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awild | June 13, 2009
Formica exsectoides carries off a seed of a non-native plant, leafy spurge
Ants are considered beneficial insects for their roles as predators, scavengers, and dispersers of plant seeds. But when the seeds belong to a pest plant, the ants' role may change to that of accomplice in an unwanted biological invasion.
Moni Berg-Binder, a student in the Suarez lab at the University of Illinois, is studying the interaction between native Formica ants and an invasive euphorb, leafy spurge. Leafy spurge seeds have an edible elaiosome that ants find attractive enough to carry back to their nests,…
mspringer | June 13, 2009There's a list of books a cultured person is supposed to have read. Its size and composition vary depending on who you ask, but roughly speaking there exists a Western canon containing works by authors with names like Shakespeare and Dostoevsky and Milton and Sophocles. There's something of a Nerd Canon too. The names of the authors of its works are more like Asimov and Feynman. It's a list that's certainly not all science and science fiction, though those are much more strongly represented than in most general lists. To me knowledge no one has ever written such a list up, but it exists…
razib | June 12, 2009FWIW, I've taken to using Bing for image and video searches. A lot of the time "Web 2.0" dynamism and interactivity are irritating to me, but I think M$ added some value compared to Google's relatively vanilla interfaces. Intuitive too. Thoughts? This other blogger agrees.
gregladen | June 12, 2009The National Center for Science Education has a new web page, as part of their ever-improving and getting really quite wonderful web site, on Creationism and The Law. Here.
razib | June 12, 2009Joshua Trevino points out that Khomeini's original conception of how the Iranian state was governed was to be governed was derived from Plato's Republic. This is not that surprising, the Shia clerical elite of Iran has been engaged in various innovations from the 18th century on.
grrlscientist | June 12, 2009Here's the latest blog carnivals to be published so you can read and enjoy them;
I and the Bird, #102. This blog carnival is all about wild birds and bird watching.
Carnival of Latin & South America and the Caribbean. This blog carnival focuses on news and events occurring south of the border.
Observations on Life blog carnival. This blog carnival covers a wide range of topics and this issue in particular, is quite large, so it should keep you busy when you should be working.
sb admin | June 12, 2009The World Health Organization has officially declared that weâre at the start of an influenza pandemic. Nearly 30,000 cases of swine flu/H1N1 have been confirmed in 74 countries, and the virus is spreading easily among people in multiple regions of the world. North America has had the highest number of cases so far â 13,217 in the US, 6,241 in Mexico, and 2,978 in Canada â and new cases are still being reported. (In fact, CDCâs count for the US, which tends to run ahead of WHOâs, is now at 17,855.)
Countries in the Southern Hemisphere are just entering flu season, and large numbers of cases…
mspringer | June 12, 2009You might remember an older xkcd comic ranking various sceinces in terms of their purity. Psychology is just applied biology, biology is just applied, chemistry, chemistry is just applied physics... etc. Math is at the top. (Philosophers would like to think they're the top level, one rank above mathematicians.)
It's all in good fun, and it happens within disciplines as well. There's occasional good-natured sniping between experimental and theoretical physicists, and between the various sub-disciplines at different energy scales like particle physics and solid-state physics.
The story more…
grrlscientist | June 12, 2009
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days. To send your submissions to Scientia Pro Publica, either use this automated submission form or use the cute little widget on the right (sometimes that widget doesn't upload when the mother site is sick). Be sure to include the…
pharyngula | June 12, 2009A doctor in Nebraska, Dr. Leroy Carhart, has stepped forward and said he will train his staff to take over the important role lost when George Tiller was murdered. That's courage, and I applaud what he is doing. I hope more doctors take on this essential task.
That's the good news. The bad news? Look at what Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, a fellow who is obligated by his position to support the law, had to say.
I'm disgusted and I'm saddened, and I hate it that he's here in Nebraska and I hate it that he's in America. I mean, this guy is one sick individual.
I hate it that the people…
gregladen | June 12, 2009Widespread panic and confusion has been predicted by major media outlets as all analog televisions in the United States stop working today.
cortex | June 12, 2009The Lakers-Magic game last night was quite the thrill-ride: it's now the morning after, and my pulse has only begun to return to its resting rate. (Full disclosure: I'm a Lakers fan.) The game was played in Orlando and the big moment came when the Lakers' Derek Fisher nailed a three-pointer at the end of regulation. The loud Orlando crowd went totally silent; you could actually hear the collective intake of breath.
Why did this matter? Why was I suddenly (over)confident that the Lakers would win? Because home field advantage is a really big advantage (especially in the NBA) and it only takes…
razib | June 11, 2009Seems appropriate to point to the "Iran So Far" SNL digital short from fall 2007 which features Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again. Hopefully it will be irrelevant after today, but who knows?
gregladen | June 11, 2009Four Stone Hearth 68 :: 'Smokers Delight' edition @ remote central
Blog Carnival on Observations on Life 7
love, dating, sex and relationships
gregladen | June 11, 2009One day, back before the blogosphere, I was sitting in the attic working at my computer with one eye on the lovely scenery outside the window. This was in South Minneapolis near the Whittier School, with tree-lined streets and interesting things always happening somewhere not far away. And as usual, I had my cell phone nearby, and I had memorized the number for nine-one-one....
Read the rest at Quiche Moraine ...
gregladen | June 11, 2009... the spinning .. always the spinning ...
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
End Times
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor
Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview
Hat Tip Rebecca
grrlscientist | June 11, 2009After this little bit of good news, it seems almost gluttonous of me to tell you that I have a little more good news to share with you. Yesterday, while I languished at home, ill and without stable or consistent wireless access, I finally managed to access email .. and when I did, I learned that ...
I received an email from the book reviews editor at Science magazine, asking me to write (what else?) .. a book review. Science, you say .. Do you mean ... ?
Why yes, I do mean ... !
The editor emailed me to ask if I'd write a review of a particular book, Birdscapes: Birds in Our…
pharyngula | June 11, 2009I just got a bunch of email from various people warning me that my cell phone number (no, you can't have it) is going to be sold to telemarketers next month, and I need to call a certain phone number right away to get it blocked. I must have a cynical mind, because my first thought was that if I were a telemarketer who wanted to fish up a bunch of ripe cell phone numbers, I'd send out bulk email telling people who hated telemarketers to call me on their cell phone.
I was right. I checked Snopes, and there is no proposed sell-off of cell numbers, and calling the number given won't help you in…
illconsidered | June 11, 2009I think I will start to close down comments on some of the guide articles as the comment threads get too long and meandering, and instead direct people from there to dedicated "open threads".
So consider this the first implementation of that idea for the article "CO2 Lags, not leads". Comments there are now closed.
The main reason I want to do this article first, aside from the recent explosion of unproductive comments, is because I would like to make a correction and a couple of clarifications based on what came out there. The majority of the comments fall squarely in the "completely…