Archive for March, 2009

Superorganisms

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

We often see animals appearing to move in unison, such as bison or fish. However, what looks like a team effort is in fact each animal jostling to get to the middle of the group to evade predators.
By contrast, an ant nest or a beehive can behave as a united organism in its own right. In a beehive, the workers are happy to help the community, even to die, because the queen carries and passes on their genes. However, superorganisms are quite rare, and only exist when the internal conflict within a social group is suppressed - so we cannot use this term, for example, to describe human societies.

Dr. Andy Gardner

Pure Führermusik

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

Blair used Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” as his walk-on song for the 1999 Labour Party conference. For some commentators, its lyric “I have to praise you like I should” represented Blair’s increasingly presidential style: a superstar theme for a superstar prime minister. The Independent’s Anne McElvoy was appalled. “It was pure führermusik,” she said.

Dom Phillips

P.R.O.F.I.T.

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Privatised Resources Or Fortunes Inappropriately Thieved.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Nearly one in three children admit to having carried a knife or a gun.

Ben Russell