UNLEASHED, UNCUT, UNREAD



Showing posts with label wiki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wiki. Show all posts

11.21.2005

Please don't ask why i was looking at this

From Wikipedia:

Biologist Barry Sinervo from the University of California, Santa Cruz has discovered a Rock-Paper-Scissors evolutionary strategy in the mating behavior of the side-blotched lizard species Uta stansburiana. Males have either orange, blue or yellow throats and each type follows a fixed, hereditable mating strategy:

* Orange-throated males are strongest and do not form strong pair bonds; instead, they fight orange-throated males for their females. Yellow-throated males, however, manage to snatch females away from them for mating.
* Blue-throated males are middle-sized and form strong pair bonds. While they are outcompeted by orange-throated males, they can defend against yellow-throated ones.
* Yellow-throated males are smallest, and their coloration mimicks females. Under this disguise, they can approach orange-throated males but not the stronger-bonding blue-throated specimens and mating while the orange-throats are engaged in fights.

The proportion of each male type in a population is similar in the long run, but fluctuates heavily in the short term. For periods of 4-5 years, one strategy predominates, after which it declines in frequency as the strategy that manages to exploit its weakness increases.
If interested in further research, please visit your neighborhood bar on Friday evening.

11.14.2005

Always good to know

So i was looking at my world map yesterday (seriously) and focused in on that ever-neglected country Burma (Myanmar). I was thinking how odd it is that a country of fairly significant size (slighly smaller than Texas) in an ever-increasingly important region in the world receives hardly any press. So i was thinking, what the hell's going on in Burma?

Well, today I found out. Apparently, the ruling military Junta packed up their supplies (and government) and headed out of the capital, Yangoon (alt. Rangoon), northward into the mountains. Somewhere about 200 miles north of Yangoon now sits the Burmese government. Just chillin'. Chillin' up in the Burmese mountains at their new pad called Pyinmanaa. This is weird, right?

But it's really not that big of a deal, though, because "foreign diplomats said they were told that if they had urgent business with the relocated government, they could send a fax but that no number was yet available." So it's not like they're completely outty-5. Offering the explanation that they needed to find a "more centrally located government seat", alternative theories seemingly now abound. At the top of the list sits speculation that top Burmese officials fear an imminent invasion by the United States, and hence, withdrew to their fortified bastion in the mountains.

Is this what will finally push the US and China over the brink and into the potentially catastrophic throes of WWIII. Burma? Myanmar? According to them, maybe. As young military recruits in Burma are instructed by their superiors, "you are the holding action against the Americans until the Chinese come to our aid".

And now I know what's going on in Burma.