Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku blogs about a neat idea for a hair style from a stylist in Japan. It's called "Ripe Tomato" ("kanjuku tomato" or 完熟トマト), and was created by "Hiro" at a salon in Osaka called "Trick Store", in the trendy Amemura district. Read: You'll Never Forget Japan's Tomato Hairdo.
    
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Carlton Reid writes:
Cyclist 'BlackCountryBikeCam' suffered from an unprovoked, violent road rage attack from the driver of a white van belonging to a Birmingham pet shop. The incident was recorded on a helmetcam and this was shown to police. However, as the driver has no previous convictions and admitted his guilt (when told there was video evidence) West Midlands police advised the cyclist to seek a "local resolution", meaning the driver would not be charged with assault.
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Shop Local Raleigh presents their second annual Brewgaloo local beer festival on Saturday April 27th (3-9pm) in downtown Raleigh’s City Plaza. Brewgaloo 2013 will feature 25 craft breweries from North Carolina including several favorites from right here in the Triangle. There will also be 14 local food trucks on hand to feed the hungry crowd and live music provided on two stage from 8 different local bands.
General admission is free and includes a pint glass (special unbreakable acrylic souvenir glasses will be available while supplies last). Beer is sold by the pint or by the taste. 1 token= 1 pint; 1 token= a taster card with 5 samples available.
This event supports Shop Local Raleigh and its mission to sustain programs that strengthen our local businesses.
Event Details
Brewgaloo 2013 Saturday, April 27- rain or shine
Raleigh City Plaza (Map)
3:00 – 9:00PM
Website: http://www.shoplocalraleigh.org/brewgaloo/
Twitter: @Brewgaloo
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Brewgaloo
Since May 2008, graphic designer, illustrator, and Dad extraordinaire, David Laferriere, has been drawing on his kids’ sandwich bags with a Sharpie marker. Each drawing is done just after he makes the sandwich. He then takes a picture and posts it to Flickr where there are over 1,100 pictures and counting!
Laferriere says the biggest challenges are coming up with an idea and then drawing quickly and directly on the bag. In a recent feature on the Flickr blog, David says:
“The sandwich bags are something that my boys and I share together. But the comments people leave about a parent doing something similar really touches me, because there are other parents that love their kids just as much. And they love them enough to leave a little note, a little whatever it may be… that’s just something that brightens their day when they get to their lunch.”
Be sure to head over to Laferriere’s 1,100 picture Sandwich Art album on Flickr, and check out drlaferriere.com for David’s professional services as an illustrator and graphic designer.
[via Flickr Blog, Colossal]
Artwork by David Laferriere | drlaferriere.com
Artwork by David Laferriere | drlaferriere.com
Artwork by David Laferriere | drlaferriere.com
Artwork by David Laferriere | drlaferriere.com
Artwork by David Laferriere | drlaferriere.com
Artwork by David Laferriere | drlaferriere.com
See All 1,100 Artworks on Flickr!
Awesome Dad Takes Most Adorable Kids Photos Ever
Creative Mom Turns Kids Drawings into Plush Toys
Amazing Mom Turns Son’s Lunches Into Works of Art
Image via Rob Kim/Getty Images
Alright, Internet, you had your fun today with hipper-than-hip hipsters and meme faces, but now the time has come to go home.
Robert De Niro met Lil Bub. Yes, the legendary actor rubbed whiskers with the Internet's cutest cat
Image via Rob Kim/Getty Images
De Niro and Bub swapped stories about working with diva felines and playing second fiddle to Jennifer Lawrence. (None of that is true.) The two big screen stars met at the Directors Brunch during the Tribeca Film Festival
On meeting De Niro, Lil Bub reportedly said, "Are you meowing at me?"
BONUS: 15 Adorable Things That Delight Lil Bub Read more...
More about Cats, Memes, Tribeca Film Festival, Film, and Watercooler
"I'll always remember that interview!" anchor Sheinelle Jones of Good Day in Philadelphia tweeted after grilling Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte about his forthcoming reality show
She and co-anchor Mike Jerrick had a hard time keeping their composure while hilariously discussing What Would Ryan Lochte Do?, which debuts Sunday on E! But once the interview ended, the pair lost it, mocking the not-so-well-spoken athlete. Jones cries tears of laughter while Jerrick gives his best Lochte impersonation
Watch part of the interview and aftermath below. The full clip is available at MyFoxPhilly.com.
BONUS: 10 Creepy Kids Who Will Haunt Your Dreams Read more...
More about Entertainment, Tv, Video, and Ryan Lochte
There is no denying it — Vera Neumann is a mid century design icon — and it seems that she is gaining popularity in mainstream culture once again as many corporations have been partnering with The Vera Company to rerelease her patterns on everything from shower curtains to fine china. The latest partnership –The Vera Company has partnered with Target to release a line of spring scarves featuring Vera’s vibrant and lively patterns. The collection will be available in Target stores between April 28, 2013 and June 23, 2013 or while supplies last. There are a total of 17 designs being released in assorted colors and prints that reflect Vera’s signature design aesthetic — 12 of the designs will be available in Targets stores and the other 5 will be available exclusively on Target.com. Scarves will retail for $19.99.
While this is no doubt exciting news in our retro-sphere — remember — Vera was a prolific designer and there are many vintage Vera scarves available on Etsy, Ebay and in thrift stores — many of which are very inexpensively priced, in great condition and made of real silk. I asked the PR person what type of fabric the new scarves available at Target would be made of but the information was not readily available. Still — for someone like myself — who loves to top an outfit with a colorful scarf — both vintage and new reproduction options are fun way to add color to your everyday outfits.
The post Breaking News: 17 reproduction Vintage Vera scarves at Target on April 28 appeared first on Retro Renovation.
[tweetmeme]Here’s a fun find by our friends at Chain of Flowers: Video footage of The Cure’s Robert Smith hamming it up for what presumably is a commercial of some sort by Chilean promoters to sell tickets to the band’s concert this weekend in Santiago. In the midst of a rare eight-date tour of Latin America, The Cure is slated to play Asunción, Paraguay, tonight.
The Cure’s LatAm2013 Tour:
April 9: Jockey Club, Asunción, Paraguay
April 12: River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 14: Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile
April 17: Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru
April 19: Simon Bolivar Park, Bogotá, Colombia
April 21: Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
There's not much to this Kmart ad except for 11 instances in which the word "ship" sounds like another word. Yet Kmart and ad agency DraftFCB Chicago get maximum mileage out of the scenario, adding instances in which customers "ship" their drawers, their nighties and, of course, their beds
Best of all, you get the pitch: Kmart lets you ship stuff right from its store. Bravo! This ad is the, uh, ship
Image courtesy of YouTube, Kmart Read more...
More about Advertising, Kmart, Business, and Youtube Video Lead
You probably already cook with coconut oil. Maybe you enjoy big flakes of toasted coconut in your trail mix or shredded coconut in your grain-free Primal “oatmeal.” But have you tried the richest, most decadent coconut product of them all: coconut butter?
What is coconut butter, you ask? It’s simply dried coconut blended until it forms a smooth, creamy paste. Since the only ingredient is coconut, it’s naturally dairy-free and gluten-free.
Our favorite way to enjoy it is making the world’s easiest two-ingredient keto treat: dark chocolate with a schmear of coconut butter. Or just eat it with a spoon. We’ll never tell.
Servings: 1 to 2 cups
Time in the kitchen: 10 to 20 minutes
4 or more cups of unsweetened, dried coconut flakes
There’s only one necessary step: blend!
But if you want to make the best coconut butter ever, follow these 10 no-fail tips.
Tip #1: Use large unsweetened dried coconut flakes. These are easier to turn into butter.
Tip #2: For a deeper, nuttier flavor, toast the coconut.
Lay the coconut out on a sheet pan and place in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees Celsius) until the coconut is lightly brown and toasted. This elevates the flavor of the coconut butter, and it will also make it easier to turn the flakes into butter.
This is not a necessary step, but if you have a weak food processor, it might be a better option. If you choose to toast the coconut, the final product will be light brown instead of white, as shown in the photos later in the post.
Tip #3: Use at least 4 cups of coconut flakes and place them into a food processor.
You can also use a high-speed blender, but a food processor typically makes it easier to scrape down the sides and remove the coconut butter when it’s done processing. Blenders will make a somewhat smoother finished product, but some blenders will overheat before you’re done blending the coconut.
Tip #4: Take your time! It takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to get a nice smooth butter.
Tip #5: Once you turn the food processor on and let it begin to grind the coconut, stop every so often to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spoon or spatula to pick up any flakes on the sides.
Tip #6: The coconut flakes will go through multiple transformations as it turns to butter. First they will look like coarse sand.
Next, it will become liquid-y but still look grainy.
Last, it will be a smooth, thick sauce. The end result will still be thin, but it will firm up as you store it.
Tip #7: Pour the butter into an airtight jar and let it cool. Optionally, store it into multiple small containers, which makes it easier to warm up and use later on.
Tip #8: Coconut butter can be stored at room temperature, but keep in mind that toasted coconut butter will go rancid much more quickly than non-toasted. Consequently, we recommend storing toasted coconut butter in the fridge.
Tip #9: Coconut butter hardens at cooler temperatures. To use hardened butter, set up a warm water bath and let the jar sit in it for a few minutes to help soften the butter, stirring occasionally. We don’t recommend directly heating or microwaving the butter as this can mess with its consistency, but you can do it in a pinch!
Tip #10: Use the coconut butter for almost anything! We love dunking fruit or nuts in softened butter. Try adding a spoonful to savory options like curries, soups, or even to mashed veggies.
The post How to Make Coconut Better: 10 Tips for the Best Coconut Butter Ever appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.
In this momentous occasion, we see two baby common goldeneye ducks leaving the nest and taking to the air for their first ever flight. The expressions on their face are priceless! What an amazing event to witness :)
The Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) is a medium-sized sea duck. Adult males ranges from 45–52 cm (18–21 inches) and from 888 to 1400 grams (1.9 to 3.1 lbs), while females range from 40–50 cm (16–20 inches) and from 500 to 1182 grams (1.1 to 2.6 lbs). The species is aptly named for its golden-yellow eye. [Source]
naturen-ar-fantastisk.blogspot.com via ZtiWinterfell on Reddit
Careful what you wish for: Along with the more seasonable, warmer weather comes the release of tree pollen that yellows everything in its range – which is everywhere – and sneaks up noses to cause mass attacks of sneezing, wheezing and general yuckiness. Because cold weather lasted so long this year, the transition to allergy season was abrupt.
For perspective, the N.C. Division of Air Quality counted five pollen counts by cubic member on Friday. On Monday, the number was 750.
Gazuntite!
The Internet is a weird place where things you never thought would go together actually blend perfectly — like Macklemore's swagger and Brick Tamland's ... grace.
That's exactly what Jake Healy discovered when he created this YouTube mashup — which, fair warning, contains NSFW language. Macklemore's popular song "Thrift Shop" is accompanied by witty banter from the guys at Channel 4 News.
SEE ALSO: 'Damn You Auto Correct' Unveils 11 Funniest Texts of 2012
This should hold you over while you patiently wait for the Anchorman sequel.
BONUS: Macklemore Photobombs the Internet
Image courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures Read more...
More about Mashups, Film, Music, Watercooler, and Videos
BikeSpike BikeSpike The BikeSpike tracks your bike's location and lets you know if it's moved from its parking spot--or even if it's been tampered with. Only five hours left to fund it on Kickstarter. Bike theft is damnably common; most people don't bother tracking their bikes, even the best locks are pretty easy to cut through, and the resale market is constantly booming. I myself have lost two bikes to thieves. A Kickstarter project called the BikeSpike could be a solution to this problem.
BikeSpike is constructed of most of the same sensors as a smartphone, including a cellular connection, an accelerometer, and a GPS chip. It's a little box you clip onto the frame of your bike (cleverly, you can also get a water bottle holder that disguises the box, stopping clever thieves from just ripping the box off). You pay a monthly fee--either $7 or $13 per month, though if you fund the project on Kickstarter, you'll get a discounted fee for life--and the BikeSpike will keep you up to date on the whereabouts of your bike. You can "lock" it, which just means you get an instant notification if the bike is moved from its parking spot. Handy!
So you can always see exactly where your bike is, but you can also see if anyone crashed into it--that's thanks to the accelerometer, which can sense when some maniac cabdriver smashes into your legally-parked bike. You can also use it for various games and stat-tracking, though it seems most of that function will be up to developers to create later, through an open API.
There's only a few hours left on the Kickstarter, and the project is still a few thousand dollars away from funding. But if you're tuning up your bike now in preparation for a summer of riding, it seems like a good anti-theft solution--and it's cheaper now than it will be later. Check out the project here.
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Verschneite Landschaft Wikimedia Commons, TheNoOne A new study suggests seasonal changes have a much bigger impact on mental health than previously thought. Psychiatrists have known about seasonal affective disorder--a mood disorder in which otherwise healthy people experience depression during the winter or heightened anxiety during the summer--since the early 1980s. Treatment for the winter blues often involves light therapy, with the idea being that short, dark days are kind of depressing.
But a new study suggests that all mental major illnesses, including anxiety, eating disorders, schizophrenia, ADHD, bipolar, and OCD, might get worse during the winter. Researchers analyzed Google searches for information about mental health in the U.S. and Australia from 2006 to 2010. They found that, in both countries, all mental illness queries were consistently higher in winter than in summer.
During U.S. summers, searches for eating disorders and schizophrenia declined 37 percent; ADHD queries fell by 28 percent; and searches for suicide decreased 24 percent. Searches about anxiety showed the smallest seasonal change, declining by 7 percent during summer. The stats were similar in Australia, with the exception of anxiety, which dipped 15 percent during summers.
"We didn't expect to find similar winter peaks and summer troughs for queries involving every specific mental illness or problem we studied, however, the results consistently showed seasonal effects across all conditions--even after adjusting for media trends," says James Niels Rosenquist, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Of course, just because someone is searching for a mental illness doesn't mean he or she has that mental illness. It's also not clear whether the increase in searches for mental health information is related to social, environmental, or biological factors, says lead investigator John W. Ayers, a professor at San Diego State University. Ayers says the consistent seasonal impact suggests a potential for a universal mental health therapy, like the sunlight-derived Vitamin D.
The study appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
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In this video, Sidney Cohen (author of The Beyond Within: The L.S.D. Story, administers LSD under clinical conditions to an unnamed "normal person" (her description), some time in the 1950s. Her description of her experience is really wonderful -- you can tell she's going through something profound and amazing. As Reason's Jacob Sullum wrote in 2011,
The experience she describes includes familiar themes such as gorgeous colors, geometric patterns, microscopic particles suddenly visible, and a sense of transcendence, oneness, and ineffability:
"I can see everything in color. You have to see the air. You can't believe it....I've never seen such infinite beauty in my life....Everything is so beautiful and lovely and alive....This is reality...I wish I could talk in Technicolor....I can't tell you about it. If you can't see it, then you'll just never know it. I feel sorry for you."
Today all this may sound hackneyed, but what's striking about this woman's account is that her expectations were not shaped by the huge surge of publicity that LSD attracted in the next two decades. Although she had not heard what an LSD trip was supposed to be like, her experience included several of the features that later came to be seen as typical—a reminder that, as important as "set and setting" are, "drug" matters too.
Despite the similarity between this woman's description of her experience and testimonials from acid aficionados of the '60s and '70s, her presentation is so calm and nonthreatening that it is hard to imagine how anyone could perceive this drug as an intolerable danger to society.
'I Wish I Could Talk in Technicolor' (Thanks, Fipi Lele!) 
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Inthralld showcases a 130 square-foot apartment in Paris, where a set of insanely clever design decisions allows for a full apartment's worth of amenities to be jammed into a teeny weeny space. I love the drawers in the steps, but of course I really love the hiding bed/sofa. Basically, I want to live in a Murphy apartment and/or houseboat.
What was once a master suite of an apartment in the Montparnasse neighborhood is now a 130 square foot micro apartment that houses all of the necessities. There’s even an extremely creative way to house the mattress-slash-sofa. The bed doubles as seating space for lounging and entertaining, which rolls away discreetly underneath a set of steps on the floor. The Magis One stools add some much needed contemporary pizazz to the inner environment, while the storage really looks like art and functions just perfectly.
130 Square Foot Micro Apartment in Paris (via Core77)
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Sassafras.vetterone of these days I will learn to crochet
The Crochet Coral Reef (CCR) is a project by the Institute For Figuring, a non-profit Los-Angeles based organization that pioneers creative new methods for engaging the public about scientific and environmental issues by putting people and communities at the core.
The CCR is a project that resides at the intersection of mathematics, marine biology, handicraft and community art practice, and also responds to the environmental crisis of global warming and the escalating problem of oceanic plastic trash. It has been exhibited in art and science museums worldwide, including the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), The Hayward (London), the Science Gallery (Dublin), and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Washington D.C.) Seen by more than three million people, the CCR is one of the largest participatory science + art projects in the world.
Through its Satellite Reef program, the Institute’s team has held lectures and workshops on five continents to teach the techniques of reef-making, and the related science and math, to local communities. Since 2005 the IFF has continued to build this global network that now includes more than 7000 active citizens.
Below you will find a gallery of this incredible initiative along with additional information about the project and the mathematics at the core of the process. For complete information, please visit: crochetcoralreef.org
The inspiration for making crochet reef forms begins with the technique of “hyperbolic crochet” discovered in 1997 by Cornell University mathematician Dr. Daina Taimina. The Wertheim sisters (Margaret and Christine, founders of the IFF) adopted Dr Taimina’s techniques and elaborated upon them to develop a whole taxonomy of reef-life forms. Loopy “kelps”, fringed “anemones”, crenelated “sea slugs”, and curlicued “corals” have all been modeled with these methods. The basic process for making these forms is a simple pattern or algorithm, which on its own produces a mathematically pure shape, but by varying or mutating this algorithm, endless variations and permutations of shape and form can be produced. The Crochet Reef project thus becomes an ongoing evolutionary experiment in which the worldwide community of Reefers brings into being an ever-evolving crochet “tree of life.” [Source]
Each crochet model results from the application of an iterative recipe. Like fractals, such as the Mandelbrot Set, these forms come into being through the process of doing a small set of steps again and again and again. Though experience often serves as a guide, there is no way to know in advance what a specific algorithm will produce and we have many times been surprised when seemingly insignificant changes in the underlying pattern led to fundamentally new results. In a very real sense, this is a kind of experimental mathematics and we invite crocheters everywhere to explore for themselves the possibilities inherent in these techniques. [Source]
Information about these techniques and instructions for making specific forms are available in a beautifully produced handbook published by the Institute called: A Field Guide to Hyperbolic Space, which may be purchased here.
In addition to the Core Collection of Crochet Reefs generated by the Institute For Figuring, the Reef Project entails a community component in which citizens of local cities or regions contract with the IFF to construct their own reefs. These are known as the Satellite Reefs. Historically the first Satellite Reef was the Chicago Reef, constructed in 2007 under the auspices of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and the Chicago Humanities Festival. Since then, Satellite Reefs have been made in numerous cities around the world. [Source]
Satellite Reefs come are brought into being through a long process of community involvement and engagement. The effort is always spearheaded by one or more local organizations who take on the task of organizing workshops and receiving the crochet models the community makes. These local organizations are vital to the success of any Satellite Reef project. To learn more about starting your own Satellite Reef, click here.
Photograph by Wonderbrooks on Flickr
By profession Margaret is a science writer. She has degrees in physics and mathematics. When not crocheting coral, she writes books about the cultural history of physics and as a science journalist has written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New Scientist, Cabinet, and many other publications. She is the author of several books including “Pythagoras’ Trousers” (a history of the relationship between physics and religion) and “The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet.” Margaret has also written and produced television programs, including Catalyst, a six-part series about science and technology that was aimed at teenage girls (ABC Australia 1990). [Source]
Photograph by wonderbrooks on Flickr
Photograph by Laurie Spungardi (Spungardi Design on Flickr)
Christine has a Phd in philosophy and literature and is a faculty member in the Department of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. Many years ago she was a painter and for 10 years she taught Critical Studies at art colleges in London, including Goldsmith’s College. Christine is also an experimental poet and co-hosts the Seance series of conference on experiment writing at REDCAT in Los Angeles. She is the author of “+|’meS-pace” a volume of poetry and has edited several anthologies about contemporary writing.
Both sisters now share a house in Highland Park, Los Angeles. The crochet reef emanated from their Highland Park living room and for the first 3 years of its life it took over much of their home. [Source]
Photograph by wonderbrooks on Flickr
For More Information, Visit the Official Site @ crotchetcoralreef.org!
Geometric Sand Sculptures by Calvin Seibert
![3343486124 62d3c68182 b The Crochet Coral Reef Project [25 pics]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3371/3343486124_62d3c68182_b.jpg "The Crochet Coral Reef Project [25 pics]")
Colossal Snowshoe Art by Simon Beck
![snowshoe land art simon beck 7 The Crochet Coral Reef Project [25 pics]](http://twistedsifter.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/snowshoe-land-art-simon-beck-7.jpg?w=800&h=673 "The Crochet Coral Reef Project [25 pics]")
Gigantic Land Art by Jim Denevan [30 pics]
![jim denevan giant beach sand art 10 The Crochet Coral Reef Project [25 pics]](http://twistedsifter.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/jim-denevan-giant-beach-sand-art-10.jpg?w=800&h=533 "The Crochet Coral Reef Project [25 pics]")
A House resolution supporting the creation of an official religion in North Carolina will never come to a vote, officials said Thursday.
Johnston County will become a merchandise mecca this June with a 30-mile yard sale stretching from Kenly to Benson.
Meet Ronan. She is a sea lion at the University of California, Santa Cruz and also a very competent dancer. According to her trainer, she's also the first non-human mammal that can independently keep a beat.
Parrots and other birds have been known to dance to a beat, but up until now, it wasn't clear if they were the only ones with a sense of rhythm. The leading theory (partially sparked by videos like the one below) was that a capacity for vocal mimicry was a prerequisite for recognizing a beat.
But even though sea lions aren't the most vocally gifted, Ronan was successfully trained to bob her head along with a beat for a reward, then could bob her head along to songs she hadn't heard, too. Until everyone sees this video, Ronan, dance like no one's watching.
[University of California, Santa Cruz]
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The City of Raleigh called on the wrecking ball Monday, tearing down the AMF Bowling building on Capital Boulevard to clear space for a new park.
City officials say they hope the project will spruce up the main gateway to Raleigh's downtown and spur commercial development along the stretch, located just inside the Beltline, which is currently lined with run-down buildings.
Magicicada Wikimedia Commons The roar of the millions-strong Magicicada is due back on the east coast this summer--the first time in 17 years. Here's how to track it. Every few summers in the heavily wooded section of southern Pennsylvania where I grew up, we'd have about a week in which everything we did--hiking through the parks, climbing trees, walking dogs, buying hoagies--would be accompanied by the roar of cicadas. It's not like a chorus of birds, or even the noise of New York City traffic. It's louder, more constant, a hissing, crackling noise like the screaming of the wind itself. Eventually it fades into white noise, but if you leave town for a weekend and come back, you can't believe anyone is talking about anything else. It's like a biblical plague transmitted only in audio.
An even rarer beast is hatching this year. The Magicicada is a genus of cicada with either a 13- or a 17-year lifespan, depending on species. That might be surprising to those not familiar with the cicada, who'd think it only lives for a few weeks at a time. But the Magicicada larvae live underground for nearly their entire lives, feeding on fluids from tree roots in the northeast United States, emerging with only a few weeks life in their lives in enormous numbers to molt into adults, mate, lay eggs, and die.
It was initially thought that the cicadas behaved this way, with such precision and patience, to overwhelm predators with sheer numbers. The cicada has basically no defenses, and is, according to my cats, delicious and very fun to catch. It's prey for birds, foxes, housecats, possums, and anything else on the east coast that wants a little snack. But apparently that's not the case; we're not really sure why they use this life cycle strategy, but one guess is that such a long period between broods could fool predators, who likely won't have been alive (or won't remember) the previous emergence.
Brood II, also known as the "East Coast Brood," is a 17-year cicada due for emergence this summer. It ranges from the Virginia/North Carolina border up through the northern end of the New York City suburbs. Radiolab, one of our favorite science radio shows/podcasts, has come up with a cicada tracker to pinpoint exactly when Brood II will begin "swarmageddon." Starting tonight, Radiolab will be hosting events all over New York City to build DIY trackers that monitor the soil temperature. When the soil eight inches below the surface reaches a steady temperature of 64 degrees F, the cicadas will begin their transformation into a massive, millions-strong hatch-fest.
The detector, which can be made with parts easily obtainable at any Radioshack (or online), costs about $80. You can then report your findings to Radiolab, starting at the latest in mid-April, so we can see on Radiolab's interactive map just when they'll emerge. The temperature hasn't even cracked 40 degrees yet, so we've got some time before the roar.
Check out the project here.
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Sassafras.vetterSuch a stupid bill
State lawmakers are considering making divorces harder to get in North Carolina.
