Ancient Arctic Plants

Thanks to Elizabeth for sending me this link.

http://stitcher.com/listen.php?eid=10592712

First plants, then wooly mammoths?

Red-tail Hawk at Wehr

We saw this red-tail hawk at Wehr Nature Center on Sunday 02-19-2012.

This picture was taken just after the hawk swooped down and missed the squirrel that is now on the tree.

Deer at Wehr

We saw several deer at Wehr Nature Center today.

There are four in this picture.

Global Cooling

Secrets of the Soil (1989) by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird

Chapter 14 (pages 173-186) "Icicles in the Greenhouse" discusses the relative merits of global warming and global cooling hypotheses.

Support for global cooling includes:

- loss of 1.5 degrees Celsius in average Northern Hemisphere temperature since 1938

- expanding arctic

- shorter growing seasons

- drought caused by cooling

And on page 175, they offer this:

"Fred B. Wood, Jr., of the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress reports that between 1960 and 1980, based on data for about 400 to 450 glaciers observed each year, advancing glaciers have increased 7 to 55 percent."

Arsenic-based life, or lack thereof

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338090/title/Arsenic-based_life_finding_fails_follow-up

The constant sifting and winnowing of science.

Oak Openings

http://www.kmlandtrust.org/

I would like to attend the Oak Opening Workshop, but schedule conflicts interfere.