Nature involves Science, too! (Nobody Cares...)

[Rose Karuna]

All I could think of when I read this was the movie (and book) Starship Troopers, where the bug planets throw meteors at Earth...

MSN

he American Meteor Society (AMS) reports an apparent surge in large fireball events in the first quarter of 2026, saying an analysis of its records back to 2011 reveals a pattern that “warrants serious investigation.”

“The enhanced activity is coming from a specific part of the sky—the direction opposite the Sun—at roughly double the normal density,” Mike Hankey, who wrote the analysis, told Newsweek. (more in link)

 

[Noodles]

Giant phallus-shaped iceberg floating in Conception Bay surprises residents of Dildo, Canada

It doesn't get any more apt than this: A photographer from the Newfoundland town of Dildo has captured images of a penis-shaped iceberg off the Canadian coast.

The suggestive 'berg consists of a column with a domed head protruding up from two oval rafts of ice. Photographer Ken Pretty captured a shot of the ice formation by drone near the town of Harbour Grace, which sits along — the puns keep adding up — Conception Bay.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the "dickie berg," as locals are calling it, has attracted international attention, with Pretty sharing news stories from as far away as Thailand and Taiwan on his Facebook page.

 

[Kokoro Fasching]

Giant phallus-shaped iceberg floating in Conception Bay surprises residents of Dildo, Canada

Mom is letting the humans know they are fucked..

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Scientists Create Plant That Produces Ayahuasca, Shrooms, and Toad Psychedelics All At Once

Evernote Link

 

[Free]

Scientists Create Plant That Produces Ayahuasca, Shrooms, and Toad Psychedelics All At Once

“We are interested in this, not because of the recreational effects, but because of the medicinal potential,” said Paula Berman, a postdoctoral researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science who co-led the study, in a call with 404 Media.

Uh huh.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Free]

Someone needs to familiarize her with the Advanced menu.

 

[Free]

NASA | ESA Space Updates (@nasaupdates.bsky.social)

Remember yesterday’s post? Here is the actual timelapse of that spectacular southern aurora, sparked by a recent solar event. Captured by NASA astronaut Jess Meir aboard the International Space Station #NASA #ISS

bsky.app

Southern aurora, seen from space. Go and watch it!

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

You know those are the tracks of firefoxes (Finnish: revontulet).

 

[Innula Zenovka]

‘No one believed it’: how a YouTube video accidentally proved Libya’s sand cat really does exist

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

 

[Free]

Amazing (both the animal and the new science tech).

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Why don't humans have tails?

the reason for our lack of tails won’t just surprise you; it’ll also provide a window into a bizarrely random world of evolutionary change.

Much about what it means to be human can be chalked up to seemingly random forces—and the mystifying, arbitrary nature of chance, cracking some pretty big pillars of conventional wisdom in the process. And when you ponder these seemingly arcane, abstract questions about why we are the way we are, it turns out there are profound lessons for modern societies, too.

 

[Free]

Why don't humans have tails?

Because we'd never know how to sit in gamer chairs.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Why don't humans have tails?

Thanks!

This does make me think of how many tech and corporate standards really are "standard" just because it was invented that way and that's that. There isn't always a GREAT reason why it was optimal or anything.

 

[Lexxi]

I finally understand why these type of chairs have those huge gaps in them. They are for humans who have tails.

 

[Isabeau]

New species of wild cat discovered in Bolivia’s cloud forest | Discover Wildlife

Leopardus tilcayo is the first wild cat species described by scientists in more than a century

www.discoverwildlife.com

The tilcayo cat measures approximately 18 inches (45 centimetres) from its head to the end of its body and weighs three pounds (1.3 kilograms) – making it smaller than the average domestic cat. It’s differentiated from the oncilla (known as the northern tiger cat) by its larger spot markings, a larger, more slender tail, and a muted fur colour.

 

[Govi]

New species of wild cat discovered in Bolivia’s cloud forest | Discover Wildlife

Leopardus tilcayo is the first wild cat species described by scientists in more than a century

www.discoverwildlife.com

I find myself wondering whether at the same time we are making so many species extinct, new ones will emerge adapted to the malevolent environment we created for those we extincted (is that a word? It will be. ). I recall a book about the speed with which the birds of the Galapagos Islands adapted to changing conditions. True evolutionary changes in humanly observable time. Were the enormous extinctions we have observed in the rock record also followed by an enormous diversification of species?

I'm not holding out hope even if the answer is yes, that there will be an evolutioary resurgence. The ones that died, that became extinct, because of the system by which they evolved, will never be seen again. But different ones? Yes, clearly, because that is in the record. We will probably like it, IF we are around to see it.