Lying is not only saying what isn’t true.
It is especially saying more than is true and, in case of the human heart, saying more than one feels.
We all do it, every day, to make life simpler.

—  Albert Camus, Afterword for "The Outsider" (1955)

Avoir Trois Métros de Retard

Nov. 15, 2011

 

The title means “To always be one step behind” (literally: “to be 3 subway trains late”).


About Libya

No Easy Answers

No Easy Answers

Still Found Wanting

Still Found Wanting

It was possible to oppose American intervention in Libya in reasonably sensible ways.  The rebels weren’t a coherent unit, so that it wasn’t clear whom the US was supporting or what the endgame would be; any intervention on the part of Western powers ran the risk of delegitimising the revolt in the Arab world.  “Mission creep” could mean involvement in a bloody, intractable struggle.  One could also argue that the humanitarian crisis in Libya was not so severe as to trigger the “responsibility to protect” (R2P) doctrine, so there was no reason to trump the principle of nonintervention.  Should such intervention become necessary, it could be undertaken by Libya’s immediate neighbours.  The Libyan intervention could have been subjected to a cost/benefit analysis providing consequentialist objections about the advisability of that particular action at that particular time.  Should the world have let Libyan civilians die at the hands of a tyrant?  (So if one criticises the Western military intervention, must one then be a tyrant-lover?)  The US is arguably militarily overextended and there is concern that American military operations can be viewed with skepticism and hostility on the Arab street.  Certainly the intervention speaks to an ongoing debate in international law, between the advocates of R2P and the defenders of national sovereignty who fear that R2P will license yet another form of domination of small, allegedly failed states by the world’s great powers.  These are real ambiguities and they will be subject to debate for the foreseeable future.  (No easy answers anywhere.)


The Overton Window, in political theory, describes a “window” in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on a particular issue.  It is named after its originator, Joseph P Overton, former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.  At any given moment, the “window” includes a range of policies considered to be politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme or outside the mainstream to gain or keep public office.  Proponents of policies outside the window seek to persuade or educate the public so that the window either moves or expands to encompass them (like legalisation of marijuana).  Opponents of current policies, or similar ones currently within the window, likewise seek to convince people that these should be considered unacceptable (such as abortion).  The novel Boomsday by Christopher Buckley, applies the Overton Window to the subject of Social Security reform in the United States.  The technique used was to agitate for “voluntary transitioning,” that is, suicide at age 70 in exchange for benefits, as a method of reducing the cost of Social Security.  Ultimately, the goal was a more modest form of reducing the burden on younger people for those costs.

Identity wars are conflicts between groups with different cultural, religious and/or ethnic backgrounds who inhabit the same stretch of land.  A scary idea is that identity wars may now be spreading from Europe and the Middle East into the rest of Asia and Africa.  These wars started in early modern Europe around the time of the Protestant Reformation.  After a century of genocidal violence that left most of Germany ruined and depopulated, they subsided until the French Revolution set off an even more devastating wave.  Closely connected to the industrial revolution and the rise of democracy, nationalism emerged as a dominant political force in 19th century Europe.  Over the next century, more than a 100 million people died as multinational empires in Europe and the Middle East ripped themselves apart in paroxysms of war, genocide and ethnic cleansing.  Are identity wars a fundamental aspect of modernisation or did they arise out of specific European and Middle Eastern characteristics that don’t apply elsewhere in the world?  If they’re endemic, cruel and bloody convulsions from southern Africa through the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia may occur in the next 50 to 100 years, reordering the continent into smaller and more ethnically and religiously homogenous countries.  World War I and World War II, both wars of identity driven by a mix of nationalist and ideological politics, were unprecedented in ferocity and scale.  More than 200 years after the French Revolution unleashed the modern wave of identity wars, the world has developed vastly more powerful weapons and techniques of war.  Advancements in warfare technology will only continue.  But we are no closer now than we were 200 years ago to resolving the question of nationalism and the death struggles between people that often entails.


The Most Important Thing

Strange Priorities

Strange Priorities

In Alaska, to buy a firearm, you need only one form or identification.  To pay for the firearm with a cheque, though?  Two forms of identification are required in that case.  In purchasing the firearm, the risk you are trying to control is selling a weapon to a lunatic who will use the firearm to kill a bunch of people.  But we manage that risk by requiring that one ID for a background check.  In paying for the firearm via a cheque, the risk is that the cheque could bounce and someone could lose money.  We manage that risk by demanding two IDs.  [Of course far more people have cheques bounce than commit murder.  You could just require they pay with cash.]


There are many ways in which Social Media has been used by the military across the world.  Key security issues faced when dealing with social media platforms include the fact that, in a hostile environment, it is important military personnel don’t provide sensitive information while online.  This has led to significant pressure by governments to improve training that military personnel receive on social media tools.  [Unlike a telephone, it leaves a more permanent record?]  The Pentagon sees the advances in social media as a new battlefield that needs to be looked at to track information being provided about military operations on the web.  But with cuts to military budgets, social media is welcomed as a cost-saving tool and many armed forces use it to drive recruitment, especially in the UK.  The US military’s high-tech research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has put out a request for experts to look at "a new science of social networks" to attempt to get ahead of the curve.  The programme’s goal is to track “purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation” and pursue “countermessaging of detected adversary influence operations.”  Changes to the nature of conflict resulting from the widespread use of social media are likely to be profound.  Under the proposal, researchers would unearth and classify the formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes).  DARPA plans to spend $42 million (£25 million) on this.  One possible experiment could involve a “closed social media network” of 2-5 thousand volunteers.

CIA drones kill large groups without knowing who they are.  Once, the standard for targeted killing was top-level leadership in al-Qaeda or one of its allies.  That’s long gone, especially as the number of people targeted at once has grown.  The new standard: “men believed to be militants associated with terrorist groups, but whose identities aren’t always known.”  The CIA is now killing people without knowing who they are, on the suspicion that they associate with terrorist groups.  There was no definition given for “suspicion” and “associate.”  Targeting groups of associates are known as "signature" strikes.  CIA officials defend these strikes by saying they frequently net top terrorists, not just foot soldiers.  Twice as many wanted terrorists have been killed in signature strikes than in “personality” strikes, a US counterterrorism official said.  [Personality strikes?  Does this just mean knowing who they’re killing?]  Independent information about who the CIA kills in signature strikes in Pakistan is scarce.  The CIA says that there have been very few civilian deaths — only 60 over the years.  But some senior officials in both the US and Pakistan governments privately say they’re skeptical civilian deaths are that low.  When the agency expects to kill 20 or more people at once, then the CIA is supposed to give the Pakistanis notice.  If the US ambassador to Pakistan objects to a strike, the CIA director or his deputy first try to talk through their differences with the ambassador.  If the conflict is unresolved, the Secretary of State can appeal directly to the CIA director.  If they can’t reach agreement, however, the CIA director retains the final say.  [I guess that tells you where the real power lies.]  The CIA does not have to account for its actions to anybody, least of all the US or Pakistani publics.


This Can Happen

Don't Be a Purist

Don’t Be a Purist

From the nonpareil Dr Boli.


Freaked out about the insecurity of its nuclear arsenal, the Pakistani military’s Strategic Plans Division has begun carting its nukes around in clandestine ways.  That might make some sense on the surface: no military wants to let others know exactly where its most powerful weapons are at any given moment.  But Pakistan is going to an extreme.  The nukes travel “in civilian-style vehicles without noticeable defenses, in the regular flow of traffic,” according to The Atlantic.  Tactical nuclear weapons travel down the streets in “vans with a modest security profile.”  Somewhere on a highway around, say, Karachi, is the world’s most dangerous 1-800-FLOWERS truck.  Pakistan isn’t trying to safeguard its nukes from terrorists — it’s trying to safeguard its nukes from the USA.  Pakistani generals think that the US military may target Pakistani nukes.  So off the vans go, along congested and dangerous roads, trying to throw the US off the scent, with little more than hope to keep them safe.

From a review of the book, The Black Banners, by FBI agent Ali Soufan: Soufran describes his and his colleagues’ consternation when confronted with the snake oil salesmen who peddled “enhanced interrogation techniques” — a pseudo-expert the CIA brought in to oversee interrogations, whom Soufan gives the appropriately menacing and foolish sobriquet “Boris” — who had never conducted an interrogation, knew nothing about terrorism, and nothing about intelligence work.  “Why is this necessary” Soufan asked when first confronted with such measures as sensory deprivation, overload, or humiliation, “given that the prisoner is cooperating?”  As Boris tinkered with ever-increasingly harsh and ineffective ways to break detainees, Soufan and his colleagues tried to oppose them, but failed.  So Soufan and the FBI formally ceased any involvement.  It is telling that 4 individuals with first-hand experience in interrogations during the “War on Terror” have spoken out about enhanced interrogation methods: 2 Air Force officers (Steve Kleinman and another officer writing under the pseudonym Matthew Alexander), an FBI officer (Soufan), and a CIA officer (Glenn Carlke).  All independently make the same points: interrogation must be based on rapport; enhanced interrogation methods are ineffective, counterproductive, immoral, illegal, and unnecessary, and they have nothing to do with obtaining much, if any, information not otherwise obtainable.  It’s only apologists for the Bush Administration, or the policymakers themselves, who assert that “enhanced interrogation techniques” are legal or that they work.  Soufan is devastating about these methods: “The person or persons running the programme were not sane and the interrogation was stepping over the line bordering torture — way over the line.  What Boris was doing was un-American as well as ineffective.”


Born to Be Wild

Dying to Be Selfish

Dying to Be Selfish

The selfish gene theory says that natural selection favours the best replicators.  Generally, a gene achieves this goal by cooperating with other genes to build an organism capable of transmitting all or most of them to descendants.  Intragenomic conflict arises when some of these so-called cooperating genes play by different rules or when one of them causes its own transmission to the detriment of the rest.  (This last gene is usually called a selfish genetic element, ultraselfish gene, or parasitic DNA.)  Conflicts between nuclear genes have several causes:

  • Segregation distorters get themselves inserted into eggs and sperm unfairly frequently.
  • Killers rub out their rivals.
  • Cheaters take advantage of the female.
  • Bosses take over functions so important that potential offspring will die without them.
  • Gang members clone themselves to grab all the best positions when they see an opening.
  • Dominators convert their associates to be copies of themselves.
  • Parasites live off others.

Plasmids deserve special mention.  They’re additional circular chromosomes present in many bacteria which usually promote conjugation between their host and other bacteria so that they can make their way into more cells.  Since the chromosomal genes are not usually transmitted, that means they foot the bill for getting the plasmids replicated as this increases the chance of their bacterial hosts being invaded by hostile viruses.  So, in payment to their hosts, the genes on some plasmids appear to direct the production of proteins beneficial to bacteria — such as those conferring antibiotic resistance.  Bacteria seem to embody a microcosm of human interaction.  More.


Group selection brings about virtue, and — this is an oversimplification — individual selection, which competes with it, creates sin. That, in a nutshell, is an explanation of the human condition. Our quarrelsomeness, our intense concentration on groups and on rivalries, down to the last junior-soccer-league game, the whole thing falls into place, in my opinion. Theories of kin selection didn’t do the job, but now I think we’re close to making sense out of what human beings do and why they can’t settle down.
— E O Wilson

Nancy Wake, a French Resistance fighter, has died in London at the age of 98.  Born in Wellington, New Zealand and raised in Sydney, she was nicknamed “The White Mouse” by the Gestapo because she was so hard to capture.  Ms Wake left Australia and moved to France in 1932.  Joining the Resistance after the German invasion in 1940, she sheltered displaced Jews fleeing the Nazi regime.  Credited with helping to save thousands of lives, Ms Wake was placed at the top of the Gestapo’s most wanted list and fled France alone for England in 1943.  (Meanwhile, her French husband was seized, tortured and executed by the Gestapo.)  Trained as a spy by Britain’s Special Operations Executive, she parachuted back to Nazi-occupied France to work with the Resistance in preparation for the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944.  Her job was to distribute weapons among Resistance fighters hiding in the mountains.  To arrange delivery of weapons and supplies, messages had to be sent via radio phones.  Her group lost theirs during a German raid, so Ms Wake pedalled more than 200 kilometres to another radio.  “I volunteered not because I’m brave but because, being a woman, I was the only one who could do it.  When I got there, I couldn’t stand up, I couldn’t sit down, I couldn’t do anything.  I just cried.”  Ms Wake was awarded Britain’s George Medal and the US Medal of Freedom.  France decorated her with its highest award, the Legion d’Honneur.  She continued working for British intelligence in Europe until 1957, when she moved back to Australia and married British fighter pilot John Forward.  She returned to Britain after his death.  She had no children.  In 2004, Australia finally awarded her the Companion of the Order of Australia.

China is expected to expand 8.7% next year, 6.6% in the following 4 years, but only 3.5% in the 2017-2025 period.  It has long been an article of faith inside China and among most China watchers that the country needs 9% growth per year to avoid widespread instability.  If China’s growth decelerates that fast, that far, the biggest question in world politics won’t be how to accommodate China’s rise, but how long China can last.  Overall, world growth is expected to decline; both China and India will lead this decline.  Advanced countries are expected to recover from the current slump, but growth could remain anemic for years.  Forecasts almost never come true, and economic forecasts are less reliable than weather reports, but the inexorable rise of the supergiants has been a dominant meme in talks about global economic and geopolitical trends for some time.  However, this new view is more textured.  If growth deceleration results in serious instability, blows out the financial system (a distinct possibility), or simply ties the hands of China’s policymakers so that they can’t respond in a timely fashion to changing circumstances, deceleration could turn into something dramatic.


Money and Power

Shenzhen Port

Shenzhen Port

Yuan for the Money

Yuan for the Money

Building Bridges

Building Bridges

China’s government in recent years has struggled to:

  • Contain social strife and environmental damage related to the economy’s rapid transformation
  • Collect public receipts due from provinces, businesses, and individuals
  • Reduce corruption and other economic crimes
  • Sustain adequate job growth for tens of millions of workers who are
    • laid off
    • migrants
    • new entrants to the work force
  • Keep afloat large state-owned enterprises, most of which haven’t shared in the vigourous economic expansion and thus haven’t the ability to pay full wages and pensions
  • Keep the environment from deteriorating so fast (notably air and water pollution, soil erosion, growing desertification and the steady fall of the water table, especially in the north)
  • Prevent loss of arable land through erosion and infrastructure development.

There is large-scale underemployment in both urban and rural areas, and fear of the disruptive effects of major, explicit unemployment is strong.  Though China’s economy has expanded rapidly, its regulatory environment has not kept pace.  The growth of new businesses has outpaced the government’s ability to regulate them, creating a situation where, faced with mounting competition and poor oversight, businesses take drastic measures to increase profit margins, often at the expense of consumer safety.
 
Perhaps the biggest long-term foreign policy issue facing the United States is the status of its relations with the People’s Republic of China.  Over the past 10 years, China has developed into a mature military power, developing advanced technology such as ballistic missile submarines, the J-20 stealth fighter, and the DF-31 Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile.  Trade with China has quadrupled since 2001, as the PRC has become the US’ second-most important trading partner after Canada.  China also holds 36% of all foreign-owned US Treasury bonds.  Put simply, the political and economic relationship with China is absolutely critical for American future prosperity and well-being.  In his well-publicised speech at the Citadel on 7 October, candidate Mitt Romney warned of a grim future: “China has made it clear that it intends to be a military and economic superpower. Will her rulers lead their people to a new era of freedom and prosperity or will they go down a darker path, intimidating neighbours, brushing aside an inferior American Navy in the Pacific, and building a global alliance of authoritarian states?”  Romney proposed to expand US naval shipbuilding from 9 to 15 ships.  Given his comment about “an inferior American Navy,” these ships would likely be destined for service in the western Pacific.  In an 18 October debate, he suggested that the US forego global humanitarian aid, instead relying on China to assist other countries directly.  The impact of such a policy could be an expansion of China’s global influence at Us expense.  These statements probably represent an effort to appeal to a Republican primary constituency hostile to foreign aid.  But good advice?  Maybe not.

Iran and Saudi Arabia increasingly share a growing economic market and great power ally in China.  China’s gradual realignment from squarely backing Iran to courting Saudi Arabia in recent years heralds a geostrategic shift in Chinese foreign policy and marks the stirrings of a Chinese “twin-pillar” policy in the Gulf.  The US shouldn’t necessarily view this shift as a threat to its strategic national interests there.  Rather, Chinese engagement with these two regional poles of influence could prove beneficial for the US as it begins rethinking its regional strategy, seeking ways to maintain stability without a large military presence.  China must secure energy resources for its expanding economy.  Due to the extraordinary growth of its industrial, petrochemical, and manufacturing sectors, as well as the rapid expansion of personal automobile use, China is currently the world’s second largest consumer of oil (several economists predict it will be the primary consumer by 2025).  Despite aggressive pursuit of supply diversity, as much as 70-80% of China’s future oil imports will come from the Middle East and North Africa.  To meet growing demand, over the past 10 years China has actively courted Iran through a variety of economic and political inducements as a key player in ensuring a stable energy flow.  This partnership underlines the informal alliance structure in the Gulf which places China as Iran’s ally and puts US-backed Saudi Arabia in a separate corner.  China’s emerging twin-pillar policy has the potential to not only reshape regional alignments but to provide energy dominance and regional stability in the coming decades.  [An optimistic “we shall all have a beautiful future together” scenario?]


Some words you should never use with sales prospects:

  • “Customer focused.”  Talk about redundant!  Should you be anything but customer focused?
  • “Exceed expectations.”  Tell me you’ll exceed expectations and this will become an expectation — see?
  • “Best in class.”  Who defines the “class” and who determines you’re the “best” in it?
  • “Unique.”  If I hire your firm or buy your products, unique means nothing.  Tell me how you are better.
  • “Value added.”  Tell me the deal, explain the options and add-ons, and let me be the one who decides what value you add.
  • “Expert.”  Margaret Thatcher said, “Being powerful is like being a lady; if you have to say you are, you aren’t.”

"Jeff Bezos is an infamous micro-manager.  He micro-manages every single pixel of Amazon’s retail site.  He hired Larry Tesler, Apple’s Chief Scientist and probably the very most famous and respected human-computer interaction expert in the entire world, and then ignored everything Larry said for 3 years until Larry finally — wisely — left the company.  Larry would do big usability studies and demonstrate beyond any shred of doubt that nobody can understand the Amazon website, but Bezos just couldn’t let go of those pixels, all those millions of semantics-packed pixels on the landing page.  They were like millions of his own precious children.  So they’re all still there; Larry is not.  We’re talking about a guy who hands out little yellow stickies with his name on them, reminding people “who runs the company” when they disagree with him.  The guy is a regular, well, Steve Jobs, I guess.  Except without the fashion or design sense.  Bezos is super smart; don’t get me wrong.  He just makes ordinary control freaks look like stoned hippies." — excerpt from a rant by Google Software Engineer Steve Yegge.  His equally-interesting subsequent apology here.  “People like Jeff are better regarded as hyper-intelligent aliens with a tangential interest in human affairs.”


Retirement Village

Tevatron Retires

Tevatron Retires

Physicists from OPERA, one of the experiments at CERN (Europe’s main particle-physics laboratory), sent beams of neutrinos through the earth’s crust from the organisation’s headquarters on the outskirts of Geneva to an underground laboratory 730 kilometres (450 miles) away beneath Gran Sasso, a mountain in the Apennines.  The neutrinos appeared to be reaching the detector 60 nanoseconds faster than light would take to cover the same distance — a small deviation and one that might be written off as experimental error — if an experiment in America, called MINOS, had not detected a similar anomaly in 2007.  The MINOS result, too, was thought an error.  Now researchers are not so sure.  Most are unwilling to believe Einstein was wrong.  A few, though, are contemplating the idea that neutrinos are interacting with the matter making up the earth’s crust in a way hitherto unknown — a way that allows them to take a shortcut through one of the extra 7 dimensions hypothesised by some versions of theoretical physics to exist alongside the familiar 4 of length, breadth, height and time.  If true, it takes physics beyond the theory of relativity, just as Einstein took it beyond Newton’s laws of motion and gravity.  This might allow physicists to merge relativistic ideas with those of quantum theory — their goal for almost a century.  Meanwhile, the US has turned off its Tevatron (shown) near Chicago.  Why?  Mostly budgetary constraints and it was made obsolete by CERN.


Google Flight Search is only good (for now, anyway) on flights within the US.  That’s too bad, because I can see how this could save me hours of time and hundreds of dollars after only a couple of international trips (NZ being so far away from most other places in the world).  When you’re planning to travel, whether you have a specific destination with dates in mind or not, Flight Search can help you find the best options for your trip.  You can review an easy-to-browse list of flights against which you apply filters.  If you aren’t sure where you want to travel, just type in your departure city and surf around the map to see ticket prices for various destinations.  You can filter by price, airline, or flight duration.  Click the calendar icon to see which dates will give you low prices on flights.  Drag the date picker forward or back, or check out the bar chart to see if traveling different dates will get you a better price (like a travel agent, only free).  The application does not yet include many smaller cities for searches and only shows US domestic round-trip airfares — multicity trips and one-way fares are not yet included.  And since Google will not be selling tickets, customers will have to head elsewhere to actually complete the purchase.  For help.

Researchers from The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh have found that brain cells alter their genetic make-up during a person’s lifetime.  Genes known as retrotransposons are responsible for thousands of tiny changes in the DNA of brain tissue.  By mapping the locations of these genes in the human genome, scientists can identify mutations that impact on brain function and may cause diseases to develop.  The study shows for the first time that brain cells are genetically different from other cells in the body and are also genetically distinct from each other.  Scientists are now researching whether brain tumour formation and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s are associated with a change in retrotransposon activity.

Wellington Region's Three Major Faults

Wellington Region’s Three Major Faults

Looking Back the Other Way

Looking Back the Other Way

US Geological Survey 1990 / Begg & Johnston 2000

I Instrumental Generally not felt by people (unless conditions are favourable). 
II Feeble Felt only by a few people at best, especially on the upper floors of buildings.  Delicately suspended objects may swing. 
III Slight Felt noticeably by people indoors, especially on upper floors of buildings.  Many don’t recognise it as an earthquake.  Vibration similar to truck passing. 
IV Moderate Felt indoors by many, outdoors by a few during the day.  At night, some awakened.  Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; cracking sound from walls.  Parked cars rock.  Dishes and windows rattle. 
V Fairly Strong Dishes and windows may break, large bells ring; vibrations like large train passing close. 
VI Strong Felt by all; many go outside, walk unsteadily; windows, dishes, glassware broken; books fall.  Heavy furniture moves or overturns; plaster may fall.  Damage slight. 
VII Very Strong Difficult to stand; furniture broken; damage negligible in building of good construction; considerable damage in poorly-built or badly-designed structures; some chimneys broken.  Noticed by people driving cars. 
VIII  Destructive Damage slight in specially-designed structures, considerable elsewhere.  Fall of chimneys, factory stacks, columns, monuments, walls. Heavy furniture moves. 
IX Ruinous General panic; damage considerable even in specially-designed structures; well-designed frame structures thrown out of plumb.  Damage great in substantial buildings, even partial collapse.  Buildings shifted off foundations. 
X Disastrous Well-built wood structures destroyed; masonry and frame structures destroyed with foundation.  Rails bent. 
XI Very Disastrous  Few, if any, masonry structures stand.  Bridges destroyed; rails very bent. 
XII Catastrophic Everything destroyed, often totally.  Lines of sight and level distorted.  Objects launched.  Ground ripples.  Large amounts of rock change position. 

An earthquake occurred in 1855 in the Wairarapa area (adjacent to Wellington), which was an MMX quake (8.2).  Fissures were observed in the central city “erupting white mud” and numerous landslides and extensive uplift (up to 3 metres/10 feet) also occurred.  (That’s how we got enough flat land to build our airport.)


The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 was the 20th century’s second most powerful volcanic explosion after Katmai, though its effects were more devastating.  The colossal explosion sent around 10 cubic kilometres of debris into the air, a hazard exacerbated by the simultaneous arrival of a tropical storm.  Around 800 people were killed, many as homes collapsed under the weight of raining wet ash.  However, the eruption was predicted in the days preceding it, and thousands of lives were saved by evacuation.

The railroads were the first to set the time in the 19th century, coordinating distant clocks so trains could be more precise, thus reducing crashes.  They’re also responsible for time zones (geographic swaths set to the same hour).  But it was evening-time activists like entomologist George Vernon Hudson and golfer William Willett who can be blamed for Daylight Saving Time.  Noting that a little extra well-lit time on a balmy evening would be nicer than in the morning when everybody’s asleep anyway, the two independently proposed shifting clocks forward for the spring and summer.  Governments seized upon the idea as a way to cut down on energy use — more sunlight in the evening means less fuel expended to provide artificial alternatives.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t hold up well.  Changing back and forth to Daylight Saving Time twice a year seems to be bad for human health — from increased risk of heart attack to more mine accidents.  Nevertheless, in 2007, the US Congress saw fit to extend Daylight Saving Time from earlier in spring to deeper into fall in 2007.  Would it make more sense to either scrap Daylight Saving Time or turn it into standard time — in effect, make it permanent?  Many think so.


Abandoned, Neglected, Decaying

The Ruins of Bannermann's Castle

The Ruins of Bannermann’s Castle

You may think Bannerman’s Castle is located in Europe.  No.  It is actually the remains of an abandoned military surplus warehouse on Pollepel Island, 50 miles north of New York City, on the Hudson River.  Its history is a catalogue of disaster.  Bannerman arrived in America in 1854 from Scotland.  He grew rich selling military surplus.  After the Spanish-American war of 1898 he managed to acquire 90% of the Spanish military equipment which had been abandoned in their hurried retreat from Cuba.  However, his storerooms in the heart of New York City were too dangerous for 30 million Spanish cartridges.  So he bought a 6.5-acre island and built an arsenal (including a small mansion for himself and guests) — the design was good advertising.  But in 1920, several hundred pounds of shells and powder exploded destroying half the building (probably caused by lightning hitting the flagpoles).  In 1950, a passing freighter caught in a huge storm smashed into the island, exploding on impact, which did even more damage to the building.  New York State bought the abandoned house and island in 1967 — but within a couple of years, a major fire completely destroyed building roofs and floors.  The buildings were then condemned and placed off limits to visitors.


When a person performs an act of kindness the brain produces dopamine, associated with positive thinking.  Secondly, the brain has its own natural versions of morphine and heroin: endogenous opioids (such as endorphins).  When a person does an act of kindness they feel good on a chemical level thanks to the production of these endogenous opioids.  Physically, the benefits come from the relaxation of your nervous system and your cardiovascular system.  If you do an act of kindness face-to-face with someone – for instance you help someone carry their shopping – you create an emotional bond because the body produces oxytocin, the bonding hormone, which binds to blood vessel lining causing dilation of arteries.  This reduces blood pressure (oxytocin is a cardio-protective hormone).  At the same time, kindness benefits the nervous system.  The longest nerve in the human body the vagus nerve, which controls inflammation in the body, thus playing a role in keeping the cardiovascular system healthy.  People who practice compassion have a more active vagus nerve.

Spanish designer Martin Azua has combined the romantic notion of life after death with an eco solution to the dirty business of the actual, you know, transition.  His Bios Urn is a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose and inside it contains the seed of a tree.  Once your remains have been placed into the urn, it can be planted and then the seed germinates and begins to grow.  You even have the choice to pick the type of plant you would like to become, depending on what kind of planting space you prefer.  (Will it be devastating all over again for the survivors if the tree dies?)


The Buddhas Await

Spouting Off

Spouting Off

At Sunrise

At Sunrise

Patience Is a Virtue

Patience Is a Virtue

Fly Geyser is a little-known tourist attraction, even to Nevada residents.  It’s located approximately 20 miles (32 kilometres) north of Gerlach, in Washoe County, near the edge of Fly Reservoir, less than a mile from State Route 34.  It’s only about 5 feet (1.5 metres) high, or 12 feet (3.7 metres) if you count the mound on which it sits.  The Geyser isn’t an entirely natural phenomenon as it was accidentally created in 1916 during the drilling of a well.  The well functioned normally for several decades, but in the 1960s, geothermally-heated water found a weak spot in the wall and began escaping to the surface.  Dissolved minerals piled up, creating the mount on which the geyser sits, which is still growing.  Today, water constantly squirts out around 5 feet (1.5 metres) in the air.  The geyser contains several terraces discharging water into 30-40 pools over an area of 30 hectares (74 acres).  The geyser contains many different minerals and is also covered with thermophilic algae, which give it interesting colourations.  Two additional exploratory geysers were created in a similar way.  These geysers also continue to grow.


The awesome power of this tornado, just south of Parker, Colorado, is evident by the amount of earth being consumed in its vortex.  Despite this power, Mother Nature was just putting on a spectacular show; only a single tree was damaged.  Rare is the chance to witness the stupendous power of a tornado.  This image shows how gracefully the force descends from the clouds and precisely targets one spot on the ground.  The rest of he scene remains oddly tranquil.

“There had been a fresh snowfall the previous night, and the deep red rock faces of Zion were attractively patterned with snow.  Given the harsh sunlight of mid-afternoon, shots of shadowed faces catching reflected light seemed the best bet, and we stopped just after passing through a narrow canyon section on the eastern plateau leading to the tunnels down to the main canyon.  I got some images, which turned out not to be very special.  But, walking back to the car I spotted some trees far away on a high ridge that were intensely backlit by the sun hitting ice rime and snow on the trunk and branches.  By good chance, the angle of the sun was such that the shadow of the ridge exactly intersected with the road, and by walking up and down to get the correct alignment it was possible to hide the direct sunlight behind the ridge while preserving the backlight on the most photogenic tree.


The Garden of Cosmic Celebration

Overview Showing Maze

Overview Showing Maze

Open to the public only one day a year, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation takes science and maths as its inspiration.  The Garden of Cosmic Speculation at Portrack House is located 7 kilometres northwest of Dumfries in southwest Scotland.  It’s a private garden, built around 1990 by Charles Jencks and designed and created by his wife Maggie Keswick, a renowned expert on the history of Chinese garden art.  The garden is located at the home of Keswick’s mother in Scotland.  The garden is approximately 120 acres.  Portrack House, which includes the garden, is a Georgian-style farmhouse built in 1815 and enlarged in 1879; it served as a “widow’s house” (Dower House) for the estate.  John and Claire Keswick moved there in the late 1950s.  The garden is meant to stimulate reflection and celebration of the fundamental aspects of nature, with sculptures and landscapes serving as visual metaphors for black holes, fractals, the Big Bang, selfish genes and the like.  A snail mound allows visitors to explore for themselves the Fibonacci sequence that makes up the “shell”.  The garden has 5 sections.  Maggie Keswick died of cancer in 1995 so the garden is open once a year, collecting admission, and these funds are donated to a chain of counselling and support centres for cancer patients in her honour.  I understand there are more people each year wanting admission than can be accommodated.



David Garrett, 26, one of the nation’s foremost young concert performers, had an accident that every world-class musician must dread: at the end of a concert at the Barbican he tripped and landed on his violin.  The instrument was a 290-year-old Stradivarius, so rare that it would be almost impossible to estimate its value.  Certainly there are people who would have gladly paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for it, before its glamorous owner did a turn as Mr Bean.  Now he has a badly damaged violin that will be out of use for at least 8 months, and may never sound the same again.  He is also facing a £60,000 repair bill.  “I was all packed up and ready to go when I slipped,” Garrett said.  “People said it was as if I’d trodden on a banana skin.  I fell down a flight of steps and on to the case. When I opened it, the violin was in pieces. I couldn’t speak and I couldn’t get up.  I didn’t even know if I was hurt – I didn’t care.  I’ve had that violin for 8 years.  It was like losing a friend.”  The violin, known by its sobriquet San Lorenzo, is one of about 600 surviving instruments made by Antonio Stradivari.  (Make that 599?)

From a job description written by the NZ Ministry of Education: “The Ministry of Education is the government’s lead advisor on the education system, shaping direction for education agencies and providers.  The overarching outcome to which the Ministry contributes is to build a world-leading education system that equips all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills and values to be successful citizens in the 21st century and shapes, leverages and influences Māori enjoying education success as Māori.”  One of the key deliverables in the “Mandatory achievement areas for all Ministry staff positions” is “Have an awareness of and an understanding of the Organisational Potential Framework, and applies this knowledge and understanding of Māori enjoying success as Māori, to day to day work.  Takes responsibility for developing their skills and knowledge to: develop transform participate and to influence in their day to day work, Māori enjoying education success as Māori.”  If understanding such vacuous (and poorly proofread) babble is necessary to be a successful citizen in the 21st century, then I’m afraid I’m going to fail the course.  This kind of froth is nationalism at its worst.


Guy Fawkes Day

The Robot Awakes

The Robot Awakes

Grapefruit with Ostrich Feathers

Grapefruit with Ostrich Feathers

The Largest Zinnia in the Garden

The Largest Zinnia in the Garden

This is Thaumaturgy Studio”'s Flickr page for fireworks in Wellington.  Okay — maybe that’s sort of like asking people to see your vacation snaps.  Still — it may have been the best fireworks display I’ve seen.  Ever.


Hans Langseth of Norway, called King Whiskers, holds the record for the world’s longest beard, 18 feet 6 inches long.  A misconception is that his beard was only 17.5 feet long, because, when he died in 1927, his family (probably son Bill, to the displeasure of the other children) cut it, leaving about 12 inches of it on him when he was buried.  The part that was removed was eventually given to the Smithsonian Institute where it was displayed to the public.  In the late years of his life, Hans made the decision to cut his beard off, got part way through and couldn’t finish.  That explains in part, why most of it is narrower.  He used to roll it up and tuck it into his coat or vest, which hid much of it.  Hans immigrated to the US in 1867 where he lived in Iowa, Minnesota, and then North Dakota.  He is buried in the Elk Creek Church Cemetery in Kensett, Iowa.

Minnie Woolsey, born in Georgia in 1880, was afflicted with a unique form of “bird-headed” dwarfism or nanocephaly.  In addition to her unusual facial features, she was almost blind, mentally handicapped, toothless, and had only fine wisps of hair on her oddly-shaped head.  The story goes that she was rescued from a dismal life in a Georgia insane asylum by an enterprising showman, and began her showbiz career as “Minnie Ha-Ha”, a play on North Carolina’s Minnihaha Falls.  Minnie Ha-Ha dressed in a phony American Indian costume and spoke jibberish to sideshow audiences.  By the time she landed a role in Freaks in 1932, the sideshow world already had a “Koo Koo, the Bird Girl” — Betty Green — but this didn’t stop Minnie’s managers from dressing her in a feathery costume, too.  Though she has no lines in Freaks, she made a lasting impression on moviegoers when she shimmied on the table during the wedding feast of Cleopatra the aerialist and Hans the dwarf.  Later, Minnie worked at Coney Island as “Koo Koo, the Blind Girl from Mars.”  It’s unknown exactly how long Minnie was with the circus or when she died, but some accounts claim she was still living (and was nearly run over by a car) in 1960, making her at least 80 years old.  I have mixed feelings about mentioning her.  She did little work, had no responsibilities, no debt, good care, and lived to 80.  Perhaps some would consider her life a success?


Rare Trees

Grape Tree

Grape Tree

Tree of Life

Tree of Life

Wisteria

Wisteria

  • The Jaboticaba, Myrciaria cauliflora, (also called the Brazilian Grape Tree) is a fruit-bearing tree native to southeastern Brazil grown for the purple, grape-like fruits it produces.  Other related species are native to Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia.  It is a very slow growing tree, taking from 10-20 years to bear fruit.  Its flowers are white and grow directly from its trunk.  The fruit is 3-4 centimetres in diameter with 1-4 large seeds, borne directly on the main trunks and branches of the plant, lending a distinctive appearance to the fruiting tree.  The fruit has a thick, purple, astringent skin that covers a sweet, white, or rosy pink gelatinous flesh.  Common in Brazilian markets, jaboticabas are largely eaten fresh; their popularity has been likened to that of grapes in the US.  Fresh fruit may begin to ferment 3 to 4 days after harvest, so they are often used to make jams, tarts, strong wines, and liqueurs. Due to the extremely short shelf-life, fresh jaboticaba fruit is very rare in markets outside of areas of cultivation.  Traditionally, an astringent decoction of the sun-dried skins has been used as a treatment for asthma, and gargled for chronic inflammation of the tonsils.
  • Standing alone in Bahrain, 2 kilometres away from Jebel Dukhan, atop a 25-metre sandy hill, in the heart of the desert, miles away from any water source and other vegetation: a 400-year-old, 32-foot-high, American mesquite tree called the Sharajat-al-Hayat (Tree of Life).  It remains an enigma — roots spread deep and wide (mesquite roots are known to grow downward over 160 feet), reaching an unknown source of water.  (So maybe drill a well there?)  Locals have their own explanation for this mystery that have little to do with science.  Some believe this is the actual location of the Garden of Eden, while Bedouins think the tree was blessed by Enki, God of water.  Whatever.  The tree is able to do something right.  Via TriggerPit.
  • Wisteria (or “Fuji” in Japanese like Mt Fuji, but unlike the mountain, the flower is pronounced by stressing the second syllable) in the Ashikaga Flower Park in Ashikaga City, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.  With layers of subtle colour, this large fuji tree is 100 years old.  Its branches are supported to create a huge umbrella of blue fuji flowers.  The Japanese love flowers, and wisteria are among their favourites.  The park covers about 8.2 hectares and is famous for various kinds of wisteria — blue, pink and white wisteria and yellow broom (which looks like yellow wisteria).


A North Korean man on a bus waves his hand as a South Korean man weeps after a luncheon meeting during the 31 October 2010 inter-Korean temporary family reunions at Mount Kumgang resort where 436 South Koreans visited North Korea to meet their 97 North Korean relatives, from whom they’ve been separated since the 1950-53 war.  They were together for 3 days.  I found this photo touching and sad.  They will likely not meet again.

Are you Oxbridge material?  Can you answer these questions?

  • Are you cool?  (Philosophy, politics and economics, Oxford)
  • At what point is a person “dead”?  (Medicine, Cambridge)
  • Put a monetary value on this teapot.  (Philosophy, politics and economics, Oxford)
  • Why can’t you light a candle in a spaceship?  (Physics, Oxford)

More:

  • Should the use of mobile phones be banned on public transport?  (Law, Oxford)
  • Is it more important to focus on poverty at home or abroad?  (Land Economy at Cambridge)
  • Where does honesty fit into Law?  (Law at Cambridge)
  • Are fair trade bananas really fair?  (Geography at Cambridge)
  • On a hot day, what should you do with a fridge?  (Natural Sciences at Cambridge)
  • “Emma has become a different person since she took up yoga.  Therefore she is not responsible for anything she did before she took up yoga.”  Discuss.  (Classics at Oxford)
  • If you entered a teletransporter and your body was destroyed and instantly recreated on Mars in exactly the same way with all your memories intact, would you be the same person?  (PPE at Oxford)
  • Should there be an intelligence test to decide who could vote?  (PPE at Oxford)

More:

  • Should we have laws for the use of light bulbs?  (Law, Cambridge)

Another:

  • What happens if I drop an ant?

More:

  • Would history be worth studying if it didn’t repeat itself?
  • Does the past exist?
  • If someone is acquitted in Criminal proceedings, can they, and should they still be liable to be sued in Civil Law?
  • If A gave B £100 thinking it was a loan, but B though that it was a gift, should he have to give it back?
  • Why is it that cancer cells are more susceptible to destruction by radiation than normal cells?
Fool Your Senses

Fool Your Senses

From a distance, they look normal.


The last DeLorean automobile rolled off the assembly line in Northern Ireland in 1982.  But like Duran Duran, the Rubik’s Cube and other Reagan-era icons, the car retains a following.  Of the 9,000 built in 1981 and 1982, about 6,500 are still on the road.  Enthusiasts gather at clubs from Cleveland to Norway.  [One DeLorean lives in Wellington.  I almost bought one in Cornelius, North Carolina about 1990.  I passed it up because I feared it would be difficult to get spare parts and repairs.]  From the start, the DeLorean seemed destined for cult status.  Its gull-wing doors and rakish lines stood out in an auto market that was still living down the AMC Pacer.  And the stainless steel exterior looked like it belonged on a jet fighter.  Then there was the man himself.  John DeLorean had been a rising star at General Motors Corp in the 1960s — he’s credited with conceiving the GTO and the Firebird — when he decided to chuck it all and start his own car company.  He couldn’t sell enough of the $25,000 cars to stay afloat and by 1982 his company was in receivership.  He was busted on charges of cocaine trafficking.  He was later acquitted, but the ordeal ended his business career.  He died in 2005, but his cars lived on, thanks primarily to Back to the Future, the top-grossing film of 1985.  Ditching their original idea of using an old refrigerator as a time machine, the scriptwriters opted for a modified DeLorean because of its futuristic look, particularly the doors.  The movie launched the DeLorean pop cult.  The current owner of the DeLorean Motor Company, Stephen Wynne, is developing the iconic car for production again and it will be 100% electric.  Also, there are 200 of the original 2.8-litre V-6 engines still in stock and, facing a dwindling supply of cars suitable for rebuilding, a few new originals will be made from scratch — 20 or so cars a year.  This is quite a comeback for a car given up for dead more than a quarter of a century ago.

This small desktop mill can rapidly prototype small objects.  The price is around US$1,000.  It precisely mills 3D shapes, patterns and designs out of foam, wax, balsa wood and plastic.  3D design software is included to allow users to accurately mill shapes, holes, textures and patterns right out of the box.  A specially designed spindle motor unit supports a variety of milling tools commonly available at model shops and do-it-yourself (DIY) retailers.


Trees in Snow

Sun and Trees

Sun and Trees

Visual Poesy

Visual Poesy

Trees and Mist

Trees and Mist
Segregation

Segregation

Slenders

Slenders

Silent World

Silent World

  1. I like this photographer’s style — something clean and straightforward about it.
  2. This photographer is a Hungarian who now lives in Germany.
  3. This photographer, who died in 1999, was inspired by Ansel Adams.
  4. This is from an experimental photographer from Turkey.
  5. Same photographer.  Oddly, I didn’t really care for her photos that she said were her favourites.
  6. Unusual landscape photographer who uses ethereal light achieved by photographing at dawn or else at night using exposures of up to 10 hours.


I must admire the dog’s persistence in this video clip.  Via Tywkiwdbi.

The best stats question ever?  From Ryan Grover by way of Raymond Johnson.  Attempt to reason through it if you can.  There are over 200 comments there and another 750 or so more here which add perspective.


Do Ho Suh

Floor

Floor

Detail

Detail

Tread Lightly!

Recreated in Hong Kong
Transparently

Transparently

Paratrooper

Paratrooper

Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect

Do Ho Suh is a Korean sculptor and installation artist.  He leads an itinerant life, hopping from his family home in Seoul (where his father is a major influence in Korean traditional painting) to his work life in New York.  Migration, both spatial and psychological, has been one of his themes, manifested through biographical narrative and emotionally-inflected architecture.  He is best known for his intricate sculptures that defy conventional notions of scale.


Strolling through one second of every travel destination took 3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38,000 miles, 1 exploding volcano, 2 cameras, and almost a terabyte of footage, all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movementlearning, and food into short films.  (I found Move rather compelling — one of the best editing jobs I’ve seen, or maybe they filmed it just like they wanted it to look — the other two not so much.)  Via My Modern Met.

A 52-year-old fisherman has caught a 5-foot-long goliath tigerfish and is holding it with both arms for fear of being bitten by its 32 razor-sharp teeth that have the same dimensions as those of a white shark.  The goliath tigerfish is well known as being one of the most dangerous freshwater fish in the world, so he was extremely cautious when he pulled it out of water.  Similar 100-pound monsters have been caught before, but rarely due both to its ferocity and to its habitat (quite hard to reach).  The giant piranha seems to consume prey the same size at itself.  There have even been incidents when it has been seen tearing apart crocodiles and even people.


Giraffe-Necked Antelope

All the Better to See You With

All the Better to See You With

Stand Up for Your Rights

Stand Up for Your Rights

Accordion Horns

Accordion Horns

The Gerenuk , also known as the Waller’s Gazelle, is a long-necked species of antelope found in dry bushy scrub and steppe in East Africa, from Somalia and eastern Ethiopia through northern and eastern Kenya to northeastern Tanzania.  The word Gerenuk (pronounced with a hard g) comes from the Somali language, meaning “giraffe-necked”.  Gerenuk are sometimes also called the giraffe-necked antelope.  It is the only member of its genus.  Gerenuks have a small head for their body, but their eyes and ears are big.  Unlike females, males have horns and a more muscular neck.  From head to tail, the gerenuk is around 150 centimetres long.  Males are a little taller than females, ranging from 89-105 centimetres, and the females are 80-100 centimetres.  The male is also heavier than the female, weighing at 45 kilograms while females are 30 kilograms.  Gerenuk can live 13 years or more in captivity, and at least 8 years in the wild.  Via ArkInSpace.


The pronghorn , a species of artiodactyl mammal endemic to interior western and central North America, is not an antelope, though it is often known colloquially in North America as the pronghorn antelope as it closely resembles them and fills a similar ecological niche.  It is the only surviving member of its family.  About 5 different members existed when humans entered North America 13,000 years ago; all but this one are now extinct.  They have a close phylogenetic relationship with the giraffe.  Both are members of the suborder Ruminantia , which also includes okapis, deer, chevrotains, cattle, antelopes, sheep, and goats (but not the so-called giraffe-necked antelope).  Pronghorns have a distinct, musky odour.  They also have very large eyes, with a 320° field of vision.  They are generally accepted to be the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere — up to 86 kilometres (53 miles) per hour and can sustain this speed longer than cheetahs.  They have very large hearts and lungs and hollow hair.  Although built for speed, they are poor jumpers.  Their ranges are often affected by sheep ranchers’ fences.  However, they can be seen going under fences, sometimes at high speed.  Their longevity is typically up to 10 years, rarely 15 years.

The Nubian ibex , is a desert-dwelling goat antelope found in mountainous areas of Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, and Pakistan.


Rocky Mountain Horses

Joe Banjo

Joe Banjo

Nameless

Nameless

Rocky

Rocky

I’ve never owned a horse, nor been particularly interested in them (though I’ve ridden a few and won $200 on one in the only horse race I ever bet on).  But for some reason, these horses struck me as particularly beautiful, especially the first one.  They’re rocky mountain horses — a medium-sized equine of gentle temperament with an easy-ambling, 4-beat gait.  These characteristics made it the horse of choice on the farms and rugged foothills of the Appalachian Mountains because it was a horse for all seasons — it could pull a plough in the fields, it could work cattle, it could be ridden bareback, or it could even be hitched to a buggy.  It tolerates winters in Kentucky with a minimum of shelter.  Some crossbreeding has occurred in its history with local horses, but the basic characteristics of its genetic line have continued long enough for genetic testing to determine if it’s sufficiently part of “the breed” or not.  To me, their tails seem unusually long and the mane and tail hair frequently have interesting colour gradations.  The rocky mountain horse is now considered to be a “rare” breed.


The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), the largest canid of South America, resembles a large fox with reddish fur.  This mammal is found in open and semi-open habitats, especially grasslands with scattered bushes and trees, in south, central-west and south-eastern Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina, Bolivia east and north of the Andes, and far south-eastern Peru.  It is very rare in Uruguay, being possibly extinct there.  The adult animal stands up to 107 centimetres (42 inches) tall at the shoulder and weighs up to 34 kilograms (75 pounds).  Via 22 words by way of Tywkiwdbi.

Regina Mayer, a 15-year-old girl from Laufen, Southern Germany, rides her pet cow Luna as if she were a well-trained show horse.  The young girl always wanted her own horse, but her parents kept saying “no”, and since she had a stable full of cows at her disposal, Regina decided she was going to try and ride one.  After hundreds of hours of training and many baskets of treats, she managed to teach Luna to jump over home-made hurdles, just like a show horse.  Regina remembers that she knew Luna was special ever since she was born 3 years ago.  The calf came right up to her, she wasn’t shy like most other young cattle, and they developed a special friendship.  The 15-year-old began riding Luna about 6 months ago and even contacted a riding school in Switzerland, receiving tips on how to train and equip the bovine in a way similar to a show horse.  The two went for long rides around the countryside of Southern Germany and Luna become more and more comfortable, especially since her friend Regina made sure to give her delicious carrots during each outing.  Right now she’s able to jump over metre-high hurdles.  Now, Regina wouldn’t trade Luna for a horse; the cow has become her best friend, following her around wherever she goes, something a horse would never do.


Turning the Tables

Shadow Puppets for Bunnies

Shadow Puppets for Bunnies

Zebra Crossing

Zebra Crossing

Fair Play

Fair Play

To appreciate the picture in the middle, you’d have to already know that a striped pedestrian crosswalk is called a “zebra crossing” in the culture of the person who drew this cartoon (whoever he or she may be because I couldn’t find out).


World’s biggest seagull?  A curious creature in Riga, Latvia.

“Somebody Just Goosed Me!”  Do you suppose these geese like to dress up?  They certainly don’t look very stressed.


Wouldn’t Arbitration Be More Civilised?

Fighting Egrets

Fighting Egrets

At Lake Chapala, Mexico, a pair of egrets fight over food during the annual migration of white pelicans near the village of Petatan, Michoacan.  This photo was a first place winner in the Animals/Wildlife section in the National Geographic 2010 Energizer Photo Contest.


Murmuration shows a chance encounter and shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena — a large flock of wheeling, diving starlings.

A scruffy-looking horse limps into a bar with a bandage round his head.  He orders a glass of champagne, a vintage brandy and two pints of Guinness.  He downs the lot and says to the barman: “I shouldn’t really be drinking this with what I’ve got.”

“Why, what have you got?”

“About $2 and a carrot.”