INTERESTING STUFF

that's smokin'

On the way into work today, I heard a story on NPR indicating that smoking of cigarettes is down considerably in China over the last few years - down to 350 million smokers! That's considerably more Chinese who smoke than the entire U.S. population (around 300 million). Apparently more than half of adult men in China are regular smokers. Zoiks!

banana slugs everywhere

On my way into work today, I saw several large gooey banana slugs. The weather's warm these days and, like us humans, our mollusk friends are coming out to play. Here are my favorite banana slug facts:

  • They are hermaphroditic - each slug is equipped with both male and female reproductive organs...so they can mate with themselves! They choose to do this only when no other slugs are around, typically seeking partners so they can trade their genetic material and create a healthier slug geen pool.
  • They have sex rituals - Slug sex lasts for hours and is characterized by ritualized bouts of lunging, nipping, and side swiping with their tails.
  • They are well endowed - During sex, slugs display extremely large sex organs...up to half their body size. In fact, the scientific name for banana slug - dolichophallus - is Latin for "long penis."
  • They apophalate! - After sex, slugs often have trouble "disengaging" from their partners. They spend hours twisting and pulling...and frequently resort to the practice of apophalation to separate themselves. That's a big scientific word that means "biting your partner's wee-wee off."
  • They are faster than you think - Despite being, well, sluggish...they cover a fair amount of ground. They can move 6.5 inches per minute, or 32 feet in an hour. Of course, this means they "run" a 100-yard dash in a little over 9 hours. But trust me...when watching them, they move faster than you'd expect.
  • They are slimey - and their slime is really amazing stuff. It serves as a deterrent to predators because it tastes bad and has a natural anesthetic (which numbs your lips if you kiss them - trust me, I know). The slime prevents moisture loss, and helps them get where they are going - by providing a lubricant to squeeze into tight places, adhere to steep surfaces, or hang upside down from slime threads. It also protects their fleshy underparts from dry or sharp objects. A banana slug can actually glide easily across a sharp razor blade without cutting itself!
  • supposably

    Some friends and I recently debated whether "supposably" is a word. Turns out, it's a word...but it isn't a synonym for "supposedly" in the way that so many toddlers use it. According to Webster's:

    Supposable \s&-'pO-z&-b&l\, adj.

    Capable of being supposed: CONCEIVABLE
    sup·pos·ably \-blE\ adv.

    envrironmental amnesia

    I read something interesting today about the concept of "environmental amnesia" - check it out:

    If one’s only experience is with a certain amount of pollution, then that amount becomes not pollution but the norm against which more (or less) polluted states can be measured at a later time...I have called this environmental generational amnesia (Kahn & Friedman, 1995).

    true majority

    Ben Cohen (cofounder of Ben & Jerry's) started an organization called True Majority. One of their earlier works uses stacks of Oreo cookies to show how much the U.S. spends on defense versus other programs.


    woo-woo water crystals

    OK, this is a little bit woo-woo, but it's pretty amazing if true. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese scientist, has taken photographs of ice crystals formed from different samples of water. To do this, he uses a dark field microscope with photographic capabilities. Water from pristine sources shows the beautiful geometric and crystalline patterns...and water from nasty toxic water shows uglier distorted crystalline structures. Many believe that Emoto's work demonstrates the impact of our intentions on the world around us. Consider the following photographs of ice crystals from different water sources:


    Fujuiwara Dam, before offering a prayer

    Fujuiwara Dam, after offering a prayer

    population growth

    Some interesting statistics on World Population:

    In the 19th century, global population grew by only 600 million, but in the 20th century it grew by 4.4 billion. There are twice as many people today as there were in 1960. One tenth of all the people who have ever lived are alive today. There has been more growth in population since 1950 than during the 4 million years since our early ancestors first stood upright.

    World population reached:

  • 1 billion in 1804,
  • 2 billion in 1927 (123 years later)
  • 3 billion in 1960 (33 years)
  • 4 billion in 1974 (13 years)
  • 5 billion in 1987 (12 years)
  • 6 billion in 1999 (12 years)
  • 7 billion in 2013 (14 years - projected)
  • 8 billion in 2028 (15 years - projected)
  • 10.7 (high) or 8.9 (middle) or 7.3 (low) billion projected for 2050
  • The average life expectancy is 61, up from 40 in just 50 years. The numbers of people 65 and older make up 10-15% of the world population today and is expected to increase to 20-30% by 2050. If fertility remained at current levels, the population would reach the absurd figure of 296 billion in just 150 years.

    Source: www.overpopulation.org

    wire monkeys

    Don't underestimate the importance of parental cuddling to a baby's proper development. Consider this:

    It's not particularly shocking that baby rhesus monkeys, when deprived of direct contact with their real mothers, chose to transfer their affections to a warm soft surrogate monkey (made of towels) rather than a cold hard surrogate monkey (made of metal and wire mesh).

    Baby Monkey Chooses Towel Surrogate Over Metal Surrogate


    It's interesting, however, that the baby monkeys continued to cling to a milk-free cloth mommy even when the metal mommy had been fixed with a breast and steel nipple which delivered monkey milk. When the babies needed to eat, they would crawl over to the milk-bearing wire mother, but then they would immediately jump back to cuddle with the softer mommy.

    Baby Monkey Still Avoids Metal Surrogate With Milk


    sixth mass extinction

    There's a lot of talk these days about how greenhouse gases could spark a "mass extinction" on earth. Mass extinctions are episodes in the history of life on Earth during which unusually large numbers of species die off. They stand in contrast to the background rate of extinction, which occurs even when the diversity of life is increasing. Scientists recognize five major mass extinctions in the Earth’s history. The extinctions are measured in terms of large groups of related species, called families.

    The five mass extinction episodes occurred because of major changes in the prevailing ecological conditions brought about by climate change, cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, or collisions with giant meteors. The sixth mass extinction appears to be in progress now, and the main cause is environmental change brought about by human activities.

  • 440M Years Ago - Late Ordovician Episode: 20-50% of Families Died Out - Tropical areas are hit hardest.
  • 360M Years Ago - Late Devonian Episode: 20-30% of Families Died Out - Many fish and marine invertebrates die out.
  • 250M Years Ago - End of Permian Episode: 50% of Families Died Out - Greatest mass extinction ever.
  • 213M Years Ago - Late Triassic Episode: 20-35% of Families Died Out - Dinosaurs and mammals had just recently evolved; both live through this extinction.
  • 66M Years Ago - Late Cretaceous Episode: 15% of Families Died Out - Dinosaurs become extinct, possibly caused by a metorite colliding with the Earth. Mammals and fishes begin to proliferate. 65 million years after this mass extinction, early humans evolve.
  • companies are bigger than countries

    51 of the world's 100 largest economies are corporations (not countries, as one might expect):

  • Royal Dutch Shell's revenues are greater than Venezuela's Gross Domestic Product.
  • WalMart’s revenues are bigger than Indonesia’s GDP.
  • General Motors is roughly the same size as Ireland, New Zealand and Hungary combined.
  • Since it was created in 1995, the WTO has ruled that every environmental policy it has reviewed is an illegal trade barrier that must be eliminated or changed. With one exception, the WTO has also ruled against every health or food safety law it has reviewed.
  • Source: www.corpwatch.org

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