Often when I wake up I start singing the song Sing Hosanna! I was reminded of this on Sunday when I heard the song on a comedy show on the radio.
Most of the time I merely mouth it in a whisper as it runs through my head, or else I hum it or whistle it. [...]
The zoologists have been keeping a secret for years:
Illustration by Nancy Halliday, Courtesy of The Field Museum
The following quotes are from this report in the Independent from yesterday.
“Zoologists have discovered a new species of squirrel-like mammal, which they have described as a strikingly unusual creature, in the high mountains of Peru.”
“Scientists discovered the rodent during [...]
Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.
The convenience of the high trees!
The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s rayAre of advantage to me;And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.
My feet are [...]
Did anyone catch this a few months ago? The Swiss paper Die Weltwoche published the new Layeha (book of rules) for the Mujahideen, basically the Taliban code of conduct. It’s mostly mundane practicalities:
3. Mujahideen who protect new Taliban recruits must inform their commander.
6. If a Taliban fighter wants to move to another district, he is [...]
There’s an interesting report on Reuters:
UK scientists downplay GMO threat to biodiversity.
Before reading this it had never really occurred to me before that one of the main reasons people object to GM crops is because they are too efficient. Herbicide-tolerant crops mean that most weeds can be killed, and this is seen as bad because [...]
Polar bears have been in the news quite a lot over the past few years. Just yesterday I saw a feature on a Canadian Polar Bear centre, in the Metro. There is much concern over their future. According to Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, polar bears could be extinct in less than [...]
“For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to look at the cathedral – a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world. It has four crenellated spires exactly the shape of hock bottles. Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona, it was not damaged during the [...]
