Take me to your leader…
Just as one begins to feel self-satisfied about the dominance of humanity on earth, and the degree of interconnectedness afforded by Facebook, Twitter, and the like, this from the BBC:
A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.
…
While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.
But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.
…
Read the entire story here.
As we contemplate connection (and redouble our efforts to emulate E.M. Forster), we might recall that it was on this date in 1957 that young Paul McCartny attended a church picnic at which a newly-formed band, the Quarrymen, were playing between sets, McCartney played a couple of tunes on the guitar for the group and its leader, John Lennon, who invited McCartney to join. McCartney did, but was slow to serious commitment (Paul missed his first gig, as he had a scout outing to attend).
Still, the group gained a following, changed its name to Johnny and the Moondogs, and recruited McCartney’s friend George Harrison. After bassist Stu Sutcliffe joined, they changed the name again, to the Silver Beetles, then finally to the Beatles. Tommy Moore joined the band as drummer and was replaced by Pete Best in 1960. After a tour to Germany in 1961, Sutcliffe left the band to become a painter (a scant year before he died of a brain hemorrhage), and the band returned to Liverpool. In 1962, five years after Lennon and Mccartney found each other, they found Ringo; Best left the band; the Fab Four–McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr–recorded “Love Me Do”… and the rest is history.
McCartney and Lennon in the Quarrymen (source: Dull Neon/Random Notes)
The Horror! The Horror!
source: I Hate The Office
Luxuriating as the reader is in the lap of mid-Summer Holiday leisure, one has perspective on the rigors of workaday life… and might then be especially appreciative of this tool that one can use on return to the trenches: The Meeting Ticker…
One simply enters the number of folks attending the session one’s in, an estimate of their average hourly salaries, the start time– then hits “start.” Meeting Ticker provides a running estimate of what is almost always the most expensive component of a meeting’s cost– the cost of the personnel attending.
As we reach for that third cup of coffee, we might console ourselves that it was on this date in 1946 that French designer Louis Reard (an automotive engineer who was also running his mother’s lingerie boutique in Paris) unveiled his daring new two-piece-design swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in the City of Lights. Reard called his new fashion the “bikini,” inspired by the (then much publicized and discussed) U.S. atomic tests that had taken place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.
Reard and one of his creations (source: Zimbio)
Oh yeah?…
It’s tough to assess the dueling explanations of the fix(es) that we’re in , and to judge the completing claims for remedies. Happily, a professional skeptic– founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, Scientific American columnist, and economics professor)– Michael Shermer has ridden to the rescue with his Baloney Detection Kit– “ten questions we should ask when encountering a claim.”
1. How reliable is the source of the claim?
2. Does the source make similar claims?
3. Have the claims been verified by somebody else?
4. Does this fit with the way the world works?
5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim?
6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point?
7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science?
8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence?
9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?
10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?
(Presented by The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. C.F. also, the ever-insightful Howard Reingold’s “Crap Detection 101,” with it’s allusion to John McManus’ terrific Detecting Bull: How to Identify Bias and Junk Journalism in Print, Broadcast and on the Wild Web.”)
As we get to the bottom of things, we might note that, while this is the day that folks in the U.S. celebrate the Declaration of Independence in 1776 of the US from Great Britain, it is also a day to spare a memorial thought for two of the drafters and signers of that document, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (respectively, of course, the second and third Presidents of the United States), as both died on this date 1826.
It could be worse…
The motto of the good folks at Fancy Fast Food is “yeah it’s still bad for you– but see how good it can look!” Starting with over-the-counter fast food, they prepare gourmet(ish) delights like the…
BK Quiche (Fancy Croissan’wich & Biscuit)
Ingredients (for two mini quiches):
* 1 Burger King Croissan’wich (with ham) meal, with hash browns and a coffee
* 1 Burger King Ham, Egg & Cheese biscuit meal, with hash browns and an orange juice
* 1 bottle of water
Disassemble the two breakfast sandwiches into its ingredients: eggs, bread, and ham. (The cheese will probably be melted and stuck onto the bread or ham, but that’s okay.) Break apart the biscuit and croissant into smaller pieces and put them all into a food processor. Add about 2 tbsp. of bottled water and blend; it will soon turn back into a doughy substance. Mold the dough into non-stick quiche pans.
Next, place all the eggs in the food processor, plus ham and hash browns to your liking. Blend that down to a scramble and then fill the crusts. Bake for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350°F, or until the crust becomes a golden brown.
Let it cool, then serve the quiche with coffee in a fancy cup, and orange juice in a wine glass. Why have it your way, when you can have it the fancy way?
For many more “serving suggestions,” visit Fancy Fast Food.
As we swallow our statins and lick our lips, we might recall that this is a big date in the annals of the American military: On July 3, 1775, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, George Washington took command of the Continental Army. Then, on this date in 1863, Major General George Pickett led his infamous charge– and Lee’s forces were defeated at Gettysburg…
Darker, please…
Left to his own devices he couldn’t build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and that was it.
– Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams, 1992
British artist Thomas Thwaites has built a toaster… from scratch – beginning by mining the raw materials and ending with a product that a High Street retailer sells for only £3.99.
The practical aspects of the project are rather a lot of fun. They also serve as a vehicle through which theoretical issues can be raised and investigated. Commercial extraction and processing of the necessary materials happens on a scale that is difficult to resolve into the domestic toaster.
The contrast in scale between between consumer products we use in the home and the industry that produces them is I think absurd – massive industrial activity devoted to making objects which enable us, the consumer, to toast bread more efficiently. These items betray no trace of their providence.
So are toasters ridiculous? It depends on the scale at which you look. Looking close up, a desire (for toast) and the fulfilment of that desire is totally reasonable. Perhaps the majority of human activity can be reduced to a desire to make life more comfortable for ourselves, and has thus far led to being able to buy a toaster for £3.99 [among other achievements]. But looking at toasters in relation to global industry, at a moment in time when the effects of our industry are no longer trivial compared to the insignificant when our, they seem unreasonable. I think our position is ambiguous – the scale of industry involved in making a toaster [etc.] is ridiculous but at the same time the chain of discoveries and small technological developments that occurred along the way make it entirely reasonable.
It’s on display now, at the Royal College of Art in London. “Please come along and say hello,” Thwaites asks, “and I will (I hope) be able to toast you something.” Failing that, the reader can visit this link for a series videos on the process.
As we reach for the marmalade, we might recall that it was on this date in 1937 that the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan was reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings on the most difficult leg of the journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227 nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean.
