Splot! Publishing

05/07/2024

22/06/2024

Eunice Marie:
Common Nonsense

03/03/2024

Look what my wonderful daughter brought me from the con she attended.

08/02/2024

https://press.uchicago.edu/.imaging/mte/ucp/medium/dam/ucp/books/jacket/978/02/26/79/9780226792965.jpg/jcr:content/9780226792965.jpg Not all books worth reading are available on Amazon. Just a reminder.

20/11/2021

Writing prompt?

: Aliens? Vegetables?

Nope, vegetable and animal bridge mushrooms. They're the myxomycetes, and they can move and hunt for prey or look for the best environment for them. They are born from spores, like mushrooms. Myxomycetes move like huge amoebas, like pulsating masses: their movements seem to be dependent on microfibrils that remember the fibers of the muscles. These ′′blobs′′ crawl (at a speed of 1 cm per hour) and absorb via phagocytosis bacteria, algae, yeasts, protozoa and other organic material; they digest them and expel the remains outside. Not randomly, myxomycetes proliferate where there are plenty of prey: on decomposing logs or on carpets of dead leaves, wet. And so they're often found in the woods: yellow, purple, blue, red, thanks to the pigments they contain.

Credit: Sarah Lloyd (https://sarahlloydmyxos.wordpress.com/)

31/10/2021

Well, it's alligators. And it's Halloween. So... ?

Nile Crocodiles love to eat pumpkins, Cuban Crocodiles just wanna crush 'em. Savannah is gonna show you all the fun we've been having at Gatorland's Gators ...

27/10/2021

I will make a follow up video telling people the email address to send shipping address. I will pull three names out of my hat. This is a 22$ value!

26/09/2021

For 41 years, the little piece of land next to the Arsenal St Fire Station No. 1 was occupied by The Little Book Shop and operated by Margaret Devine

05/08/2021

It's not fun for the ants. Also, read Alligators in Shades of Green if this fascinates you.

But don’t worry, humans are safe ...

04/08/2021

I think I wrote this book report in 4th grade.

Precioussssss

https://imgur.com/gallery/eE8nfu7

18/05/2021

Mentioned in Alligators in Shades of Green.

You’ve heard of GMO crops and seeds, but what are GMO mosquitoes and why are they so important for our collective safety?

18/05/2021

Awww look at this cute little chomper.

08/05/2021

So it begins.

Biotech firm Oxitec launches controversial field test of its insects in Florida after years of push-back from residents and regulatory complications.

01/05/2021

This just makes me sad for these jumpers.

How else should a frog watch what it eats?

23/04/2021

I just found this while researching. I saw it. So now, you have to see it.

02/04/2021

Looking for someone with a Sikh background to read a short novel and give their opinion and/or advice about the handling of a character who has a Sikh religious upbringing. This novel contains graphic violence but not sexual content and minimal cursing. If you think you could give some insights that would help the author, please IM us here. You'll need to provide us an email address. There is no printed copy. You must be able to read a word document. $20 gift card provided as a thank you for this kind service. YOU MUST HAVE EXPERIENCE AS A PERSON OF SIKH FAITH. No age limit, but the book is intended for an audience ranging for early teens to young adult. This book is written in American English.

01/04/2021

This pic made me smile, then I read what they were doing and it made me awwwww.

Whatever else happens for you today, it might be the day that you find out butterflies drink crocodile tears. You’re welcome.

Today’s Moment of Science… absurdly cute commensalism.

Most of us have a passing familiarity with the concept of symbiotic relationships. There are several types of symbiosis. When we think of the concept what often comes to mind is mutualistic symbiosis. This is when both organisms benefit from their relationship. You and the bacteria living in your gut have a symbiotic relationship; you give it a hospitable environment to live in, it helps you p**p regularly, everyone’s happy.

Commensalism is a one-sided form of symbiosis. It’s a relationship between two animals in which one animal benefits and the other doesn’t, but it sustains no perceptible harm either. An animal generally gains housing, nutrients, or transportation from this relationship. It differs from parasitism in that the parasite inflicts a degree of harm on their host.

This type of relationship exists throughout the animal kingdom. The animal boasting the highest pen*s-to-body ratio, the proud barnacle can find a snug home on the side of a whale. Cattle egrets hang around herds of cattle in order to take an opportunistic snack at the bugs that are kicked up while grazing. And in an utterly effing fabulous display, the emperor shrimp takes up a majestic little chariot ride on a sea cucumber for transportation and protection. Google it, thank me later.

So, butterflies.

In parts of the Amazon rainforest, salt is in short supply. Being scarce and vital to life for so many animals, they show stunning resourcefulness to obtain the mineral. Insects can be attracted to urine or f***l matter because of its salt content. A wide array of animals eat clay licks to sate their sodium requirements, including birds, capybaras, jaguars, and anteaters. Even sloths get off their notoriously lazy tuchuses for some salt from the clay lick.

As for butterflies?

They drink turtle tears.

Why the turtle? You might have heard, the turtle is a slow moving critter. It makes for an easy salt lick for the butterflies. The turtles rarely do much to stop this other than occasionally swat them away. They don’t seem wild about it, but they’re serving an ecological niche and it doesn’t seem to hurt them.

Butterflies get their salt from other sources too. Sometimes, they will make do with crocodile tears.

This has been your daily Moment of Science, suggesting you could be more literal when you joke about drinking the tears of your enemies.

Want more tales our bizarre universe and all the critters and chemicals in it delivered right to your inbox? For this and more bonus content, head to patreon.com/scibabe

Image source: Mark Cowan, MSU. He swears these are real.

01/04/2021

The author heard from readers and decided the work wasn't up to his own standards and decided to pull it, and the publisher agreed. This is all around a good story. Don't know why people have a problem with it. It's his book, after all. We all occasionally revisit our work and find things that we're not happy with.

Conservatives are up in arms after the author and publisher of Captain Underpants agreed to halt production of one book that included racist depictions of Asian characters.

22/03/2021

I would recommend this channel regardless. But how fortuitous that he happens to be covering Florida gators.

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