Image courtesy of Danger Room blog on the Wired network The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, issued a request for proposals back in 2006 for the creation of cyborg insects. According to a report at the time: DARPA wants to develop inexpensive MAVs [micro aerial vehicles] to find weapons and explosives inside buildings… Continue reading Creepy-crawlies that are really creepy
Tag: Nature
An amazing adventurer
I’m always amazed – and delighted – whenever I find fresh evidence that the age of adventure has not yet ceased. Meet Kenichi Horie. This remarkable man has already amassed quite a track record. He’s circumnavigated the world twice, crossed the Pacific several times, and used some unique vessels in the process – a solar-powered… Continue reading An amazing adventurer
Banded icebergs
I was fascinated to see these pictures from the Antarctic Ocean. (Click them for a larger view.) They were photographed by Oyvind Tangen, a Norwegian sailor, almost 700 miles north of the Antarctic. According to the report linked above, they’re formed by dust and gravel over which glaciers slide on their way to the sea,… Continue reading Banded icebergs
This guy obviously has no need for that hand
Via the Daily Mail comes a report of a somewhat less-than-successful test of an anti-shark device . . . and a picture of an idiot intrepid boatman patting a passing shark. (Click it for a larger view.) This is the amazing moment a man pats a monstrous Great White Shark off the coast of Australia… Continue reading This guy obviously has no need for that hand
Animal caring of a less successful nature
After reading about Moko the dolphin (see the post below), I was amused to find this report in the Daily Mail of the unrequited love (or is that lust?) of a frog for a duck – of the rubber variety. (Click the picture for a larger view.) Mr Coleman, a charity worker, keeps the toy… Continue reading Animal caring of a less successful nature
Proof that caring is a universal factor
I was enthralled to read about the rescue of two stranded whales in New Zealand by a well-known dolphin, whom locals have named Moko. The Daily Mail reports: Time was running out for the mother whale and her calf as they lay beached on a sandbank. Wildlife volunteers had tried four times to drag them… Continue reading Proof that caring is a universal factor
Sled dogs around the world
As I’m sure you know, the annual Iditarod sled dog race is currently under way in Alaska. I’ve been following developments at its Web site and from video clips on YouTube, and it looks like a tough, gruelling year (not that they aren’t all like that!). At the same time, on the other side of… Continue reading Sled dogs around the world
Gratuitous self-torture, caught on video
I’ve never understood the fad for so-called “Brazilian waxing“. It seems to me to go against what Nature intends, and for no good reason that I can see. Be that as it may, a lot of people have it done . . . and it seems that one salon installed a video camera to catch… Continue reading Gratuitous self-torture, caught on video
Rogue waves in the news again
I don’t know how many of my readers have ever investigated the phenomenon known as “rogue” or “freak” waves. They’ve always fascinated me, and a recent news report from South Africa has revived that interest. Apparently one person drowned and 18 others had to be rescued after a freak wave hit the beach near Durban,… Continue reading Rogue waves in the news again
Cold sleep
From England comes the story of a woman who’s providing a hibernation home-from-home for 75 tortoises – in two refrigerators! Mrs. Shirley Neely said that the refrigerated assistance was necessary because of an unusually mild winter. If the tortoises didn’t hibernate properly, they wouldn’t have enough energy to eat or drink and not enough body… Continue reading Cold sleep