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Lessons Drawn
The ancient Nazca of Peru were terrific artists, best remembered now for creating their complex line drawings of animals and geometric objects that can only be fully appreciated from the air. Nazca knowledge of their environment, however, seems to …Read more.
Man-eaters Not So Much
For more than 80 years, the man-eating Tsavo lions have been a fabulous story and crowd-pleaser. The two lions reportedly killed and ate as many as 135 people in the Tsavo River region of Kenya before being shot and killed in 1898. Their skinned and …Read more.
Counting Cardsharps Out
In the 1988 film "Rain Man," the lead characters hope to strike it rich gambling by "counting cards" at blackjack. That is, by precisely remembering which cards have been played, they would have a better of idea of which cards …Read more.
Cleaning Up, Using Ammonia
When Archaea, an ancient line of bacteria, were first discovered 30 years ago, it was thought they existed only in extreme environments like deep-sea hydrothermal vents or hot springs like the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park (…Read more.
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Big Trees, Big TroubleThe famous big trees of Yosemite National Park declined 24 percent during the 20th century, and not just because of insanely stupid acts like cutting tunnels through their bases. The giant sequoia "Wawona" tree in Mariposa grove was 227 feet tall, with a 90-foot circumference at its base. The tunnel through it was finished in 1881; the tree fell down in 1969. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Washington say climate change appears to have measurably impacted the number of large-diameter trees in the park. Warmer weather has increased the length of the dry season and reduced the local snowpack, which provides much of the water during the trees' growing season. The scientists also found a local shift to fire-intolerant trees in some forests that had not experienced blazes for nearly a century, meaning that more frequent and severe wildfires are possible in these areas and may put more big trees at risk.
VERBATIM "Pangolins save us millions of dollars a year in pest destruction. We cannot afford to overlook their ecological role as controllers of termites and ants." — Simon Smart of the International Union for Conservation of Nature on how Chinese demand for pangolin meat is driving the scaly anteaters to extinction
BRAIN SWEAT You're taking a long drink of water. Which happens first: The glass is 5/16ths empty or the glass is 5/8ths full?
PRIME NUMBERS 90 — Estimated barrels of oil, in billions, believed to exist within the Arctic region 3 — Number of years that amount would satisfy current global demand 1,670 — Estimated amount of natural gas, in trillions of cubic feet, beneath Arctic 15 — Number of years that amount would satisfy current global demand Source: Scientific American
BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER The glass becomes 5/16ths empty first.
'TRUE FACTS' More than 60,000 metric tons of nuclear waste are in temporary storage at 131 civilian and military sites around the country.
WHAT IS IT ANSWER Folks living around Mount Laguna, east of San Diego, have been asking themselves this very question for weeks: What is this little beetle? The bug has appeared in large numbers on parts of the mountain. Some locals insist they've never seen it before. Some fear it might be another invasive, destructive pest like an oak borer beetle. Fear not. According to entomologists questioned, the tiny (smaller than a ladybug) iridescent green insect is a common flea beetle of the genus Altica. It is harmless (to trees and people) and abundantly common. The swarms of beetles seen at some Laguna campsites recently were probably just congregations of this year's hatched generation.
ANTHROPOLOGY 101 A Slavic love charm required a girl to dig up the footprint of the man she loved, place the dirt in a pot, then grow a marigold in that pot. It was believed that a marigold never faded and, in the same way, the man's love would last forever.
To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM   
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