This one came in over the LSU weekly news wire. For those who don’t follow much in Louisiana, we just elected Bobby Jindal, our youngest-ever governor (younger than me, even—egads!), a conservative Rebublican, SAOVA endorsed, Baton Rouge native and son of Indian immigrants, among a long list of other interesting and commonly-cited labels. This story, …
Month: October 2007
View From the Hubble Telescope
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a great deal about astronomy – but I found this picture of two galaxies merging taken from the Hubble Space Telescope just beautiful.
Dog Shoots Hunter
On opening day of pheasant season in Iowa. There’s a reason they put a safety on it.
This is the World’s Oldest Living Animal
Or at least it was until recently. Scientists from Bangor University in Wales dredged up this Arctica islandica clam off the north coast of Iceland. After sectioning the shell and counting annual growth rings under a microscope they dated the clam to between 405 and 410 years-old. This breaks the official record of 220 years …
The Bear Whisperer?
Well, if Rebecca O’Connor can be the parrot whisperer, the LA Times thinks that Steve Searles of Mammoth Lakes, California is the bear whisperer. Searles is the local police department’s volunteer wildlife specialist. Marauding black bears are a problem at Mammoth, and rather than tranquilizing and removing offenders, and potentially killing them if they repeat, …
Hot Chiles are Good for You
Us chile lovers all know this, but there is fresh news in chile research. The active ingredient in chiles, capsaicin, may have a future role in replacing some addictive narcotic painkillers. Think back to a time when you bit into a really hot chile: at first it was hot and painful, but then after a …
In the Land of 40-Year Strolls
We fly into the vast devil of the Mid East with this first: a gorgeous verdant beach with the gorgeous Med right there and filled with tiny flawless empty islands, something you couldn’t help but call perfect if you didn’t know you were about 100 miles north of Beirut and risking being shot to shit, …
Turkeys Terrorize Massachusetts
The Boston Globe tells us that the wild turkey population is up in Massachusetts and that residents of Brookline don’t much like it. Assertive turkeys are harrassing people on sidewalks. “The problem, according to some Brookline residents, is that the turkeys can be aggressive at times. Dr. Ruth Smith, an internist from New York City, …
Fall Maple
I was in Seattle on business part of last week. It was the first time in a while I had been anywhere that has an approximation of the tree colors of an Eastern Fall. Just wanted to share this picture I took of a beautiful maple.
Neanderthals Had Red Hair
Or at least some of them did. Another product of on-going research on the Neanderthal genome.