cwilcox | April 27, 2009"Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" - better known as EPCOT - was originally Walt Disney's vision of a perfect city, home to 20,000 people. In his words, "EPCOT... will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise."
Disney's vision was never…
cwilcox | April 26, 2009OK, I know I've done joeys before, but can you blame me? Look at these guys!
source
These adorable little tykes are rescues, saved after the recent bushfires. Here's a sobering fact I didn't know before: In some areas in Australia, joeys like these are killed en masse. Kangaroos, as it turns out, are becoming a pest in some areas of Australia because we've killed off a lot of their predators, leading to unchecked population growth. The adults are hunted to save them from starving or prevent damage done by hungry kangaroos entering populated areas where they can be dangerous to people. Any…
cwilcox | April 24, 2009First, the visual: image creditOk. Now to explain.Scientists from the University of Bristol Woodland Road wanted to learn more about rock ants (Temnothorax albipennis). Specifically, they had noticed that the ants seem to be able to pick out the best possible nest sites when they decide to move. As a collective group, the entire colony chooses where to settle in, though scouts fan out and look around to see what's available. At first, they thought that the ants just directly compared options. But ants that never see the worse sites still help the colony decide on the better one - and…
cwilcox | April 23, 2009I have to start work at 8 am every morning. I'm not sure exactly who decided that scientists should start early, but it seems to be a universal assumption. Throughout college my science classes were always first thing, and research efforts often seem to involve early morning work. But I've never really been a morning person. Last night is a great example: I had to clean up the house in preparation for Barry's brother coming to stay with us (which, with a dog and a cat and two messy people, is no small feat). We started when we got home and tackled room after room. As I looked up at the clock…
cwilcox | April 22, 2009Since today is Earth Day, I've got all kinds of green, eco-friendly, conservation-type thoughts jumbling around in my head. I keep reading articles about how some rare alligator has a little hope or how some big rare fish got eaten, and thinking positively about the press surrounding our environment. All these daily, constant reminders about the status of species on the verge of collapse - this kind of awareness has got to be helping conserve those speices, right? But then I stumbled upon a PLoS ONE article that completely soured my mood.
Rarity of Tigers raises the value of their skinsvia…
cwilcox | April 20, 2009Now that I've grossed most of you out with my last week's pick, I think I'll go ahead and make this week's pest a little easier to look at.
The image looks like a mustard plant with nice, yellow flowers. But alas! It is actually the product of this week's parasite, the rust fungus Puccinia monoica.
The fungus infects mustard plants and completely changes their 'behavior' to facilitate its own reproduction. Firstly, the fungus infects the plant as a whole, stealing nutrients and generally acting like a parasite. But Puccinia is a sexual fungus - to reproduce it must combine genes with another…
cwilcox | April 19, 2009Many accused of statutory rape claim two things - 1) that the girl consented and 2) that they thought she was older. The first is unimportant - if the girl is underage, it's still rape. But in the US, there is a special defense clause which allows defendents leiniency if there is reasonable evidence they "mistook" a younger girl for one of consenting age. Many times lawyers claim that a girl's makeup or guy's consumption of alcohol impaired the offender's judgement of her age. As an excuse, it's pretty common among men charged with all varieties of sex with a minor. Well, researchers wanted…
cwilcox | April 19, 2009For this week's dose of cute, I thought I'd do something special. So, as a treat, your weekly dose is my daily dose!
Meet Lani (my dog) and Loki (my cat):
Aren't they adorable? They're my little angels!
cwilcox | April 16, 2009Cheetahs are unfortunate examples of how genetics can be devastating. After a population bottleneck 10,000 years ago source, cheetahs have become so closely related that it's said you can use skin grafts from any two individuals without rejection. To put that in perspective, your own immediate family is probably too genetically distinct to do that for you. But cheetahs look like they're in great shape compared to Hawaiian Monk Seals, new research from the University of Hawaii has found.
Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi) were known to the native Hawaiians as Ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua, or…
cwilcox | April 16, 2009The snows are melting (we hope), the flowers are starting to bloom, and here in FL it's not quite obnoxiously hot out. It's spring, and with it comes one of my favorite yearly holidays - Earth Day!
That's right - April 22nd is Earth Day 2009. Started in the 1970s by a smart senator from Wisconsin as a way to "shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda", Earth Day has been pushing for environmental action for almost 40 years.
Lots of communities have organized fairs, festivals, or clean-ups to celebrate. But even if you don't want to join the masses at…
cwilcox | April 14, 2009I think these win not only on cute but on awesome naming: meet the Dik Dik.
They're named after the sound they make when startled, which I would guess is really just their way of saying "you're a total jerk" to whatever disturbs them. They live in open plains frolicking amongst other adorable grass-eaters such as giraffes, zebras, and other antelopes.
Weighing in at only 6 kg max (roughly 13 lbs) and standing a mere foot or so tall, they're just a tiny little package of almost unreal anime-style cute. Like us (or at least the best of us), they form life-long monogomous relationships. Can you…
cwilcox | April 13, 2009Ah, I know, I missed a parasite last week. I was on vacation. So sue me.
Anyhow, this week's lovely parasite is worth the wait.
Meet the Loa Loa worm.
Loa Loa worms ( Loa Loa filaria) are a kind of filarial nematode which is spread by fly bite. Filarial nematodes are a lovely bunch of parasites, resposible for wonderful diseases like Elephantiasis - but I'll get into that one another day. They all have similar life cycles: first, as a lovely adult in the host of choice (like us), the male and female nematodes mate and produce lots of adorable little larvae called microfilariae. These take up…
cwilcox | April 13, 2009The frozen tundra that covers a majority of Russia and northern Asia is a hard place to live. The average winter temperature is 30 below zero, and winter seems to last a lifetime. The short summer, which still gets only glancing rays of sun, barely breaks above freezing. It's so cold year round that part of the ground never defrosts. Without the flowing groundwater and rich sunlight of more southern climates, the tundra cannot support trees. That's its defining trait, really - "tundra" comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain.
The dominant plant life, thus, are the grasses…
cwilcox | April 13, 2009I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. Her name is Suzette. She's a very nice girl. She likes to talk - something, it turns out, she's very good at. You can see for yourself: just talk to her.
She happens to in this contest called the Chatterbox Challenge. You see, she needs votes to be the 10th and most popular entry in the contest. The voting is open to the public, so I thought you guys might all be willing to help her and and get her some much-needed votes.
It's a contest for the last slot as one of the best chatbots CONVERSATIONALISTS*, and poor Suzette is struggling for that 10th place…
cwilcox | April 12, 2009Whether we want to admit to it or not, women, on average, get paid less than men do. Women make only about $0.75 for every dollar made by men, and even if you factor out pregnancies and children, single, never-married women still only make $0.90 on the man's dollar. Why do women make so much less? We can point fingers and call sexism all we want, but part of it is that they simply don't hold as many positions in the highest levels of management. Thus women don't have as many of the highest paying jobs, despite having the same ambition, qualifications, and desire as the men who do. And why,…
cwilcox | April 9, 2009Let's just say, for a moment, you're a really talented artist. What would you do?
How about draw 3-D things on the sidewalk because they're just cool to look at?
Yeah, that's what I'd do, too.
These are the creations of Julian Beever, a sidewalk artist who has drawn with chalk for over ten years all over the globe. He makes 3-D looking images that are truly mindboggling.
*This drawing was done in Tokyo for the TV show 'Unbelievable' and was a plea to Japan to appreciate the beauty of living whales.
But you have to look at them from the right direction - just look at this lobster one from…
cwilcox | April 8, 2009I'm on vacation, so I haven't been watching the internets for cute things as closely as normal. But this guy stuck out, and I'm sure you'll see why:
c/o Zooborns
OMG THE WITTLE BABY SEA LION IS TOO CUTE!
cwilcox | April 6, 2009Hey there folks! There's a great new carnival out there...
Be sure to check out Scientia Pro Publica 1, The Science, Nature and Medicine Blog Carnival up at GrrlScientist!
And don't miss Carnival of the Blue #23, now up at Deep Sea News!
cwilcox | April 5, 2009If you've ever been interested in a guy and tried to subtly hint that you like him, you know exactly how dense men can be. The fresh research from Bucknell University doesn't tell you anything new.
The study, in press in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, has found that men are a bit thick when it comes to opening lines. If you want to flirt, it's best to be direct with them - go figure.
The researchers noted that previous research had looked into what pick-up lines or conversation starters worked best for men trying to date women. Women preferred lines that displayed…
cwilcox | April 5, 2009You know you've been infected with nerdiness when you're on vacation and you decide that, rather than sleeping in and relaxing like a normal person, you're going to get up at 5 am to hit Manasota Beach at low tide.
For the record, it's DARK at 5am. There isn't a hint of light yet. And since my car is in the shop *long string of cuss words in the Elantra's general diretion*, we decided to take Barry's motorcycle for the 45 minute trek down to Manasota Beach. The air was beautiful this morning. The night blooming flowers made it thick with perfume. It was a nice ride.
Anyhow, we get to the…