The early Cambrian seas (542-488 million years ago) had a plethora of strange and bizarre creatures almost unimaginable to even the best sci-fi dreamer. As possibly one of the precursors to the Arthropoda (also Onychophora and Tardigrada), the lobopodian lineages represent a strange group of “worms with legs” that once roamed the ancient sea beds. Exactly…
Oops, looks like I missed my first ‘blogoversary’! Monday the 21st was the one year turning point for my blog; and I’m incredibly happy to have spent the last year sharing some of my ramblings with all of you. I’ve somewhat lost track of how many hits I’ve had since I moved everything…
Shockingly, stunningly, amazingly; the monarchs are back (but not co-staring Julianne Moore). OK, it’s not that amazing; I pretty much predicted this would be the case last March when everyone was running around terrified because the butterflies hit an all time low (since counting started in 1993). Actually I believe I said “I will bet anything…
A softball for this GOP challenge. This image comes care of the Victoria Advocate (TX paper) – with a poorly written article about butterflies. This image flop is pretty easy, but for extra points who can tell me what else is incorrect in the text?
I’ve uploaded a new header as you can see – how does it look? I’m playing around with the settings, but please let me know if the moth on the right gets cropped awkwardly, and what your screen resolution is if that is the case. Thanks!
(Credit: David Cappaert, Insectimages.org) If you happen to be living out in Yolo, Solano or Sacramento counties you should head out with a net. Dr. Art Shaprio has offered for the 40th year his cabbage white butterfly competition. If you are the very first person to catch a cabbage white (Pieris rapae – invasive) before…
I did, and it sounds like it was written by Sarah Palin. Actually, I came across this meta analysis of over 22,000 horoscopes over on Information is Beautiful. It’s spectacular – but I’ll run down a few points here: From these 22,000 horoscopes came a chart of the most common words (bottom), 90% of which…
I have always known that in many places of the world, especially off the beaten track, caterpillars of moths and butterflies are on the menu. From Africa to Australia there are dozens of species that might taste good enough to be reasonably edible or even delicious. But here in the US insects rarely if ever…
For this issue of the genius of the press, who can tell me what’s wrong with this article? It’s pretty subtle, but a clear mistake, especially for LiveScience.
Not too long ago I posted about the device above – a cool looking glass bulb which supposedly uses light to scare away flights. That claim hit my skeptical nerve, and I discussed it in my previous post. Over the past weeks I’ve been researching reasonable methods to test this claim – and like…