I don’t know who came up with this — it’s been bouncing around science journals for 50 years:Found in the Futility Closet.
Hydromicrobiogeochemist: one who studies small underwater flora and their relationship to underlying rock strata by using chemical methods.
Microhydrobiogeochemist: one who studies flora in very small bodies of water and their relationship to underlying rock strata by using chemical methods.
Microbiohydrogeochemist: one who studies small flora and their relationship to underlying rock strata by using chemical methods and SCUBA equipment.
Biohydromicrogeochemist: a very small geochemist who studies the effect of plant life in hydrology.
Hydrobiomicrogeochemist: a very small geochemist who studies wet plants.
Biomicrohydrogeochemist: a very small, wet geochemist who likes lettuce.
The wonderfully varied symbolic and metaphoric associations of hay mirror its cultural and economic importance in the history of humanity. Hay has variously symbolized wealth and poverty, sexuality, love, life and death. The somewhat dated saying in our own culture "That ain't hay" (meaning "that's not entirely worthless") is remotely connected to the beliefs and rituals of the Low Countries of Europe over half a millennium ago.There's lots of material there to be perused (and blogged), since I'm a big fan of hay. I need to go back later to learn things and harvest some material.
The slang term "bunny boiler" has passed into popular parlance as a term for a jealous mistress, based on [Fatal Attraction's] infamous rabbit boiling scene. The phrase's first use in print was on December 6, 1990 in The Dallas Morning News, in which Glenn Close described her character in that film using the term.
...we witness Beth Gallgher’s (Anne Archer) walk to the hob, taking the time to put her bag down as the camera cuts to show a single shot of the pan boiling. Then as she continues her walk the action gradually starts to increase with the cut to her daughter running in the garden, cut back to Beth and then straight back to the daughter again creating a frenzied and disorientating effect necessary to the pay-off at the end when the lid to the pan is raised. At this moment we cut back once more to the girl screaming by the rabbit cage and then hear Beth’s scream as we are offered a glimpse of the cooked bunny.
Desperate to escape the heat, locals and tourists crowd the Daying County saltwater swimming pools in China's Sichuan province. Temperatures hit 38c (100.4f) in the region.One of the Pictures of the Day at The Telegraph.
"Jacqueline Bradley, a Canberra-based artist, created the classic 1950s-style cream and floral 'Boat Dress' that actually floats on water."Via Neatorama.
The advantage of jointly-sponsored field trips is that participants have a wide range of expertise. Within that day's group of 15, there were some who could identify for us a meadowlark on a shrub, the identity of every dragonfly that we saw, the species of a sun-bleached skull, and a most unusual plant - a bergamot ("Bee Balm") that was totally white (photo at right) instead of the usual lavender color.
[For] six years, this New Zealand [sheep] managed to avoid spring shearings by hiding in a cave. By the time he was found in 2004, his owners couldn’t even tell he was a sheep... When Shrek was eventually sheared.. there was enough wool to produce 20 men’s suits....Photo (adjusted for temperature and tint) from Modern Farmer, where there are additional photos of Shrek being sheared and his post-shearing status.
Which led us to some basic questions:...We turned to Dave Thomas, head of sheep studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison....
Modern Farmer: Let’s get right down to business. Will wool just keep growing and growing if humans don’t cut it off?
Dave Thomas: For domestic sheep like the Merino [Shrek's breed], the answer is yes.
MF: So domestic sheep have evolved based on the way we groom them?
DT: That’s right. Primitive sheep like Bighorns in the West still shed most of their wool every year. And domestic sheep, the ones raised primarily for their meat, will do some shedding. But for the majority of sheep, there is continual, year-round wool growth...
MF: Are there potential health issues?
DT: Full fleece can be bad in very hot weather, sometimes leading to heat stress. There are also mobility issues: if a sheep with long wool lies down on a heavy incline, it can be impossible for them to roll off of their backs. In extreme cases, they can die.
MF: ...What about vision? It looked like Shrek would have a hard time seeing through that mess.
DT: That is what you would call “wool-blind,” when the sheep’s vision is actually impaired.
"Does it really take twenty minutes from here to Lundeby?"Of course he would have been left quadriplegic after they dissected their way past his spinal column.
"Yes, unfortunately, it does. And twenty minutes back. They didn't have personnel with them who could perform a tracheotomy. If they had, he might have been saved."
"What are you talking about now?"
"About going in between two vertebrae and opening up the windpipe from the outside."
"You mean cutting open his throat?"
"Yes, It's actually quite simple. And it might have saved his life..."
Zoopharmacognosy refers to the process by which non-human animals self-medicate by selecting and using plants, soils, and insects to treat and prevent disease...
"[YouTube] clip borrowed from the "Peculiar Potions" episode of BBC's series "Weird Nature" - a jaguar in the Peruvian rain forest eats Yage (Banisteriopsis caapi), a vine containing hallucinogenic chemical harmaline and other beta carbolines, used by natives in a ritualistic ceremony involving Ayahuasca."
Walking Men Worldwide™ is a photographic collage of pedestrian traffic images from cities around the world, collected by Maya Barkai in collaboration with hundreds of professional and amateur photographers. In January 2010, the project made it’s [sic] debut on the construction site of 99 Church Street in Manhattan, NYC...Via Rob's Webstek, where it is noted that one of the few female walking stick-figures, is "Sophie", the icon from Amersfoort, depicted with a ponytail, miniskirt, and high heels (here).
Over the past decade, scientists have discovered a vast menagerie of viruses that are far bigger, and which carry enormous arsenals of genes. French researchers are now reporting the discovery of the biggest virus yet. The pandoravirus, as they’ve dubbed it, is 1,000 times bigger than the flu virus by volume and has nearly 200 times as many genes — 2,556 all told.
Making the discovery all the more startling is the fact that, of all the genes that pandoraviruses carry, only six percent match any gene known to science.“We believe we’re opening a Pandora’s box – not so much for humanity but for dogma about viruses,” said Dr. Jean-Michel Claverie of the University of Mediterranée, co-author of the paper that was published online Thursday in the journal Science. “We believe we’re touching an alternative tree of life.”
●Open the window as fast as possible — before you hit the water, if you can, or immediately afterward.The next three steps are described at the Washington Post.
●Stay still, with your seat belt on, until the water in the car goes up to your chin. Then take several slow, deep breaths and hold one.
●Do not try to open the door until the water has stopped flooding into the car. Initially, the water outside will put pressure on the door of up to 600 pounds a square inch, meaning you won’t be able to open it from the inside. The pressure inside and outside the car should equalize about the time you start holding your breath.
Nada’s story goes back to when she was only two years old. At that time, her uncle, who lives alone with his mother, had expressed to her parents his wish to adopt her in which they agreed. And so Nada lived with her uncle in the capital city, Sanaa, and didn’t hear from her real family until about a month ago when they asked to see her. “They told my uncle that they wanted me back. He couldn’t do anything about it; they’re my parents. So he took me back to them.” Nada explains.Being back with her parents after 9 years of separation was so difficult on Nada. The estranged girl was getting very uncomfortable with the different and, as she expressed, “bad” environment there in which everyone, including children, was just chewing Qat and smoking shisha all the time. When Nada tried to express her wish to go back to her uncle, she was shocked with the news that she was getting married. “They told me that I am engaged and that my fiance had already paid them money and brought the engagement ring. They said that I couldn’t leave and even threatened to kill me if I went back to my uncle.”..
After her uncle learned of what had happened, he went and took her from Hodeida back to Sanaa. Later on Nada and her uncle discovered that her parents have issued a statement that their daughter had been kidnapped by her uncle. “They said that my uncle kidnapped me but it’s not true, I am the one who ran away.”“I want to continue my education and live my life. I have many dreams, I don’t want to be married now. My mother hates me, she just wants me to get married because she will get money from the man. But I’m not an item for sale, I’m a human being and I would rather die than get married at this age."...Nada is now waiting in hopes that journalists, human-rights activists and different local organizations will help her make a strong case against her parents who are trying to get her back so they can go on with the marriage process. “I want to thank all the journalists, activists, and organizations that have shown their support to me and hope that they will help me in my case so I can succeed and continue to live my childhood.”
The present study tests the “false head” hypothesis by exposing a hairstreak butterfly, Calycopis cecrops, as well as many other Lepidoptera species as controls, to the attacks of the jumping spider, Phidippus pulcherrimus. The results unambiguously indicate that the “false head” is a very efficient strategy in deflecting attacks from the vital centres of the hairstreak butterfly whereas other similar-sized Lepidoptera fall easy prey.The report is discussed in detail at the blog of the Florida Museum of Natural History:
When the hairstreak butterfly faced the jumping spider in an enclosed space, the butterfly successfully escaped 100 percent of the time. The study shows jumping spiders may have influenced evolution of some butterfly patterns and behaviors...When 11 other butterfly and moth species from seven different families were exposed to the jumping spider, they were unable to escape attack in every case.Previously, scientists presumed that it was attacks by birds that drove the evolution of some butterfly wing patterns; now the role of the jumping spider has been delineated. The jumping spider has superb near vision. You would too, if you had eyes like this:
Unlike other butterflies, hairstreaks frequently move the hind wings that carry the false head pattern, a behavior that seems to increase in the presence of the spider.For years I've noticed this back-and-forth "sawing" movement of the hind wings of resting hairstreak butterflies, without imagining that it served any adaptive purpose. It obviously attracts the spider's attention, so that when the attack is launched...
The trailer for Bill Condon’s WikiLeaks movie, “The Fifth Estate” has arrived, starring “Sherlock” and “Star Trek Into Darkness” star Benedict Cumberbatch as a singularly-focused Julian Assange.
Assange, however, has consistently criticized the project, calling it “a massive propaganda attack” on the organization and even refused to meet with Cumberbatch.
From within London’s Ecuadorian embassy, where Assange remains in hiding, he connected with Oxford University students via Internet and slammed the film, which allegedly contains scenes regarding a nuclear weapons program in Iran. ”How does this have anything to do with us?… How is it that a lie gets into a script about WikiLeaks?” he asked. He called the scenes “an attack against us [WikiLeaks]” as well as “an attack against Iran.” “It fans the flames to start a war with Iran,” he said.
