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 »
Posted on January 5, 2009 by Cheshire
I do quite a bit of writing on spiders. Many entomologists deal with spiders, mites and other arachnids in their everyday working life. They’re important, ubiquitous predators. To this entomology undergrad, they’re essentially honorary insects.
Everyone knows spiders spin webs. They can be organized and beautiful, such as this orb weaver web
They can be complex and [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Bug Pictures, Evolutionary Biology, Fossils, Science | Tagged: Arachnology, Araneae, evolution, Evolutionary Biology, Grass spiders, Mesothelids, Mygalamorphs, Orb-weavers, Science, Spider Fossils, Spider Pictures, Spiders, Tarantulas, Transitional fossils, Uropygids, Vinegaroons | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 2, 2009 by Cheshire
Take a look at Casey Luskin’s diagram in his most recent post over at Evolution News and Views.
Believe it or not, this diagram hits close to home to me.
You see, the very fact that I’m alive is proof positive that this diagram fails the most basic test of irreducible complexity. I have a part missing [...]
Filed under: Evolutionary Biology, Medical, Personal, Religion, Science, Science Journalism, Soapbox, entomology | Tagged: Anti-Creationism, Anti-Intelligent Design, Clotting Cascade, Creationism, evolution, Evolutionary Biology, Factor V, Intelligen Design, Science | 9 Comments »
Posted on January 2, 2009 by Cheshire
Casey Luskin posts on the Discovery Institute’s blog Evolution News and Views. He’s always got something vacuous to say. Earlier this week, he posted that a bicyle was irreducibly complex.
I like to explain the “irreducible core” using the analogy of a bicycle: A bicycle has an irreducible core that requires a frame, two wheels, a [...]
Filed under: Blag, Epic Fail, Evolutionary Biology, Science, The Interweb | Tagged: Anti-Creationism, Anti-Intelligent Design, Blog, Blogroll, Epic Fail, Intelligent Design, Ken Miller, Science | 2 Comments »
Posted on December 30, 2008 by Cheshire
Many spiders get a really bad rap merely because they have hideously toxic venom.
Okay, that’s actually a really good reason to be very, very careful when dealing with some spiders. Especially Black Widows.
Black widows in areas they live are pretty much ubiquitous. I got the chance to collect them while I was in Texas, and [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Science, Science Journalism, Soapbox | Tagged: Arachnology, Aranae, Black Widows, Spiders | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 25, 2008 by Cheshire
So I haven’t been on the blogosphere for too long, but my weblog is just starting to get some decent traffic (mostly as a result of the researchblogging posts I try to do about once a week or so) and I’m just becoming aware of some of the conflicts that take place regularly on the [...]
Filed under: Academia, Arachnology, Blag, Culture, General Entomology, Philosophy, Science, Science Journalism, Soapbox, The Interweb | Tagged: Araneae, Blog, Fossils, Journalism, Science, The Internet | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 17, 2008 by Cheshire
To fully understand the context of this article, you probably need to read this article over at my old blog about the signficance of tachinid fly pests to silk production. It’s a great peice of work about a parasitoid fly (a tachinid…this blog’s namesake) that’s been devastating the silk industry in India.
So…you have a pest [...]
Filed under: General Entomology, Parasitology, Science | Tagged: Biocontrol, Butterflies/moths, Diptera, entomology, Hymenoptera, Hyperparasitism, Lepidoptera, Parasitic flies, Parasitic wasps, Parasitoids, Parasitology, Peer-reviewed research, Sericulture, Tachinids | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 15, 2008 by Cheshire
Okay…totally breaking my moratorium on science posts for this. It’s a picture show which shows many animals discovered in a remote region of Laos, Vietnam, China…a region in there somewhere.
There are some really cool species here…and it just goes to show that we still have a lot more to discover. You can see a slideshow [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Pet Trade, Science | Tagged: Arachnoculture, Arachnology, Araneae, Conservation, Ecology, Insect Photography, New Species, Spiders, Tarantulas, Theraphosidae | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 10, 2008 by Cheshire
One of the things that insects use to their advantage is their size…they’re relatively small. This is great for them because it allows them to conquer basically everywhere, be super-strong relative to their own weight and get lifted to far away places on the wind. At their scale, even their flight is different from birds…to [...]
Filed under: General Entomology, Science | Tagged: Cicadas, entomology, Hemiptera | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 6, 2008 by Cheshire
