…and the result is anything but reassuring. I find myself wandering the planet thinking “oh cool! Oh cool!” But the impressive eye-candy is all disappearing lakes, forests, nature… so, I felt compelled to make a sexy gif.

also: pay attention to the scale. On the amazon (linked above) you see deforestation as measured in hundreds of kilometers. Ouch.

Respecting nature is so often portrayed as being contrary to the interests of people that you’d think it’s an either/or proposition. The article above by Scientific American reports on research on people, and finds that the nature preserves protect them too. None too surprising, and long overdue.

P.S.
I know I’ve been scarce. I’ve been in the dungeons of learning software and developing concepts. Nothing exciting to share really. Unfortunately, I won’t have much to share the next two weeks, either as I’ll be on the road. Perhaps I’ll finally manage mobile media management, but haven’t had much success with that in the past. So, if not… I’ll be back soon…

From the wet collection at the Berlin Museum for Natural History.

This has got to be the most bad-ass worm I’ve ever seen. Here a bobbit worm lies in wait, ambushing a scorpion fish that had been attracted to the filmer’s lights. The bobbit worm deserves a monster-movie all its own. Get a better look at this bad-ass invertebrate over at the Echinoblog.

I love software that arises from the desire to interact with the phenomena we encounter in nature. HaloSim allows you to playfully encounter halos, or light that is refracted through ice crystals in the atmosphere. And in the rare case that earthenly halos aren’t enough for you, you can create “octahedral ammonia crystals as might exist in the cold high level clouds of Jupiter and Saturn. The 42° circular halo has four associated sundogs.” Got that? Halos and sundogs. What are you waiting for!?
(image from here)

Petting the kitty awe-inspiring jaguar above will zap you over to chasingsabretooths and two incredible videos of hunting jaguars – including intense moments of submerged suspense as hunter and prey disappear beneath the water surface. Almost as fascinating as these incredible hunts is the reaction of the amateur filmers… there’s some deep humor when the maker of the first film says  “I feel like a bad person”.  In contrast, the group witnesses of the second attack seem to celebrate the jaguar’s prowess. Fantastic!

Yes, even the titmouse can seem majestic in a snowstorm like the one we had today.

Twas fantastic!

Michal Sporn is a great mind in analyzing animation, and I regularly frequent his blog. I had to double-check that it was his blog however, when I opened it up and found a full-sequence photo-log of this hawk playing with a snack. I love it when my various interests double-up like this.

Place this under the ‘stranger-than-fiction’ category, this Martian landscape seems more like concept art. Look at those fractured swirls!

Okay… it’s Friday… I’ve seen Dolphins do this before, but never to the degree that this guy does: he makes subset after subset of toroidal bubble and pushes it about his pen. Followed by other toroidal phenomena.

Sit back in your seat and then… don’t sit back in your seat.
Beautiful animal footage by Joel Sartore.

Gizmag reports on robotics research inspired by the way lizards use their tails to position their bodies during leaps. Very cool video!

Stumbled across this stunning photograph (click for high resolution). I could look at those scales and teeth nubs for ages! (Could, but can’t. Urgh. Back to work.) Source: reptipage.

Some scientists make discoveries by stumbling through dusty museum collections, now ChrisM of Echinoblog finds a previously unobserved sexual pose in National Geographics photo gallery… there it is, the above photo by David Doubilet. Kinky bastard. Also of note: the sun star Labidiaster eating a theropod.

I’m always amazed at what someone can see if he / she is informed enough to know what it is they’re looking at / looking for.

A quote worth highlighting:

finding ways to help children make meaningful connections with (nonhuman) nature is one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st Century, rivaling global warming, habitat loss, and species extinctions.

It’s all too easy to drift into the hugeness of issues we face… when debt is measured in trillions. This is a great reminder that solutions often open up when you concentrate on the other end of the scale… stopping to smell the roses, so to speak.

The quote is from Scott Sampson.

globalwarmingoceanacidificationboringpartyguests

…and a happy new year’s resolution to us all…