<< “If people in the literary world groan,” Mr. Engdahl (Horace Engdahl) added, “one must remind them that the gods don’t write, they dance and they sing.” >>
Joe Coscarelli. Bob Dylan Sends Warm Words but Skips Nobel Prize Ceremonies. Dec. 10, 2016.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/arts/bob-dylan-skips-nobel-prize-ceremonies.html
<< Byzantine failures are considered the most general and most difficult class of failures among the failure modes >>
<< The objective of Byzantine fault tolerance is to be able to defend against Byzantine failures, in which components of a system fail with symptoms that prevent some components of the system from reaching agreement among themselves, where such agreement is needed for the correct operation of the system >>
<< Byzantine failures imply no restrictions, which means that failed node can generate arbitrary data, pretending to be a correct one, which makes fault tolerance utterly difficult. >> Nov. 19, 2016.
<< males from two species of giant hissing cockroaches from Madagascar may have evolved different physical characteristics based on their strategies for winning a female >>
<< "These cockroaches are acting like red deer in the rut, competing for females by combat, but if they don't have the size and strength to win fights outright, they can try and sneak mates. A male cockroach seems to be adapted to be either a lover or a fighter, and what's interesting is that they do this before they become fully adult, at the final moult." >> Kate Durrant.
<< Animals that must compete for a mate can do so in various ways: some males will defend a female from rival males by force, while others will sneak past larger males and mate with females behind their backs >>
<< These two strategies, 'fighters' and 'lovers', are associated with different behaviours and characteristics >>
AA << found that the Flat-horned cockroach, which is small with short horns (as its name suggests), was non-aggressive and had large testes, which indicates that it is more likely to avoid fighting by mating with females behind the backs of larger males, while the Wide-horned cockroach, which is large and heavily armoured with large horns, was highly aggressive in combat between males and was not well-endowed in terms of testes size >>
Species of giant cockroaches employ different strategies in the mating game. Nov. 8, 2016
http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-species-giant-cockroaches-strategies-game.html
Kate L. Durrant, Ian M. Skicko, et al. Comparative morphological trade-offs between pre- and post- copulatory sexual selection in Giant hissing cockroaches (Tribe: Gromphadorhini). Nature. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 36755. Publ online Nov. 07, 2016. doi: 10.1038/srep36755
<< 3. ‘GOMORRAH’ Italy (SundanceTV) The first season of this series, a traditional Mafia saga set in present-day Naples, was an addictive blend of speed, tension, desolate atmosphere and stark violence. While it raided the histories of both Italian and American film and gangster mythology for its look and style, it felt distinctly European, with an operatic realism unlike anything on American TV. >>
James Poniewozik, Mike Hale, Neil Genzlinger. The Best TV Shows of 2016. Dec 5, 2016
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/arts/television/best-tv-shows.html
AA << report snake species throughout the globe possess a mutation that protects them from a class of cardiotonic steroids known as bufadienolides, contained in the skin of some toads, even if the toads aren't part of the snakes' diet. >>
Feast without fear: Scientist says more snake species resist toxin. Nov. 22, 2016
http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-feast-scientist-snake-species-resist.html
Shabnam Mohammadi, Zachariah Gompert, et al. Toxin-resistant isoforms of Na+/K+ -ATPase in snakes do not closely track dietary specialization on toads. Proc. of the Royal Soc. B: Biol. Sci. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2111. Publ. 16 Nov. 2016.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1842/20162111
<< With five distinct kinds of clicks, multiple tones and strident vowels — vocalized with a quick choking sound — the Taa language, spoken by a few thousand people in Botswana and Namibia , is believed by most linguists to have the largest sound inventory of any tongue in the world >>
Bryant Rousseau. Which Language Uses the Most Sounds? Click 5 Times for the Answer. Nov. 25, 2016.
<< Flamingos are very good dancers. They twist and preen, they scratch their heads, they march in unison. >>
Nicholas Bakalar. Flamingo Mating Rules: 1. Learn the Funky Chicken. Nov. 28, 2016.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/science/flamingos-dancing-sexual-display.html
Charlotte Perrot, Arnaud Bechet, et al. Sexual display complexity varies non-linearly with age and predicts breeding status in greater flamingos. Nature. Scientific Reports 6 (2016); Article number: 36242. doi: 10.1038/srep36242
