Spirifer hawkinsii

Compare and contrast:

Brachiopod fossils illustration
An illustration of a pair of Spirifer hawkinsii brachiopod fossils collected by Charles Darwin in the Falkland Islands during the Beagle voyage on 22nd March, 1833.
Stense holding brachiopods
A pair of Spirifer hawkinsii brachiopod fossils being held by Stense at the Natural History Museum in London last week.

Full story on the Friends of Charles Darwin website.

(Thanks, Stense!)

It has come to something

…when the most compelling thing to be found on television is a live video-feed of a patch of mud at the bottom of a pond:

Stickleback nest
A stickleback nest this morning.

A fowl habit

I know exactly what you're thinking: where can I find a photograph of a young kid nonchalantly smoking a fag next to a large cockerel?

My friend, your search is at an end:

Henri Groulx
Portrait of Henri Groulx, c. 1920.

Elf questionnaire

Legolas
An elf towards the end of the Third Age yesterday.

Jen and I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-ray over the weekend. Half-way into The Fellowship of the Ring, I thought of a pretty crap joke, viz:

Q: What's the main cause of death for elves?
A: Blowing out the candles on their birthday cakes.

…Elves are immortal, you see. Thousands of candles. Over-exhaustion.

Please yourself. I told you it was a crap joke. But I didn't let that put me off trying to tell it to Jen…

Me: Do you know what the main cause of death is for elves?
Jen: Pixie-matosis.

Damn! That is so much better than my joke.

✽

Later, as the Fellowship of the Ring were being attacked by thousands of goblins in the Mines of Moria, Jen wondered what in Middle Earth they all ate.

Orc luncheon meat, I suggested.

Still not as good as pixie-matosis, though. Dammit!