The titan arum and its cohort of stinkers are cleverer than we think: by drawing in with its rank odor reliable pollen carriers in a dense rainforest, it succeeds in outcrossing.

Many tropical plants pollinated by carrion flies and beetles produce flowers that smell like old socks or worse. By the time I arrived there was no evidence of the stench from its giant flower (technically an inflorescence, a cluster of many tiny flowers borne on a stalk) for which the titan arum is most notorious, an odor said to resemble a decomposing corpse.

The horticulturists-in-charge, or perhaps the titan arum’s ‘handlers,’ had deliberately placed the titan on a floral throne decorated with lesser plants in the same family (Araceae)-its jealous and more familiar potted cousins, the Anthurium and the Phyllodendron-kneeling below it at the base. When I visited the titan arum on exhibit, I joined a crowd milling around this all-star among aroids, many asking to be photographed next to it. H/T Wired | Photo via The Wandering Angel /Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.'Corpse Flower' on Display at US Botanic Garden, Washington DC (cc) William Angel out the live webcam here. But it’s exciting and terrifying, the best job in the world.”

“There are crushing lows and soaring highs. “There’s lots of responsibility,” Acton said. Mind Candy CEO Michael Acton Smith, the man behind Moshi Monsters, discussed this problem at TechCrunch’s London conference in in Oct. But the layoff of 14 percent of the company’s total workforce is a stark reminder of how transient the appeal of mobile apps can be, and the risks companies take by investing too heavily in just one flagship product. The most downloaded game of all time, it has spawned spin-offs, imitators, clothing lines, toys, beverages, books and even theme parks.īut now, Wired reports, Rovio is to cut 110 jobs and close down Finland-based studio Tampere after its operating profits plummeted 50 percent to $45 million last year, reportedly because of dramatically increased outlays on animation and other non-app products.įor now, the planned Angry Birds film is still due to go ahead. Since its launch in 2009, Angry Birds has become a cultural phenomenon in the mobile gaming world. What goes up must come down: Angry Birdshas enjoyed years of unprecedented success, but now Rovio-the company behind the hit mobile game-is laying off more than 100 employees amid plummeting profits.

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