Taxonomy

• Taxonomy – classifying, naming. There’s a stinkhorn fungus named Phallus drewesii that’s named after scientist Robert Drewes. A couple of his friends honored him with the name. The fungus is described as smelling like rotting fish and, as the name suggests, looks a little bit like a diminutive penis. It was Drewes who suggested surveying the life on the two equatorial islands where the stinkhorn was discovered. It’s nothing new to Drewes. He also has moss frog and a blind worm snake named after him.

A story about this in the Guardian also mentions the naming of three slime molds after prominent figures in the past presidential administration.

• Have you been asked to be “pointed in the right direction” via e-mail. It’s a new form of spam going around. Read about it here.

• Southern Republicans. According to a recent poll, they’re the leaders of the pack among those who believe President Obama was not born in the U.S. Overall, according to this poll, only 42% of the GOP believe he’s a citizen. Their only hope of throwing him out of office. Red State Update has some fun with the topic here.

• Wired presents a report on the construction of the Chevy Volt. That’s one clean looking factory, at least in this stage of production.

• Holy — (fill in your own exclamation). Home-made rocket travel. Bob Maddox is really going to go flying:

Now he’s back with his latest idea, which amounts to shooting himself almost five miles into the sky and parachuting back. It doesn’t sound quite so crazy when he explains it, and we’re absolutely convinced he’s going to pull it off.