The Maze of the Mind

The Maze of the Mind from Blue Muse Dance on Vimeo.

Let me solicit your interpretations of the meaning of this "dance." I'll start you off.

1) Big black hat equals seriousness.

2) TVs can be powered by grass electricity.

3) Simulated lawn orgasms are fun.

4) The world looks better through rose-colored silk.

5) Is this my outdoor tai chi class?

6) New Yorkers will applaud anything.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 18, 2011 - Comments (6)
Category: Nature, Performance Art, Dance

It’s Not What You Think

I know what my first thought was when I saw the headline 'Weed Dating'. Unfortunately it doesn't involve that kind of weed. This is a take on the popular speed dating model - except instead of meeting for a few minutes in a bar, you meet in a field, and pick weeds. Participants weed a row with a potential romantic interest and then move on to another row and another partner. While there hasn't been much romantic success, the idea has created enthusiasm among Farmer's Associations around the country. You can read more about weed dating here.

Posted By: Nethie - Fri Oct 15, 2010 - Comments (14)
Category: Agriculture, Domestic, Nature, Farming

Next up on World’s Deadliest Jobs - Mushroom Hunters

While it might seem quaint to walk through the woods to find and pick mushrooms, apparently it can be quite deadly. Authorities in northern Italy say that at least 18 people have died recently while hunting for the tasty fungi. Avid seekers are growing careless and ignoring safety procedures because the weather for the month of August has lead to a surge in mushroom growth. Most of those who have died fell off the slippery mountain slopes. Now, I realize that truffles can be worth more per ounce than gold, but I don't think it's worth a person's life.

Posted By: Nethie - Mon Aug 30, 2010 - Comments (8)
Category: Accidents, Death, Jobs and Occupations, Nature, Europe

The Wacky Weed

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 23, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Drugs, Nature, Cartoons, 1940s

Weird Science – From Whales To Sails

Sperm whales are among the biggest living things on the planet and, surprisingly for these gentle giants, once must have been among the most fearsome. Palaeontologists working in Peru have uncovered the remains of an extinct long lost relative of today’s sperm whale that had 30-40 cm long teeth in both jaws (the modern form has much smaller teeth in the lower jaw only). With jaws more closely resembling those of a killer whale than its thrust/suction feeding relative, scientists believe the newly named Leviathan melvillei was a 15 m long hunter of large prey, probably other whales. Its size, jaws and undoubted intelligence would have made this marine monster more than a match for the giant shark Megalodon with which it shared its home (Science [article], Nature [paper]).

Sperm whales are still the largest animal ever to have teeth, but today their diet consists mostly of squid – including the infamous giant squid – and therein lies a problem. Whereas most land dwelling creatures live on plant material, or some juicy meaty derivative thereof, and hence are essentially “carbon-neutral”, marine animals from penguins to whales feast upon carbon that was probably sequestered in the oceans hundreds if not thousands of years ago, or has weathered out of rocks that are millions of years old. One upshot of this is that carbon dating is notoriously inaccurate on marine organisms, what scientists call the “reservoir effect”, another is that unlike water breathers such as fish, who return this carbon to the oceans, air breathing animals like whales will release this carbon to the atmosphere as CO2 and so contribute to global warming. However in new research published by the Royal Society of London, researchers have calculated that whales have actually offset their carbon emissions with emissions of another kind. Whale poop is iron rich and comparatively liquid, hence returns the excess iron in the whale’s diet back to the oceans in a form that is readily usable by phytoplankton. The team, led by Trish Lavery of Flinders University in Australia, estimate that sperm whales are responsible for removing 200,000 more tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually than they actually emit (Royal Society).

But it’s not all good news for the tree-huggers for while whales might be a boon in the fight against climate change, their free-range, organic farming practices of preference are almost certainly not. In a paper published by the National Academy of Sciences, Jennifer Burney of Stanford University and her colleagues have found that intensive farming is by far the most land and carbon efficient method of agriculture. Because agricultural land use is a major contributor to global warming, increasing the yields from farmland, and thereby reducing the amount of land farmed, strongly outweighed the extra carbon emissions of the intensive farming needed to achieve this. Doing the sums on farm outputs since 1961, the team found that increased yields have produced the same as cultivating an additional area the size of Russia at 1961 levels, which would have led to the release of 590 billion more tonnes of CO2, equal to about a third of all man-made emissions since the industrial revolution (PNAS).

And modern farming may be coming to our rescue in another way, as a source of cheap batteries. Almost since Ben Franklin gave up kite-flying, kids in schools the world over have been making batteries out of apples or a potatoes. Now a trio of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led by Alex Goldberg, have found a way to turn these vegetable power sources from classroom curiosities into a viable product. What’s more amazing is the method they discovered to generate a tenfold increase the output of their potato power-pack, they boil the potato first. How did no-one think of this before (AIP)?

Another new idea, albeit a less welcome one, is that one should prosecute scientists for not knowing everything. At least that seems to be the approach taken by the public prosecutors of the Italian city of L’Aquilla, which last year was hit unexpectedly by an earthquake that killed over 300 people and injured 1600 more. The defendants include the head of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and the director of the National Earthquake Center along with four other equally prominent scientists and Bernardo De Bernardinis then deputy head of the Civil Protection Agency, who together are looking at being tried for manslaughter for not alerting the population to the imminent disaster at a meeting held one week before the quake struck. It was Bernardinis, a government official, who claimed in a press conference held immediately after the meeting that the scientists had said there was “no danger”, despite the minutes of the meeting clearly showing that at no time was the chance of a major shock ever ruled out (Nature).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Fri Jul 02, 2010 - Comments (7)
Category: Agriculture, Animals, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures, Farming, Disasters, Exercise and Fitness, Food, Government, Health, Nature, Natural Resources, Science, Psychology, Excrement

Wombles

Are there any UK adults of a certain generation who remain undamaged by THE WOMBLES?

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 23, 2010 - Comments (7)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Drugs, Nature, Pop Culture, Television, 1970s, Europe

Beware The Parrot

I was reading articles yesterday about drunken parrots falling out of the sky in Australia, when I stumbled across this video. It made me laugh til I cried. Let's hope the parrot was drunk.

Posted By: Nethie - Fri Jun 04, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Humor, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Nature, Documentaries, More Things To Worry About

Follies of the Mad Men #107

[From Playboy for October 1969.]

You know, even in 1969, despite the prevalence of hype connected with "flower power," I don't think anyone was going to believe that automobiles were pro-nature. And aren't flowers kind of a sissy image for a muscle car anyhow?

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 02, 2010 - Comments (7)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Nature, 1960s, Cars

Get Your Very Own

It's a real product. Buy yours today!

Posted By: Nethie - Sat May 08, 2010 - Comments (10)
Category: Animals, Humor, Insects and Spiders, Nature

Visit the Strange

Looking for an unusual vacation spot? Then you might consider one of eight strange destinations as listed in this article on the Matador Network. There's Mount Thor (pictured), in Nunavut, Canada which has the highest (4101ft) vertical drop, if you're into rock climbing... or falling, as the case may be. Or you can swing by the Principality of Sealand which is nothing more than several gun platforms in the English Channel that were abandoned by the British after World War II. It was declared an independent nation in 1967 and has its own currency and can issue passports and visas. Sealand is also for sale, if you ever dreamt of owning your own country, and let's face it, all of us here at WU have had that dream I'm sure. But no matter where you might want to go in the world, this list could be a great starting point.

Posted By: Nethie - Sat Dec 19, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Geography and Maps, Nature, Travel, World