Biocanvas

Ferns first appeared some 360 million years ago. Being an ancient plant still surviving today, ferns have evolved mechanisms to help in reproduction. Seen here is the sporangia surrounded by paraphyses. The sporangia contain spores that spread and allow the plant to widely distribute, while paraphyses are sterile hairs that protect the sporangia until they open.

This warms the cockles of my heart

Sound as a dollar!

Happy dog

In the Ukraine, the priests aren't hiding

At the root, the dispute is a moral one, and this is recognized by the leaders of the church.

Spiritus Sanctus

                                                   Orthodox cathedral in Nis, Serbia

Cool

Let this load, go full screen, and enjoy.

Into The Mind - Official Teaser from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

crazy deep water crossings

Some of these guys have more brass than sense.

Cabin Porn

                                                                    From Portugal

Uh, what?

Captain Druey P. Parks while in F-94C jet, at an altitude of 25,000 feet, throws a kitten to show that any breathing organism can feel comfortable in a state of weightlessness. USA. February 1958.

A badass...

Mark Donaldson of Australia

 Patrolling with Afghan and US forces, they were ambushed by a well-prepared and larger Taliban force. The ambush began with sustained machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire, causing several casualties. Donaldson deliberately exposed himself to fire from the Taliban fighters in order to draw their attention away from the casualties, allowing them to be moved to cover. 

When the patrol attempted to withdraw, the number of casualties was such that the unwounded personnel (including Donaldson) had to make their way on foot, beside their vehicles, as the casualties filled the vehicles. 

As they set off, it was realised that an Afghan interpreter attached to the patrol was wounded, and had not been loaded into the vehicles. Donaldson immediately crossed the 80 metres (87 yd) or so of open ground between the convoy and the interpreter, under heavy fire, and then carried him back to the vehicles where Donaldson administered first aid. The patrol eventually broke free of the ambush after two hours.

Russia denounces the revolution in the Ukraine.

Via 20 Committee

  "Things are moving very fast in Ukraine today. President Yanukovych, after the bloodbath this week on the streets of Kyiv, has been thrown out of office by the parliament. The country is in turmoil, and in the east, centered on Kharkiv, the Moscow-backed Ukrainian Front that I informed you of three weeks ago, is arming the population and preparing for war.

And now the Russian Foreign Ministry has made its position clear in a new press release on its website – the new government in Kyiv is illegitimate and it’s the West’s fault. This is a remarkably rough diplomatic message. It cannot be construed as anything less than a threat to an independent Ukraine."

Meanwhile, crowds in the western Ukraine topple a statue of the hated Russian Communist, V.I. Lenin.

Note that since this film, Yanukovych has fled Kiev for the eastern city of Kharkiv.

Crossing the Dingo Gap on Mars

 An important threshold on Mars has now been crossed. Landing in mid-2012, the Curiosity rover is searching for clues of whether life could ever have existed on the red planet. Recent findings of Curiosity include evidence for an ancient (but now dried) freshwater lake, and the non-detection of the biomarker methane in the Martian atmosphere. To continue its investigation, the car-sized rover is on an expedition to roll up Mt. Sharp, the central peak of the large crater in which it landed. Life might have shown preference for water that once ran down the Martian mountain. Two weeks ago, to avoid more dangerous and rocky terrain, Curiosity was directed to roll across a one-meter high sand dune that blocked a useful entrance to Mt. Sharp. Just after the short trip over Dingo Gap was successful, the robotic rover took the above image showing the now-traversed sand mound covered with its wheel tracks.  These pictures, as sharp and clear as they can be, are simply amazing.

Via APOD

New developments in the Ukraine.

Things are seriously heating up in central Europe.

"If what The Interpreter’s hearing is true, Yanukovych has left Kiev for the city of Kharkiv. Maybe that’s because he’s lost control of the capital or maybe, as the State Department claims, he’s gone to Kharkiv to shore up support. Either way, though, there’s no scenario where the government simply abdicates and the opposition takes over. Russia won’t relinquish the country that easily. So either things are about to get even rougher in Kiev as Putin fills the power vacuum or Yanukovych is planning a new move."

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has voted to release the woman Yanukovych defeated in the last election from prison.

To understand the problem, one must know that in the west of the country, ethnic Ukrainians are predominant.  In the east, it's ethnic Russians.  The Crimea, on the Black Sea, is also heavily Russian and holds a vital naval base that the Russians will not allow to fall out of their control.  With their puppet Yanukovych at the helm, they don't worry, but with a truly independent Ukraine in control, they consider that a problem worth fighting over.

The Financial Times reports:  

"Russia is prepared to fight a war over the Ukrainian territory of Crimea to protect the ethnic Russian population and its military base there, a senior government official has told the FT.

“If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war,” the official said. “They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia.” In August 2008, Russian troops invaded Georgia after the Georgian military launched a surprise attack on the separatist region of South Ossetia in an effort to establish its dominance over the republic…

However, many government officials say in private that Ukraine falls inside Russia’s sphere of influence. “We will not allow Europe and the US to take Ukraine from us. The states of the former Soviet Union, we are one family,” said a foreign policy official. “They think Russia is still as weak as in the early 1990s but we are not.”

So, the fitting end to the Sochi Olympics is a giant war in central Europe, in which the host country plays a primary role in starting a conflict.  Where is Obama in all this?  Nowhere, because he has squandered his credibility with all parties, but especially with Putin, who despises him.  The fruits of Obama's Syrian debacle are now evident.  His amateurish and naive behavior there leads to this new sort of conflict becoming all that much more probable.  With a strong, assertive America, as least there would be a hope of some moderation in the behavior of these people, but now, not so much.   Accurate or not, Putin likely believes he has a free hand in handling this crisis with the Ukraine however he wants, and it appears he is right.

If that is how it comes to pass, consider the encouragement that will give to every other tin pot tyrant.  What violence can we expect from such luminaries as Kim Jong Un, the Castros, The Chinese, or Maduro in Venezuela?

What if during some conflagration Obama manages to stumble the US into a hot war, ready or not?  How would you like to go to war with Red China?  Why shouldn't they challenge us now while we have a feckless naif in charge?  Something like that is probably the most immediate threat to our peace, there are multiple hair triggers ready to be pulled, and there are three long years left to endure of the narcissistic Nobel Laureate in charge of the most powerful country in the free world.

Hang on, and pass the ammunition.

This could be just the beginning of a very bloody three years.

B-2 in a snowstorm

A row of badasses...

... as observed in their natural habitat.

                                             
                   British Special Air Service desert patrol, WWII