A natural exclamation, to a person upon first encountering the theme of the study “The Chemistry Of Exploding Ants”, might be “Oh-Oh!” That is in fact part of the chemical story, as illustrated in the figure below, which is reproduced from the study.
“A detailed comparative analysis of the exocrine chemistry of nine Bruneian Camponotus species in the cylindricus complex is reported. Workers of these species are known to have hypertrophied mandibular glands and release their glandular contents suicidally from the head by rupturing the intersegmental membrane of the gaster.”
Sir David Attenborough’s sonorous tones add a measure of gravitas to any nature documentary. In this video from BBC One’s Graham Norton Show, Sir Attenborough lends the power of his voice to narrate a video of a retifistic tortoise’s unsuccessful advances toward a shoe.
Sex clearly drives Britain and Argentina as they vie to dominate islands of interest. The two great nations are rivals in producing academic studies of whether and how people stare at women’s breasts or buttocks.
“Today’s mechanical engineers might search the ocean with an underwater observation manipulator; work on developing systems to program robots for manufacturing; or build a prototype of an electric car or develop computer systems for automobiles.”
But that’s by no means a complete list of activities for mechanical engineers at Georgia Tech.. They might, for example, also work on systems for intelligent automated transfer of live objects onto shackle lines.
Professor Kok-Meng Lee, (who heads the Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics Research Laboratory at the school) began developing just such a system back in 1998 – as a result of which he was granted a US patent in 2003:
“The system and method include introducing a plurality of live objects to a singulator. The singulator isolates the individual live objects and places them in a pallet on a conveyor. The system may detect and remove cadavers from amongst the live objects. The conveyor leads the live objects to a grasper. The grasper positions the legs of the live objects so that a shackler can secure the legs of the live objects with a shackle. The live objects and the shackle are then inverted and passed on to a shackle line. The shackle line may be a kill line buffer or a kill line.“
For the purposes of the invention, the ‘live objects’ mentioned above would preferably be chickens.
As part of the engineering development scheme, the chickens were mathematically modelled as an idealised ellipsoid, with the equation describing the motion of the chicken in the x direction through the rubber-fingered singulator as :
“It should be noted, however, that when the chicken goes through the singulator backward the resistance is much greater due to the chicken flapping its wings.”
An extensive description of the project to develop a system for intelligent automated transfer of live birds to a shackle line can be found here. ( Caution: the .pdf features graphic photos which some bird lovers may find disturbing.)
Today, which we proclaim to be Riddle of a Riddle Day, we celebrate scholarly works titled “Riddle of a Riddle”. Well, we celebrate one of them, as it may be the only one there is:
ABSTRACT: This paper examines the distinction made by Arthur C. Danto between artworks and what he terms “mere real things.” It presents an eighteenth-century tool for sifting grain (a riddle) as a case study in the contexts of first, the house of its first known owner, General Artemas Ward (1727-1800); second, an exhibitioin 2006-7 drawn from the contents of that house pointedly held in an art museum; and, third, the likely maker of the object, a member of Hassanimisco Band of Nipmuc Indians. It examines the equivocal position of objects such as this in Danto’s estimation, things that he considers to be “under contest,” and asks whether the distinction between artworks and mere real things has any pertinence when artifacts can be used or regarded so variously in the course of their existence, whether as tools, symbols, artworks, or living beings.
Dead Duck Day — June 5th — is coming. The short, open-air ceremony next to the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam is open free to the public, including ducks. Please note the day in your diary.
The historic stuffed necro-duck will be at the event, and so will his keeper (me). At the celebration we will also:
Discuss (new) ways to prevent birds from colliding with glass.
Read a special message sent by Tim Birkhead FRS, Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University of Sheffield, (Bird behaviorist and scientific historian, author of, amongst others, the book ‘Bird Sense: What it’s Like to be a Bird’).
Reveal new (hot) duck necrophilia news.
Immediately following the celebration, everybody is invited to the nearby Tai Wu restaurant, for the traditional six course duck dinner.
WHEN: The ceremony starts June 5th at 17.55h sharp, the actual time the duck lost his life on that historic day in 1995. NOTE: In some places, Dead Duck Day this year, 2012, will coincide with the Transit of Venus — see this calculator to determine whether that is true for your location.
WHERE: On the lawn next to the new glass pavilion of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Westzeedijk 345 (Museumpark), Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Here is a photo from a previous Dead Duck Day celebration:
MOUNT YOUR OWN: If you cannot come to Rotterdam for the event, we hope you will mount your own Dead Duck Day celebration, and perhaps send us details.
BONUS: The story of the duck — the two ducks, really — commemorated on Dead Duck Day, told in a six-minute mini-movie:
Professor Katz [pictured here] specialises in problems with dogs (amongst other things). Specifically, for example, Ceroid-Lipofuscinosis in Tibetan Terriers.
“Ceroid-lipofuscinosis (CLN) occurs in a number of animal species in addition to humans. Animals in which CLN has been reported include a number of dog breeds, including Tibetan Terriers, English Setters, Polish Lowland Sheepdogs, and American Bulldogs. Dr. Katz and his colleagues have been conducting research to identify the genetic defects responsible for the CLN diseases in these and other dog breeds.”
BONUS (unrelated): Camille performs her song “Cats and Dogs Are Not Our Friends”:
BONUS (related to that unrelated bonus): The same singer performs a brief song, in collaboration with her dog, Brad Pitt:
One of the latest publications in the field of postmodern range sciences – from the USDA-ARS, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, New Mexico – has been scheduled for future publication in the journal ‘Laterality’.
Authors Dean M. Anderson and Leigh W. Murray (at K-State) set up a suite of experiments with 309 white-faced ewes, in order to determine whether sheep have a natural preference to turn right, or left, when they arrive at a T junction.
The results were clearcut – white-faced ewes do have a preference, and the results are summarised here, in the abstract for the paper ‘Sheep laterality’.
I was watching a program on the BBC the other day, about a physicist who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of graphene. What really piqued my interest was his slightly bonkers approach to science – which was undoubtedly what led to the discovery…
As well as winning the Nobel prize, Geim was also bestowed with the tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel prize for his work on magnetism. Geim had listened to rumours that if you attach a magnet to your shower, or inside a kettle, limescale didn’t accumulate. To test this, Geim threw caution to the wind and poured water in some very expensive magnetic equipment.
Remarkably, he found that the water levitated. People did not believe that objects could levitate under magnetism, so Geim tried it again with a tiny frog. “Even in science, you need a ‘wow’ factor,” Geim said, with knowing. As he predicted, the tiny frog levitated and the scientific community were awed.
An American parody, the Ig Nobel prize is awarded for trivial or unusual achievements in scientific research. Many of Geim’s colleagues would have found such a tribute mortifying, but Geim was thrilled: “Annoying your colleagues is a pleasure I could never give up,” he chuckled.
Geim’s provocative style of research allows him to take risks and deliberately stray from the mainstream. His playful methods and instincts are supported by clear thinking and a broad understanding. It means that he clearly can see those ideas with promise and potential from those that would not be so fruitful. This is why we emphasise the need for intelligent naivety – and not just naivety….
Professor Uwe Gieler [pictured here] at Justus-Liebig University in Giessen and two colleagues begin with the basics: “Itching is defined as a sensation associated with an impulse to scratch.”
They invited people to attend a public lecture called “Itching – what’s behind it?” The lecture was purportedly recorded for broadcast on television. In fact, the TV cameras were there to record what the audience did – whether people scratched themselves, or failed to scratch themselves.
The lecture had two parts, the first filled with slides of fleas, mites, scratch marks on skin and other visual stimuli that the scientists hoped would “induce itching”….
The New York Times “You’re the Boss” blog reports about a teenager who is starting a hiccup-remedy business, possibly because neither she nor her doctors did much Internet research and thereby (or thereNOTby) failed to learn about the digital hiccup treatment devised by Ig Nobel Prize winner Dr. Francis Fesmire. The report:
To silence her stubborn hiccups during the summer of 2010, Mallory Kievman tried swallowing saltwater, making herself gag, eating a spoonful of sugar, sipping pickle juice and drinking a glass of water upside-down. Nearly two years and 100 attempted folk remedies later, the 13-year-old is preparing to lead a team of M.B.A. students from the University of Connecticut in building a company that can bring her invention — Hiccupops, or hiccup-stopping lollipops — to market this summer.
Bart Knols explains—and also demonstrates—three related things: How to use cheese and dogs and a new kind of pill to kill malaria mosquitoes. Knols and Ruurd de Jong were awarded the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in biology for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet. Here’s video of his TEDx talk at Maastricht:
The short: In non-IPO news, Facebook announced a new product called the App Center. It’s an iTunes-like marketplace for discovering, reviewing, and using Facebook apps. In the past, a user's first experience with a new Facebook app most often involved landing on an authorization window asking for permission to access the user's personal Facebook data. Now, users can learn more before committing to the app by exploring a detailed app description page, user reviews, and screenshots.
Why it matters: Not only does the App Center legitimize Facebook’s App Platform and put it into the same category as the iOS App Store and Android Market, but the App Center could provide Facebook with a new revenue stream from
paid apps, subscriptions, and in-app purchases. For brands and developers with popular apps like Spotify, Netflix, and the Washington Post reader, the App Center will further boost the already rampant growth of the apps by making them even easier to discover and use. However, it will likely make it harder for fledging companies and new apps to get noticed amongst the top performers.
Viddy’s Boom Part of a Larger Trend
The short:Viddy, the social video app dubbed the “Instagram for video,” surpassed 26 million users this month.This easy-to-use app -- simply record a 15-second video clip, apply a filter, add music and share -- was created last April, just in time to meet the boom in consumer demand for mobile photo and video apps.
Why it matters: The quick rise of Viddy signifies the meteoric growth mobile photo and video has experienced this past year. A Flurry study shows that in 2011, consumer time spent on mobile video apps grew 141%. Thus far in 2012, while online video consumption has dropped 10%, mobile app video consumption has increased another 52%. It’s too soon to predict how mobile video apps will affect traffic to online video sites long-term, but Viddy and its rival Socialcam won’t be going away any time soon. It would be wise for brands to pay attention to the trend and understand that consumers are itching to put video consumption and creation in their own hands.
Tweets of the Week in Your Inbox
The short: Last week, Twitter announced that users can now receive a weekly email that summarizes the most popular stories and tweets from the people they follow. The opt-in digest of highlights is likely powered by Summify, a start-up acquired at the beginning of the year that aggregates the best stuff from an individual’s social feeds.
Why it matters: What arrives in a user’s inbox is more or less an email version of Twitter’s Discover feature, which the social network revamped this month to cull and deliver more personalized, ”magical” content from a user’s network. While a week is a brief lifetime when it comes to 140-character updates, this effectively puts the content that friends and others have vetted and vouched for--an idea similar to Facebook’s ad unit Sponsored Stories--in one place to easily consume in one sitting. Keeping with this trend (Buzzfeed’s weekly email digests launched a short while ago), Pinterest has also begun to send weekly emails recapping the most popular boards and pins. Digital digests offer brands a chance to showcase themselves and their stories in front of more people, only underscoring the need to produce entertaining, engaging content.
The short: In non-IPO news, Facebook announced a new product called the App Center. It’s an iTunes-like marketplace for discovering, reviewing, and using Facebook apps. In the past, a user's first experience with a new Facebook app most often involved landing on an authorization window asking for permission to access the user's personal Facebook data. Now, users can learn more before committing to the app by exploring a detailed app description page, user reviews, and screenshots.
Why it matters: Not only does the App Center legitimize Facebook’s App Platform and put it into the same category as the iOS App Store and Android Market, but the App Center could provide Facebook with a new revenue stream from
paid apps, subscriptions, and in-app purchases. For brands and developers with popular apps like Spotify, Netflix, and the Washington Post reader, the App Center will further boost the already rampant growth of the apps by making them even easier to discover and use. However, it will likely make it harder for fledging companies and new apps to get noticed amongst the top performers.
Viddy’s Boom Part of a Larger Trend
The short:Viddy, the social video app dubbed the “Instagram for video,” surpassed 26 million users this month.This easy-to-use app -- simply record a 15-second video clip, apply a filter, add music and share -- was created last April, just in time to meet the boom in consumer demand for mobile photo and video apps.
Why it matters: The quick rise of Viddy signifies the meteoric growth mobile photo and video has experienced this past year. A Flurry study shows that in 2011, consumer time spent on mobile video apps grew 141%. Thus far in 2012, while online video consumption has dropped 10%, mobile app video consumption has increased another 52%. It’s too soon to predict how mobile video apps will affect traffic to online video sites long-term, but Viddy and its rival Socialcam won’t be going away any time soon. It would be wise for brands to pay attention to the trend and understand that consumers are itching to put video consumption and creation in their own hands.
Tweets of the Week in Your Inbox
The short: Last week, Twitter announced that users can now receive a weekly email that summarizes the most popular stories and tweets from the people they follow. The opt-in digest of highlights is likely powered by Summify, a start-up acquired at the beginning of the year that aggregates the best stuff from an individual’s social feeds.
Why it matters: What arrives in a user’s inbox is more or less an email version of Twitter’s Discover feature, which the social network revamped this month to cull and deliver more personalized, ”magical” content from a user’s network. While a week is a brief lifetime when it comes to 140-character updates, this effectively puts the content that friends and others have vetted and vouched for--an idea similar to Facebook’s ad unit Sponsored Stories--in one place to easily consume in one sitting. Keeping with this trend (Buzzfeed’s weekly email digests launched a short while ago), Pinterest has also begun to send weekly emails recapping the most popular boards and pins. Digital digests offer brands a chance to showcase themselves and their stories in front of more people, only underscoring the need to produce entertaining, engaging content.
As part of their ongoing commitment to postmodern range sciences, the USDA-ARS, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, New Mexico, has prepared a video profiling the concept of a flerd. (defined thus:)
“A group of livestock containing two or more species which stay together under free-ranging conditions is defined as a flerd”
The Minnesota Medical foundation described, a while ago, a hamburgers-and-human experiment that took place a good while before that. Their blog in 2008 called it “an unusual hamburger experiment” done in the 1930s by Jesse McClendon [pictured here] of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Physiological Chemistry. Some details:
He planned to feed a single experimental subject only White Castle hamburgers—including the bun, onions, and pickles—and water for 13 weeks.
A willing subject presented himself: Bernard Flesche, a U of M medical student working his way through school. Flesche kept a diary during the ordeal. “He started out very enthusiastic about eating 10 burgers at a sitting,” notes his daughter, Deirdre Flesche, “but a couple of weeks into it, he was losing his enthusiasm.” His sister frequently tried to tempt him with fresh vegetables, but Flesche allowed nothing but White Castle Slyders™ to pass his lips….
As described there, the experiment was part of a public relations campaign run by the man who owned the White Castle hamburger shops.
(Thanks to investigator Dany Adams for bringing this to our attention.)
BONUS: We have not managed to find a published report by McClendon. If you know of one, we’d love to see it.
Today’s Rocks/Tar rock star of the day is Ivan Brady, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus and previous Chair of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Oswego, former president of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology and Chair of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, and also former book review editor of the American Anthropologist.
Professor Brady is the author of ”Tar & Rocks” (Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 12, June 2006, pp. 501-502), the beginning of which is reproduced below:
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