Evolutionary Oddity: The Anglerfish

You may be familiar with anglerfish, those fish that have weird antenna-like things growing out of their head which they use to lure prey close to their mouth.

I just heard the disturbing details of their "mating" habits. There are details on Wikipedia, but I liked the gory detail in a response I found on Yahoo Answers:

Once the male has sniffed out a female he swims up and, in a shocking bit of sadism, clamps down on her with an unshakable bite. The fish has evolved tooth-like plates in his upper and lower jaw for this purpose, and once he sinks them into a chosen female, he stays put. [...] the male anglerfish doesn’t let go. Ever again. FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.

[...]

Not so fast. [...] As soon as the male attaches himself to his mate, she begins to slowly absorb him (men, this part may sound familiar). Eventually, his lips grow into the skin of her side, his mouth and eyes disappear, his circulatory system ties itself to hers and he becomes a permanent appendage, dependent on her for food, protection, and a ride. He becomes little more than a reproductive organ, the sex act his only purpose.

Yikes.

A View from the Office

Mostly, I'm testing Blogger photo publishing, but it's a neat view, no?

Hello, World!

Hi there. Welcome to my new blog.

I'm not new to blogging, but I've chosen to make this blog the public place for my thoughts on various things that interest me.

Things I think I may like to write about:

• Computing/Technology in general. Or, in particular, some of my favorite languages: Python, Java, and Groovy.
  
• Religion, philosophy, politics, and the current so-called "culture war".
  
• Esperanto and other linguistic topics.
  
• News & Current Events
• etc.

Of course, like New Year's resolutions, only time will tell how well I follow through with said goals. :)