrent of hostility between the fighters, too, with Mayweather suggesting Guerrero who talks openly about his faith is a hypocrite for getting busted in a New York gun charge while promoting the fight. Mayweather also said that Guerrero used his wife's fight with leukemia she is now healthy to gain fans and sympathy for himself.

"It's laughable," Guerrero said. "I don't need sympathy, I come to fight. Sympathy doesn't win fights."

Though Mayweather is unbeaten in 43 fights and has been a pay-per-view star since his 2007 win over Oscar De La Hoya, he has been fighting professionally for 17 years and is getting to an age that historically fighters have had trouble with. The fact he's fought only four times since beating Ricky Hatton more than five years ago and has not fought in a year leads some in boxing to believe he may have as much trouble with ring rust as he has with Guerrero.

There are signs, too, that perhaps his appeal is fading, though Mayweather would argue that his fan base is bigger than ever. Seats are still readily available for the fight at the MGM arena, and the All Access shows promoting the fight on Showtime have generated little buzz.

A documentary on Mayweather's life that aired last Saturday in primetime on Showtime's sister network, CBS, also drew miserable ratings.

Still, Mayweather who acts as his own promoter insists the promotion is going well and people will tune in at home, even at a suggested retail price of $69.95. Mayweather's win over Cotto last May drew 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, his biggest sales since he and De La Hoya combined for a record 2.5 million.

"I think everything is playing out like it should play out," Mayweather said. "I'm ready to go out there and perform.

____

Tim Dahlberg can be reached at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

In all, the union negotiated sixteen wage and benefit changes to the collective bargaining agreement.

Representatives from the union and YCS will sign the contract tomorrow morning (Thursday, May 2) at 9 a.m. (PST) at the YCS Corporate Headquarters at 5225 W. Post Road, Las Vegas.

"I'm extremely proud of the fact that we have the loyal support of so many drivers, all of whom are the heart and soul of this struggle," said OPEIU International President Michael Goodwin. "These drivers, although enduring a great deal of personal hardship, stood together and proved that through solidarity and collective bargaining, workers can improve their quality of life."

"The drivers stood strong during a very difficult strike, and now have a contract that brings the 1,800 drivers employed by YCS the respect and dignity they deserve," said ITPEU/OPEIU Local 4873 President Dennis R. Arrington. "We fought back against the companies' attempts to force senior drivers to work five or six days per week, at 60 and 72 hours. And all of the striking drivers will return to work at the same time on Thursday, May 2."

OPEIU gratefully acknowledges the support of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), Culinary Workers Union Local 266/UNITEHERE, National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), Seafarers International Union (SIU), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), Communication Workers of America (CWA), California School Employees Association (CSEA), Transportation Communication Union (TCU) and American Income Life Insurance Company (AIL) for their generous support and counsel during this prolonged strike.

Appreciation is also given to International President Emeritus Doug Dority of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and to Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson for their participation, support and counsel during the strike.

OPEIU also appreciates that several organizations sent letters in support of the union to YCS, including CWA, Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), AFSCME, American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), IATSE, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), and the Iron Workers.

Finally, OPEIU thanks the United Labor Agency of Nevada (ULAN), which facilitated the distribution of hardship funds to striking drivers.

The sixty-day strike began on March 3, 2013 and ended on May 1, 2013.

ABOUT ITPEU/OPEIU Local 4873 In addition to the taxi drivers in Las Vegas, ITPEU/OPEIU Local 4873 represents more than 13,000 workers on military installations and federal buildings throughout the United States and Puerto Rico under the Service Contract Act.

SOURCE Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFL-CIO (OPEIU)

"Earlier this year I completed my 13th - and last - Free Application for Federal Student Aid," he said last week at a congressional committee hearing on federal student aid. "We still ask applicants too many questions that are too complicated."

Filling out the FASFA is only one piece of the puzzle. Students and their families must then decipher financial aid award letters and determine which college is the best fit for their interests - and their budgets.

[Get .]

This challenge is often compounded for students who are the first in their family to attend college. Without a parent or sibling to shepherd them, these first-generation students often flounder through the financial aid process, making missteps and missing opportunities.

"Most of my friends were only considering in-state schools for two reasons. One, our high school only had information and brochures about in-state schools. Two, they seemed so much cheaper than private institutions," Seanna Leath wrote in a recent blog post for I'm First, an online community for first-generation students. The Arkansas native now attends Pomona College in California.

"For first-generation, low-income, underrepresented students like me ... private institutions can actually be significantly cheaper than in-state, public universities," she wrote, noting that generous scholarships and grants mean she'll graduate virtually debt free, despite attending a private liberal arts college with a sticker price of just over $57,000 per year.

[Find .]

But too often first-gen students like Leath don't know how to move past the sticker price. Luckily, there is an array of options, including scholarships, nonprofits and support sites, to help these students finance their college education.

FirstGenerationStudent.com: The name says it all. Devoted to helping first-in-their-family students navigate the college process from beginning to end, this website has step-by-step FAFSA instructions, a reference guide that translates financial aid acronyms into real words and a guide for students who are undocumented, homeless or in foster care. First Generation Student also has information to help students find, apply to and succeed in college.

Center for Student Opportunity: As the national nonprofit behind I'm First - which features blogs and videos from first-gen students and graduates - CSO funds an annual scholarship for students who aspire to be the first in their family to earn a degree from a four-year institution. The center also partners with schools to foster on-campus support for these students and works to connect first-gen students with schools via the I'm First community.

Mytonomy: This social networking site for high schools and college students houses video testimonials and advice from students and experts. The section dedicated to first-generation students includes tips for financing college, as well as dealing with financial challenges after students enroll. Parents going through the process for the first time can also get advice from other parents and students via the videos posted to the site, several of which are in Spanish.

[Learn .]

In addition to these sites, college counselors can give face-to-face guidance on financial aid and scholarships. Students can seek these experts out at a local college, even if it's not the school they plan to attend, said Heather McDonnell, associate dean of financial aid and admission at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, adding the majority of questions she gets can be answered by any college.

"Spend an afternoon at your neighboring college, even if you have no intention of applying. Go to one of their Saturday tours. Go to one of their information sessions ... so at least you're exposed," said McDonnell. "I wholeheartedly recommend that, particularly for those students who are first generation."

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

"I am expecting you in Jerusalem, not just me but the whole country of Israel," Peres told the pope in the presence of reporters after 30 minutes of private talks in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, made an appeal for peace between Israelis and Palestinians in his Easter address last month.

Both of Francis' two immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, visited the Holy Land, including Palestinian territories, in 2000 and 2009 respectively.

Peres asked Francis "to pray for all of us" and told the pope that he would pray for him during a trip on Wednesday to the central Italian city of Assisi, where he will visit the tomb of St. Francis, whose name Bergoglio adopted when elected pope.

Francis will travel to Rio de Janeiro in July to preside at the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Youth, a gathering of young people from around the world. He is expected to visit his native Argentina in early 2014.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

DEAR UNPIERCED: I spoke to James Wisniewski of the Body Electric Tattoo piercing studio in Los Angeles. He told me that, as with any type of body modification, the ear plugs are a matter of personal taste.

The process is referred to as "stretching," and James has had his earlobes this way for the past 14 years. He says he is asked about the procedure on a daily basis. He is attracted to it for the aesthetics. The modification is a gradual process, with larger jewelry being inserted as the hole becomes larger.

James recommends consulting a plastic surgeon if someone decides to have the hole closed because new tissue is grown as a result of the earlobe stretching. The extra skin may have to be removed in the same way as after a major weight loss.

DEAR ABBY: I am 17 and I want to start writing a book about things I have been through in my life. My family is all for it, but my friends are against it. I am torn about what I should do. I feel if I write this book it will help kids my age who may have been through some of the same things I have.

Should I go through with it or not because my friends think it's a stupid idea? I know I'm not exactly the smartest person and getting a publisher is difficult, but does that make it a stupid idea to try? What should I do? -- CONFLICTED IN INDIANA

DEAR CONFLICTED: Your reason for wanting to write a book is a valid one and you should proceed with it regardless of what your friends think. It will help you organize your thoughts, and if you show your chapters to your English teacher, you can effectively sharpen your writing skills.

Worrying about a publisher now is putting the cart before the horse. While it might be helpful for other teens to read, I promise you that even if the book isn't published, it will become a treasured time capsule containing the thoughts that were important to you during this formative period of your life. Some people your age start writing in diaries or journals and continue doing it throughout their lives.

DEAR ABBY: What is the correct response when asked at a doctor's office or hospital if you drink? I drink socially, maybe once a month. Should I say yes? If I do, I'm afraid it will imply that I drink more often.

I always end up feeling awkward and like I need to explain myself. I'm pretty proud telling them I don't smoke or do drugs, but the alcohol question always gets me. What do other people who drink on occasion usually say? -- FILLING OUT THE FORMS IN OHIO

DEAR FILLING: In my doctor's office I was asked that question, and my response was, "Yes, occasionally." At that point, the follow-up question was, "How many drinks do you have a week?" Because this particular question makes you uncomfortable, mention to your physician that you indulge in alcohol only about once a month -- which is practically negligible.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To receive a collection of Abby's most memorable -- and most frequently requested -- poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

Images and data fromshow that the compound doesn't seem to be getting replenished fast enough on Titan's surface to keep the methane cycle sustainable, scientists say.

Besides Earth, Titan is the only known place in our solar system to have stable liquids on its surface. The huge moon's clouds, lakes and rain are made up of hydrocarbons, or molecules composed of hydrogen and carbon, such as methane and ethane. []

Cassini images have revealed that Titan's hydrocarbon lakes stay remarkably consistent in size and shape over time. This means that either the lakes evaporate at a crawling pace, or there are enough downpours to offset the evaporation. Since scientists have observed only occasional bursts of rain on , they believe that the lakes must have quite stable, slowly evaporating contents, and may be dominated by ethane, which doesn't vanish as quickly as methane.

When methane floats high into Titan's soupy atmosphere, the compound is broken apart by sunlight. Many of its hydrogen atoms keep rising and disappear into space, while the remaining elements go on to make carbon-rich products like ethane. Scientists say this process should eventually diminish the overall amount of methane in Titan's environment, as compounds pieced together out of methane's leftovers continue to get dumped on the moon's surface.

"We are seeing an active Titan whose active chemistry may come to an end in some tens of million years," said Christophe Sotin, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who has been analyzing Cassini measurements of Titan's lakes and seas. That might sound like a long time away, but it could mean that Titan's "methane era" is somewhat short-lived, at least on a geological timescale.

Researchers look to Titan's methane cycle for answers about what Earth looked like before life evolved; the moon's chemistry could produce , complex organic compounds that are believed to have marked an early step in the emergence of life on Earth.

"The discoveries made by Cassini have revolutionized our understanding of Titan," Sotin said in a statement from NASA. "They open new avenues for seeking habitable worlds around . They also trigger new questions about the exchange processes between the interior and the atmosphere and about the composition of these organic particles that only future missions to Titan will be able to answer."

The research was detailed in the journal Icarus in December, alongside other findings based on new observations in a previously unexplored part of Titan's northern hemisphere. The researchers said they discovered two knee-deep lakes and another three new, mirror-smooth lakes in the area. They also found a swampy area or a cluster of small rivers connecting two of Titan's seas, Ligeia Mare and Kraken Mare, a lake bigger than the Caspian Sea.

New observations at optical wavelengths of Titan's northern realm have been possible since the seven-year seasons started changing on the moon. An icy cloud has been disappearing over Titan's north pole, and the region entered spring in August 2009.

Meanwhile, researchers recently confirmed that it's fall in Titan's southern hemisphere. An icy haze like the one that dissipated up north has been forming over the moon's south pole, meaning that winter is coming for the southern realm.

The Cassini probe launched in 1997 and has been studyingand its rings and moons since it arrived in orbit around the planet in 2004. Cassini's mission has been extended through 2017.

Follow Megan Gannon onand .Follow us,or. Originally published on

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana lawmakers on Tuesday questioned the wisdom of eliminating the state's income tax without raising sales taxes, one day after Governor Bobby Jindal said he would delay his plan to scrap the income tax.

Jindal, a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, shelved his package on the two-month legislative session's opening day on Monday, acknowledging that widespread public discomfort doomed its chances.

Instead he called on lawmakers to pass their own plan and "send me a bill to get rid of these taxes."

His plan would have eliminated all state personal and corporate income taxes. It also called for a 56 percent increase in the state sales tax, a much higher cigarette tax, and the elimination of some tax loopholes to make up the $3 billion shortfall from abolishing the income taxes.

The question of whether to cut income taxes without raising the sales tax dominated the legislative debate on Tuesday. Another idea being floated was getting rid of the taxes over time instead of all at once.

At a Senate hearing, Republican Senator Robert Adley asked Department of Revenue Executive Counsel Tim Barfield whether an income tax repeal would still need to be revenue-neutral to pass muster with the governor.

"I think that would be the ultimate desire," Barfield said. "But I think if you look at a long-term phase-out of that (income tax), I think you have a lot more leeway."

Jindal's package, designed to make Louisiana more competitive with nearby income tax-free states such as Florida and Texas, would have seen the sales tax top 11 percent in some localities, the highest in the nation, when combined with local taxes.

Simply eliminating the income tax could be an easier sell than pursuing tax hikes to make up for the lost revenue. For one thing, it would not require a two-thirds vote of each chamber of the legislature.

But watchdog groups warned lawmakers against going ahead with a big tax cut on the fly.

"Pursuing a 10-year phase-out of the income tax while trying to find offsets that even the governor couldn't find would be a daunting task at best and of great potential risk to the state at worst," the Council for a Better Louisiana said in a statement. "And simply phasing out the income tax without offsets would be irresponsible."

Representative Joel Robideaux, the Republican Ways and Means chairman who was the sponsor of Jindal's plan, also has weighed in on the side of finding offsets.

House Democratic Caucus Chair John Bel Edwards accused Jindal of being more worried about building a record for a possible presidential run than addressing Louisiana's needs.

"The governor is looking to court folks outside of Louisiana instead of addressing the concerns we have here," Edwards said. "Until we can adequately fund our priorities, we should not even begin to discuss dismantling our tax system."

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Xavier Briand)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG and a buyout group comprising KKR & Co LP and Hellman & Friedman LLC have joined the bidding for Life Technologies Corp, a genetic testing company coveted for its advanced diagnostics and steady cash flow, according to people familiar with the matter.

Roche's interest in Life Tech, a biomedical laboratory equipment maker with an $11 billion market value, signals the Swiss drugmaker's continued interest in gene sequencing a year after its $6.8 billion hostile offer for Illumina Inc failed over price.

The potential bidders are joining what is turning out to be a competitive auction, as cheap financing and growing confidence in the U.S. economy prompt more companies and private equity firms to contemplate deals costing more than $10 billion.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Danaher Corp and a buyout consortium of Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP, TPG Capital LP and Singapore's state investor, Temasek Holdings, are among the parties weighing bids, Reuters previously reported.

Healthcare companies have been attracted to Life Tech by the scale and synergies that a tie-up could bring while private equity firms have found the Carlsbad, California-based company's reliable cash flow appealing, people familiar with the matter said.

Bids are due in early April, said the people, who asked not to be named because details of the auction are not public.

Life Tech shares, which were down 1 percent before the news, ended up 1 percent at $63.58 on Tuesday. They are up more than 30 percent since the start of the year on hopes that the company's exploration of strategic alternatives will lead to a sale.

Representatives for KKR, Hellman & Friedman and Life Tech declined to comment. Roche said it does not comment on market speculation.

Analysts see a good fit between the laboratory equipment and scientific instrument businesses of Thermo Fisher and Life Technologies, with the exception of Life Tech's genetic sequencing, which Thermo Fisher could choose to divest after a deal.

Industrial and healthcare conglomerate Danaher, which has a life sciences and diagnostics division, agreed to buy Life Tech's stake in a mass spectrometry joint venture with MDS Analytical Technologies for $450 million in cash in 2009.

Private equity firms have tried to compete in the auction by teaming up, a move that helps them reduce the size of their individual equity commitment but does not improve their returns.

The so-called club deals have become less popular in recent years over concerns about corporate governance in acquired companies and a backlash from some fund investors who see little point in having exposure to a company through more than one buyout fund.

People close to the Life Tech sale process said buyout firms could struggle to achieve internal rates of return of 15 percent or more on the deal based on the leverage Life Technologies could take on to capture a sufficient portion of the financing market in a transaction.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Matthew Lewis and Steve Orlofsky)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit against the coach of the champion University of Connecticut women's basketball team brought by a security official who accused him of grabbing her and trying to kiss her.

The official, Kelley Hardwick of New York, works for the National Basketball Association and sued Geno Auriemma, who coached the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team to a gold medal last year.

The suit also named U.S.A. Basketball, which oversees the Olympic program, and the NBA as defendants.

It said Auriemma grabbed Hardwick and tried to kiss her during a pre-Olympic trip to Russia with the national team.

When she rebuffed him, the lawsuit said, Auriemma had the NBA remove her from the Olympics security team in London. In a subsequent amended filing, Hardwick said the NBA reversed its decision as a result of the lawsuit and allowed her to travel to London, though with diminished responsibilities.

The amended complaint also included an unrelated assault claim against Auriemma, stemming from an alleged incident in which Hardwick said Auriemma screamed at her in front of the players while in London.

Auriemma, who won his eighth national championship with Connecticut this month, previously called all the allegations "beyond false."

Justice Cynthia Kern in state Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled that the lawsuit, filed last summer, did not belong in New York because the alleged incidents took place in Russia and London. She also dismissed the claims against U.S.A. Basketball, in part because it is based in Colorado.

Hardwick's lawyer, Randy McLaughlin, said Auriemma's actions were intended to harm her career in New York, which gave her a basis to sue the coach there.

"We believe the decision is wrong on the facts and the law," he said. "This is just the beginning."

Court records show Hardwick's counsel have already filed notice that they will appeal Kern's ruling.

A university spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A U.S.A. Basketball representative could not be reached outside of regular business hours.

The decision, filed on Monday, did not address Hardwick's discrimination accusations against the NBA, based in New York, and her direct supervisor. An NBA spokesman declined to comment.

The case is Hardwick v Auriemma, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 153557/2012.

(Additional Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Editing by Xavier Briand and Peter Cooney)

A beautiful scientific hypothesis can reduce the chaos of the world to a few, simple principles. Of course, it also helps if that explanation is true. A different kind of science festival that had been scheduled for April 20, however, will celebrate exquisitely argued evolutionary hypotheses that just happen to be hopelessly, terribly wrong.

(The festival will be rescheduled for a later date.)

The first-everwill treat an audience at MIT to seven lectures on internally coherent, even convincing but ultimately hilariously absurd explanations of evolutionary adaptation.

The event was inspired by a joke in the science-obsessed Web comic "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal" (SMBC), which is co-sponsoring the festival, along with the comic's publisher Breadpig (also behind the science-geek comic XKCD), and the MIT Lecture Series. In the , a scientist imagines a prehistoric advantage to punting newborns into neighboring villages. []

The ridiculous argument, made in absolute sincerity by the illustrated scientist, posits that infants are hairless to minimize drag, "football-shaped" to maximize puntability, and filled with soft bones to cushion the impact. Airmailing infants would have allowedto spread their genes, the scientist argues to great applause, earning her a trophy of "Darwin looking doubtful."

All the hypotheses chosen for BAH! Fest will be of a similar nature, sharing ludicrous conclusions supported by careful evolutionary explanations. Many of the presentations will even reference published scientific papers and present real data, Zach Weinersmith of SMBC said. But the conclusions are all absurd, intentionally so.

In selecting presenters, BAH! Fest organizers looked for the use of real data, cleverness and artistry, parsimony and strength of defense. "Please note," the guidelines state, "Being funny is not a good defense. We want to see you actually defend your terrible, terrible theory!"

The winner of BAH! Fest, chosen by a panel of bona fide scientists, will earn a 3D-printed version of the trophy first imagined in the SMBC comic a "depressed-looking Darwin," Weinersmith said, complete with a voice bubble admitting, "I guess so?"

Pure satire, the festival is intended, first of all, to make people laugh. But, like most good satire, the event also pokes fun at a real issue, in this case, the misuse of .

The major criticism for evolutionary theorists is hyperadaptationism, "over-the-top" evolutionary ideas that try to explain too many of an organism's features as adaptations, said Hadassah Head, project coordinator for Binghamton University's Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) Program, which helped promote BAH! Fest.

Taking part in the festival "shows an awareness of the issue and the ability to joke about it and understand it," said Glenn Geher, professor and chairman of psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and a member of the EvoS Consortium.

Weinersmith himself was inspired by a classic (or notorious) case of bad evolutionary theory, . First proposed in the 1940s, the theory imagines that human ancestors went through a sea-based stage, which would explain things like the species' relative hairlessness and greater ability to digest fish compared with other primates.

Despite seeming coherence, though, that theory has very little (if any) support from serious evolutionary theorists. "Clearly, it's crazy," Weinersmith said. BAH! Fest just takes that craziness to the extreme. And, serious satirical intent aside, the event has captured the enthusiasm of scientists and science fans alike.

"This is definitely the coolest project I'm ever going to be a part of," Head said.

The event sold out MIT's 450-seat auditorium, and a successful outing will likely lead to an annual or even biannual event in the future, Weinersmith said. The event is also part of the Cambridge Science Festival.

Follow us ,& . Original article on .