Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category
Simple Pleasures Lovely Treasures | Baldhiker
The sun is out, it’s the start of a new day… That usually means I stumble quietly around the house on the hunt for a fresh coffee or two or… 
And when it’s not pouring down, I like to have my coffee outside in the fresh air when the sun is slowly waking up too. Those quiet early morning moments are precious to me, just me, my coffee and the world. And how beautiful our world can be if we just take the time to look around. There’s a lot of beauty right out of our doorstep if we’re just willing to see it. I’ve taken my iPhone and captured some of my lovely treasures so I could share them with you.
A Comparative Mind: Crows can ‘reason’ about causes, a recent study finds
In an experiment, researchers found that crows were more likely to forage when they could attribute changes in their environment to a human presence.
This behaviour may suggest “complex cognition”, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Until now the ability to make inferences based on causes has been attributed to humans but not animals.
The study was a collaboration between researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, the University of Cambridge, UK and the University of Vienna, Austria.
In their experiment eight wild crows used tools to remove food from a box. Inside the enclosure there was a stick and the crows were tested in two separate series of events that both involved the stick moving.
In one instance a human entered the hide and the stick moved. In the other, the stick still moved but no human entered. On the occasions when no human was observed entering the hide, the crows abandoned their efforts to probe for food using a tool more frequently than they did when a human had been observed.
According to the scientists, the study proved that crows attributed the stick’s movement to human presence.
via A Comparative Mind: Crows can ‘reason’ about causes, a recent study finds.
High Park Fire in Larimer County now up to 36,000 acres burned – The Denver Post
The wind has shifted, forcing the massive High Park fire to blow back on itself, at least northwest of Horsetooth Reservoir.
“We are making good progress and in some cases, the fire has died down and moderated,” Larimer County executive officer Nick Christensen said this afternoon at a briefing.
However, there are new concerns about flame activity and movement in the northeast corner of the fire, near where the Hewlett fire burned, moving toward the Bonner Peaks subdivision and the large Glacier View neighborhood.
“We have helicopters making water drops and additional crews because of concerns we have up there,” Christensen said.
There are no pre-evacuation notifications for Glacier View, but fire commanders
via High Park Fire in Larimer County now up to 36,000 acres burned – The Denver Post.
Gardeners’ World Live 2012 – Gardeners’ musings – Blog – gardenersworld.com
For one week each year, the NEC in Birmingham becomes my home as it plays host to BBC Gardeners’ World Live. The event celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, having grown and developed to become one of the most popular occasions in the gardening calendar.
And that’s no surprise, as all the top names in gardening will be there during the five-day show, which runs from Wednesday 13 to Sunday 17 June. All the television programme presenters will be attending – Monty Don, Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Rachel de Thame – plus Alan Titchmarsh, Toby Buckland, Anne Swithinbank, Pippa Greenwood, Matthew Biggs and many more.
This year I’m feeling brave and putting myself on the spot, answering any gardening questions our show visitors would like to throw at me in the BBC Gardeners’ World Theatre. Visitors to this website will have seen a regular series we’ve developed over the past few months, in the run-up to the event, called Ask Adam, and now we’re bringing this to life at the show.
via Gardeners’ World Live 2012 – Gardeners’ musings – Blog – gardenersworld.com.
Canary Islands Eruption: Undersea Volcano Now Just 70 Meters from Surface – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International
In the Atlantic Ocean, off the Canary Island of El Hierro, 20-meter high jets of water are being spat into the air as the sea boils amid the stench of sulfur. The undersea volcano, which is set to create new land, is growing ever-nearer to the surface — but is the existing island at risk from the explosive eruptions?
“The monster rises out of the water”, screamed the Spanish newspaper La Provincia. Scientists, meanwhile, are being a bit more level-headed about the undersea volcano south of El Hierro in the Canary Islands; they now believe it is in the third phase of its eruption — fountains of water have been shooting out of the Atlantic up to 20 meters in the air over the last few days. On Tuesday, some local residents even saw stones being catapulted out of the sea.
A seething maelstrom, dozens of meters across, is bubbling away in the ocean. Measurements show that the vortices are significantly warmer than the surrounding water.
So far, the volcano has only shown its explosive power beneath the water. But now the outbursts to the south of El Hierro are frothing up the surface, as if the ocean had hiccups. The lava is piling up on an underwater mountain. That the eruption is capable of firing jets of water into the air shows that this mountain is growing — the center of the eruption is approaching the surface. Geologists believe that new land could soon emerge from the sea, and islanders are already looking for a name for the new territory. There are only 70 meters to go until the mountain reaches the surface, experts from Spain’s National Geographic Institute (IGN) have reported.
But how big is the risk to nearby residents? Last weekend, hundreds of people had to leave their homes in the southern part of El Hierro as streets were closed. And locals can quite literally smell the danger — stinking sulfur fumes are drifting across the ocean. The Volcanology Institute of the Canaries, Involcan, has reported a three-fold increase in carbon dioxide levels — a warning signal that further volcanic activity can be expected.
