Monsters, squirrels, silly me

Bits and pieces; some links, a busy squirrel, photo fixing, and more.

First, the links; interesting things I've seen these past couple of weeks:

Getting in the mood for Hallowe'en, Tim Eisele posted the story of a suicidal caterpillar, then followed up with an even more gruesome tale of a spider who ended up being prey rather than predator. Warning! Not for "sensitive souls". (We critter fans should have no problem with them.)

More "Ewwww" posts: Sea lice eat a dead pig, and "Is this fish evil?" An enquiry into the reasons for our shudders. From Deep Sea News.

Big and beautiful. Ted MacRae calls this a "Monster in the night", but he ends up taking it home as a pet for his daughter. If you skipped the last four links, this one is safe.

This I found fascinating; some land-based hermit crabs do more than just move into discarded shells that they find. Instead, they remodel them first, scraping them out for more room, and less weight, which gives them more speed without sacrificing the protection they need. From the BBC.

Great news! I and the Bird is back! And with a wonderful new format! Do you have posts to contribute? Go check out the new guidelines.

One more. This was really helpful, and has inspired me to take another look at some of my older photos. Ted MacRae takes an old, "crappy" (his word) photo of a beautiful beetle, applies his improved editing skills, and comes out with a decent photo. And don't miss Alex Wild's little fixes (in the comments) that turn it into a dazzling, shiny jewel.

I've picked out a few of my really old ones, and followed Ted's lead. One was the cat photo I posted a couple of days ago. Here's another: a terrible photo of a flatworm, very small, taken with one of my first cheap cameras; slightly unfocused, sprinkled with sand, and against a jumbled background. A few tweaks, and here's what I came up with.

Going places.

Not perfect, but passable. Looks like digging through those old files might be profitable.

Current events: here's a crappy photo which no amount of Photoshopping will fix. It's been a dreary, grey day, pouring rain and windy*. I was at my desk when rapid movement outside attracted my attention. Something was violently shaking a branch of the maple tree. Had to be a squirrel. I took a photo, without flash, through the window. Of course, the shutter was slow, and this is what the camera saw. (Still better than what I saw.)

A squirrel, all right. But what's he after?

He stopped suddenly, ran back up the branch and sat with his back to me. A minute later, he scrambled back down to the tip, and yanked at a winged seed, still not ready to fall and clinging tightly to its branch tip. The whole tree danced with their struggle, squirrel against seed. The squirrel won after a long tussle.

Remaining seeds, resting while the squirrel sits up-branch, eating the latest victim.

And, in the "Silly me" category:

In London Drugs this afternoon, I noticed some specialty reading glasses from Foster Grant, designed for working at a computer screen. They have an amber tint, that is supposed to

• Reduce eye strain and improve contrast
• Reduce blue light
• Reduce glare
• Reduce eye fatigue

Worth a try. And only $30. I bought a pair.

And they do help. The burning I've been feeling lately is gone, and my eyes aren't watering, even after a few hours on the computer.

So here I was editing photos, and the colours just wouldn't come out right. I clicked on areas that were supposed to be white, and they came out orangey. The greens were brown and muddy. I puzzled over those greens for a long while, then gave up and saved a photo as-is. Half-way through the next, I remembered those so-helpful glasses. I took them off, and -- it's miraculous! -- the photos fixed themselves instantly!

Derp!

*And in spite of the stormy weather, the trick or treaters were out tonight, with big jackets over their costumes.

A little bit of link love

April showers; it's raining cats and dogs. And a world of other beasties, too:

GrrrlScientist has posted the latest Circus of the Spineless. I submitted one of my posts, and other people submitted three more. Grrl included them all in this Circus! Thanks, all!

The next issue of CotS will be up on May 4th. Send submissions before then to Amber Coakley at The Birder's Lounge.

Kevin posted the latest Carnival of the Blue at Deep Sea News in an abbreviated poetry format. Every line is a link, all of them interesting. The next host will be Ken, at Sea Notes. I think the appropriate address is kpeterson AT mbayaq DOT org.

Adrian, at Evolving Complexity posts a weekly list: My Sunday Best. He has included my posts three times; what a boost to my spirits that is!

I and the Bird #97 is up at Great Auk - or Greatest Auk. Or not. Pinguinus apologizes for the lack, since her co-editors (Charles Darwin and Edgar Allan Poe) faded out on her. All that's left is the (pretty substantial) ghost of a post.

The next edition of IatB will be at Biological Ramblings. Send your submissions to pagophila at gmail dot com by April 14th.

Friday Ark #237. That's 237 weekly issues! The cats and dogs are here.

Happy Face. Crescent Beach.

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A tasty stew

I promised you stone soup. Blog-style stone soup.

Years back, my parents travelled the US and Canada in an UltraVan. Periodically, they met with other UltraVan owners at rallying points. (The rallies are still ongoing.) One of the traditions was that on the final evening, each Van owner contributed his/her/their canned goods to the UltraVan Stew. Soup, meat, veg, chili, beans, spices: it all went in one pot. Stone Soup, in other words. Mom said it was always good. (I might not be so positive, but at least it was nutritious.)

So, for today, I'll contribute my stone and a veg,

Rose weevil, last summer.

... and then stir in these goodies from the web:

First: the carnivals, posted, and to come.

The Other 95%: Circus of the Spineless #35: Regeneration, Renewal, Reinvigoration It's back! At long last, we have a host, Kevin Zelnio! And the first installment of the reborn CotS is a winner. Thanks, Kevin.

Festival of the Trees is up at Treeblog. A poetic post, with a bark rubbing, to boot. As well as all the great links.

I and the Bird will be up in a couple of days at Vickie Henderson Art. (You still have a few hours to get a post in to her; today's the final day for submissions.)

I have posts in those three, but not in the next ones. Maybe another time.

Ecstathy: Carnival Of the Elitist Bastards IX: Keepin' yer wits about ye Pirate edition. This one's just plain fun. As well as being dead serious.

Carnival of the Blue #21 « The Oyster’s Garter In verse. Or doggerel. (Sorry, Miriam.) Good ocean-related links. I liked the cuttlefish story and poem.

Great Backyard Bird Count — Great Backyard Bird Count And this is coming up in less than two weeks; February 13 -16. Are you in? I am.

Then there's Blogroll Amnesty Day; the idea is to link to 5 smaller blogs. I don't know about size, so here are 5 that I've found recently, and added to my GoogleReader:

Jehuite This one is in Spanish. The wild vegetation of Mexico. Beautiful photography, some "exotic" plants, some old familiar ones.

The ScienceBlogs Book Club : Bonk, by Mary Roach: Friday Weird Science has found its Patron Saint A two-fer. The Book Club blog, and the link to this book. I have read Stiff, by Mary Roach, and loved it, so this is on my list of must-buys. A warning, though; it is not to the taste of many people. If dead bodies make you squeamish, give it a pass.

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings. Science, with great photos, and interesting posts. Like "Earthworms save planet".

MMmmm…That’s Good Grub* « Drawing The Motmot An artists climbs to the top of the Amazon rainforest to paint, in this post.

Tyto Tony. "Life in a tropical Queensland wetlands". Beautiful bird photography.

And 6: (I can't count.) Wild Light. Photography using only natural light. Astoundingly gorgeous!

And even more goodies for the soup:

A natural history of Runswick Bay: Lugworms. For Wren.

Sunrise, sunset, daylight in a graph. I posted this a year ago, and it keeps turning up in my Sitemeter. I am surprised every time.

And because it was Groundhog's Day yesterday, and I missed it, here's Hugh's story: Momma Vole.

And a last bit of greenery (and reddery):

The weevil again, delicately tiptoeing through a thornfield.

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I haven't done this for a while.

I promised, but ... In my defense, I might say that life has just been too complex to keep track of my bookmarks recently. ... No? Didn't work?

Oh, well. My bad.

I'll try to get back on track. Here's a collection of what I've been looking at and enjoying for the past little bit, in no particular order.

Deep Sea News : Everything Poops:
Even copepods. "Beautiful!" say the researchers.

I and the Bird #81 « the Marvelous in nature:
A work of art, by Seabrooke

bioephemera : A Spiderweb Optics Mystery:
An interesting two-colour spider web.

Reflections on Snail Photography:
On the use of reflectors. Good tip.

Deep Sea News : Invert Pictures...TGIM?:
Oh, the eyes! Bay scallop.

Sam Kee Building - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
We were here a couple of weeks ago. I'd like to tour the building some day.

Powell River Books Blog: Ancient Sea Water Trapped in Powell Lake:
About 10,000 years old, and it smells of rotten eggs.

The spider that crushes its prey with 140 metres of webbing:
What the title says. Blogging on Peer Reviewed research.

Burning Silo » Blog Archive » precious metals
Tortoise beetles. I love these beasties, with their fecal shields. Great recycling!

International Rock Flipping Day, round 2:
Remember last year's Rock Flipping Day? Well, it was such fun that we're doing it again. On September 7th. I'm already looking for a few likely rocks.

This one looks interesting. On the beach below Kwomais Point.

Join the fun! Instructions, here.

Tetrapod Zoology : Chicken chicken chicken
This is an oldie, but I recently watched it again and laughed (again) till I cried. So I thought you might enjoy it. (Hint: watch it to the end, through the question period. That last question/answer is a killer.)
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Lazy night and five links

Because I'm very sleepy tonight (Or lazy; take your pick.), I'm just posting my occasional "Not-quite Weekly Five" science links, without any write-up, and in no particular order. Instead, I have cut and pasted a quote from each article to introduce its topic.

(Blogging on "Blogging on peer-reviewed research".)

From Not Exactly Rocket Science:
Mantis shrimps have a unique way of seeing

Eagles may be famous for their vision, but the most incredible eyes of any animal belong to the mantis shrimp.

Ditto: (BoBopr-r)
From Living the Scientific Life:
Dog Walking Harms Wild Birds

Unfortunately, a scientific paper was recently published showing that the presence of dogs, even when they are on a leash in these natural areas, seriously interferes with wild birds' reproductive success and even scares many of them away.

From The Marvelous in Nature:
Tunnels from Top to Bottom

The first paragraph read, “Cambium miners cause concern when noticed but are not very damaging to the tree. The mines can extend from a twig all the way down to the roots. The mines form light-colored lines in the bark.”

From Born Again Bird Watcher:
Time Lapse Videos of Emerging Butterflies

The very idea of a complete physical and ecological transformation of a single creature borders on science fiction; if it hadn't been so well documented, anyone would be forgiven for thinking it was the product of an overly creative novelist.

From Daily Kos:
Hermit Crab Basics

Hermit crabs are found all over the world in shallow waters and are one of the more familiar coastal animals. Although they have an exoskeleton, as all crustaceans do, this protective covering only surrounds the head, legs and claws. To protect the soft rear part of the body they must find a suitable shell to crawl into.

And now, I'm off to bed. 'night, all!
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Canadian Content

Hi, there!

So Bloglines appears to be down today. There is no message to that effect; it just hasn't updated any of the blogs on my list. It remembers which ones I read, and who I am, and all that; just gives me no updates.

But I must have my fix!

I called up my list and went on down, clicking on each one to bring up the old posts, then on their "home" page for the new ones. Slower going than usual; I abbreviated the process, going only for the "must-reads".

One of the first was Cicero Sings. Where I found she'd awarded me the . Thanks, Cis! You made my day!

"Cis" remarked that she had passed on the award before to Canadian bloggers, and was continuing along the same lines. Which got me noticing how many of my "must-reads" are Canadian.

And now I must pass on this award; it's burning my fingers. So here are my day-makers, Canadians all:

First; a few I've linked to before, sometimes often:

Hugh, at Rock, Paper, Lizard. He's just across the river from me, and we end up comparing notes frequently. (Hey, Hugh, we saw a couple of pairs of red-winged blackbirds today, too!)

Jean at A Mountain Too High.

Botany Photo of the Day, from UBC Botanical Garden. Beautiful, if not exactly daily.

Prairie Preacher. Such enthusiasm! (Even in despair, he's 110% about it.) I liked his joke today.

And a few I check out often, but haven't linked to before:

Ontario Wanderer. Photos and commentary.

The Interpreter. Fiction; the square peg in a round world. Funny and heart-warming. When you go there, look at the URL. It defines the personality of the interpreter.

Existential Existence. One photo a day. Mostly wordless. But some people just don't need words.

A bit more wordy: Sandwalk. Biochemistry, Tim Horton's, life in general. Right now, he's in Paris, misbehaving.

And one final blog; Primordial Blog. Home of "The Sexiest Animal on the Planet" series. He says the post you must read is the one on Porcupines. Warning; this blog may not be to the taste of some.

Links; Birds, Water, and Contempt of Coot.

... plus a few extras.

February 15th, the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count, turned out to be cold and rainy, so we stayed home and did our observation through the windows. Still, Laurie counted over 60 pigeons at dawn, and in the afternoon, a varied thrush, braver than he usually is, foraged in plain view at the edge of the lawn for a good 10 minutes. So we had something to submit. Tomorrow will be better.

The GBBC website has the 2008 Photo Gallery already loaded up with current submissions. One birder caught a Cooper's Hawk in an unusual pose; go look.

And on to bird blog posts:

Hugh, at Rock, Paper, Lizard, writes about The Stately American Coot, including a description and photo of "The ultimate act of coot contempt."

More not-so-polite bird antics: Julie Zickefoose tells us of The Rising of geese, and "a patter of warm goose poop."

Well, since I'm on the subject, I may as well link you to this;

from Sagehen News, a Local Mystery Solved

and this, from Hugh, again; A late winter walk to a beaver pond, with rodent droppings .

Enough? Change the subject? Ok, Snail's Tales has a series of great photos of slugs; Limax maximus mating .

Life is messy, and sometimes ewww-making. But consider the alternative; GrrlScientist reports on the findings of research scientists from OSU studying Oceanic Dead Zones off the Oregon coast.

"Thousands and thousands of dead crab and molts were littering the ocean floor, many sea stars were dead, and the fish have either left the area or have died and been washed away."

The killer? Oxygen depletion. And the cause; global warming.

"We seem to have crossed a tipping point," Lubchenco observed. "Low-oxygen zones off the Northwest coast appear to be the new normal."

Dead crabs, washed ashore.
From Living the Scientific Life. Photo from birdologist.

And one more photo, from Water World.

"Don't let this be our future."

'nuff said.

Not Quite So "Weekly" Five

And not exactly "Five", either. A bunch of links, anyhow. Mostly intriguing photos, ones that made me think, this time.

• Creek Running North; on nature photography. Down at the bottom, interesting shots of a coyote who has learned the rules of the road.


• This, you must see! The Science of Bubble Rings. Dolphins make and play with the underwater equivalent of smoke rings. I watched the video 5 times. Via Zooillogix.


• Also from Zooillogix, Parasites turn Ants into Berries. One of those amazing "inventions" that either elicit a "Wow!" or an "Ewwww!" Or both.


• From Deep Sea News, a bi-coloured lobster. I thought, at first, that this was fake. A plastic lobster. But no, it's real; it grew that way. As McClain explains,

  "Because the two sides of lobster develop independently of each other an error can occur on one side and not the other."

• Let's get involved! Here's a fun way; the Annual GBBC (Great Backyard Bird Count). Count the birds you see at any place of your choosing (N. America only; sorry.) for 15 minutes, and post your results. Here are their instructions:
  

  1. Plan to count birds for at least 15 minutes during February 15–18, 2008. Count birds at as many places and on as many days as you like—just keep a separate list of counts for each day and/or location.
  
  2. Count the greatest number of individuals of each species that you see together at any one time, and write it down. (You can get regional bird checklists here.)
  
  3. Enter your results through our web page.
  
  That's it! We'll look forward to receiving your counts.

  
  And there is a photo contest, as well. If you end up getting a great shot, consider entering it here.

A couple more, moving away from the photo albums:

• This one is an entire blog; every post I've seen so far has been worth reading. Dot Earth. Today's entry is Earth is Us, introducing the term, "the Anthropocene epoch". Some other recent topics are wolves, whales, alternate energy, climate change, the Nano car, and those new fluorescent light bulbs.


• And a book report: A germ's eye view of history. From Gene Expression, a review of "Plagues and Peoples". I have this book, and it's on my "To Be Read ASAP" list. I think I'll move it to the top.
  Long, long ago, I read Hans Zinsser's classic, "Rats, Lice, and History", which deals with the same topic; it gave me a whole new perspective on our heritage, one less focussed on VIPs, battles, and dates, and more on the real people whose joys and sorrows are ours. "Plagues and Peoples" will be a good reminder.

Double heron. An old photo, scanned. Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver.

Weekly beastie fix

Plate 66, Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur
Wikipedia commons

Looks like this week's linkfest will be all creepy-crawlies. And I am glad; for the last week, I've had no tiny visitors. It's been cold enough to send even the spiders into hiding. There is not a web in sight out my back door.

It's the birds' turn. The juncos are back, in force. A tiny brown wren came right up to my door, looking for crumbs. A pair of flickers skirts the edges of the row of evergreens. And the chickadees are as bold and busy as they have ever been.

Still, ... the tiny ones. I miss them.

So, here are the creatures I've picked up on the web this week. Enjoy!

From DailyKos, an essay about a marine worm. And what a worm! Named Aphrodite; for reasons that will be obvious when you click on the link. By the way, did you know there is a species of worm called Bobbit because of the female's habit of feeding the male's penis to her young? (HT to Mark.)

From Deep Sea News: a marine snail covered with scales. Iron sulfide (fool's gold) scales. Talk about armour! "The coolest invertebrate ever", says a commenter.

One more underwater find: the oldest living animal on record. A quahog clam. Unfortunately deceased shortly after the find.

"Researchers from the University of Bangor recently discovered the oldest known animal on record, a 405 year-old clam, while dredging at the bottom of the North Atlantic above Iceland. Then they killed it."
Zoologix

Benny writes tongue-in-cheek. More accurate info at Milk River Blog. But Benny has the better photo.

And on to land ...

"This is so cool. A one-millimeter long spider (Cenotextricella simoni) encased in amber gets "digitally dissected" using Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography."
From John Lynch at Stranger Fruit. Excellent photos here.

And a good write-up on the same spider, at Richard Dawkins. No photo; good thing John had them!

That was then. And now, we have a Hallowe'en Battle, spider vs. centipede. From Niches.

And "Follow the Leader": spiderlings on a tight-rope. From jciv's Flickr album.

And, in case you haven't had enough, here's Circus of the Spineless # 26. Lots of photos, more great articles!

And I'm going back to browse that Flickr album. See you tomorrow!

Not-quite-weekly five

... or seven. Links, that is.

I've been babysitting, antiquing, plowing the car through rivers (where they shouldn't be; it's been raining hard and long), fighting off a flu, and now I'm falling asleep almost as soon as I sit down. So we'll see how far I get with this before my head hits the keyboard. Again.

Detail of dying maple leaf

This week, I bookmarked these (in no particular order):

• The Holy Order of Blogging. A cartoon, and a timely warning. From GrrlScientist.
• She also has a beautiful boxfish photo for us. All puckered up for a kiss? Or whistling?
• While we're looking at fish, here are some new ones to ponder over. Killifish: "If you listen carefully, you can hear them singing.." Fish that live in trees. Really. From Zoologix.
• NewKerala has a bit more info on these.

• A bit of sad reporting. The Amazon rainforest burns. Once again, they say. Laurie says, "Still." From the Guardian.
• Via YouTube, some excellent educational videos by cdk007. The first one I found was on the "watch in a bag" analogy, but there are 28 more, all worthwhile, judging by those I have already watched.
• And in the "People do the darndest things!" department, and just in time for Hallowe'en, The Coke Machine disguise! From Amygdala.

And there we are; I'm still awake! 'night, all.

Procrastinating Blogger

6 weeks ago -- 6 weeks! Where did they go? -- Christopher Taylor over at the Catalogue of Organisms favoured me with the Thinking Blogger award. Which I greatly appreciate, even as I modestly refrain from blowing it up and framing it for my wall.

I am supposed to pass it on to 5 other bloggers, bloggers who think, or who make me think. Which set me thinking. (Maybe I can pass this award back to Christopher?)

Who makes me think? Well, most of the bloggers on my blogroll. Not specific enough.

Why and how do they make me think? Better question. I find that I can divide the ways into categories. And choose a representative of each. So here goes, in no particular order.

From the first time I ran across Julie Zickefoose's blog, with her tale of skipping out of a kid's baseball practice to wander in the woods looking for wildflowers, I have been a regular reader. She reminds me, time and time again, of the romping delights of just plain daily life. Thank you, Julie!

A more sobering blog, one I discovered recently, A Mountain Too High, chronicles the life of a courageous woman dealing with the Alzheimer's disease of her husband. Jean's posts are heart-wrenching and -warming at the same time, and give me an anchor for my memories of my family's struggles with the disease, and for strategies for dealing with it in the probable future.

I just realized that I have 117 feeds on my Bloglines list. And it is almost impossible to say which are the "thinkingest".

On with # 3. One of the specialist "looking at nature" blogs. Which? Which? Which? So many useful ones ... How about Hyphoid Logic? "Mentations of a Mad Mycologist". Mushrooms, commentary on "whatever I'm pondering at the moment that I write in it. That may include anything at all." And a cute, punny name; Mike O'Risal.

Theological musings. A topic I used to spend a fair amount of time on. Debunking Christianity, with its stable of thoughtful writers and commenters (pro and con) gives me plenty to mull over.

And back to the simple life. Cicero Sings. (She says, "Every spring there is a little bird that visits our yard and his never ending song is: "tse tse tsicero". Voila! A name to use.") A normal, sane, cheerful life in BC's Chilcotin; a human diary, filled with cooking, family, plants and weather. Something to keep me grounded.

And that's 5. Whew!

Now to wander off and notify everyone that they've been tagged. :)

The good, the bad, and the ugly

... they're all interesting. As you will see in this linkie line-up.

The carnivals:

I and the Bird # 59. At Naturalist Notebook. If you checked this one out early on, you probably missed one: there is a late addition: Who likes Wood Storks?.

Circus of the Spineless # 25. At The annotated budak. A very carefully crafted post, loaded with felicitous phrasings; for one, he calls my American house spider a "webmistress". That she is.

The bad and the ugly: (But these sites are definitely good. Useful and informative.)

The top 5 nastiest creatures getting stronger. Brain eating amoeba and the like. Yikes! At Groovy Green.

Plant Pathology; can these plant diseases make you sick? The verdict; usually, no. And reassuring info about evergreens that look sick and aren't. From Iowa State University.

'nuff ickiness; the fun stuff next:

From 10,000 Birds, a non-bird post. And local (for me) to boot: Bandits in the Park. That's our Stanley Park, and the bandits are raccoons. Charlie's photos are fabulous!

Best Sex Video on the Web; that's how Sheril Kirshenbaum bills this one. Barnacles. One that Brian missed in his ongoing series, "Sexiest Animal on the Planet".

The coolest animal on the planet. In my estimation. Water bears. Tardigrades. Now starting a new career as astronauts; see Tardigrade Space Program, at Deep Sea News.

How-to: insect photography 101, by Bev at Burning Silo. Basic gear. A keeper.

Changing the topic: this one is ... disorienting? Frustrating? Militant Platypus has a silhouette spinning either clockwise or counter-clockwise. You decide. If you can.

I saved the best for last. I discovered this by accident; a short biographical sketch of the career of Mary Anning (1799 - 1847).


An amazing woman, an equally amazing life. A poor, uneducated (at least formally) orphan, she scoured the seashore for fossils to sell, to earn a meager living. For 35 years, she collected and studied, borrowing books, consulting with scholars, even dissecting modern creatures. Among her finds was the first plesiosaur known to science. With time and patience, she became an internationally recognized authority on fossils.

I had never before heard her name (another inexcusable gap in my schooling!), but a tiny scrap of her fame had filtered through to me: she is the original subject of that old tongue-twister, "She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore."

A must-read, from Discovering Fossils.

Weekly Linkfest

Lots of goodies today; where to start?

Spiders, of course! At The Other 95%, Ant? Spider? You Decide!.

And other creepy crawlies: how about underwater ones? On Ellipsis, What A Mermaid's Autumn Day Must Be Like. Stunning photos!

And more practical: Photos and data on zooplankton of the BC Coast. Probably covers Washington State, as well. From Fisheries and Oceans, Canada.

More photos and data: Mushroom Observer. A searchable database. Mushroom season is starting; I'll be using this page frequently.

Susan Gets Native does another Hawk ID post. Handy.

On another tack: I love this video. I think I have watched it at least a dozen times. The inner life of a cell, from Harvard Multimedia. It's worth watching, even if you aren't into microbiology; you will be awestruck at the activity going on in this simplest unit of living things. I know I was/am.

I found a narrated version on YouTube; not as good resolution, of course, but very helpful in terms of understanding what the pictures represent.

Junkfood Science is one of the blogs I read every day. Two recent posts are "A" for Business, and Yo-yo science and the dangers of coincidence.

Skeptico points out the difference between science and pseudo-science in When will CAM do this?

And this is odd: the official kilogram is losing weight. (Don't panic; this doesn't mean that we all now weigh five kilos more, or anything like that. More like 2500 micrograms, and we can lose that by getting a haircut.) :D

Cold-blooded links

Lizards. We rarely see them in the wild up here in Canada, and I miss them. I remember them in Mexico, outlined like carvings on every sunny wall until we came too close, then convulsing once and disappearing into the bougainvillea. In Oklahoma for a year, we kept an old aquarium full of anole lizards; in the evenings we caught moths that came to the lights and slipped them, live and fluttering, under the screen top. The lizards would take only live prey. I loved to watch them snatch the moths out of the air with their tongues.

Here in BC, I once found a Western Skink in the Southern Interior. Once only. They are resident only in a small area, and blue-listed, partly due to the impact of invasive plant species.

Other than that, Canada hosts only 4 other species, according to Wikipedia.

So I was happy to find two blog posts this week on lizards. Tame, certainly, but still ... "Mike O'Risal" celebrates his bearded dragon's 11th birthday on Hyphoid Logic. And I learned something; I never thought of them as relating in any way to their humans. So much we don't know!

The next lizard story has kept me chuckling all week. From A Blog Around the Clock, why we should have paid attention in biology class.

Spiders: Mo starts off by saying, "Spiders make my skin crawl..." His loss, but he posts a fascinating look at their silk and other spidery matters, in Spider Silk & Spider Senses. Kevin says, "Spiders are just plain cool." And follows up with a report on two papers in Spider Double Whammy!

Bugs in general: Or, more explicitly, Insect Porn. A Flickr pool.

And off the topic, a very funny YouTube video. With an edge. Via PZ.

Update links from RockFlippin'

Dave Bonta has posted a list of links to RockFlippers; I am reproducing it here. Good blogs to check out, some of them new to me.

UPDATE (Sept 2, 11:30 EDT): The Flickr photo pool continues to grow, along with Bev’ Pbase gallery. Blogger-participants so far include:

Windywillow (Ireland)
Heraclitean Fire (London, England)
Sheep Days (Illinois, USA)
Earth, Wind & Water (somewhere in the Caribbean)
Pocahontas County Fare (West Virginia, USA)
chatoyance (Austin, Texas)
Fragments from Floyd (Virginia, USA) - GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Watermark (Montana, USA)
pohanginapete (Aotearoa/New Zealand)
Fate, Felicity, or Fluke (Oregon, USA)
Thomasburg Walks (Ontario, Canada)
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Woman (Queensland, Australia)
The Transplantable Rose (Austin, Texas)
Nature Woman (New York state, USA)
Marja-Leena Rathje (British Columbia, Canada)
A Blog Around the Clock (North Carolina, USA)
Busy Dingbat’s Sphere (West Virginia, USA)
Hoarded Ordinaries (New Hampshire, USA)
Congo Days (Kinshasa, Congo)
this too (London, England)
Roundrock Journal (Missouri, USA)
Wanderin’ Weeta (British Columbia, Canada)
Blaugustine (London, England)
A Honey of an Anklet (Virginia, USA)
Looking Up (Ohio, USA)
Ontario Wanderer (Ontario, Canada)
Bug Safari (California, USA)
Riverside Rambles (Missouri, USA)
Pure Florida (Florida, USA)
Burning Silo (Ontario, Canada)
Musings from Myopia (Texas, USA)
Cicero Sings (British Columbia, Canada)
Joan (Missouri, USA)
Nature Remains (Kentucky, USA)
prairie point (north Texas)

I still (as of 11:30 Sept. 2) have another post or two to write on IRFD festivities here in Plummer’s Hollow, but I’ll continue to update this post with new links as they come in. If you don’t see your own blog post listed, please email me: bontasaurus (at) yahoo (dot) com. And feel free to reproduce this list on your own blog, or anywhere else.

Scariest find of the day: a copperhead, within striking distance, at Roundrock Journal.
Most amusing: Ontario Wanderer flips rocks on her desk.
Farthest afield: Congo Days, in Kinshasha.
Most ... off-topic? Weird? ... Most saintly! That's it! Sheep Days.
The best excuse for not flipping rocks: at Hoarded Ordinaries.
The most disgruntled post: Flipping the Grindstone at Sans God.

Any more votes for "Most YouNameIt"?

Updates, added as I find them:
Sans God (Northumberland, UK) checks in late, but with a good excuse.
Bill, at Prairie Point, finds a cockroach.
More pillbugs: Flipping Out at microecos.
And, in the comments, Dave reminds me of the video at Cephalopodcast. Here's the link.

Odds and Ends and a Trial Run

Links, first;

Can't keep your lawn watered? Paint it! From A Blog around the Clock. (Sheesh!)

More on those Texan social spiders, and an excellent photo, from Zooillogix.

And from the same blog, good news: that extinct white dolphin is not quite gone yet. One has turned up, alive.

A third from Zooillogix: too good to miss. The fish with a metal detector chin.

And more strange beasts: on MilkRiverBlog, a fascinating National Geographic article about cave-dwelling animals, or troglodytes.

Not so strange, but fun: a Flickr group dedicated to Insect Porn.

The Friday Ark, #154; animal stories galore!

And the Circus of the Spineless for the last week in August is on Naturalist Notebook; great stuff, and a beautiful newly-designed blog.

And today is International Rock Flipping Day. Get out there and start flipping!


These rocks look interesting enough. As long as we're wearing good mud-proof boots.

And the Trial Run. Blogger has stuck in an icon for loading videos, so I thought I'd try it out. Here's a short clip from yesterday's picnic at Second Beach in Stanley Park; a few of my grandkids and a swing.

I am still trying to make sense of the instructions for taking videos on my camera; I can't seem to tell whether it is on or off. So this is a trial run in more ways than one. However, I thought it might bring a smile.

Fingers crossed ...

Weekly (more or less) Five (actually, twelve)

Five Science Links:

Latent memories from previous generations may help birds to fly. From Science Daily. Note: they say may. Something to think about, anyway.

I mentioned this earlier. We knew about global warming, some of its causes and results, back in the 1950s. GrrlScientist has the video.

Squirrels raise the temperature of their tails to warn off rattlesnakes. Wierd. From Afarensis.

How to build a bat detector. Hat tip to Hugh.

Practical science: Developing a better font for highway signs. From Cognitive Daily.

Other stuff:

25 World's Wierdest Animals. They left some of the goodies out, though.

Larry Moran quotes Mark Twain.

You can run, but you can't hide. Discussion on Pharyngula about the spy technology in use, and about to be expanded - to watch all of us.

Cleavers. Those tiny prickly seeds that get all over your pant legs and socks. I got them in my hair, crouching down to take their photo.

News:

Volcano erupts in Guatemala. Night shots by MyBootsnMe. Aug. 8 and 9 (so far).

Earthquake in Peru, a few hours ago. 8 on the Richter scale. (I've been through a few 6s; those are scary enough. I've seen the results, close up, of an 8. Newspaper stories don't do justice to it.) Here, with links to more stories.

Humour: We need some, after the news.

Remember the Doomsday clock? It has run down.

And Elvis laughs!

Weekly Five

I have been remiss; I missed last week's five science links. I was going to make up for it by posting 10 tonight.

But I just went over the whole last week of my web browsing and discovered that most of my time has been on Google, looking for marine life or insects. Repetitive, mostly.

So, stretching the concept a bit, my "science" will include nature photography. And one question, since Google has been no help at all; maybe someone out there has an idea.

Beasties: Sand bubbler crabs. This was down a blind alley on my Google search. Interesting, even if far afield; I wasted a good hour on these. AbelKane Adventures, Wikipedia and a photo on Flickr.

Julie Zickefoose discovers a new cockroach. Not my favourite animal, but then, I spent too much time in Texas battling with cockroaches the size of mice. This one seems a little more congenial. A slowpoke.

An article on insect photography. I adapted a technique from here.

And this, from yesterday. Amazing and funny and somehow sexy, even if I'm not a spider. A jumping spider mating dance. From Zooillogix.

Nude mice, and why coffee is good for me. From The Cheerful Oncologist.

Owls and heat relief. Scroll down to the end of Susan's post. That last photo is a classic begging for a caption. Can you think of one?

How to make a lemon battery. From YouTube.

PZ is Mostly Normal. I'm not. (I got a 38) How about you?

And, the question:

I found this on the beach last week. This is the 4th I have found so far, at Boundary Bay and off the Ladner dykes.
And no, it isn't a scoop of chocolate ice cream. It is a piece of what looks like pumice. It's rock, but it floats. I have had them in water for 3 days to see if they would get water-logged and they are still as buoyant as ever.

The ones I have found vary between marble-size and pea-size.

Somewhere, I think I heard something about bubbles of lava. I know there are great floating beds of pumice in some areas of the ocean. But none of the photos I found, or websites dealing with this, show little round balls.

Anybody have any hints?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Update: I just found Carnival of the Blue II over on Malaria, Bedbugs, Sealice and Sunsets. Lots of good links!

Weekly Five, Plus Two

A bunch of science photos for you this week. Good stuff I've found.

Notes from the Technology Underground: a water-bear, or tardigrade. One of my favourite beasties. And, as Bill says, they're "the world's toughest animal." (See my posts on it, on my old blog, here and here.)

Coturnix visited the Lawrence Hall of Science, and posted a long series of photos, mostly one per post for some reason. Check out the whole series. I especially liked the reptiles and the photo of Janet Stemwedel in a box.

A man alone, a grandfather, builds Stonehenge by himself, using only ancient technology. See the video. Absolutely amazing! From Measured Against Reality.

About colours: from Science Daily, Color is in the Eye of the Beholder. And from Cognitive Daily, Do women perceive color differently from men?

And two extras, non-science: I and the Bird # 53 is at 10,000 Birds. It's the second anniversary edition, and loaded with goodies.

And Good Planets is up at The Gypsy's Caravan. It includes a cute photo of a baby merlin being weighed in a rescue centre (and not looking too happy about it.) I followed the link back to Bird TLC; very interesting.

And this: a load of sand or gravel going by New Westminster Quay on a barge. A little fuzzy because I had to run to keep up with it.

Weekly Five

Scienc-ey links:

Here's a tasty one: Chocolate lowers blood pressure. Great excuse!

Circus of the Spineless # 22. A wealth of bug-and-beastie links. At Burning Silo.

And after the link I posted recently about every bit of plastic ever made still hanging around, this is a tentative promise of good news. Unmaking plastics. Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil.

And turning old tires into oil and pure usable carbon in a microwave. A short video.

A time-waster. Just drag the dots and see what happens. It's a wonder I was able to finish this post!