The vanishing head illusion
Here’s the most amazing demonstration of the blind spot I’ve ever seen. Play the below YouTube video in full screen mode by clicking the second button from the left at the bottom.
Richard Wiseman is a psychologist who studies odd bits of human behaviour and cognition, and is the author of Quirkology and soon to be released 59 seconds. He’s regularly interviewed on a number of sceptical podcasts, such as the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, and is always an entertaining guest.
Find more of his work at:
Additions to the noxious fish list
On 1 August 2009, a number of species are going to be added to the noxious fish list in Queensland. Aquarists currently owning the species will be able to get a licence to continue to own them, but fines of up to $200,000 will be in place for anyone without a licence. The changes will bring Australia into line with the other states and territories.
The only addition to the list that makes me a little disappointed is that of Boulengochromis microlepsis, the largest cichlid in the world and a Lake Tanganyika native. I had thought it would be nice to own a couple of these. There were already a few impediments to owning them; they need a very large aquarium; there aren’t any in Australia and they’re illegal imports; and they breed once then die.
Two other additions to the list that caught my eye were:
- The forktail lates (Lates microlepsis), a Lake Tanganyika native, joins the Nile perch (Lates niloticus) on the list. Both of these species are from the same genus as Queensland’s iconic barramundi (Lates calcarifer), and could compete with them or impact on smaller fish. The Nile perch was responsible for the decimation of Lake Victoria’s cichlid flock when it was introduced to the lake.
- The African lungfish (Protopterus annectens), which could compete with the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri). Australian lungfish are available to aquarists, though they are very expensive and come with microchips embedded in them for identification.
So, only one Rift Lake cichlid has been added to the list, and no Synodontid catfish. I’m relieved after being a little worried when I first saw mention of the additions in online news.
Check out the new additions at the Department of Primary Industries website.
Michael Jackson has died…
… and his will leaves his face to Pepsi to make bottles. Pepsi™, now with 0.000000001% Michael Jackson in every bottle!
The Cairns Post reports that people are going out to buy copies of Michael Jackson CDs, particularly his greatest hits compilations, following his death. If you need to buy them, are you really enough of a fan to warrant being upset?
I often struggle to understand the passion of some people’s feelings towards celebrities. This is another such instance.
Defence vs everything else
George Monbiot opines on a possible way for the UK to save some money:
At the end of 2003, the Ministry of Defence observed that “there are currently no major conventional military threats to the UK or NATO … it is now clear that we no longer need to retain a capability against the re-emergence of a direct conventional strategic threat”. So why is most of this ministry’s budget spent on retaining a capability against the emergence of a direct conventional strategic threat?
To read the MoD’s spending stats is to read the accounts of a lost world: a faraway land where threats and funds are unlimited. Its PFI service charges (£1.3bn) exceed the entire budget of the department of energy and climate change. The department for international development could be funded twice over from the MoD’s budget for capital charges and depreciation (£9.6bn). Property management sucks up £1.5bn a year, consultants and lawyers £470m, bullets, bombs and the like, £650m.
What does it give us? Our wars make us less safe. We would be better protected from terrorism and global instability if the UK’s armed forces stopped going abroad to make trouble. No one in office can produce a coherent account of why this money is needed: the ministry’s budget is sustained by the greed of contractors and nostalgia for imperium long passed. We could cut defence spending by 90% and suffer no loss to our national security. Instead, the MoD has just dropped its spending on climate change research. This accounted for a quarter of the Met Office’s climate programme.
I wonder if there isn’t something in that for Australia too. Read the whole post, and Monbiot’s other essays.
Barney Frank, the US Democrat Senator came out with a nice related comment when talking about Republican arguments against cutting funding for the F-22 fighter:
These arguments will come from the very people who denied that the economic recovery plan created any jobs. We have a very odd economic philosophy in Washington: It’s called weaponized Keynesianism. It is the view that the government does not create jobs when it funds the building of bridges or important research or retrains workers, but when it builds airplanes that are never going to be used in combat, that is of course economic salvation.
Taylor Point from Kewarra Beach
Click the photo for a larger version
I took this photo last week after I went to explore a large open area behind the southern end of Kewarra Beach which I saw on Google Maps. It wasn’t terribly interesting, and looks like it had been cleared for development a long time ago then abandoned. Unlike the walk over the top of Taylor Point, I don’t think it’s one I’ll do again.
Work is getting in the way of posts, so the blog hasn’t been updated much for the last week. The fact my Olympus FE-310 camera is playing up doesn’t help. It detects batteries as empty after just a couple of shots.
Bit
From the team that brought us Mr Deity…
Maroon anemonefish (and eggs?)
Male maroon anemonefish and possible eggs with host bubbletip anemone
I’ve recently noticed a new patch of small, semi-transparent greeny blobs next to my anemone, and suspect that they’re eggs from my maroon anemonefish (Premnas biaculeatus). Both the fish seem rather protective of them. If they are eggs, it will be the first breeding in my marine tanks.
I’ve also noticed that my Tanganyika shell dwelling cichlids, Neolamprologus multifasciatus, have had their first breeding since I had a filter crash in January that killed about half of them. Quite a few fry are starting to poke their heads up out of the shells.
Rural graffiti
Crop circle in Oxfordshire, England
This week’s episode of the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe had a brief news item mentioning a jellyfish crop circle. Intrigued, I had to google it. One of the podcast panet suggested it was “rural graffiti”, which I think an apt term for art like this.
It must really annoy the farmers though. According to the BBC, the damage to the crop from this one is estimated at £600.
Check out circlemakers.org for more crop circle art.
Having a sense of proportion
Viewing the below video, I can’t help but think of the Total Perspective Vortex in Douglas Adams’s books.
Via Bad Astronomy
Random Quote
It’s an incredible con job when you think about it, to believe something now in exchange for something after death. Even corporations with their reward systems don’t try to make it posthumous.
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