24 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in animals
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Wishing my friends and family (and anyone who happens to see this!) all the best for a happy and peaceful festive season and a wonderful 2012.
I photographed this grey seal pup at my local seal colony at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire. In November and December the seals haul out and pup amongst the dunes – right next to a footpath. It’s absolutely incredible to watch. More of my seal photographs, including a birth sequence, can be seen on my Flickr site (without silly hats…).
13 Sunday Nov 2011
Posted in history
On Armistice Day 11.11.11, the Imperial War Museum, London, made 100 previously unseen portraits of those who served in the First World War publicly available for the first time on Flickr Commons.
These images are amongst the first items collected by IWM when it was founded in 1917 to record everybody’s experiences of the First World War. In some cases, bereaved families donated their only photograph. Some have only a name, rank and unit.
IWM will be uploading new images to Faces of the First World War every week between now and the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the war in August 2014 and is asking for comments, information and any links, images or text to be added to the photos to share and remember those life stories almost 100 years after the war.
Visit here to view and participate if you can.
(Text adapted from IWM original description of the ‘Faces of the First World War’ collection on Flickr.)
22 Saturday Oct 2011
Posted in paleontology
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A South African cycad (Encephalartos)
Photo by N. Nagalingum
Cycads are poster-child living fossils, yet the living species are really young… so, while the group as a whole are living fossils, the species themselves are not.
17 Monday Oct 2011
Posted in just talking
I’ve exported my SU blog to here. Most of it seems OK, but the categories assigned to posts are pretty much all wrongly labelled as ‘literature’. When (if) I can be bothered I’ll reassign them.
It’s been quite interesting and rather nostalgic going through old posts.
14 Friday Oct 2011
Posted in nature
http://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/index.php/mycokids/
Mycokids: A guide to fungi, produced for youngsters by the British Mycological Society. Looks like something my school pupils would relate to.
18 Sunday Sep 2011
Posted in literature
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http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/31/books/review/macnaughton.html
Wendy MacNaughton takes a light-hearted look at what well known writers snacked on when working.
I’m not a creative writer at all, but thought I’d share my snacks of choice for those times when I’m sitting there looking for inspiration: a variety of nuts (and, for a treat if I manage to write something without deleting it, dried mango and pineapple). And pots of green tea, although that can interfere with progress once it reaches the bladder…
Via: Xineann and Gladsdotter
18 Sunday Sep 2011
Posted in graphic art
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2011/09/noma-bar-at-outline-editions.php
Beautifully striking negative space cut outs by Noma Bar are currently at at Outline Editions as part of this year’s London Design Festival. This interesting blog post describes the project.
(See, I’m not all insects and sciency stuff!)
Via: rugenius
17 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted in insects
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashe/sets/72157611045849825/detail/
Hawthorn shieldbug by Ashley Wood
A great collection of illustrations of British bugs by Ashley Wood. In many cases, nymph stages and adults are shown. An excellent reference resource – and can also be seen at the British Bugs website alongside photographs of the bugs.
10 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted in evolution
http://nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=121306&org=NSF&from=news
A yellow form of the female eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly
(Credit: K. Kunte, Harvard University)
“Appalachian tiger swallowtail butterfly is hybrid of other swallowtails.”
Research on these butterflies could be increasing our knowledge of species formation.
09 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in nature
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If you are not very careful, the natural world is something you do on your holidays – you visit a nature reserve in the summer here or overseas and that is the end of it. But it is not like that. The natural world is around us all the time in our houses and gardens. And it is not just a question of standing back and looking at it in a passive way it is about getting involved in an active way and that transforms your attitude.
David Attenborough, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2011
nutmegstumbles 