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John Avise has started a new Sunday series: photos of dragonflies and damselflies. John’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

Dragonflies in North America, Part 1 

This week I begin a series of posts on Dragonflies and Damselflies (taxonomic Order Odonata) that I’ve photographed in North America.  I will go down my list of species in alphabetical order by common name.  I also show the state where I took each photo.

Band-winged Dragonlet, Erythrodiplax umbrata, male (Florida):

Band-winged Dragonlet, female of the brown form (Florida):

Band-winged Dragonlet, young male (Florida):

Black Saddlebags, Tramea lacerata, male (California):

Black Saddlebags, female (California):

 

Blue Corporal, Ladona deplanata, female (Georgia):

Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis, male (California):

Blue Dasher, female (California):

Blue-eyed Darner, Aeshna multicolor, male (California):

Blue-eyed Darner, male in flight (California):

Blue-eyed Darner, female (California):

Blue-eyed Darner, mating pair (California):

Scientists have known for a while that Mars currently lacks a magnetic field, and many blame that for its paltry atmosphere - with no protective shield around the planet, the solar wind was able to strip away much of the gaseous atmosphere over the course of billions of years. But, evidence has been mounting that Mars once had a magnetic field. Results from Insight, one of the Red Planet's landers, lend credence to that idea, but they also point to a strange feature - the magnetic field seemed to cover only the southern hemisphere, but not the north. A team from the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics thinks they might know why - in a recent paper, they described how a fully liquid core in Mars could create a lopsided magnetic field like the one seen in Insight’s data.

You never know when a central supermassive black hole is going to power up and start gobbling matter. Contrary to the popular view that these monsters are constantly devouring nearby stars and gas clouds, it turns out they spend part of their existence dormant and inactive. New observations from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton spacecraft opened a window on the "turn on event" for one of these monsters in a distant galaxy.

In a recent paper, a team of researchers indicated that photosynthetic bacteria could exist just beneath the snow and ice around Mars' mid-latitudes. If true, this could be the most easily accessible place to look for present-day life on Mars.

The solar system is currently embedded deep within the Local Bubble, a region of relatively low density stretching for a thousand light-years across. It was carved millions of years ago by a chain of supernova explosions. And the evidence for it is right under our feet.

Dumbest Thing of the Week: Turned to Stone; News Items: Where Did Earth's Water Come From, EPA Data on Emissions, Is Your Red My Red, Evolution of Complex Life, Crow Math Skills; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Separate the Art from the Artists, Does the Moon Rotate; Science or Fiction

As you’re digesting this Eastern weekend, how about putting some wildlife photos together for this feature?

Today we have some coyote videos from Kathy Mechling and a few Easter flowers from Patricia Morris. Their captions are indented and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

First, the wild d*gs (coyotes) from Kathy. Sound up!

Some of our more charismatic neighbors here in the Illinois Valley in SW.  Oregon.

First: find both coyotes:

Second: the second coyote is a little more obvious:

The reveal. She was curled up there all along:

Lagniappe: the pair harmonizing with distant fire engines:

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As I don’t know from flowers, readers will have to identify them for themselves. These were sent on March 21:

It might be hard to believe amidst a blizzard but spring is coming.  Just a few domestic flowers from central coast California to prove my point and cheer your day.

YouTube will almost certainly take down this video of Bill Maher’s entire show from yesterday, so I’m putting it up early today. Listen while you can! I’ve given the schedule below.

Intro (Maher monologue): 0-7:17

Douglas Murray: 7:17-18:15 (He talks about the topic of his new book, On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization.

Panel: Author and libertarian Matt Welch and Democratic Senator (Minnesota) Tina Smith: 18:17-47:03

Second comedy bit (Maher monologue; “New Rules”): 47:06-57:51

Douglas Murray is always good value, especially when he talks about Israel and Palestine (as he does here), and the “New Rules” bit is pretty good. They should have given him more time.

WELL, THEY TOOK IT DOWN. But you can at least hear Maher’s “New Rule” segment, which is about “The Not-Working Class”

and here’s the short intro:

and here is the non-broadcasted “overtime”. The first topic of discussion is the UK Supreme Court’s new ruling that there are two sexes and no more.

Researchers have developed a new coronagraph that could make it possible to see distant exoplanets obscured by light from their parent stars.

A new study by biomedical engineers and neuroscientists shows that the brain's visual regions play an active role in making sense of information.

A device has enabled people to see a new a shade of blue-green, which they say is more intense than any experienced before

According to a recent study by the non-profit Explore Titan, a nuclear-fission propulsion spacecraft could enable the first crewed mission to Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

In our neighborhood of the Milky Way, we see a region surrounding the solar system that is far less dense than average. But that space, that cavity, is a very irregular, elongated shape. What little material is left inside of this cavity is insanely hot, as it has a temperature of around a million Kelvin.

New research finds that despite large rivers and seas of liquid methane, Saturn's moon Titan seems mostly devoid of river deltas, raising new questions about the surface dynamics on this alien world.

Whenever there’s even a slight chance that an exoplanet shows signs of biological activity, people understandably get excited – but it’s never been aliens, and we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, not this time or the next, says Chris Lintott

Researchers use the sophisticated technology on NASA's Perseverance rover to analyze volcanic rocks in Mars' Jezero Crater. Their findings show that some of the same volcanic processes that led to life on Earth happened long ago on Mars, a stunning step toward finding signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

A quantum sensor using Earth's magnetic fields outperformed standard GPS backups in test flights. This technology could help commercial aircraft stay on course amid a rise in GPS jamming and spoofing attacks

A team of researchers has developed a new way to control light interactions using a specially engineered structure called a 3D photonic-crystal cavity that could enable transformative advancements in quantum computing, quantum communication and other quantum-based technologies.

A team of researchers has developed a new way to control light interactions using a specially engineered structure called a 3D photonic-crystal cavity that could enable transformative advancements in quantum computing, quantum communication and other quantum-based technologies.

A new smart insole system that monitors how people walk in real time could help users improve posture and provide early warnings for conditions from plantar fasciitis to Parkinson's disease.