New mint series

Forget health care reform, early release of terrorists, or the flu epidemic: the big news today is that Yellowstone will have its very own quarter!

Via Pharyngula, I learn that Al Franken would know where his towel is, no matter where he left it:



That has to be some parlor trick he developed as a smart-ass kid.

New York prehistory

This month's National Geographic has an article featuring the Mannahatta Project, a recreation of Manhattan's natural environment. The project started by geolocating the still-extant sites on the British map of the island, prepared during the Revolutionary War, and built from there back to 1609, when Henry Hudson became the first European to see the place.



The website is built around the Google map of Manhattan, but with an extra layer representing a visual image of the landscape as it likely appeared in 1609, plus popup descriptions of the local ecosystem. You should definitely try it out.

I've posted a quickie-demo here.

The project was also featured in the New Yorker a couple years ago.

Friday Photo

Elk on Opal Terrace, September 1996

Opal Terrace is a young, but currently inactive travertine flow across the road from the main terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs. I wouldn't think of it as a comfortable divan, but this handsome fellow did.

Inspired by this Glenn Beck lecture ....

The Left of right-wing imagination:




The Left of reality: