Wow! Toxins Sucked Out of Your Feet!

  Slap these very, very scientific pads on your feet and peel your way to VITALITY! and HEALTH! Contains IONS! Beware of cheap imitations! As they say on kinoki.com, “Improve immunity system.”

Pethouse: Pimp My Monkey

Oh, yeah, “exploring” in the name of Science. You pervert!

I collected data to test whether biological market theory could account for exchanges of male-to-female grooming and sexual activity in longtailed macaques. I explored male-to-female grooming, rates of sexual activity, and grooming–mating interchanges, which were male-to-female grooming bouts that directly involved mating. Male-to-female grooming mainly occurred when females were sexually active, and males groomed females longer per bout when mating, inspection, or presentation of female hindquarters was involved.

Wink wink …. nudge nudge….

Moreover, male-to-female grooming was associated with an increase in female rates for all forms of sexual activity, where in contrast, female-to-male grooming was associated with decreased rates of mating in the groomed males. Males did not preferentially mate with swollen females or invest more grooming in them during grooming–mating interchanges, as swellings did not seem to be a reliable indicator of female fertility. Rank status was correlated with grooming payment during grooming–mating interchanges in favour of higher-ranked males and females. In support of a biological market interpretation, the amount of grooming a male performed on a female during grooming–mating interchanges was related to the current supply of females around the interaction.

— From the “Pethouse” of journals: ScienceDirect – Animal Behaviour : Payment for sex in a macaque mating market

New Menu Item @ The Endangered Species Restaurant

Tanzania refugees seen eating endangered species

Hungry refugees in Tanzania are eating chimpanzees and other endangered species in order to supplement their meager diet, an international conservation group said on Tuesday.

Chocolate Bugs and Giant Space Cockroaches

YUM! Larva Chocolate looks sick, tastes sweet Those Japanese again. Masters of imitation.

WHO SAYS mixed marriages can’t work? Equal level of commitment and relationship satisfaction found among gay and heterosexual couples

HERE TODAY. Gone tomorrow. New monkey species is already endangered

MIGHT HAVE something to do with this story. Island Monkeys Do Not Recognize Big Cat Calls Perhaps the first case of a self-endanged species.

CHILDHOOD Suspicions about Fish Sticks confirmed Scientists find missing link – and it’s a fish finger

IS Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation A New Treatment Of Bulimia Nervosa? Don’t know but the question itself makes me want to throw up.

DISMAL science meets doomsday science. Hilarity ensues. Economists help climate scientists to improve global warming forecasts

ANOTHER enduring gift to the world from Russian space science: Cockroaches conceived in space onboard the Russian Foton-M bio satellite have developed faster and become hardier than ‘terrestrial’ ones, a research supervisor said on Thursday.

BLOCK that metaphor! Alzheimer’s Molecule Is A Smart Speed Bump On The Nerve-cell Transport Highway One might also say that a hemorrhoid is a speed bump on the Hershey Highway, but one would be wrong.

FART STUDY? That’s Phase 2: Sweden to study belching cows

A Swedish university has received 3.8 million kronor ($590,000) in research funds to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch…. Project leader Jan Bertilsson said that the cows involved in the study will have different diets and wear a collar device measuring the methane level in the air around them. “This type of research is already being conducted in Canada so we will be in contact with Canadian agricultural researchers in the near future,” he said.

Rage Against the Machine

How Hi-Tech Enhances Productivity