prairiehousebooks

An Intelligent Spider?

When we think about animal geniuses, arthropods don’t usually top the list of usual suspects. However, one genus of jumping spiders, Portia, includes spiders who have a gift: they can devise hunting strategies and make decisions. Portia makes their livings by hunting other spiders. These eight-legged geniuses do not simply attack; they appear to makeContinue reading “An Intelligent Spider?”

Wasps!

Most of us have an innate suspicion that wasps are ill-tempered beasts that hunt you down like a dog. Not true. Most wasps will not wasp harm you. Many are helpful creatures, and most are beautiful. Many attack crop pests. Only a fraction of wasps are the social wasps that defend themselves with venom. MostContinue reading “Wasps!”

Remembering Ravensbrück

Ravensbrück served as a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women. An estimated 130,000 women were interned there during the Nazi era, and between 30,000 and 50,000 women died there. It was one of the smaller camps. That did not make it any less horrific. There, women were used like horses, pulling heavy equipment. With sheerContinue reading “Remembering Ravensbrück”

The Diversity of Invertebrates

We have a natural bias when we classify the animals around us. Humans believe that animals with backbones are the rule rather than the exception. Nature has found many ways to solve the problems of life.

Water Troubles

The Colorado River Is In Trouble. The great river of the American West has headwaters in the marshes created by the snow-melts at La Poudre Pass (Colorado). Soon afterwards, the water diversion projects begin. These water fields and provide life to communities. Before leaving the Coyote Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park (also Colorado), aboutContinue reading “Water Troubles”

How many slaves do you have?

The first national remembrance of Juneteenth has come and gone in the United States. But, if you thought that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation or with the condemnation of slavery by the United Nations, think again. Mauritania had legal slavery until 1981, and after its abolition, it imposed no penalties for it until 2007.Continue reading “How many slaves do you have?”

Derechos

Derechos are massive wind storms that can stretch linearly for hundreds of miles. They can include bands of showers and thunderstorms, and they can spawn tornadoes. Traditionally, for something to qualify as a “derecho,” the wind storm must extend 250 miles (~400kM), have wind gusts that equal or exceed 58mph (121 kM/h) with multiple gustsContinue reading “Derechos”

Help Fight Diseases

Folding at Home is a way we can all contribute to the fight against Cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Covid-19 and others illnesses. Folding@Home is a project focused on disease research. This medical research involves very complex calculations – and the Stanford School of Medicine can use your help to find cures! Most apps don’t use multiContinue reading “Help Fight Diseases”

Oral Histories

Three are lots of oral histories collected from older people before they pass. The stories and events that one generation takes as granted become the history for the next. Here are a few oral history sites–some simple, some more in-depth–that might interest you. Library of Congress, Voices of Slaves Society of American Archivists: Oral HistoriesContinue reading “Oral Histories”