Square one: the first phase of the Three-toed woodpecker work has been completed and a battery of microsatellite markers developed by Vilppu and Sonja were just published on the pages of Molecular Ecology Resources. Menghua is frantically working through the analytics and soon we will be a bit wiser about what those woodpeckers are actually up to. Stay tuned: more is to follow. Meanwhile, go here and spend some quality time reading about the tools in this trade.
Those fluent in Fenno-Ugric languages, more about three-toed project can be read from the pages maintained by our collaborators – Timo Pakkala and Markus Piha – who also have collected the data.
Välimäki K, S Jaari, M Piha, T Pakkala & J Merilä (2008) Isolation and characterization of 17 polymorphic microsatellite loci for the three-toed woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus). Mol Ecol Res 8: 1152-1154. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2008.02209.x
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Ok, so I also had to figure out what ‘vontage’ means. Strangely enough it wasn’t on Webster’s online dictionary, but my search did put this word at a higher priority for them:
“Sorry, this definition page is not yet loaded. Based on your search, we are increasing the priority for vontage and will race to post it for you if we have it on file.”
I sure hope they will ‘race’ to post it for me… They certainly will beat Cambridge online to that, since they just wondered if I spelled it wrong (Americans will race to help me, Brits just think I might be stupid).
Anyway, then I just googled it, and you know what? Juha’s woodpecker blog was the fourth hit, and other ones had something to do with telephones.
Finally, it dawned on me. It must be on Juha’s favourite dictionary. http://www.urbandictionary.com
Yup.
Strange how some of us get kidded about reading newspapers printed in Lahti.
I googled vontage as well, and woodpecker blog was the second hit..Soon “vontage” is the best search term if you want to find the woodpecker marker note. Is it good or bad?
Oh and now that I am so much more wiser… Juha’s right: Vilppu, your paper is vontage! Good luck all with the next phase!
Woodpeckers, three-toed or otherwise, make up to form a really intriguing subject. I’m eagerly awaiting more vontage results!
So, um, is there a prize for using vontage in a published paper?
Of course. I am also wondering how is it going with Webster’s race for providing an answer for John? Kimi: ever seen an one-toed woodpecker?
Bob, you have that manuscript for commneting, wanna try?
Juha, no I haven’t and I sure hope you aren’t going to show me one…
Just checked, they are still racing… I betcha this is one race that is going to last pretty long! Of course, if we publish a paper with vontage in it, they have no choice but to find out what it means.
Just wondering how Webster’s race is progressing? Looks as if it is not going to be any World Record time anyhow?
Not a peep out of Webster’s. Wikipedia was the deathblow for the good old Encyclopedia, now the urban dictionary usurps Webster’s. Craziness…