MetaFilter posts tagged with Nature

=^..^=

Fizz — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:48:29 -0800

Cheetahs’ Secret Weapon: A Tight Turning Radius [New York Times]

"Anyone who has watched a cheetah run down an antelope knows that these cats are impressively fast. But it turns out that speed is not the secret to their prodigious hunting skills: a novel study of how cheetahs chase prey in the wild shows that it is their agility — their skill at leaping sideways, changing directions abruptly and slowing down quickly — that gives those antelope such bad odds."

Here comes a tall, thin, yellow human!

cthuljew — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 05:45:13 -0800

After more than 25 years of studying the calls of prairie dog in the field, one researcher managed to decode just what these animals are saying. And the results show that prairie dogs aren't only extremely effective communicators, they also pay close attention to detail.

Tonight's show is a little different.

lazaruslong — Sat, 25 May 2013 08:05:30 -0800

Craig Ferguson seems to have a special liking for conversation with Stephen Fry. Previously. On Wednesday night, Stephen was back on the Late Late Show as the only guest. The naturally wide-ranging discussion includes Arthur Conan Doyle, America, mortality, religion, philosophy, science, homosexuality, Wagner, and more. Enjoy. for some reason there's a repeated segment here. when you get to it, skip ahead to 36:45. additionally, trigger warning for some genuinely awful stories involving sexual assault and prejudice.

"The story of Grizzly Adams is big and powerful. Beautiful!"

zarq — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:46:21 -0800

"Now, my friend Adams was accused of a crime he didn't commit, so he escaped into the mountains, leaving behind the only life that he ever knew." In 1977, three years after the popular movie The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams introduced the story of John "Grizzly" Adams to the public, a TV show of the same name premiered. Background * Official Site for the movie and tv series * John ‘Grizzly’ Adams did exist. He was a California frontiersman who lived from 1812 to 1860, and resided in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the 1850s. He experienced the great California Gold Rush and the birth of San Francisco. The movie and tv show were loosely based on his life. Contemporary Essays * P.T. Barnum: Old Grizzly Adams and The California Menagerie * An essay from James Adams himself: Jaguars in California * Two biographies of the real John "Grizzly" Adams are available for download at archive.org: 1) "The adventures of James Capen Adams, mountaineer and grizzly bear hunter, of California" by Theodore Hittell (1860) 2) Old Grizzly Adams, the bear tamer; or, "The monarch of the mountains." (1899, c1884) by Frank Powell. Movie * The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1974) Starring Dan Haggerty, who would continue to play the role in the two-season television series.The movie had a reported budget of between $165,000 and $250,000. By 1978, it had made over 30 million in box office sales. The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (TV Show: 1977-1978) Playlist Links to Individual Episodes 1: Adams Cub 2: Blood Brothers 3: The Fugitive 4: Unwelcome Neighbors 5: Howdy-Do, I’m Mad Jack 6: Adams Ark 7: Redemption of Ben 8: Tenderfoot Theodore 9: The Rivals 10: The Unholy Beast 11: Beaver Dam 12: Home of the Hawk 13: The Storm 14: Hot Air Hero 15: Survival 16: A Bear’s Life 17: The Trial 18: The Orphans 19: The Search 20: Gold Is Where You Find It 21: Track of the Cougar 22: The Choice 23: Woman in the Wilderness 24: The Spoilers 25: Marvin the Magnificent 26: A Time of Thirsting 27: The Seekers 28: A Gentleman Tinker 29: The Runaway 30: The Great Burro Race 31: The Littlest Greenhorn 32: (TV Movie) The Renewal 33: The Stranger 34: The Quest 35: The Skyrider 36: The World’s Greatest Bounty Hunter 37 (TV Movie): Once Upon A Starry Night Haggerty went on to reprise the role in The Capture of Grizzly Adams (1982) Music * The theme song was performed by Thom Pace, and is named Maybe. Here’s Pace performing it in 1979. * A larger medley: Wear the Sun in Your Heart / Maybe

Three Ohio Bucks Found Drowned With Antlers Locked.

Diles_Mavis — Sat, 04 May 2013 11:05:10 -0800

Burke couldn’t believe it. “I asked if he was sure and he said, 'Yes.' I drove down and met him. They were floating in the creek almost like three petals of a flower or something." Forester Jason Good was surveying timber in Meigs County, Ohio, on November 12 when he stumbled upon a bizarre sight that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up: In a waist-deep pool of Leading Creek, nose-to-nose like fish on a stringer, floated three whitetail deer. Pictures are a bit graphic.

"Oh my God, it's orcas attacking sperm whales."

DiesIrae — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:26:17 -0800

On April 18, a half-dozen orcas battled a pod of sperm whales off the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The unusual encounter is one of fewer than a dozen such recorded conflicts — and the first observed. “We saw the water churning on the horizon,” said Heinrichs, a photographer and filmmaker who was in the area looking for blue whales. He and his colleagues steered their boat toward the patch of white water. As they got closer, they saw an enormous dorsal fin slicing through the water — a killer whale trademark — and then noticed the group of sperm whales, clustered together in a defensive stance. At that point, Heinrichs did what many of us would not do: He jumped in.

Olga Ziemska

shakespeherian — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:16:59 -0800

Olga Ziemska is a sculptor who works in Cleveland, Ohio. She also has a blog. [Some images may be NSFW]

Intelligence Tests

kliuless — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:40:00 -0800

Is Psychometric g a Myth? - "As an online discussion about IQ or general intelligence grows longer, the probability of someone linking to statistician Cosma Shalizi's essay g, a Statistical Myth approaches 1. Usually the link is accompanied by an assertion to the effect that Shalizi offers a definitive refutation of the concept of general mental ability, or psychometric g." Myths, Sisyphus and g - "Over the years I have not encountered a single endorser of Shalizi's article who actually understands the relevant subject matter. His article is loved for its reassuring conclusions, not the strength of its arguments. I am sure many 'thinkers' resisted Darwinism, the abandonment of geocentrism, and even the notion that the Earth is a sphere, for similar psychological reasons." Nuthin' but a 'g' thang

So I've always had the intuitive hypothesis that there are different types of intelligence; that different people tend to process information in different ways, whether due to habit or nature. But then there are all those people who say that intelligence can be boiled down to a single factor, the mysterious "g" (which I assume stands for either "general intelligence" or "gangsta"). Since this went against years of casual observation, I was somewhat pleased to see the eminent Cosma Shalizi write an essay debunking the notion of "g". But then I saw this blog post defending the notion of "g", and claiming that Shalizi makes a bunch of errors. Basically, the disagreement revolves around the question of why most or all psychometric tests and tasks seem positively correlated with each other. Shalizi points out that this correlation structure will naturally lead to the emergence of a "g"-like factor, even if one doesn't really exist; his opponent points out that if no "g" exists, it should be possible to design uncorrelated psychometric tests, which so far has proven extremely difficult to do. The latter post, by a pseudonymous blogger calling himself "Dalliard", contains a bunch of references to psychometric research that I don't know about and have neither the time nor the will to evaluate, so I'm a bit stumped. Normally I'd leave the matter at that, shrug, and go read something else, but I realized that my intuitive hypothesis about intelligence didn't really seem to be explicitly stated in either of the posts. So I thought I'd explain my conjecture about how intelligence works. In a nutshell, it's this: What if there are multiple "g's"? ...just imagine several dozen hyperplanes, and project them all onto one hyperplane... Remember that psychometric tests are simple mental tasks, but most of the mental tasks we do are complex, like computer programming or chess or writing. And for those tasks, learning and practice matter as much as innate skill, or more (for example, see this study about the neurology of chess players). Therefore, everyone can be "smart" in some way, if "smart" means "good at some complex mental task".

also btw To Make Mice Smarter, Add A Few Human Brain Cells (previously)

into the wild

kliuless — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:45:05 -0800

Catching Up with Kai - "Which is the thing about being home free, when you submit to the authority of pieces of paper you lose your personal identity and the identity you find through nature." (previously; via)

MAYBE I'LL GO EAT THESE LEAVES

lazaruslong — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:37:32 -0800

SNAIL! A snail-based parody of the ubiquitous AWOLNATION song "Sail".

Nothing is the most important part of the Universe.

lazaruslong — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:39:44 -0800

The concept of nothing is as old as zero itself. How do we grapple with the concept of nothing? From the best laboratory vacuums on Earth to the vacuum of space to what lies beyond, the idea of nothing continues to intrigue professionals and the public alike. Join moderator and Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson as he leads a spirited discussion with a group of physicists, philosophers and journalists about the existence of nothing. The event, which was streamed live to the web, took place at the American Museum of Natural History on March 20, 2013. PANELISTS: J. Richard Gott, professor of astrophysical sciences, Princeton University, and author of Sizing Up the Universe: The Cosmos in Perspective Jim Holt, science journalist and author of Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story Lawrence Krauss, professor of physics, Arizona State University and author of A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing Charles Seife, professor of journalism, New York University, and author of Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea Eve Silverstein, professor of physics, Stanford University, and co-editor of Strings, Branes and Gravity

Your Happy Ending

smrtsch — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:25:47 -0800

Allegations of flawed research techniques at an NIH-funded medical lab at Johns Hopkins get notice in a Washington Post article. Interesting piece on a scientific dispute, the accuser's loss of his job at Hopkins, and the suicide of one researcher from the lab whose analysis, published in Nature, came into question.

"Sarcastic Fringehead?" Really?

Scientist — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:40:35 -0800

Amazing territorial behavior by a fish bearing the rather odd name of "Sarcastic Fringehead," from the David Attenborough's BBC Life series via WTF, Evolution?

Truck-surfing raven

Pyry — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:53:24 -0800

While it's well known that dolphins will surf in the bow waves of ships, at least one wild raven has learned to 'surf' on the pressure wave in front of trucks (second video). Bonus raven videos: pet raven brings coffee, catches treat midair in slow-motion

This is no domestic moggy.

lazaruslong — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:53:17 -0800

Earthflight is a BBC nature documentary narrated by David Tennant that takes a breathtaking flight on the wings of birds across six continents and experiences some of the world's greatest natural spectacles from a bird's-eye view. There are some full episodes up on YouTube (including South America, Africa, and the Making Of), but in particular these two clips caught my eye: Feral Cat Hunting and Peregrine Falcon Hunting.

Thankfully unrelated to the NIN song.

flatluigi — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:35:55 -0800

Head Like An Orange is a tumblr dedicated to posting beautiful gifs from various nature documentaries.

Raven in Snow

Greg Nog — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:19:07 -0800

Happy snow day, superkids! Here's a raven, havin' a time. SLYT, about a minute long. Dig it.

the power and beauty of mathematics

kliuless — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 09:14:26 -0800

An eternity of infinities (via) "The comparison of infinities is simple to understand and is a fantastic device for introducing children to the wonders of mathematics. It drives home the essential weirdness of the mathematical universe and raises penetrating questions not only about the nature of this universe but about the nature of the human mind that can comprehend it. One of the biggest questions concerns the nature of reality itself. Physics has also revealed counter-intuitive truths about the universe like the curvature of space-time, the duality of waves and particles and the spooky phenomenon of entanglement, but these truths undoubtedly have a real existence as observed through exhaustive experimentation. But what do the bizarre truths revealed by mathematics actually mean? Unlike the truths of physics they can't exactly be touched and seen. Can some of these such as the perceived differences between two kinds of infinities simply be a function of human perception, or do these truths point to an objective reality 'out there'? If they are only a function of human perception, what is it exactly in the structure of the brain that makes such wondrous creations possible? In the twenty-first century when neuroscience promises to reveal more of the brain than was ever possible, the investigation of mathematical understanding could prove to be profoundly significant."

To caricature and simplify at the same time!

ChuraChura — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:43:39 -0800

Charley Harper's "minimal realism" contributions to science and art are being celebrated by the graphic design blog Codex 99. Part 1 - Charley and Edie. Part 2 - The Birds. Part 3 - Tin Lizzie and Dinner for Two. Part 4 - The Golden Book of Biology. Part 5 - Bambi and Childcraft. Part 6 - The Animal Kingdom.

welcome

madamjujujive — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 20:17:10 -0800

MAN - a short animated history of man's time on earth by Steve Cutts. (Via Nag on the Lake)

Evaluating the impact of international aid, scientifically

infini — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:32:43 -0800

International aid projects come under the microscope Clinical-research techniques deployed to assess effectiveness of aid initiatives.

Nature Has A Formula That Tells Us When It's Time To Die

rebent — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 04:29:07 -0800

Here's the surprise: There is a mathematical formula which says if you tell me how big something is, I can tell you — with some variation, but not a lot — how long it will live.

Yunfun Tan illustrates the heartbeat of mother nature in this post on NPR

Badass Mouse is badass.

Kitteh — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:15:52 -0800

The little mouse that eats scorpions AND adorably howls at the moon.

Wild Things

latkes — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 11:05:36 -0800

The Bronx Zoo is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which boasts of running more than 500 projects in sixty-five countries through global field offices whose employees work to advance sustainable development; address issues of global climate change, health and well-being, and natural-resource use; and pursue other noble-sounding objectives that attest to the totality of man’s dominion over the lesser beasts. Dana does her best to enrich the lives of the giraffes under her care, giving them brush to eat and toys to play with. Too much stimulation throws the giraffes off. The key is to balance chronic understimulation with the introduction of anything potentially enriching that giraffes might find upsetting or odd, which, it turns out, includes almost everything. “You can’t change it up too much, because they get squeamish and they space out,” Dana tells me.

Last week, she adds, when the zebras kicked a blue ball over the fence into the giraffe enclosure, the giraffes refused to come out of the Giraffe House for the rest of the week. Deprive giraffes of necessary stimulation and they develop a distinctive behavioral syndrome that Dana calls “neurotic tongue.” If you go to a zoo and see giraffes licking the walls, it means that they are not well cared for.

DO NOT CLICK

Artw — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 11:14:38 -0800

Trust Me, You Do Not Want to See This Video of a Giant Parasitic Worm Slithering Out of a Dead Spider’s Stomach