- Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year. Watch the demo video below, sign up for updates and learn more about how to develop with Google Wave.
- I was made aware of this cause by Sarah Wilson of the Fresh Air Fund. The Fresh Air Fund is an independent not-for-profit agency that provides free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million NYC kids from low income communities and has been doing so since 1877. In 2008, almost 5K kids visited volunteer host families in the suburbs of 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada.
Currently, any gift made to the FAF will be matched, so a gift of $25 becomes $50 for inner-city NYC kids.
- Communication between ants is primarily accomplished through the chemicals called pheromones. Ants have more developed chemical messages than other related species due to their constant direct contact with the ground. A forager who finds food leaves a pheromone trail along the ground on its way to the place it considers its home. This place is typically located through the use of remembered landmarks and the position of the sun as detected by compound eyes. It can also be through special sky polarization detecting fibers within the eyes.
This pheromone trail will be followed by other ants within a short period of time. The trail is further reinforced as it attracts more ants until the food is exhausted. With the food gone, the trail is no longer reinforced as it fails to further attract ants and slowly dissipates.
This particular behavior would explain how ants are able to easily adapt to changes in the environment. Ants merely leave an established path that has been blocked by an ob
