A Collection of Great Dance Songs

Nor-Wester | Mark Watson

So you had a bad day …

Charles Darwin read Lyell’s “Principles of Geology Volume 1” while he was travelling on the Beagle, and when he returned to England they became close friends. Darwin vents to Lyell in this letter from 1861.

As Robert Krulwich has noted, it’s nice to know geniuses had bad days like the rest of us.  And it’s nice that they had friends to text correspond with when they did.

The kakapo is one of the rarest parrots in the world:

You’ve seen the gif of Mark Carwardine getting his head humped by one of these birds, with Stephen Fry commenting - the last time Mark saw one of these birds it was with Douglas Adams for Last Chance to See back in 1990.

Here’s a video of Mr. Adams trying to explain this bird’s particular habits and it’s plight, if you’ve got about 10 minutes to watch him give a very nice talk about it.

and here’s a very nice quality photograph of sirocco (every single remaining kakapo has a name, that is how critical this situation is) on mark’s head ok

NEW SPECIES: WALKING SHARK DESCRIBED FROM INDONESIA

A new ‘walking’ bamboo shark, Hemiscyllium halmahera, has been discovered at Weda Resort at Halmahere, Lembeh. is the newest species of elasmobranch to be described.

reference: Gerald R. Allen, Mark V. Erdmann and Christine L. Dudgeon 2013: Hemiscyllium halmahera, a new species of Bamboo Shark (Hemiscylliidae) from Indonesia

The Peacock spider or Gliding spider (Maratus volans) is a species of jumping spider.

Octavius Pickard-Cambridge noted in his original description that “it is difficult to describe adequately the great beauty of the colouring of this spider".

The red, blue and black colored males have flap-like extensions of the abdomen with white hairs that can be folded down. They are used for display during mating: the male raises his abdomen, then expands and raises the flaps so that the abdomen forms a white-fringed, circular field of color. The species, and indeed the whole genus Maratus have been compared to peacocks in this respect. The third pair of legs is also raised for display, showing a brush of black hairs and white tips. While approaching the female, the male will vibrate his abdomen while waving raised legs and tail, and dance from side to side.[1]