To the consternation of some suburbanites. I must admit I have never seen one. Spooky picture, huh?
Author: Reid Farmer
A Unicorn lives in Tuscany
According to the Telegraph.
Ban Mylar Balloons
I saw this offbeat op-ed in today’s LA Times that calls for the banning of mylar balloons in California as they can short out power lines and cause black-outs. The author, a state senator who introduced a bill to this effect, says Southern California Edison claims there were 470 black-outs in its service area caused …
Tracing Humanity’s Path
I just stumbled across this article that came out a couple of weeks ago, describing a statistical modeling study using genomic evidence that attempts to map how our species spread from Africa to populate the rest of the world. I’m really surprised this hasn’t gotten more play in the press. What I found most interesting …
Prosthetic Beak
Didn’t know if you had seen this interesting item last week about an injured bald eagle in a sanctuary in Idaho that is being fitted with a prosthetic beak. The final version will be made of titanium.
More on Isolated Tribes
John Noble Wilford has an expanded treatment on isolated primitive tribal groups that I briefly posted on last week. Apparently there are about 100 left, half of which are in Amazonia. Many of the rest are in Papua New Guinea. As I said said before, it’s astonishing to me that there are this many left …
Third Anniversary
Rebecca’s post about the fifth anniversary of her blog just reminded me to check that yesterday was the third anniversary of Querencia.
Marked-up Birds become Sexier
I was intrigued by this story in USA Today earlier this week and Chas beat me to getting a post up about it. “Using a $5.99 marker, scientists darkened the rust-colored breast feathers of male New Jersey barn swallows, turning lighter birds to the level of those naturally darkest. They had already found, in a …
Hidalgo Under My Skin
I found this article fascinating: a series of tourism ads that feature pictures of famous prehistoric ruins body-painted on the torso of a beautiful actress, has been found in violation of Mexican law. “The country’s anthropology institute, based in Mexico City, does more than just serve as Mexico’s monument police. It oversees a vast collection …
Peter Rabbit Must Die
I thought you’d all enjoy this unintentionally hilarious NYT piece on city folk who have moved to the country to bond with nature. But once they find out that wildlife treats their gardens as convenience stores they snap and turn into bloodthirsty killers. Some choice examples: “The homeowner, a city-boy artist and illustrator who had …