Transformer Owl!

Ladies and Gentlemen, you've waited patiently. At long last your prayers have been answered:

SuperForest Comics: "Laser Hare Removal"

Ha ha! Jk, we loooooove hares. Plus rabbits. We love all animals!

Seriously, only seek hare removal if your physician has recommended it and you've already explored all other options.

Love,

Jackson

Kinship With All Life

The title of this post will be my theme for the week. It also happens to be the title of the first book my grandmother gave my father, and the first book (and same love-worn copy) that my father gave to me.

It is a wonderful book with an important message: that there is a universal language of love that transcends and translates amongst all living things. And with an open mind (and heart) we can communicate, and commune, with all life (animal and human).

This is something I'm sure most animal lovers or pet owners at one time or another have experienced, and it's a message that's personally had a lasting impact on my life. As a largely 'civilized', urban dwelling, technologically advanced species, we often forget our true context in the world, or lose touch with that special connection to nature.

This book is a wonderful reminder.

It's available here at Amazon or from the publisher.

The Superforest Book Club

Speaking of books and Kinship with all life...


This novel is essentially a running dialogue between a (yes, I'm saying this correctly) telepathic gorilla, and an Average Joe Schmoe. If you can get past that odd premise (and it took me a minute to do so), you'll find yourself thrust into an engaging, challenging discourse on the evolution and mythology of mankind and the resultant course we've set for ourselves and our planet.

As silly as it sounds, it's surprisingly refreshing to find yourself put on the spot by a 600 lb gorilla, even if he is fictional.



This book was certainly a mind-opener for me, and for several of the high school students I taught. Even those who disliked seem affected (or at least engaged) by the resulting lively debates. Now I invite you to buy it, read it, and discuss amongst yourself (or here in the comment boards on Superforest!)

Find it here at Amazon. And enjoy!

Always merry and bright!
-jordan

Beagle Escape Artist

If only we could invent a car that ran on cute doggy youtube videos. Man, we could drive to Chile.

Tardigrades - Indestructable Outer Space Adventurers

You're probably thinking: "That thing don't look so tough. It looks like a pudgy bear/mole/beanbag hybrid."

Well SuperForesters, these are tardigrades and they are arguably the toughest creatures on planet earth.

Just how tough?

Imagine being able to have every last drop of moisture removed from your body. Imagine then that your dried out husk of a self is put on a shelf. Imagine being left on that shelf for ten years, until finally some kind soul wanders by and generously splashes some water on you.

Imagine sitting right up, fully alive and refreshed and in the mood to mate.

That is what the tardigrade can do.

Oh, but there's so much more.

Tardigrades are found in every environment on Earth, no matter how seemingly inhospitable.

The top of Mount Everest? Check.
Underneath polar ice caps? Check.
Bottom of the seafloor? Check.

It's not just cold they don't mind but heat, for you can heat a tardigrade to nearly 310 degrees F and it will be just fine.

And it gets better...

A team of scientists recently took a colony of tardigrades up into orbit, where they were exposed not only to the deadly cold and vacuum of space, but also the incredibly intense radiation that we're protected from by our atmosphere.

Not only did most of them live, they also suffered no ill effects and immediately began hunting once more more little tardigrade husbands and wives with which to do the nasty.

These things are t. o. u. g. h.

Here's a video of them doing their thing:

tardigrades (water bears) from Goldstein Lab on Vimeo.

The reason that we're so amped on tardigrades is that they offer incredible proof of concept for panspermia.

(from wikipedia)

"Panspermia (Gk. πάς/πάν (pas/pan, all) and σπέρμα (sperma, seed)) is the hypothesis that "seeds" of life exist already all over the Universe, that life on Earth may have originated through these "seeds", and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies."

Imagine you're a colony of tardigrades, digging around in the soil or water, minding your own business, when BLAMMY!

A huge comet smacks into the planet and you and your colony are ejected into space, now a free-flying asteroid studded with living creatures.

That asteroid then hurtles through the blackness of space for a while before being sucked into a new planet's gravity well. Many of your colony-mates are destroyed during re-entry and touchdown, in fact all of them are, except for you.

But you have survived and luckily you can reproduce all by your lonesome.

You then become a one person Adam & Eve, populating this new world with your children and children's children and so on.

Unlikely? Hell yes.

Possible? Mmmmmmmaybe.

But where evolution and life are concerned, maybe is more than enough.

The humble tardigrade, unlikely winner of the world's toughest creature award.

Amazing.

Dog Dancing

Exactly what it sounds like:



Put a big ol' smile on my face.

Heifer.Org: No They're Not Calling You Fat

They're not even trying to MAKE you fat.  Nope.  The people at Heifer.org are busy feeding people that really need it.  Many of you Superforesters may already know about organizations like this.  But for those of you who don't, here is the gist of it:

They gather people like you to donate gifts of farm animals.  Thats right.  You can donate not just money, but an animal that can help families become self reliant and sustainable in their own communities.  The catalog of animals, like heifers, water buffalo, goats, geese, honeybees, etc. has a wealth of information regarding what kinds of animals benefit different poverty situations.

This method of teaching struggling families how to grow their own food, cultivate it, sell it, and return the profits to the community by passing on the benefits can help create a more independent community.  A community that works together to make itself stronger and healthier.

The cornerstones of their organization create the acronym: PASSING on the GIFTS

Passing on the gift

Accountability

Sharing and caring

Sustainability and self reliance

Improved animal management

Nutrition and income

Gender and family focus

on the

Genuine need and justice

Improving the environment

Full participation

Training and education

Spirituality

You wanna know what else is cool?  Kids at school can use this program as a fundraiser for their classmates.  What better way to teach the next generation about sustainability and caring for our communities than by encouraging them and teaching them to help their fellow man!?

Please, check it out and see if you can gather your own community to chip in and help a community in need!

Aren't they nice little sheep?