Temple of Kraden News:
| Greetings, heathen. Perhaps some fortuitous blessing of Kraden's grace hath led you to our humble Temple, or perhaps you are simply curious about this strange and wonderful cult. Should you be willing - and dare to hope - to achieve enlightenment, the door opens before you. Lo! Leave your old life behind! For once you step through, you become something more than just yourself. You become a Kradenette. Are you willing to make the rapturous plunge? Do you have what it takes? One of us! One of us! One of us! Already one of us? Make your presence known: |
| Jupiter | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 22 2009, 07:57 PM (6,146 Views) | |
| Adnarel | May 23 2009, 05:42 PM Post #401 |
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1) Crickets are sold as live bait or food for pets throughout the United States, so they can be seen practically everywhere. Feral populations span the central to eastern half of the United States, as well as a small section of southern California, with the northern half of the United States having a greater population concentration than the south. A large segment of the cricket population comes from escaped individuals that were meant for use as fishing bait, thus they are common near lakes and streams. Otherwise, populations can be found near or inside buildings, as well as near garbage dumps. “House crickets are native to the Old World, perhaps East Africa or India” (book xxxx). Anatomy? Crickets are used as a specimen in this experiment for a variety of factors Crickets are relatively cost-effective for experimental subjects and easily attainable For experimental purposes, they can be easily marked without impeding their behaviors or actions in any way. Their agonistic behaviors are relatively simple to identify, and they can be easily recorded for experimental research purposes Mating behaviors are also very easy to identify; there is no gray area if mating has or has not occurred. 2) A dominance hierarchy is created by interactions between individuals of the same population. One member of the population becomes dominant based on their success in these encounters, which can vary for each species. In crickets, stridulating is a unique agonistic encounter that can increase the social ranking of an individual. In addition to stridulating, agonistic behaviors that rely the strength of the individual are also used as an indicator that can increase the social ranking of an individual The dominance hierarchy directly translates into the variable modified in this experiment: resource deprivation. The study conducted by Blanckenhorn et al. (1992) studied this exact area, and offered the vivid example of a pair of individuals, one dominant and one subordinate. “In many cases, the lower-ranked individual gains access to the resource only when the higher-ranked individual is already mating or feeding” (Blankenhorn et al. 1992). When the dominance hierarchy is applied to the area of resources, the very survival of organisms is at stake; “When food resources are in low in abundance, an organism’s intake might not be sufficient to meet its immediate needs for survival” (Shertzer et al. 2002). 3) For short-term resource deprivation, given the choice, invidividuals will likely focus on their own survival by attempting to find food or water instead of finding a mate and copulating (Boggs et al. 1993). Sih et al. (1990) compounds this statement, saying “We predict that organisms should decrease mating activity when faced with demands that conflict with mating; the degree of decrease should depend on the relative effects on fitness of mating, feeding, and antipredator behavior.” Specifically on the feeding part for our experimental design. Also from Sih et al. (1990), “Food deprivation should decrease mating duration if mating interferes with feeding.” So the converse is true as well, an abundance of food SHOULD increase mating duration. Conclusion Group Nu was completely wiped out, Group Kappa lost 2 of its 5, and Group Epsilon lost 1 of 5. Due to over half of the crickets dying even before agonistic behaviors could be recorded, this experiment should be run again for meaningful, accurate results. Ask robb about second bullet This experiment should not be reran as it is right now. There are some changes that need to be made to its experimental design. We based the amount of food we would give to each group on rough estimates given to us by the lab instructors. They fed all of the crickets at once, so they really didn’t have any idea how much food or water 5 crickets typically received. But looking at our results, quite frankly, our amounts were not sufficient to ensure survival. Some tests should be run to see how much food and water a group of 5 crickets actually needs, and our modifications should be based on that rather than rough estimates. Another area that needs to be modified is the time of observation. The crickets should be observed both during feeding to see the actual resource competition, as well as after the competition has taken place, in order to determine how the social hierarchy is formed and what kinds of agonistic encounters take place in order to create it. We never actually observed the resource competition, which is what our hypothesis is based on. We just observed its effects. Some research articles we found tested other variables that would be interesting to see the results from The first is from the study by Bergman and Moore (2003). They studied the agonistic encounters of crayfish with resource deprivation as one of their variables, similar to our experimental design. However, they studied one facet that we had not even considered, that of the presence of shelter impacting agonistic behaviors of an individual. “Crayfish agonistic interactions were longer, more intense, and more likely to end with a tailflip when the interaction took place near a shelter than on or near food-resource habitats” (Bergman et al. 2003). Shelter’s effect could be studied in further experiments. Differing food resources for each group and the resource’s impact on agonistic behaviors is another variable that could be studied in future experiments. A study by Tylianakis et al. (2004) tested this variable by giving different groups of aphids a sugar gel, a buckwheat plant , a buckwheat plant with no flowers (and thus no sugar), and a control of water only. They found that “Longevity and potential fecundity (fecundity means fertility) were significantly enhanced by a sugar-based resource subsidies under experimental resources” (Tyliankakis et al. 2004). What one from glean from this is that different kinds of resources give different amounts and kinds of energy. Thus, changing the resource available to an individual could impact both their agonistic and mating behaviors. Our resource deprivation variable was only applied to the males in our experiment, not the females. This is also a possible variable that could be explored in future experiments. In a study by Sih et al. (1990), differing resource amounts were tested for both males and females, and they offered the following explanation for their results, “Our interpretation is that females were active while searching for food (thus, when they were fed, they reduced their activity), whereas males were actively searching for both food and mates (thus, they continued to be active even when fed)” (Sih et al. 1990). Essentially, once females were fed, they no longer actively searched for mates, whereas males always were searching for both mates and food, even while full. Discussion The null hypothesis was rejected; the groups with fewer resources, Group Nu and Group Kappa, had fewer agonistic encounters as a whole than the group with greater resources, Group Epsilon. In fact, the group with abundant resources had the most agonistic encounters. One possible reason for the increase in agonistic encounters is the fact that with more resources available to them, the crickets had increased metabolic energy (Hack 1997). However, this hypothesis doesn’t really apply, because we didn’t observe the crickets during the actual resource competition. Materials The experiment was conducted within a terrarium filled with white pebbles. The terrarium was separated into three equal sections using pieces of cardboard covered in garbage bags. Paper towels were ripped up and placed in each section. The crickets (Acheta domestica) were divided into three groups of five crickets each, Group Nu, Group Kappa, and Group Epsilon. The crickets of each group were labeled individually with a mark of colored correction fluid on the pronotum, femur, or both, in order to identify them during the observations. The terrarium sections were labeled for each of the three groups. Food and water was added to each group’s section of the tank on a petri dish. --------any info on the food---Group Nu received none of the food, and .30g of the water source, Cricket Quencher. Group Kappa received .20g of the food, and 2.48g of the water source, Cricket Quencher. Group Epsilon received 1.00g of the food, and 7.02g of the water source, Cricket Quencher. After the food and water was added, the terrarium was sealed with a piece of cardboard on top and the crickets were left alone for 48 hours. The crickets were removed from the terrarium - Group Nu received no food, and .30g Cricket Quencher - Group Kappa received .20g food, and 2.48g Cricket Quencher - Group Epsilon received 1.00g food, and 7.02g Cricket Quencher. - All groups were left alone for 48 hours F - Each set of crickets was labeled on the pronotum or femur with colored correction fluid for easy identification GroupThree groups of five crickets (Acheta domestica) were placed in each sections |
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| Peakay | May 23 2009, 05:43 PM Post #402 |
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me IRL
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I don't care about crickets! |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 05:43 PM Post #403 |
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cock ninja
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I LOVE CRICKETS! |
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| Adnarel | May 23 2009, 05:44 PM Post #404 |
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I'd rather be outside.
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The quotes from Foucault’s conclusion of Madness and Civilization can be put next to Plath’s poems and qualified. The Goya who painted The Madhouse must have experienced before that grovel of flesh in the void, that nakedness among bare walls, something related to a contemporary pathos: the symbolic tinsel that crowned the insane kings left in full view suppliant bodies, bodies vulnerable to chains and whips, which contradicted the delirium of the faces, less by the poverty of these trappings than by the human truth which radiated from all that unprofaned flesh – Page 279 - Plath uses nakedness often in her poems as a sign of vulnerability. In ‘Death & Co.’ Plath’s reference to nakedness occurs right before an encounter with a condor, representing Ted. - This effect seems to emphasize her victimization. The condor’s (Ted’s) beak seems to tear into a Plath made of red meat. - Plath seems to place most of the blame for her problems away from herself, making her ‘unprofaned’ in her own right. Goya’s Idiot who shrieks and twists his shoulder to escape from the nothingness that imprisons him – is this the birth of the first man and his first movement toward liberty, or the last convulsion of the last dying man? – Page 281 - A paradox in Plath’s situation is her freedom. She wanted to free herself from her personal specters by ‘enslavement’ through marriage to Ted. She ends up in bondage to Ted’s cruelty rather than his kindness. However, her mind stays free, and her poetry presumably lets her fly away from her problems. - Foucault’s mention of death throws this into a different sort of light. Plath’s poetry seems more of a narrative of her last throes than a movement towards freedom. And yet, in achieving death, she ends her broken marriage, her shattered existence, and her anguish in one fell swoop. This death that seems to escape from the insane domain of Juliette belongs to Nature more profoundly than any other; the night of storm, of thunder and lightning, is a sufficient sign that Nature is lacerating herself, that she has reached the extreme point of her dissension, and that she is revealing in this golden flash a sovereignty which is both herself and smoothing quite outside herself: the sovereignty of a mad heart that has attained in is solitude, the limits of the world that wounds it, that turns it against itself and abolishes it at the moment when to have mastered it so well givers it the right to identify itself with that world. – Page 284-285 - Juliette notwithstanding, this bit with Nature is oddly similar to Sylvia Plath. Plath started lacerating herself from the moment her father died. Of course, this first bit of laceration took place in her own mind, but it became powerful enough that she carried out this self-mutilation on a physical level, eventually killing herself. - This night of storm described by Foucault is another way of expressing the turbulence felt by the mentally ill. Plath’s life was excessively turbulent, and her poems in Ariel reflect this. - This ‘golden flash of sovereignty’ is a morbid reminder of her freedom achieved through suicide. In one flash of the oven’s flames, she was released from her ties to Ted and to her suffering. Plath abolishes her world. The frequency in the modern world of works of art that explode out of madness no doubt proves nothing about the reason of that world, about the meaning of such works, or even about the relations formed and broken between the real world and the artists who produced such works. – Page 286 - Plath had her own share of relationships formed and broken. Foucault suggests that this sort of breaking and creating of bonds is a sort of madness. It certainly created a madness in Plath. Her first disappointment occurred with her father. Hughes arguably put her over the edge. - According to Foucault, the fact that Plath was mad and was a poet does not say much about her poems. The inverse is not true. Her poems cast a great deal of insight on her madness and the relationship, made and broken. |
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| SeaMonkeyFarmer | May 23 2009, 05:46 PM Post #405 |
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Wifey
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Let your conscience be your guide! |
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| Adnarel | May 23 2009, 05:47 PM Post #406 |
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I'd rather be outside.
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*sets Pinocchio on fire* |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 05:47 PM Post #407 |
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cock ninja
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Ich sehe! |
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| Adnarel | May 23 2009, 05:48 PM Post #408 |
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I'd rather be outside.
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Was siehst du? |
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| SeaMonkeyFarmer | May 23 2009, 05:49 PM Post #409 |
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Wifey
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Ich esse toast! |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 05:49 PM Post #410 |
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cock ninja
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Ich sehe der Himmel und ich trinke Kaffee! |
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| Adnarel | May 23 2009, 05:50 PM Post #411 |
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I'd rather be outside.
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Du siehst den Himmel, Fräulein Sacra. |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 05:52 PM Post #412 |
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cock ninja
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Pfft, entschuldige! Ich spiele gern Computerspielen! |
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| SeaMonkeyFarmer | May 23 2009, 05:53 PM Post #413 |
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Wifey
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I am going to go to bed now. Goodnight! Keep up the spamming until morning! ^_^ |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 05:54 PM Post #414 |
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cock ninja
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Nuu! Good night! GET UP EARLY! 8D |
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| Peakay | May 23 2009, 06:02 PM Post #415 |
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me IRL
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D: |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 06:02 PM Post #416 |
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cock ninja
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KEEP GOING WE'RE NEARLY AT 500 8D |
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| Fluff | May 23 2009, 06:09 PM Post #417 |
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The Temple Asshole
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Sacra. |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 06:10 PM Post #418 |
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cock ninja
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YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY I LOVE YOU FLUFFY |
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| Fluff | May 23 2009, 06:10 PM Post #419 |
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The Temple Asshole
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Keep freaking spamming. |
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| Calibrations | May 23 2009, 06:11 PM Post #420 |
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cock ninja
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Okay! |
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