Another month bites the dust.

I. Love. This. Bird.


And then there's this . . .

You better hope these ants don't start talking.

Mycocepurus smithii

A group of Amazonian ants have evolved an extremely unusual social system: They are all female and reproduce via cloning. Though their sexual organs have virtually disappeared, they have also gained some extraordinary abilities.

University of Arizona biologist Anna Himler orginally began studying the ants, called Mycocepurus smithii, because they had incredible success as farmers. Many breeds of ant keep domesticated “farms” where they breed various kinds of fungus for nourishment. But Mycocepurus smithii was able to breed fungus far more successfully, and in greater varieties, than other ants Himler had encountered.

As she and her team studied the insects, they realized there were no male ants anywhere to be found. Himler told the BBC that it’s possible the ants evolved so as “not to operate under the usual constraints of sexual reproduction.” Interestingly, the fungi that the ants cultivate also reproduce asexually. But why would these ants choose to emulate the reproductive cycle favored by their crops? Himler explains:
“It avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring.”

All the members of the colony are clones of the queen. While that means the queen can control every aspect of the population, it also makes the colony vulnerable to pandemics. A virus that can kill one ant can kill all of them, since they all have the exact same immune systems. On the other hand, it seems that a lack of men gave these women more time and energy to cultivate some of the most elaborate forms of ant agriculture ever studied.

According to Himler, ants often evolve highly unusual reproductive strategies. But all-female ant societies are highly rare.

See previous post title.

As you wish.

My kind of action shot.

Action Shot

This picture is from Oregan, where someone set out a motion sensor camera to see if any big bucks were passing in the area where he was thinking about bow hunting.

When he downloaded the pictures, this was one of them. It's wild to see that cougar sneak up so close. It doesn't look like the deer knows he's there yet.

We love the Chronic(what)cles of Narnia

Consume hemp.

We're all adults here.

Zing.

i just realized this

birds in australia fly north for the winter. i know i've been here for a while so i guess i should have thought of that sooner but i've had a lot on my mind

Peanut!!!

In case you ever need to turn me into a puddle of mush:









These guys are pretty cute too.

Coincidence?

Robert Downey Jr. was in my dreams last night. Sadly, it was purely platonic.

Apparently he and his girlfriend (a special ed teacher I sometimes work with) had recently broken up and they were trying to share custody of their dog. I was sort of their go-between. As a thank you?, his ex-gf gave me a vicodin, which I offered to share with Mr. Downey Jr. when he explain that he had a backache. He declined because he hated to be a burden. He was thoughtful like that. He was also funny, charming, and accomodating. Anyways, we hung out at his place - an awesome bachelor pad with a gold-plated tv suspended from the ceiling - and waited for the guests to arrive. People were coming over to celebrate the birthday of Adrian? - an America's Next Top Model winner. The only other people to show were these two grandma comediannes. They sure were funny though.

Here's where the coincidence part comes in -- I hopped on-line this morning and quickly discovered that last night was Robert Downey Jr.'s birthday!!! Or at least his birthday party . . . the point is, it was last night!! Like my dream!

I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing me acting opposite Robert (that's what I'll call him) sometime in the near future. Just a heads up.



Also, the following did not happen in my dream but I kind of wish it did:

who doesn't want to see this?

a star-studded cast
a brilliant director
fuck off graphics
and a classic story

quite possibly the best trailer I've ever seen (and it's in HD)....

where the wild things are

how can you go wrong with the arcade fire?

you can't!

Three things.

ONE - It has been far too long since someone has posted on this. Tsk tsk. Well, I'm officially un-busy so I shall resume my efforts to keep friends united via the blog-bridge. You are welcome.

TWO - Real life Pac-Man. Perhaps you all have already heard of this? Apparently it happens in France. I tried to YouTube it but to no avail. I did find this though:



The Go! Team is not to be confused with Ok Go, who you might remember from this rad music vid (unless you are me, in which case you will spend a good five minutes searching for The Go! Team treadmill music video):



THREE - Blogger now gives you the option to "hide" your blog from appearing on your account. I find this pretty interesting. Do you suppose this option was created so that those with whom you share a computer can't see what you're blogging about? And if so, how many people with secretive blogs are out there? And just what are they writing about that they feel the need to hide it? I've decided to take matters into my own hands and find out just how weird it gets in the blog world. I've purposefully excluded fetish/porn blogs from my picks for contenders because that's taking it to a whole new (and very scary) level. Here then, are a few sites that I would imagine rank high on the hide-potential scale:

One blog. (In particular, this post.)
Two blog.
Red blog. (A reborn Christian is one thing, BUT a reborn Christian who's dedicated a blog to reborn baby dolls . . .)
Blue blog. (Umm, right, "for their children".)