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Existential threats, No. 24,897,229,330,200,763,341 [09 Oct 2008 | 08:38pm] Giant mutant murder catfish has developed a taste for human flesh! The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses. It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on remains of funeral pyres. See, this is why I've always worried about those Zoroastrians. When we're all hiding from a race of titanic vultures, ravenous for human flesh, don't say I didn't warn you. [ mood | worried ] 3 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

For some reason just being a turtle is an idea that came along and just really works [09 Oct 2008 | 01:27am] How the Turtle Got Its Shell Bone fragments from a 210-million year-old, land-dwelling reptile from New Mexico suggest that the earliest turtles didn't have much of a shell at all. Over millions of years, rows of protective armour plates gradually fused together and to the reptile's vertebrae, eventually creating a complete shell. "Turtles ultimately originated from something that looked like an armadillo," says lead author Walter Joyce, a palaeontologist at the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut. ... Exactly why turtles evolved their shell remains a mystery, Joyce says. A full shell might offer added protection and stability. And the proof could be in the pudding – their body plan is the world's oldest, changing little over 200 million years. "For some reason just being a turtle is an idea that came along and just really works," he says. "And the proof could be in the pudding – their body plan is the world's oldest, changing little over 200 million years." This sounds suspiciously like the Chelonic Principle to me. 3 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[07 Oct 2008 | 10:30pm] Obama/McCain townhall debate digest: Brokaw: We worked hard on this debate format, and our time is very limited. That is, our time is limited. Have I made clear that our time is limited? Audience Member: What about invading Darfur and destroying their oil in order to solve our financial crisis? McCain: My friends. You cannot do this by doing that. I have always. Won't. Must. Always. Country. Obama: Anything you don't like is George Bush's fault. If elected, I will give everything to everyone. Michelle Obama: I'm wearing a red dress with sparkly stuff on it. And I have cleavage. Cindy McCain: I'm also wearing sparkly stuff, and while my breasts are not as nice as Michelle's, my hair is dyed very, very blonde. Uncommitted Ohio voters: Yay! Meh. Yay! Meh. Yay! McCain ain't doing it, folks. He is swinging, but not leaving a mark. The economy is spiraling into the sun, which favors the Democrats. McCain can't match Obama's charisma. Although there's a month to go, I don't see how my Republicans can pull this out. I think we're in for four to eight years of (very) liberal Democratic rule. All I can do is creep into my hole and try to stay safe while the great thunder lizards stomp about overhead. [ mood | worried ] 23 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[06 Oct 2008 | 09:53pm] An asteroid, about the size of a car, is going to hit the Earth's atmosphere, in about an hour. Over Egypt and Sudan. It is likely burn up before it hits the ground, in an explosion of about 1 kiloton. The nasa.gov servers are kinda slashdotted right now. [ mood | melancholy ] 7 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[06 Oct 2008 | 03:02am] Department of Murdered Darlings "Why did she call me 'monkey girl'?" Lizbet whispered to Cupido. "Perhaps she thought you came from a different world," Cupido said. "There is a world, very far away, where the Earth goes around the sun instead of vice versa, God is a watchmaker, and human beings are made out of monkeys." "What a peculiar place that must be," Lizbet said. [ mood | sick ] 2 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

And now, moldy dung [05 Oct 2008 | 06:39am] High speed video recordings of spore discharge in coprophilous fungi. Mixed to the Anvil Chorus from Il Travatore Probably NSFW if you're a fungus. Video from The Fastest Flights in Nature: High-Speed Spore Discharge Mechanisms among Fungi. L Yafetto, L Carroll, Y Cui, et al. (PLoS). Nicholas Money, an expert on fungi at Miami University, has been playing around with very fast video. Ultra fast. As in 250,000 frames-a-second fast. He knew exactly what this kind of video was made for. To film fungi that live on dung as they discharge their spores. These tiny fungi can blast spores as far as six feet away, boosting the odds that they’ll land on a clean plant that a cow or other grazing animal may eat. The fungi develop inside the animal, get pooped out with its dung, and fire their spores once more. Money’s results were not just significant, but beautiful. The fungi fire their spores up to 55 miles an hour–which translates to an acceleration of 180,000 g. The video was mixed by Money's students. Source: Carl Zimmer's blog, The Loom. [ mood | sick ] 2 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

Yes, I know the stock market is crashing, but life still goes on. [30 Sep 2008 | 04:52am] Consumer Reports, No.1. Unless you're an eremite on top of pole in the Syrian desert, you probably do consumer stuff. We buy stuff, we use services. I'm going to start reporting on stuff I've bought that has worked, or hasn't. It's only an N of one, but by god, it's my N. "Maybe this isn't the most important foxhole in the war, but I'm in it!" First up: killing yellow jackets, aka hornets. Google ways to kill yellow jackets, and you will probably hit this page, from the Alaska Outdoor Journal, which suggests that a trap that looks like this: The web page airily reports that, "It only takes a day or two to wipe out nearly every yellow jacket in your area." It doesn't work. I don't know whether there's something about creationist, pro-life, pentecostal, moose-stinging, Matanuska Thunderfuck-smoking Alaskan yellow jackets that makes them susceptible to fish traps, but my local Prius-driving, Timbuk2-carrying Philly suburbs yellow jackets are utterly unimpressed. I made a trap just like that photo, and tried it three times, within 1-3 feet of two active yellow jacket nests. Twice I got nothing. Once I got three yellow jackets. Once the fish was stolen by some four-pawed denizen of the night, probably a raccoon. Complete waste of time. Similar idea, using a soda bottle and jam. Also doesn't work. What does work? This: About US$7 at my local Acme. Go out early in the morning, when it's still cool and the yellow jackets aren't active yet, get as close as you dare, and spray the whole thing in the hole. Check in a day or two, and if there is still activity, spray again. End of problem. Pouring gasoline down the hole also works, and is cheaper, but when the hole is horizontal, in a bank, it can't be easily done, and if there are plantings nearby, they may be killed. BTW, don't light the gasoline, it's dangerous and unnecessary, the fumes alone do the job. [ mood | aggravated ] 13 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[28 Sep 2008 | 08:38pm] Mystery surrounds hijacked Iranian ship. There's been a huge amount of piracy by Somalis lately, preying on foreign shipping coming through the Gulf of Aden. Pirates recently hijacked an Iranian freighter coming from China. But like the eagle who tried to fly off with the walrus, they grabbed a bit more than they were bargaining for. Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. "Yes, some of them have died. I do not know exactly how many but the information that I am getting is that some of them have died," Andrew Mwangura, Director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said Friday when reached by phone in Mombasa. ...Authorities dispatched a delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman to investigate the situation on September 4. Osman also confirmed to The Long War Journal that during the six days he negotiated with the pirates members of the syndicate had become sick and died. "That ship is unusual," he said. "It is not carrying a normal shipment." Whaddya think? Shoggoths? [ mood | enthralled ] 3 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[28 Sep 2008 | 12:17pm] Chimps can recognize friends by their behinds. [ mood | mellow ] 2 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

Now, here's my plan... [26 Sep 2008 | 10:35pm] Okay, the debate. Good debate. Gooooood debate. If you took a drink every time McCain said, "I've been to SomeOtherCountryCurrentlyInTurmoil, and I've talked to people there, and therefore GeneraliziedPolicyProposal," you'd have to be admitted to the ICU for acute alcohol poisoning. Even if you were drinking 3.2. Obama doesn't want to attack McCain. He wants to articulate policy, and his attacks on McCain feel forced, like stuff he doesn't really want to say, but feels forced into by his handlers. I'm watching the CNN 'Audience reaction' meter. Man. People *hate* it when one candidate attacks the other. The best levels of Rep, Dem, and Ind were when both McCain and Obama were basically on agreement on our response to Russian aggressiveness. Ordinary people, not policy nerds, not flame-brained partisans, don't like dissension. They don't like intramural squabbling. They want R and D to agree, and work together. The Founding Fathers hated partisanship, too. They called it 'faction', and they just hated it. Yet, the nation drifted into it soon enough. Why is this? It's not just "I think A, but you think B, therefore you are a wingnut/moonbat." There are other, darker forces pushing us towards partisanship. Look, I've got a modest proposal. McCain dumps Palin, and takes Obama as his VP candidate. Obama dumps Biden, and takes McCain as his VP candidate. This would be a huge improvement on both sides, and the right thing to do for the nation. So, of course, it won't happen. [ mood | dorky ] 10 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

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