New Spider Species Named After Neil Young

From Buffalo Springfield to CSNY to a storied solo career, Neil Young has more than made his name in the rock game. Now, thanks to East Carolina University biologist Jason Bond, he's also making a name for himself in science.

Literally.

Bond discovered a new species of trapdoor spider last year in Alabama and set about publishing a paper about it with Norman I. Platnick, curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. When it came time to name his discovery, Bond reached not into the annals of science but those of music, dubbing it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi (teach your children how to pronounce that). While it was Young's diverse sonic offerings that initially attracted Bond to the idea, it was the Canadian legend's track record on sociopolitics that clinched the deal.

"I really enjoy his music," Bond explained in a press release, "and have had a great appreciation of him as an activist for peace and justice"...

--Wired

Chef wants to outlaw out-of-season vegetables

Celebrity British chef Gordon Ramsay said restaurants should be fined if they serve out-of-season fruit and vegetables.

"I don't want to see asparagus in the middle of December. I don't want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home-grown," he said after raising his concerns with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"Fruit and veg should be seasonal. Chefs should be fined if they don't have ingredients in season on their menu," he told the BBC on Friday.

Ramsay, whose London restaurants include Petrus and The Savoy Grill, said Britain had become a nation of lazy eaters who followed trends and fads rather than substance...

--Reuters

Christopher Walken cooking chicken with pears

Apparently he was interested in doing a cooking show, so he put out an amateur video. I would so watch that show.

With Motorcycles, Eco-Friendly and Badass Can Mix

Electric and alternative-fuel bikes are the future of individual transportation not because of their fuel efficiency but because they are extremely cool. That's right. Creators of eco-friendly motorcycles are pushing the limits of their designs to make them desirable to a biking community that sees little difference between their (relatively) efficient gas engines and the new-fuel wave of alternatives. Riding bikes is all about the cool factor, so the crazier and more technologically advanced they get, the more people will want to ride them, clean fuel or not.

Gaze upon the alt-fuel bikes most likely to break the mold of motorcycle design in the near future...

--Wired

Platypus genome is as weird as its looks

It's part-reptile, part-mammal, part-bird – and totally unique. Two centuries after European scientists deemed a dead specimen so outlandish it had to be a fake, the bizarre genetic secrets of Australia's platypus have been laid bare.

Platypuses lay eggs and produce venom like some reptiles, but they sport furry coats and feed their young with milk like mammals. The odd creatures are classed as monotremes, with only one close relative – the echidna.

But as primitive mammals that share the same ancestor as humans, a study of the animal's genome can improve biologists' understanding of how mammals evolved, while illuminating the platypus's strange physiology.

Wesley Warren at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, led the international team that sequenced the platypus genome. As expected, they found an amalgam of some ancestral reptile and some newer mammalian features. But there were also surprises...

--New Scientist

The Great American Road Trip

What: Road trip through the 48 states in under 120 hours, nonstop.

When: Sunday May 4th at 7:39 am (MT) to Thursday May 8th, 2008

Mileage: 7,010 miles

Our time: 4 days 6 hours and 15 minutes

The route we have selected to travel through all 48 states was originally planned by Jim Keeler and John Brough. Numerous hours were spent with maps from AAA and Rand McNally being looked over and marked up with possibilities. Routes were drawn and redrawn to the point that the maps became nearly unreadable. After much trial and error and a lot of adding up mileages and times, the route you see here came to be...

--Great American Road Trip