Rain Gryphon

Some asshole in India hid a bomb in a pineapple and fed it to an Elephant. As per their standard practice of disinformation, Reuters refers to the bomb as a "firecracker". Makes one wonder whether it was a Ladyfinger or an Inch-and-a-Half that killed the Elephant.

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What did people call the helicopter seeds from Maples before helicopters were invented?

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For that matter, what were Grammar Nazis called before the advent of Naziism? Grammar Huns doesn't really seem adequate.

Mother of All Bombs! I love that it's got an American flag on the nose. I really, really hope that one of the ISIS guys looked up and saw that American flag at the last second. :D

I honestly thought we'd used a couple of these before during the second Iraq War. I distinctly recall reading a story about a huge bomb going off in the distance, and the journalists initially thought that it was a tactical nuke.

All the news outlets are falling all over themselves to characterize this as the "biggest conventional bomb ever used", but it really isn't. The British "Grand Slam" bomb that was used against the Nazis was slightly larger, although probably not as powerful, since it had to penetrate the ground before exploding, hence had a lot of steel in it.

A nice discussion of why the MOAB explodes just above ground level.

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News about Enceladus. When I was a child, no-one even knew for sure what the surface of Mars was like. These things just astound me when I stop and reflect on them.

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More evidence for the self-awareness of elephants. If we're willing to do completely insane stuff like granting personhood to rivers, why on earth do we still tolerate the abuse and exploitation of elephants, dolphins and apes?

Elephants comfort distressed friends. I've seen something similar with crows. I was watching a family group foraging. They had the usual lookout perched on a lamp post, and then three or four adults and two juveniles working their way through the grass in a loose line abreast. One of the juveniles had something happen - I think possibly stung by a bee. He screeched in distress, and everyone immediately came swarmng over to protect him, even the lookout.

There was a lot of confusion and vocalization, and one of the adults flew back up to take the lookout post (I'm not sure if it was the same one or not), while the rest kind of calmed and reassured the juvenile. After about a minute of that, they spread back out into the forage line again. The juvenile gave a little forlorn squawk and just stood in place as they moved off. I think he was afraid that it was going to happen again. One adult came back and then walked right beside him as they continued searching for food.

When you see stuff like this, it's just so very, very obvious that their emotional life isn't that very different from our own, and that to at least some degree they're reasoning about possibilities based on an internal model of the world. I have very little patience with the type of ethologist who attributes all animal behaviour to instinct.

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Someone's built a working spike engine for a single-stage-to-orbit rocket. Last I knew those were just test-bed curiousities. Time marches on.