bioephemera.com

A GOOD idea

A friend sent me a link to this new magazine called GOOD. It includes features such as “The Color of War: An embedded artist chronicles Iraq” and “Search And Destroy: Ramming and sinking whale boats wherever they can be found.” To be sure, neither of those topics is Martha Stewart’s kind of “good thing” - but it sure sounds interesting! Heck, they even have a section called “Provocations”.

The best part is that if you subscribe to GOOD, your entire $20 fee will go to the charity of your choice (they have twelve to choose from, including DonorsChoose, Teach for America, UNICEF and WWF.) They say they’re doing it in order to self-select subscribers that fit their readership model, and I think it’s going to work! Their goal is to get 50,000 subscribers and so far they have just over 10,000.

So if you were going to do some end-of-the-year donations anyway, you might want to channel some of your money through GOOD and get something good for yourself, too.

Add comment December 28th, 2006

A truly weird case of mimicry

The moth in spider’s clothing, via the Neurophilosopher’s weblog

Earlier, I posted about the tendency of prey species to mimic the appearance of other prey, usually to take advantage of the predator’s learned aversion to noxious species. Now the Neurophilospher reviews a strange new case, in which a prey species (the moth) mimics its predator (the jumping spider) to bluff its way out of being eaten.

It works, too: the jumping spider responds to the moth with a territorial display, lifting its front legs in the air above its head. I don’t necessarily buy that this proves the spider believes the moth is a spider - jumping spiders in my garden respond that way to me all the time - but it does show the spider thinks the moth is a threat, not a treat.

Here’s a YouTube video of the moth, and darned if it doesn’t look and move just like a jumping spider. Creepy! (The original post also links to another video of the spider’s territorial behavior).

Add comment December 28th, 2006