Category: Nature

Last night, we were woken up at about 1 am by the barking of our dog, Kai. I went to see what was up. He was standing by the door to the front garden, still barking. I looked out through the window into the garden, which was illuminated by moonlight. At first I couldn’t see anything, but then I saw something scurry along by the garage block. It looked ominously rat-sized. Switching on the outside light to get a better view, I was relieved to see that it was only a hedgehog.

 

But, I’m rather curious to know how Kai detected it. He couldn’t have seen it. Perhaps he caught a scent of it through the door (he sleeps next to it), or perhaps he was woken up by the sound of the hedgehog snuffling past the door – they are noisy little buggers at times.

 

 

…I want more than this. It’s like something shouted to me as you whizz by en route to somewhere much more interesting. I need more – come back!

I mentioned the TEDTalks yesterday. Here’s an example of a speaker who may be a would-be emperor, or perhaps he has really hit on something: Aubrey DeGrey. What do you think? The related links on that page have more information, and it would seem that the jury’s still out on the validity of DeGrey’s claims.

Michael Jackson, eat your heart out…

 

(hat tip to Improbable Research)

We’re on the point of tumbling into Autumn. The garden still has plenty of flowers, but this week the field of maize next to the house was cleared, and leaves are beginning to fall…

 

 

A striking photo illustrating the natural phenomena of sundogs and a sun pillar.

 

(hat tip to Neatorama)

Alex, over at the Museum of Hoaxes, wonders whether the Netherlands has disappeared as a result of a nuclear explosion. I am glad to report that we’re all still here…

The barmaid’s got intelligence, unlike her customers…

An interesting illusion that plays with the way in which we perceive people’s faces. Though to use the face of Margaret Thatcher is enough to give me nightmares in any event.

All things must pass. Everything dies.

 

Perhaps it’s my age, but thoughts such as these increasingly occupy my mind. Not in a morbid way, but simply in the sense that it is so. This entry was triggered by Gelert posting his cosmic law:

At the same time, I’ve just started reading Joan Didion’s "The Year of Magical Thinking" – her memento mori, about her family, the death of her husband and survival. It opens thus:

But ain’t it the truth?

 

And then, today, Dr. Charles posts one of his literary entries: Lantern. His writing is brilliant. Read it.

 

I usually think of the state of being alive as very fragile. So when I come across a story like this, it gives me pause for thought.

While the trigger-happy among us might point to Intelligent Design or Alien Interference, these stone balls in Costa Rica are apparently a totally natural occurence. Ain’t Nature amazing?

…of blue. Lovely.

 

(hat tip to Alun for the link)

We’re into the second week of having the work done on the kitchen and other parts of the house. That includes renewing the electricity distribution panel in the meter cupboard. Tonight, I was seated in my usual place (at the computer) and heard scratching sounds coming from the meter cupboard in the room next door. On investigation, I discovered the culprit…

 

 

 

Not sure how he/she got there, but it was safely transported back outside to the garden.

Nice advert by the Blue Man Group for StopGlobalWarming.org. The BMG were in Amsterdam a couple of weeks back. I saw them (on TV) perform in a concert in the Dam Square and liked what I saw.

A nice little illustration using a snippet of Beethoven’s Ninth to show how little we experience of the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

 

(hat tip to Improbable Research)

EmptyPockets pens a fascinating and illuminating post about the real research being done by Dr. Roselli. He was prompted to do so by the tripe being spouted by PETA. Political Correctness has a lot to answer for.

Some human beings are capable of quite extraordinary feats. Here’s one such example: the Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei. Me, I get winded running to the corner of the road. I also don’t carry a cord of death.

Ophelia, over at ButterfliesAndWheels, quite rightly questions the assertions by Bruce Hood that ‘the battle by scientists against "irrational" beliefs such as creationism is ultimately futile’ because magical and supernatural beliefs are hardwired into our brains from birth, and that religions are therefore tapping into a powerful psychological force. 

 

While it’s quite possible that the need for religion is hardwired, professor Hood’s experiments actually seem to be showing the effect of something else, namely sentiment, not religious belief. A classic case, as Ophelia points out, of "bait and switch". On this showing, the professor will have to do better than this if he is to demonstrate that he is doing good science rather than fatuous comparisons.. 

PZ Myers, over at Pharyngula, draws our attention to an animation of the inner workings of a cell. The animation is available here, together with some background. Since I am not conversant with molecular biology, I could have done with some more explanation of what I was seeing. But there are some arresting images, like the motor protein that looks like an alien tightrope walker pulling a huge balloon (apparently, a large bag of lipids).