Sometimes the best defense is the smallest one

For 2,000 years a pest that measures about the width of a pinkie fingernail from end to end has menaced the olive trees of the Mediterranean.

In 1998, the olive fruit fly was  detected in Los Angeles; it has since managed to spread to all olive growing regions in California. That’s not good for the state since it produces nearly all of the olives grown in the country. Olive production, which can rise to as much as 166,000 short tons in a year, sunk last year to just 65,000 tons, barely half of the originally projected production figures.

Behind every liberated woman is a ... hard-working washer?

In time for International Women’s Day, described as a day to celebrate “the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future,” comes an article from the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano with the following introductory sentences:

“In the 20th century, what contributed most to the emancipation of western women? The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalization of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine.”

Articles like this one have already covered the controversial lines. The article in the original Italian appears here; use your own translator of choice to parse the entire text.

A study in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association has found that children in the United States aren’t eating enough fruits and vegetables to meet the recommended dietary guidelines.

In ASL, the sign for “forever” is a combination of the signs for “always” and “still.”

Lancelot the yellow lab achieved immortality when he died last year by living on in his owners’ memories.

His immortality was assured in another way when his owners paid a commercial cloning company to produce a puppy with Lancelot’s DNA.

Like Alton Brown, I believe in multitaskers.

There’s a reason why Swiss Army knives never go out of style, why it seems each new cell phone model gets closer and closer to being not just a portable entertainment center, but the entertainment center of choice.

Right now these gadgets can surf the series of tubes to find out what time happy hour is at Candybar,  shoot video footage of a car accident, listen to music, and sync with the not-so portable devices you left at home.  And, oh yeah, they let you make and receive calls too.

There are many reasons to read Eric Simons’ Darwin Slept Here, a sort-of travel book about retracing the footsteps of Charles Darwin when he was a twentysomething biologist wandering around South America. Here are a few:

1. To understand why Eric demonstrates the fine art of the discus throw using inflatable iguanas (really, they’re props) in the following video:

Treebeard asked. “What are you, I wonder? I cannot place you. You do not seem to come in the old lists that I learned when I was young.”

“Merry replied: “Yet we’ve been about for quite a long time. We’re hobbits.”

“Why not make a new line?” said Pippin.

—from The Two Towers, Chapter 4: Treebeard

A recent paper from Karen Baab of New York’s Stony Brook University and Kieran McNulty of the University of Minnesota adds fuel to the ongoing debate of whether or not the bones found on Flores Island back in 2003 are from a new species or else from very tiny humans with unusually small heads. 

Image from: bigfoto.com

Disclaimer: I do not work for Caliper LifeSciences nor do I have stock in the company. Neither do I work in a field that requires use of products from Caliper or other, similar companies.

That said, after hours of poring through science-related videos online, I have come to the conclusion that Caliper’s media team knows how to deliver creative and coherent videos for their products. Case in point, the “Liquid Therapy” video offering a solution to MPFS. Having heard all about this condition over the years from various friends who regularly performed tasks that might have left them afflicted with MPFS, I’m amused and delighted to find a company that offers a solution to the problem.

So for anyone who’s every suffered from “Pipetter’s Thumb” or a similar condition, this one’s for you.

If you don’t have the condition, at least check out this video here. Why? Because breakdancing chips are just plain cool.

Trophy board or actual wall? (Photo credit: bigfoto.com)

Buddhist monks in Thailand have apparently been seeing a lot of green and brown due to their new million-bottle (not baht) temple. It’s an artistic vision, but I have to wonder why they didn’t also make a cork boat while they were at it. Surely they would have had enough material to build a really big Viking ship, or at least a dugout sized to fit the entire monastery at the very least.

It’s worth pointing out that they’re not the only ones who found a way to use bottles constructively.

Image from bigfoto.com

Look, a bare hand just waiting to be adorned!

Now, thanks to an Icelandic jewelry designer, these knuckles and others like it can sport some eco-conscious bling.

Consider the so-called hand rings very portable, very personal Chia heads. Alternatively, they could also be construed as non-electronic virtual pets that will need to be fed and watered and trimmed, but won’t cry for attention.

So get one to show off your topiary skills.

De-stress at work by trimming off the edges every now and then.

Or use the foliage as a portable source of slightly fresher air whenever the atmosphere feels stuffy.

If this piece of jewelry takes off,  it could have an impact on certain tense scenes in books and movies, the ones where the hoodlums reach into their pockets and slip on the brass hardware — which are considered illegal weapons in many places — in order to deliver a strongly-worded message or two. Those bits might come across differently if the bad guys pull out these moss-covered knuckles.