For Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Electophorus electricus image licensed under Creative Commons by skippy13

Japanese plant writes blog

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7681966.stm

Kyo no Midori-san (This is the "about" page. OOPS! See below.)

http://plant.bowls-cafe.jp/index.php

Our first message to Midori, the plant!!! "Greetings to you plant, Midori. I've never communicated directly with a plant before. This is a very exciting development to me. I am very pleased to meet you. I will treat all vegetation with greater respect from now on. I hope you can visit my blog "Bring Back the Dodo!" (http://www.bringbackthedodo.blogspot.com) on Google's Blogger site (blogger.com). There I have a special link to Flora called "Floralinks". I will include link to your site and the BBC story that brought me to you. Sorry that this message is in English, but my Japanese is not so good. Hope you are well and it is sunny tomorrow. Love, ******"

OOPS! Apparently the link does not connect to Midori. We were contacted by Masakazu OHTSUKA. Here is his response.

Dear ******,Hello,I'm a member of KAYAC Inc. (http://www.kayac.com/),the company which created the blogging plant system.Sorry I'm not the plant itself ;-pThanks for the contact and for your blog entry!The English blogging plant's English "about" page is here.http://plant.bowls-cafe.jp/about_en.phpMight be more information for you.There isn't any way to directly talk with Midori,but we have a blog widget here for you to show it on your blog.
(The Widget appears on the right-hand side of the blog. If you'd like us to email you the widget, contact us here).

--Masakazu OHTSUKA

Scientists believe they have erased specific memories in mice

http://www.yahoo.com/s/974667

Eels' shocking secrets could power devices

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27308292/

Electophorus electricus

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=4535

Helping flippers How volunteers in Cyprus assist turtles on their way

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/sci_nat_the_turtle_project/html/1.stm

Diversity Decreases Risk Of Parasitic Disease

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081021185059.htm

Why eating males pays off, for spiders

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre49l031-us-spiders/

Turtle Doves Commit Adultery

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081015100033.htm

Streptopelia turtur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Dove

Egg Whites Solve The 3-D Problem

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081007123651.htm

Study Of Polar Dinosaur Migration Questions Whether Dinosaurs Were Truly The First Great Migrators

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081021185205.htm

Bird-Like Dinosaur Sported Bizarre Tail Feathers

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081022/sc_livescience/birdlikedinosaursportedbizarretailfeathers;_ylt=AoUka5Jd6nEpGtM1kmluS50PLBIF

LA councilman seeks to halt zoo elephant exhibit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_re_us/elephant_exhibit;_ylt=Arhe6vM3E.OIP2tCVoaw5FgPLBIF

Farmer sees future fuel in switchgrass

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26874307/

Panicum virgatum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchgrass

Seeds May Hold Clues to Climate Change

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=6082221&page=1

Job choice 'affects Alzheimer's'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7681451.stm

Ancient Bone Tool Sheds Light On Prehistoric Midwest

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081021214301.htm

Out Of Mesopotamia: Evolutionary History Of Tuberculosis

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081017085214.htm

Food allergies increasing in US kids, study says

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_he_me/med_child_food_allergies;_ylt=AjqWAj5pIEd6SDZIessSDtis0NUE


Speed of eating 'key to obesity'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7681458.stm

Strep throat leads to amputation of legs

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/10/22/tessman.strep.throat.kare

Scientists find 26 genes promoting lung cancer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_he_me/med_lung_cancer_genes;_ylt=Ao1j0n6yA3XXlJoMhL8ym7.s0NUE

Panel calls for vaccine for adult smokers

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_he_me/med_vaccine_for_smokers;_ylt=AhBs56jNZ_8QWPd119fQ4LGs0NUE

FDA: Incontinence surgery linked to complications

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_he_me/med_women_s_health;_ylt=AkFzBAbfoTvX5oUMI9wD_sWs0NUE