On the whole silly PZ-cracker episode:
“See, at the Last Supper, Jesus handed his guests some bread and said, “This is my body,” and then handed them some wine and said, “This is my blood.” Had Jesus sang “I’m a Little Teapot,” then today we’d see Catholics worldwide carefully choosing communion vessels of appropriate height and [...]
No, not baseball (although this was the name of my graduate school softball team). And not a reference to non-existent fly scrotums, either.
It’s a description of this photo:
The flies were identified on Entomo-L as Atherix variegata, which is a species of fly that has an aquatic larva (maggot stage). They are important fish food!
They sometimes [...]
I will be traveling almost non-stop for the next 3 weeks, so posting may be a bit spotty. The biggest frustration is that it’s rained solidly for the last 2 days, and there is no way for me to do any weeding before I leave this morning.
So, when I get back, the garden will [...]
Via Boing Boing, I discovered that the Smithsonian has an article up about silkworm farming:
Silkworm farming [in Italy] was a brutal job. Since silkworms require a constant, mild temperature, entire sections of farmhouses were turned over to them and whole families would often pitch in, stoking round-the-clock fires to maintain the proper warmth. Some even [...]
I am a huge fan of the Xerces Society, and if you want to get a job in pollinator conservation, here’s your chance!
JOB TITLE: California Pollinator Outreach Coordinator
BACKGROUND: The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the diversity of life through the conservation of invertebrates. We educate the public and [...]
Ugh. I have an insane day week month coming up, and I’m swamped. It also appears that our washing machine might be broken, and I dropped the price on our house another $10,000 to try to tempt a buyer to purchase it.
The house you see here–with 3 acres of land–can be yours for $119,000. It’s [...]
I discovered a new phenomenon this week–the apostrofly:
“…the discovery of the apostrofly, first recorded in this column in the Guardian on September 30 2002. The apostrofly, as I noted at the time, is an insect which lands at random on the printed page depositing an apostrophe wherever it alights.”
Mayes coined this word to describe how [...]
If you farm in Michigan, you probably know about Ag Expo. It’s a huge trade fair and Extension info show on the MSU campus, where you can see (and test drive) cool new equipment. The best thing about working in agriculture is that we have the coolest toys
I got to watch some pretty [...]
Busy busy busy today…so look at these lovely butterflies gettin’ it on.
This incredible photo of Apollo (Papilionidae) butterflies is from Angela Wolf.
This is an IUCN Red List endangered species, so it’s good to see some potential reproduction!
Spell check is NOT your friend. Do not rely on it to accurately fix your mistakes:
“I hope my application after the deadline does not incontinence you too greatly.”
Um. Not really…..
It was Global Spell Check that was responsible for a 4 page paper that was once submitted to me in an introductory science class on “Attention [...]
