during our botanical excursion to mallorca, we were lucky enough to find several species of these plants:

mirror bee orchid (ophrys speculum ssp. speculum)

bee orchids (genus ophrys) are specialized orchids from the mediterranean, which basically exploit horny bees.
instead of producing nectar to attract pollinating insects, ophrys flowers show morphological adaptations (including hair!) which make them resemble their pollinators, both in the visible light and ultraviolet spectrum. in addition, they also produce pheromones which further attract the males of their pollinator species.

when, for example, a male bee is successfully decepted, it will land on the flower and attempt to copulate with it. during this so-called pseudocopulation, pollen will get stuck to its abdomen and/or head. this way, the pollen has a better chance of reaching a flower of the same species, rather than just any flower.

if you’ve become curious, wikipedia (german version) has some more information.

photos: bee orchids, mallorca

can you help me identify a song?
it’s been stuck in my head for two days now, and all i have is a short sequence from what i believe is the chorus.
you can listen to it with the righthand box (theme repeats once).

some clues:

• i think i remember this song being similar in style to til kingdom come by coldplay.
  other bands that come to my mind: creedence clearwater revival or simon and garfunkel (as in keep the customer satisfied), and – strangely – five for fighting.
• also, i do think that there’s (1) a copula, (2) a personal pronoun and (3) a present continuous verb at the beginning of the clip, such as “(so/and/but) i’m waiting” or “she’s going” etc.
• the first note (pickup) and corresponding word might not actually be in the song.

any ideas?

update: if you kind-of remember the song (more of it) but don’t know the title, you can try hum it to midomi.com

2nd update, 2010-08-17: i just found it: it’s “the captain” by guster (listen at skreemr).
the lyrcs fragment in question was “i’m earning a reputation”.

today i jumped from europabrücke (europe’s 2nd highest bridge, and – apparently – one of the highest bungee-places in the world).
key data: 192 m (bridge height), 40 m (normal rope length), 170 m (maximum rope length when stretched), 120 km/h (maximum velocity)

i had completely forgotten i could actually release that much adrenaline. :)
 

big thanks to stefan for taking pictures.

it’s may 31st 2009, which means i’m exactly 8888¹ days old! :)
see for yourself:

wolfram alpha: 1985-01-29, screenshot

now get the togas out and celebrate! :)
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A towel, [the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value.
You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth;
wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

happy towel day!

in an attempt to improve my efficiency and productivity, i’ve spent some time reading up on the most common natural products & substances that increase activity and energy.
 

here’s a short (non-exhaustive) list of things i’ve com across:

caffeine:

increases activity and concentration. stimulates the central nervous system, heart activity and blood pressure.
negative effects: adaption, addiction, nervousness and anxiety, irritability, anything up to cardiac arrhythmia.
overdose (according to wikipedia): 7 to 10 cups of coffee consumed within a short timespan.

guarana:

contains more caffeine than regular coffee. here, the caffeine is linked to tanning agents, which makes it longer-lasting (it’s released little by little).
same negative side-effects as with pure caffeine.
overdose: 20g guarana powder.

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warning: the following links and videos show some things that you are probably going to find gross. watch them at your own risk.

someone once told me, that buddhism says “once a year, you should do something you’ve never done before”.
i’ve had so many different things inside my nose lately that i think that counts for 2009.

some time ago, i discovered two fairly large masses in my nostrils.
searching for information on the internet returned lots of websites that were talking about either nasal haematoma (see photo quiz of the aafp, pictures at meduweb) or haemangioma (e.g. blog post and corresponding picture).
it wasn’t likely to be a haematoma because that is usually caused by being hit on your nose (which i hadn’t been), and the “balloons” in these pictures originated in the septum, while mine seemed to originate on the opposite side.. i didn’t know about the tumours, though.

i was relieved to hear my ENT doctor tell me that i just had very large turbinates (or nasal conchae). turns out this is why my nose had been more or less constantly congested for several years.

in terms of treatment, i had two choices:
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