corallivorous predator

Underwritten in part by Google, we learn via Slashdot that those working to preserve Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have gotten a new, powerful ally in the form of Rangerbot, an autonomous aquatic drone that is designed to detect and administer a lethal injection to a very specific type of starfish plaguing the reef.
The crown-of-thorns starfish feeds exclusively on coral polyps—which makes it seem already like the most rubbish, laziest hunter in the animal kingdom already—and while not an invasive species, overfishing and climate change have made those creatures who’d help keep the starfish’s numbers in check are few and few and the starfish is free to munch on the coral unchecked. Scuba divers have been culling this poisonous pest responsible for coral bleaching and nearly as much harm as fertiliser run-off, overfishing and warming oceans for years themselves, but this drone will patrol the reef day and night, programmed not to give its poisoned injection if there is any doubt about the identity and guilt of the target, as well as gathering a wealth of data on the health and well-being of the ecosystem. What do you think? It strikes me as a preferable alternative than swallowing a spider to catch the fly but deputising a drone with license to kill seems (especially in the light of a New Zealand island debating the outlawing of cats for similar reasons) problematic.

le syndrome d’effondrement des colonies d’abeilles

France has announced a ban—restrictions that go above what the European Union has deemed allowable, permitting the use of some members of this class of pesticides for greenhouse farming only where cross-contamination is less likely—on all neonicontinoids, long suspected of being a contributing factor to colony collapse disorder and the general loss of insect life that plays a vital role in maintaining the food chain. This class of pesticides were introduced in the 1990s as a less toxic alternative to existing products on the market, and structured on the nicotine molecule, the companies pitched their new formulations as safer and targeted without lingering in the environment.
Not quite able to pinpoint the lethal mechanism, the pathology, the industry invoked other factors like cell phone signals, monoculturing and noxious automotive emissions—which cannot be ruled out—but also possibly served as a cover and distraction for the real dangers of this substance. Researchers have now taken a nuanced, holistic approach to their field studies and suspect that they may have been overlooking the addictive property that these chemicals have for insect neurology and behaviour, making the bees exposed to it chemically dependent on the substance and thus overriding the instincts of the individual and the hive to make good choices about where to forage and how to defend the hive. It’s like Drone Dad that flew off to get a pack of cigarettes and never returned. If science is only getting wise to this consequence in bees, just imagine how disruptive introducing an addictive substance could be for less-studied bug lif, even when they are considered pests.  I hope other places follow France’s lead and not enter into large-scale experiments prematurely and uninformed.

scrollbar

Via Slashdot, we get to beta-test an interesting prototype created by a group at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario that references the papyrus and parchment scrolls of Antiquity to create a pad-device, hand-held hybrid that can offer a lot of extra screen real estate wound around a cylinder. With rotary wheels on both ends, one can flip through contacts and bookmarks like on a Rolodex and the potential for haptic (gesture-based) interface and commands are pretty immense, as well as the implications for being able to track one’s virtual timeline and history by physically unfurling it or rolling it up to make it more portable.

cooper square

Having faith that such decisions are not made lightly and hard choices have to be deliberated and considerations taken for the welfare of staff, but losing another journalistic institution—this time in the alternative weekly Village Voice, which was read all over the world and had inestimable cultural and musical influence over its six decade run—makes me wonder where are the true patrons (I suppose that might be willing to adopt a newspaper, especially the local ones that are disappearing at frightening rates to the severe detriment to community cohesion and engagement, until it can rehabilitate itself enough so its at least no longer loosing money.
This is made especially alarming at times when reporting itself is under assault with the legitimate news outlets characterised as the enemy of the people and subject to censorship while propagandists and panderers are lauded for their loyalty as patriots. I am reminded of the exchange between Charles Foster Kane and his banker and guardian Walter Parks Thatcher, to whom Kane replies when accused of squandering his personal fortunes on an insoluble venture, “You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mister Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in… sixty years.” Even adjusting for inflation and how the backing and business of reporting has been transformed by the internet and social media, I am still fairly confident that we are flush with enough funds to keep what’s worth keeping afloat.