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When Starbucks changed its Frappuccino mix a couple years ago, it made sure the new ingredients were dairy-free. But no one said anything about being bug-free. Turns out the strawberry sauce used in strawberries-and-cream Frappuccinos contains cochineal extract, which is made from the bodies of ground-up insects indigenous to Latin America. A vegan barista who works for Starbucks sent a picture of the sauce’s ingredient list to a vegetarian blog called www.ThisDishIsVegetarian.com, which posted it earlier this month. The revelation sparked some criticism from advocacy groups questioning the practice. “The strawberry base for our Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino does contain...

Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? A biologist’s science- fiction hunch is gaining credence and shaping the emerging science of mind- controlling parasites.

Irene Cruz says store's assistant manager dismissed bug parts, refused to file complaint, and declined to let Cruz speak with her superiorsA Miami mother of six says her family lost its appetite this morning when her daughter discovered her McDonald's pancakes were full of insect parts -- and a store manager refused to file a formal complaint. Upon inspecting the rest of her children's food, Irene Cruz says, she found insect parts on nearly every plate. But Cruz says when she returned to the Bird Road West McDonald's at 14699 SW 42nd Street, an assistant manager dismissed what appear to...

Tornadoes aren't the only funnels that touch down in the Midwest. "Bugnadoes" — vortexes of swarming bugs — occasionally twist through, too. On the night of July 4, professional storm chaser and photographer Mike Hollingshead caught sight of an enormous bugnado in southwestern Iowa. The air above the cornfields was so thick with bugs "it looked like it was smoking," Hollingshead told Life's Little Mysteries. He captured the strange sight on camera, and his video has gone viral in recent days. But what are the bugnadoes? Joe Kieper, an entomologist who is executive director of the Virginia Museum of Natural...

Just as students head back to college and families finish summer vacations comes the latest bad news from pest control companies: Bedbug infestations are getting worse and becoming more common in some places, including dorms, hotels, nursing homes, hospitals, office buildings, and schools and day-care centers. According to a survey released Wednesday by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky, pest control companies say there has been double-digit growth in infestations in the past year. About 54 percent of pest companies reported treating bedbugs in college dorms, compared with 35 percent in 2010; 80 percent reported treating...

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds. The base’s indoor flight lab is called the “microaviary,” and for good reason. The drones in development here are designed to replicate the flight mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. “We’re looking at how you hide in plain sight,”...

Now I have heard everything! Bolivia will draft a law proposed to the United Nations giving “Mother Earth”, which also includes many species of bugs rights on the same level as humans. This bid by Bolivia is with the goal of having a law on the international level, just as it does in that country in the form of a domestic law to give protection to bugs, trees, and other natural things in that South American country.

(Reuters) - Once a year, every year, Professor Thomas Borody receives a single-stem rose from one of his most grateful patients. She is, he says, thanking him for restoring her bowel flora. It's a distasteful cure for a problem that's increasingly widespread: the Clostridium difficile bug, typically caught by patients in hospitals and nursing homes, can be hard to treat with antibiotics. But Borody is one of a group of scientists who believe the answer is a faecal transplant. Some jokily call it a "transpoosion." Others have more sciencey names like "bacteriotherapy" or "stool infusion therapy." But the process involves,...

The sleek new MacBook Air models unveiled late last month are the slimmest computers Apple has ever produced — but the manufacturer still managed to find the space to pack in a few troublesome bugs. Early MacBook Air adopters have taken to various forums as they voice complaints surrounding Apple’s new MacBook Air (Late 2010) models. While Apple has yet to address any of the reported issues publicly, a source informed BGR that the manufacturer is investigating several of them internally. Included among the issues is a bug where the display flickers or shows horizontal lines of varying colors when...

Microsoft released its largest-ever set of security patches Tuesday, fixing a total of 49 bugs in products such as Windows, Internet Explorer and Office. There are 16 groups of patches (called updates) in total. Microsoft says that two of them -- the Internet Explorer fix numbered MS10-071 and a Windows patch numbered MS10-076 -- should get top priority. Microsoft thinks attack code is likely to be developed that will target bugs fixed by both of those updates. NCircle Director of Security Operations Andrew Storms agrees that those two updates should be a top priority as they could be leveraged in...

Elisabeth Hasselbeck on the Tea Party: ’they’re like bed bugs’ (video, photos) - National The View | Examiner.com

ST. LOUIS — Ten years ago, if pest control companies treated one home a year for bedbugs, it was unusual. But Joe Wells, a heat specialist and bedbug supervisor with Rottler Pest & Lawn Solutions in St. Louis, said he'll treat eight residences this week and next for the pesky blood suckers. He uses blasts of heat hot enough to warm an Easter ham. A resurgence of the bedbugs nationwide in recent months has become a bane and a boon. A bane for those who must live with the uninvited guests; a boon for those trained to get rid of...

Most will recognize this hideous, flesh-eating creature as a member of congress. Upon closer examination it becomes clear how fanged bulbous worm-like maggots that thrive in decaying filth are often mistaken for governors. This member of congress maggot was captured by an SEM (Scanning Electron Micrograph), confirming Stephen Hawking's brain misfired before he claimed God had nothing to do with the creation of the universe. Yea Steve, these little miracles just happen... More creatures at: http://sadhillnews.com/2010/09/07/creepy-closeups-electron-microscope-scans-unseen-world

Americans aren't eating enough insects, and that bugs foodies like Andrew Zimmern. Zimmern, host of the popular Travel Channel series "Bizarre Foods," travels the world tasting the local vittles in various countries. Some are quite foreign to American taste buds, and, at least in the case of insects, he thinks Yanks are missing out on some good eating. For instance, one of Zimmern's favorite snacks is a handful of chapulines, a taste treat from the Mexican state of Oaxaca that combines dry-roasted grasshoppers with lime and chili. Another is an Ecuadoran dish where coconut grubs are marinated in orange juice...

A GERMAN teacher is suing a student for teasing her about an alleged phobia of rabbits and drawing one on her blackboard. The teacher, named only as Marion V, fled in tears when she saw the chalk drawing at a school in the northern German town of Vechta, De Spiegel reported. Her 16-year-old tormentor had told classmates that Marion V. was terrified of rabbits and would "flip out" is she saw one, according to court documents. The victim, who teaches German and geography, has refused to say whether she is afraid of the animals but is suing the youngster for...

The creature that’s expected to inherit the Earth following a nuclear holocaust might also be well suited to help prevent man’s atomic self-destruction. Researchers at Texas A&M University’s Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute have attached radiation sensors to the backs of cockroaches. They hope public-safety officials will one day send the souped-up insects into situations that are too risky for humans. “Cockroaches really are the perfect medium for this,” says William Charlton, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the university and a principal investigator on the project. “They can go for extraordinarily long periods of time without food....

MEXICO CITY — Beetles, ants, worms and grasshoppers; roasted, fried, fricasseed or boiled. Ready to chow down on some insects? If not, maybe you should be, says Mexican nutritionist Virginia Melo. Not only could the availability of bugs help quell hunger around the world, insects are far richer per ounce than meat in both protein and essential amino acids, and add flavor and vigor to even the blandest dishes, the university professor says. “You can put them in tacos, add them to soups,” says Melo, who at 79 still teaches at Mexico City's Metropolitan Autonomous University. “There are so many...

(CNSNews.com) – In Ansonia, Conn., $2.3 million in federal stimulus funds is being used for insect research, specifically the “rearing [of] large numbers of anthropoids” which includes the “Asian long-horned beetle, the nun moth and the wooly adelgid,” the New Haven Advocate reported. Duluth, Minn., rarely known for its high temperatures, received $6 million in economic stimulus funds for a snowmaking facility, even though it is the 15th snowiest city in America, according to City-Data.com.

Now, New Jersey authorities fear the next target is the state's ash trees -- the same northern white ash already threatened in Pennsylvania and New York, where the timber is a coveted source for the "Louisville Slugger" and other major league baseball bats. The culprits are invading bugs. The Asian longhorned beetle that was destroying maples in and around Jersey City for years has been eradicated, for now, said environmental and agricultural officials today. But they took no time to celebrate. The state departments of Environmental Protection and Agriculture jointly urged people to keep a look-out for new infestations of...

- Bedbugs have sent Bill Clinton and his staff fleeing the former President's offices, a source tells us. No word on whether WJC actually has a bed in his Harlem suite, but the infestation is said to have been so bad that exterminators told Clintonistas to take a few days off.

Swiss cheese browser gains extra hole Scallywags are using an unpatched vulnerability in an ActiveX component to distribute malware, Microsoft warned on Monday. The development adds to already pressing unresolved Internet Explorer security bug woes. No patch is available for the Office Web Components ActiveX security hole, although there are workarounds which can be automated for enterprise rollouts. The flawed component is used by IE to display Excel spreadsheets, greatly increasing the scope for mischief. Win XP and Win 2003 systems are particularly at risk, while the additional security controls in Vista cover Microsoft's modesty. Redmond said it's aware of...

The insect world living in Colorado gardens looks much different this year, thanks to the cool, wet spring. People are abuzz about masses of ladybugs up in the mountains and in the Denver area. "In some parts of the state they're through the roof," said Whitney Cranshaw, an extension entomologist at Colorado State University. "We've never seen so many." Aphids and mosquitoes are also out in force, along with slugs and snails. Spring deluges triggered an abundance of certain insects. But some experts also cite the "victory garden" factor. "It's a phenomenal year for people to be gardening," said Carol...

A common mistake when searching for alien life forms is to look up into the sky for something big. But alien life is right here, at our feet, in our backyards. Millions of tiny but frightening aliens, many just a few millimetres long. We’ve convinced the most cheerful of the lot to give us a tour…

A Venezualan diving beetle, in fact. Scientists full of glee, Colbert silent for once..

The journey into the CIA's most extreme interrogation program began in darkness. Blindfolded, hooded and wearing earmuffs, suspected terrorists were shackled and flown to secret interrogation centers. The buildings themselves were quiet, clinical and designed to fill prisoners with dread. Detainees were shaved, stripped and photographed nude.

Link only, per rule: Health Buzz: Fried Insects Bad for Asthma

There are about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 insects on earth at any given moment. Seriously, that's a real number. For every one of us, there are 1.5 billion bugs. But some of them are so horrifying, just one is too many. Here are five you want to avoid at all costs.

A New Jersey man trying to exterminate insects in his apartment blew it up instead, the New York Daily News reported on Monday. The accident occurred as Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment's front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread, the newspaper said.

LONDON: European researchers are working on mathematical foundations of programming to create fault free software in the future. People are remarkably tolerant of software that goes wrong, but when it comes to faulty cars or TV sets, they would insist that they be set right without much ado, the researchers said. "The software industry is still very immature compared to other branches of engineering," says Bengt Nordström, computer scientist at Chalmers University, Göteborg. "We want to see programming as an engineering discipline but it's not there yet. It's not based on good theory and we don't have good design methods...

Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'. “Ten years ago I could never have imagined I’d be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. “I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to – especially the ones coming out of business school – this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into.........”

'Time-travelling' bugs resist antibiotics of the future 12:42 06 June 2008 NewScientist.com news service Ewen Callaway Bacteria lurking in soil in the 1960s and 70s resist an antibiotic that didn't exist until decades later. Three strains of what amount to future-predicting bacteria showed extreme resistance to six common antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin, which was first sold in 1989. "You can pretty safely say that there is no way these bacteria have seen them before," says Cristiane San Miguel, a microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, US. She presented the findings this week at the American Society for Microbiology's...

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, that secretive band of Pentagon geeks that searches obsessively for the next big thing in the technology of warfare, is 50 years old. To celebrate, DARPA invited Vice President Dick Cheney, a former Defense Secretary well aware of the Agency's capabilities, to help blow out the candles. "This agency brought forth the Saturn 5 rocket, surveillance satellites, the Internet, stealth technology, guided munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles, night vision and the body armor that's in use today," Cheney told 1,700 DARPA workers and friends who gathered at a Washington hotel to mark the occasion. "Thank...

Eagle Rock teacher creates insect monitor job to treat creatures respectfully By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer When Eagle Rock teacher Melodie Conrad saw a student stomp on a bug several years ago, she knew she had to do something. But while student monitors for the hallways, chalkboards and classroom windows have been around for years, nobody was quite prepared for the new duty she created: bug monitor. Now, if any creepy-crawly wanders into her classroom at Eagle Rock Elementary School & Magnet Center, the student bug monitor swoops in with a paper towel or napkin, scoops up the critter and...

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists. "I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a U.N.-sponsored conference this month on promoting bugs as a food source. Three dozen scientists from 15 countries gathered in this northern Thailand city, home to several dozen restaurants serving insects and other bugs. Some of their proposals were more down to earth than others. A...

The love-hate relationship between Microsoft and its users has always centered on the performance of its operating system. And during the past year, Windows Vista has given us reasons to be both positive and negative about the future of the PC. Before it came out in January, Vista got good reviews, though some critics complained Microsoft should have taken bigger steps to change the look and functions of Windows, much as it did with Office 2007. But as the year wore on, there were reports about bugs and security issues. And then came the insultingly titled book "Windows Vista Annoyances"...

New Haven, Conn. — The gigantic fossil claw of an 390 million-year-old sea scorpion, recently found in Germany, shows that ancient arthropods — spiders, insects, crabs and the like — were surprisingly larger than their modern-day counterparts. “Imagine an eight-foot-long scorpion,” said O. Erik Tetlie, postdoctoral associate in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale, and an author of the report online in Royal Society Biology Letters. “The claw itself is a foot-and-a-half long — indicating that these ancient arthropods were much larger than previous estimates — and certainly the largest seen to date.” Colleague and co-author Markus Poschmann...

WASHINGTON - Tiny robots programmed to act like roaches were able to blend into cockroach society, according to researchers studying the collective behavior of insects. Cockroaches tend to self-organize into leaderless groups, seeming to reach consensus on where to rest together. For example, when provided two similar shelters, most of the group tended to gather under the same one. Hoping to learn more about this behavior, researchers led by Jose Halloy at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, designed small robots programmed to act like a cockroach. The robots didn't look like the insects and at first the roaches fled...

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month. "I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."

I include insects in my animal rights philosophy. I try to avoid accidentally stepping on insects. Also, when I find an insect in my home, I try to carefully carry the insect outside without injuring him. With regards to animal rights, the distinguishing characteristic between plants and animals is that animals possess consciousness, whereas plants do not. Although I can not prove it with absolute 100% certainty, I believe that at least certain insects are also conscious. By this, I do not mean that insects discuss philosophy, but simply that they feel sensations such as pain and hunger. For this...

The exploit could be used by attackers to compromise, hijack, or infect computers running either Windows or Mac OS X. The Month of Apple Bugs project kicked off Monday by posting a zero-day vulnerability in Apple's QuickTime media player. It also posted an exploit that could be used by attackers to compromise, hijack, or infect computers running either Windows or Mac OS X. The Month of Apple Bugs (MoAB), which will announce a new security vulnerability in Apple's operating system or other Mac OS X software each day in January, is a follow-on to November's "Month of Kernel Bugs"...

One of those errors, a serious one, is in the software code underlying the company's new Internet Explorer 7 browser...That would make it possible for an attacker to inject rogue software into the Vista-based computer...vulnerability described by the Russian Web site...permits the privileges of a standard user account in Vista and other versions of Windows to be increased, permitting control of all of the operations of the computer.

Microsoft's browser gets upgraded IE 7 will be the browser that ships with Windows Vista Microsoft has made Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) available to the general public.The new version is the first upgrade to the web browsing program for more than five years. New features include tabbed browsing, the ability to search the net directly and an anti-fraud system to thwart phishing attacks. The new program is available as a free download on 19 October, but many will get it as an automatic update to Windows XP in November. Phish fighter The new version of the browser has...

Gassy Bugs: Microbes may produce propane under the sea Julie Rehmeyer For decades, scientists have been puzzled by periodic findings of ethane and propane in sediments that they've pulled from deep below the ocean floor. As far as they knew, these gases could be produced only as petroleum is—by great heat applied to ancient, buried organic matter. But sometimes, ethane and propane turn up in areas where that process seems unlikely. A new report suggests a different source: microbes. Bacteria and archaea within underwater sediments could chew up buried organic material and spew out ethane and propane as waste products,...

Beware of brainy bugs BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Aug. 25, 1996.) Today's science topic is: Insect Intelligence. I don't know about you, but I've always taken comfort in the idea that insects are stupid. For example, if I'm outdoors and a bee lands on me and starts walking around on my head -- causing me to turn rigid with fear, terrified that, if I move, the bee will become angry and sting me in the eyeball -- I've always reassured myself by thinking: ``This bee does not wish to harm me! Its...

Cats and dogs protect kids from stomach bugs 11:43 15 September 2006 NewScientist.com news service Matt Kaplan Pets can protect their young owners against common stomach bugs, according to new research. Jane Heyworth at the University of Western Australia in Crawley, and colleagues found that incidences of gastroenteritis – commonly called stomach flu – were significantly lower in young children living in homes with pets, than those living without. For six weeks, the team closely observed 965 children aged four to six, noting incidences of nausea, diarrhoea, and vomiting. Children that had a cat or dog in their household were...

Hitler's bugs 25.8.2006 - Michael Manske If we say Hitler and beetles, you may think of a fascist dictator and an old Volkswagen car. But there's another kind of beetle linked to the notorious German dictator, lurking in the caves of Slovenia. Michael Manske of Radio Slovenia International has more on this curious story: Slovenia has a number of endemic animals, most famously the proteus anguinus, commonly referred to as a "cave salamander" or "human fish". The amphibian is proudly displayed on the ten-tolar coin. But another cave dweller has recently started getting a lot of unwanted attention from around...

Current and former employees of the gourmet coffee chain filed a federal complaint yesterday claiming their corporate bosses have refused to heed repeated warnings about inadequate training and chronic infestations of roaches, rats and other vermin in New York stores. But the company strongly denied the allegations, noting the complaints were coordinated by a handful of activists who are trying to unionize the chain's normally merry band of baristas. Out of the 201 Starbucks stores in the city, the Department of Health issued notices of violation to 44 for rodent or insect activity in the most recent round of inspections,...

Bot Networks What could you do if you controlled a network of thousands of computers -- or, at least, could use the spare processor cycles on those machines? You could perform massively parallel computations: model nuclear explosions or global weather patterns, factor large numbers or find Mersenne primes, or break cryptographic problems. All of these are legitimate applications. And you can visit distributed.net and download software that allows you to donate your spare computer cycles to some of these projects. (You can help search for Optimal Golomb Rulers -- even if you have no idea what they are.) You've got...

Ok. Enough news about Joe Lieberman, angry A-Rabs, and kittens around here. It's time to tell us what your favorite bug is and why. Pissants top 7 are as follows: 7. Potato Bug. The little fellers are like miniature Armadillos and was one you could pick up as a kid without getting bitten or stung. 6. Earwig or Pincher Bug. Those pinchers on their tushes are quite intimidating. And for some reason like to hang out in Dahlias, so beware. 5. Butterfly. They always looked the best tacked to my bug collection corkboard. And were much easier to catch than...

Microsoft, on Tuesday, issued yet another bumper crop of security updates to fix over 20 flaws in its software, its biggest update since it began the regular bulletins. The 12 updates fix a staggering 23 flaws in Windows software, with 15 of them rated as critical, Microsoft's most severe rating. One of the 15 critical vulnerabilities has been tagged as a possible worm candidate; anonymous users can exploit the Service Server vulnerability remotely, regardless of the operating system. Three of the flaws were discovered in Office products, including Powerpoint, while 20 were present in the Windows system. Mac users also...