Fall is just about here
I’m looking forward to it. The leaves are starting to turn. There’s a nip in the air, especially at night. And it’s time to reprise a few of the photos I took last year, on a memorable trip north to … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Nature
Which comes first, the duck or the chicken?
On the “literally” thread, commenter expat asked a burning question: Maybe you can help me figure out whether the duck who lives with my cousin’s chickens is literally transspecies. His egg was abandoned by his mother in the creek that … Continue reading →
A parasite is named in Obama’s honor
And it’s not the first: Baracktrema obamai isn’t just any parasite. It’s so distinctive that it represents not just a new species but an entirely new genus… B. obamai is a flatworm that infects black marsh turtles and southeast Asian … Continue reading →
Eliminating the mosquito: is it nice to fool Mother Nature?
Apparently we have the ability to completely eliminate that very common pest, the mosquito, through genetic engineering: Powerful new gene-editing technologies could allow scientists to program mosquito populations to gradually shrink and die off. Some efforts have gained enough momentum … Continue reading →
Today is National Dog Day
Give your pet an extra hug. I have a friend who’s putting his dog down today, and this photo-essay touched me. I’ve always loved dogs, although I’ve only owned two in my life. Even as a young kid who could … Continue reading →
Greenland sharks live 400 years
Yes, you read that right: 400 years. If you call that “living.” We actually don’t know all that much about shark behavior. But here’s my first introduction to it, courtesy of Herman Melville in a Moby Dick passage that made … Continue reading →
Monkeys on a plane (and in life, music, and movies)
[Hat tip: Instapundit.] Apparently there was some disturbance on a Frontier Airlines flight last Tuesday involving a monkey. But not to worry; it was a monkey with a job: The monkey that reportedly got “loose” on a Las Vegas-bound Frontier … Continue reading →
I think the beaver…
…was just protecting his namesake lake: A 67-year-old woman says she was attacked by a beaver while paddleboarding on a lake named after the rodent in North Carolina. Betsy Bent told the Citizen-Times of Asheville that the beaver knocked her … Continue reading →
Snowball Earth
I have no idea whether this theory known as “Snowball Earth” has any validity at all, but it’s fascinating to contemplate it: The Snowball Earth hypothesis proposes that the Earth’s surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen at least once, … Continue reading →
There are more things in heaven and earth…
…Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Recently scientists announced: Triple-star systems with detected planets are rare enough; this is believed to be just the fifth such discovery. But the giant gassy world in this one ”” formally known … Continue reading →
Neo-neocon, roving beach photographer: studies in sand
I’m not much of a photographer. And I almost always forget to bring a camera, so I just rely on my cellphone. But I think these are pretty fine. They were taken recently in Ogunquit, Maine, by yours truly on … Continue reading →
I’m not sure which is more surprising
That it’s walking at all, or what it’s carrying during its walk:
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