There are very few things better than a day at the beach. I mean, you get to swim in the ocean all day, when you're not in the ocean you get to lay in the sun and eat junk food, you get to walk around in what would be your underwear if it wasn't made of lycra, it's breezy (making it cooler than the rest of the world), sand feels awesome underneath ( Read more... )

Well, once my favorite G2V star worked its way across the sky a little bit it turned into quite a lovely spring evening. Accordingly, after after toasting some bread, chopping up some salad, and slicing a little fruit and cheese, I grabbed a book and repaired to the lawn for a picnic. Unfortunately, no sooner had I chosen a square of grass than my ( Read more... )

The sun is really nothing like a ton of bricks. Bricks, are usually made of clay, though they can also be made of concrete, stone, calcium citrate, or even fly ash, and according to "The Ten Commandments" they must have straw mixed into the clay by the feet of Hebrew slaves. The sun, on the other hand, is a mass of incandescent plasma, and it is ( Read more... )

So yesterday I kayaked along the Hell's Bay canoe trail through the Everglades. The description of the trail quoted an early pioneer describing it as "hell to get into and hell to get out of." It was lovely! Though admittedly hot when the sun was in full force. Anyway, I seem to have visited a great many places with names associated with Hell or ( Read more... )

A beautiful spider is more beautiful than any insect (I almost wrote "any other insect" but then caught myself), and I think it has to do with the unexpectedness of their beauty. Everyone knows that lady bugs are cute. Most people take it for granted that monarch butterflies must be glorious or why else would they be named for royalty? If you look ( Read more... )

So I thought we had some pretty crazy bird names here, but my Birds of Southern Africa book just came in! (Three months until Botswana!) They include the "streaky-breasted flufftail," the "spectacled mousebird," the "white-rumped babbler," and, my favorite, the "chestnut-vented titbabbler."

Strictly speaking, birds are not colonial organisms. They don't have a queen with sole breeding privileges, the do not have workers specially differentiated for different tasks, they don't operate for the good of the group, but when walking through a nesting colony of white ibis, I can't help but feel that there's some sort of hive mind going on ( Read more... )

There are many completely rediculous names for birds. The "Hudsonian godwit" comes to mind, as does the "bristle-thighed curlew," and the "ferruginous pigmy-owl," but perhaps the award for most ridiculous named bird in North America goes to the fulvous whistling duck. This lovely species of duck has a gorgeous tawny breast, striking reddish wings, ( Read more... )

What is it about water ( Read more... )

I have been trying all week to come up with an appropriate simile/metaphor/analogy to describe the wonder that is the water lilies on Lake Okeechobee. They just keep getting better and better! I think they have peaked but the next day their are even more of them, and in different colors! But my power of description has completely failed me. The ( Read more... )