Earth Hour is an annual international event created by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) , held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change . Based on an idea successfully executed in Thailand in 2005, it was pioneered by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Hearld in 2007 and achieved worldwide participation in 2008... Read Full Story
Happy Earth Day people!
The other day, since they no longer make quality programs like Seinfeld and the Cosby Show, and network TV is filled with terrible shows like American Idol, Dancing Shows , and the god awful Deal or No Deal … (I hate deal or no deal… seriously people, it is a random guessing game, no skill required, why are contestants so cheery? guy from Bobby’s World = not funny, jeopardy = money, Deal or No deal = hurting) I now have grown quite fond of the History Channel and... Read Full Story
By: Marlene Affeld
World's Largest Gold Nugget! Gold nuggets are naturally occurring pieces of native gold. Water and erosion concentrate the deposit of nuggets which are recovered by placer or lode mining methods. Nuggets are also often found in residual deposits where gold-bearing veins or lodes have decayed. Today nuggets can also be found in the tailing piles of previous mining operations, especially the tailings of old dredging operations. Nuggets are never totally pure or 24K in... Read Full Story
I am fascinated by pictographs and petroglyphs. Are they 10,000 year old graffiti or a sacred magical symbolic code, a treasure map, a historian’s guide book in storied stone?
In 1806, while on their historic journey across Montana, the Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered several signs of the first inhabitants of this great land. Pictographs and petroglyphs were inscribed on rock faces by the tribes that lived in this area as well as nomadic tribes that followed the bison herds across... Read Full Story
By: Marlene Affeld
Montana is a paleontologist’s paradise and famous worldwide for its wealth of dinosaur fossils. Scientists, consumed with a passion to understand the history of life on earth, have discovered over seventy-five different species of dinosaurs in Montana. More dinosaurs have been discovered in Montana than in any other state in the Union.
New discoveries continue. In 2004, an entirely new species from the Jurassic period, named Suuwassea emilieae was found. The new... Read Full Story
An atelopus frog found in the remote mountains of Suriname Scientists have discovered 24 new species of wildlife in the South American highlands of Suriname, including a frog with fluorescent purple markings. But conservationists have now warned that these creatures are threatened by illegal gold mining. The discovery of so many species outside the insect realm is extraordinary and points up the need to survey distant regions, said Leeanne Alonso of Conservation International, which led the... Read Full Story
The Southern Hemisphere has the Southern Cross. In the Northern Hemisphere we have the Northern Cross, or Cygnus, the Swan. Cygnus is actually more distinctive and much larger than the Southern Cross. Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation, is at the tail of Cygnus. Deneb, a super-giant, is the most distant of all the first-magnitude stars. Albireo is at the head of the swan. Albireo is actually two stars that give off a distinctive blue and amber glow. It is easy to see the graceful... Read Full Story
With winter almost here, the animals are busy preparing for hibernation and we are bundling by the fire. My morning rituals have now began to include littering the large rock outside with bird seed. It is really quite an event when you take a moment to watch the little birds gorging on the food. The first to venture in after I have taken a safe distance in the Blue Jay, and once he gives his call to the others, a mass of quail come from every direction to feast. I never really thought that... Read Full Story
I was searching through my photos and I came across this frog photo I took last summer in August 2007 ( Scanlon Creek Conservation Area ). A funny thought came across my mind when I was preparing this photo for the post. It reminded me the Everybody Loves Raymond sitcom episode She's The One , when Robert thinks that he finally found the one, however, what he found was a frog lover, lol. So I had frogs on my blog before, however, I just wanted to come back to talk about what happens to frogs... Read Full Story
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE In 1587,
a colony of 114 men, women, and children became one of the earliest attempts to
colonize the new world - America. Traveling from Britain to Roanoke Island, on
North Carolina's coast, they were the first true attempt at colonization of the
New World. They also became one of the Nation's first great mysteries.
The colony, led by John White, settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast
of North Carolina. John White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare, became... Read Full Story
