A scary reminder of the 1958 movie The Fly, here's writer-illustrator Zina Saunders' (no relation) picture of the ghastly Palin. Check out her website for a some acute political art, and click on this thumbnail for the bigger image.

I think that's me in the lab coat.

 Wolbachia pipientis is a rather peculiar bacterium.  It's an intracellular organism, and is found in a wide variety of tax, including nematodes, crustacea, and arachnids.  About 20% of insect species are thought to have Wolbachia.  Wolbachia has evolved a number of mechanisms to ensure transmission, which is generally maternal.  There are a number of consequences of infection with these intracellular bacteria observed in different species - including reproductive isolation between infected and uninfected strains of the mosquito Culex pipiens.  I also recall seeing a old paper (though I've long-since lost the citation) which claimes a growth advantage of infected Drosophila larvae in crowded culture, though I think this must have predated the identification of Wolbachia.

So some laboratory Drosophila strains are infected with Wolbachia, while some are not.  This can lead to artefacts in many experiments.  For example, in my own lab, we had some perplexing results concerning the effects of particular transgene on viability of some combinations - the involvement of Wolbachia became clear firstly when we noticed the effects depended on which which strain was paternal and which maternal in the cross, and finally the observation that  this effect vanished after treating the transgenic stocks with antibiotic.  These kind of artefacts are particularly important to consider when working with complex characteristics such as lifespan (as we do in my lab).

The Register reports latest developments in the Australian Government's ambitions to censor all internet traffic.  Originating as some misguided initiative to "protect the children" (whatever happened to parental responsibility?), it now appears that Australian internet users are likely to face a situation where they must choose from one of two censored streams.  Opting out of the "child-friendly" stream (which blocks a wide range of supposedly harmful content), merely subjects the user to an adult filter that blocks material deemed by the government to be inappropriate for adults.

Is this patronising and paternalistic system the future of the internet?  Or has it the potential to lead to unreasonable censorship?

The Register reports that the anti ID card campaigners No2ID have succeeded in their long standing aim to obtain samples of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's fingerprints.

Hot on the heels of announcing plans for draconian new communications monitoring Smith is taking forward the batty ID card agenda (first victims: overseas people, second victims: airport workers).  Now it seems a glass bearing her dabs has been "borrowed" and those precious prints preserved, presumably for some nefarious purpose.

Back on 11th October, the Open Rights Group (together with a number of other concerned organisations) held a protest in Parliament Square to publicise the growing surveillance we are all subjected to.  A large mosaic constructed from images of CCTV installations was assembled.  The image (below) has been released under a Creative Commons licence.  A bigger version is available. 

From the ORG "The Big Picture" wiki:

Back at the end of 2007, Privacy International published this map of world surveillance societies. The full report is here.  Each country is rated on a number of categories, and the results pooled to give an overall rating.  The dear old United Kingdom doesn't come out of the analysis too well.

As I posted the other day, the latest version of Ubuntu GNU/Linux has been released.  Ubuntu's schedule sees a new release every six months, and this is reflected in the release numbering: 7.10 was released in October 2007, 8.04 in April 2008 and 8.10 in October 2008.  Each release has a nickname - 8.10 is also known as 'Intrepid Ibex', hence the image of an ibex to the left.

I usually avoid fresh installs of Ubuntu, preferring to go the route of upgrading via synaptic.  This involves considerable file downloading, which can be a fairly lengthy affair, particularly soon after release date when the Ubuntu servers and their mirrors are presumably havily loaded.   I have four computers running Ubuntu, and in light of the usual comments and complaints in the Ubuntu forums, I thought I'd note my upgrade experiences here.

The BBC are reporting that an initiative to curb drug use in Aberdeen will test pub-goers for drug use.  It's a relatively non-invasive test involving hand swabs.  Te odd thing about this is the way the test is being carried out.

People are tested when entering pubs and clubs: the test is apparently not compulsory, but those declining to be tested will be refused entry.  An unusual definition of "not compulsory", that!  So, let me get this right.  I could be lawfully going about my business, and wish to visit a pub for a beer.  I can be stopped for drug testing, and on declining to be tested will be refused entry.

Further evidence of abuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) is reported by the Daily Telegraph (1/11/08).  Their investigation involved FOI requests to councils: over half of them are using RIPA powers for such trivia as monitoring abuse of refuse collection, littering and fly-tipping.

This is far from the first such occasion: earlier this year, Poole Borough Council spied on a family to check if they live in a school catchment area.  (BBC News 10/4/08), and Bury Metropolitan Council spied on their binmen to catch them over-enthusiastically collecting refuse (The Register 10/9/08) -an action that cost the council a £100,000 settlement - three days before the case was due to go to trial.

An amino acid polymorphism in the couch potato gene forms the basis for climatic adaptation in Drosophila melanogaster

Most organisms are faced with dealing with seasonal variations in environmental conditions.  As winter approaches, physiological changes need to be implemented: deciduous trees drop their leaves, mammals may hibernate, and so forth.  In the case of many insects, the strategy is to move into a diapause state.  This may be in any of the life stages - pupal diapause, larval diapause etc, and in the case of Drosophila melanogaster reproductive diapause, in which ovarian activity is shut down in response to a combination of short day length and low temperature.  My interests in diapause are two-fold in origin: firstly, diapause appears to have an impact on lifespan in Drosophila, and secondly, my father identified the existence of reproductive diapause in Drosophila back in 1989.