Science & Nature Archives - Heather's Homilies

The US EPA Reduces Safety Rules (plus Tweets)

Heather Hastie — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 01:14:24 +0000

There is so much that is execrable to comment on in the Trump Administration, too much just goes under the radar. Covering Trump’s tweets every day is a full time job in itself. While he accuses others of fake news, his own outright lies are legion. The Washington Post documents over 2,000 lies or misleading […]

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A Hedgehog Named Heather!

Heather Hastie — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 02:52:24 +0000

I’ve got a hedgehog named after me! This is one of the coolest things ever to happen to me in my life, and a great honour! The hedgehog is a rescue one at the SWCC Hedgehog Hospital in Hertfordshire, England. I suspect intervention by science communicator Amy Carparelli. A £25 donation allows you to sponsor […]

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Tusked Weta Versus Foraging Pig

Heather Hastie — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 04:28:57 +0000

Regular readers may remember my recent post about the rare New Zealand Mountain Stone Weta. The Tusked Weta (Motuweta isolata) is also critically endangered, though its impressive tusks and usual habitat make it slightly better known. I always thought “The Dead Wetas” would be a really good heavy metal band name. (See below for a […]

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Simon’s Cat Logic: Is Your Cat Talking to You?

Heather Hastie — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 03:14:29 +0000

There’s a new episode in the Simon’s Cat Logic series: ‘Is Your Cat Talking to You?’. I like this episode very much as it actually answers questions definitively that people have about their cats. It also answers a question that came up for me just yesterday when stroking my mother’s cat. She (Mum’s cat) got […]

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New Zealand’s Stone Weta – Genuine Cryogenics

Heather Hastie — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 01:45:34 +0000

The Mountain Stone Weta is the subject of the fourth release in a row from BBC Earth relating to New Zealand. They’re on quite a roll when it comes to short clips about my country, which I’m loving of course. There are more than seventy species of weta in New Zealand, some more common than […]

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The Carniverous Giant Powelliphanta Snail

Heather Hastie — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 02:27:29 +0000

Nobody loves me Everybody hates me I’m going down the garden to eat worms … That’s the children’s poem that came to mind when I saw this video. It’s of Powelliphanta snail, a rare giant snail that’s native to New Zealand. The Powelliphanta snail is carniverous, and mostly eats worms – “sucking them down like […]

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Kiwi Courtship – The Female Takes Charge

Heather Hastie — Sat, 10 Jun 2017 05:13:25 +0000

BBC Earth has done it again – given us another wonderful video of native New Zealand fauna. A couple of days ago there was a special video of Tuatara hatching. This time it’s the brown kiwi. The kiwi of course is the endangered flightless bird New Zealanders get their nickname from. We also gave the […]

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Amazing Video: Hatching Tuatara

Heather Hastie — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 01:09:10 +0000

I subscribe to BBC Earth on YouTube, which never disappoints in its offerings. Today the selection was especially exciting – video of hatching tuatara from inside the burrow. Tuatara, of course, can only be found in New Zealand, and are the last living dinosaur. (Note: There is no “s” in Maori. All nouns are both […]

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Cool Spy Animals

Heather Hastie — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 02:48:30 +0000

As so often, it was reader and science communicator Amy Carparelli (@AmyAmylou1993 on Twitter) who brought this to my attention. John Nolan is making animatronic animals at his studio in London for use as spy animals. They’re for use in the filming of an upcoming documentary series. Spy Pup by John Downer The first is […]

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Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight

Heather Hastie — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 03:50:35 +0000

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists made this significant and serious move last week. However, there’s so much going on at the moment I didn’t find time to write about it. Then, the first thing I saw on CNN today was: Breaking News: Trump Administration Puts Iran on Notice. General Michael Flynn, the US national […]

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