This is adorable but initially I missed the word “bumblebee” and had no clue what kind of bee or what the scale was, so I was terrified of giant bee overlords conquering us all. Like, put a coffee cup for scale, BBC. But now! Cute!
There is so much complexity in the lives of the creatures (and plants!) with which we share the planet; it’s exciting when science brings the receipts.
Bees are the only non-vertebrate that we know of which understands the concept of 'zero'. They can carry out experiments which are much more complicated than anyone ever thought an animal with a brain that small is capable of, and can remember events for weeks at a time (pretty much their entire lifespan).
I was fortunate enough in grad school to be working in the lab across the hallway from the lab that was working to decode the bee dance. I got to enjoy the sounds of the buzzing and the smell of the honey without any of the painstaking video analysis or risk of stings :)
Hmm $190 for a teacup that has gold trim so you couldn't reheat your tea in the microwave.
Also if I ever paid $5600 for a Lalique vintage vahse, I would hope they would ship it and giftwrap it for free, after they kissed me on both cheeks.
I wish my mother was still alive so I could point out that I am not nearly the stupidest shopper in the world. Pop got an entire fixer-upper house for 5 K back in 1951 and all these folks got for their $ was a batch of nekkid ladies dancing around a vase that you'd likely have to pay a professional to fix once someone knocked it over.
also how many dinner sets do you really need? ok, so i have 2, but one was inherited from my granny and the other is the everyday, can put in microwave, the world doesn't end if the dog licks it stuff
Wow, the article about the poor woman who couldn't go on the 3 year cruise - people aren't very clever, are they? A 3 year cruise for half a million dollars? That's about $500 a day. You can do a LOT of travel on $500/day. And she packed "... all the vitamins for three years"???? You don't think you'll be able to pick up all the vitamins you need on the ship or in port? Instead you're carrying a suitcase of little bottles? Honey, just give me the money and I'll show you how to travel.
"Republicans have a good idea, it is do not let the young people vote! — Thom Hartmann"
Some of us did mention (a bit of time ago, much like we do a lot of stuff that lots of folks who claim to believe in democracy also claim they want to hear about but have a disturbing pattern of trying to shut down the conversations when these things are mentioned) that they were going to try this ... right around the time folks older than "the youth vote" started breathing sighs of relief and saying things like "We don't have to worry about the Republicans because all the youth will vote and Biden will be re-elected so we won't have to do anything else and it will be fine"
Please remind all the 17-year-olds in your circles that they are eligible to preregister now (just as David Hogg said) so that they will have as few barriers as Republicans allow (since John Roberts has prevented us from stopping their obstruction) to being able to vote with minimal obstacles in all the upcoming elections in 2024.
The problem now is that since Biden has endorsed ethnic cleansing and genocide in Israel and armed literal neo-Nazis in Ukraine I'm hearing many people exclaim that never before has the "Lesser Evil" been so openly evil. A **LOT** of lifelong 'Lesser Evil' voters are not going to be able to hold their nose and vote for him again.
And it's like the lies teh Repos tell about folks trying to cross our southern border with backpacks full of drugs and guns, with their calves like cantaloupes. If there are ANY like that, it's not affecting the volume of drugs in the US and A. The volume of drugs comes right through the border in Los Pollos Hermanos trucks with secret panels. Or because some guy at the booth took a bribe. You just can't get the volume with Cantaloupe Charley.
Likewise, you could not POSSIBLY affect the outcome of the US elections with retail fraud. With people coming to vote illegally, onesy-twosy with their clever little dead brother-in-law's ticket and voting at their old address AND their new one. Couldn't possibly generate the numbers needed to sway an election.
It would have to be wholesale fraud, with the jimmying of the machines and the baskets of votes. (Which don't exist). So cracking down on retail voting can only be for purposes of, well, defrauding the voters.
In the 1990s over 100 of the top computer scientists in the US signed and sent a letter to the leadership of both parties warning them against computerizing the voting system. Not only were they completely ignored, but when the inevitable blatant fraud happened Congress with essentially no debate *accelerated* rolling out the computerized machines and slapped on the bandaid of ineffective "testing" literally designed by the voting machine companies. There was a reason why the most hated woman in American politics was the nominee in 2016, both sides use the system and it's working exactly as intended.
The Wauwatosa, Wisconsin's War of Christmas piece reminded me of an image from earliers dispatches from the War. It was a tree ornament sold by Fox Noise that read Happy Holidays. I can't find the image but I am sure the Wonkette Stealth Warriors can find it.
I looked at the photo of Rosalynn Carter's cheese ring, and was struck by its evocation of the surface of Jovian moon Io! It might be very tasty, but it could frighten scientists!
Pretty much OT, but you know who is really loving the whole "brain isn't fully developed until 25" thing?
Helicopter parents. I'm running into so much "I have the right to be totally inappropriately intrusive into my 20 year old's life because his brain blah blah...." these days.
I am newly graduated into parenting a Large Adult Son, and I never thought of myself as the helicopter type, but I have to forcibly restrain myself from being his personal assistant. I know he’s a dumbass, see, and my first instinct is to STOP that, because that was my job for 18 years. It is REALLY HARD to sit on my hands and not run around organizing shit for him.
But he is an adult! He will never learn not to be a dumbass if I hover! I am old and busy and it’s good to let shit go! And he does ok! He arranged his own driver training course and first aid course and he’s busily applying for jobs! He got his own credit card!
But I still have to tell him to SHOWER or he hangs around marinating in his own juices after going to the gym! He still lives in my basement and I can’t live with that, it smells hideous! I try to use a landlord approach instead of a parent, like hey, you are gross and I will evict you if you don’t bathe, but we both know I won’t evict him and this is garden variety momming.
I actually would buy the Cybertruck if my 2002 Tacoma with the 5-speed and the smallest 4-banger they sold ever gets totaled. Imagine getting the Neuralink brain/computer interface and being able to drive hands free! Actually I'd just be happy to let Autopilot do the driving for me, then my wife can complain about its driving all she wants and it won't bother me a bit.
She periodically says, "You need a new truck." I tell her if the wheels haven't fallen off I don't need a new one, and people leave notes on it all the time asking if I want to sell it. Unfortunately the truckette you linked to isn't going to be for sale in the US.
Bumblebee ball, boffo BBC!
https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/ball-playing-bumblebees
This is adorable but initially I missed the word “bumblebee” and had no clue what kind of bee or what the scale was, so I was terrified of giant bee overlords conquering us all. Like, put a coffee cup for scale, BBC. But now! Cute!
Here's a funblebee bit of trivia....
Did you know where Professor Dumbledore's name came from?
it is the old English name for a Bumblebee!!! Aren't they even CUTER when you say "look at the adorable dumbledores playing with their balls!"
of course, the word also means 'cockchafer" which sounds particularly interesting...
🎶 When the balls are rolled up yonder, I'll bee there. 🎶
This sure beats hell out of Pickleball.
I'd rather have one of those Bee-Ball boxes than an aquarium.
This. This is the double dose of mind blowing OMG SO CUTE and cool science facts I needed today. Thank you.
There can be no more perfect metaphor demonstrating the 'why' of non-commenting than this.
There is so much complexity in the lives of the creatures (and plants!) with which we share the planet; it’s exciting when science brings the receipts.
Bees are the only non-vertebrate that we know of which understands the concept of 'zero'. They can carry out experiments which are much more complicated than anyone ever thought an animal with a brain that small is capable of, and can remember events for weeks at a time (pretty much their entire lifespan).
I saw an episode of SciShow about that.
This is wicked awesome.
I was fortunate enough in grad school to be working in the lab across the hallway from the lab that was working to decode the bee dance. I got to enjoy the sounds of the buzzing and the smell of the honey without any of the painstaking video analysis or risk of stings :)
Rumble-bumble-tumble bees!
Hey, word of advice everyone:
Do NOT Google "boffo BBC" on your work computer. HR emailed me AND called my desk in less than .0003 seconds after the results populated. 😉
DYING here.... reminds me of the Ted movies....
you are never more than 2 clicks away from a black cock.
Now I am kinda wishing I 𝘩𝘢𝘥 a work computer...
Amateur Bumblebee Ball is so much better than the pros...
Young, wealthy bumblebees, playing ball for whatever city pays best? Ruining the sport!
It's the competing organisations that are spoiling the pro bumblebee game. Do we really need the IBeeF, WBeeO, WBeeA and WBeeC?
They look like they're wearing little fuzzy jerseys with the sportsball numbers on their backs.
Bumblebee ball is simply absolutely freakin' adorable!
Those floofy buzzing bumbles are SO clever and SO playful!
that wedding registry had some hideous stuff on it, and the rest was quite impractical
So they hit all their goals. Good on them.
Now I have to go look at it.
Hmm $190 for a teacup that has gold trim so you couldn't reheat your tea in the microwave.
Also if I ever paid $5600 for a Lalique vintage vahse, I would hope they would ship it and giftwrap it for free, after they kissed me on both cheeks.
I wish my mother was still alive so I could point out that I am not nearly the stupidest shopper in the world. Pop got an entire fixer-upper house for 5 K back in 1951 and all these folks got for their $ was a batch of nekkid ladies dancing around a vase that you'd likely have to pay a professional to fix once someone knocked it over.
Put that cup in the microwave and the gold trim will spall right off (probably accompanied by a light show of sparks).
also how many dinner sets do you really need? ok, so i have 2, but one was inherited from my granny and the other is the everyday, can put in microwave, the world doesn't end if the dog licks it stuff
Wow, the article about the poor woman who couldn't go on the 3 year cruise - people aren't very clever, are they? A 3 year cruise for half a million dollars? That's about $500 a day. You can do a LOT of travel on $500/day. And she packed "... all the vitamins for three years"???? You don't think you'll be able to pick up all the vitamins you need on the ship or in port? Instead you're carrying a suitcase of little bottles? Honey, just give me the money and I'll show you how to travel.
"You don't think you'll be able to pick up all the vitamins you need on the ship or in port?" Of course not, because she doesn't have any money left
"Republicans have a good idea, it is do not let the young people vote! — Thom Hartmann"
Some of us did mention (a bit of time ago, much like we do a lot of stuff that lots of folks who claim to believe in democracy also claim they want to hear about but have a disturbing pattern of trying to shut down the conversations when these things are mentioned) that they were going to try this ... right around the time folks older than "the youth vote" started breathing sighs of relief and saying things like "We don't have to worry about the Republicans because all the youth will vote and Biden will be re-elected so we won't have to do anything else and it will be fine"
Please remind all the 17-year-olds in your circles that they are eligible to preregister now (just as David Hogg said) so that they will have as few barriers as Republicans allow (since John Roberts has prevented us from stopping their obstruction) to being able to vote with minimal obstacles in all the upcoming elections in 2024.
The problem now is that since Biden has endorsed ethnic cleansing and genocide in Israel and armed literal neo-Nazis in Ukraine I'm hearing many people exclaim that never before has the "Lesser Evil" been so openly evil. A **LOT** of lifelong 'Lesser Evil' voters are not going to be able to hold their nose and vote for him again.
I just noticed that Norman Lear died yesterday, plucked from our midst all too soon at only 101. RIP.
A) Bee Best
B) They're smart because they are a hive mind after all....
A) Bee Best
B) They're smart because they are a hive mind after all....
Article about not letting young people vote says:
(except Russia and Hungary, who have adopted GOP-like restrictions to keep Orbán and Putin in power).
and LOL LOL LOL GOP are the very model of anti-democratic vote restricting and tater-dicks around the world are cribbing from your playbook.
And it's like the lies teh Repos tell about folks trying to cross our southern border with backpacks full of drugs and guns, with their calves like cantaloupes. If there are ANY like that, it's not affecting the volume of drugs in the US and A. The volume of drugs comes right through the border in Los Pollos Hermanos trucks with secret panels. Or because some guy at the booth took a bribe. You just can't get the volume with Cantaloupe Charley.
Likewise, you could not POSSIBLY affect the outcome of the US elections with retail fraud. With people coming to vote illegally, onesy-twosy with their clever little dead brother-in-law's ticket and voting at their old address AND their new one. Couldn't possibly generate the numbers needed to sway an election.
It would have to be wholesale fraud, with the jimmying of the machines and the baskets of votes. (Which don't exist). So cracking down on retail voting can only be for purposes of, well, defrauding the voters.
In the 1990s over 100 of the top computer scientists in the US signed and sent a letter to the leadership of both parties warning them against computerizing the voting system. Not only were they completely ignored, but when the inevitable blatant fraud happened Congress with essentially no debate *accelerated* rolling out the computerized machines and slapped on the bandaid of ineffective "testing" literally designed by the voting machine companies. There was a reason why the most hated woman in American politics was the nominee in 2016, both sides use the system and it's working exactly as intended.
In <whenever> <some dude> said "I don't see the need for more than about 5 computers worldwide"
"Republicans have a good idea, it is do not let the young people vote!"
Eventually I expect Republicans to try to pass a law making it only legal for *Republicans* to vote.
OT: the amazing Norman Lear has passed away. This obit is particularly good! A true model of progress and activism, RIP https://time.com/6343345/norman-lear-dead-obituary/
I'll miss getting those emails to sign his birthday cards.
The Wauwatosa, Wisconsin's War of Christmas piece reminded me of an image from earliers dispatches from the War. It was a tree ornament sold by Fox Noise that read Happy Holidays. I can't find the image but I am sure the Wonkette Stealth Warriors can find it.
I looked at the photo of Rosalynn Carter's cheese ring, and was struck by its evocation of the surface of Jovian moon Io! It might be very tasty, but it could frighten scientists!
I love to read Jack Smith's writing.
Pretty much OT, but you know who is really loving the whole "brain isn't fully developed until 25" thing?
Helicopter parents. I'm running into so much "I have the right to be totally inappropriately intrusive into my 20 year old's life because his brain blah blah...." these days.
I am newly graduated into parenting a Large Adult Son, and I never thought of myself as the helicopter type, but I have to forcibly restrain myself from being his personal assistant. I know he’s a dumbass, see, and my first instinct is to STOP that, because that was my job for 18 years. It is REALLY HARD to sit on my hands and not run around organizing shit for him.
But he is an adult! He will never learn not to be a dumbass if I hover! I am old and busy and it’s good to let shit go! And he does ok! He arranged his own driver training course and first aid course and he’s busily applying for jobs! He got his own credit card!
But I still have to tell him to SHOWER or he hangs around marinating in his own juices after going to the gym! He still lives in my basement and I can’t live with that, it smells hideous! I try to use a landlord approach instead of a parent, like hey, you are gross and I will evict you if you don’t bathe, but we both know I won’t evict him and this is garden variety momming.
🚁🚁🚁
Re: Tesla's electric truck probably no one will buy. Toyota came out with a low end truck for those buyers who won't buy electric. https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2025-toyota-imv-0-pickup-truck-first-drive-review-japan-mobility-show/
Lots of luck Musk.
I actually would buy the Cybertruck if my 2002 Tacoma with the 5-speed and the smallest 4-banger they sold ever gets totaled. Imagine getting the Neuralink brain/computer interface and being able to drive hands free! Actually I'd just be happy to let Autopilot do the driving for me, then my wife can complain about its driving all she wants and it won't bother me a bit.
She periodically says, "You need a new truck." I tell her if the wheels haven't fallen off I don't need a new one, and people leave notes on it all the time asking if I want to sell it. Unfortunately the truckette you linked to isn't going to be for sale in the US.
I'd consider it if it was electric.
Sorry Becca, I would make and eat that cheese ring. Strawberry jam and all.