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Let's speak up for research that saves lives
In this week’s Science magazine, former Republican Congressman John Porter calls on scientists to “speak up for research.” Well, I’m all in.We’re in the midst of a remarkable stream of scientific and...
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Cryptic coloration? Not hardly!
This is one really gaudy jumping spider. So often predators are cryptically colored. Looks like some sort of Mardi Gras costume. Makes you wonder how it works. A false face? Mating plumage for a...
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Does "convergent intersectionality" bridge the gulf between science and the...
“When I graduate from Duke University with a liberal-arts degree…, I will never have taken a physics class..., I won’t have studied organic chemistry or … biology.” “My excuse for my lack of...
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Microscopy for the Masses
Microscopes are amazing tools! I had a small plastic one as a kid and I loved exploring items I collected outdoors. Parts of plants, a scoop of soil, basically anything I could get my hands on I...
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The Championships' Final
by @ulaulaman via @Airi_Talk about #WorldCup2014 #Brazil2014 predictions: #ESP-#GER Jürgen Gerhards, Michael Mutz and Gert Wagner developed an economic model in order to predict the results of the...
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New top predator! Reaction mixed!
On several occasions TPP has sought the assistance of top predators, some natural help to control the bunny and squirrel populations, welcoming them to our wildlife friendly estate. Yesterday and...
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Slow learners
Some people are just slow learners, or stubborn. In this case some people must learn the hard way about planting certain plants. TPP has warned you about plume poppies (here also) and bishop's weed,...
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Cell Phone Microscopy
micro phone lens packagingand case In my pursuit of portable microscopy I came across this product initially funded through Kickstarter. The micro phone lens is a small plastic disc that sticks to a...
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Magic Singlish
A number of non-native English speakers get "Singaporean" as the top guess for their native language. You can actually see that by playing around in our dialect navigator. Here's screenshot of a...
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What's the Anti-party for?
Tom Tomorrow is also Tom Terrific (Anyone out there old enough to remember that?) when it comes to summing up the way things are here in the USA. In a few short frames TT shows what the Anti-party is...
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Remembering my high school English teacher
A visit back to upstate New York triggered some nostalgia, and quite by chance TPP stumbled upon one old memory, our high school English teacher. Wow, was that a long time ago! This happened because...
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Giving weeds no [lamb's] quarter
This has been a great year for certain weeds, weeds that are generally no so much of a problem. Thousands of sugar maple and red bud seedlings are quite usual because when you have huge sugar maple...
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The Diversity of Neosauropods, or Pity Poor Camarasaurus
Articulated skeleton of juvenile Camarasaurus lentus in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, photographed by Daderot.Let me just get the obvious out of the way first: sauropods were huge....
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Osmundastrum? Oh, no, phylogenetic taxonomy has done it to me again!
TPP could not believe it, but there it was, Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, cinnamon fern with a new name! Dang, it's happened again! TPP active botanical life has exceeded another taxonomic name. Imagine...
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What is biodynamic wine?
What is biodynamic wine? A reasonable question, but TPP had never heard of such a thing. Biodynamic is one of those words that doesn’t mean too much and so is subject to appropriation for jargon....
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So long, and thanks for all the fish!
The Phactors pride themselves on having a wild-life friendly yard; it provides lots of cover, water, and food. This is why so many critters are seen and live on our urban property. Mrs. Phactor was...
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Uncommondescent Unfockinghappy Unfockingfortunately
Uncommondescent makes Jesus facepalmAbout a week or so ago, I noticed a spike in traffic to a post I wrote. The post was about how I see science being written and disseminated more and more from a PR...
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A damned big Jack-in-the-pulpit
If you've never seen, or smelled, an Amorphophallus in flower, it's something to see (see if you can figure out the name). Like all aroids, this isn't a flower, but an inflorescence and a modified...
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Let's see what unfolds!
Usually we await the opening of flower buds to see how the flower looks, but sometimes, the flower bud itself is pretty attractive. This flower bud is from a plant growing, on its own, just outside an...
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Where did June go?
Next week is the 4th of July? What? Where did June go? Dang, guess we've been busy because June just evaporated. Several signs suggest everything but us are on schedule. Had some black raspberries...
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