Posts Tagged ‘Florida’
“Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance”*…
Florida is, famously, a “Stand Your Ground” state. That ground is getting steadily dicier…
First spotted on the peninsula in 2011, Giant African Land Snails (Achatina achatina, AKA “giant Ghana snail” and “giant tiger land snail”) have taken hold in The Sunshine State, and are causing massive agricultural and social problems. Hugely destructive to crops, the creatures themselves are dangerous, in that they are able to gnaw through stucco and plastics, will eat almost any organic material, and have shells hard enough to pop tires on the freeway (and become shrapnel when run over by lawnmowers). Believed to have migrated from Caribbean islands, over a thousand are caught each week in Miami-Dade County; and their numbers are growing as more come out of hibernation. Oh, and they also carry a form of rat lungworm which can cause meningitis in humans, although no human cases have been reported as yet.
[TotH to Slashdot; photo sourced here]
* Lewis Carroll, “The Mock Turtle’s Song” (AKA “Lobster Quadrille”) in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
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As we watch our steps, we might send send creepy crawly birthday greetings to Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth FRS; he was born on this date in 1899. Perhaps the most exquisitely-appropriately named entomologist of all time, Wigglesworth pioneered in the study of insect physiology; indeed, his Insect Physiology (1934) is often considered the foundation for this branch of entomology. Wigglesworth’s demonstration of the complexity of individual insects and their dynamic relationships with their environments paved the way for using insects – instead of mice or other laboratory animals – for some fundamental investigation of animal physiology and function.
Community Countermands Commandos!…
The musical director Busby Berkeley’s attention to authenticity and detail was the stuff of legend. Berkeley was reportedly accosted by his production accountant one day on the set: “$2,000 for silk underwear for the girls! Mr. B, no one can see it, no one will know that they’re wearing silk underwear!” To which the director replied, “Not so– the girls will know…”
Surely it was this same impulse to quality that moved the City Council of Brooksville, Florida (about 45 miles north of Tampa, not too far from where you’re marooned correspondent is typing this) to pass a dress code for city employees insisting that:
* underwear is now required;
* employees must use deodorant;
* no halter tops or Spandex at work;
* no skirts worn “below the waistline”;
* no other clothing that may be “distracting, offensive or revealing”;
* only ears may be visibly pierced; and, perhaps most disturbingly,
* all cuts or wounds must now be covered.
See Lowering the Bar for the full story.
As we rethink our vacation itineraries, we might recall that it was on this date in 1633 that the Holy Office in Rome forced Galileo Galilei to recant his scientific view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe. Galileo is said to have muttered “Eppur si muove!” (“Yet, still, it moves!”).
Cristiano Banti’s 1857 painting Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition
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