Davis Mountains Preserve, TX
Bird of the Day: Black-chinned Sparrow
Davis Mountains Preserve, TX
New (To Us) Creatures Of The Deep
A gummy squirrel – Psychropotes longicauda – is a type of sea cucumber. This specimen is 60cm long with red palps, or lips, with which it feeds on sediment on the ocean floor, 5,100m deep
Discoveries still happen, even as the earth burns. Creatures not previously known are being identified 5,000 meters below the surface of the ocean. Some do not even yet have a name:
A spiny sea creature on the ocean floor
Scientists find 30 potential new species at bottom of ocean
Natural History Museum scientists seek to unlock mysteries of deep sea but some fear activity will disturb diversity of the depths
Scientists have found more than 30 potentially new species living at the bottom of the sea. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Green-tailed Sunbird
Strategically Planned Mutual Destruction
An extract from a GCC business card for reporters, shared by former journalist Nicky Sundt
In the long run, no winners will emerge from the obfuscation perpetrated by climate deniers. They and we all have children of the future to consider. Their efforts have assured mutual destruction, no matter how much money their denial earned them in the short run. If you are looking for a better understanding of how concern and action over climate change was strategically weakened early on, this is worth a read:
The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change
Thirty years ago, a bold plan was cooked up to spread doubt and persuade the public that climate change was not a problem. The little-known meeting – between some of America’s biggest industrial players and a PR genius – forged a devastatingly successful strategy that endured for years, and the consequences of which are all around us.
On an early autumn day in 1992, E Bruce Harrison, a man widely acknowledged as the father of environmental PR, stood up in a room full of business leaders and delivered a pitch like no other. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Superb Starling
Samburu Nature Reserve, Rift Valley, Kenya
The Surprise Finding With Whale Sharks
Scientists made the discovery while studying whale sharks off Western Australia’s Ningaloo reef. Photograph: Simon J Pierce/PA
We have linked to stories involving whale sharks plenty of times, always knowing their size is impressive. Now this:
Whale sharks are world’s biggest omnivores, study finds
‘Everything we thought we knew may not actually be true,’ says fish biologist in response to finding
Researchers have made a surprising discovery about the dining habits of whale sharks, handing the largest fish in the sea another world title. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Black-necked Stilt
Sandia Wetlands Project, TX
Unwanted Plastic Renaissance
A worker at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, readies bags of Covid-19 waste for treatment, December last year. Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images
The plague of plastic has zombie-like revivification capabilities:
How the plastic industry turned the pandemic to its advantage
With its products proving indispensable to combatting Covid-19, the plastics business is reinvigorated. What will it take to bring this major polluter to heel?
There are only two reasons that the plastics industry will change, a polymer scientist once told me: war or legislation. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Bluethroat
Tiger Conservation Progress
A Bengal tiger in India’s Kanha National Park. CHARLES JAMES SHARP VIA WIKIPEDIA
Tigers were an important part of our lives when this platform started, and for the following few years of our time in Kerala. We have retained an interest, so this news is welcome all these years later:
Wild Tiger Numbers 40 Percent Higher Than Previously Estimated
The number of endangered tigers around the world is 40 percent higher than previously thought, according to new data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Acorn Woodpecker
Rancho San Antonio, Cupertino, California
Monbiot Uncorked
‘The dangerous heat England is suffering at the moment is already becoming normal in southern Europe.’ A firefighter tackles a wild fire in Gironde, France, 17 July 2022. Photograph: Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images
George Monbiot has never held back, but now the cork is released full force:
This heatwave has eviscerated the idea that small changes can tackle extreme weather
Dangerous heat will become the norm, even in the UK. Systems need to urgently change – and the silence needs to be broken
Can we talk about it now? I mean the subject most of the media and most of the political class has been avoiding for so long. You know, the only subject that ultimately counts – the survival of life on Earth. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Jabiru Stork
Los Chiles, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Packing Well
Digital tablet, smart phone, bag, backpack, passport, sneakers, jeans, shirt, notebook, camera, photography
If there is a smart way to do it, here is a good suggestion:
The Smart Traveler Packs a Book for Every Occasion
As I write this, I’m busy planning a vacation to Maine—a vacation that I will already have enjoyed by the time you read this. There are so many factors to consider—car rental, restaurant reservations, day trips, wardrobe, etc. But perhaps the most important is: What am I going to read? Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Great Snipe
Levanger, Norway
Monarch Butterflies’ Future
A Monarch butterfly, which is now placed in the endangered category of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, perches at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario, Canada July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
Butterflies in general, and this species in particular, have graced our pages more than most other insects over the years. Thanks to Emma Farge and Gloria Dickie, from Reuters, for this:
Monarch butterflies rest on a tree at El Rosario sanctuary, in El Rosario, in Michoacan state, Mexico February 11, 2021. Picture taken February 11, 2021. REUTERS/Toya Sarno Jordan/File Photo
Kaleidoscopic migratory monarch butterfly joins global endangered species list
GENEVA, July 21 (Reuters) – The migratory monarch butterfly, which has for millennia turned North American woodlands into kaleidoscopes of colour in one of nature’s most spectacular mass migrations, is threatened with extinction, international conservationists said on Wednesday. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Little Pied Flycatcher
Leimhakong, Manipur
What Is Birdsong?
Das Vogelkonzert (The Bird Concert) by Jan Brueghel the Younger, c. 1640-1645 via Wikimedia Commons
If you have been educated to carry out academic research, JSTOR is familiar to you. And if not, but you have the sort of curiosity demonstrated in our pages, then JSTOR daily might be a good companion, as demonstrated here:
Every Good Bird Does Fine
Is birdsong music, speech, or something else altogether? The question has raged for millennia, drawing in everyone from St. Augustine to Virginia Woolf.
To some extent, we all know music when we hear it: a melody, a rhythm, a progression of individual notes that, taken together, elevates the whole into the realm of auditory art. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Grace’s Warbler
Davis Mountains Preserve, TX
Vertical Farming Super Strawberries
Illustration by João Fazenda
In the early years of this platform we were developing new properties in Kerala, India and food was a focal point. More recently when we indulge in the culinary it is Costa Rica taste of place we are talking about. Occasionally vertical farming makes its way into these pages, but it has been a while:
Selling “Omakase” Strawberries, for the Price of a Full Meal
The founder of Oishii, whose haute-cuisine strawberries have sold for as much as ten dollars a pop, offers a tour of one of his V.C.-backed vertical farms, modelled on the foothills of Japan and built in New Jersey.
Consider the strawberry: red, ripe, an ephemeral pleasure as fleeting as a summer fling. Continue reading
Organikos 