American Flamingo - Phoenicopterus ruber
Flamingos aren’t naturally pink! They get their coloration from beta carotene found in the blue-green algae they consume. The flamingos that consume blue-green algae directly are much pinker than flamingos that primarily consume the blue-green algae secondhand (via zooplankton/brine shrimp).
Flamingos are also unique in their method of eating - their bills are designed to scoop the bottom sediment and then filter out the mud and silt, leaving only the blue-green algae or the brine shrimp in their mouth. They shake their head back and forth under the water after scooping up the sediment. The big, fleshy tongue of the flamingo pushes water back and forth in the mouth and facilitates the filtering of all that mud. They also swallow their food while their head is upside-down! The meaty tongue used to be considered a delicacy among the Roman elite.
Images:
Nature Neighbors: Embracing Birds, Plants, and Minerals. Nathanial Moore Banta for the American Audubon Association, 1914.Osteologia Avium; or, A sketch of the osteology of birds. T.C. Eyton, 1867.
Heaven
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The way we try to recruit girls into STEM fields is all wrong. We typically compare them to some great woman or someone that has gone before them. We are saying, “Hey, you can be like Madam Curie or Sally Ride.” It is recruiting by intimidation. We need to change that message. We need to recruit by appealing to WHY we need them in STEM. We NEED you to help make the world a better place We NEED you to help discover the cure for cancer. We NEED you because you have the ability to change the course of humanity for the better.
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Tim Holt on why we still see the number of females in STEM fields fall way behind their male counterparts. Also see how geography paved the way for women in science.
(Source: explore-blog, via jtotheizzoe)
Our gov’t shouldn’t be making billions of dollars by drowning our students in debt #BankonStudents
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3D printed portraits derived from synthesized DNA found on discarded gum and cigarette butts by Heather Dewey-Hagborg.
This is spectacular.
(via mohandasgandhi)
Every year on April 27th, South Africa commemorates the first post-Apartheid democratically held elections in the country that took place on this day in 1994, by celebrating what is known as ‘Freedom Day’. The results of these historical elections saw Nelson Mandela elected as not only the first democratically elected president of South Africa, but the first black president as well. Mandela served as president until 1999.
Freedom Day is an annual reminder of the anti-Apartheid struggle that sought to bring about a free South Africa where all its oppressed citizens would be granted their full and constitutional human rights, and be able to participate in the development and progression of the nation.
Millions queued in lines over a three-day voting period. Altogether 19,726,579 votes were counted and 193,081 were rejected as invalid.
The African National Congress (ANC), whose slate incorporated the labour confederation COSATU and the South African Communist Party, fell short of a two-thirds majority.
As required by the Interim Constitution, the ANC formed a Government of National Unity with the National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party, the two other parties that won more than twenty seats in the National Assembly.
(via mohandasgandhi)
