When I did the color post at the end of the year, I had selected quite a few different images, many of which did not make the cut because they were too similar to others, or I needed more reds, or a horizontal format instead of a vertical (yes, this confirms that I actually put some attention into posting, despite
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Its spit is your grave
Well, okay, only if you’re a tiny arthropod and encounter it directly. No, that’s not exactly right either, because it’s hardly a grave, is it? Maybe I should have abandoned that title…
We’re going back in the photo archives for this one, seeing as how no one has gotten off their ass to ban winter. During warmer months, you may have spotted a blob of foam on a plant,
The struggle for an appropriate title
You’ll understand in a second.
So, there is a documented case of a woman named Mary Toft who, in 1726, claimed to have given birth to rabbits. Now, there are a lot of weird stories from a few centuries ago, mostly of the “so we are told” variety, and even today there are a number of medical marvels that we know of through supermarket media that somehow never have a thesis written
Homey don’t play that
As a species, we like to occasionally speculate on extra-terrestrial life – what it would be like, how prevalent it is, what we could learn from it, and so on. More than speculate, really, because we’re actively looking for it (or at least some of us are,) and have done some interesting theoretical science along those lines. I’ve written a few posts about it myself (first of a
Truly, a bug
While redoing some drainage channels around the house, something in the dirt seemed a little too undirtlike [spellcheck doesn’t like that word, but I’ve long since learned that spellcheck is bigoted] so I scooped it up. Lo, it was a cicada, the first I’ve seen in the earlier instar nymph form, the phase that stays underground for freaking years and feeds on tree sap.
Not
Can’t have that
Looking at the sidebar, I find there are no posts from the previous years – not for this date nor, apparently, for three days afterward, which is the parameter of the plugin. This just seems wrong somehow (the lack of posts I mean,) so I am obligated to break that pattern.
Assisting me in this endeavor is an image from a few weeks back. Please feel free to examine it for the magnificent insights
Winter captives
A few days ago I demonstrated my vast disconnect from the parent mindset, because I went to the NC Museum of Life & Science, on one of only two Mondays they are open during the winter as well as a school holiday, and wondered if it would be crowded. I know, I know – don’t mock me because I’m beautiful.
Odd memories, part 14
Those memories – sometimes they’re stirred by the oddest things. Especially when they’re odd in themselves.
Watching an episode of Sealab 2021 recently dug this one from the (sordid) depths, but that show can do that to you. Sealab 2021 is a reboot, or something, of a children’s cartoon from, my dog, 1972, called Sealab 2020 (look closely
Thar she glows
That was terrible, I admit it…
As comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy has been getting brighter, we’ve had zero visibility here, until tonight. I went out and did some searching with binoculars, finally locating it, then brought the camera equipment out to give it a shot.
Friends with benefits
I’m not surprising anyone when I say humans are a social species, both from the biological definition and from our own self-description. But it goes further than that – we’re socially-influenced and socially-dependent, meaning we make a really stunning number of our decisions based on how we feel others will respond to them, often without any other consideration at all. This isn’t