Up close

real close. All of the following images were obtained using an electron microscope.

Beard hair. On the left is a hair cut with a straight blade, and on the right with an electric shaver

And what we had imagined we believed.

It was always a goal of mine to write here just what it is that I believe. To commit it to the cloud and be done with it. When you think about it, it's a very vague question to answer - "what do you believe?" - I mean, there is so much I believe about so many different things! But everyone knows what that question is asking, so lets get to the point: when you boil life and existence down to their fundamentals what do you believe is left? What of God and all that?

Ancient Aliens

I had heard of Ancient Aliens before last night, mostly through the alien guy meme,

Exhibit A:

But I had never witnessed the profound silliness of it firsthand...

Utopia

A couple of weeks ago I picked up this book called "A World Elsewhere" by Bernard Levin at a used bookstore. It was slim pickings there at the time, and though I had never heard of the book it was only 4 dollars, so why not? Plus it really sounded interesting, having to do with the various incarnations of Utopia throughout the ages. So, like, what's the deal with Utopia?

Wildlife photography 2013

The Natural History Museum held a wildlife photography competition, and the results are in.

The website is sort of confusing if you ask me, but here are some of my favourites:

Millions

So I'm reading this book called Evolution by Stephen Baxter and it has got me thinking of time. In this book the story of the evolution of mammals - more specifically, of primates - is traced from tiny shrew-like animals that existed at the time of the dinosaurs to us Humans, and even to our descendents thousands and millions of years into the future. Obviously, this is a work of fiction and uses liberal doses of speculation, but it is all based on what we might call a plausible reality.

Holy crow!

I love displays of intelligence in other animals - I love anything that makes us reconsider our perceived exceptionalism. A while back I was on dolphins, now it's onto the family Corvidae. The corvids include jays, ravens, rooks, magpies, and crows, along with a few others. The species that has been getting the most attention over the past decade have been crows.

More after the caw cut