Dr. Justin O. Schmidt likes insects of the persuasive sort, the ones that bite, sting or
squirt venom in your eyes. In the course of his entomological studies all over the world,
he has met the defenses of about 150 different insects, and he has rated them, creating the
Schmidt Sting Pain Index. On the low end: sweat bees, whose sting is "light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm." On the high end: Bullet ants, whose venomous bites cause "pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel." And it can last for hours, leaving you "quivering and still screaming from these peristaltic waves" [of pain].
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 4, 2011 -
49 comments
An alternative look at Fatherhood: a study
with bees shows that
females mating with random males actually have more genes in common with their sisters than they do with their own daughters. And that makes them more likely to put the good of their colony sisters over their own reproductive legacy.
Would that work with humans? Well, there's a society in China where kids
don't have Fathers.
posted by eye of newt
on Jun 21, 2009 -
36 comments
The
Graduate University for Advanced Studies, casually referred to as
Sōkendai (a contraction of Sōgō kenkyū daigakuin daigaku), was founded in 1988 as the 96th
national university in Japan. Amongst other things, it is home to the
Soken Taxa Web Server which in turn hosts
the first online Japanese Ant Color Image Database that currently lists 273 species of ant, the
Illustrated Guide of Marine Mammals and the
Marine Mammals Stranding DataBase, the
Mammalian Crania Photographic Archive that currently includes 704 specimens, the
Morning Glories Database that covers the many mutants of
Ipomoea nil, closely related species and interspecific hybrids, the
Makino Herbarium Database, which is named after the pioneering Japanese botanist,
Tomitaro Makino, and the
Japanese Bees Image Database.
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 20, 2009 -
5 comments
Voice of the Hive is a collection of informative and well-written stories about honeybees.
Half of the tales are told from a human beekeeper's perspective, and are filled with valuable knowledge for potential hobbyists.
The other half are compelling vignettes of a single bee's life -- widely diverse and compelling, told from each individual bee's perspective. The two elements come together to paint a fascinating picture of this noble insect's existence.
posted by illuminatus
on Jan 4, 2008 -
17 comments
Evil Bee (embedded QT) is a gorgeous & interesting animated short about a worker bee in a factory who rebels; bonus points for awesome soundtrack by menomena.
posted by jonson
on Nov 8, 2007 -
35 comments
Killered Bees. The NYTimes covers the mysterious collapse of commercial honeybee colonies over the last 5-months, covering
dozens of states. The disease,
Colony Collapse Disorder, does not have a determined cause. The
Canary Database indicates that
bees can serve as
"canaries in a coalmine" for human diseases, as many other animals do. Some of the suspected causative agents (as reported [
pdf] by
Penn State) include a immunodeficiency, the hive consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, nutritional stress, parasites, infectious diseases, stress due to colony splitting and relocation, insecticides, and antibiotic use. The die-offs are likely to adversely impact both
prices and crop yields.
posted by rzklkng
on Feb 28, 2007 -
45 comments
"There is no feeling more satisfying than tearing into a beehive with a sledgehammer." This from
Trainsaw, by way of introduction to their new Choose Your Own Adventure-style...er...
literary adventure. If beehives, lasers, city destruction, robots, hot scientists, and the like aren't your style, try their many
rants or
reviews. Those lampooned include
Bob Dylan, all the
cool kids,
diabetes, and a
smattering of everything else. Definitely indebted to
Real Ultimate Power and
Maddox, but...definitely different.
posted by limeonaire
on Dec 22, 2006 -
18 comments
Ask A Man? "You have come to the right place for love, relationship and dating advice. Ask a man will provide you with the love, relationship and dating answers you seek. Our staff of amazing men have agreed to break the "man code" and tell you the absolute truth about what your man is really saying to you." For example: "Men want respect. In a man's world, men are nothing without respect. In a relationship, a man needs to know his woman respects him. "
posted by feelinglistless
on Oct 20, 2006 -
43 comments
Chicken Payback [WMP streaming video; Real Player stream
here.] At first, this music video from
The Bees [Flash site] seems like a quick, harmless Friday diversion. Not for me, though. For me, it’s rapidly becoming a truly painful earworm, and worse: is there such a thing as an “eyeworm?”
posted by Man O' Straw
on Mar 25, 2005 -
12 comments
