Do these nincompoops even READ the news?

Give up your iPod for Lent, bishops urge

"Instead of giving up chocolate for Lent, why not fast for justice ... to help those suffering from the effects of climate change," said Jones.

Ummm, I hate to burst your eco-bubble, but "climate change" is dubious at best, and man-made global warming is a colossal hoax. But then, so is your eco-feelgood religion.

Believe what you want, but at the very least, can you be informed? Clinging to this idiocy makes you no better than the Islamo-freaks who can't seem to emerge from the Middle Ages... but spouting it from a leadership position makes everything about you look ridiculous.

How do you pronounce "Uranus" ?

I've always wondered, myself...

How do you pronounce "Uranus" ?

Uranus is the planet with the funny name and the odd orientation. So, when you say the word 'Uranus' do you stress the first syllable or the second? Or, perhaps you do as Dr. Pamela Gay suggests, in order to avoid "being made fun of by any small schoolchildren … when in doubt, don't emphasize anything and just say 'Uranus.' And then run, quickly."

I've been told that I was pale, but this is ridiculous

Japanese develop see-through fish

First came see-through frogs. Now Japanese researchers have succeeded in producing goldfish whose beating hearts can be seen through translucent scales and skin.

The transparent creatures are part of efforts to reduce the need for dissections, which have become increasingly controversial, particularly in schools.

"You can see a live heart and other organs because the scales and skin have no pigments," said Yutaka Tamaru, an associate professor in the department of life science at Mie University.

I totally want one of these. I love fancy goldfish anyway; I used to keep a couple of spectacular lionhead orandas that just made me happy. I hope to keep some specimen goldfish again someday. One of these nifty little guys would make a great addition to an aquarium.

The Secret Life of Climate Researchers

Iowahawk knocks another one out of the park.

Like other species in the order homo scientifica, the climate researcher gathers and organizes data to lure grant money to the hive. In contrast to those other species, however, the climate researcher has evolved a set of complex violent behaviors to insure any data leaving the hive is perfectly adapted to nature’s most lucrative and sweetest grants. It really is a marvel of natural selection, and explains why the climate researcher continues to thrive in any kind of weather condition.

If you're not one of iowahawks' regular readers, you're missing out. David Burge is pure genius... some of the very best satire on the 'net.

Catch the Blues

Apparently they do exist -- blue lobsters -- but they're pretty rare.

NH man snares rare cobalt-blue lobster

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - At first, New Hampshire lobsterman Bill Marconi thought he had caught a shiny blue beer can in his trap. It turns out it was a rare, cobalt-blue lobster. The 52-year-old lobsterman was out hauling 400 traps with his son Wednesday when he snared the 1 1/2-pound lobster in between his dock and the Isle of Shoals, about six miles off the coast.

New England Aquarium Research Director Mike Tlusty told Foster's Daily Democrat only one in 5 million lobsters are blue.

Tlusty said blue lobsters are different in that they are better at processing astaxanthin, an antioxidant with a red pigment derived from algae. The substance bonds with proteins in the lobster's shell, resulting in the blue pigment.

He didn't eat it, in case you were wondering. He donated it to the Seacoast Science Center. The photograph above isn't of the one he caught; there wasn't a photo included with the story. So instead I Googled "blue lobster" and that photo by Leslie Ricker was the first one to return. I thought it was a spectacular photo. I love the intensity of the blue.

Freaks are beautiful. I aspire to be one, myself.

Wicked Cool Hubble Pictures

I'm fascinated, frankly, by what our astronauts have been able to accomplish during this Hubble repair mission. Wanna see some pics? Go here and be amazed.

Mmmm... lionfish... NOM NOM NOM NOM!!

Newcomer to Keys is unwelcome

The lionfish is a native of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but was introduced to Atlantic waters 16 years ago. Some blame the ballast of sea-going vessels. Others cite selfish aquarium owners, who dump the fish when they outgrow their tanks.

...

The lionfish hardly looks like the menace it is. It grows to a maximum of 20 inches long. Because of its exotic features -- the zebra striping and a feathery mane of fins -- it is a favorite for aquarium keepers.

''Lionfish are the No. 2 aquarium fish in the U.S., behind clownfish,'' said Bruce Purdy, owner of Davie-based Blackbeard's Cruises, which hosts Bahamas diving excursions.

But the beauty is a beast.

The first documented Atlantic sightings came days after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, when six lionfish were spotted in Biscayne Bay and traced to a private aquarium swept away from a Miami waterfront home.

...

If the lionfish multiply, Mitchell of REEF offers one possible remedy: Fishermen could start to catch them for commercial sale.

''They are delicious,'' she said. "Kind of like hogfish, but not quite as mild.''

Hogfish sounds tasty, but I kind-of doubt it tastes enough like pork... but I'd be willing to try either hogfish OR lionfish if the opportunity presented itself. Let's eat!

Note to RedFish and my cousin Heather: DON'T LOOK!

For as long as I can remember, I was terrified of spiders. All spiders... the webby kind, the jumpy kind, the rubbery brown kind, any kind you could name. Just seeing the word "spider" actually made my heart leap with involuntary terror.

You think I'm kidding? Well, I'm really not.

But I have come a very long way... so long, that I can now objectively classify certain spiders as "those who don't see me as something to bite." The ones that fascinate me most -- and which are freely allowed to live in my house -- are the jumping spiders, Family Salticidae.

My friend Lori, who now lives in the Pacific Northwest but who at the time lived in Iowa near me, spoke lovingly of the little jumping spiders as "cute" and as helpful little creatures who ate bugs with ferocity and glee and had absolutely no interest in humans. I slowly began to see her point -- their squatty little furry bodies, their prepared stance and their instinctive defensive posture whenever you come near -- were humorous and, yes, cute.

I finally began seeing these as "not spiders", even though they are. Spiders are nasty, horrid, evil things that lurk and want to bite me (bear with me for a moment, that's my irrational chick mind talking). Jumping spiders aren't like that at all.

So when I was upstairs earlier, doing my laundry, I noticed one of the largest jumping spiders I'd ever seen on one of the windows. I happened to have the camera with me and got as close as I could without losing focus or scaring him away:


Obviously this is using the camera's super-close-up setting, so the picture isn't as crisp as I'd like, and he/she looks enormous when in reality he/she was only about as big around as a quarter. But I have identified this little critter as a Phidippus audax, or a Bold Jumper spider:




I found this spider's iridescent green chelicerae and fierce facial expression absolutely charming. Does that make me weird?

And I believe this is prima facie evidence for the fact that I have indeed come a loooong way.

Rat-a-tat-tat

The Giant Dead Cottonwood Tree across the street has had a delightful little Golden-Fronted Woodpecker feasting on it. I can't get the camera to focus at that distance, of course, but I did manage to get some semi-recognizable photos of the lil' guy:



Ain't he cute?

Apparently, he's fairly specialized to the western Texas areas:

Eclipse!!

No, not the car. The MOON, foo'!

There isn't a cloud in the sky here in North Ruralville, Texas, and tonight's lunar eclipse is absolutely, perfectly visible from the front porch. Splendid!!

9PM UPDATE:

Just in case you ever wondered where shooting stars come from...

(h/t to my pal NorthernLight)

Kitchen geekery

Did you know that you can measure the speed of light with pretty good accuracy in your own kitchen?

Here's how.

The Naked Scientists podcast is still my favorite podcast EVAR and I eagerly await the uploading of the new one each week. They last just long enough to span the time between here and whichever grocery store I happen to be heading toward, and I learn something new every single week. I love Dr. Chris and Kat and Helen, but my all-time fave is whenever Phil Rosenberg comes on, because he just has the yummiest accent I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

TO RED FISH: Don't read this post.

Oh. [gasping] I just saw these photos on FARK and literally felt my guts turn to water. Thought I'd share them with you all so you can feel the love too.

[shudder]







The FARK thread says it's a Huntsman Spider. I swear to you, if I ever in my life see one of these in my house, I'm leaving and not coming back.

[expletive deleted]

Memo to self: Do not move to Florida.

Nano-dyes to the rescue?

Solar power breakthrough in NZ

"This is a proof-of-concept cell," said researcher Wayne Campbell, pointing to a desktop demonstration model.

"Within two to three years we will have developed a prototype for real applications. The technology could be sold off already, but it would be a shame to get rid of it now."

The key to everything is the ability of the synthetic dyes to pass on the energy that reaches them - something that mere coloured water could not do.

"We now have the most efficient porphyrin dye in the world," said the centre's director, Ashton Partridge.

"It is the most efficient ever made."

In my opinion, this is where the God-given ingenuity of a few people will eventually overcome our dependence on petroleum energy by attrition rather than through legislation and widespread panic. As people are freed by true prosperity to think on higher things than mere survival, they are less prone to "soiling the nest" and are more likely to come up with better ways of doing things. Offhand, I can't think of anything truly progressive that was accomplished via government, and I wish the libs would figure this out and quit trying. Necessity really IS the mother of invention, and as people all over the world emerge from the industrial age into whatever this new one is called, they will find creative ways to circumvent the status quo. We humans are usually pretty good at that.

Not all scientists toe the party line

No "global warming?" But I thought that was an accepted fact!!

Dr. Nir Shariv, a prolific researcher who has made a name for himself assessing the movements of two-billion-year-old meteorites, no longer accepts this logic, or subscribes to these views. He has recanted: "Like many others, I was personally sure that CO2 is the bad culprit in the story of global warming. But after carefully digging into the evidence, I realized that things are far more complicated than the story sold to us by many climate scientists or the stories regurgitated by the media.

"In fact, there is much more than meets the eye."

Umm, DUH. You experts all think you know all there is to know, don't you? Well, you don't. And neither do I. But I do know this one thing: The more you find out about Life and Earth and Us, the more you will realize you don't know or have the ability to understand it. It's the paradoxical house whose interior is infinitely larger than its exterior. I'm not saying don't dig for facts. I'm just saying that you can't build a Universal Theory around a fragment of the whole picture.

What a beautiful thing God spoke into existence.

I'm glad there are people who want desperately to find out everything they can about every facet of His creation. They never cease to amaze me with the things they discover that God has done.

Me? I just want to describe it all with brush and pen and musical note. That's all.