nature

Harvest

Most people, yours truly included, living in these days in the cities, are completely disconnected from the earthly things. Younger generations don’t know how to grow crops, how big a cow is, or how milk or egg comes to be. And while I am personally not a big fan of all things agriculture, I do realize the importance of species being connected to their natural environment. And cities are not our natural environment, even if it might really seem so.

Big Picture blog does a nice coverage of harvesting – people, scenery, and machinery. Even though it’s not a reconnect with nature, it is still a good reminder of where things that we eat and drink every day come from.

Fukushima butterflies mutations

Genetic mutations have been found in three generations of butterflies living near Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The gruesome discovery has led scientists to fear that the leaking radiation could affect other species.

The study was published by Scientific Reports. Researches said that around 12 per cent of pale grass blue butterflies that had been exposed as larvae to nuclear fallout developed abnormalities, including broken or wrinkled wings, changes in wing size, color pattern changes, and wider-than-normal variations in numbers of spots on the butterflies.

Though the insects were mated in a lab well outside the fallout zone, about 18 per cent of their offspring displayed similar problems, said Joji Otaki, an associate professor at Ryukyu University in Okinawa, in southwestern Japan.

That figure rose to 34 per cent in the third generation of butterflies – even though one parent from each coupling was from a group unaffected by radiation.

Researchers also collected another 240 butterflies in Fukushima last September, six months after the disaster. Abnormalities were recorded in 52 per cent of that group’s offspring – “a dominantly high ratio,” Otaki told AFP.

Piranha

In search of the sasquatch

I’m listening to the Joe Rogan’s podcast today. And one of the things that they talk about on the show is sasquatch. That’s basically a fancy name for large hairy humanoid creature said to live in wilderness areas of the United States and Canada. Also known as a bigfoot.

One of the websites mentioned was Olympic Project:

This web site showcases our research in the Olympic Mountain Range in Washington State. The Olympic Project is a comprehensive, systematic camera trap program consisting of fifty plus cameras placed along predatory travel routes throughout the Olympic Mountains. Our primary focus is to obtain a series of crystal clear photographs of Sasquatch in their natural environment.

They have a bunch of pictures of footsteps and such, but none of an actual sasquatch so far. What they do have is an amazing photo gallery with a bunch of animals in their natural habitat. Check it out.

This is What Snake Venom Does to Blood!

I’ve seen numerous TV programs and documentaries about snakes. But none of them has been this crystal clear. Here is a full understanding of how screwed you are if the snakes bites you, in just over a minute. Just imagine your blood turning into this jelly while inside your veins! How much heart work would be needed to push it through, and how useful that would be to your muscles, internal organs, and the rest?

Via The Laomedon!