PDA

View Full Version : Limbaugh's Voice Tested To Kill Beetles



DarrinS
02-12-2010, 03:08 PM
Your tax dollars at work


http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/02/12/rush-limbaughs-voice-tested-see-if-it-will-kill-beetles






A scientific study was recently performed to determine if Rush Limbaugh's voice would kill beetles:

Beetles are destroying ponderosa, pinyon, lodgepole pines and other trees important to the ecosystem. The beetles have their place in the ecosystem too, of course, but climate change and human activities have allowed beetles to take over more than they should.

To combat such infestations, scientists thought up the "nastiest, most offensive sounds" they could. Those included recordings of Guns & Roses, Queen, Rush Limbaugh and manipulated versions of the insects' own sounds.

If you think this is a satire from the Onion, it's not, for the following was actually reported by Discovery.com Wednesday (h/t Colby Hall):

The project, dubbed "Beetle Mania," concluded that acoustic stress may disrupt the tenacious insects' feeding and even cause the beetles to kill each other, according to a presentation recently at the National Meeting of the Entomological Society of America. [...]

Richard Hofstetter, an entomology professor at Northern Arizona University who worked on the project, told Discovery News that "the most annoying sound" his colleague, Reagan McGuire, "could think of was Rush Limbaugh or rock music."

McGuire started to pump the sounds of Limbaugh into portions of infested tree trunks brought into their lab, but Hofstetter said McGuire "could not bear listening to Limbaugh, so he ended up playing Rush backwards, which still kept the voice and intonation the same, but the words were meaningless."

In the end, Limbaugh's voice didn't accomplish what these "scientists" hoped:

He and his colleagues found that while Limbaugh and the heavy metal initially bothered the beetles, the insects mostly ignored the sounds after a while.

Your tax dollars at work -- maybe even stimulus dollars!

Makes you wonder why they didn't try any liberal voices.

Any suggestions?

ElNono
02-12-2010, 03:12 PM
The tried Barney Frank, but the beetles fell asleep...

coyotes_geek
02-12-2010, 03:22 PM
Can we test Rush Limbaugh's and Barney Frank's voices to see if they kill each other?

ElNono
02-12-2010, 04:20 PM
Can we test Rush Limbaugh's and Barney Frank's voices to see if they kill each other?

Now, there's a thought...

panic giraffe
02-12-2010, 04:24 PM
Can we test Rush Limbaugh's and Barney Frank's voices to see if they kill each other?

now THAT'S bi-fucking-partisianship.
make it happen.

Wild Cobra
02-12-2010, 11:54 PM
Maybe Obama's voice can influence them like lemmings, making them dive off a cliff?

ElNono
02-13-2010, 12:32 AM
Maybe Obama's voice can influence them like lemmings, making them dive off a cliff?

I bet his voice makes you pretty angry... and you're no beetle...

EmptyMan
02-13-2010, 06:21 PM
His voice has already proven to agitate roaches.

angrydude
02-13-2010, 07:20 PM
all hail science

spursncowboys
02-13-2010, 07:23 PM
I can only imagine what hillary's voice would do

ChumpDumper
02-13-2010, 07:57 PM
As usual, the blog only put in the part of the story that would anger stupid white guys who want to feel oppressed.


They blasted the beetles with rock music and Rush Limbaugh commentary played backwards. Discouraged by the results, the scientists started firing the insects' own sounds back at them. They couldn't believe what they saw.

"We could use a particular aggression call that would make the beetles move away from the sound as if they were avoiding another beetle. Or we could make our beetle sounds louder and stronger than that of a male beetle calling to a female, which would make the female beetle reject the male and go toward our speaker," Hofstetter said. "We found we could disrupt mating, tunneling and reproduction. We could even make the beetles turn on each other, which normally they would not do."

Wearing a headset, McGuire would listen and watch the beetles on a computer monitor hooked up to a microscope.

"We observed and recorded beetles mating two or three times," McGuire said. "Then we'd play the beetle sounds that we manipulated and watch in horror as the male beetle would tear the female apart. This is not normal behavior in the natural world."

So in the spotlight and under the microscope are bark beetles and their communication sounds and patterns.

"If we know how they hear and what they hear, we can disrupt that behavior," said NAU forest science doctorate student Kasey Yturralde. "If we can do that, we may be able to stop this mass aggregation and the killing of trees. But right now, we don't even know where the beetles' ears are."

Hearing the need for a better understanding of bark beetle anatomy is University of Arizona Neurobiology Department Professor Wulfila "Wulfi" Gronenberg. By inserting tiny electrodes and performing what amounts to bark beetle brain surgery, Gronenberg is working to find where and how the sound is perceived.

"Insects can have ears almost anywhere, on their wings, legs, antennas or abdomen," Gronenberg said. "It's important to find out all about the sound these beetles use to communicate. Then we can aim that sound and do something to their brains so they don't respond properly."

Researchers are seeking funding to help them continue looking for the sound, maybe even ultrasound, that can be used strategically to keep beetles from damaging individual or entire stands of trees.

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/article_e4870127-95b0-5298-8994-597b80c9262a.html

Of course, that's not as sexy to Darrin.