Figs and Bouncing Insect Eggs

My wife was out in the back of the house watering our plants and vegetables under the fig tree when she heard an odd noise. It was coming from our patio table and sounded like the gnashing of mandibles. It took a while looking under and around the table but it wasn't until she looked on the table for a few seconds that it occurred to her what it was. Insect Eggs. They were bouncing around.

I did some research about this subject. Its called katatrepsis, where the embryo in the egg is shifting around. Its odd that its under our fig tree as its wasps that germinate them by climbing inside, laying eggs and dying. This is described in more detail here. Its interesting that every 100 grams of fig jam have about thirteen or more insect heads. Still yummy and now with more protein!

Postcard of the Interwebs - 26 June 2013

New Bacteria found in people's Belly Buttons: Who would have thought that gazing at our navels would discover something. Regardless of the snideness of the article, it shows how little we know of the human body and how easy it is to learn from it. Look at your hand. Seriously, look at it. See how it moves, bends, doesn't bend, picks things up. Isn't that marvelous engineering and development from several million years of R&D.

Clock Tower Home: No, not that kind of clock tower and no hunchback necessary. Just a great idea and excellent follow through.

Nanoparticles and Bee Venom kill HIV cells: This research is geared twords a preventative measure. I see it as an inroad to a way to kill the virus in HIV afflicted persons.

Storm Trooper Carbon Fiber Costumes: Expensive...yes. Cool...oh yeah!

Carpet Sales from Pakistan decline due to activist death: In 1995, a 12 year old died after fighting the carpet making industry for two years. He worked as child labor from age 4 to 10. Pakistan's carpet making industry alone employed half a million children at this time. Here is another article from CNN in 2010. Do a search on child labor. Its still going on. Statistics show that proper education for children improve a families income much more than selling them into child slavery. Its also the right thing to do but that takes time. Too many around the world and here look to the short term than the long run. Research before you buy anything and be a responsible consumer.

GIFs of classic fight game backdrops:For all those that didn't have time to admire the background of various fighting games. Be warned, there is a lot of them.

Two year old girl gets windpipe made from Stem cells: This is another example of what science can do for the world, make a young girl live a normal life than to have her get air and food from machines.

Postcards of the Interwebs - 18 June 2013

Comet could hit Mars in 2014: There is a comet that is heading for Mars and is expected to give a very close pass of it October of 2014. This NASA video also gives a great explanation of the comet (NASA).

If the comet does hit, it could destroy many of the Mars equipment currently on the red planet but would give good insight in what is beneath the surface (water, minerals?) and what a comet strike does. The impact from this comet will be about a third of the potency of the one that took out the dinosaurs. Even a close shave will have pieces of it decend into Mars's atmosphere and the reaction will better determine the chemical makeup of it.

Really nice pictures: Just an assortment of some really nice pictures.

Wireless, brain interface: Look out William Gibson, here comes reality. I can see great potential for this device. Not only in getting a better understanding on how the brain works but to allow those who cannot move under their own locomotion to have robotic help. Of course I can also see wide ranging military applications for this. Reminds me of a book series I read when I was a teenager, Warbots.

Cicada Wings Destroy Bacteria: No, this is not a new monster movie on the Syfy channel. Its the research that has discovered that the wing structure of a particular insect pulls bacteria apart to render it ineffectual. Now imagine this structure being used in hospital air circulation systems, first aid bandages, gas masks. Lots of potential is to be had from nature itself if we only look hard enough.

100,000 Stars: A very cool site that can have you zoom in and out of our solar system as well as move around on an axis to view the stars and their location around our solar system. It takes a little time to load but well worth it.

How to construct an Iron Man suit (out of foam): Way cool. An incredible project.

Cow Art: Art. On a cow.

Postcards of the Interwebs - 12 June 2013

Its been a while for some weblinks and they have been accumulating. I'll try to post them once a week for the next few.

NASA discovers youngest Black Hole: With black holes being the indiscriminate exterminators of the universe. With a better understanding of them it can let us know more about them and suernovas, as it is surmised that it was one that caused this 1,000 year old black hole. Disney's theory, although hopeful, is too fantastical.

Bees and Flowers communicate by electric fields: Very cool and very practical. If bees sense flowers by this field, then why not an anti-bee device for those people allergic? Or a booster for honey producers to tell the bees where to go?

Bees dying because of high fructose corn syrup: The science is coming in on human long term affects of high fructose corn syrup so why not bees. Bee Farmers had better switch to more natural products and get some hybridization with unaffected bees.

Pixar's 22 rules for storytelling: Whether you are a writer, gamemaster, parent or critic, these rules are consice and logical.

Water found in Moon Rocks: It might have taken over 40 years for them to discover it but the Apollo moon rocks are still giving up good science. The water is not from Earth either. That means if its there and on the moon of Europa around Jupiter, perhaps its more plentiful than we thought. Just bring your water filter!

Cute Cat picture: I know the internet is full of them but here is another one.

Quote from Voltaire: "To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."

Raccoons!

We had two racoons visit over the weekend. We live near a river basin so over the years that we have lived here we have seen the traces of raccoons in the area and even encountered one when leaving my house once. This time they came right up to the back  doors and looked expectantly in. My cats didn't know what they were but one of our cats wanted to make friends. We didn't let them.

They were very traumatized by the experience they slept for most of the next day together. A rare occurrence. Sleeping near each other that is.

PRISM and Democracy

Democracy is defined as a government where all eligible citizens decide on the governing of their society and laws.

PRISM is a United States National Security agency (NSA) program to take advantage of the fact most of the world's internet traffic moves through the USA. Under this program emails, phone, skype, voice over IP, video, pictures, files and all things known and unknown are copied, stored and sifted through by the NSA.

Now if this was a black box kind of item, i would have no objection. By black box, I mean if law officials have a concern about a specific individual or organization, they ask a court of law to gather information on this person or organization. They ask the black box for data on this specific person and organization. If nothing is found they stop. If "bad guy stuff" is found or more persons are implicated in "bad guy stuff" then another court order is obtained for the next link...and so on.

But that is not happening. They used it for over 1400 filed reports in 2012.

Has my country of Canada been complicit in this? Have they given permission for another country to store my private, personal information that I transmit to another person (thereby giving that person and that person only permission to look at it). Is that close to being legal? Was a court order obtained, in Canada, to store my data in another country.

How about your country?

What if someone working in the NSA used this information to blackmail someone? To gain insider information to make money? To make other people money? Some companies like Facebook sell data and metadata to companies for them to market products. The USA is in debt and getting worse. Are corporations asking the NSA for occasional peeks at their data?

Your data. Paid for by United States taxpayers dollars.

Ultimately you must decide if having someone standing over your shoulder, making you fearful and feeling guilty makes us a safer people. Like the Puritan colonists of the United States.

I for one feel that there is no place for the state in the bedroom's of the nation, if we are to be treated as not guilty before proven innocent. This Keifer Sutherland's 24 mentality of ticking bomb scenarios has to stop. This fear has to stop. I did not give my government permission to spy on me.

I say no to PRISM. I say no for Canada to let another country do this to one of its citizens. I live in a democracy.