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Have a Happy Thought:   I love that I’ve been doing this for long enough that I can bring you this wonderful annual event for the third time (I apparently missed 2020 – did anything else happen that year that might have distracted me?)   Yep, that’s right: The finalists for the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced! Here are some of my favourites (there are 42 finalists in total, so go check out the rest):   Image: Alex Cooper, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com     Image: Alex Pansier, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com   Image: Arshdeep Singh, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com   Image: Andrew Peacock, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com   Image: Jennifer Hadley, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com   Image: Miroslav Srb, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com   Image: Thomas Vijayan, via ComedyWildlifePhoto.com       And one last thought: Plain Language bills are happening around the English-speaking world . This is where governments try to not write like governm

Have a Happy Thought:    You know when you do something stupid or clumsy and you really hope no one else saw it? Well, so did all of these animals, but – unlucky for them – lucky for us – there was a photographer right there to catch them in all of their glory!   All of these come from the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards , where you can now vote for your favourite for 2021. Here are some of mine (there are 42 finalists in total, so go check out the rest) : Arthur Trevino with "Ninja Prairie Dog"   John Speirs with "I guess summer's over"   Gurumoorthy Gurumoorthy with "The Green Stylist"   David Eppley with "Majestic and Graceful Bald Eagle"   Chee Kee Teo with "Time for school"   Kevin Biskaborn with "Quarantine Life"   Patrick Dirlam with "Did I say you could take my picture?"   Jakub Hodan with "Treehugger"       Also, honourable mention to a subsc

Have a happy thought:   It’s a long weekend! The best kind – where there’s no Monday next week Photo credit: Tanya Houppermans   This long weekend snuck up on me Photo credit: Shane Keena   So here’s hoping that you’ll all be out doing something amazing…. Photo credit: Geert Weggen   And going out looking your most fabulous self Photo credit: Kallol Mukherjee     And that those embarrassing moments don’t end up on social media Photo credit: Arshdeep Singh     Have a great weekend y’all!     These and more photos from the 2018 Comedy Wildlife Photo awards, see all entries and more winners, here: https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/comedy-widlife-2018-competition-winners.php   Also, entries for the 2019 competition close at the end of June, so you’re still in for a chance for next year!

Have a Happy Thought: Creatures on this planet are far weirder than anything sci-fi writers and CGI artists can dream up. Here’s a few examples (that will, no doubt, inspire both writers and artists): A peppermint stick insect (Megacrania batesii). As a defense mechanism, it shoots a spray that, to humans, smells like peppermint.  Image credit: Caitlin Henderson   Southern Pink Underwing Moth (Phyllodes imperialis smithersi). The caterpillars develop “eye spots” and “teeth” that they can show off when alarmed.  Photo: P.G. Richards, from https://www.natura-pacific.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Andren-Richards-Sands-2021-Distribution-and-ecology-of-the-Southern-Pink-Underwing-Moth-in-NSW.pdf   Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) Credit: (yakonstant/Shutterstock)     Crinoids (class: Crinoidea). I mean, once you go into the ocean, we know things are going to be weird, but seriously! A sea lily (Crinoidea) with a commensal crab (Allogalathea elegans). Image: Jeffrey

Have a Happy Thought:    (If you have a young child at home, you may already know this / remember this fact but)….   Centipedes have 100 legs and Millipedes have 1000 legs, right? Nah, that’d be too easy.   Both centipedes and millipedes have bodies made up of lots (and lots) of segments. The difference is that centipedes have one pair of legs per segment. Millipedes have two pairs of legs per segment.   In fact, there has never been a recorded sighting of a millipede with more than 1000 legs. The record-holder has around 750. Well, that was true until last December, when an absolute wonder of the natural world was found in a mine in Western Australia. The species was named Eumillipes Persephone, and this one creature nearly doubled the record.   How many legs does it have, you ask? One thousand, three hundred and six. 1,306. One of the best parts of this story is how the discoverer counted the legs. It’s pretty much exactly how you would do it: “by taki

Have a Happy Thought:  Your vote is important. Make sure to make your voice heard and put your vote in for…     Fat. Bear. Week.     That’s right folks, with no other important election activity going on at all right now*, you can focus all of your energy on deciding which of these bears is the chonkiest! “Their road to greatness began months ago. After a summer-long effort, brown bears at Brooks River in Katmai National Park have reached peak fat… In the bear world, fat exemplifies success. It is the fuel that powers their ability to endure winter hibernation as well as the key to their reproductive success.” (from https://explore.org/fat-bear-week )   Let me introduce you to a few of the contenders, and you can check out the official website for the rest of them, and to cast your vote(s).   32 Chunk – yes this is the same bear! He grows out a thick, dark brown summer coat of hair as he puts on those pounds. 164 – if your voting criteria is “how much weight c