#other groups of insects. lepidoptera could be Interesting

[the-faultofdaedalus]

im currently lost in the sauce imagining other animal groups evolving eusociality, how are you doing

[dansnaturepictures]

Seeing a Swallowtail at Hickling Broad 8th July 2023

Two weeks ago another dream of mine came true this year when we were lucky to see a Swallowtail late on in their flying season at Hickling Broad. I felt like doing a post delving a little deeper into the experience and what it means to me. 

As mentioned in previous posts about seeing it, it was something that I had wanted to see for years. I look back on my childhood after getting into birdwatching, and as I have said before the big moment that got me into butterflies - and was really as much of a life changing moment as when I first got into birds or rather a life defining moment for me getting into this amazing interest - was seeing a Silver-washed Fritillary in the summer of 2010 at Bolderwood in the New Forest and saying I’d like to know what that is. The next day a lepidoptera ID book turned up and I’ve not looked back for butterflies and other insects since. But the interesting thing is I didn’t not notice or acknowledge butterflies prior to that. It actually came to light from a photo taken that I first saw Silver-washed Fritillary a year earlier at Acres Down in the New Forest and I recall a picture of a Brimstone being in a pack I had when a member of the RSPB youth group the Wildlife Explorers and seeing one back then. And I recall somewhere within those pre-seriously into butterfly days me hearing of Swallowtail and feeling impressed by their beauty. So it’s long been a butterfly I’ve known and been one I so wanted to see. I think I was also fascinated by the idea of (bar continental ones coming over that I learnt of years later) them only being found in the Norfolk Broads in the UK. There was a certain unattainable quality about them which made them exciting through the years as my butterfly interest intensified and from Purple Hairstreak to Northern Brown Argus we were lucky to see many wonderful species. And it was something I dreamed of. 

It was something we were meaning to do over the years, get to Norfolk where we have been a fair few times now in the season at the right place to try and see one. We first discovered Hickling Broad when going there when seeing the Bee-eaters in July 2022 in the quarry at Trimingham. One week later than our summer Norfolk visit this year, we called in there and saw some fantastic stuff at a wonderful wild site on the off chance a late Swallowtail might be about. We had toyed with the idea of a Swallowtail attempt trip among everything else this year but it didn’t really look to be materializing, until the sensational Bee-eaters returning lured us to Norfolk. RSPB Strumpshaw Fen was where we planned to head the day after going to Trimingham for the Bee-eaters on short weekend trip to try and see a Swallowtail, ultimately the weather possibly proved not on our side overall to see a Swallowtail at that big site for them on the Sunday but seeing our first ever Norfolk Hawkers, Marsh Harrier and many other brilliant things was fantastic. Amazingly seeing the Bee-eaters again early in the time we spent at the quarry on the Saturday left us with enough time to head to Hickling again, where a year before we had seen a new butterfly for us in the form of an Essex Skipper, to see if we could repeat this on a pretty hot day with sunny spells and the sun sitting on the edge of clouds nicely at times. 

In a few utopian minutes at Hickling Broad we managed it. We felt hopeful taking a shortcut path going well into the wetland habitat and the sun came out more prominently. Me spotting a gorgeous Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly landing well led to us pausing for a bit. And then it happened. In an unbelievable few minutes I saw the unmistakable humongous, creamy, starkly and divinely black and white patterned butterfly dash past me. I instantly said “Swallowtail” and ensured my Mum could see it, who was in disbelief as this butterfly sailed through the air strongly flying over vegetation allowing us a real good look before disappearing - interestingly as I drew comparisons to the other large butterfly we’ve been so lucky to see over the years and had seen this year at Knepp a week earlier the Purple Emperor as this is the tree associated with them - up towards and over an oak tree. We were ecstatic that our on the off chance had paid off, it was a thrilling and glee-filled few minutes taking in this amazing butterfly. We were astonished, and felt so fortunate to see it.

On an afternoon where we’d already seen the splendid Bee-eaters at the Trimingham quarry and seen our first Brown Hawker, Ruddy Darter and Emerald Damselfly of the year at Hickling Broad, we proceeded seeing beautiful Peacock butterfly and Garden Tiger moth caterpillars and I was jubilant. Just like the Otters on Mull in April after so many years of hoping, I sort of had dared to imagine this moment and in a flash it had happened. I nicknamed Swallowtail my Lesser Spotted Woodpecker of butterflies being a bird I had wanted to see for years before we did, and we had done it. I felt enriched by now being able to say I had seen a Swallowtail. At this stage in our wildlife watching it’s quite frequent that something we see for the first time is something we might not really know of until the sighting is reported or not be something we know well, but a Swallowtail we knew exactly what to look for in terms of the adult butterfly so there was an added sense of satisfaction to finally seeing one. What a place, what a species, what a weekend! 

It wasn’t a landing sighting so no photos, so I thought I would post five from the walk at Hickling Broad below. 

The Four-spotted Chaser, in a totally jocular way I said this could be the greatest of this species I’ve ever seen as had I not spotted it we wouldn’t have stopped and further down the path who knows whether we’d have seen the Swallowtail. 

A view taken quite a way before the point we saw it, but showing similar habitat and conditions to how we did. 

Another view from the walk round. 

The Peacock caterpillar, a momentous day for me for butterflies capped off as this is the first butterfly caterpillar I have ever knowingly seen, every caterpillar I’d seen and managed to identify before that point was a moth.

Ruddy Darter 

[evoldir]

Fwd: Graduate position: UBremen_Germany.ButterflyUrbanEvolution

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Graduate position: UBremen_Germany.ButterflyUrbanEvolution > Date: 5 May 2023 at 06:31:30 BST > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > PhD in urban evolution of Lepidoptera at the University of Bremen > (Deadline: 9 June 2023) > > I (Matthew Nielsen) am starting a new research group at the University > of Bremen in Germany which will use insects to study evolutionary and > plastic responses to global change. As part of this group, I am hiring > a PhD student for a project on urban evolution in butterflies. > > The PhD project will study the adaptation of butterfly seasonal > plasticity to cities across Europe using a combination of field research > and laboratory common garden experiments. As part of the project, the > student will get to participate in field work in cities across Europe > with an international network of collaborators. > > Please read the full posting here for more > information about the project and qualifications: > https://ift.tt/4u3z5vf > > Application: > > To apply, please send the following to nielsen.matthew@gmail.com: 1) Cover > letter (at most 2 pages) describing your interest in the position and > relevant experience and qualifications, 2) CV, 3) unofficial transcripts > (or other listing of courses taken), 4) a sample of your scientific > writing, and 5) contact information for two references (who may be > contacted during the review of applications). All materials should be in > English. The scientific writing sample could be your Master’s thesis > or something else you have already written. It does not need to be the > length of a full thesis, and if your thesis is not written in English, > it could be a short (~1 page) English-language summary of your thesis > work or something else that demonstrates your writing. > > Materials should be submitted by Friday, 9 June 2023 for full > consideration. The position is available immediately, but the starting > date is flexible (ideally by September 2023). > > If you have any questions about the position, the application, or anything > else, please contact me at the above email address. > > Matthew Nielsen > soon-to-be Junior Professor > Faculty of Biology and Chemistry > University of Bremen, Germany > > nielsen.matthew@gmail.com > > > Matthew Nielsen

[magioffire]

“What if there was a moth mafia but it was called the mothia? Gives illuminati a whole other meaning…” -Thack/derobergeist

".....How much, exactly, have you had tonight?" At this point, it was beyond Valeriu to guess what chemical cocktail the surgeon decided to delight in tonight, but it certainly was amusing. Ever since Vali revealed his interest in insects, particularly moths, he'd been cracking jokes more often than Vali would usually expect from such a usually intense and often serious individual. And he wondered how much worse the teasing might become once Thackery learned of Vali's true nature....he could already hear the playful jabs in his mind. He smiled and sighed, shaking his head. "What sort of organized crime would a group of lepidoptera even get up to? The stealing of lamps and lanterns?"

[inaturalist]

Leaf Litter Larva in Australia - Observation of the Week, 6/29/19

Our Observation of the Week is this Osmylops Split-footed Lacewing larva, seen in Australia by dhobern!

As a primary student in the UK, Donald Hobern remembers that his two school projects were “Animals” and “Wildlife,” explaining to me “my teacher forced me to expand the topic a little by including some plants.” Although interested in insects, he found contemporary guides lacking and thus got into birdwatching. “I also got involved in local naturalists' societies working on reserve work parties or watching over nests of Little Terns,” he recalls. “Here's a picture of me (on the left) from the local newspaper sometime in the mid seventies.”

By the 1990s, Donald - equipped with the internet and improved field guides - got into mothing and graduated from sketching (below) to digital photography. He eventually started working for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in 2007, and says “since then, I've had the privilege of working on international efforts to improve access to biodiversity data (GBIF, Atlas of Living Australia, now International Barcode of Life and Species 2000). Personally, I've continued to study and photograph moths and pretty much any other species I encounter.”

One of those species, of course, is the remarkable insect at the top of this page. Looking for caterpillars in the Eucalyptus leaf litter by his home in Canberra, Donald placed some leaves in this emergence trap. “One of the first insects to appear, sitting on the inside of the upper plastic container was this larva,” he explains.

I would never have spotted it sitting on the surface of a leaf. Even on the clear plastic, at first glance, it could have been a dirty spot or some mould. The projections from the abdomen softened the shape considerably…

It mostly sat very still with the jaws completely drawn back and hidden behind the front fringe of the abdomen...At one point, it was sitting facing very close to the edge of the tin and an ant ran past in front of it. The jaws clearly snapped shut and hit the edge of the tin because there was a ringing noise and it was propelled backwards several centimeters.

Lacewings are members of the order Neuroptera, an order which includes other insects such as antlions and owlflies, and the bizarre (and totally cool) mantidflies. Split-footed lacewings, like this one, are actually taxonomically distinct from the more familiar green and brown lacewings, but like other neuroptera larvae, they have large mandibles and are predatory. After undergoing metamorphosis, they will look like this.

Donald (above, in Madagascar) has been an iNat user since 2012, and uses it to manage his own observations. He adds IDs to observations of plume moths, where he is far and away the top identifier, as well as Australian lepidoptera. “I greatly appreciate the expertise of others who amaze me with their wide international knowledge of groups I consider much more difficult than moths (beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, etc.), 

I also value the way that iNaturalist enables my observations and those of the whole community to contribute via GBIF to research questions, conservation and improving the knowledge base we need to understand biodiversity patterns and trends.

I continually recommend iNaturalist as far and away the best and most comprehensive platform to amateur naturalists and others to share their observations and learn from one another.

- by Tony Iwane. Photo of Donald Hobern in Madagascar by Kyle Copas.

- You can check out more of Donald’s photos on Flickr.

- Green lacewing larvae will cover themselves with debris - including the remains of their prey!

- This isn’t the first larval neuropteran that was chosen as Observation of the Week!

[nanonaturalist]

I've been meaning to message you since the moth appreciation post because like I need to talk/know more about that moth that lays eggs in water? What the f-ing what? That is mental. I didn't know we had aquatic moths! (I currently have lots of Garden Tiger babies at home for a uni experiment. I love my fuzzy babies.)

Hello, Friend! Isn’t that ridiculous?? I only recently learned about Petrophila moths [link], too, and when I read that about their caterpillars, my mind practically exploded. Nature is so weird. But these moths with aquatic caterpillars caught my notice for a totally different reason initially: they are jumping spider mimics.

You can see from these photos that they’re not very large. If you weren’t really paying attention, you may not even notice anything unusual about them. The first time I saw them, I definitely didn’t notice that they were spider mimics. But one night, I went to a talk about moths, and the presenter talked about these and I thought it was awesome! She had a mercury vapor lamp set up outside after the talk for us to see some moths, and a Petrophila showed up. I was super excited! When I went to add the photo to iNaturalist, thinking I’d seen something new, it turned out I had already seen them at least four times.

You may not even be able to see how these are spider mimics. They don’t really *look* like spiders, do they? But remember, our eyes are much different than insect eyes, and we have the benefit of seeing things from far away. We can see this isn’t a spider. But imagine you are a small predatory insect or a spider, and you are in front of this moth looking at it. What will you see?

Jumping spiders above are Dimorphic Jumper (left) and Bold Jumper

Anyway, back to the aquatic caterpillars. I’m sure you know that most moths and butterflies have perfectly normal caterpillars who eat leaves, make poops, and turn into perfectly normal moths and butterflies. So finding out that one type refuse to play by those rules just seems super weird. But is it, really? Or is it just weird because… well, we have an idea of what caterpillars are supposed to be, whether or not that idea is accurate?

For example, look at some other insect orders with complete metamorphosis (they have larvae, pupate, and then become adults). Flies are a huge group. Where do fly larvae live? You know about maggots and food, but what about mosquitos? Those are flies too, and their larvae are aquatic. What about parasitic botflies that grow in animal tissue? What about gall midges who parasitize plants? Caterpillars will grow up in equally diverse habitats (although, I don’t know of an animal parasite… yet). Same with beetles–larvae will live on plants, underground, in water, in wood… 

But let’s look a little closer to moths and butterflies, since most caterpillars are fairly predictable in terms of habitat, and the exceptions aren’t very well known. Here’s a phylogenetic tree showing the evolutionary history of insects. In this tree, branches that are closer together are more closely related.

Note: I found this tree in an image search, but I was unable to locate the original source. I would love to credit it if I can! Let me know if you have seen this in a book before.

In this tree, I have circled the branch including Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). Look at who else is in that circle: Trichoptera (caddisflies). Below are a couple examples of caddisflies. Chances are you have seen them before (they are pretty ubiquitous near ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers!), but had no idea what they were.

Caddisflies are also very difficult to identify. The one on the left is in the Macrostemum genus (zebra caddisflies), but the one on the right… uh… I’ll get back to you on that one.

There are a lot of moths that look pretty similar to caddisflies, so it’s easy to see that they are closely related.

Left to right: Yellow-headed Lichen Moth, Belted Grass-veneer Moth, Bluegrass Webworm Moth

These look so similar, in fact, you may ask how they even grouped them into different orders. This is easy to answer if you know your scientific names AND Greek! Moths & Butterflies = Lepidoptera (Lepido = scale; ptera = wing)Caddisflies = Trichoptera (Tricho = hair; ptera = wing)

Since I have an electron microscope at work (the “nano” in my username refers to my background in nanotechnology), I felt obligated to illustrate this. The white bar on each image shows the magnification. “um” refers to “micrometer,” or 1/1,000 of a millimeter. A human hair is typically about 100 um wide. (If you have questions about electron microscopes, let me know! These things are fun!)

Typical Lepidoptera (Moth & Butterfly) Wing

Above: Images of the scales on an American Snout Butterfly wing obtained with Scanning Electron Microscopy. Compare the scales in the middle of the wing to those on the edge of the wing.

Typical Trichoptera (Caddisfly) Wing

Above: Images of the hairs on a caddisfly wing obtained with Scanning Electron Microscopy. Note the similarities in the how the caddisfly hairs and butterfly scales attach to the wings.

Looking at these images, it’s pretty clear that they are different. But you have to look *very closely* to notice this difference, and when you look even closer than that, you start to see similarities again.

Guess where caddisfly larvae grow up! If you don’t already know about caddisfly larvae, oh boy, they’re fun!

It may be hard to tell, but I took this photo with an underwater camera. Caddisfly larvae build little cases by cementing together stones, pine needles, sand, or a variety of other things. You can sometimes identify the larvae based on what materials they use and what shape the cases are in. An interesting aside: if you raise these, you can get them to build their cases out of whatever you want. At least one person got creative, and I’m happy to see that she is still selling caddisfly jewelry over 20 years later!

I don’t mean to turn this post into an advertisement, but her stuff is beautiful and super interesting. She describes her process and some info about the species of caddisfly she raises on this page of her website [link]. Photo credits go to her–I totally stole these images.

Caddisfly larvae are exclusively aquatic. Moths and butterflies are slightly younger than caddisflies, so they have had more time to evolve their own method of development (mostly on land). I believe the Petrophila moths are one of the older moth genera (but definitely not the oldest!), so they could be like Cetaceans (you know, whales and such who had gone *back into the water* after they realized they were cooler than land mammals).

I have not yet had the honor of witnessing a little baby Petrophila scooting along the bottoms of ponds, eating algae and whatnot, so I don’t have my own photos to share, but there are a couple on their bugguide page [link] (just click the link for “caterpillars” to filter out all the adults). They more or less look like a normal caterpillar, except … a little wetter than usual. The females will go completely underwater to lay their eggs (they will carry a little air bubble with them, apparently). And typically moths don’t live too much longer after laying eggs, so who knows if they ever fly again. I’m sure the fish don’t mind finding them!

I hope I satisfied your desperate yearning for aquatic moth secrets! The closer you look, the weirder nature gets. Jeez.

Posted June 22, 2018 (finally!) All photos are mine except the caddisfly jewelry, phylogenetic tree source TBD. Everything was seen in Texas except the caddisfly larva was in a stream near Crater Lake in Oregon.

[kathleenseiber]

How gross ‘chastity belts’ shape butterfly evolution

New research digs into the role sexual conflict between male and female plays in butterfly evolution.

Some male butterflies go to extreme lengths to ensure their paternity—sealing their mate’s genitalia with a waxy “chastity belt” to prevent future liaisons. But female butterflies can fight back by evolving larger or more complex organs that are tougher to plug.

“Butterflies and moths continue to surprise us,”

Males, in turn, counterattack by fastening on even more fantastic structures with winglike projections, slippery scales, or pointy hooks.

It’s a battle that pits male and female reproductive interests against one another, with the losing sex evolving adaptations to thwart the winner’s strategies.

Could this sexual one-upmanship ultimately result in new species? It’s a longstanding hypothesis and one that would help explain how butterflies became so diverse. But it has proven difficult to test.

Brush-footed butterflies are not the only group that makes mating plugs. The regal Apollo butterfly, Parnassius charltonius, is a swallowtail that shares this trait. (Credit: Carvalho et. al.)

Ana Paula dos Santos de Carvalho, a doctoral student in the Kawahara Lab at the Florida Museum of Natural History, tackled the question in the new study of mating plugs in brush-footed butterflies.

She traced the trait’s evolution and analyzed the rate at which new species appeared across the Acraeini tribe, a group of about 300 species. Unexpectedly, lineages with and without mating plugs evolved at the same rate, suggesting other factors such as habitat may be responsible for driving the insects’ diversity.

“I was expecting to see an association between plugs and new species appearing faster, but my work suggested there was no link at all,” Carvalho says. “Other studies had proposed a connection between sexual conflict and diversity, so these results came as a surprise.”

Found in about 1% of butterfly species, external mating plugs, also known as sphragis, can resemble a scab or a blob of petroleum jelly in some species while others take astonishingly architectural forms.

After mating, male butterflies excrete a pre-molded plug from intricate abdominal ducts that give the plug its complex shape. The plug hardens on the female, blocking her reproductive organs, but not the orifice she uses to lay eggs. (Credit: Carvalho et. al.)

But they all serve the same purpose: enforcing female monogamy. Because a female butterfly fertilizes the majority of her eggs with sperm from her last partner, males have a vested interest in blocking rivals.

Females, however, stand to benefit by mating with more than one male. Another partner may provide higher-quality sperm, and multiple mating events can increase the genetic diversity of offspring. Plus, females get a health boost from the nutrients included in males’ sperm packets.

“…we still have a lot to learn about what drives insect diversity and the role sexual conflict plays in evolution.”

To help guarantee their own successors, males in plug-producing species omit the courtship behavior that often precedes mating in other butterflies. Instead, “males pursue the females, grab them midair, and drag them to the ground,” Carvalho says. After depositing their sperm, males excrete a pre-molded mating plug, which hardens on the female’s abdomen.

Plugs may indirectly constrain males as well. Making a mating plug is an expensive investment of time and resources, potentially limiting how many females a male can inseminate, she says.

Whether females can remove the plug requires further study, but in her fieldwork and museum specimen analysis, Carvalho found the structures were often partially broken or missing in species with smaller, more delicate plugs. In species with large, complex plugs, she usually found the structures intact and rarely encountered a female without one—a sign that males may be “winning.”

But Carvalho’s study revealed some female victories as well. In the evolutionary family tree she constructed for Acraeini butterflies, she found evidence that mating plugs originated once across the tribe and were subsequently lost in some species, suggesting a successful female counteroffensive. Wide variations in the shape and size of female genitalia also hint at attempts to render mating plugs ineffective.

“Butterflies and moths continue to surprise us,” says coauthor Akito Kawahara, curator at the Florida Museum’s McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. “This study suggests we still have a lot to learn about what drives insect diversity and the role sexual conflict plays in evolution.”

The research appears in Systematic Biology.

Additional coauthors are from the Florida Museum, the Natural History Museum of Geneva, and the University of Richmond.

Funding from Brazil’s National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development and the US National Science Foundation supported the research.

Source: University of Florida

The post How gross ‘chastity belts’ shape butterfly evolution appeared first on Futurity.

How gross ‘chastity belts’ shape butterfly evolution published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

[speculative-evolution]

SOURCE

The beginning of the therozoic era marked a new beginning for many clades around the earth with the subsequent extinction in the late Cenozoic (144 million years after humanity) has given way to an explosion of life that began to fill the void left and retake the great number of niches available. Of course, with the start of the reconstruction of the world also the biological relationships between animals and plants reemerged. With such catastrophe many types of pollinating animals along with related plants perished by the great ecological disturbances, however, some of them survived and returned to restore such behavior, mainly by insects such as Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera. However, by vertebrates such as birds or small mammals, long time that several of the groups that were mainly pollinators and nectarivorous became extinct, and even despite having been subsequently replaced by new variants of other groups, these could not fight the great extinction and disappeared definitively.

The tops of the trees during the Haemonova period, more than 166 million years after humanity have been colonized by an interesting variety of new arboreal creatures, part descendants of the few surviving mammals, even various birds, and with great prominence the descendants of crocodiles known as Caenocrura, and quite an active group derived from crocodiles that had appeared before the catastrophe of the Cenozoic, who survived and managed to take advantage the disappearance of several of its competitors. There are both carnivores such as folivores and frugivorous, and several insectivorous, however, only a small kind of them has managed to adopt a completely nectarivorous diet and become one of the first vectors of pollination vertebrate for flowering plants of this era, a singular arboreal quadruped, the Bumbletail (Apigatoris himenopodus). This small gliding crocodylomorph is one of several forms derived from the Caenocrura, of the suborder Auspictidae but who did not develop the real flight, this species have a measure of about 15 cm long and with a weight of 160-180 grams. This species live around the coasts of North America, which with the warm global climate, has led to the expansion of tropical forests in much of the territory. They are covered with hair-like filamentary structures, which play a thermoregulatory function, keeping the body temperature constant. The color on top is a dark beige hue, with some patterns of a lighter shade in the patagium, while in the bottom is completely white. Its most prominent feature is the long beak-shaped jaw, almost devoid of teeth at the tip but with a little amount of them in the back. The reason for the hypertrophied beak is for the eating habits, as similar to the extinct hummingbirds they used to get the nectar that is located within the flowers; it feeds on a wide variety, but has a preference for a type of tree with pink /purple color flowers. For the required amount of nectar, the Bumbletail visit about 200 to 400 flowers on a single day. At the top of the beak, near the nostrils, are located a couple of specialized “hairs” which can trap the pollen, and thus transport it to pollinate other flowers. In its tail, have a group of long keratinous plates projecting along the top, and depending on gender, varies the color: females have yellow plates, while males have strong orange plates.

Most of the time are solitary animals just getting together in small groups around the trees when are feeding, however they are able to maintain a monogamy relationship where both male and female remain together for the rest of their life. The female always choose the male, and the males to achieve be chosen by the female, this should make a kind of ritual dance which involves moving the legs and the tail, specially highlight its orange plates. If the male remains constant until he convinces the female, she would choose him to procreate and stay permanently as a couple; this is hard because these dances would last for hours and would involve more males which are around the female at the same time. In the given case one of them dies, automatically they return to seek a new partner. Like any other archosaurs, they lay eggs; they have to create nests near the highest part of the trees where the female lays about four to six eggs, which incubate for a period of 50 days. At birth the chicks stay for about a month in the care of the parents, being fed a based on insects and predigested nectar. It takes less than a couple of months to completely abandon the nest and at 4 years sexually mature, and has a life expectancy of around 25 years.

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

GB Studios, Batman & Human Gene Editing

Hi, hello and welcome to another amazing episode from Nerds Amalgamated. Once again we enjoy bringing you this slice of entertainment from the world of the NERD pop culture news, where all are welcome. We pause for a moment to pay our respect to the victims of the cowardly bombings in Sri Lanka over Easter. Also we pause to honour the ANZACs, those individuals who have helped defend Australia and New Zealand for over a century.

            First topic is from the Professor, and it is about an open source game making program that enables the creation of 8-bit type games. Useable on web-browsers and portable devices such as the Nintendo Gameboy (All trademarks acknowledged – so don’t sue us please Nintendo, Buck is still not happy with you). This is looking like a fun way of making your own games and also introducing coding and game development to a new generation.

            Then we look at a birthday celebration for Batman, 80 years old and still giving crime a beat down. Yep, there is a return of the quadrilogy from the 90’s to cinemas. So grab you friends, dig those happy pants out of the cupboard and shake up that hair spray and head on down. You get to see the two Michael Keaton Batman movies, followed by Val Kilmer and then George Clooney. We discuss Bat-nipple gate and how fun these movies were. Plus we hear how tragic Buck was at decorating his bedroom as a teenager.

            Next up we look at further plans to make use of CRISPR for gene editing, this time to prevent hereditary diseases. Say hi to the start of Gattaca folks, we have a group of mad scientists running around with questionable ethics who don’t watch movies. Next they will be telling us about how they want to remake dinosaurs and release them into the wild, like that other movie. Don’t these people ever learn to think about the consequences of their actions?

            We finish off with the usual shout out, remembrances, birthdays and events. As always take care of each other and stay hydrated.

EPISODE NOTES:

Sri Lankan Easter Bombing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Sri_Lanka_Easter_bombings

Anzac Day - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day

GB Studios - https://www.gbstudio.dev/

      - https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bg1xej/gb_studio_is_an_opensource_visual_game_maker_to/

Original Batman Quadrilogy - https://screenrant.com/batman-original-movie-quadrilogy-returning-theaters/

CRISPR Human Gene Editing - http://discovermagazine.com/2019/may/repairing-the-future

Games Currently playing

DJ

– Mortal Kombat 11 – https://store.steampowered.com/app/976310/Mortal_Kombat11/

Buck

– Assassin’s Creed Unity - https://store.steampowered.com/app/289650/Assassins_Creed_Unity/

Professor

– Adrenaline the board game - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/202408/adrenaline

Other topics discussed

Anzac Day road closures

- https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/full-list-of-anzac-day-road-closures-in-brisbane/news-story/21e0848fde4b685faaa4a416adf98018

Nintendo shuts down Emuparadise

- https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/275146-retro-gaming-site-emuparadise-shuts-down-as-nintendo-hits-the-warpath

Nintendo shuts down Pokemon Uranium

- https://www.polygon.com/2016/8/14/12472616/pokemon-uranium-taken-down-nintendo

Nintendo takes down Commodore 64 Remake of Super Mario Bros

- https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/04/nintendo-takes-down-c64-remake-of-super-mario-bros/

Batman Movies

- Batman (1989 film) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(1989_film)

- Batman Returns (1992 film) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Returns

- Batman Forever (1992 film) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Forever

- Batman & Robin (1995 film) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_%26_Robin_(film)

Joker actors in Batman movies and other media

- Jack Nicholson (1989 Batman film Joker) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Nicholson

- Heath Ledger (2008 Batman film Joker) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heath_Ledger

- Mark Hamill (1992 Batman: The Animated Series Joker) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hamill

Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl in Batman & Robin 1997)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Silverstone

Actors portraying as Batman

- Michael Keaton (1989 & 1992 Batman) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Keaton

- Val Kilmer (1992 Batman) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Kilmer

- George Clooney (1997 Batman) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Clooney

Gattaca (1997 film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca

Dynamite also known as TNT – TriNitroToluene is a compound in dynamite but is not the same, there is another piece of trivia you can use in the trivia night to stump people

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamite

Guided bombs also known as Smart bombs, but smart bombs also have many other variants ranging from types of explosions, for example the bunker busters, to warhead variants on ICBMs which separate and loose multiple strikes over an extended area or separate targets.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_bomb

Eugenics

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

U.N findings: US Forces kill more Afghan Civilians than ISIS & Taliban in 2019

- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/24/unprecedented-un-finds-us-backed-forces-killed-more-afghan-civilians-taliban-and?fbclid=IwAR3xU6beak4Ega5DO8VeaoF77-Mn3lPSR6m5E_Ibg8lhTPMYgC4MHkSoeiA

Image comparison of Mortal Kombat Sonya Blade (MK 9 vs MK 11)

- https://am21.akamaized.net/tms/cnt/uploads/2019/01/Sonya-Blade.jpg

Frank Welker (voice actor)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Welker

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (actor)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary-Hiroyuki_Tagawa

MK 11 Skins total cost = $6440

- https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/24/mortal-kombat-11-skin-price-6440/

Ed Boon’s response to total cost of MK 11 skins

- https://twitter.com/noobde/status/1121243237388357632

Mortal Kombat 11 voice cast list

- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9398566/

Master Chief (Halo character)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Chief_(Halo)

Last chance to download Assassin’s Creed Unity for free (Now expired)

- https://www.gamespot.com/articles/last-chance-to-get-assassins-creed-unity-for-free-/1100-6466327/

Star Trek Beyond (2016 film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Beyond

Did Shakespeare write his own plays

- https://www.history.com/news/did-shakespeare-really-write-his-own-plays

Shirley Temple (drink)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple_(drink)

Email Bomb (internet virus)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_bomb

Monkey selfie copyright dispute

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_dispute

Kanellos Kanellopoulos (Greek cyclist who piloted the 1988 MIT Daedalus project)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanellos_Kanellopoulos

Shoutouts

20 Apr 1887 - World's First Motor Race, Georges Bouton “won the world’s first motor race” with a steam-powered quadricycle. The event was a “test” organised by the newspaper Le Velocipede to see if Bouton’s machine, which had boasted speeds of 60kmph, could make the 29-kilometre distance between Neuilly Bridge in Paris and the Bois de Boulogne. Bouton and de Dion completed the test course in 1 hour and 14 minutes riding La Marquise, the quadricycle named after the aristocrat’s mother. - https://www.onthisday.com/articles/the-worlds-first-motor-race

14 Apr 2019 – 1000th Formula 1 Grand Prix race at Shanghai, China - https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.top-shots-the-drivers-1000th-race-helmet-designs.nFP8yFNcrzI7yybxLMUXs.html

23 Apr 2013 - "Star Trek Into Darkness" directed by J. J. Abrams starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto premieres in Sydney - https://www.startrek.com/article/star-trek-into-darkness-premieres-in-australia

23 Apr 2018 - Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War" directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and large ensemble cast premieres in Los Angeles - https://variety.com/2018/film/news/avengers-infinity-war-premiere-marvel-1202784555/

Remembrances

22 Apr 2019 - Kiyoshi Kawakubo, Japanese voice actor, his prominent anime roles include Guame in Gurren Lagann, Kevin Yeegar in D.Gray-man, Quincy in Bubblegum Crisis and Scramble Wars. He passed away on 16 Apr 2019 at 89

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyoshi_Kawakubo

- https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-04-22/voice-actor-kiyoshi-kawakubo-passes-away/.145984

23 Apr 1616 - William Shakespeare, English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He died of a fever at 52 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

23 Apr 1850 - William Wordsworth, English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publicationLyrical Ballads. Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of times. Wordsworth was Britain's poet laureate from 1843 to 1850. He died of aggravated case of pleurisy at 80 in Rydal, Westmorland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth

Birthdays

23 Apr 1901 – E.B Ford, British ecological geneticist. He was a leader among those British biologists who investigated the role of natural selection in nature. As a schoolboy Ford became interested in lepidoptera, the group of insects which includes butterflies and moths. He went on to study the genetics of natural populations, and invented the field of ecological genetics. He was born in Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._B._Ford

26 Apr 1616 - William Shakespeare, same as above, he baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

23 Apr 1928 – Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, dancer, businesswoman, and diplomat who was Hollywood's number one box-office draw as a child actress from 1935 to 1938. As an adult, she was named United States ambassador to Ghana and to Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States. Temple began her film career at the age of three in 1932. Two years later, she achieved international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She appeared in 14 films such as Heidi and Curly Top from the ages of 14 to 21. Temple retired from film in 1950 at the age of 22. She began her diplomatic career in 1969, when she was appointed to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she worked at the U.S Mission under Ambassador Charles W. Yost. Temple was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She is 18th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female American screen legends of Classic Hollywood cinema. She was born in Santa Monica, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple

23 Apr 1941 - Ray Tomlinson, a pioneering American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; he is internationally known and credited as the inventor of email. It was the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to ARPANET. Previously, mail could be sent only to others who used the same computer. To achieve this, he used the @ sign to separate the user name from the name of their machine, a scheme which has been used in email addresses ever since.[9] The Internet Hall of Fame in its account of his work commented "Tomlinson's email program brought about a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate". He was born in Amsterdam, New York - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Tomlinson

Events of Interest

23 Apr 1516 - German Beer Purity Law or Reinheitsgebot, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients used to brew beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot

- https://www.onthisday.com/photos/german-beer-purity-law

23 Apr 2005 - The first ever YouTube video, titled "Me at the zoo", was published by user "jawed". It was uploaded on April 23, 2005 at 20:27:12 PTD (April 24, 2005 at 3:27:12 UTC) by the site's co-founder Jawed Karim, with the username "jawed" and recorded by his high school friend Yakov Lapitsky. He created a YouTube account on the same day. The nineteen-second video was shot by Yakov at the San Diego Zoo, featuring Karim in front of the elephants in their old exhibit in Elephant Mesa, making note of their lengthy trunks.

                - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_at_the_zoo

                - First ever YouTube video “Me at the Zoo” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw

23 Apr 1988 – A Greek makes world record with the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's Daedalus, a human-powered aircraft flew a distance of 72.4 mi (115.11 km) in 3 hours, 54 minutes, from Heraklion on the island of Crete to the island of Santorini. The flight holds official FAI world records for total distance, straight-line distance, and duration for human-powered aircraft. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Daedalus

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

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