Larissa has a book out! Check it out online. Fashion isn't exactly my thing (to understate the case vastly, vastly), but seeing as many of Masha Archer's creations would not be the least out of place amongst Chinese minorities or inside an Egyptian tomb, I want a copy.

I'm back from Idaho and boating the Selway. The Selway river canyon is very pretty, though not sublime; but the water and banks of the river itself are stunning, second to none. More to come...

It occurs to me that perhaps not everyone has met Kate Beaton.

Oh Anne. If only someone had travelled back in time and given you and your sisters giant mecha.

And further semi-nosferatic news: the horseshoe bat's nose, explained.

Much like a flashlight with an adjuster that can create an intense but small beam of light, the bat's nose can create a small but intense sonar beam. Mueller and his team used computer animation to compare varying sizes of bat noses, from small noses on other bats to the large nose of the paradoxolophus bat. In what Mueller calls a perfect mark of evolution, he says his computer modeling shows the length of the paradoxolophus bat's nose stops at the exact point the sonar beam's focal point would become ineffective.

Man, math's great when it works.

Buffy stakes Edward. The End.

Small frogs employ giant spider bodyguards.

More pictures here.

Also, alligator vs. watermelon.