Juicio Brennan

Apparently, nature thought of Night of the Living Dead long before humans. The ampulex compressa wasp has the ability to control a cockroach by surgically cutting and injecting venom into the insect’s brain. From Corante:

The wasp slips her stinger through the roach’s exoskeleton and directly into its brain. She apparently use sensors along the sides of the stinger to guide it through the brain, a bit like a surgeon snaking his way to an appendix with a laparoscope. She continues to probe the roach’s brain until she reaches one particular spot that appears to control the escape reflex. She injects a second venom that influences these neurons in such a way that the escape reflex disappears.

From the outside, the effect is surreal. The wasp does not paralyze the cockroach. In fact, the roach is able to lift up its front legs again and walk. But now it cannot move of its own accord. The wasp takes hold of one of the roach’s antennae and leads it–in the words of Israeli scientists who study Ampulex–like a dog on a leash.

The zombie roach crawls where its master leads, which turns out to be the wasp’s burrow. The roach creeps obediently into the burrow and sits there quietly, while the wasp plugs up the burrow with pebbles. Now the wasp turns to the roach once more and lays an egg on its underside. The roach does not resist. The egg hatches, and the larva chews a hole in the side of the roach. In it goes.

The larva grows inside the roach, devouring the organs of its host, for about eight days. It is then ready to weave itself a cocoon–which it makes within the roach as well. After four more weeks, the wasp grows to an adult. It breaks out of its cocoon, and out of the roach as well. Seeing a full-grown wasp crawl out of a roach suddenly makes those Alien movies look pretty derivative.

Maybe you should think twice before you help take out that wasp hive behind Aunt Bettie’s shed….
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Ever stranded on a volcanic island with nothing to eat but game hen and no way to cook it? Me neither. But if it ever did happen, you could create your very own lava oven! The Dolphin Bay Hotel has a series of instructions on how to create your own lava oven and cook in it.

They also have an incredible set of lava photographs.

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Here’s your eye candy for the day. These are shots from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory take of the East Lae apuki lava delta collapse. You can find more stunning pictures on their website.

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Juicio has graciously invited me to post whatever I wanted on his site. He was quick to add that I could not post anything about Texas, so sadly if you want to see a cool Don’t mess With Texas picture you have to click here. Since I am somewhat indecisive and could not choose just one thing to share I have a few links to some of my favorite organizations (FYI, I just graduated with a degree in Early Childhood Education). Enjoy!

Happen Inc. is a non-profit organization that allows adults and children the opportunity to grow and explore the ways of art together.

Project Connect is designed to assist families experiencing homelessness in receiving the quality education that they deserve.

Madame Esmé is best experienced by read her book, Educating Esmé, but this site gives you a good introduction to this amazing woman.