I had to laugh at this. Police in Schwerin, Germany, were chasing a couple of car thieves. The bad guys made it easier for the cops when they drove smack into a police cruiser. Not a career-enhancing move for thieves, that. The police nabbed the passenger, but the 18-year-old driver fled into the woods. A… Continue reading They call cops ‘pigs’ – but what happens when pigs become cops?
Tag: Nature
The mouse that roared?
No, not the very funny 1955 film starring Peter Sellers (in three different roles). It seems that scientists are using mice as a ‘vehicle’ for gene transplants. In a world first, scientists have extracted a gene from the extinct Tasmanian tiger and successfully inserted it into a mouse embryo. It is the first time a… Continue reading The mouse that roared?
Some amazing photographs of predator and prey
Courtesy of Mike B., who sent them via e-mail, we have this series of seven photographs from Lakelse Lake in north-western British Columbia, Canada. They show an eagle attempting to bring down a swan over the lake. In sequence from first to last, you see the eagle’s strike, its attempts to hang on to a… Continue reading Some amazing photographs of predator and prey
The best summary of Globular Worming I’ve yet found
I’m sure many readers are as skeptical about the whole global warming brouhaha as I am. I find the evidence unconvincing, and scientists who rely on models (that can’t reproduce actual conditions when fed accurate data) rather than investigation, experimentation and observation, aren’t scientists at all. Jerry Pournelle posted an excellent ‘Climate Prediction Summary‘ on… Continue reading The best summary of Globular Worming I’ve yet found
Platypus, platypus, wherefore art thou platypus?
Shakespeare might object, but it seems an appropriate headline! The platypus has always amazed me. The darn thing is a furry mammal, but lays eggs like a reptile; produces milk like a cow, but doesn’t have teats or nipples, its young feeding through a glandular patch on its skin; males have poisonous venom in spurs… Continue reading Platypus, platypus, wherefore art thou platypus?
The fish that can do it all!
Dr. Dean Pomerleau claims to have developed a kit that can be used to teach any fish to do tricks. I was a bit sceptical at first, but the video below seems to bear out his claims. Personally, though, I think I’d have more fun with a dog . . . Peter
When a mountain blows its top . . .
. . . things can get pretty picturesque. The Chaiten volcano in southern Chile has been doing its thing for the past few days, and there have been some wonderful photographs in the press. Click them to enlarge. Here, Chaiten is burning at night, below a spectacular lighting storm. The plume of smoke and ash… Continue reading When a mountain blows its top . . .
You paid $960 for a piece of poop???
I’m amazed to learn, via Reuters, that an anonymous buyer recently paid $960 for a couple of pieces of fossilized dinosaur poop. The two chunks of 130-million-year-old coprolite, otherwise known as fossilized dinosaur dung, fetched $960 at Bonhams in New York on Wednesday, the auction house said. The Jurassic-era rocks were sold for more than… Continue reading You paid $960 for a piece of poop???
How many people drink the bathwater?
Fancy a frothy beauty treatment? The Chodovar Family Brewery in the Czech Republic has come up with just the thing. According to a review in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia: Klara is a balneologist, a master and commander of the bath. She tells us that while a regular tap pipes in locally sourced Il-Sano mineral… Continue reading How many people drink the bathwater?
How do you make prehistoric buffalo wings?
First, you catch your Tyrannosaurus Rex! I’m delighted to read of a study by Dr. John Asara and his colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. Dinosaurs may have been more closely related to chickens than reptiles, according to a report released on Thursday. . . . Molecular… Continue reading How do you make prehistoric buffalo wings?