Showing posts with label in. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in. Show all posts
Friday, November 25, 2016
Aging worker termites explode themselves in suicide missions
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| Meet the troops — two soldiers, two white workers and three blue workers with two blue spots between their thorax and abdomen. Image courtesy of R. Hanus |
Termites seem to have developed an explosive strategy for warfare.
Edward Osborne Wilson once wrote that while humans send their young men off to war, ants send in their old ladies. The Neocapritermes taracuatermites have taken this one step further and are using their ageing female workers as suicide troops, according to an international team of researchers.
This may seem like an unusual strategy until you realise that as these workers age, their mandibles are becoming duller. These cannot be renewed through moulting, so the termite’s food-collecting capacity decreases the older it gets. “In other words, the old workers are not as useful anymore for the colony but they can provide another service,” explains Robert Hanus from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, one of the authors of the study published in Science.
These ancient troops aren’t helpless: they have a secret weapon that they can and will use against ants and other termites. At some stage in their lives, two blue spots will appear on the termites’ back at the junction of the abdomen and the thorax. These are a pair of copper-containing protein crystals, which are enclosed within external pouches on the worker’s backs.
The researchers observed that these spots vary in size between the blue workers, with some white workers lacking spots entirely. The size of these crystals increases as the termite ages, allowing them to build up a toxic armoury for their final battle. When these blue workers do come under attack, they rupture their body walls and squirt a toxic compound onto the enemy, killing themselves in the process.
“The toxicity of the bursting liquid appears to result from a reaction of two components: the blue crystals on one side, stored outside the body cavity, and the haemolymph (a product of salivary glands),” Hanus says. The rupture causes the secretion of the haemolymph, then brings these two components into contact and causes a chemical reaction.
Ageing termites certainly appear to be more willing to sacrifice themselves than the younger workers, who prefer to stay at home and avoid aggressive interactions with ants and other termites. Instead of waiting for the enemy to come to them, Hanus says that the termites appear to be using this defensive device while foraging for food. “They often forage far from their home colonies and encounter ant predators and termite competitors.”
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Jesus spent 40 days in the Desert I only spent 21 but here’s what began to happen
I was in the woods, on 5 acres bordering several National forests, Northern Wisconsin was the place.
It was an old, dusty, spider and spider web filled mini-camper, just enough for one person to sleep in with a small cook stove and sleeping bag. No phone, computer, radio, TV, just a handful of books and quest to reach deep down within myself, to find myself, God, Nature ….whatever may be. I was dropped off and left there, not to see another soul for another 3 weeks.
By day 2, the ego/mind was going crazy lacking the constant stimulation from smart phones, TV’s, roommates, work/co-workers, society, etc. Yet I was aware of the “going crazy.” I tempered this w/ meditation near the camp fire.
The first couple of nights, there was fear in the pitch black night due to the visiting critters, the fact that the camper was used by bats as a shelter as well, and with the unknowing of what can be outside of the camper. I tempered the fear with prayer, observation, meditation.
Around day 5, I was settled with stillness, nature, silence, with myself, the mind settling down w/ lack of stimulation, and fear was no more. All I could do is just Be, Flow w/ what is. I fasted during the days, and ate a handful of grains, nuts, or a small fruit at night.
Somewhere around day 8-9, things began to make sense. Society seemed artificial. We’ve gone so far from Flow/Being and live in fear, ego, and addiction to stimulation. I was deep within myself, fine with myself. I was in a sense Home, deprogramming from societal ways.
Day 12-14, the tree’s began to glow. I hugged the tree’s and acknowledged the Life of nature. Squirrels, wild turkey’s, deer began to come near and check out what this odd human was doing there. As the days past, they would get closer and closer, having less fear of me.
Day 16, I found the core me. I was fine no matter what. Can face anything, feared nothing, and understood existence as Being, as Flow, as interconnected to me. Even the books I brought with did not matter to what reality taught me there in nature. The fasting tempered the lusts of the body for sexual release. The idea of sex, porn, lust w/ beautiful sexual women lost meaning and I saw through it, discovering many connections between the body and mind.
Day 18. There are Universes revolving above my head. I’ve had this before, but it really sank in now. The majority of stuff is irrelevant in the big picture. I have closure and detachment in my life and if it’s time to physically die, today is a good day for that. I’m open to whatever Flow & Being has in store for a tiny grain of sand like me. Fear is let go of, and the grand scheme of things runs the show.
Day 21. In Love with this type of existence. I’ve reached a part of myself and existence that I never knew was there, but always had a hunch about. Considering monasteries now or permanently living like this. However it’s time to say goodbye and get back to society, considering I still have some familial and financial obligations to take care of.
A friend picks me up and we go to a pizza joint to eat. Everything seems artificial, commercialized, and corporate/government ran. Still I see the Flow/Being within society, but it’s covered up, manipulated by ego/mind to fit it’s own molds and concepts of how things should be. In retrospect, everything now looks slow, lacking, dirty, superficial. The truth is there, but most don’t see the sublime. Rushing and wrapped in roles, the present moment is entirely missed, instead people have replaced this with; “what might one day be if only I can ____(fill in the blank)!”
This was a set of diary posts from my 21 day solo retreat in the woods. I can only imagine the further changes that would occur if I was to go the full 40 like Jesus did.
All that to say, that there is something to, letting go of the bias bubbles we’ve all created by being wrapped up in the necessities of catering to society and our own ego’s. By tempering that, with going into solitude, into the wild for a set amount of time, that bias bubble pops, and for that set amount of time, you find certain things about yourself, nature, Love, life, existence, that you would not otherwise find, things that remain with you for the rest of your life, things that the majority of people may not be aware of, but are most definitely there.
Food for thought perhaps, or the ramblings of a madman.
(This was originally published on AboveTopSecret.com)
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Her Name was Lost in Rotation
When I first saw this tattoo, I thought it wasn't Hebrew writing at all. It looks like some weird script, Martian maybe?
The victim claims this Hebrew-like doodle to be her name, and on closer inspection I realized that it really was. It just so happened that when trying to render her tattoo vertically, some letters were rotated and some were not, creating this very strange result.
I never had to draw this particular chart before:
In any case, the Hebrew tattoo most likely says "Ebony Eve". Most likely, since aside from being mis-rotated, it's also slightly misspelled. So if you have another interpretation of this name, I'd love to hear it!
And this is how you would correctly write "Ebony Eve" in Hebrew. Ebony on the right, Eve is on the left.
My suggestion, when it comes to words which have letters of different height, is not to rotate it letter by letter. It just doesn't look nice.
Want your Hebrew tattoo to be vertical? Just turn the whole thing 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Like this:
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Traveling t shirt with 40 icons lets you communicate in any country even if you don’t speak its language
But not all of us are accomplished mimes and I know I’m not the only one who shares these embarrassing moments abroad, since, obviously, IconSpeak was created for a reason. Three friends — George, Steven, and Florian — came up with the idea of IconSpeak after travelling around the world extensively and recognizing a glaring hole in communication when going abroad. They talked about their inspiration behind the T-shirt in an interview with Bored Panda:
We thought it would be great to have an essential set of icons with you, permanently, so that you could just point on whatever you need – and people would understand. Soon the notepad was pulled out again and we started listing more or less essential icons that would have been of great help during not just ours, but basically anyone’s trip.
The T-shirt features icons for everything from food and transportation to bedding, bathrooms, and weather patterns — even emotions! You know when you meet someone you like and, though you speak different languages, you want to tell them how cool you think they are? This simple t-shirt lets you point to a picture of a heart to communicate your interest in them or what they have to say. While thousands of languages are spoken around the world, most people understand pictures; not to mention, awesome ice breaker! Not only can it help you find a place to stay, but it also allows you to ask whether something is safe to drink, where a tourist attraction is, or how spicy a dish is! The guys have really taken the idea of IconSpeak and expanded it to encompass different situations and circumstances. As humans we naturally want to connect with one another, and this T-shirt makes doing so a whole lot easier. Check out their site here
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