A moment of albino marmoset monkey zen…  “Rare newborn albino Pygmy Marmoset monkeys perch on a zookeeper’s fingers at Froso Zoo in Ostersund, Sweden August 22, 2006. The Pygmy Marmoset, which lives in the upper Amazon basin in South America, is the world’s smallest monkey and reaches 35 cm (13.7 inches) in length and weighs up to 100 grams (3.5 ounces) at maturity.”  Aren’t they cute?  And so tiny!

Well, isn’t this interesting?  AT&T is suing data brokers “for illegally gaining access to the confidential calling information of about 2,500 customers.”  And this from the telecommunications giant who is in bed with the government and handing to them all the data they want, sans warrants or judicial oversight, and thereby violating the privacy of its millions of customers, not to mention the law and US Constitution.  Talk about hypocritical.  Do as I say and not as I do…

I’ve never heard of such a thing before.  They’re colonies of spiders that act just like ant or bee colonies.  They hunt together, support each other, and can reach phenomenal sizes that include thousands of spiders.  Be sure to look at the larger version of the photo to see the spiders in group hunting mode.  Very cool!  This apparently is the first time ever that spiders have been observed acting in this manner.  After all, “[s]piders are not famous for their caring, sharing nature. Unlike insects such as ants, it is virtually unheard of for arachnids to live in societies that employ tactics and team work.”  You can therefore imagine why “the discovery in Ecuador of spiders nesting in family-based communities and hunting in packs was a surprise find…”

While we’re talking about insects…  How about giant nests of yellow jackets expanding throughout Alabama.  “To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama.”  The largest thus far “was as large as a Volkswagen Beetle”, while another engulfed “the inside of a 1955 Chevrolet”.  Check out the photo.  No one is sure why the nests are becoming so large, but we do know they appear to be demonstrating a new community architecture that involves multiple queens — something heretofore unheard of in wasp or bee colonies.

Yet another reason to hate Wal-Mart.  First, they enslaved workers by locking them in stores overnight and underpaying or not paying them.  Next, they discriminated against women on a massive scale.  Then, they were shown to definitively and dramatically increase poverty in every neighborhood in which they build a store.  Finally, it became clear they were putting other companies out of business by selling products at a loss for no other reason than to undercut the prices of their competitors.  And now?  They are threatening to fire employees who try to enforce their legal rights by joining a lawsuit against the retailer for unpaid wages, while at the same time they attempt to force the same employees to sign a waiver that says the company never forced them to work off the clock even though that appears to be untrue.  A restraining order against Wal-Mart has been requested to stop this harassment and borderline — if not outright — criminal witness intimidation.  At this point, I can only recommend that people take their business elsewhere from now on.  This behemoth must be stopped and forced to close their doors forever.

And on a related note, Mom took a job with Wally World and has since learned precisely what kind of hell environment it really is.  She’s working tirelessly to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.  In the meantime, she’s learned firsthand that it’s true: Wal-Mart endeavors to succeed by stepping on every employee’s back and otherwise abusing anyone on their payroll.  This is the most evil company imaginable, and that as directly compared to Enron and its ilk.

This is worth watching, yet it’s also worth noting it may well be innocent.  “Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.”  Is the omission a mistake as they contend, or are we looking at yet another front in the religious war on science?  I suspect the former.  Sadly, the administration and ruling party have given every reason to believe the latter.