My desperate last leisure moments before Chris' owlets appear:

1. Looks like Wisconsin is going to get its Official State Microbe approved!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126055019

and:

2. Everglades Burmese python hunting season: no one catches any snakes.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-04-19/news/fl-python-hunt-20100419_1_reptile-dealers-and-hobbyists-burmese-pythons-reptile-keepers

Hatching should start any time now...she's spent a lot of time today looking under her

...and then there's this look...

now that's a Look!! Hahahahaha...must feel funny down there.

Shaky,
if you wrote a bot to automatically remind me to, say, check my refrigerator for moldy food, how would that work? Would I spontaneously hear some Yarak nagging me every few days or would I have to be on the computer?
Just checking.
Dale

Ezsha, thanks so much for this link. I have been asking crazy questions (such as, how does a pet parrot make THOSE colors out of seeds?) about colors of things for a long time. This is very cool.

Icelandic photographer Ragnar Sigurdsson has been taking some nice ones.
Paul

no kidding, nice ones, wow...thanks, Paul.

that's so crazy, trying to keep track of packs of flying dinosaurs taking off in so many directions!  It's really amazing to read.

those are amazing ones, gayle! thank you.
Here's one I only saw today
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
makes its own weather

These are at one-minute intervals. For some reason I find it very touching.

"in 1821, the same volcano managed to erupt for more than a year."

that's a very nice video and, remarkably, I could even watch it on my slow machine. thanks.

she's looking preeeetttttyyyyy mean. who wouldn't be.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/15/midwest.fireball/index.html?eref=edition

Finally, the last two laggards leave Florida!
http://www.savingcranes.org/betterlatethanneverthelast2009chicksleavefloridaapril142010.html
Gayle

The unpunctual pair certainly made tracks once they got going!

1. Did you know that the pores in eggshells are for the embryo to get OXYGEN though? Isn't that trippy? How they "breathe" it is another question.

2. Bob the owlet got reported on this evening on NPR. Nice story. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125997095

"flipped over and grabbed the offending kestrel"... if only I could do the same with the robin that is bellowing as I type (12:52 am - and ALL NIGHT at this time of year...). seriously. this thing sings all night and it positively ECHOES down the street.