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Humans' invention of zero was crucial for modern mathematics and science, but we're not the only species to consider "nothing" a number. Parrots and monkeys understand the concept of zero, and now bees have joined the club, too.

Honey bees are known to have some numerical skills such as the capacity to count to four, which may come in handy when keeping track of landmarks in their environment. To see whether these abilities extended to understanding zero, researchers trained 10 bees to identify the smaller of two numbers. Across a series of trials, they showed the insects two different pictures displaying a few black shapes on a white background. If the bees flew to the picture with the smaller number of shapes, they were given delicious sugar water, but if they flew toward the larger number, they were punished with bitter-tasting quinine.

Once the bees had learned to consistently make the correct choice, the researchers gave them a new option: a white background containing no shapes at all. Even though the bees had never seen an empty picture before, 64% of the time they chose this option rather than a picture containing two or three shapes, the authors report today in Science. This suggests that the insects understood that "zero" is less than two or three. And they weren't just going for the empty picture because it was new and interesting: Another group of bees trained to always choose the larger number tended to pick the nonzero image in this test.

In further experiments, the researchers showed that bees' understanding of zero was even more sophisticated: For example, they were able to distinguish between one and zero—a challenge even for some other members of the zero club. Advanced numerical abilities like this could give animals an evolutionary advantage, helping them keep track of predators and food sources. And if an insect can display such a thorough grasp of the number zero, write the researchers, then this ability may be more common in the animal kingdom than we think.

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Im guessing some conservative freak out happened over fruit cups?

This may be an unpopular opinion, but cheerleading is ALL about sexualizing young girls and women. Maybe get rid of it altogether.

Edit: Since this proved to be a popular opinion, let me get on my soap box. Not only does cheerleading unnecessarily sexualize girls, it's also the most dangerous sport for female athletes. There's really no reason for it, IMO.

collegiate cheerleading accounted for 70.5% of all female catastrophic sports injuries and high school cheerleading for 65.2% of all high school female sports injuries.

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She was lured in by the cute baby goat in pajamas and kidnapped… like all members of this community would be.

This is a statement from his wife from the Munich Security Conference:

"Thank you to the conference for giving me the opportunity to speak. I’m sure you have seen the terrible news. I kept thinking, should I come here or go be with my children. And it occurred to me that if Alexei was in my shoes, he would be standing on this stage.

I don’t know whether to believe the terrible news we received from Russian government sources because for many years – and you all know this – we cannot believe Putin and his government; they are always lying.

But if it is true… I want Putin and his friends and his government to know that they will bear the full brunt of responsibility for what they did to our country, my family, and my husband. And that day will come very soon.

I want to call on the world community, everyone in this room, people all over the world to come together and defeat this evil, this reign of terror. Putin must be held personally responsible for the horrors he did to my country, our country, in the recent years. Thank you."

To be fair, he's been into Tolkien since adolescence and is really excited to share. It's just... intense.

In my neighborhood there is a old guy who takes his little granddaughter for walks while open carrying a gun. We live in a very safe suburban area. Some people are fucking nuts and are totally looking for a fight.

This guy sci-fies.

They don't call him Drath'nor the Anus Destroyer for nothing.

Knitting. Super cheap to start, you can pick up a set of needles and some acrylic yarn for under $20. But when you start getting into nice yarns and bigger pieces, you are spending hundreds of dollars on yarn alone for a blanket or a sweater. And you want nice needles in all sizes as well as all types (double pointed, regular and circular)… more hundreds of dollars.

Moral of the story is if a friend knits you something with nice yarn, please appreciate it. Lots of effort and thought went into it.

How did you get such an up-close pic of Jennifer Lopez?

Poor memory is one of the symptoms of ADHD. We get easily distracted and often have time blindness, meaning it's hard for us to tell how much time has passed and estimate what time it is. I have to take my meds 3 times daily roughly 4 hours apart. If I don't set alarms, I'm screwed.