Pollenatrix

Another reason why I love the British

It must be some kind of big year for the Queen's anniversary, because there are lots of nostalgic articles in British newspapers about her wedding.

Either that, or it's a very slow news week.

My favourite so far is "The Mystery of the Queen's Missing Bouquet". The bouquet was made of orchids - cattleya, odontoglossum and cypripedium - a nice choice, I might say. The jist of the story is that the bouquet went missing and the royal couple had to have their picture taken without it. Ok, it's not exactly enthralling stuff, but here's the part I love:

"The bouquet was a gift to the Princess from the Worshipful Company of Gardeners.".

The Worshipful Company of Gardeners.

Oh man. Where do I sign up?

Frozen waves

I don't know what's cooler: The waves or the Newfie accents.

That bike's a bit small for you, Mr. Tree

Now this is quite a sight: A rusty old bicycle engulfed by a tree being carried upward in the trunk as the tree grows taller. It's apparently a familiar site to residents of Washington State in the US, where the tree is a bit of a tourist attraction on Vashon Island. But it's a new one on me.

And apparently, not unique. There's another bicycle tree in Scotland, in the village of  Brig o’ Turk.

"It occupies a spot close to the old smiddy (smithy), and local folklore has it that the village blacksmith was in the habit of propping up or hanging various articles, which were then forgotten about and gradually absorbed by the ‘ironivorous’ tree."

This reminds me of Old Man Willow in Lord of the Rings, who swallowed up the the hobbits when they leaned against his cranky old self for an afternoon nap.

I sure hope no one's riding those bikes.

Photo by   Jody Boyman - Red Ranger Came Calling

Fridge magnets not included

Gizmodo has an interesting report on a fridge-like hydroponic growing machine from Electrolux. I suppose you could use something like this to grow sprouts and lettuce and African Violets, but one of Gizmodo's readers has his doubts:

"I can pretty much guaran-fuckin-tee you that the customer list for this thing gets Faxed to the DEA every single morning at 9:01."

I give up

The Americans have been hassling Canada lately on what seem to be some over-the-top plans for airline security, but after seeing these pictures it's apparent that we all need to throw away any concept we ever had of the meaning of the phrase, "over-the-top":

The first penguin seems to be wondering why this is necessary.  "It's not like I planned to hijack the plane to Antarctica."

Way to go... protecting the skies from birds that can't even fly.

Source: thedenverchannel.com

How Stuff Works

I stumbled across a fascinating site today, called "How Stuff Works". Be prepared to lose an hour or two satisfying a curiosity about things you never knew you were curious about...

My favourites: How Sewing Machines Work, How Viagra Works, and How Blinking Works

And in the interest of relevance:
How Composting Works

Mugged by a herd of elephants

I love this story:

These are classic, co-ordinated ambushes: a roadblock is set, and when vehicles stop the raiders sweep out of the thick jungle to strike their targets.
 
But rather than guerrillas, the attackers in Thailand’s Khan-Nag Rue-In wildlife sanctuary are savvy – and desperate – elephants, who hold up trucks loaded with sugar cane, tapioca and fruit.

 

High-test turkey

An investment banker talks turkey about a new power plant in the U.S. that will soon use bird poo to warm 55,000 homes in the U.S.:

"Poultry litter is drier material, so it burns better, and there's a lot of it," said Charles Grecco, of HH Media, LLC, an investment bank that helped arrange $202 million in financing for the plant.

The 55-megawatt plant will burn 700,000 tons of dung a year and produce fertilizer as a by-product, a process that will keep phosphorus and nitrates found in the raw litter from seeping into water supplies, said Grecco.

No extra amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide would be emitted than would be naturally emitted as the dung decomposes, said Grecco.

Oh nooooo!

THE world’s most costly truffle is to be returned to Italy after going rotten. It will be buried in the Tuscan hills where it was discovered.

The truffle, which was sold last month for £28,000 to the London restaurant Zafferano, became inedible after it was locked in a fridge.

Heavenly orchids

Orchids lovers are a motley bunch, sharing an interest that draws people together who would never otherwise willingly stand in the same room. One of the Orchid forums I subscribe to is (in)famous for a membership that is as illustrious as it is combative, and I'm used to the juvenile name-calling that flames up fairly regularly. Lately, however, there have been some truly weird exchanges.

It started when one of the more *ahem* colourful members (and fairly highly placed within the American Orchid Society, I might add) trashed the World Orchid Conference in Dijon, France, this coming March. For reasons of his own, he called for members to boycott it and attend the Miami orchid show in 2008 instead. I can't recall the fullness of his rationale, but it included a complaint about the cost of "fancy" meals in France. He invited all to partake of the inexpensive fast-food restaurants in Miami instead, and I'm guessing this was supposed to be persuasive. Another of his arguments against Dijon was a groundless complaint about the difficulties of bringing plants in and out of France for the show (The cost of the paperwork - several hundred dollars - is included in the registration price for the Dijon conference, which is not the case for the show in Miami).

Responses followed a familiar progression: Someone wrote in pointing out the difficulties in entering the U.S. for any reason, let alone an orchid show, and immediately several posts appeared slamming the "America haters" and reminding us all of 9-11, prompting a heated and possibly libelous exchange. So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

Then a young woman, an American student in France, wrote a thoughtful and fairly rational post to soothe the troubled waters, but she threw in this off-hand remark:

It took a long time for science to triumph over creationist beliefs... and as orchid lovers, you should all know full well that Darwin was right.

She might as well have thrown a live grenade. Guess what happened next.

"Orchids are just one of many reasons I believe in God... Evolution is not a law....it is a theory.."

"I still hold creationist beliefs..."

"Orchids provide one of the most elegant examples of evolution..."

"If God himself decides to create the world through an evolutionary process, ... does it mean I can´t be a Baptist?"

At this point the Hindus jumped in, quoting 3,000 year old Upanishad texts. Others posted questions about orchids, hoping that by ignoring the religious topic, they could overpower it and make it go away. Someone demanded to be unsubscribed, and someone else rather plaintively asked if anyone knew of any other orchid lists he could subscribe to?

There was no stopping this one.

"The notion that one cannot both believe in God and accept Evolution is totally puzzling to me".

"Its bad enough putting up with (so and so), but now the bible bashers have got in."

"despite the label "theory", evolution is, in fact, recognized by science, and the educated world, as entirely real...""

At this point someone mentioned that the Old testament was never intended to be taken literally, and in response a Jewish scholar jumped into the fray. The first author apologized (who, by the way, started this whole thing with her off-hand remark), saying she hadn't meant to discredit the Judaism, then added, "As to the two Testaments, according to the Christians (thus, applying to all who call themselves Christians), the New was brought by Jesus to replace the Old."

Oops. Fuel for the flames.

"Sorry but I have to chime in on this one! In NO WAY did Christ dismiss the Old Testament..."

Then, what we all dreaded most came to pass. Someone quoted scriptures. And that someone wasn't even a fundamentalist.

GROAN.

Another person piped up and demanded that everyone please refer to God as G*d, that it was sacrilegious to do otherwise. I made a polite request that God be properly referred to as She, not He. Someone else suggested that everyone read the Da Vinci Code for the final word on the matter.

Interestingly, the hardcore Christians were fairly well-behaved, in that they didn't have much to say. I suspect that this vociferous exchange was prompted by discomfort over the political power held by right-wing fundamentalists in the United States. Well, whatever the motives, it was all weirdly entertaining.

One person did persuade me that there was SOME relevance to the whole sorry debate, and I will give him the last word:

"The reality of evolution is well documented...Orchids provide one of the most elegant examples of evolution: with divergence of species, convergent evolution, introgression, co-evolution of flower and pollinator, and other mechanisms of evolution clearly visible throughout the family. Many consider the Orchids to be the most evolutionarily active of plant families. Speciation does not occur by chance, but in response to selection pressure of all sorts."

Amen.