Wombat Music Workshop | Ladybug
What to sing to the ladybugs you find in your coconut icecream.
this unique 18-minute genre has its own requirements
From a Wired article on how to ace a TED Talk:
“I’m surprised to see that half the people here know my career in some detail and the other half don’t know who I am,” he says.
Science is fine, but not when it messes with our illusions.
If she had included solar power and African child warriors, it would have been so perfect a TED talk that there would have been no need for others.
Wolfram wraps his talk by saying that when it comes to trying to boil down the universe to a simple algorithm, “it’s almost embarrassing not to at least try.”
“Just because someone has an ego,” he says, citing a writer whose name I can’t read from my scribbled notes, “doesn’t mean he’s wrong.”
strange flowers
Bees can learn to recognize human faces.
Rather than specifically recognizing people, these nectar-feeding creatures view us as “strange flowers,” the researchers say. And while they might not be able to identify individual humans, they can learn to distinguish features that are arranged to look like faces.
from the moderated comments
Name withheld to protect the something:
Rather than ramble on about the rights versus the wrongs of having an “All White Basketball league” (Which I believe is fair), would just like to say that for close to five decades the blacks have pretty much been running the show… Sadly, they’ve never been content with our elected leadership and seem to thrive on dips like Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Marty King, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc., etc., to do their bullying for them. “Including” bullying their way into the Nation’s Sports Arenas. And can someone tell me why we American tax payers have to pay for the existence of a “Congressional Black Caucus”…???
from the comments
The bug will eat you when the bug eats.
pupation
I love the history of this post’s comment thread.
nonanal
In case you were wondering what the substance in human blood that attracts mosquitoes is called.
And they found it — nonanal, a substance made by humans and birds that creates a powerful scent that Culex mosquitoes find irresistible.
angry flies like a banana
“Every time you swat a fly away from your hamburger, it seems to come back to the food more aggressively or persistently,” Anderson said. “People might wonder about whether there’s such a thing as an ‘angry’ fly, but no one would challenge the idea of an angry bee — especially someone who’s been stung by one.”
“We developed the ‘puff-o-mat’ apparatus, with the idea of putting some fly food at one end, and then blowing the flies away from the food with a gentle puff of air every time they got close to it,” he said. “Then we measured whether the flies became more agitated and approached the food more aggressively after experiencing this frustrating experience several times.”
noah | networked organisms and habitats
An open-source citizen science project by three of my classmates.
I don’t have an iPhone, or even a data plan for the smartphone I do have, so I can’t submit critter spottings to Project Noah. All you people with your fancy iPhones can contribute, though, using Noah’s beta iPhone app; sign up on the site to be a tester.
Last night
Vacuuming mosquitoes.
you’re welcome
The females emerge from the anus at night to lay their eggs.
Looking for a Pen that will Grade Papers
“This is the tragic story of a man who’s essay writes about his events.”
Dear clusterflock
Do you poke at ant piles?
from the comments
I figure if they can build elaborate nests with air conditioning and whole underground farms, and can build boats to get across flood waters–they might also be able to locate a discarded sex doll and inhabit it in such a way as to meet interesting people and exchange nutrients.
“Hezlow thair” he said, offering his hand–but then inexplicably rubbing his head against hers, there in the crowded elevator. “Might yew haz some sugarz for me? Ah–I yam smelling your anzer.”
“Suddenly his kiss was…flowing. At last I pulled away– and he was gone. Except for his clothes. Did he just leave me in the cabana and head naked for the pool? I took a step but my legs wobbled–and there was a terrible humming in my head….”
“The first thing that aroused suspicion was the fact that officer Hormiga, standing in line at the food bank, was weeping ants. Later the patrol car was found crushed–and upside down on top of a tall building.” (Thanks, Mike.)
Yeah, Michael–thanks a lot.
Heard It on a Nature Program About Ants
The weight of all ants on the planet is equivalent to the weight of all humans on earth.
I wish I hadn’t heard that.
million spider tapestry
An 11-by-4-foot tapestry woven completely from spider silk is on display at the American Museum of Natural History.
“The spiders are harnessed … held down in a delicate way,” Godley says, “so you need people to do this who are very tactile so the spiders are not harmed. So there’s a chain of about 80 people who go out every morning at four o’clock, collect spiders, we get them in by 10 o’clock. They’re in boxes, they’re numbered, and then as they get silked, about 20 minutes later, they get released back into nature.”
In the RV park
Termites at work.
Ants, Nothing but Ants!
“Leiningen!” he shouted. “You’re insane! They’re not creatures you can fight–they’re an elemental–an ‘act of God!’ Ten miles long, two miles wide–ants, nothing but ants! And every single one of them a fiend from hell; before you can spit three times they’ll eat a full-grown buffalo to the bones. I tell you if you don’t clear out at once there’ll he nothing left of you but a skeleton picked as clean as your own plantation.”
– from “Leiningen versus the Ants,” Carl Stephenson. First published in Esquire, December 1938.
The Mother of All Clusterflocks, Y’all
Consider yourselves warned: Argentine ants are unifying into one super massive mega colony rivaling ours for world domination.
These ants rubbed antennae with one another and never became aggressive or tried to avoid one another.
The most plausible explanation is that ants from these three super-colonies are indeed family, and are all genetically related, say the researchers. When they come into contact, they recognise each other by the chemical composition of their cuticles.
In short, they acted as if they all belonged to the same colony, despite living on different continents separated by vast oceans.
Swallowtail
I don’t know the specifics but I know it’s a swallowtail….
cybugs
The military is developing insect cyborgs for potential use in spying.
Originally researchers sought to control insects by gluing machinery onto their backs, but such links were not always reliable. To overcome this hurdle, the Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) program is sponsoring research into surgically implanting microchips straight into insects as they grow, intertwining their nerves and muscles with circuitry that can then steer the critters. As expensive as these devices might be to manufacture and embed in the bugs, they could still prove cheaper than building miniature robots from scratch.
An Ant
(Via Rich.)
Do Earwigs Crawl in People’s Ears and Bore into Their Brains?
No. But, thanks to the unending media coverage of Michael Jackson’s unfortunate death, the first few riffs of Thriller, have done just that. Why oh why am I hearing the Kingston Trio version?
Gulp
I have been to the mountaintop
even though it was actually in the valley of the Red River. I’ve been on the verge of tears all day. On the way in, it was as if the car passed through the thin film of a bubble that didn’t, couldn’t pop as we (Danny and I) pressed through it somewhere along about where the tires left the asphalt. Our car, heavy old battle-star that she is, lifted and floated just above the surface of the gravel. (An aside: She passed the 100,000-mile odometer-mark as we floated back from dinner on Saturday night.) Upon entry we were greeted by the first angel, Lynn, who directed us where to set-down. We lit in front of the retreat cottage. Got out of the car. The buoyant air smelled like Love. We were immediately met by two more radiances, Cindy and Andrew. The first words said, “Rick, it’s me Cindy.” And I couldn’t help but fall into her embrace.
There will be more testimony I know. At this moment I can hardly type, so full am I of the power of unbounded love. The best hugs that might could ever be gotten. Mosquitos, the size of pigeons, that would bite and sip, but leave no welt, no itch.
This much I’ll say, there is a heaven, it sits just outside Bonham, Texas. Maybe a little closer to Telephone, Texas, actually. It is real. A place made by, occupied by and visited by angels. (Made me think I might be one, some day.) Lynn and Jackie, Deron and Amy, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I won’t name the rest for fear of leaving someone out which I would count as sin on the highest magnitude.
I love all y’all.