No Politics Tuesday makes its triumphant return this week. Huzzah.

The Polish blog looks like it is back from the dead, and Daniel has the details (or at least a link) on a 62-mile mega-colony of ants in Australia.

In 8th grade science class, we had to do a big science experiment project (a.k.a. "A Lesson in Falsifying Data") to demonstrate that we had learned and could implement the scientific process, and assemble a foamboard display to present the project. I loathed this like only a 14-yr-old with a mullet could. My project title was "What type of sugar do ants prefer?" Seriously. I don't know what part of the public education system failed on that one, but someone should've stopped me.

For my project, I ordered a box of black ants from a science catalogue. The plan was to then place them in some other container that also had three separate piles of sugar--brown, powder, and your traditional crystal sugar. Then just wait for the ants to choose a pile to munch on, and voila, science project.

Now, as rock-solid brilliant as this sounds, I encountered a major stumbling block after the ants arrived in the mail. Rather than immediately implement the experiment with a box full of lively ants ready to do their part for the advancement of our scientific understanding, I did what I do best...I procrastinated. And by the time I got around to conducting the experiment, the majority of the ants had died, and the remaining ants weren't in the best condition. And the funny thing is, when you put an ant in a container with three kinds of sugar, they're more concerned with finding a way out of the container than they are with climbing on a mound of sugar.

As you can probably guess, I didn't win any awards for my project. But I can tell you that I certainly didn't have the worst project in junior high. The next year, someone else did their project on "which paper towel works best?" (Thinking about it, about half the projects were probably consumer tests, not exactly science projects). For her display, she stapled three blocks of paper towel onto a piece of foamboard. Above the one which performed best, she wrote "First place." Above the next best, she wrote "Second place." And above the least absorbant paper towel, Scott brand, she simply wrote, "Scott sucks." That rocked.

In 9th grade, I dyed different types of fabric, in 10th I grew radish plants and tested fertilizers, and then in 11th, I burned blocks of wood. Don't ask me to explain that one.

Still to come: Motor Vehicle Administration, take two. And more on the Olympics.