It's Sunday, so it must be time for spiders! Here are a few updates from the world of the coolest arthropods there are:
Just in case you thought your size protected you
Snake-eating spiders! A few weeks ago, we had the orb weaver in Cairns eating an unlucky brown tree snake, and now, here's a redback spider from Port Hedland in Western Australia enjoying a similar meal. It's not just in Australia, either! A while ago we had one locally, at Boyce Thompson Arboretum, where a black widow made a slow but gluttonous meal out of an unfortunate coral snake. And those are just the ones we know about. Snakes beware.
Speaking of black widows...
I did a Friday 5 post on the beauties, and why they're my favorite spiders. It's just my own measly blog, but it is my blog, so I can promote my own stuff if I want to. Go check it out if you're so inclined and tell me about your favorite spiders!
I, for one, welcome our new robot spider overlords
Don't worry, it's not really a spider. More like a giant ... robot ... arm ... thing. At an MIT Media Lab, scientists are teaching a robot to weave webs, based on preset structures. One day, they hope to make the process autonomous. I already said I welcome them, right?
Peter Parker's web shooters can't be far away
Scientists , including Jeffery Yarger from my alma mater, Arizona State University, are using high-energy X-rays to study spiders' dragline silk (the webbing they let out to dangle in front of your face). Ultimately, they'd like to produce artificial spider silk that makes use of the same amazing mechanical and elastic properties.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
On being a better example
I wrote several things about the Tuscon shootings, first angry, then confused, then mostly just sad. Most never saw any eyes but my own, much less appeared on this blog. After everything, one bit stood out, however: on Sunday, as my son prepared to practice the clarinet (passed down from my father), I just watched him. I'd done a lot of extra kid watching since the shooting, not that it should take a tragedy like that to make me realize how damn lucky I am. But then something occurred to me, and I wrote:
Obama, of course, said it better, but I feel like I was on the same wavelength:
They are so deserving of our good example.
I want America to be as good as she imagined it.
Yes. Exactly.
I'vejustified my blog's title said all along that Arizona's true story is in its people. We lost some damn good ones. Let's all be better people, for them and for us, OK?
With apologies to all my out-of-state friends, Arizona is the most amazing state there is. Our sunsets are so unbelievable that other countries used to think photos of them were doctored propaganda images. You can't go out a door without seeing at least a few mountains, and we have this little hole in the ground you might have heard of. You can look down the Grand Canyon and look back in time, through billions of years in our planet's history. Our animals ... well, you know how I feel about our animals. We pretty much own the saguaro. We have a great art scene, seriously amazing food, and, well, I could go on for a while. And dude. I wore shorts today.
And the people, seriously. Arizona's got real, honest-to-goodness cowboys. (My mom's old boss used to say his top three priorities in life were 1) his horse; 2) his dog; and 3) his wife; in that order.) But it's the regular folks, mostly. I hear stories every day of people who help, always and extremely -- and half the time, I hear it in the course of reporting some other, unrelated thing, like it's a given and unimportant: Well, yeah; I was still in some pain from being shot and carjacked yesterday. I just figured, no one ELSE is going to help my friend move before he's kicked out. (Real example.) If you're ever visiting Arizona and decide to take a hike and run into an Arizonan, you can count on a brief lecture on heat and the importance of hydration, but you can also count on that person sharing his or her last quart of water.
Arizona rocks, everyone. Let's show it. Our kids deserve our good examples. These victims sure deserve it. We all deserve it. It won't make it better; it won't make it worth it, not by a very long shot. But it's a chance to honor them, and a chance to do what we should have been doing all along.
Let's make it count.
So I don't know. I don't have anything new to offer about this tragedy, except maybe from the perspective of a perpetually analytical parent, and here's why: I'm a million times better as a person since having my kid, and not for the reasons you might think. It's not because I realized, holy cow, I have a human being to care for, and got my life together (though, to some extent, I did). It's not because I matured (I didn't), got all insta-lovey (I didn't), or hooked up with a network of other parents (I tried, and believe me, I can't). It's because, for the first time, I realized something that was true all along: There is someone who is paying attention to what I say and do.
Not all the time. But having my son just THERE, all the time, made me realize that, you know? This person sees me, really watches me. He has real expectations of me.
What you say, how you say it, and what you do have consequences, good and bad, far beyond what you might imagine.
Obama, of course, said it better, but I feel like I was on the same wavelength:
They are so deserving of our good example.
I want America to be as good as she imagined it.
Yes. Exactly.
I've
With apologies to all my out-of-state friends, Arizona is the most amazing state there is. Our sunsets are so unbelievable that other countries used to think photos of them were doctored propaganda images. You can't go out a door without seeing at least a few mountains, and we have this little hole in the ground you might have heard of. You can look down the Grand Canyon and look back in time, through billions of years in our planet's history. Our animals ... well, you know how I feel about our animals. We pretty much own the saguaro. We have a great art scene, seriously amazing food, and, well, I could go on for a while. And dude. I wore shorts today.
And the people, seriously. Arizona's got real, honest-to-goodness cowboys. (My mom's old boss used to say his top three priorities in life were 1) his horse; 2) his dog; and 3) his wife; in that order.) But it's the regular folks, mostly. I hear stories every day of people who help, always and extremely -- and half the time, I hear it in the course of reporting some other, unrelated thing, like it's a given and unimportant: Well, yeah; I was still in some pain from being shot and carjacked yesterday. I just figured, no one ELSE is going to help my friend move before he's kicked out. (Real example.) If you're ever visiting Arizona and decide to take a hike and run into an Arizonan, you can count on a brief lecture on heat and the importance of hydration, but you can also count on that person sharing his or her last quart of water.
Arizona rocks, everyone. Let's show it. Our kids deserve our good examples. These victims sure deserve it. We all deserve it. It won't make it better; it won't make it worth it, not by a very long shot. But it's a chance to honor them, and a chance to do what we should have been doing all along.
Let's make it count.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Because it can't be said enough: Vaccinate your kids
This has nothing to do with Arizona, per se. It also has nothing to do with me or my parenting, because it's not a decision on which I have ever wavered one scintilla since my son was born. We shall return to our regularly scheduled programming (I even might have a regular schedule! How d'ya like that?), but first, this:
Vaccinate your kids.
I'm sure you've all read by now -- the study's been known to be bogus for years and years now, but dangerous ignoramuses have made the issue much, much bigger than it ever had to be -- that the infamous 1998 Andrew Wakefield study linking autism and vaccines, published in the Lancet, is a fraud. This is slightly new news because not only have there been numerous studies since then showing no link between the two; not only have even the supposed "triggers" in vaccines been removed (no effect on autism rates was observed, except maybe a rise due, probably, to diagnostic improvements); not only have most of the co-authors dropped out and just about everyone disavowed the findings ... the study is out-and-out fraud. FRAUD. Fake. Garbage. Bullshit. And everyone knows it now.
So vaccinate your kids.
This moron is either lying through his teeth, or is in the deepest denial I've ever seen, but I don't really care which. Now avert your eyes if you are my mother, or are offended by strong language, because:
FUCK this guy.
Children have died because of what he started. Wakefield LIED in his study, he was hired by a lawyer who had it in for vaccine manufacturers, he refused to admit that he might possibly be wrong, other idiots took his bogus conclusions and ran with them, and rates of vaccine-preventable diseases -- death rates due to those diseases -- have risen. FUCK this guy.
If you were misled, I don't blame you at all. I realize I'm on the pretty extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to keeping up with these things, and probably even more extreme when it comes to detached, pragmatic, rational skepticism. I would contend that this is simply the right way to use one's brain, but I know there are drawbacks as well. I'm not so great at being sensitive. You, undoubtedly, are better at not pissing off your spouse or random Internet friends with extreme bluntness and an unquenchable need to correct others. And if you've been misled, anywhere along the way, I know it's not because you're stupid. You probably have a different circle of friends than I do. They are probably also smart parents. Many of them probably said, seemingly sensibly, that there must be something to this vaccine danger. Better safe than sorry. I get it. You were being the best parents you could.
But now it's out. It's all out; it's corroborated; you don't need to "trust the establishment." Independent researchers, doctors, reporters. They've all checked it out and come to the same conclusion. Everyone, really, but the ridiculous crack Wakefield, who might just be lying anyway. His study was FRAUD. Vaccines save lives. They do not cause (or "trigger") autism. If vaccines are readily available, and you decline to vaccinate your child, you're no less culpable than a parent who doesn't use a seat belt.
You ask me sometimes in messages, or on Facebook, or in parking lots, because you know I'm into this sort of thing. It's nothing like that this time, really. We're all "into" saving our kids. Maybe you refused vaccines before because you were trying to do just that. You were fed lies. Vaccinate your kids.
If you want to read more, here is the editorial in the British Medical journal, here is a CNN piece, and here is a slightly older comic that does a surprisingly good job explaining the whole thing. You can find countless other examples with the most cursory of Googling.
OK, OK. Inhale ... exhale. I'm not an angry person, really. If you have concerns / questions / commentary, if you agree or not, I really do want to hear about it. Are you still afraid to vaccinate your children? If you were, does this dispel any doubts? If not, what would?
Vaccinate your kids.
I'm sure you've all read by now -- the study's been known to be bogus for years and years now, but dangerous ignoramuses have made the issue much, much bigger than it ever had to be -- that the infamous 1998 Andrew Wakefield study linking autism and vaccines, published in the Lancet, is a fraud. This is slightly new news because not only have there been numerous studies since then showing no link between the two; not only have even the supposed "triggers" in vaccines been removed (no effect on autism rates was observed, except maybe a rise due, probably, to diagnostic improvements); not only have most of the co-authors dropped out and just about everyone disavowed the findings ... the study is out-and-out fraud. FRAUD. Fake. Garbage. Bullshit. And everyone knows it now.
So vaccinate your kids.
This moron is either lying through his teeth, or is in the deepest denial I've ever seen, but I don't really care which. Now avert your eyes if you are my mother, or are offended by strong language, because:
FUCK this guy.
Children have died because of what he started. Wakefield LIED in his study, he was hired by a lawyer who had it in for vaccine manufacturers, he refused to admit that he might possibly be wrong, other idiots took his bogus conclusions and ran with them, and rates of vaccine-preventable diseases -- death rates due to those diseases -- have risen. FUCK this guy.
If you were misled, I don't blame you at all. I realize I'm on the pretty extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to keeping up with these things, and probably even more extreme when it comes to detached, pragmatic, rational skepticism. I would contend that this is simply the right way to use one's brain, but I know there are drawbacks as well. I'm not so great at being sensitive. You, undoubtedly, are better at not pissing off your spouse or random Internet friends with extreme bluntness and an unquenchable need to correct others. And if you've been misled, anywhere along the way, I know it's not because you're stupid. You probably have a different circle of friends than I do. They are probably also smart parents. Many of them probably said, seemingly sensibly, that there must be something to this vaccine danger. Better safe than sorry. I get it. You were being the best parents you could.
But now it's out. It's all out; it's corroborated; you don't need to "trust the establishment." Independent researchers, doctors, reporters. They've all checked it out and come to the same conclusion. Everyone, really, but the ridiculous crack Wakefield, who might just be lying anyway. His study was FRAUD. Vaccines save lives. They do not cause (or "trigger") autism. If vaccines are readily available, and you decline to vaccinate your child, you're no less culpable than a parent who doesn't use a seat belt.
You ask me sometimes in messages, or on Facebook, or in parking lots, because you know I'm into this sort of thing. It's nothing like that this time, really. We're all "into" saving our kids. Maybe you refused vaccines before because you were trying to do just that. You were fed lies. Vaccinate your kids.
If you want to read more, here is the editorial in the British Medical journal, here is a CNN piece, and here is a slightly older comic that does a surprisingly good job explaining the whole thing. You can find countless other examples with the most cursory of Googling.
OK, OK. Inhale ... exhale. I'm not an angry person, really. If you have concerns / questions / commentary, if you agree or not, I really do want to hear about it. Are you still afraid to vaccinate your children? If you were, does this dispel any doubts? If not, what would?
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Inanity in my life and the news
More bona fide blogging to come, but now:
It seems like the news stories I'm reading today were all designed to aggravate me.
Lindsay Lohan is apparently preparing to write her life story. Um, don't you have to, I don't know, live several years of life before doing that?
A family (using the term loosely) was nabbed when three generations, as young as five years old for Pete's sake (yeah, I'm a member of the geezer club now; I say "for Pete's sake" in real conversation as well), were caught shoplifting from Target. Five years old! I never planned to use the acronym, but: WTF? I learned a lot of things from my parents, useful things like "how to drive," "how to wipe oneself," "how to eat Buffalo wings the proper way (with blue cheese, of course)," and "how to read." Also maybe some not so useful things like "how to properly appreciate (and obsess over) Star Trek," "how to make brownies the right way (with frosting, of course)," "how to properly recite the 1983 starting lineup of the St. Louis Cardinals," "how to play every version of poker known to man," "why a pool table is green (you would be too if someone was knocking your balls around all day; har har)," and "how to convince your third grade teacher you didn't learn about poker and the pool table from your dad." But fortunately, "how to shoplift" or "when to remove your class project to free up backpack space for hot electronics" were not among my lessons.
Idiots.
Also making me a little mad, for different reasons, is this story about an idiotic fight that netted a couple $800,000 for their petty douchebaggery. Apparently a guy's girlfriend kept giving him grief about a pair of jeans he promised to get for her at a casino boutique (I didn't even know they had "casino boutiques," save to sell those skimpy dresses like Demi Moore wears in Indecent Proposal), and to shut her the heck up, he finally relented to get the stupid jeans, whereupon he played slots to kill time, and won big time.
What the heck? My husband and I fight about stupid crap all the time. Where's the payoff?
(Seriously. We fight about the normal stuff: sex, money, sex, kid-rearing stuff, sex, scheduling, and sex. But we have some seriously dumb fights as well. Two of our last fights: First, we fought about what size of trash can we should have in the kitchen. Seriously. And last, we fought because we were both unsatisfied with the lack of response from the other when we played the "What do you want to do tonight" game. We both wanted to watch a movie and maybe play a game, but by the time we discovered this, it was too late. I've ended a few such discussions by storming out of the room, whereupon I remember we live in a small apartment, with nowhere to storm to. So I storm into the bathroom, and slam the sliding door, which slides back open, naturally, making me feel like an even bigger dumbass. I then slam it more deliberately, whereupon I realize that hey, I'm in the bathroom, with not much more to do than use the facilities in an angry fashion. I suck at arguing.)
But we've never gotten a payoff like that. So not fair.
Then there's this story, whose subhead says it all: A driver hit a man in the head with an orange, then tried to hit him with his car, deputies say.
Idiots.
My horoscope, meanwhile, claims: "Your brainy side is on display today and you might spend at least a little while lost in deep thoughts."
Yeah, not so much. The brainiest and deepest I've gotten today was either when I discussed (with a vengeance) the virtues of eating one's peanut butter sandwich and not spitting it on the plate in protest, or when I was seriously proud of myself for beating the boss battle in my son's new video game.
More, hopefully brainier, blogging to come.
It seems like the news stories I'm reading today were all designed to aggravate me.
Lindsay Lohan is apparently preparing to write her life story. Um, don't you have to, I don't know, live several years of life before doing that?
A family (using the term loosely) was nabbed when three generations, as young as five years old for Pete's sake (yeah, I'm a member of the geezer club now; I say "for Pete's sake" in real conversation as well), were caught shoplifting from Target. Five years old! I never planned to use the acronym, but: WTF? I learned a lot of things from my parents, useful things like "how to drive," "how to wipe oneself," "how to eat Buffalo wings the proper way (with blue cheese, of course)," and "how to read." Also maybe some not so useful things like "how to properly appreciate (and obsess over) Star Trek," "how to make brownies the right way (with frosting, of course)," "how to properly recite the 1983 starting lineup of the St. Louis Cardinals," "how to play every version of poker known to man," "why a pool table is green (you would be too if someone was knocking your balls around all day; har har)," and "how to convince your third grade teacher you didn't learn about poker and the pool table from your dad." But fortunately, "how to shoplift" or "when to remove your class project to free up backpack space for hot electronics" were not among my lessons.
Idiots.
Also making me a little mad, for different reasons, is this story about an idiotic fight that netted a couple $800,000 for their petty douchebaggery. Apparently a guy's girlfriend kept giving him grief about a pair of jeans he promised to get for her at a casino boutique (I didn't even know they had "casino boutiques," save to sell those skimpy dresses like Demi Moore wears in Indecent Proposal), and to shut her the heck up, he finally relented to get the stupid jeans, whereupon he played slots to kill time, and won big time.
What the heck? My husband and I fight about stupid crap all the time. Where's the payoff?
(Seriously. We fight about the normal stuff: sex, money, sex, kid-rearing stuff, sex, scheduling, and sex. But we have some seriously dumb fights as well. Two of our last fights: First, we fought about what size of trash can we should have in the kitchen. Seriously. And last, we fought because we were both unsatisfied with the lack of response from the other when we played the "What do you want to do tonight" game. We both wanted to watch a movie and maybe play a game, but by the time we discovered this, it was too late. I've ended a few such discussions by storming out of the room, whereupon I remember we live in a small apartment, with nowhere to storm to. So I storm into the bathroom, and slam the sliding door, which slides back open, naturally, making me feel like an even bigger dumbass. I then slam it more deliberately, whereupon I realize that hey, I'm in the bathroom, with not much more to do than use the facilities in an angry fashion. I suck at arguing.)
But we've never gotten a payoff like that. So not fair.
Then there's this story, whose subhead says it all: A driver hit a man in the head with an orange, then tried to hit him with his car, deputies say.
Idiots.
My horoscope, meanwhile, claims: "Your brainy side is on display today and you might spend at least a little while lost in deep thoughts."
Yeah, not so much. The brainiest and deepest I've gotten today was either when I discussed (with a vengeance) the virtues of eating one's peanut butter sandwich and not spitting it on the plate in protest, or when I was seriously proud of myself for beating the boss battle in my son's new video game.
More, hopefully brainier, blogging to come.
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