Trophic Cascade ~ Discovery & Eco-Regeneration

PBS Nature shares The Serengeti Rules episode on keystone species in ecosystems and the notion of a "trophic cascade" plus ultimately the prospect of ecosystem regeneration via "upgrading". These ecologists and natural scientists used "living labs" to better disentangle the complexities of biomes, for example, comparing tidepool life with and without starfish, pond life with and without bass fish, Scottish highlands with and without grazing sheep, parks with and without wolves, and kelp forests with and without sea otters.

Connected World ~ International Collaborations

Nature shares Connected World infographic spotlighting patterns of international collaborations from 1 February 2018 to 30 January 2019 as captured by the Nature Index...

Protected Planet ~ Goal of 50% of Earth by 2050

I'm particularly interested in seeing half of Earth be protected by 2050.  Towards this goal, Protected Planet shares the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) covering both terrestrial and marine protected areas and tracks progress... The IUCN has a half dozen so-called "Protected Area Management Categories" -- and those are important and worth adding to directly, but I hope we can especially push for enhancement of Category VI "Sustainable Use" with particular eye on private conservancies, land banks, forestry reserves, flood management zones, and potentially even the careful extractions of natural resources. Finally, I hope that we figure out how not to ravage the other half of Earth but rather we green it appropriately (e.g. our cities), share it with nature, and refrain from eco-devastation generally.

Greening the Desert ~ Alt Perspectives...

Three documentary examples of rehabilitating large-scale damaged ecosystems...

Moral Machines ~ Discovering Ethical Views...

Nature published The Moral Machine experiment results...

"Before we allow our cars to make ethical decisions, we need to have a global conversation to express our preferences to the companies that will design moral algorithms, and to the policymakers that will regulate them. The Moral Machine was deployed to initiate such a conversation, and millions of people weighed in from around the world. [...] an online experimental platform designed to explore the moral dilemmas faced by autonomous vehicles. This platform gathered 40 million decisions in ten languages from millions of people in 233 countries and terri tories. [...] Geolocation allowed us to identify the country of residence of Moral Machine respondents, and to seek clusters of countries with homogeneous vectors of moral preferences."

Here's the summary visualization of results...

Totality ~ Amazing Eclipse Image from the Air!

Photographer Jon Carmichael captured an epic image of solar eclipse totality from the air! It's a photo-montage...

"Within a matter of seconds, it goes from broad daylight to completely nighttime," Carmichael recalled. "Everybody just kind of gasped and went silent. And I'm just focusing on getting these shots. [...] I took over 1,200 photos." The final image shows the eclipse just as the plane passes over the Snake River, separating Oregon from Idaho. It took close to a year after the flight for Carmichael to assemble the final print."

The Wild City ~ Dutch Urban Animals Film Trailer

Check trailer for De Wilde Stad or The Wild City!

Laniakea ~ Our Supercluster Neighborhood!

Thanks to Randy from Cool Infographics for spotlighting nice Nature coverstory on Laniakea, our home supercluster!

R.I.P. Ootje Oxenaar ~ Designed NL Banknotes...

Sad to hear that Ootje Oxenaar, the graphic designer of beautiful Dutch money and RISD instructor, has passed away at 87. I particularly liked his Sunflower design for the 50 Guilder note, which was NL orange plus harkened to Van Gogh and was a complete contrast to monolithic American currency at the time... 24Oranges spotted this self retrospective video by Oxenaar...

Bird Migration ~ Seasonal Flight in Americas!

Audubon spotlights a full season of bird migrations visualized!

"A new animation from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology tracks 118 species along their journeys across the Americas."

Moving Mr Al ~ 400 Ton Oak Tree Shifted!

Berard heavy lifts Mr Al, a 400 ton oak tree 2 klicks!

Jumbo-Gardeners ~ Elephants in the Rainforest

BBC's Power of Nature spotlights the role of elephants in gardening the rainforest, spreading seeds, boosting biodiversity, and more!

Oldest Living Things ~ Rachel Sussman's World!

Rachel Sussman spotlights Oldest Living Things 2,000 years+ old! Thanks to Kottke for spotting!

BeetleCopter ~ Burrard-Lucas Shoots Serengeti

Thanks to The Kid Should See This for spotting nature photographer (and crafter of Camptraptions including the original BeetleCam) Will Burrard-Lucas's BeetleCopter in the Serengeti...

Flight Plan ~ V Formations Bird Dynamics!

CSMonitor's Sudeshna Chowdhury shares Why do birds fly in V? highlighting research by Royal Veterinary College, University of London biologists Steven Portugal and James Usherwood on bird flight dynamics! Check out Nature video...

Waldkindergarten ~ Back to Nature Campfire Kids

Der Spiegel's Rupert Neate writes about Campfire Kids: Going Back to Nature with Forest Kindergartens...

"These children are sitting on logs in a forest around a campfire. This no ordinary day care center, this a Waldkindergarten. [...] the risks are outweighed by the "massive" mental and physical benefits of playing outside. "Children who have attended a Waldkindergarten have a much deeper understanding of the world around them, and evidence shows they are often much more confident and outgoing when they reach school." [...] the US and the UK's obsession with health and safety and regulations may have slowed adoption of the idea, but [...] forest kindergartens have proved very popular in Japan, which is also known for its red tape bureaucracy."

And here's what it looks like in short docu by Hubert Ulrich...

Ken Yeang ~ Talks on Bioclimatic Green Design...

Several talks and interviews with pioneering green designer and eco-architect Ken Yeang. First, Subtropical Cities 2011 Keynote... Work with Nature... CTBUH 2008 Dubai Congress on Ecoskyscrapers... In Person interview (stay past glitches up front)...

Power of Nature ~ BBC on Earth Ecosystems...

Check out lovely BBC series on the Power of Nature...

Cosmic Storm ~ Tree Rings Spot AD 774-5 Event

Thanks to Time's science writer Michael Lemonick for spotting The Ancient Space Storm That Struck the Earth...

"Sometime between the spring of 774 A.D and the summer of 775, a cataclysmic event happened somewhere out in the cosmos -- and we felt it here, as a spike of radioactive carbon-14 and beryllium-10. The isotopes were taken up by growing Japanese cedar trees and there they remained."

A Japanese team revealed the anomalous 20-times-normal concentrations last year in a Nature piece, A signature of cosmic-ray increase in ad 774–775 from tree rings in Japan...

...and now another team offers an explanation, A Galactic short gamma-ray burst as cause for the 14C peak in AD 774/5.

The President ~ NatGeo Spotlights Giant Sequoia!

NatGeo spotlights this Snow Tree giant sequoia!

"Cloaked in the snows of California’s Sierra Nevada, the 3,200-year-old giant sequoia called The President rises 247 feet. Two other sequoias have wider trunks, but none has a larger crown, say the scientists who climbed it. The figure at top seems taller than the other climbers because he’s standing forward on one of the great limbs."