Beetle mittens? What a bunch of crap!

The object of our attention.

Maybe I should have used another word. How about pasture lilies? But mittens and Dung Beetle's? Give me a break.

I've seen the little bug. I've watched it do the job assigned to it by Mother Nature. I understand its role in Life. What I don't understand is why some scientist would want to put a pair of mittens on one. Why/how would this idea even come up in the crazy world of science. That's the thing about scientists. They are wild and wacky thinkers.

Jochen Smolka, Lund University, Sweden, is studying the bug Scarabaeus nigroaeneus in Africa.  He's "... found that their dung balls aren’t just take-away meals—they’re also portable coolers." So now, besides mittens we've got air conditioners? Read on.

"Smolka placed dung beetles and their balls in a sandy circular arena, etched into their

natural habitat. If he shaded the arena so it was cooler than 50°C, the beetles rolled

their balls out without pause. On hotter ground, their front feet can heat up by as much

as 10°C, and that triggers them to climb onto their balls. Here’s where the adorable

green mitts come in—if Smolka placed these on the beetles, their front feet didn’t

heat up, and they were less likely to climb onto their balls."

So we know. I still want to know how he; 1) Made the mittens. 2) Got them on those tiny little feet. No mention was made. What a way to make a living, huh?

In case you weren't looking at the sun yesterday....

... I thought you might like to know and "see" what happened. It's called an X-class sun flare.

Yesterday, an active region on the sun – basically, a collection of magnetically

active sunspots – popped off a series of flares that were actually fairly energetic.

There's a video available from NASA that I watched more than once. The thing was gi-normous! Mother Nature is so cool.

 

It's not always good to be a seismologist

Seismology is the science of studying earthquakes. And tremors, and aftershocks and everything else connected with earthquakes. I guess it's a nice, interesting job. Maybe even a tad laid back. Except when a disaster is involved. Like every other natural disaster, quakes can get pretty gruesome.

Seismologists don't just sit around waiting for Mother Nature to do some shaking. Or a whole lot of shaking. They work on predicting when one could possibly, or is about to, occur. They don't like to make predictions that carry a high level of certainty. You shouldn't try and fool Mother, and you damned sure better be careful when you say you know when she's about to do one of her "things."

In April 2009, there was a quake in Italy and 300+ folks died. Investigations ensued, of course. And one of those investigations was aimed at Italian seismologists.

"When the charges were brought against the Italian scientists back in 2010, they shocked

the scientific world. Prosecutors claimed that the scientists, while serving on a government

panel, minimized the potential risks of a potential quake in the region, and gave "incomplete,

imprecise, and contradictory information" to the area's citizens, according to an in-depth

report on the case last year in the scientific journal Nature."

Those six scientists were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison. They were found guilty of  failing to adequately warn the city of L'Aquila in advance of he quake.

As much as many of us would like to "convict" our local weather forecasters, we don't. It's just a silly idea. Now I'm wondering how many US bottom feeders lawyers are mulling over the possibility.

Female Komodo Dragons overworked! An issue for feminists? (Might be best your wife not know this.)

Miz Komodo

Not what I'd call warm and cuddly, and not not found (normally) in this part of the world. A crack research team at the University of Melbourne, Australia, believes the female critters are being overworked and their life span is suffering.

"...female Komodo dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly due to

their physically demanding 'housework' such as building huge nests and

guarding eggs for up to six months."

I have a question. Just exactly how does "doin' wimmins' work," those tasks assigned these critters by Mother Nature herself, become species-threatening?

"The Komodo dragon is the world’s largest lizard. Their formidable body size enables

them to serve as top predators killing water buffalo, deer and wild boar and

they have also been known to kill humans."

The story doesn't say, but based on my limited knowledge of how Mother Nature set things up, that paragraph sounds like the male Komodo's job (Me Tarzan, You Jane). It also sounds a tad more "physically demanding," not to mention life-threatening, than having kids and raising them. (You ever seen film/videos of water buffalo or wild boar when they're pissed off or feel threatened? Ever thought you could take one on, bare-handed?)

I don't want to see any of Mother Nature's species disappear. Sometimes though, I think that's just the Natural Order. The way things are meant to be. And not something I'm going to get overly concerned about.