I heard on the radio today that Christopher Columbus's crew is no longer blamed for bringing syphilis back to Europe. Awesome, except that I didn't know we blamed them in the first place? Apparently Columbus wasn't without haters.
The assassin bug's methods of killing spiders is being researched. Apparently the bug has learned how to use vibrations in the web with his feelers to mimic that of small prey caught in the web. I've included a picture of this little champion who has defied the spider and actively hunts them for his main food supply.
Also, a new species of monkey was discovered in Myanmar. Scientists hope that they can talk people out of hunting them because they apparently have a very small population. Funny enough, we talked about species conservation in the class that I am TAing this past week and the question was posed, "Would you like to have to breed with your relatives in order to save your species or would you rather just live out and die?". Frankly, that's a toughy, but hopefully we've discovered this species in time to help it stand a chance. I read something like a new species is discovered every 3 days in the Amazon? Incredible.
Indonesia continues to get pounded as the death toll comes in from the tsunami that occurred at nearly the same time as the volcanic eruption (in different places obviously). They are in definite need of help. It seems like they never get enough warning for those tsunamis.
Gorbachev had a lot of interesting things to say in his interview with the BBC. If you read one thing in this blog, check out this article.
Finally, from the entertainment district. Kaitlin was telling me last night that even for people to visit the Hobbiton grounds in New Zealand, they must pay $70. I can't believe that people would even pay near that price but she says it's always busy. Well, that's not bound to end anytime soon as the Hobbit will for sure be filmed there over the next two years.
