Where is the coolest place to stay and see the Northern Lights? Our vote goes to Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen in Finland. The Northern Lights can be seen anywhere above 60 degrees north latitude but this place is special and these pictures show…


Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen, Finland

Surrounded by Lapland’s exotic and stunning scenery, Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen offers 31 first-class log cabins in Lapland. Hotel Igloo Village Kakslauttanen is located in the Saariselka fell area amidst beautiful Finnish Lapland scenery in the vicinity of Urho Kekkonen National Park along the road leading to Nordkap and the Arctic Ocean. Just look at these pictures to see how stunning this place is…


Imagine yourself sleeping in an Igloo made of Snow. It is totally quiet. Lights inside ice illuminate the Igloo. These make the atmosphere so exciting that never get bored of marvelling it, until you fall to deep, comfortable sleep in your warm down sleeping bag.


When sleeping in the Glass Igloos the customer is able to marvel the amazing northern lights and the millions of stars in the sky. The experience is also unforgettable when there is a snowstorm.


Kakslauttanen is a cool place for seeing the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, as in the area there are not so many electric lights outside and it is north enough so that the probability of them is very high from late August to late April.

Here is a map of the area and its amenities…


travelphant.com

They say the gesture allows a bug named Cytomegalovirus, which is dangerous in pregnancy, to be passed from man to woman to give her time to build up protection against it.

The bug is found in saliva and normally causes no problems. But it can be extremely dangerous if caught while pregnant and can kill unborn babies or cause birth defects.

Writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, researcher Dr Colin Hendrie from the University of Leeds, said: “Female inoculation with a specific male’s cytomegalovirus is most efficiently achieved through mouth-to-mouth contact and saliva exchange, particularly where the flow of saliva is from the male to the typically shorter female.”

Kissing the same person for about six months provides the best protection, he added.

As the relationships progresses and the kisses become more passionate, the woman’s immunity builds up, cutting her odds of becoming ill.

By the time she becomes pregnant, the odds of her unborn baby becoming infected are much lower.

Previously scientists have claimed that kissing acts as a form of evolutionary quality control, with saliva holding clues to fertility, health and genes.

But the psychologists from Leeds and the University of Central Lancashire said these things can be judged without getting quite so intimate.

Dr Hendrie said: “Information concerning body tone, smell, reproductive condition, disease state and, of course, personal physical and oral hygiene can all be gained solely from close physical proximity.

“The small amount of additional information from kissing is an unlikely pressure for its development.”
telegraph.co.uk

Gynandromorphic butterfly!
So one of the coolest things ever happened this past saturday. A gynandromorphic Hypolimnas misippus (danaid eggfly) eclosed at the Insectarium!


I have read about gynandromorphy while in college and I am just giddy to have been onsite when one appeared.

A gynandromorph is an animal that is literally half male and half female – directly down the center. This occurs during the development of the zygote when the chromosomes don’t split correctly. Basically, due to non-disjunction, one side of the zygote develops with an X (females are X or XY) and the other develops with an XXX (males are XX or in unusual cases XXX).

The more dramatic specimens are those where the species has sexual dimorphism – so either side is dramatically different (like my little danaid eggfly). If you look closely at the picture above you can see that the line down the center of the body – the right side (female) is lighter in color and the abdomen is a touch longer.
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The underside of the right (female) wing.



The underside of the left (male) wing.

*squeee!*
community.livejournal.com/entomology