Fish Punish Fish for Bad Manners
from LiveScience.com
Fish may dine underwater, but they still need to remember their manners at mealtime. A new study finds that males of a certain fish species will punish females when they misbehave(行为不端) while eating.
And the chastisement(惩罚) occurs even though the males are not directly affected by the females’ trouble-making, indicating that these fish may exhibit a form of human social behavior known as third-party (第三方) punishment, the researchers say. The fish, called Labroides dimidiatus(裂唇鱼,主要分布于红海、印度洋非洲东岸至太平洋中部), are a type of “cleaner fish,” getting their name from the fact that they clean larger marine inhabitants by removing tiny parasites (寄生虫), which become food for the smaller fish. While the cleaner fish’s “clients” are happy to have their bodies tidied of parasites, they become irritated if the cleaners take a bite out of their mucous(粘液似的) tissue, and may even swim away. Although mucus(粘液) may not sound like the most appetizing(开胃的) meal, cleaners actually prefer to eat mucus. But the cleaners must resist this temptation if they want their dinner to stick around(逗留).
Researchers at the Zoological Society of London found that, although the male behavior may seem altruistic(无私的)—since the clients, not the males, are the victims of the females’ bites—the males are actually acting in their own self-interest. “By punishing greedy females, the males are not really sticking up for(维护) the clients but are making sure that they get a decent meal,” Nichola Raihani, a study author, said in a statement. The researchers suggest that in a natural setting, the males might benefit with more food if they punished bad-mannered females.
Washington Couple Collects Cans to Pay for Wedding
from AP
Love for each other and the environment—and creative thriftiness(节俭)—have prompted a Spokane(士波肯市,位于美国华盛顿州的东部) couple to collect aluminum(铝) cans to help pay for their wedding.
Andrea Parrish and Peter Geyer already have more than 18,000 cans in their living room—nearly five percent of their goal of collecting 400,000 of the containers.
The Spokesman-Review newspaper says that would be about five tons of aluminum, worth about $3,800 when recycled. The whole “mission” thing sounds a bit dramatic, but it’s the truth. They think their relationship has been a bit off kilter(不寻常的) from the beginning, so they want their wedding to be different. They don’t want anything huge or extravagant(奢侈的) and they are planning a potluck(家常便饭), DIY decorations, and getting the help from friends and family for flowers, pictures, the sword-fighting(击剑) battle, homebrewed(自家酿制的) beer, even the cake. Parrish and Geyer hope to meet their goal by their planned July 31st wedding.