kband: bluprnt 4 rvolution

US military to buy bulk anthrax

New Scientist won't let me read the whole article but I'm sure it will be picked up soon. Amazing.

US army plans to bulk-buy anthrax
24 September 2005
David Hambling

THE US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons.

A series of contracts have been uncovered that relate to the US army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. They ask companies to tender for the production of bulk quantities of a non-virulent strain of anthrax, and for equipment to produce significant volumes of other biological agents. Issued earlier this year, the contracts were discovered by Edward Hammond, director of the Sunshine Project, a US-German organisation that campaigns against the use of biological and chemical weapons.

One "biological services" contract specifies: "The company must have the ability and be willing to grow Bacillus anthracis Sterne strain at 1500-litre quantities." Other contracts are for fermentation equipment for producing 3000-litre batches of an unspecified biological agent, and sheep carcasses to ...

and then it gets cut off.

Beast Master

It's always been a dream of mine to walk through the woods and be able to hear birds calling in alarm to alert each other of my presence.

An amazing new study from a man at the University of Washington, has decoded chickadee-chirping to the extent that he can tell what they are harping about.

He put all sorts of predators in the realm of chicadees and listened to their calls. Apparently, the higher the level of danger, the more "dee"'s were elicited from the birds.

"The biologists also found that the more dees in an alarm cry, the larger the mob of other chickadees that formed to attack the intruder and the closer they approached in their attacks."

Ever so slightly more information at Discover .

big brains = more evolved

People make fun of it all the time, and wonder, perhaps with their massive brains, if brain size makes one smarter. But apparrently there was a study just done that says it's important.

But, where all the drama will be focused, is that big brains are from this one specefic gene cruzing around and being selected for. And apparently, more Europeans and Middle-Easterners have it that those from sub-Sahara Africa. So we're right back to the "small headed black people" days of 50 years ago.

Funny that they don't mention Asians. It will be interesting to see what they have to say about Asians because 50 years ago when this happened, white people thought Asains were this barbaric race, not white, primitive. And now our cultural perspective on Asians has completely shifted. They are smart. Very smart. And productive. So maybe this will be reflected in the scientific establishment....

it's going to be a huge media blow up once the Times gets ahold of it. And it will be fascinating to see who believes it. "But this time we have scientific evidence!" Like we didn't before when we were measuring heads? It's just hard to keep a perspective.

But, at the same time, it's really compelling. I sort of believe it. I mean there IS evidence....

And it's nice to see evolution still in motion despite our fucked up culture.

The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is The Chupacabra

The latest press release from Vincente Fox:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to serve as president of the great nation of Mexico. For nearly 200 years, our people have withstood the onslaughts of man and nature. We have withstood attack from without and attack from within. We have withstood the wars of faith, and the creeping despair of faith's absence. We have faced famine, pestilence, and poverty, and time and time again, we have succeeded, for running in our blood is the hearty stock of our Mayan and Aztec ancestors. My fellow Mexicanos, we can stand certain in the belief that we shall prevail over the trials of today. Except insofar as the Chupacabra is concerned."

Bizarre Hairworm Reproduction Strategies

First of all, I would just like to say that I knew about this ages ago and if you're interested in finding out even more about the hairworm and other strange organisms, JUST YOU WAIT, becasue "Even More Bizarre Earthlife Reproduction Strategies" by yours truely and Stuart Crawford will be out any day now, that is, any day we get around to starting it....but it will be done soon, by Christmas.

So, the worms, they are aquatic, but they infest grasshoppers, no one knows how, and they slowly eat them and grow and grow. They somehow create protines that cause the grasshopper to only eat what it wants the grasshopper to eat. THEN, when the grasshopper is but a head and an exoskeleton, and the worm is litterally four times the length of the grasshopper, the worm causes the grasshopper to jump into a body of water, so the worm can escape, which it does, and the grasshopper drowns. AMAZING! You can see the grasshopper poised for suicide in the picture.

They also mention another awesome reproduction strategy, that of a wasp that parasitizes an orb-weaving spider in Costa Rica.

"The night before the wasp larva kills its host, it somehow reprograms the spider's web-building activity so that instead of its usual temporary web, the spider constructs a durable platform ideal for the larva to pupate on.

Somehow the larva reprograms the spider into executing, over and over again, just the first two steps in a five-step subroutine from the early phase of web-building.

If the larva is removed just before it can kill its host, the orb weaver will spin a platform-style web that and the following night, but revert to its usual web on the third night, as if it has shaken off some mesmerizing chemical the wasp has injected into its nervous system."