Cool Science

Every now and then a science article will throw up something that I think is brilliant. An article in today’s Seed, entitled The Wiring of Desire, contained one such nugget.

After discussing how temperature affects sexual selection in developing gecko embryos, and how it also affects later behaviour, the author goes on to mention similar effects on other species:

It turns out that an embryo’s environment has similarly powerful effects in other species. Mice, for example, give birth to more than one pup at once — and the behavior of adult mice is affected by whom they were next to in the womb. A female who was between two sisters is more docile as an adult, and males tend to find her more attractive than other females. She is also more likely to be attacked if she rejects a male’s advances. A female who was sandwiched between two brothers will be more aggressive—and less attractive to males.

I just like it because it illustrates the fluid nature of everything in nature. It’s not simply a case of different, precisely controlled, doses of testosterone for male and female, but a general increase of testosterone in the area around embryonic males which then also raises levels in any surrounding females.

Golf

After my disastrous round of golf last week, where I shot a 120, this week was much better. Last week was exacerbated by the fact that I hadn’t played at all in 9 months, and a full 18 holes in as many months, and I’d never played at Hurstville before. A quick trip to the driving range to refamiliarise myself with my swing didn’t really help either.

So, after signing up for another round with Simon, Danny, Clyde & Chris this week, I hit the driving range twice this week to get my 3,4 & 5 irons dialled in. It worked pretty well, and this week I managed a 108, which is about normal for me. More importantly, I also got my first birdie on a full-size course. With a following wind, I hit a pitching wedge around 120m, getting a creat bounce and leaving it about 3m from the pin. Hit a sweet putt and got the distance just right, the ball teetering on the edge before dropping in. Gotta happy with that ;-)

I’m tempted to play a few more times before I leave for Canada to see if I can improve more and maybe get closer to 100, but there’s not much point really. Might as well wait until I get back, on until summer rolls around in Vancouver.

Training Round-Up

I’ve been cycling in and out of work for the past few weeks and it’s getting better now that the frequency of the occasional week of rain has dropped. I managed 136km last week, and the same again this week which I was happy enough with, especially since I missed out on cycling on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Looking back on my training logs they’re some of the biggest weeks I’ve ever done, which suprised me. Maybe I haven’t trained as much as I thought in the past?

I’m off to Canberra next week, so will have to do some running in the hotel instead. Then it’s back into the pool next week for two reasons:

1. my mates have started the ‘Budgie 100’, where we all race each other over 100m Free, and I haven’t swum since January

2. I’ll need something to do once I get to Canada and there’s a pool in Fernie. I won’t have a bike and it will be too cold to run. Besides, my legs will be wrecked from all the snowboarding anyway.

In the meantime, I’ll keep cycling.

B: 136km

Liberal Media Bias

Bloody liberal media!

via scot hacker

Coalition Of The Willing

Coalition of the Willing my arse! Turns out the US threatened to “bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age” if it didn’t sign up to the War on Terror™

In an interview to be aired on CBS television this weekend Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, said the threat was delivered by the assistant secretary of state, Richard Armitage, in conversations with Pakistan’s intelligence director.

“The intelligence director told me that (Mr Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the stone age’,” Gen Musharraf was quoted as saying. The revelation that the US used extreme pressure to secure Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror arrived at a time of renewed unease in the US about its frontline ally.

With friends like that, etc. etc.

New Toy

80GB of music & video playing goodness ;-)

Geocode

I’ve just installed GeoPress so I can now add Google maps to any of my posts. Here’s my current location.

INSERT_MAP

This will be brilliant when I head off to Canada next year!

Gore's NYU Speech

I went to see Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth the weekend before last and it was excellent. Having watched his presentation on YouTube a few months ago, it was good to see it on the big screen and be able to read more of the statistics he presents. The movie left me wondering how much better shape the world would currently be in had the US Supreme Court not overturned the will of the people, shunting Gore out of office and the current fuckwit in. Gore is smart and determined, and you can see that he can grasp the nuances of a position, and not devolve everything into some bullshit us vs them, simpleton argument.

Gore recently gave a speech to New York University’s Law School in which he outlined potential areas where rapid change could be made, allowing the U.S. to take a lead in reducing emissions, such as, amongst others, moving towards a decentralised electricity grid and aiding GM & Ford, both of whom are dead in the water, to switch to manufacturing electric and hybrid cars.

He also uses the following line:

It is, in other words, time for a national oil change. That is apparent to anyone who has looked at our national dipstick.

We’ve been looking at their national dipstick for the last five years and are desperately waiting for them to vote the fuckwit out of office! ;-)

Enviro-FUD

The Royal Society has told Esso/ExxonMobil to stop funding groups attempting to undermine global warming.

In an unprecedented step, the Royal Society, Britain’s premier scientific academy, has written to the oil giant to demand that the company withdraws support for dozens of groups that have “misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence”.

The scientists also strongly criticise the company’s public statements on global warming, which they describe as “inaccurate and misleading”.

In a letter earlier this month to Esso, the UK arm of ExxonMobil, the Royal Society cites its own survey which found that ExxonMobil last year distributed $2.9m to 39 groups that the society says misrepresent the science of climate change.

Crazy!

Have a look at this: Death And Taxes

It’s a graph of what the US spends its discretionay budget on, ie: the bit of hte budget that Congree actually votes on. 64% of it goes towards military spending!!

Here’s a less detailed follow-up graph which covers the entire annual US Federal budget, showing that military spending is the single biggest item – even bigger than social security!