How big is a blue whale?A blue whale is so big that a person can swim through it’s largest blood vessels. A blue whale is so big that there are cars smaller than its heart. The blue whale is the largest animal on earth, now or ever, as far as we know. Its tongue is as large as the largest land animal on the present day earth (elephant). Oh, and it can go faster than most ships.A blue whale is so big that when it dies, it takes YEARS to rot. And it smells REALLY bad.And that is why people are moving out of a certain neighborhood in Canada. Continue reading Blue Whale Excavation
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Holy Crap…
Every now and then there is a moment … I see something, hear something, learn something … that makes me want to jump to my feet (if I’m not already standing) and shout “To the blog mobile!” Well, I don’t actually have a blog mobile. So when that happens, I just run into the basement. Continue reading Holy Crap…
Joshua Klein: The amazing intelligence of crows
Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he’s come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal
(repost) Continue reading Joshua Klein: The amazing intelligence of crows
Submit!
Next Week’s Four Stone Hearth will be hosted at Remote Central. Please have a look here to find out about submitting stuff.This is the most diverse of all of the blog carnival that I know. So you probably have something. So send it in, OK?????
Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Mycologist Paul Stamets studies the mycelium — and lists 6 ways that this astonishing fungus can help save the world….Paul Stamets believes that mushrooms can save our lives, restore our ecosystems and transform other worlds
Continue reading Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Hillary! Now that he’s on top, you ought to stop, girl.
We know, deep down, you are an Obama Girl, Hilary.
Americans: Superior because of our DNA (Sorry, everyone else, but it is what it is…)
… or at least, according to the Discovery Institutes’s own Michael Medved.
The idea of a distinctive, unifying, risk-taking American DNA might also help to explain our most persistent and painful racial divide – between the progeny of every immigrant nationality that chose to come here [the source of the distinctive american DNA signal], and the one significant group that exercised no choice in making their journey to the U.S. Nothing in the horrific ordeal of African slaves, seized from their homes against their will, reflected a genetic predisposition to risk-taking, or any sort of self-selection based on personality traits. Among contemporary African-Americans, however, this very different historical background exerts a less decisive influence, because of vast waves of post-slavery black immigration. Some three million black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean arrived since 1980 alone and in big cities like New York, Boston and Miami close to half of the African-American population consists of immigrants, their children or grandchildren. The entrepreneurial energy of these newcomer communities indicates that their members display the same adventurous instincts associated with American DNA.
The Phalarope: Not just another polyandrous bird…
As Charles Darwin showed nearly 150 years ago, bird beaks are exquisitely adapted to the birds’ feeding strategy. A team of MIT mathematicians and engineers has now explained exactly how some shorebirds use their long, thin beaks to defy gravity and transport food into their mouths.The phalarope, commonly found in western North America, takes advantage of surface interactions between its beak and water droplets to propel bits of food from the tip of its long beak to its mouth, the research team reports in the May 16 issue of Science.These surface interactions depend on the chemical properties of the liquid involved, so phalaropes and about 20 other birds species that use this mechanism are extremely sensitive to anything that contaminates the water surface, especially detergents or oil.
Continue reading The Phalarope: Not just another polyandrous bird…
I’m So Sorry Bill O’Reilly
I only gave half the story in my recent post about how you are a big fat baby.Here’s the rest of the story… Continue reading I’m So Sorry Bill O’Reilly
Say no more …
Kevin James. Career. Over.
Earliest Known Abalone Discovered
May 18, 2008 — A tiny abalone specimen 5.9 mm in length and approximately 78 million years old (putting it in the middle Campanian Stage of the Late Cretaceous) has been documented from rocks in the Garapito Creek area of Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles County by Lindsey T. Groves and John M. Alderson of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in the latest issue of the molluscan journal The Veliger.
Carnival
The Carnival of Cinema: Episode 74 – The Creature from the Blog Lagoon … is now up at Good News Film Reviews
Alisa Miller: Why we know less than ever about the world
Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why — though we want to know more about the world than ever — the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs. Continue reading Alisa Miller: Why we know less than ever about the world
It’s over! (Again. Maybe)
Have you noticed? Did you hear the other shoe drop? (very very quietly, yes, but I’m sure I heard it…) Continue reading It’s over! (Again. Maybe)
Bill O’Reilly is a Big Cry Baby
Do not play this if innocent ears (like children and such) are near. … Continue reading Bill O’Reilly is a Big Cry Baby