‘Dwelling on Earth’……Something About Soil….. Orkney International Science Festival News.......Don’t Fancy Yours Much…
by Bernie Bell - 09:19 on 17 May 2023
by Jay Griffiths
“Soil has been described as the skin of the living world—vital, reactive, fragile and thin. Like our own skin, soil contains and protects a living, interdependent ecosystem that breathes, digests, and is finite in its ability to revitalize itself when harmed. In this rich, compendious story from our archive, author Jay Griffiths offers a love letter and a prayer to soil, marveling at the creativity and capacity of earthworms, fungi, and the pioneering water bear, soil-dwelling creatures who enable all other life. Jay looks frankly at how heavily we tread upon the land, describing the myriad threats to the health of the Earth’s soil and inviting us to commune with soil from a place of reverence and gratitude. After all, she reminds us, soil is what turns the Earth’s barren rock into the riotous life we know.”
Available on
**********
Something About Soil…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/05/07/hurrah-for-earthworms-or-the-return-of-the-native/
********************************************************************
Orkney International Science Festival News….
“Hello from the Festival!
The programme for this year is almost complete and we’re on course to start posting it up on the Festival website later this month. We took a break to sit by the sea and reflect on some of the subjects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ywa65oFac
That folder in the video with Tam O’Shanter is there with a purpose, as one of our events this year tells the story of Robert Burns and the 1783 eruption of the Icelandic volcano Laki. As we’ll hear, the dust from the volcano changed his life, and the lives of many others across western Europe. A later eruption from Hekla in 1845 was reported as enhancing the taste of the potatoes in Orkney that year – so we’re running a test and asking you to come to help us with the tasting during the Festival.
And here’s the story of another poet called Burns – this time one with links to America, Poland and marine biology.
There are more stories in Frontiers magazine, and walks as well, including some fine ones in South Ronaldsay – to the Sands o’ Wright and the Dam of Hoxa, to Honeysgeo, and to Kirkhouse and the Pool of Cletts. And from North Ronaldsay there are night sky scenes and the story of a ship sailing into the aurora.
We’re delighted to announce two new competitions. One that gets under way today is for Orkney wildlife photography. Enter an image, to be judged by wildlife photographers Raymond Besant from Orkney and Richard Shucksmith from Shetland. They will be coming to the Festival in September to give a joint presentation, and a workshop as well that takes place at the Skaill House Falconry centre. There are two sections in the competitions, for older and younger entrants.
A second competition is for schools only – to compare the output of a new type of two-sided solar panel with existing ones: to capture the sun’s energy at your school.
We’ll be back very soon with a weblink to the full programme so that you can get an early view. It will be packed with topics and people – including AI and robotics, and a working model of a computer from ancient Greece more than 2,000 years ago, and much much more!
With sunny thoughts from the Festival team!
********************************************************************
Don’t Fancy Yours Much…
https://earthlogs.org/2023/05/14/origin-of-the-genus-homo-a-paranthropus-link/
Putting a suit on that one wouldn't help much.
We evolved...
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/12/29/how-like-the-neanderthals-are-we/
Are we still evolving? And, if we are, is it in a positive or a negative way in relation to the planet we live on, and in relation to our chances of survival as a species?
*****************************************************************
Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/02/01/another-wizard-wheeze/
Add your comment
