Monday?
Isn’t probably the best day for this…
But come on, why not?
How fast is YOUR reaction time?
Oh…
Despite the fact that it IS Monday?
I still bet your reaction time is better than this little baby duck’s:
Though…
Probably?
Yeah...
Not nearly as cute!
Dang you, China!
I did NOT need to hear this news before my weekend was set to start.
What am I talking about?
Oh, only that China suspects that human-to-human bird flu (i.e. death by chicken)…
Has occurred:
[via USNews]As the Chinese government openly begins to speculate about the possibility of human-to-human
transmission of the H7N9 bird flu strain, an international team of experts, including some from the World Health Organization, have been deployed to investigate the disease in the country.
If true, the development would quickly raise concerns of the disease outbreak leading to a pandemic. Flu experts have long warned once a particularly deadly strain of the flu, as H7N9 appears to be – it has killed 17 of the 87 people it has infected – becomes transmissible between humans, it can quickly spread.
The World Health Organization has said some of those who have contracted the virus have had “no history of contact with poultry,” and the state-run China Daily newspaper says a boy in Shanghai may have caught the disease from his brother.
“Further investigations are still under way to figure out whether the family cluster involved human-to-human transmission,” Feng Zijian, of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the newspaper.
…[Read More]
If you are like me?
News of your possible, impending death via chicken, does not settle well at in.
In fact, just the opposite.
It tends to make one feel just a tiny bit anxious…
Yes?
If so, Science says if you want to de-stress, feel far less anxious regarding your impending death?
Take a pill.
A Tylenol to be exact.
No…
Seriously.
It will help.
[via NatureWorldNews]Tylenol Eases Existential Anxiety ~By Staff Reporter
A common pain-reliever can also be used to cope with existential dread – anxiety arising from thinking about death – according to a new study.
Acetaminophen or Tylenol is an over-the-counter pain medicine used to relieve minor aches or fever.
The new study has shown that Tylenol can also help reduce pain experienced after thinking about death or uncertainty of life.
“Pain extends beyond tissue damage and hurt feelings, and includes the distress and existential angst we feel when we’re uncertain or have just experienced something surreal. Regardless of the kind of pain, taking Tylenol seems to inhibit the brain signal that says something is wrong,” said Daniel Randles from the University of British Columbia.
…[Read More]
Of course…
Chickens will still kill you.
(I think it has been their plan all along)
But?
You won’t have a headache, or be too stressed out about it.
And life?
It’s really all about taking those little WINS! where you can get them, isn’t it?
*shakes head sadly*
Birds are a wonderful thing to study…
Especially if you are a fan of Evolution.
Why?
Because through these creatures, from varying islands…
The differences of similar species can be detected.
Once they mingle.
[via Listverse]This is not going to be a simple recap of Darwin’s original observations of adaptation amongst the
finches of the Galapagos. These finches are still helping evolution be understood. Peter and Rosemary Grant studied the finches on one of the Galapagos Islands, and have observed evolutionary change caused by direct competition of two rival species. The medium ground finch was well established on the isle of Daphne, and had been studied in depth. Its beak was suited perfectly for cracking large nuts. In 1982, the large ground finch from a neighboring island arrived. These larger finches could drive away the native medium ground finches and would eat all the large nuts. Over the period of study, the medium ground finches of Daphne island were found to have developed smaller beaks more suited to the smaller nuts, ignored by the invading larger finches. This is a classic study in evolutionary biology.[Read More - 8 Examples of Evolution In Action]
But it’s not just the island birds getting involved in the evolutionary fun.
But birds who interact on a closer level…
And as a result?
[via io9] We’ve known since Charles Darwin that species can change and evolve into new species, and we have
a good working understanding of a lot of the basic mechanisms involved. But identifying the specific steps that go into speciation – particularly among more complex organisms like vertebrates – is a little trickier, and that’s why the recent survey of South American songbirds by biologists at Queen’s University in Canada and the Argentine Museum of Natural History is so intriguing.
There are very few genetic differences between the various populations, and yet they look almost nothing alike and generally sing completely different songs. The researchers were able to trace a few seemingly crucial differences between populations, some in the male reproductive plumage, as a well a few key parts of the songs used to court females.
These differences – both of which are, intriguingly, tied up in the male side of reproduction – should have some genetic component, even if it’s just a subtle set of differences between populations. The researchers want to zero in on these, which they have dubbed “candidate genes”, in the hopes that they will help explain the beginning steps of speciation. [Read More]
The intricate details of speciation is just NOW being discovered…
Piece by piece.
When the weather changes…
Mass migration of birds takes place & in a fashion that would rival the imagination?
Of even the deliciously darkest sort!
[via Daily Mail] When the sky almost appears black because of a massive flock of birds, many would fear an impending natural disaster or think it was a sign of the apocalypse.
Residents of Florence, Alabama know better.
Reminiscent of a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds, this picture shows a northern Alabama highway overtaken by a massive flock of blackbirds on Wednesday. While it may look like a Hollywood production to outsiders, locals weren’t surprised.
- Getting out of the cold: Blackbirds in northern Alabama tend to fly in massive flocks right when the temperatures drop in the area
The blackbirds regularly move in large flocks when the weather gets colder in the late fall, sometimes taking flight in groups as large as 5,000 birds.
With their seasonal precision, the birds almost serve as a natural calendar for observers as they have come to expect massive movement when the temperatures drop. While the photo makes the event seem mystifyingly beautiful, residents are less impressed because of the repercussions of the birds movements.
The director of the local animal control center has some tried and true tips for residents who are bothered by the birds loud squawking.
- Terror: Tippi Hedren starred in the 1963 classic that tells of how a flock of birds attack humans in a California town for no apparent reason, created by the master of suspense director Alfred Hitchcock (right)
‘We tell people who call about blackbirds to get out their pots and pans and start banging them together outside when the birds are starting to roost,’ director Tommy Morson told local newspaper the Times Daily.
‘The kids love getting to make that much noise, and it will scare the birds away,’ he continued.
Members of the animal control department of a neighboring district take a slightly more aggressive tact when dealing with the unwanted visitors.
The Florence-Lauderdale Animal Control unit uses blank guns, electronic noisemakers and propane cannons to spook the blackbirds. [Read More]
But this does leave to wonder…
If bird species have indeed become divided?
When it comes to the places they choose to reside for the winter…
Once the migration begins?
[via io9] Moving to the city could split birds into separate species
It’s a well-worn cliche that moving to the big city after a lifetime of country-living can change you forever. That might actually be literally true for blackbirds, as moving to the city has begun to split their species in two.
Blackbirds are found throughout northern Europe, and they began moving into cities in the 1930s. Researchers at the University of Sheffield recently analyzed 168 blackbirds found in cities from Spain to Estonia covering a stretch of Europe over 1,700 miles long. By studying the hydrogen isotopes found on the birds’ beak and feathers, the researchers can deduce where in the world the different birds have eaten.
Figuring that last part out is crucial, because then the researchers can determine whether the birds have migrated. As a general rule, blackbirds will fly south to the winter, leaving the cold of northern Europe for the Mediterranean, with some flying as far as northern Africa. But the urban birds consistently flew shorter distances than their rural counterparts, and many of the northern city birds didn’t migrate at all.
It’s not too hard to figure out why this might be. Cities tend to be warmer in the winter than the country, and there’s way more food for the blackbirds to scavenge in the cities than there are in rural climates. In just a few generations, these birds have gone from migratory to sedentary, and that has already had a quantifiable difference on the genetics of the rural and urban populations.
The non-migratory birds might also start breeding sooner, and given enough time the two populations could become so different that they split into different species. All things considered, moving to the city is way more serious than I thought. [Read More]
Do the country birds prefer winter lodging in the county, while city birds prefer winter lodging in the city, or…
Do they all say screw it and move to Miami!
[Source]
Not that big of a stretch, after all…
Heck, WE humans do it, why not birds?!
Every day of the week,
You feed me.
We stretch spaghetti
From nose to beak,
from beak to nose.
You feed me,
I wait patiently,
My rose.
[Source]
The life is cruel.
Be carefull or the crude
will take away your food.
In the cat and bird’s duel.
The cat came out as fool.
[Source]
Can living being be half male and half female?
Yes.
You think I am joking.
No.
I would never do that.
There is a condition Bilateral gynandromorphism where the member of the species is (literally) half male and half female.
via io9.com In extraordinary cases, some animals have each chromosome in very particular physical regions. Meet the gynandromorphs — parts of their bodies are male…and the other parts are female.
The chromosomes of an animal determine its sex. But some animals have sex chromosomes that aren’t expressed. Some have chromosomes that are expressed internally, whereas a different set are expressed externally. Nature has many ways of combining genes, and some of these combinations evince a distinctly binary way of looking at the world. Such is the case with a genetic condition known as gynandromorphism.
Gynandromorphism is unknown in humans, but it’s sometimes expressed in birds, crustaceans, arachnids, and insects. In insects, it’s possible that this condition is caused when two sperm enter the egg. One fuses with the nucleus and creates a female insect, the other continues on alone and creates a male insect — both are at work in one body.
In birds, gynandromorphism may be caused by an inability of the sex chromosomes to separate when the newly-fertilized cell first splits in two.
This not only gives clues on how gynandromorphs develop, but how bodies develop in general. It seems that the first division of the fertilized cell could give rise to each side of an animal’s body. Left is left and right is right, even from the beginning. Read more
I am glad there is no known bilateral gynandromorhisam in humans.
Can you imagine looking for a mate.
To find soul mate or romantic partner would be impossible.
