[chronicles] "Flesh and blood on a noble scale"

I'm glad that we had that talk, about my secret love of kids. (Or at least kids on horses.) Now I feel I can be completely honest with you, and that means admitting that although I go to horse shows with the aim of selling parents on prints of their children riding horses, what I really love is taking pictures of just the horses.

prints & other products

prints & other products

I love their faces. I love their manes and tails and the various fancy and non-fancy variations thereof.

prints & other products

prints & other products

I've never been much for bling, but today I LOVE THE BLING, because it makes the photos so interesting.

prints & other products

prints & other products

I love the solid horses, and the paint horses...

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prints & other products

I even love the ponies with tiny little people on top.

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I love the looks on their faces, and I love imagining what they're thinking. Are they just gliding along, performing by reflex while their minds are daydreaming away? Are they taking mental notes on their latest novel? Are they thinking wistfully of hay fields and sunshine, or are they concentrating on annihilating the competition?

prints & other products

prints & other products

I especially love the details. You might have noticed. I sort of have a thing for the close-up.

prints & other products

prints & other products

prints & other products

prints & other products

[Edit: I failed to mention that you can find the full (very, very full) gallery of images from this latest playday here. I also got some great shots at the previous playday, which you can find here.]

[bioblog] Of fig trees, singing whales, and tree-climbing otters

Links! I have links, for you! And they are about nature and science! Hooray!

Blue whales are now singing at progressively lower frequencies, which is kind of mysterious and strange. The various theories presented are interesting, too, though nobody really knows why this is happening or what it means.

Here's a photograph of nanobots killing cancer. YES, THAT IS WHAT I SAID. What's next, you may wonder? Well, it turns out that Repo Men is in fact a documentary.

Behold the super-ape: Bili chimps are elusive, huge, and oh did I mention, they have been known to eat big cats.

In other news, here's something fascinating about fig trees. I know, you never thought you'd actually read that sentence anywhere. The article is actually about the relationship between fig trees and fig wasps, and how when the fig wasps fail to hold up their end, the fig trees will kill their babies. That's right. Fig trees are baby-killers. See? Another sentence you never thought you'd read. Aren't you glad you're experiencing the life-altering thrills involved in reading this blog?

Speaking of thrills, in Brazil they're now using tracking dogs to help collect data on threatened and endangered species. It's an idea so good, I'm not quite sure why everybody isn't doing it.

To be added to the very short list of upsides to climate change: No more international squabbles over ownership of tiny islands! To be added to the list of downsides: Well, there's an island that isn't there anymore. That's a downside, I'd think. Luckily, we won't have to worry about a loss of unique island biodiversity either, because rare animals are being eaten to extinction anyway. Whew! Dodged that bullet.

This article about a tree-climbing otter fails to mention the idea that she is refining her techniques for ninja-style stealth attacks on her enemies.

And finally, in webcomic news, this xkcd made me want to cry. Thanks, xkcd. I've never been driven to weep for the fate of our mechanical overlords Martin rover before. I want to give Spirit a hug, and Spirit is no Wall-E.