For some reason, I’m listening to a lot of this band lately
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Why does this not surprise me?
Posted on January 28, 2009 by Cheshire
If you’re interested in biology…if you watch documentaries, you’re familiar with David Attenborough. Turns out that he gets hate mail for not accrediting everything to an invisible man.
Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week’s Radio Times [...]
Filed under: Athiesm, Philosophy | Tagged: Athiesm | Leave a Comment »
Do sac spiders cause necrosis? Probably not.
Posted on January 27, 2009 by Cheshire
I’ve written a few times about the reputation of the brown recluse (Loxoceles reclusa) and how much of it’s reputation is undeserved. It’s bite, as is known from popular culture, causes a wound that is indeed pretty horrific. However, the gruesome nature of the bite makes it a scapegoat for many cases of necrosis.
I’ve [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Biochemistry, Medical, Venom | Tagged: Arachnology, Araneae, Cheiracanthium, Culture, Loxoceles reclusa, Medical, Sac Spiders, Spiders, Venom | Leave a Comment »
Random thoughts…
Posted on January 26, 2009 by Cheshire
If you declare something to be ‘relatively simple’, your first attempt at a particular test will give you a result that leaves you stammering ‘but that’s…impossible’.
Ticks are actually pretty easy to work with. If you drop one, just check your leg every two minutes. You’ll find it…eventually.
I am, apparently, an elitist because I understand biology. [...]
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An overview of insect metamorphosis
Posted on January 26, 2009 by Cheshire
Insects go through different stages as they grow. Some adult insects look almost exactly like the nymphs, whereas others couldn’t be more different than the larvae. Some even have multiple larval stages, and in the coming weeks I’ll be discussing a few of what I refer to as the ‘differential’ life cycles I find more [...]
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You have no idea how bad I want one of these…
Posted on January 25, 2009 by Cheshire
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I’m not too happy with Graham Lawton of New Scientist right now…
Posted on January 25, 2009 by Cheshire
see more pwn and owned pictures
I’m not even going to pretend that I read everything what pops up in popular science. My exposure to pop-sci articles consists largely of stumbling into the Iowa State University bookstore and thumbing through the science magazines, usually after I look at the pretty women in fashion magazines. I’m a [...]
Filed under: Epic Fail, Evolutionary Biology, General Bullshit, Science, Science Journalism, Soapbox | Tagged: Anti-Creationism, Anti-Intelligent Design, Creationism, Culture, Epic Fail, evolution, Evolutionary Biology, History, Hymenoptera, Insect Pathology, Intelligent Design, Parasitoids, Parasitology, Ranting, Religion, Science, Science Journalism | 1 Comment »
Leave mine to me
Posted on January 24, 2009 by Cheshire
I think this song pretty accurately describes how I approach the world as an Athiest.
Live performance by Bad Religion, lyrics from the album version below the fold.
Filed under: Athiesm, Music, Uncategorized | Tagged: Athiesm, Bad Religion, Culture, Music | Leave a Comment »
Friday bug picture: The Oil Fly
Posted on January 23, 2009 by Cheshire
The La Brea tar pits are a really neat place. If you ever get the chance to visit them, I’d very strongly recommend going. There’s been a bunch of awesome fossil mammals extracted from there…famous mammals like the wooly mammoth and sabretooth cats but also smaller fossils like pollen and insects which help us figure [...]
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Don’t try to drown ticks. It just doesn’t work.
Posted on January 22, 2009 by Cheshire
Water is important to disease vector arthropods in many different ways. For some, this is obvious. Mosquitoes and blackflies need water to breed. A large amount of the effort that goes into controlling mosquitoes in malaria-ridden areas goes into researching where they breed after floods.
For others, it’s more subtle but still very important. Usually, most [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Parasitology | Tagged: Acari, Arachnology, Parasitology, Ticks | Leave a Comment »
