Via reader Simi L.:

Cicadas are currently emerging on the east coast of the U.S.  These are interesting large insects that I remember well from my childhood ...

Just go read it ...

This article rants and raves about the cost of college tuition , which for the past 20 years or so has been rising much faster than inflati...

This was taken in Los Angeles.  The two hummingbird species shown (Allen's and Anna's) are both native to us as well...

Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach served in Afghanistan with Casey, a yellow lab trained as an explosives dog.  Sgt. Gundlach wanted to take care ...

Last night Debbie and I went up to one of our favorite local wildlife viewing spots: the Stonewall Mine Road in Cuyamaca Park, just before d...

From BPOD , of course:

Scott Aaronson doesn't think we're likely to see practical quantum computers anytime soon – if ever.  The rash of recent news concer...

A collection of photos of Cold War KGB (Soviet) gadgets , like the listening device shown below, hidden inside a hollowed-out log:

Sarah Ingram headed the IRS' unit that oversaw tax-exempt organizations up until a short time ago.  She was the boss of that unit when c...

From today's Day-by-Day cartoon (below): ...you don't want to grow up to be like the president, do you?

I certainly can not (it would have to be a good day for me to do 5^5 in my head!), but apparently this fellow can .  Not just that pair of n...

It'a a corker of an Eastern Screech Owl, in the Okefnokee Swamp of southern Georgia...

Spotted: WASHINGTON—Saying that none of the facts quite add up, first daughter Sasha Obama, 11, reported being “highly suspicious” today ...

If you've flown in the past few years, and you're not one of the fortunate few in business or first class, then you've had the l...

Yesterday I had to venture “down the hill” into San Diego to pick up some specialty lumber items (I'm getting ready to build the storage...

Sunday (Mother's Day) turned out to be too danged hot to do any work outside – so we decided to take the FJ Cruiser out for another shak...

A fascinating story (with no difficult math) for anyone interested in math – Shinichi Mochizuki's still-unreviewed proof of the ABC con...