30 NOV 2015 by ideonexus
Specialization is for Insects
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. 1 
notes
notes07 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Biocides
These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes—non-selective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the "good" and the "bad," to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in the soil—all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface ...Folksonomies: environmentalism
Folksonomies: environmentalism
1 notes
notes31 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Fallacy of the Insect Age
To end on a more cheerful note, I think I have found a fallacy or two in some of the more spectacular arguments used by the Insect Age enthusiasts when they are hardest pressed. For one thing, the fact that insects as a class are 300,000,000 years old, if it is a fact, while we have been here only about 1,000,000 years, or 3,000,000 at the outside, does not prove to me that the insects are bound to win. It takes more than mere old age to get along these days. I think it quite likely that the ...Folksonomies: humor logical fallacy
Folksonomies: humor logical fallacy
1 notes
notes11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Disease is the Rule of Existence
Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit. 1 notes
notesFind Thoreau a perfect leaf or fruit in midsummer.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Honey Gatherers of the Mind
Our treasure lies in the beehives of our knowledge. We are perpetually on our way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind. The only thing that lies close to our heart is the desire to bring something home to the hive. Folksonomies: collectivism
Folksonomies: collectivism
1 notes
notesWe are like bees, gathering knowledge for the hive.
25 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Life Can Go On for Billions of Years
I believe that life can go on forever. It takes a million years to evolve a new species, ten million for a new genus, one hundred million for a class, a billion for a phylum—and that's usually as far as your imagination goes. In a billion years, it seems, intelligent life might be as different from humans as humans are from insects. But what would happen in another ten billion years? It's utterly impossible to conceive of ourselves changing as drastically as that, over and over again. All y...Freeman Dyson quote about the future of humanity.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
A Poem to Teach a Child
We live in an age of information. Too much information can swamp the boat of wonder, especially for a child.
From a science book we might learn that a flying bat might snap up 15 insects per minute, or that the frequency of its squeal can range as high as 50,000 cycles per second. Useful information, yes.
But consider the information in this poem from Randall Jarrell's "The Bat Poet":
A bat is born
Naked and blind and pale.
His mother makes a pocket of her tail
And catches him. He cling... 1 notes
notesWe are drowning in facts, instead, give children wonder.
15 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
The Benefit of a Fearless Mother
I have from my childhood, in conformity with the precepts of a mother void of all imaginary fear, been in the constant habit of taking toads in my hand, and applying them to my nose and face as it may happen. My motive for doing this very frequently is to inculcate the opinion I have held, since I was told by my mother, that the toad is actually a harmless animal; and to whose manner of life man is certainly under some obligation as its food is chiefly those insects which devour his crops and... 1 notes
notesJoseph Banks' mother would put toads in his hand and apply them to his face to dismiss the superstition that they cause warts and argue that they are actually quite useful in keeping down pests.
21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Barriers that Keep Different Species from Interbreeding
What keeps members of two related species from mating with each
other? There are many different reproductive barriers. Species might not
interbreed simply because their mating or flowering seasons don’t overlap.
Some corals, for example, reproduce only one night a year, spewing
out masses of eggs and sperm into the sea over a several-hour period.
Closely related species living in the same area remain distinct because
their peak spawning periods are several hours apart, preventing eggs
of on... 1 notes
notesDifferent pheremones, blooming times, geographical isolation can keep members of two different species from breeding.
20 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
The Species Missing from Islands
Native
Missing
Plants
Land mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Insects and other
Amphibians
arthropods (e.g., spiders)
Freshwater fish
[...]
Further, when you look at the type of insects and plants native to oceanic islands, they are from groups that are the best colonizers. Most of the insects are small, precisely those that would be easily picked up by wind. Compared to weedy plants, trees are relatively rare on oceanic islands, almost certainly because many trees have heavy seeds that neither fl...
1 The fact that the species that exist on islands could only have migrated there versus the ones that do not exist are evidence of evolution.
