By Chris Grinter, þann 25 mars, 2010 Ég rakst á fullur-texti PDF af amphibious Moth grein og dregin tréð sýnir geislun þessa tegund, og líklega þróun á amphibious eiginleikanna. Áhugavert að hafa í huga við málið lögun, og hver Moth er landlæg í eigin eldfjall hennar í Hawaiian eyjaklasi.
Þetta er Bayesian greining þriggja gena phylogeny smíðuð með EF1 alfa, CAD og COI. Ef einhver vill eintak af blaðinu, senda mér minnismiða. Dreginn frá: Rubinoff D., Schmitz P., Margar vatna innrásum eftir landlægur, jarðneskur, Hawaiian Moth geislun. PNAS mars 2010.
By Chris Grinter, þann 25 mars, 2010 UR6FVJ2S3B8H
Ekkert athugavert við staðfestu trúarbrögð…
You can read all about his story from the NY Times. Ég held mest ógnvekjandi hlutur um þetta allt misnotkun hneyksli (skandalsssss) er að kirkjan í raun telur að þetta sé verk Satans – ekki brenglaður hugum einstakra manna. Já, “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, so why punish a man who just needs the devil vanquished? Oh wait, they don’t even exorcise priests because it is just a “temptation” with young, deaf, boys. Then how is it that these priests who are so easily tempted left in positions of power? The answer is easy… just like any government, the Catholic church is profoundly incompetent.
By Chris Grinter, þann 25 mars, 2010 Fyrir alla þá sem sátu hjá við atkvæðagreiðslu (Ég vil gera ráð fyrir sumir lesendur verða að hafa vitað hverjir ráðgáta Caterpillar okkar, en voru of latur til að tjá), hér er svarið (eftir hlé).
Continue reading Answer to last week’s Genius of the Press
By Chris Grinter, á 24 Mars, 2010 
Annar furðulegur dýr frá Hawaii – a alveg froskdýra lirfa (birt í mars 22 PNAS). Þó eru nokkrar vatni Hreisturvængjur, öll þeirra hafa tálkn sem halda þeim takmarkaður við vatnið (huga þér, við erum að tala aðeins um lirfustig). Ef straumurinn þeirra þornar upp, svo er Caterpillar. Hin nýja aðlögun hjá þessum skordýrum er hæfileikinn til að lifa þægilega, og greinilega endalaust, á þurru landi eða á kafi í fersku vatni – eiginleiki sem er áberandi fyrir þessa 12 nýjar tegundir af Hyposmocoma (Cosmopterigidae). Þetta er einstakt ekki aðeins fyrir skordýr, en öllum þekktum dýrum. Það er, auðvitað, froskdýr. En ólíkt þessum maðk þurfa þær raka til að lifa af og þorna oft hratt. Hyposmocoma þrífst í eyðimerkurlíkum aðstæðum, eða á kafi í margar vikur. Ekki aðeins voru 12 mismunandi tegundir uppgötvaðar (sem eru einnig fyrstu þekktu maðkarnir til að éta snigla), en það virðist jafnvel eins og þessi froskdýrahæfileiki hafi þróast þrisvar sinnum. Augljóst er að sértækur þrýstingur á litla æðarfugl á þessum svæðum er mikill.
The Lepidoptera í heild hefur þróast alhliða aðlögun, þar á meðal tegundir sem eru sníkjudýr, skaðlegt, svepparíkur, endophagous, kjötætur (líka á Hawaii), vatnalíf og nú alveg froskdýr. Hmmmm, hljómar eins og lélegt lag (við þessa tónlist). Augljóslega, leps eru svalari en nokkur önnur röð.
Ef ég væri Rubinoff gæti ég hafa nefnt einn möl Hyposmocoma aquamana. Auðvitað, Aquaman var frekar einskis virði á landinu… þannig að það hefði kannski átt að vera það H. potioaquamana (drykkur- kemur úr latínu fyrir betri eða áhrifaríkari).
By Chris Grinter, á 22 mars, 2010
Vor hefur komið til Norður-Kaliforníu og mölflugum eru á væng. Ég tók fljótur ferð en til Sierra Foothills yfir helgina og fórum upp brattar brekkur ofan American River. Hér að ofan er mynd Xanthothrox ranunculi f. albipuncta (Noctuidae: Stiriinae). Það gerist að sitja á fallegum kaliforníuvalmúa. Hýsilplantan, þó, er Coreopsis stillmanii og vex í litlum blettum af serpentínum jarðvegi í suðurhlíðum meðfram miðdalnum. Hér er a Xantothrix situr á gestgjafanum.
Þessari mölflugu var upphaflega lýst sem mynd af X. ranunculi í 1925 (mynd er nokkurn veginn jöfn undirtegund í dag), og svo alveg gleymt og óséð þangað til 1990. Það var sleppt við meiriháttar endurskoðun á undirfjölskyldunni, þannig að lögmæt staða sem undirtegund eða full tegund er óþekkt. Dvöl lag.
By Chris Grinter, á 19 mars, 2010 Enn ein afborgun af uppáhalds röð minn, snillingur fjölmiðla. This article comes from ABC news, sem getur borið kennsl þessa Caterpillar? It is decidedly EKKI a gypsy moth.
Fellow entomology blogger Myrmecos had a similar story last week.
By Chris Grinter, á 19 mars, 2010  (photo inneign)
The monarchs have started their spring migration north and you might even see one soon (ekki spennandi ef þú býrð í FL eða HI þar eru allt árið íbúar, eða í CA þar eru aðskilin fjölærum blettur). Skýrslur frá vetur stöðum sínum í Mexíkó eru þó dapurlegur; with possibly the lowest population size since the colonies were discovered in 70’s. A few bad storms in and along the butterfly’s route, coupled with habitat fragmentation and logging, has probably killed 50-60% of the mexican monarch population (according to reports below).
 (credit)
Is this anything special to be concerned about? I don’t particularly think so. Weather was the key player in this year’s record low population, and I can imagine the butterflies have seen numbers this bad before us humans were around to count them. I will bet anything on the population making a recovery in the years to come, no need to run around screaming, the monarch will be in your garden this summer and next.
Monarchs are pretty and kids love them, so it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to figure out why so much effort is put into monitoring them. But as a lepidopterist, nothing is as boring as yet another report on the “plight” of the monarchs Zzzzzzzzzzzz. I tend to believe there are more pressing issues to be concerned about, such as the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss in the face of scientific ignorance. Monarchs do play an important role as a public mascot and even as a figurehead species that help preserve precious habitat – but let’s use them as a foot in the door for further education. Já, á Monarch Butterfly Fund, is striving for habitat protection and sustainability. A good thing. I understand that this achieves a positive outcome, but why only in the name of the monarch? This seems like a spectacular opportunity for science education that is just rounded down to “save the monarch”. These forests serve as much more than a shelter to one butterfly species and even more than “an important carbon sink and oxygen generator”.
My interpretation.
Instead I suggest this. It is by far, orders of magnitude, more interesting:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGYAMDGMraA&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
By Chris Grinter, þann 13. mars, 2010 Birt í Santa Barbara News Press, Vetur 2009. Hver getur sagt mér hvað er að þessum myndatexta?
Síðu skanna inneign: Stuart Wilson.
By Chris Grinter, þann 13. mars, 2010 As if educational standards weren’t bad enough in this country, Texas has decided to make them worse. A recent push from a conservative school board has re-written history, literally. The logic may be a bit difficult to follow, but they have attempted to “balance” history by injecting more conservative ideals (huga þér, no one is a historian on the board). What is to be changed:
- Adding confusion on separation of church and state – (já, we know it’s not literally in the constitution. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.)
- Discussing how christian ideals helped to found our country.
- Conservative resurgence in the 80’s and 90’s, including the Moral Majority and the NRA.
- Discussing the violent nature of some civil rights movements and republican support of congressional civil rights votes.
- Adding that Germans and Italians were interned as well, not just the Japanese during WWII.
- Adding how senator McCarthy was correct in being paranoid over communism.
- Replacing the word “capitalism” with “free-market enterprise”.
- Removal of Thomas Jefferson from sections of the book.
This entire change is ghastly. I don’t have a problem mentioning some republican presidents and their positive role in history, or the role of the GOP. History may be written by the victors, but it should strive towards fair and balanced. The alterations made above are absolute bullshit and only serve to further their conservative, religious, agenda. What really pisses me off is the alteration of the civil rights movement and Japanese internment. Just because a bunch of old, fat, white men in congress realized they better pass civil rights laws does not mean they should deserve credit for it. og, are they really expecting us to believe that internment was not focused on the Japanese? That entire chapter in our US history is undeniably horrible and shameful, it was also fueled by racism. I do not understand how supporting bigotry and racism is considered a conservative value. Why must they unashamedly, and ignorantly, re-write history to further their agenda? The poisoning of the GOP and conservative values by religion is all to clear in this case. The bread and butter of religious fundamentalism is inculcating the youth. This strategy is very successful when you encourage large families and insane devotion. Now that the majority of conservatives are religious they are spinning their webs onto our children (well, your children).
The worst is yet to come. Texas and California are the largest textbook markets in the country. If they pass legislation mandating the alteration of texts then the publishing companies must fall into line. Since printing different versions of books for different states is financially unfeasible, then only ONE book gets printed for US schools. If Texas successfully adds this BS to the history books then every public school in the US gets force fed (or as republicans like to say – rammed down our throats) these books.
What is a conservative today if not religious? What is coming next: insertion of more “balanced” ideals of global warming, cloning and evolutionary biology. Dvöl lag.
Fail to Texas.
By Chris Grinter, on March 10th, 2010 I post someone else’s. Came across this series in a PZ Myers lecture, pretty entertaining and you should go check out Mr. Deity yourself.
[crackle src=/p/Mr._Deity/Mr._Deity_and_the_Messages.swf&fv=id=2021384&mu=0&ap=0]
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