The current issue of Nature reports on research into brood parasitism relationships between the Australian species Superb Fairy-Wren (Malurus cyaneus) and Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx basalis). I found the fairy-wren's strategy interesting: if there's only one chick in the nest, it's probably a parasite, so the nest is abandoned. Morning Edition has a brief audio report.

posted: 3:27:31 PM  

Standoff on the National Mall: one more reason why I'm glad that I don't work downtown. In the past years, we have been visited by so many disasters great and small, natural and man-made, that this one just seems comical. Of course, I'll feel differently if the guy really is packing explosives and he blows a big hole in the Reflecting Pool.

posted: 8:47:56 AM