Plants of the genus Nigella are commonly called “devil in a bush” or “love in a mist”, presumably due to their spiky collars. And their seeds are very flavoursome. From wikipedia:
The seeds of N. sativa, known as kalonji, black cumin (though this can also refer to Bunium persicum) onion seed or just nigella, are used as a spice in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine. The dry roasted nigella seeds flavor curries, vegetables and pulses. The black seeds taste like oregano and have a bitterness to them like mustard-seeds. It can be used as a “pepper” in recipes with pod fruit, vegetables, salads and poultry.
Male homosexuality doesn’t make complete sense from an evolutionary point of view. It appears that the trait is heritable, but because homosexual men are much less likely to produce offspring than heterosexual men, shouldn’t the genes for this trait have been extinguished long ago? What value could this sexual orientation have, that it has persisted for eons even without any discernible reproductive advantage?
One possible explanation is what evolutionary psychologists call the “kin selection hypothesis.” What that means is that homosexuality may convey an indirect benefit by enhancing the survival prospects of close relatives. Specifically, the theory holds that homosexual men might enhance their own genetic prospects by being “helpers in the nest.” By acting altruistically toward nieces and nephews, homosexual men would perpetuate the family genes, including some of their own.
Two evolutionary psychologists, Paul Vasey and Doug VanderLaan of the University of Lethbridge, Canada tested this idea for the past several years on the Pacific island of Samoa. They chose Samoa because males who prefer men as sexual partners are widely recognized and accepted there as a distinct gender category—called fa’afafine—neither man nor woman. The fa’afafine tend to be effeminate, and exclusively attracted to adult men as sexual partners. This clear demarcation makes it easier to identify a sample for study.
Fascinating article — if, at the very least, only to hear of the Fa’afafine as an accepted third gender in Samoa — and an interesting theory… Although I’m not sure where it leaves lesbians. Are they super aunties? Article at EurekAlert!
If one hypothesis holds true, consciousness can be viewed as a sort of stabilized psychedelic trip.
Several speculative and yet untested hypotheses suggest that endogenous DMT, produced in the human brain, is involved in certain psychological and neurological states. DMT is naturally produced in small amounts in the brain and other tissues of humans and other mammals. Some believe it plays a role in mediating the visual effects of natural dreaming, and also near-death experiences, religious visions and other mystical states. A biochemical mechanism for this was proposed by the medical researcher J. C. Callaway, who suggested in 1988 that DMT might be connected with visual dream phenomena, where brain DMT levels are periodically elevated to induce visual dreaming and possibly other natural states of mind. A new hypothesis proposed is that in addition to being involved in altered states of consciousness, endogenous DMT may be involved in the creation of normal waking states of consciousness. It is proposed that DMT and other endogenous hallucinogens mediate their neurological abilities by acting as neurotransmitters at a sub class of the trace amine receptors; a group of receptors found in the CNS where DMT and other hallucinogens have been shown to have activity. Wallach further proposes that in this way waking consciousness can be thought of as a controlled psychedelic experience. It is when the control of these systems becomes loosened and their behavior no longer correlates with the external world that the altered states arise.
Dr. Rick Strassman, while conducting DMT research in the 1990s at the University of New Mexico, advanced the theory that a massive release of DMT from the pineal gland prior to death or near death was the cause of the near death experience (NDE) phenomenon. Several of his test subjects reported NDE-like audio or visual hallucinations. His explanation for this was the possible lack of panic involved in the clinical setting and possible dosage differences between those administered and those encountered in actual NDE cases. Several subjects also reported contact with ‘other beings’, alien like, insectoid or reptilian in nature, in highly advanced technological environments where the subjects were ‘carried’, ‘probed’, ‘tested’, ‘manipulated’, ‘dismembered’, ‘taught’, ‘loved’ and even ‘raped’ by these ‘beings’. This is most likely due to the setting of where the experiments took place. Many people who use DMT outside of a laboratory never report any of these types of experiences.
Hurray, I’m now a Cambridge certified EFL teacher! And for the moment I have a much more relaxed schedule, so my blog will see more love than it has in past weeks. Starting with this fantastic creature, Japan’s Giant Salamander.
But impressive it certainly is: about 1.7m (5ft 6in) long, covered in a leathery skin that speaks of many decades passed, with a massive gnarled head covered in tubercles whose presumed sensitivity to motion probably helped it catch fish by the thousand over its lifetime.
If local legend is to be believed, though, this specimen is a mere tadpole compared with the biggest ever seen around Maniwa.
A 17th Century tale, related to us by cultural heritage officer Takashi Sakata, tells of a salamander (or hanzaki, in local parlance) 10m long that marauded its way across the countryside chomping cows and horses in its tracks.
It’s referred to as a “living fossil” because its skeleton still resembles closely that of 30 million year old examples (see right).
The full article describes the creature’s highly unusual manner of (external) fertilization. It sounds almost as alien as slug sex. It really is from another world: see the video and accompanying article @ BBC News.
Edward O. Wilson (The Diversity of Life) has a nice article on the National Geographic website on one of his favourite topics… biodiversity:
When you thrust a shovel into the soil or tear off a piece of coral, you are, godlike, cutting through an entire world. You have crossed a hidden frontier known to very few. Immediately close at hand, around and beneath our feet, lies the least explored part of the planet’s surface. It is also the most vital place on Earth for human existence.
Phylomon.org is a noble project seeking to make our native wildlife as inspiring and exciting to young people as the creators of the Pokemon mythos have made their synthetic creatures.
Conservationist Andrew Balmford’s letter in the Science:
… it appears that conservationists are doing less well than the creators of Pokemon at inspiring interest in their subjects: During their primary school years, children apparently learn far more about Pokemon than about their native wildlife and enter secondary school being able to name less than 50% of common wildlife types. Evidence from elsewhere links loss of knowledge about the natural world to growing isolation from it. People care about what they know. With the world’s urban population rising by 160,000 people daily, conservationists need to reestablish children’s links with nature if they are to win over the hearts and minds of the next generation
The Grimpoteuthis (right), a deep-sea-dwelling octopus, even looks a bit like a Pikachu. Perhaps that’s a good place to start.
I hope they see some interest in their project! The stimulus behind it is something that I’ve found disturbing too (even as an erstwhile Pokémon fan).
And the same applies to the idea of extra terrestrials: People get excited about the idea of finding alien life, but there is more terrestrial life unexplored on our own planet than we could ever fully appreciate.
The Moonvilla has an outer shell/screen that revolves with the sun to regulate the climate inside. Neat. Although I wouldn’t want to be around when the motor is on the blink. Having said that, there is cleverly a little underground level built into the design.
There are no stairs. Due to the lack of gravity on the moon, people can leap from floor to floor!
Steve Kaufmann (aka The Linguist) argues the point that language learning is more than a task to be completed wholly, a skill to be learned to a specific point of satisfaction or superlative. As he says, “it’s not about performance”:
Athletes compete to see who can run faster, or jump higher, or execute their moves with more precision, or score more goals. Athletes train in order to improve their performance. Learning languages is different. It is, for me, about communicating and enjoying another culture. In fact the learning process, itself, is enjoyable, regardless of the outcome, regardless of the performance. It is possible to enjoy languages without performing at all, without speaking. And when we speak we do not want to be judged, or at least I do not.
I often get comments on my foreign language youtube videos along the lines of:
“your Portuguese is not very good, don’t you care?”
” your Japanese sounds a little American, you should work on your accent.”
” you made a mistake in your Russian.”
Well, I don’t care. I am not in competition with native speakers, nor with other non-native learners of any language. If my mistakes are pointed out, it is likely that I will make the same mistake the next time. I know what gives me trouble in these languages. I try to pay attention to these things when I listen, read or speak. But I know that I will continue to make mistakes and will only gradually improve.
More here. There is further discussion in the comments section of that post.
Image via flickr (though probably didn’t originate there)
Tardigrades (meaning “slow walkers”) are microbial creatures that are resilient against all manner of extreme conditions (heat, cold, pressure, radiation, dehydration). They can survive in temperatures as low as 1 degree calvin — 0 degrees calvin being the temperature at which molecular motion ceases. They can survive space. They can survive being dehydrated and rehydrated like instant coffee.
They’re extremely common (there are probably some in your back garden) and examples have been found dating back to the Cambrian period, when they were less evolved: fewer legs, simpler head shape and no posterior appendages.
They occupy their own phylum in the animal kingdom (tardigrada), they are so unique. Their closest relatives are fruit flies (arthropoda) and nematodes (nematoda).
More info at Wikipedia, where there are links to yet more info, photos, and videos.
