Tagged: southern tier

Groups for and against fracking are gearing up for an announcement by Governor Cuomo’s environmental officials  on whether the natural gas drilling process will be permitted in New York on a limited basis. But the  organizations, who are running ads, may have to wait a little longer.

While the majority of us would be very happy to see out the summer without flies ruining our outdoor dining experience, one particular species of fly has provided the inspiration for a potential breakthrough in the technology of hearing aids. It's not just any old house-fly we're talking about, though.

Binghamton University engineering professor Ron Miles says this particular fly, called the ormia ochracea, is special because it’s as good as a human at locating the source of a sound.

“The female fly, when she’s pregnant and needs to have her babies, she listens for crickets to sing," says Miles. "And when she hears the cricket, she’ll fly to the cricket and have her babies and these maggots then burrow into the cricket and a few days later, they’ll emerge and leave a hollow shell.”

So the fly’s behavior isn’t pretty. The way most animals locate sound doesn’t work for ormia ochracea, and it's useful to know how this tiny parasite can locate its host.

Outside Wednesday’s town board meeting in Windsor, drilling advocates handed out pro-drilling stickers. About 150 people showed up and most of them put a sticker on.

The issue on that night was Resolution 24 - the town board’s May declaration of support for state, not local government, power decide whether fracking comes to New York.

The Town of Windsor passed its resolution on May 2, one of 30 or so passed by town boards mostly in the Southern Tier, says Binghamton lawyer Scott Kurkoski. He says they were meant as a way to counteract the spread of local drilling bans.