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New Zealand Tree Still Acts Like Moas Exist

This article is melancholy. Scientists are trying to figure out if a tree evolved its distinct metamorphoses (stages of growth where the plant changes shape and color drastically) came about to avoid it being eaten by the Moa, a very large herbivorous bird that was hunted to extinction by humans.

"Many scientists think that the tree evolved these metamorphoses to avoid moas, the main herbivores on the islands and a relative of emus and ostriches that humans hunted to extinction.

To test the moa hypothesis, Kevin C. Burns, an evolutionary ecologist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and colleagues compared lancewood leaves with those from the similar tree Pseudopanax chathamicus. This species, which scientists think evolved from lancewood, grows on the Chatham Islands 800 kilometers east of New Zealand, where moas didn't live.

To determine how the trees would appear to a moa, the team measured the wavelength and brightness of light reflected by the leaves. Light from the lancewood seedling foliage differed from that of the Chatham trees but matched the light from dead leaves on the forest floor, the researchers report online this month in New Phytologist. Because the seedlings stand only 10 centimeters tall, the scientists concluded that the leaves' color would help a young, tender plant blend in with leaf litter and hide it from a browsing moa."

If only we had moas around to ask. Ah well! But we didn't know any better. We (as a species) probably hunted them to death around 1400 AD.

Adorable Spider Babies Atop Their Mother

I wonder what percentage of the population would react to the baby (wolf?) spiders shown here with, "Aaw!" noises. Count me among them.

Crossed Digits

Really, this blog is for whatever I need at the moment, and right now I think I need it to help me network in the future. I am sick of being paid money for jobs I have zero interest in, so over this break I am making serious progress in finding opportunities to further infiltrate the career worlds of all three of my goals: library science, creative media, and academia. I need a web site to help me with this. I need this web site badly. So I am sketching out a plan for both a very simple and a very complex site, and I will put it all together over the break, using the fancy dancy computers at the school as I save up for the necessary software to rehabilitate my old beautiful Windows tower, who is currently frozen in carbonite. *sniff* Last time I ever play with illegitimate software, that's for sure.

ANYWAY it is going well.

I learned I can make good money making sculpture commissions, so I will continue to pursue that path over the break. I am also finding an internship in library science and of course forcing myself to crash-course learn CSS so that I can even *MAKE* this gosh darn networking web site of mine. Last step is making coolass business cards, which I will do.

I do kind of love this city. I will love it more if my good networking opportunities, that is, knowing hip media people, can pay off in landing me a gig that has SOMETHING to do with my varied interests. Crossing my fingers.

There is no "God Spot" in the human brain.

Mix_lazy/overworked/undereducated science reporters with the sensationalism that keeps profit-driven publications alive and you're bound to get ridiculous reports on solve-all "science" that has "solved" humanity's greatest mysteries with a few well-designed double-blinds.

Recently, it's been reports that neuroscientists have found a spot in the human brain responsible for religious intensity. A God Spot, of course.

I declare, "bull," and so does the blogger at Reuters' "Faith World."

"There is no one place in the brain responsible for religion, just as there is no single location in the brain for love or language or identity. Most popular articles these days actually say that, but the headline writers continue to speak of a single spot.

“There isn’t a separate religious area of the brain, from what we can tell from the data,” said Dr. Andrew Newberg, an associate professor of radiology and psychiatry at the Penn university hospital and author of several books on neuroscience and religion. “It’s not like there’s a little spiritual spot that lights up every time somebody thinks of God."

The blogger is finding out about this at Penn's "Neuroscience Bootcamp," a conference designed to explain neuroscience to people outside of the field- an effort that people in the media, ethicists, religious thinkers, and policy makers could/are benefit/ting from enormously. Science needs to remember how many important people would believe its case if it just spoke up in a more broadly thrown voice. This conference is awesome. Maybe I will go next year.

I Have to Post This: Unexplained Photo

BoingBoing says this is "Unexplained space phenomena captured in Saturn's rings."

I don't believe in UFO's since there is no real evidence, but I love, love LOVE the unexplained, the new things that humans are still learning about.

If I had to guess, it's a comet, a beautifully weirdly-moving comet. But I do love not knowing some things, still having some mysteries to solve.

What's Holding Green Power Back?

Money.

This Forbes article, explains.

I love Iceland. Not just because of Bjork, or a pity over how their country imploded with a cold "squish" sound. I really love their famous geothermal energy usage.

So why don't we do it here?

It's too expensive for a profit-based model, this article says.

Excerpt of Forbes article:

"Unlike with wind or solar, geothermal power developers have to raise money just to see if there's a power source to be exploited. According to Mark Taylor, a geothermal analyst at New Energy Finance, it can cost $10 million to $15 million to drill two or three holes to prove there's enough heat there to spin a turbine. "You need resources just to prove your resources," he says."

Damn.