Keep this in mind when voting

I think the lyrics to this song pretty much sum this election.

I'm not going to go into a political rant because I feel this should mostly be a blog about science, but since the election's coming up I'll just tell you that I'm reluctantly voting Obama.

I liked McCain in the 2000 election, when he was denouncing Robertson and Falwell. Instead, he now looks like a Bush-clone.

Palin is what pushed me over, though.

That's it for politics for roughly the next half-decade.

Best of youtube #6: The Guild

If you're a fan of Joss Whedon, you'll certianly recognize Felicia Day.

It's a series about a group of people who are addicted to a World of Warcraft type game.

Best of Youtube #5: 2 AM

Yeah, I'm probably going to lose my reputation as a badass by posting this. But I love Anna Nalick. Her music is poetry and even though it sounds like a standard pop song if you listen to her lyrics, I think you'll find they're actually very poetic. I love her voice, too. And she's hot.

Totally made of win.

Best of Youtube #4: Bacillus thurigiensis

Bruce Tabashnik explaining how B. thurigiensis is used to kill insects.

B. thurigiensis is kind of a cool bacteria. It's found on plants and in the soil and it's evolved to cover it's spores in a highly toxic protein that dissolves the gut of the poor insect that happens to eat it. Once the insect is dead, the bacteria can feast to their heart's content until the food supply runs out. At this point they form spores and the cycle starts over again. Each strain is adapted to different species of insects. There's a few different strains which go after butterfly, moth and beetle larvae and even one that infects parasitic flies. Each strain has it's own very narrow host range and none effect humans.

Many crops, corn and cotton to name two, have been genetically modified to produce this toxin within it's tissues. However, some have evolved resistance to the toxin. Fortunately, the mutations which grant resistance to BT have so far been recessive alleles and easily controlled by introducing susceptible variants to spread their genes amongst the immune genotypes.

Best of youtube #3: Parasitic Nematodes

Parasites do some really cool things.

I'm writing an introduction to parasitoids right now. I tend to change focus quite a bit...but don't worry. I'll get back to the biocontrol articles soon. There are some pretty good stories in the literature...triumph and tragedy.

Youtube Gems: Katy Rose

I have a science post coming up on Friday, thanks to the 'schedule post' function so I figured I'd do a music post this week.

This song is called Catch My Fall by Katie Rose and you can find the lyrics here.

The clips in the background are from the movie Thirteen which is about a young teenage girl (played by Evan Rachel Wood) who discovers drugs, sex, crime and numerous other bad things through the help of the 'popular girl'. It's a coming-of-age clique story, but it's the fucked-up version which shows the things you'll never see in a Lindsay Lohan film. It deals with drug addiction, depression and shows cutting as well as a handful of other things I remember seeing a couple of my friends going through back in my early high school days. The movie deals with it's themes bluntly and honestly without trying to glorify or euphamize anything which happens during the course of the movie.

I guess the honeymoon is over...so much for the afterglow.

So after an entire summer of waiting, I have my first round of tests this week. And another custody battle to go through.

So my next week is going to be a blur of bugs, chemistry, ecology, lawyers and dealing with all sorts of people I don't really want to see.

Anyways, I have a post scheduled to post on 9/21 and I've decided to start doing a weekly Best of Youtube post when I don't have a science related post to offer. So you'll have plenty of bug related shiny objects to keep you occupied until I return.

The first Best of Youtube, a video from the documentary Planet Earth about a parasitic fungus called Cordyceps.