Month: April 2009

  • Smithsonian Natural History Museum: The Insect Wing

    To understand the success of insects is to appreciate our own shortcomings. —Thomas Eisner They crawl, they fly, they swim. They communicate with dance, chemicals, and sounds. They act alone or gather together into superorganisms. They possibly represent 90% of the differing life forms on the planet. Insect in Amber Credit: Moi Check out the…

  • Fossils of the Technium in the Anthropocene

    Perhaps a law of evolution is that intelligence usually extinguishes itself. – Edward O. Wilson In David Brin’s The Postman, greatest post-apocalyptic book ever, the protagonist finds shelter in an old mail truck and keeps warm by making a blanket out of the letters. Recently, Vicky and I checked out the Camden County Jeep Trail,…