In the western traditional spirit of celebrating weird date milestones, I wish everyone a happy 456 Day! (That’s 04/05/06 in the American version of dating)
I’m sure that there is something cosmically significant about this day, but I can’t find it.
I can’t wait unit 666 day!
If you read my blog, you will see posts about Intelligent Design and its crazy way of making life very interesting.
However, occasionally something comes along that is truly ticklish. Try this article out of The Panda’s Thumb on for size.
It makes me wonder if the researcher, Brian Alter, didn’t do it on purpose.
The intelligent design movement has it’s moments, and this is one of them.
A Scientist from the University of Texas, Eric Pianka, who spoke about a possible “crash” in human population due to many reasons, has been reported to the Department of Homeland Security and is receiving death threats and unfriendly looks.
For better coverage see Pharyngula, Austringer, or just Google.
The NY Times today had an article entitled Wingless Gliders May Reveal the Origins of Insect Flight. I usually peruse these types of articles just to find out what’s going on that is newsworthy.
I think the author (Elizabeth Svoboda) had a lot of fun writing this. To summarize, Dr. Stephen Yanoviak of the University of Florida, Dr. Robert Dudley of the University of California, and Dr. Michael Kaspari of the University of Florida have been studying the gliding (flight) characteristics of a wingless ant in hopes of demonstrating what pressures drove wingless insects to evolve into winged ones.
Here are some of the quotes from the article:
When Stephen Yanoviak visited the jungles of Panama in 1998 to study how ants forage, he found himself with some unexpected downtime. “Out of boredom, I started flicking some ants off of a tree,” he said.
and
The scientists’ hunch that the ants’ movements, not their body shapes, chiefly dictated their gliding paths was confirmed when they started chopping off appendages to see if the insects could still soar.
The ants showed remarkable resilience. They coasted to controlled landings after multiple leg amputations and even after removal of their abdomens, which ordinarily comprise 30 percent of their body weight. When the researchers covered the insects’ eyes with dots of white nail polish, however, they sank to the forest floor like stones.
It really sounds like these guys had fun doing this research!
The results will be published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Here is a link to a post by PZ Meyers of Pharyngula with a very thinly disguised methaphor for science vs. religion.
Let it not be said that I either endorse or anti-endorse this post. You must only read it, then start going through the comments. It’s the comments that make this post worthwhile.
If you aren’t familiar with stripper factories or beer volcanoes, I recommend to you His Noodly Appendage.
And I, too, want to have a flaming tiger next to my bear volcano.
Well, yesterday it was a pizza-sized hole.
Today, it’s a miscue from another AJC writer, Phil Kloer.
I was looking at the movie review for Ice Age II and read this:
Scrat is the name of the adorable little prehistoric squirrel-thingie in the 2002 movie “Ice Age,” whose wordless, fruitless pursuit of a single acorn was that flick’s funniest running gag. As relentlessly inventive and doomed to failure as Road Runner [ed. emphasis], Scrat is practically Chaplinesque in the purity and futility of his quest.
Road Runner? Wasn’t that Wile E. Coyote? I could have sworn that was the critter getting repeatedly blown up, smashed, run over, etc. Alas, I believe we have another case of someone writing for a deadline without really reading it.
Speaking of the Coyote. I saw another spoof bumper sticker the other day. You are, I’m sure, familiar with the “W. The President” square black stickers. Then there is “F the President” which I find amusing. The new one was “W. The Coyote.” Very nice…
Quoting from the opening sentence of an article in this morning’s AJC by Dave Hirschman.
Hip-deep in a pizza-sized hole, electrician Ken Hunter crimps some of the hundreds of miles of wiring that soon will illuminate the $1.28 billion fifth runway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
How deep is a pizza-sized hole? Pesonally, I’ve never had a pizza that I could be hip deep in.
What I find most amusing about this was I didn’t realize what that sentence really said (pizza sized deep vs. pizza sized round) until well after I was finished reading. There are so many different phrases out there that we all know what they mean, but that’s not exactly what we say. This one gets added to the pile.
In this month’s Scientific American, they have a short blurb at the front speaking about lateralization of animals, which in humans manifests as right or left handedness. Here’s the link. I have no idea how long it will work, so good luck.
The studies that it was covering were trying to determine why animals developed lateralization in the first place (not only humans, but chimps and fish are right- or left-sided), from an evolutionary standpoint.
The main theory says that better cooperation leads to better group survival, i.e. all of the fish swimming to the left in reaction to a predator.
Of course the main theory on why lefties exist is that group lateralization might increase survival through cooperation but it also increases competition. Therefore lefties make better predators.
So, next time all you lefties are bumping elbows with someone at the table, just lean over and bite them and explain that it’s your survival instinct.
Little did we know but all we had to do in case of nuclear attack was go to the Brooklyn Bridge for supplies.
I like this quote: “Also, there were cans of high-calorie crackers with instructions to consume 10,000 calories a day per person.”
That’s a lot of crackers.
Free speech is a wonderful thing; I fully support it. I think Fred Phelps is currently the USA’s biggest penis-head, but I support his right to preach his message of hate. The blogosphere has increased everyone’s ability to get their message out there, and a lot of people certainly have.
For example! This person has some interesting ideas on the foundations of civilization.
I will disclaim this post by saying that, no, I have not personally investigated the claims made on the linked essay. My skeptical incredulous nature does go BOOOM while perusing it, though.
Still, it makes for interesting reading. There are some things listed I’d never heard of:
I was fascinated reading the essay. Now I’m going to go be fascinated with something else.
There is no knowing the Evil Eyebrow
Twenty Twenty-Five
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