Hence, to understand the evolution of ageing, age patterns of mortality and reproduction need to be compared for species across the tree of life. However, few studies have done so and only for a limited range of taxa. Here we contrast standardized patterns over age for 11 mammals, 12 other vertebrates, 10 invertebrates, 12 vascular plants and a green alga.

Does this mean we're giving up and just evolving the ability to live in the heat?

Some of us are.

You're moving, not evolving.

You just keep telling yourself that.

Next cold snap, I'm going to Florida with a pickax.

Anyway, I'm happy to cede Florida to the amphibians and reptiles (as long as nobody figures out how to count their votes as Republicans).

Because natural selection is an asshole, we should at least consider that Andrew Wakefield is the planet trying to adapt to human behavioral choices.

7. How would you tell the difference?

Rectal thermometer.

Which will give some false positives when it's 98.6 degrees out and some false negatives if there's a fever involved in a very hot day.

Time keeps on slippin slippin into the fuuuture.

Reminds me of the opening of History of the World, Part 1.

It's gotten to about 115 F in Arrakis, but usually it's a chill 105 to 110 or thereabouts. I expect to hit 120 and upwards in a couple of weeks. At least I'm off to Amsterdam for two weeks starting this Thursday.

Because of the worms, the humidity most be low.

..Orange Heat 36 Information in effect from Tuesday morning (07/09) through Tuesday afternoon (07/09)... ------ Summary of Heat Information Areas ------ [Orange Light Areas] (Daily Maximum Temperature Reaches 36°C for Three Consecutive Days)

Wormsign?

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"We digested each fact point by point. So far, we've discussed nearly 70 points,"

There are at most nine, possibly zero, people surnamed Brunch in the United States according to the 2010 Census, but 194 named Brunck and 36,269 named Burch.

Make that at most 99.

I've got 99 problems, but a brunch isn't at least one of them.

The humidity doesn't roll in for another week or so. Then it's real bad.

Whenever I see pictures of the Arakeen skyline it's just grey and I don't know if it's humidity or heat haze or carcinogens or what.

The Persian Gulf sky is very frequently overcast, hazy, and grey. Bright blue skies are fairly uncommon.

I like my emirates like I like my coffee, with clouds.

There are only two states between New Mexico and Montana. Granted, really big states, but hardly a "stack."

It's like you've never heard of a short stack.

That's n = 3 or greater. All anyone at Denny's.

I call total shenanigans. Three+ is a regular stack.

Also why are we only counting the interior of the stack?

Not peer reviewed.

oh, because I said "between". I should have said "spanning".

30: Entirely because you defined it that way.

I should be just a bit more slower.

Anyway, driving long distances across big states with four kids in the car was basically how we spent every August during the 80s.

It's probably easier if you're the oldest kid. I got to navigate.

There was some pressure involved because we could have run out of gas and died of dehydration.

35: I sometimes feel like I'm raising these kids in the 80s.

Be sure to crack the window when you smoke then. And make sure the kids use the seat belts except when they don't want to.

Hey, I'm trying to sell my family on a car trip down the East Coast. We've got an opportunity for a cheap beach rental in Charleston, and we're coming from the Washington area. We'd have something close to a week, total, to get to Charleston and back.

My wife has family in Richmond (who I like a lot), so that's one stop. Otherwise, I need some cool stuff to sell my two teenage kids on this concept. Thoughts?

What a dud Fort Sumter is, by the way. If you want to visit old forts, go for the ones that surrendered promptly, never saw battle, or didn't lose. (Fort McHenry is recommended. The star-spangled banner yet waves.)

Washington, D.C. to Charleston, S.C.? That's not a even a day's drive.

In the 1970's my family toured the nation over two months. Really the whole country: Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building the day before the trip started, Chicago, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Disney Land, Hollywood, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, St Louis arch, and back. Two parents, three kids 6, 10, and 12, in a Dodge Dart. Only AM radio. NO AIR CONDITIONING.

I don't really remember Disney Land. The tar pits were so much better.

The only thing I remember about Los Angeles is the tar pits.

The Grand Canyon was pretty good. Yellowstone was too crowded.

40: To make it a real trip you need a circular route. Coastal southeast is not naturally scenic but has some history. Visit Historic Williamsburg (and Busch Garden for the roller coasters) followed by the amazing bridge that becomes a tunnel and then back into a bridge in the middle of the ocean. Maybe Kitty Hawk, followed by Cape Hatteras. There are both Revolutionary War and Civil War sites in the area if that's your thing.

Then Charleston, and that's enough history. Appalachia is naturally scenic. Turn Northwest towards Appalachia, pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway around Asheville and take that and other slightly less switchbacky mountain roads back towards DC.

Obviously this is contingent on your kids having appropriate ages and temperaments for these sorts of things.

Huh. We skipped the tar pits. Maybe in my next life.

It's in a really crowded area. You can't have somebody put your body in there and hope you become a fossil. They'll notice.

Be sure to crack the window when you smoke then. And make sure the kids use the seat belts except when they don't want to.

Ah, the early 80s road trip, with four kids crammed into the back seat (did we even have enough seat belts for those children? I think not...), and the parents smoking in the front seat, but with the windows cracked...The prospect of a Holiday Inn with a swimming pool was so deeply thrilling to us, we didn't care what US state or Canadian province we were in...

In that sense we are firmly in the 20teens.

I feel bad for having literally nothing to say on the OP. My excuse last night was that it was drinking time but now it's not yet drinking time and still nothing. Can some scientifically literate person talk about implications for pesticide resistance or something?

We spent about six weeks on one of those summer road trips in the late 80s - two adults and two kids in a K-car, crashing with friends and relatives, doing some car camping, and staying at the occasional Motel 6. From DC-area to a family friend in Kentucky, then southwest to Dallas to stay with cousins and go to a water park, getting pulled over in a speed-trap town in west Texas (and seeing a local-TV-news feature about the speed-trappiness of the town that night in the motel), staying with another friend in Taos for a few days, west to the coast and north to visit more family in the bay area, north to Seattle to stay with my grandfather, east to Idaho to stay at a ranch owned by a high-school boyfriend of my mom's, then east with stops in Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore (overrated) and the Badlands; a long drive to visit a friend in Chicago, then somewhere near Columbus, and finally back home.

Reminds me, I have thought vaguely that maybe I should reread Zen Motorcycle etc now I've actually studied philosophy and amn't in HS anymore. Worth it?

I liked it in college, but I can't imagine reading it again when I have less time.

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Of interest to some subset.
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47: Thanks. All stuff to think about.
42: Yeah, it's about eight hours. I've done it. But I hate driving and would love to have an excuse to break the trip up.

When I was a kid, instead of buying a plane ticket to a conference or other work obligation, my father would put the money in his gas tank and we'd travel. The most bizarre trip started at our home in Cleveland and went to Birmingham, Biloxi, New Orleans, Houston (where I saw Ralph Nader speak at the conference my father attended), Dallas, Memphis, Nashville, Lynchburg (for the Jack Daniels distillery tour), St. Louis and home. My two oldest brothers didn't go, so it was only the eight of us. Six kids ranged from probably around 7 to 17.

Hot as hell in the South. I don't remember how many tires we burned through. Cheap retread tires were really crappy in the olden days.

Tires really are so much better.

oh crap. I have posts but got on the road without doing so. Let me try to post from my phone.

I hope you aren't the one driving.

My dad was cheap and don't want to stay in a hotel so when we drove from the northeast to visit my grandparents in FL we drove 22hr straight, just bathroom stops (we packed food in a big cooler)
This month I've been driving four kids backs and forth across a European country, you feel much more of a sense of accomplishment crossing the whole thing in 8-10 hours. Also the landscape transitions much faster- beach to mountains for forest to dry plains in just a few hours.

61.1: We did the same with the long hours and the cooler, but my dad was never one to miss dinner, so we had at least one restaurant meal every day.

We had a van and my dad built a secured rack for the cooler so that we could reach it while moving but didn't need to fear it crashing into the passengers if there was a quick stop.

I have this suspicion that one small tear just rolled down the cheek of George Miller.

The van had a seating area in the back marked "Not to be used while vehicle is in motion." He installed (on his own) seatbelts for those seats. This was in the 80s, after he'd decided wearing seatbelts wasn't just some passing dad.