fun
awild | January 21, 2009I know you're terribly bored with ants, ants, ants all the time here at Myrmecos Blog. So that's why we're bringing you something different. It's an ad from the 60's letting you know about an exciting new product for putting on a few pounds:
For some reason it was lying around the entomology office this morning. Entomology leads to emaciation? Thin people don't attract enough insects? I can't figure it.
(h/t Suarez)
awild | January 20, 2009New Orleans, January 2009
The first major public exhibit to open in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was the Audubon Nature Institute's Insectarium. We took advantage of a lull in our schedule last week to make the pilgrimage to what turns out to be a surprisingly ambitious operation. It well exceeded our expectations.
The entrance on Canal Street.
Spying on live bumblebees.
Inside the bees' nest.
Yes, educational bits too.
This ant looks familiar.
Not a family exhibit: stick insects have sexual relations in public.
They let non-insects in too.
Another one.
The proud…
awild | January 20, 2009Over at the Ant Farm Forum they're playing a round of Name That Ant*. This week's challenge was posed by MarekB and is a particularly tough one. Go on over to try your hand.
*This sort of activity is certainly not geeky.
awild | January 4, 2009From David Attenborough's The Trials of Life (1990):
If you're interested in learning more about navigation in Cataglyphis, look for papers coming from the lab of Rüdiger Wehner. His group has produced a stream of really top-notch research.
clock | January 4, 2009Star Wars Starships and Fighters Clock:
12 o'clock Star Destroyer
1 o'clock TIE Interceptor
2 o'clock Darth Vader's Tie Fighter
3 o'clock Jabba's Barge
4 o'clock Bespin Twin-Pod Cloud Car
5 o'clock Y-Wing Fighter
6 o'clock Super Star Destroyer
7 o'clock Rebel Blockade Runner
8 o'clock TIE Bomber
9 o'clock X-Wing Fighter
10 o'clock Rebel Snowspeeder
11 o'clock A-Wing Starfigher
clock | December 24, 2008The inner workings of the North Pole:
Of course, the elves are the backbone of Santa's work force. It's never clear to me that they are happy workers.
I hear occasional rumors that the elves have tried to organize a union, only to be thwarted by the man in red.
I'm not even sure Santa pays the elves, and they seem to live on site.
The North Pole is a company town. How jolly is that for those paid in Santa scrip?
If I Were Santa's Public Relations Guy...:
For such a high-profile, influential figurehead, Santa's PR could really use some work. I mean, the merchandising is pretty neat but there's…
clock | December 23, 2008It's hard to tell which one is the original, I think it's this one, as YouTube is full of well-done parodies of the Citroen Tranformers commercial. Of course, I am partial to this one:
awild | December 20, 2008
An unusually festive jumping ant from a laboratory colony at Arizona State University. Researchers mark ants with unique patterns of paint to keep track of individuals for studies of ant behavior.
clock | December 19, 2008You may have heard the story that Scarlett Johansson had a cold when she appeared on Jay Leno's show the other day. And you may have heard that she got the cold from her 'The Spirit' co-star Samuel L. Jackson. And you may have heard that she had to blow her nose into a tissue during the show. And you may have heard that this particular tissue is now up for sale on eBay. And you may have heard that all proceeds of this sale will benefit USA Harvest, the charity of Scarlett Johansson's choice.
What you may not know is that, due to the content of the tissue being regarded as biohazard (or even…
clock | December 19, 2008From The Big Picture
2008 has been an eventful year to say the least - it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I've done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008 in photographs. It's not the story of 2008, it's certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Those are some amazing pictures. Some are gory. Some are poignant. Some are…
clock | December 18, 2008Jeff Cohen put them all together:
For years I have been intrigued by the local celebrations across America where they "drop," or in many cases lower, something from above to ring in the New Year. Many of these traditions are relatively recent and are based on the ball dropping in New York's Times Square. I have been blogging about these celebrations since 2005, especially the quirky ones. I used to just stumble across them by chance, but eventually I discovered a wikipedia article that seemed to do a comprehensive job of listing them all. It also provides lots of links to the celebrations'…