In the words of Homer Simpson, “Mmmmmmm, invasive species, mmmmmmmm.” We know it’s April Fool’s Day as this gets posted, but this is no joke: Thanks to ND biology grad students Sheina Sim, Andy Deines and Matt Barnes, you can enjoy such delicacies as fettuccine coated in butter and garlic and dotted with chewy morsels of Chinese mystery snail. Or how about dining on Asian carp or nutria, the orange-toothed rodent from South America that has become a pest in the southeast United States?
The trio of young biologists, who are conducting research on invasive species, founded the website endangervore on the principal that “one way to get rid of a pest is to eat it.” The site is chock full of recipes to help you do that. Recently MSNBC science writer Wynne Parry published a blog on their effort.
So if that doesn’t satisfy your craving for amusement and edification, check out the next generation of Hollywood directorial geniuses at the iTunes link showcasing the short films from Notre Dame’s 22nd annual Student Film Festival
If you’re still not amused, there’s some amazing footage of Notre Dame anthropology Professor James McKenna tap dancing his way into the hearts and minds of his students in a YouTube video. The renowned authority on parental-child co-sleeping has a tradition of tap dancing for his students on the last day of class.
Finally, moving from light-hearted amusement to heavyweight-but-interesting scholarship, we offer a video of Father John P. Meier’s intriguing Eugene M. Burke Lecture on the historical Jesus delivered at the University of California-San Diego in October 2001. Father Meier is the William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Theology at Notre Dame and the author of a critically acclaimed four-volume study of the historical Jesus.