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Hot, humid summer field work
Humidty on our prairie study site was about 300% (based on how it felt) this morning especially down in the vegetation where we had little seedling plots to photograph. The emergent vegetation, e.g.,...
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TMI Friday: Oh, How long has that been there ?
I remember searching through an old jacket, and finding a torchlight within it. It had been in that jacket so long that I forgot that I had even lost it. I'm sure we've all been in that situation of...
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Friday Fabulous Flower - Compass Plant
As mentioned yesterday, the prairie is in bloom, and given the reasonably abundant rain, the vegetation is lush and tall. The compass plant (Silphium laciniatum) is one of the prairie emergents whose...
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Rodents break probation - herbivore inforcement returns
For purposes of last week's garden tours, our most obtrusive plant cages were removed and hidden away. The less obtrusive cages remained in place. All the activity, the patio construction and the...
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Paleofantasy on the Radio Tomorrow
If you want to start your day out right tomorrow, I recommend:"Paleofantasy", Marlene Zuk on Atheists Talk #225, June 30, 2013Oh, poor humanity. Poor, poor us, stuck in a world for which we are so...
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Over dose of cooking, but guests pleased, sated
Yesterday was the day the Phactors cooked a margarita and tapas dinner having auctioned off this event to raise money for church remodeling. In general TPP regards cooking as fun, but when you are...
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Epsilon Aurigae
A little tribute to Margherita Hack by @ulaulaman The bright star Epsilon Aurigae (HD 31964) is a single-lined spectroscopic binary that is famous for its long orbital period (27.1 yr), which is...
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Parent Child Relationships continued...
The calyptra is a cap of maternal gametophyte tissue that covers the apex of the offspring sporophyte during development. My research shows that in the calyptra has a waxy cuticle that develops early...
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Do SCOTUS justices have defective memories?
50 years is a long time, but not so long that TPP has forgotten the 1960s, his high school and college years. In those days TPP was very involved in social justice and civil rights, a typical activist...
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Carnival of Evolution #61
Marc Srour is hosting CoE #61 on his blog Teaching Biology: Crustie Lovin' Edition.
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VerbCorner: New and improved, with surprise bonuses
After a month-long tour, VerbCorner returned to the garage for some fine-tuning. There are now bonus points in each task, doled out whenever ... well, play to find out! The other major change is that...
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Wilting Tomatoes - This could be bad
The kitchen garden was off to a slow, late start this year, but finally beginning to look like something. But now the tomato plants (a resistant variety!) are showing signs of a wilt, probably...
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Two New Early Archosaur Papers
These are the last two articles from the forthcoming volume titled "Anatomy, Phylogeny and Palaeobiology of Early Archosaurs and their Kin". The book should be available for purchase soon from the...
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Global warming - one bright note
My colleagues are not very optimistic about global warming. In fact they seldom talk about it because it's such a depressing conversation. But every now and then, something positive emerges, which in...
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Findings: GamesWithWords.org at DETEC2013
I recently returned from the inaugural Discourse Expectations: Theoretical, Experimental, and Computational Perspectives workshop, where I presented a talk ("Three myths about implicit causality")...
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Help Desk: Chastity Belts and Other FAQs
Hello! I'm on vacation this week. With any luck, as you read this I will be lying in the shade with a book or having a hilarious misunderstanding with a non–English speaker. I will not be thinking...
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Largest scratching post ever
This couch is actually a piece of functional art by France's Mathieu Mercier as shown at Galerie Mehdi Chouarkri. The idea is simple, you get the bracket and then set whatever you want upon it. As...
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July 2013 Desktop Calendar
This is the moss Grimmia trichophylla. It is a scrappy little moss that often grows on rocks. I found this one while hiking out on an exposed boulder in the coast range of California. I am in the...
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Happy 130th Mr. Kafka
Google celebrates Franz Kafka's birthday. The Trial is one of my favorite literary novels and although I like The Metamorphosis, I don't think it's as good as The Trial.Google
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Oh, yes! Flying Bicycle!
This is just great! Here's a nifty sounding hybrid vehicle, a bicycle combined with an ultra-light aircraft. Don't you just want one? Man. TPP has a birthday coming up. Hint, hint! OK, this...
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