June 2013
25 posts
From Ed Yong again, this time a post from Andrew David Thaler on weird animal sexiness:
Paper Nautlii are a fairly enigmatic species with a rather brutal reproductive cycle. The male nautilus has a gonopod–a reproductive tentacle–which is placed in contact with the female epigynum–an external gential structure. Upon contact, the female simply rips the gonopod off the male. The gonopod continues to function for several hours, during which time it acts as a genital plug, preventing other males from mating with her. Fortunately, the male doesn’t have to worry about regenerating his gonopod, since we have now reached the “sexual cannibalism” portion of the program.
Normally, I’m all AWWW YEAH CEPHALOPODS, and in fact I’ve singled out the paper nautilus before, but traumatic intercourse? Emasculation? Sexual cannibalism…?? Of my favorite taxonomic class?
OH WHO AM I KIDDING, THIS STUFF IS AWESOME. :D :D :D
(Also other fascinatingly weird sexual behaviors from other animals, but. c’mon, I’m all about the octopuses.)
I have a final to study for tonight*, which means no Game of Thrones, which means I’m in spoiler-avoidance mode. So, peace out, Tumblr Internet.
* The final is tomorrow morning. At 7am. (-_- #)
Ballad of Japanese Yam
This happy fellow is a satsumaimo, or Japanese yam:
Konichiwa!
But little does he expect…!
Cheer up, Game of Noobs
In the books, everyone survives!
Ooops, spoilers.
Two Birds, One Worm, Game of Thrones-style
Considering Grey Worm’s impressive spear skills, Benioff and Weiss could just consolidate his character with the Red Viper, no? Because we can’t have too many sexy brown characters on this show. #problemsolving
Guess Who
Here is a quotation from a current governor from an interview with James Fallows:
We are governable. We balanced our budget. [My predecessor] just borrowed money, but we’re paying down our debts. Our job creation — we’re 50% faster than the national average. We lost 1.3 million jobs. But we are coming back. Our tax revenues are very volatile, but this increase will be over in seven years. We’ve got to learn to pay down our debts. We are paying them off at $1.5 billion every year. Then that will be $1.5 billion we don’t have to spend.
The [proposed new spending] bills are stacking up! It’s like water on a causeway, it’s going to come rolling down. But I’m here, and I’m going to make sure we’re going to live within our means. They [meaning other politicians] haven’t heard that yet. But they will hear it, as I continue to repeat it.
With all this talk of fiscal responsibility, you’d think that the governor in question would be a Republican, and if you have feeling that I’m going to say he’s a Democrat, you’re right. The other shoe to drop? The state he governs is… California.
Governor Jerry Brown, folks.
