Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Link roundup

1. Modern day Morganna.  (NSFW?)

2. "By terrorizing island raccoons, scientists finally confirm that large predators can affect their prey through fear alone."
The result is a landscape of fear—a psychological topography that exists in the minds of prey, complete with mountains of danger and valleys of safety.

...

This concept came to attention in the 1990s, when gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park after having been exterminated seven decades prior. Ecologists showed that the park’s elk would spend so much time watching out for the re-emergent wolves that they spent less time eating and sired fewer young. They died in numbers way beyond what the wolves were actually killing, and their losses rippled throughout Yellowstone. The trees they ate grew taller, providing more wood for beavers and nesting sites for songbirds. The entire park changed, and all thanks to fear of the big, bad wolf.
3. "U.S. health regulators acknowledged they miscalculated the amount of formaldehyde emitted from some of Lumber Liquidators' laminated floor products."
The error occurred because the CDC neglected to convert feet to meters
4. Disgraced astronomer "says he is a casualty of a hypersensitive atmosphere that turned his efforts to be caring toward women into sexual harassment." Previously:
according to a university investigation letter...[he] engaged in sexual activity with a student who was “incapacitated due to alcohol and therefore could not consent.”