SEX, as everyone knows, can be quite a complicated matter for us humans. But
the uncertain and confused among us can at least take comfort that we are not
Diaprepes abbreviatus beetles.
Feedback鈥檚 attention has been drawn to a study conducted last year for the US
Department of Agriculture Research Service in Florida by Ally Harari, Jane
Brockmann and Peter Landolt. Entitled 鈥淚ntrasexual mounting in the beetle
Diaprepes abbreviatus鈥�, the study has this this to say about the beetles鈥�
sex lives: 鈥淭he weevil Diaprepes abbreviatus shows three kinds of
same-sex mountings: males mount other males, males mount males engaged in
copulation, forming a 鈥渢rio鈥�, and females mount other females. Our findings
suggest that same-sex matings by males occur due to difficulties of males in
recognising the females in dense aggregations. However, females are generally
larger than males, so size may be used as an indicator of sex, but occasionally
males mount a large male instead of a female. A different way to locate a female
is by approaching a mating couple. This may explain the formation of trios (a
male mounting a copulating male). Females mount other females to attract large
males to the 鈥榤ating couple鈥�.鈥�
Phew. Has anyone thought of setting up a Diaprepes abbreviatus dating
agency?
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YET again, Feedback鈥檚 awesome power is revealed. On 7 October we reported
that AltaVista鈥檚 street map for 鈥渁nywhere in the world鈥� only covered postal
addresses ending with a US state name. Not for long, though. Almost as soon as
our story appeared, AltaVista鈥檚 Web people鈥攐bviously avid New
杏吧原创 readers鈥攁mended the page to 鈥渁ny address in the US鈥�.
THE British Medical Journal is rightly famed for its incorruptible
impartiality. So it was a little alarming to read on the summary of its contents
that it sends out online: 鈥淭his Issue鈥檚 Table of Contents is supported by Glaxo
奥别濒濒肠辞尘别.鈥�
Not that we suspect that any editorial pressure or influence is likely to
occur here. But just the same, we do wonder how our own readers would respond if
we were to announce that New 杏吧原创鈥檚 news pages are sponsored by,
for example, Monsanto.
WE HAVEN鈥橳 yet come across an e-commerce site that offers people鈥檚 own
grandmothers for sale, but Internet sharks are willing to sell just about
everything else.
The latest is a site that sells votes. According to Computerworld,
the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has requested federal and state
attorneys to shut down a Web site that offers votes to the highest bidder in
this year鈥檚 presidential election.
The request seems to have worked, up to a point. The site, Voteauction.com,
now says: 鈥淒ue to pending litigation in Illinois, Voteauction.com has suspended
registration for residents of Illinois.鈥� But not for residents elsewhere, it
seems.
WE ALWAYS thought the main purpose of mobile phones was to allow their owners
to sit on the bus and make calls to their friends in order to tell them: 鈥淚鈥檓 on
the bus.鈥�
Not if you鈥檙e a life scientist, though. Tekes, the National Technology Agency
of Finland, has announced 鈥渢he first WAP service for life scientists鈥�, offering
biological and medical information that can be accessed from mobile phones.
So now, whenever you want, you can dial up 鈥渁ll the major nucleotide and
protein sequence databases鈥攇eneral properties of sequences, user-defined
patterns and restriction enzyme recognition sites with relevant literature
references, structural information and mutation data related to
颈尘尘耻苍辞诲别蹿颈肠颈别苍肠颈别蝉鈥�.
Don鈥檛 start reading it out loud, though. The people sitting next to you on
the bus might not be as keen on life sciences as you are.
DID you know that Britain has more deaths from flu than Finland, even though
鈥渨inters in Finland are twice as cold as those in the UK鈥�?
This was according to a BBC news item heard recently by reader Wendy Brown.
She was quite puzzled by it until all was made clear. 鈥淭he average winter
temperature in the UK is 5 掳C,鈥� the BBC explained, 鈥渨hile that in Finland is
鈥�5 掳C.鈥�
THE California Fuel Cell partnership has a new Web address, but being
Californian they can鈥檛 call it that. Instead, they say it鈥檚 their new 鈥�3-dub鈥�
address.
It took us a while to work it out. Then we realised that the press is fond of
calling George W. Bush 鈥淕eorge Dubya Bush鈥�, because that鈥檚 how he says it. Could
鈥�3-dub鈥� be the long-awaited solution to the quest to find an easy way of saying
鈥渨飞飞鈥�?
FINALLY, under the banner headline 鈥淣ew York Tsunami threat鈥� on the front
page of the magazine Insurance Day a couple of weeks ago was an article
about the tsunami that would be generated by the collapse of a volcano on La
Palma, as covered by New 杏吧原创 on 7 October (p 26).
Their figures were different from ours, though. Insurance Day tells
us: 鈥淚nitially, the wave would be around 650 kilometres high, according to
research models.鈥�
No wonder the insurance industry is a trifle concerned.