Notes for June 29th

• The evolution of cats is interesting, even if the image accompanying the article doesn't make any sense.
• Generalists go extinct too.  Not sure I really buy the idea that they might be less like to.
• Allen's rule is about the length of extremities in tropical and temperate animals.  Apparently there's now some evidence that temperate/cold weather animals have shorter limbs (or at least, shorter beaks).

Notes for June 28th

• Tet Zoo talking about turtles.  I ended up going through about 10 old Tet Zoo articles on turtles.
• Interesting bit of detective work to try and determine how the Stellar's Sea Cow went extinct.
• Genetically engineered salmon are on their way.  Take a look at the picture accompanying the article.  No wonder the industry is investigating this.
• Small mammals eating dinosaurs.  Presumably after they are dead.

Notes for June 25

• Yes.  Confirmation bias is real.  Or am I only seeing evidence for it because of...confirmation bias?  Uh...down that path lies madness.
• I'm not sure what to make of the absence or reduced abundance of sunspots.  Does this mean something?
• The strange and somewhat wonderful story of a man who woke up with a stroke, and without the ability to read.
• The world of information is a jungle.  I like that metaphor.  At least I'm not the only one who occasionally misses something amazing.

Notes for June 24th

• Road kills are really hard on certain species.  Especially those with low reproductive rates.
• That whole komondo dragon and bacteria story is still interesting, even with venom playing a major role.
• Interesting question:  Why did dinosaurs have all those horns and spikes and armor and etc.? 
• Interesting info about influenza and how swine and human interactions are likely to preserve certain strains far longer than would otherwise occur.
• A planktonic trilobite.

Notes for June 23rd

• Birth control pills fueled the sexual revolution, but who could have envisioned at the time that they would also fuel a pervasive problem to fish sexuality.  Come to think of it, a lot of people probably saw that coming.
• White-nose syndrome is really going to end north American bats if it continues at this rate.  That's not an exaggeration.  And now it's extended into Oklahoma, a huge range expansion.
• Chimpanzees are not nice.  Not at all.
• Tamarisk is bad news.  They take over riparian areas and don't provide much habitat for almost anything. Except, apparently, the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, an endangered bird.  Apparently the benefit of tamarisk to this bird is enough for the USDA to quit attempting to control it. 

Notes for June 22

• I'm constantly hearing claims on reddit of really high rates of inaccurate paternity.  This fits with reddit's general attitude towards reproduction and male rights issues.  However, I've never seen any actual evidence.  This article nicely sums up the available evidence, and seems to fit much more closely with what my expectations would be.
• The fight aging website may deserve some detailed attention at some point.  For now, I'm mostly just interested in naked mole rats and their invulnerability to cancer.
• The outlook for polar bears.  The data is a little tricky, but the outlook is not particularly good.
• Finally, don't mess around with Steamer Ducks...especially if you're another duck.

Notes for June 21st

• Faster than light travel...kinda.  The author of this post asks you to consider dominoes.  If you tip one domino, it slowly tips, and falls into the next, and then into the next, and so on.  However, you could (if you wanted to) run your hand along the dominoes and knock them down faster than they would if you just allowed each domino to fall into the next.  Now, imagine that instead of dominoes, we're talking light.  You could just let the light propagate at whatever speed it normally propagates at (the speed of light).  Or you could impose a greater velocity on it (I'm not sure how).  Does this make sense to you?  If so, let me know, because I'm totally confused.
• There isn't a fossil more odd than Hallucegenia.  Or at least, that was everyone's understanding for a long time.  Flip it over, though, and it doesn't seem so odd.  This is probably a good example of just how much we don't know.
• I see crayfish in the title and I'm automatically interested.  And yes, this is interesting, about how crayfish make decisions about flight or fight.
• More Tet-Zoo awesomeness.  Ducks and Geese.