Author: honeyrand
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Through the Screen
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I’ve read one book and seen two movies that are told “through the screen” or through emails and transcribed voicemails. There have apparently been more than the two I’ve seen on the screen. It seems right, doesn’t it? Or wrong, since we spend so much time glued to our little…
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Lizard at Lunch
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I spend a fair amount of time outside. I am not “gardening” or “puttering” I am moving rocks or mulch or fill dirt around our three-acre yard. I also pick up dog poo from his 90-lb rescue labradoodle. Last weekend it was digging out confederate Jasmine to liberate some rocks…
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Ants Smell Cancer
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Dogs detect diabetes and epilepsy and cancer of several varieties. They have for years. Some are trained to detect disease, others are just paying attention to their human family members. But humans cannot rely on dogs alone. As it turns out, ants can smell cancer, too. The way we diagnose…
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Gas. Cow gas, not car gas.
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Cows emit a lot of gas. Methane. They burp. They poot and their “waste” collects in ponds and lagoons with more greenhouse grasses. Technology to the rescue! Maybe NASA’s carbon-to-oxygen conversion tech can get the job done. Bill Gates is investing in some new tech to manage cow burps. There’s…
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Bug brains are inspiring new collision avoidance systems for cars
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A thousand years ago while I was working at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, NOAA was testing a new technology LIDAR, light detection and ranging. They were measuring the coastline. Lo these many years later LIDAR is used in CAS—collision avoidance systems. With the growth of self-driving cars, refinement is…
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Work=Beer Money
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Spent last week at Writers in Paradise. The paper I submitted for review is, After Midnight. Essentially it’s the story of the last couple of months of my mother’s life right up until I took her off life support. That part of the story isn’t the most emotional for me,…
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Transparency as strategy
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Just before Christmas a very cool story about a tiny frog in central and south America. These little guys aren’t sporting a powerful poison, rather they grow transparent while they sleep. They are nocturnal, but by daylight they park on a leaf their organs virtually as their red blood cells…
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Grasshopper Gaslighting
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Scientists found a new species of grasshopper on a friend’s farm in the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. His farm was clearcut for years, having been a tree farm. When he saw it, he wondered if it was possible to bring back native savannah, restoring the vegetation and with it wildlife.…
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What is disability? Is it really a thing?
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I was listening to the book Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson. He was talking about disability, what is and isn’t and how, exactly does that apply. What happens when your disability is your greatest asset. He gives examples, including one about a guest on a boat who was given…
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Firmly rooted
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California. So ahead of us all is offering a new burial option starting in 2027. Human #composting. Certainly lends itself to that old adage, “we’re planting him/her tomorrow.” Having spent some time considering green burials, I like this idea. No chemistry. No air #emissions and, as an added bonus for…