Sea Lion Crittercam

Some really great crittercam footage of Australian Sea Lions cruising around, and most importantly, attacking large octopi. Bad. Ass.



Enjoy watching animals do their thing,

Bp

Rachel Maddow and Bill Nye on Climate Change

Just because big winter storms are happening, doesn't mean "global warming" is false. For god's sake I'm tired of hearing this crowing from the right. In fact, it could be a proof that climate change is actively in progress creating that very storm.

Here is Bill Nye on the Rachel Maddow show addressing this sentiment directly.

The quote that says it best from Nye is, "there's more energy in the atmosphere, and this is stirring things up." The global climate is a complicated system, you heat one area and another could get very cold because of it -- thus the 'stirring things up' he's referring to.



Enjoy logic and reason applied to large planetary problems,

Bp

Oarfish are awesome

For the Saturday Morning Awesome this week, I present the first known footage of an Oarfish in its native environs (very deep sea) off the Gulf of Mexico. [BBC doesn't have embeddable video, just click over and it's right there].

From the BBC Earth News Article:

Oarfish (Regalecus glesne) are one of the world's longest fish reaching 17m.

Their strange appearance may have provided the basis for the sea serpent myths told by early ocean travellers.

Not only are they elongated, they also have a prominent dorsal fin which gives it an unusual "serpent" appearance.

Recalling the event Professor Benfield explained how at first, they thought the fish was simply a drilling pipe called a riser being lowered into the water.

"We saw this bright vertical shiny thing, I said 'are they lowering more riser?' as it looked like they were lowering a huge pipe."

"We zoomed in a little bit and we said 'that's not a riser that's a fish!'"

The article has other deep water video provided by the remotely operated submarine they were using in the Gulf of Mexico.

I've mentioned this sublimely bitching creature before, but just to be clear, this blog is a huge fan of these animals.

Enjoy 'monsters' being filmed live and healthy,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani operative, Yuri; photo credit at Weird Sea Monsters]

Great geek out fun with microscopic size comparisons

Here is a link to the University of Utah "Cell size and scale" teaching illustration tool. It's great fun for geeks and nerds alike. Give it a shot.

Below is just a picture of the the flash tool, use the link above to actually use the thing.



Enjoy geeking out in the privacy of your own home,

Bp

[via my ex-pat Canukistani Uncle Ted]

Saturday Morning Awesome: Grey Fox caught in a camera trap

There is a wonderful blog I follow called Camera Trap Codger, and I saw this post today that really shows the best of the best one can get using a camera trap. Hit this link to see the rest of the pictures. Not only great shots of a photogenic animal, but with a possible storyline/narrative as well.

This, of course, makes me want to run out and get one and set it up. That's what I need -- really, a new hobby. Yeah, with all that time I have.

Enjoy folks following their passions and creating great content for you to enjoy on the intartubes,

Bp

[photo credit Camera Trap Codger blog]

Ant mega-colony takes over world

Ok, I lifted that blog title directly from the BBC Earth News article, but it was so awesome I felt I had to.

The Institute of Jurassic Technology does tend to talk about the whole invasive/non-native situation in biology. It's an interest of mine. So this article really caught my attention -- as Argentine Ants are spreading world-wide, reaping havoc on local bug populations, like the Reavers of the insect world.

On to the study. In short, researchers pitted ants from different colonies around the world against each other in single ant-on-ant combat. This, of course, was couched in the guise of research but we all know it's exactly the same as fighting spiders in the schoolyard in dixie cups.

The ants from the largest colonies around the world refused to fight. They rubbed antennae and acted like old buddies. Meaning -- they are from the same colony.

This is intense, because that means that this is probably the largest expansion of one cooperative species on Earth outside Humanity itself.

Like humans, Argentine ants show a wide diversity and adaptability in their diet. According to this UC San Diego paper, they switch from being vicious predators to "farmers" of aphids and scale bugs once they are established.

Genius! Come in strong, settle down and start farms. Sound familiar? Like -- oh ancient Rome maybe?

Go Ants!

I mean -- how terrifying.

Enjoy seeing other species succeed using human-like tactics, even if it is kinda evil,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani operative "Yuri," photo credit in BBC Earth News article]

Zoom into a Tooth

You know you want to. Click that video and see into one of your chompers. Come on, you know you want to. It's fascinating, honest.

Zoom into a Tooth
Uploaded by Weird_Weird_Science - Explore more science and tech videos.

Enjoy seeing videos that mimic recurring dreams from my childhood,

Bp

[via Boing Boing]

Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm

Thought we'd start this week out with a bang.

You've got to love the Ted talks. You'll even find out about "The Lazarus Reflex"in this one.



Enjoy the craziness that is our biology,

Bp

Cat Parasite linked to Neurotic behavior in humans

I didn't make this up, in this Live Science post, a case is made for that assertion that human behavior is affected when stricken with Toxoplasma gondii. Namely, the person is more prone to mood swings, neurotic behavior, and depression.

"Pop science" or no, I thought the concept hilarious.

There is so much I could say about this connection, and people I know -- hell people we all know. But I won't. I'll let ya'll fill in the blanks.

Enjoy wild generalizations generating aspersion and stereotyping, especially if you can get science to back you up,

Bp

[via my Canukistani, Ex-Pat Uncle Ted, image via Nerve.com blog]

Laminar flow demonstration

This demonstration was filmed at the University of New Mexico in the physics department.

It doesn't matter that we don't really understand laminar flow, the video is only two minutes long, go for it.



Enjoy geekiness, even in instances where it may be useful in life,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani operative "Yuri"]

Basking Sharks' hiding places found

The headline above, in a recent Discovery News article both excited me and bummed me out.

It's awesome that we know more about these animals (the 2nd largest fish in the sea) -- but holy hell the shark-finners know too. Or -- maybe they already knew and now the sharks can possibly be protected.

Most of the travel itinerary that the scientists discovered using tracking devices was quite a surprise:

"Tags came off in a wide range of locations, the scientists reported today in the journal Current Biology, from New England to the coast of Brazil in the Southern Hemisphere. Other locations included the Sargasso Sea, the Puerto Rico Trench, and the Guyana coast.

Five sharks traveled more than 2,400 kilometers (nearly 1,500 miles). One spent a month hanging out near the mouth of the Amazon River."

Enjoy learning more about some of the most impressive and vulnerable animals on the planet,

Bp

[photo credit in linked article]

200 New Amphibians discovered in Madagascar

I envy herpetologists sometimes. This article in Discovery news made me very jealous. What fun, finding new herps (especially frogs) in an exotic locale like Madagascar.

Here are pictures of some particularly handsome fellows:

Boophis aff elenae

Boophis ulftunni

Boophis aff miniatus Ranomafanakely

Enjoy portraits of awesome Little Dudes,

Bp

[Photo credits in linked article]

Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math that links coral, crochet and hyperbolic geometry

The Ted Talks rock.

This talk starts off almost quaint -- a group of women crochet a coral reef as an art project. It is cool, it looks amazing. But then the presenter goes into the math of crochet, and the math of coral and Nudibranchs (maybe my favorite group of animals on the planet), and suddenly things get very interesting, very geeky and very deep.

By the end she's talking about The Institute for Figuring, and how mathematical thinking has gotten a bit too separated from reality and "things" and how thinking through playing with objects (like crochet and its connection, directly, to non-euclidian geometry) has enormous potential for widening human thought.

This is a long way of saying, watch the whole thing, it's only 18 minutes and it just gets deeper and more interesting as it goes along.



Enjoy the constant march,

Bp

Public Acceptance of Evolution, by Country

You have to keep going down the list if you are looking for some place close to home,

Bp

[via Blame it on the Voices]

Little Dudes: Hispaniolan solenodon

This little dude, a Hispaniolan solenodon [Solenodon paradoxus], is a shrew-like mammal with a poisonous bite, and has mammologists all in a tizzy. It's not particularly handsome, but it is particularly rare. Months of trapping attempts only produced this one individual. It was trapped in the Dominican Republic, though this species is also known in Haiti (the other side of the island of Hispanionla).

This species and its lineage trace back to end of the the time of the dinosaurs.

Here is some brief footage from the BBC of the animal before it was released.



Enjoy ugly little dudes that get geeks all worked up,

Bp

[via my faithful Canunistani operative, "Yuri," -- video credit in BBC article]

Bonobos learning about fire, stone tools, and Pacman

Bonobos, according to some scientists, are the closest animal relations to humans on the planet. The last time I wrote about them, politics reared its ugly head. This time, I simply present a video of them acquiring language, making and using stone tools, and playing with fire (oh, and a golf cart and pacman too).

To me, the trippiest part is watching the little dude making stone flakes and using them.

Nothing to say beyond that -- the presentation awesome enough without commentary.



Enjoy learning more,

Bp

[via my Faithful Canukistani Operative "Yuri"]

How Dinosaur Mummies are Created

Who would have thought we would ever, seriously, be chatting about dinosaur mummies? Doesn't it sound like bad saturday morning cartoon fodder?

Anyway, here is a video from the Discovery channel about how dinosaur mummies are created. I like how Mr. Bakker describes the process by saying "you" -- as if it were our goal as viewers to become mummies ourselves.



Enjoy some of the rarest events in nature which provide us fodder to imagine with,

Bp

The Schmidt Pain Index

[reprinted from The Futility Closet]

After he'd been stung by almost everything, entomologist Justin O. Schmidt created the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a four-point scale comparing the overall pain of insect stings:

* 1.0 - Sweat bee: "Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm."
* 1.2 - Fire ant: "Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch."
* 1.8 - Bullhorn acacia ant: "A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek."
* 2.0 - Bald-faced hornet: "Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door."
* 2.0 - Yellowjacket: "Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W.C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue."
* 3.0 - Red harvester ant: "Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail."
* 3.0 - Paper wasp: "Caustic and burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut."
* 4.0 - Pepsis wasp: "Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath (if you get stung by one you might as well lie down and scream)."
* 4.0+ - Bullet ant: "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel."

His descriptions crack me up. Note -- he rates stings only from the (very stingy) Hymenoptera order of insects -- bees, wasps, ants.

After running into that post, I had to know more about this guy and his obsession with poisonous insects.

Here is a great Discover Magazine article about him and his work. And a teaser quote:

One morning not long ago, an American entomologist named Justin Schmidt was making his way up the winding road to the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica when he spotted Parachartergus fraternus, social wasps known both for the sculptured architecture of their hives and the ferocity with which they defend them. This hive was 10 feet up a tree, and the tree angled out from an eroded bank over a gorge. Schmidt, who specializes in the study of stinging insects, got out a plastic garbage bag and shinnied up to bag the hive.
"There's always a few that get out," he says, so he took the precaution of putting on his beekeeper's veil. Undeterred, the angry wasps charged his face, scootched their hind ends underneath their bodies in midair, and, from a range of four inches, squirted venom through the veil straight into his eyes. "There I was, 10 feet up a tree, holding a bag of live wasps in one hand, basically blinded with pain."

Enjoy not being this guy,

Bp

[first image courtesy of wikimedia commons, 2nd image credit in linked article]

The kind of thing that makes me want to teach science to kids

Enjoy the refreshing perspective of children,

Bp

[image via eatliver.com -- no credit available]

Leaping Shampoo and the Stable Kaye Effect

First off, geek stuff aside, this video is very cool to watch. It also is well presented, with text that supports the visuals.

If you want the wiki version of the Kaye Effect definition click here. If you are in ubergeek mode, and find the meager wiki fare unsatisfying, here the peer-reviewed journal article by Michel Versluis, Cor Blom, Devaraj van der Meer, Ko van der Weele and Detlef Lohse called Leaping Shampoo and the Stable Kaye Effect that the video accompanies.



Enjoy mega-bizarro properties of fluids that create eye candy,

Bp

[via Yuri]