The red dwarf star Gliese 581 has been found by European astronomers to be the host star in a solar system that contains the most Earth-like planet so far discovered outside our solar system. The historical discovery has fleshed out a planet that maintains a habitable temperature range, but whether it is rocky or icy, and whether or not any water is present is still unknown.

• Earth-Like Planet

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Why do you go to the airport? To fly of course! And so do the eagles, apparently, in Sanford Florida. Some baby eagles have been removed from their nest, because the FAA has declared them and their parents a flight hazard; one eagle has already been killed in a collision with a plane.

• Eagles at the Airport

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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has voted to remove the ’sea cow’ from the endangered list to the merely threatened list. Who owns you baby?!! It seems that nearly every week this year a new article is written about a different species being removed from the endangered species list. Does this mean we have triumphed over habitat destruction and returned most of these beings to healthy population numbers? In most cases, the answer is no. Small recoveries have happened, for relatively short periods of time (read, a few decades at most), compared to the centuries of serious habitat loss that most of these creatures have been suffering. What drives these commissions and Federal agencies to so rabidly thin the members of the endangered species list? Why, land development, of course. And, in this case, recreational boating, coupled with the Florida housing market.

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A praying mantis is an awsome force of nature, for being such a bitty insect. The following link from ‘The Human Element’ blogspot, links to some neat video clips in which it is neither good to be a mouse nor an amorous male mantis, poor guys!

• Praying Mantis

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Watch the really neat NOVA program on cuttlefish called ‘Kings of Camoflage’, and you will appreciate how very smart and fascinating cuttlefish can be. Check out your PBS schedule for show times.

• Cuttlefish

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While, Nat King Cole may have found his love in Avalon, wildlife biologist have found two newly hatched members of the Accipitridae family. The bald eagle chicks are the first to hatch on Avalon since the 1940s, as the dumping of DDT and PCBs on the island decimated the population by thinning the shells of their eggs. There may even be another set of chicks born next week, with any luck.

• Bald Eagles on Catalina

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The Fish and Wildlife Service is being investigated by the Justice Department for further corruption with regard to the conservation of species.

• More Bush Conservation Corruption

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