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Have a Happy Thought:     Sometimes, a year feels like a really long time. Like, the fact that 2020 still hasn’t ended is just ridiculous ! /s   But just think: Earth’s year is just over 365 days long. A year for Halley’s Comet, meanwhile, is 75 Earth years, 5 months and 19 days. That’s just over 27,500 days!! Here’s what it looked like in 1986: Comet 1P/Halley as taken March 8, 1986 by W. Liller, Easter Island, part of the International Halley Watch (IHW) Large Scale Phenomena Network.   Just a few days ago Halley’s comet has reached its farthest point from the sun (aphelion) and started its journey back toward the sun… and therefore to the next time we’ll be able to see it (without telescopes), which won’t be until 2061.   Since this comet comes around so regularly, and is so visible each time, it has been noted, written about, drawn, and even been sewn into history. Because one of the times this comet was swinging by Earth, there jus...

Have a Happy Thought:   We’re winding down to the end of the year, which means lots of “best of the year” competitions are publishing their winners. Which means I get to bring to you some more stunning nature photography:   First-off: bees.     Image: Dawson’s burrowing bee (Amegilla dawsoni) / Kennedy Range, Western Australia, Daniel Jones       Image: A relocating swarm of bees in Staffordshire, UK  , Lucy Monckton   And if you want videos of bees, as well as possibly the most calming voice you could ever think of, check out the social media channels of Erika Thompson / texasbeeworks. Or just google “Another great day of saving the bees.” You will thank me!     Next up: Underwater     Image : California Sea Lion . Simon Biddie       Image : Giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) / Whyalla, South Australia , Matty Smith     Next up, animals in no...

Have a Happy Thought:     Every once in a while, being overly pedantic can actually bring a bit of joy into your life.   Take me for example. There is a subtle joke on a pet rock that you can get at stores here. It’s a little (palm-sized) stone that says “When I grow up, I want to be a boulder like my dad” For those that didn’t watch 1980’s TV in Australia/New Zealand, this plays off of a tv commercial for a building goods store where a young boy says that he wants to be a builder like his dad.   Me, being pedantic, however, have problems with this since large boulders tend to turn into smaller rocks as they age, due to weathering and general erosion.   My bit of joy now comes with the knowledge that at least for a very specific type of rock, a small pebble can indeed grow into a boulder, or even a huge mountain range!   May I introduce you to : Dolomite. This is the type of rock that makes up, and is named after, the Dolomite Rang...

Have a Happy Thought:   Right now in the United States of America, people are celebrating Thanksgiving. This holiday has a long and storied history with many different and changing interpretations , but let’s be honest – at its core, it is an excuse to get together with close friends and family and eat some really good food.   Since we are now in the era of so-called Artificial Intelligence (perhaps more properly called generative natural language or image processors ) I bring to you some images of a Thanksgiving feast, as imagined by DALL-E3.   I don’t know about you, but Braebriny Casserole looks and sounds delicious, while Plumlin Rols only sound delicious. I am very sceptical about Pisrring and Fufer. Also those Maaed Potatoes look suspiciously like green beans…      https://www.aiweirdness.com/thanksgiving-table/       Thank you so much to AI researcher Janelle Shane for bringing this to us: https://www.aiweirdness.com...

Have a Happy Thought:   If you’ve ever caught yourself speaking to yourself, and thought maybe other people will think you’re weird… Well, yes it’s weird that a brains talks to itself But it’s a weird that I think all of us do   And I can say that we (humans) all (mostly) do this because of things called “split-brain” experiments. These can only really be done in humans after some major trauma or surgery, where the connections between the two halves of a human brain are entirely (or largely) cut. In “normal” human brains, there is an information superhighway connecting the two sides, called the corpus collosum. Sometimes, often in treating epilepsy, this can be cut, leaving two halves of brains that still work well, they just work… independently.   And then we can do all sorts of things to play with the two sides of the brain, separately. We all learned as kids that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and vice versa, right? ...

Have a Happy Thought:   Sometimes you just want some soothing nature sounds or to connect with wild animals just doing their thing. Webcams are a wonderful helper here!   A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the bear camera in Katmai National Park       I’ve recently discovered two more that might end up on background play for a while. Both are run by the same organisation, and this time are in Namibia. Both can be watched live, or if you find yourself logging on in the middle of local night, you can always “rewind” to find some good action, or sunsets. Or you know just enjoy the peaceful nature of a waterhole at night WAIT WAS THAT A BAT okay it’s peaceful again.   The first is of a water hole in the Namib desert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydYDqZQpim8       And the second is in Gondwana Kalahari park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPd7Ys7FC0I&ab_channel=NamibiaCam       ...

Have a Happy Thought:   Does it annoy anyone else that there is just an absolute proliferation of what seems to be the same competition, just sponsored by a different company?   No? Just me?   Well, in this case I can’t even get angry because every new company or organisation that has an “image of the year” competition just means more amazing photos I get to share with you.   This week, we have the Evident Image of the Year Awards , which used to be Olympus (like the cameras), that mostly seem to do lab equipment ? Whatever, enjoy these incredible close-up, microscopic, or otherwise imaged-for-scientific-purposes-or-with-lab-equipment images:   Nervous system of a juvenile sea star (Patiria miniata) about 1 cm wide. Image: Laurent Formery.       Edelweiss stamens. Image: Jiao Li.       Scales of the wing of the Urania rhipheus moth. Image: Javier Ruperez       Tripos...