Life On Two Wheels

Along the river and toward the mountains a morning shadow shimmers across the road. The rays of the first light jet through the trees and across a figure gliding upon the road. His breath trails in short spurts, petrified as it hits the icy air. All is quiet except the slight sound of the athlete as he summons himself for yet another days work. Soon the rest of the world will bustle with life as well and the brief simplicity of cyclist and nature will disappear into the everyday struggle of life in full motion; the errands and intervals, the appointments and intersections, and the deadlines and finish lines OutPaceTheRace

Monday, May 08, 2006

Butterfly Plague

North Bend, WA
Monday, May 08, 2006

I discovered a startling fact today… California sees worst butterflies season in 35 years! (courtesy of Yahoo news). It seems that the recently cold and wet conditions in California have taken a toll on the butterflies, and, heaven forbid, the butterflies are cocooning six feet under! A befuddled Art Shapiro thinks that "there will probably be long-term repercussions, especially for species already in serious decline," he’s a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California Davis. Hmm, I can only dread the possible repercussions of the butterfly plague… will spiders begin to die off? That’d be terrible… even ghastly! But I guess were speaking in terms of evolutionary implications… so perhaps the remaining butterflies would grow an extra layer of blubber to stay warm in the increasingly bitter cold conditions of California. We’d call them the blubberflies…

For more breaking news on the latest on the insect front, check out these superb stories (you won’t be able to take your eyes off ‘em…):

Why Ants Rule the World
Advanced Optics ... on Butterfly Wings
Why Insects Swarm, and the Gory Endings of Loners
Slim Secret: Butterflies Burn Fat in Cocoon

posted by Tom Peterson @ 8:52 PM