Sunderbans National Park, West Bengal
More On Wintergatan
When we recently posted on this newfangled musical contraption we could not find any further information about it. Lo and behold, after a drought sometimes when it rains it pours. Today, National Public Radio (USA) has this:
The “Marble Machine” is a musical instrument by way of a Rube Goldberg contraption, the love child of a barrel organ, a kick drum, a vibraphone and a bass — all powered by hand-cranked gears and 2,000 steel marbles.
The machine was built by Swedish musician Martin Molin, who fronts the Swedish band Wintergartan… Continue reading
The Mad Hatterpillar
The Mad Hatterpillar, Uraba lugens, larval stage of an Australian moth. Image © Nuytsia@Tas via WIRED Magazine.
The image above may seem a little gruesome if you hear that the pictured caterpillar has a collection of old skulls attached to the top of its own its spiky, irritating-to-the-touch hairs. But the larval insect isn’t a true headhunter, since the eery tower above the caterpillar’s crown is in fact made of its own exoskeleton pieces from previous moltings of its skin. Ed Yong reports on new research regarding a caterpillar that has been known for many decades but is still being studied for explanations on the strange cranium-collecting behavior:
Some caterpillars defend themselves from predators using toxic chemicals, repugnant smells, or stinging hairs. Some camouflage themselves. Some mimic snakes. Some recruit ant bodyguards. Some create protective fortresses, or make warning clicks, or vomit up their guts.
And then there’s Uraba lugens, an Australian moth colloquially known as the gum-leaf skeletoniser, and even more colloquially known as the Mad Hatterpillar. Like all caterpillars, it grows by shedding its hard outer shell before expanding the soft body beneath.
Roasting Xandari Coffee
About a month ago I reported that coffee was going strong here at the resort, and since then we’ve been serving our own Xandari-grown coffee here at the restaurant during breakfast hours nearly every day possible, based on availability of the roasted product. In the video above, you can see Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Pallid Harrier
Blackbuck National Park at Velavadar, Gujarat
Kava, For Whatever Reason
In an increasingly health-conscious New York, some would-be boozehounds are turning to kava, made from a South Pacific-originated plant, as a substitute for alcohol. PHOTOGRAPH BY KIRSTIN SCHOLTZ / WSL VIA GETTY
Never heard of it before, but now it is on our agenda:
“ALCOHOL IS SO 2014. TRY KAVA,” suggests a sandwich board on Tenth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, in the East Village. Whether by design or not, this block has become a retro-futurist downtown cornucopia of health, wellness, and New Agey philosophy. It is home to, among other establishments, a lush and gaudy store that peddles healing crystals; the beloved Russian and Turkish baths; a store called the Molecule Project, which sells artisanal tap water squeezed of any impurity; and a place named Body Evolution, which boasts the “largest and most fully equipped GYROTONIC® studio in Manhattan.” And then there is Kavasutra, the block’s newest addition, specializing in drinks made from the root of a South Pacific-originated plant called kava. Designed like a real bar but booze-free, Kavasutra is a New York City experiment that asks its patrons to imagine the possibility of a cosmopolitan social life without alcohol. Continue reading
New Vegetarian Cookbooks
From Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen
From Phaidon, a new series that has our attention:
…This spring sees Phaidon will publish its first vegetarian-only cookbook for 10 years. Indeed, we are bringing out three vegetarian titles: The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook by the Lebanese writer and cook Salma Hage; artist Olafur Eliasson’s Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen, a collection of recipes the artist and his co-workers enjoy sharing together for lunch; and Icelandic chef and restaurateur Solla Eiríksdóttir’s Raw: Recipes for a Modern Vegetarian Lifestyle. Continue reading
Backward & Forward
It looks old fashioned, but is definitely newfangled. We do not have anything particular to say about this. Just enjoy the odd mix of ingenuity, musicality and spectacle.
Newer Clean Energy Use by Big Companies
At peak production, Intel’s new solar carport can carry half of the campus’ electricity demand. Photo by Intel via GreenBiz
Businesses are finally seeing the sense of clean energy, which we try to share about as much as possible when it comes to savings and renewables or alternative sources. Heather Clancy at GreenBiz reports on the use and investment of clean energy by several big US businesses, like GM with landfill gas, Intel with solar panels, and Google with renewable energy contracts:
Despite uncertainty surrounding the future of the Clean Power Plan and contractual nuances that make even the smallest project feel unnecessarily complex, big businesses seem more committed to renewable energy than ever.
“This time it’s not about fashion, it’s about real economics, about real business opportunity,” said economist Mark Kenber, CEO of the Climate Group, during a keynote interview at last week’s GreenBiz 16 conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Bird of the Day: Rose-ringed Parakeets
Sivarpanam Palace, Tamil Nadu
Ever Heard of a Quoll?
An eastern quoll. Professor Adrian Manning said it was the first ‘translocation’ of wild eastern quolls ‘into a free-ranging situation’ on the Australian mainland. Photograph: Marc Faucher, via The Guardian
We’re always happy to hear about the reintroduction of a previously extirpated species to its original habitat, even if we’re wary of some of the more ambitious projects from prior extinctions. Even though we weren’t aware of the existence of this cute marsupial named the Eastern Quoll, we’re glad to know that it is returning to its homeland. Elle Hunt reports for the Guardian:
The eastern quoll is making a comeback to mainland Australia, from where it disappeared more than 50 years ago, with a new generation introduced to the Australian Capital Territory from Tasmania.
A team of researchers from the Australian National University has reintroduced a group of wild eastern quolls from Tasmania into the Mulligan’s Flat Woodland Sanctuary in Canberra.
The small, carnivorous marsupial has not been seen there for almost 80 years.
Prof Adrian Manning, who led the team from the ANU’s Fenner School of Environment and Society, said it was the first “translocation” of wild eastern quolls “into a free-ranging situation” on the Australian mainland.
Tracking Tree-Poachers
Global Land Analysis and Discovery alerts, analysing satellite images will be initially be available for Peru, the Republic of Congo and Indonesia. Photograph: Natalie Behring-Chisholm/AP
When there is news on the improved ability to reduce illegal logging, we are always interested. Thanks to the Guardian’s Environment section for their assistance on this front:
New satellite mapping a ‘game changer’ against illegal logging
System that provides hard evidence of logging crimes in almost real time gives new hope of combating tropical deforestation
Taken from outer space, the satellite images show illegal loggers cutting a road into a protected area in Peru, part of a criminal enterprise attempting to steal millions of dollars worth of ecological resources Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Northern Rough-winged Swallow
San Miguel Reservoir, Turrúcares, Costa Rica
My Big Fat Floating Solar Panel
This recent Thames Water press release has just come to our attention and it sounds like progress, or what we count as good news:
Europe’s biggest ever floating solar panel array is being installed on London’s Queen Elizabeth II reservoir as part of Thames Water’s ambitious bid to self-generate a third of its own energy by 2020.
Climate Denier Roundup
You will never have seen Leo’s name in these pages before; our reason for linking to this story is just because the subtitle/byline is so delicious (thanks to EcoWatch):
What Climate Deniers Had to Say About Leo’s Oscars Speech
| March 1
Millions heard the call for climate action on Sunday night, when Leonardo DiCaprio (finally) accepted the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in The Revenant.
Bird of the Day: Short-eared Owl
Little Rann of Kutch, Gujurat
Leap Day Leaping
We assume our calendars and clocks are based on fixed constructs, but don’t always take the time to consider the science behind them.The facts and rhymes we memorize in school – 365 days in a year; “30 days hath September, April, June and November, etc.” are thrown off balance by the fact that the actual number of days required for the earth to complete its orbit around the sun are not whole numbers.
It officially takes around 365¼ days (precisely 365.242) to complete the orbit. In 45BC Julius Caesar’s official astronomer Sosigenes balanced the calendar with the addition of a day every 4 years.
So what happens with those of us born on said day? Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Mourning Dove
photo credit: Nancy Buron
Providence, Rhode Island
Firefall At Yosemite, An Enduring Fantastic Natural Beauty
Day after day, it seems, we find something that shocks us–something we did not know that, had we known it, we might have dropped everything to go and see. This February is coming to a close, so we will have to wait until 2017 to check this out in person, but for now thanks to the Science section of the New York Times for bringing it to our attention:
Instagram was filled with thousands of versions of the firefall. These are a few that photographers shared with us. CreditClockwise, from top left: Vincent James, @vjamesphoto; Andrew McDonald/High Sierra Workshops; Carlos Loya, @t3nthirty1; Jeff Lui, @jeffreyplui; Bethany Gediman, National Park Service; @xbirdo; Nicki Frates, @nickif24, @theoutdooradventurer; Wayne Nguyen, @potatounit; Vincent James, @vjamesphoto; Gregory Woodman, @gregorywoodman
Pollinator Challenges & Our Self-Interested Responsibility
A wasp lands on a flower in a garden in Srinagar, India, Sept. 8, 2009. Bees and other pollinators face increasing risks to their survival, threatening foods such as apples, blueberries and coffee worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, the first global assessment of pollinators showed on Friday.
It is worth seeing how various media outlets cover the same news we first linked to here. The CS Monitor, as always, has a thoughtful consideration of the news, asking the key question:
Earth’s bees and other pollinators need some human help: What can we do?
Pollinator populations around the world are declining, threatening hundreds of billions of dollars worth of agriculture. Humans are part of the problem, say scientists, but they can also be part of the solution.
Organikos 