Categories
Mildly Interesting Nature Scholarship/Erudition TechnoBLOTT

Periodic Table Rabbit Hole

Today we go down the Periodic Table rabbit hole. Many of today’s screen shots are from the excellent web site Periodic Tables.com Human Abundance What exactly are you full of? https://periodictable.com/Properties/A/HumanAbundance.html Q: Did you hear about the boy that ate uranium?A: He got an atomic ache. Notice how uranium is present in the human body. […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders Meaning of Life Movies Nature

WLBOTT Goes to the Science Fair (part II of II)

The Elders are naturally curious people, and constantly engage in their own science fair projects. UC#3 UC#3 is engaged in his own personal journey: Corn Through Both Time and Space: Tracking the Digestive Journey of Corn in Humans. We eagerly await the publication of his results in the journal Nature. Semi-Sequitur: UC#3 is the WLBOTT […]

Categories
Agriculture Food Mexico Nature

Corn / Maize

When I was a Younger Elder, I thought I noticed an anachronism in the Bible. Jesus and his disciples were gleaning corn on a Sunday, and the local proto-MAGA trolls were criticizing Him for working on the Sabbath. Corn was a new world crop, and wouldn’t appear in Jerusalem for 1,500 years. So what gives? […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders Climate Change Nature Oh, Grow Up!

Just How High are the Elders? (part I of III)

A question we are often asked: “Just how high are the Elders?” Let’s explore. (Thanks to topigraphic-maps.com and UC#1) Edmonton Darwin, Minnesota (World’s Largest Ball of Twine) Santa Barbara, Ca. Maryland and D.C. HousTex CenTex Snook, Texas (Chicken Fried Bacon) Oslo, Norway Austin, Minnesota (Spam Museum) Greenland Oh, Grow Up! Phuket, Thailand Lake Titicaca, Peru […]

Categories
Book Club Climate Change Nature Texas

Ice, Austin Style

Jeff Goodell’s book The Heat Will Kill You First is proving to be fascinating. As an Austin resident, he is able to describe global climate change and give recent examples from south and central Texas [ed. note: WLBOTT corporate headquarters is located in Central Texas]. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, crop loss, but perhaps most bizarrely, the […]

Categories
Animal Kingdom Nature Texas Work-Life Balance

Paper Wasp People

Ms. Paper Wasp shortly after stinging Elder UC#4. The Devil’s Sting A poignant story by Drew Bratcher about nine year old’s encounter with a paper wasp. (Paris Review). I am nine years old, soon to be ten. When people ask me what I want to be when I grow up, I say “country singer,” I […]

Categories
Animal Kingdom Nature Qatar

Qatar Aquatic Research Centre

At today’s 5:00AM WLBOTT editorial meeting, we proposed today’s BLOTT topic: Norwegian Salmon Farming. UC#3 provided an excellent semi-sequitur: the Qatar Aquatic Research Centre. The arc of our entire day was redirected. Oh what a tangled fishnet we weaveWhen BLOTT input from UC#3 we receive.Norwegian fish farming quickly turned Big-DumbWhich led to camels, fish, and […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders Meaning of Life Nature

The Garden of the Elders

Today we celebrate international blooming! UC#1 & SU I’ve got to make some corrections here. The rhubarb plant is named “Ruby” (not “Barb” as you might have guessed!). Wondering if you’ve ever heard of rhubarb down Texas way. It’s actually called a vegetable and is an acquired taste, which UC#1 hasn’t yet acquired! It’s wonderful […]

Categories
Food Heros Late Stage Capitalism Nature Philippines

Golden Rice, Part II

There is so much to talk about with Golden Rice that we have only seen the tip of the Rice-Berg™©®℗☮. Distrust of Corporate Producers One of the concerns of opponents of Golden Rice is a distrust of the GMO patent holders. In August of 2013, a group of protesters uprooted the golden rice plants in […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders Nature

An Early Morning Walk

On an early morning walk in the WLBOTT central Texas neighborhood, our court photographer took some beautiful pictures of various neighbors’ flowers. (click on images to see high-res in new tab) Prickly Pear Details… Opuntia ficus-indica, the Indian fig opuntia, fig opuntia, or prickly pear, is a species of cactus that has long been a […]