A short film by Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith.

2 mins click here to see video

A short film that follows the journey of two girls in a canoe on the River Shannon and how they stumble across one of nature's phenomenal wonders; a murmuration.

/merr'meuh ray"sheuhn/, n.

1. an act or instance of murmuring.

2. a flock of starlings.

The future of help for burn trauma victims is here now. A giant leap forward for human suffering. Incredible. View video clip from National Geographic below. Ten stars for scientific innovation.

click here for video story

Pam Steager and I have started a documentary film list for all American citizens to see. Additions? Comments? In no particular order.....

1. The Corporation (you can watch the whole film by chapter on YouTube
trailer

2. Playground trailer [domestic sex trafficking]

3. Food, Inc. trailer

4. King Corn trailer

5. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room trailer

6. The Merchants of Cool Watch on Youtube

7. Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity watch

8. Roger and Me trailer

9. Affluenza

10. Bowling for Columbine

11. Hearts and Minds

12. The Ground Truth

13. The Trials of Henry Kissinger

14. War Made Easy

15. Fahrenheit 9/11

16. The Fog of War

17. Hoop Dreams

18. The Times of Harvey Milk

19. An Inconvenient Truth

20. Harlan County USA

21. Waiting for Superman

22. Sicko

23. Inside Job

24. Tapped trailer watch movie [water rights]

25. Miss Representation trailer [women and the media]

26. Incident at Oglala movie [the Leonard Peltier story]

27. Maxed Out trailer [credit card debt in the USA]

Algae, of course.

Phytoplankton are microscopic ocean plants that form the base of ocean ecosystems; they are so abundant that they are visible from space. Here, average chlorophyll from 1998 through 2006 is shown in green and indicates areas of high biological productivity. Courtesy SeaWiFS Project/NASA GSFC and GeoEye, Inc.

Click on this link to see the graphic representation of earth......

http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/12/important-organism/

Naturalist, wild-care rehabilitator, and Sam Ristich protege Caryl Widdowson led the 4th Sam Ristich Nature Trail walk in North Yarmouth Maine yesterday morning between 9:30 and 11:30. Attendees included 13 yr old Crystal, Jim and Lyn and myself. The day was sunny and after several weeks of intermittent rain the forest trail was popping with fungi. Click here for info on the wild care nonProfit Caryl runs: Safe and Sound Wildlife Rehabilitation Safe and Sound Wildlife Rehabilitation

Before we got started our perennially barefoot naturalist Caryl showed us the 3 tiny abandoned squirrel babies snuggled safely into her carry-along bag. Since they were starved and dehydrated they needed feeding every 30 mins.

Crystal and Caryl at trail head with squirrels in hand.

Feeding the little ones.

Turns out Caryl was surrounded by all kinds of fungi. Crystal noticed the bright purple Cortinarius first (no photos sorry!)....here is a short list of the many goodies we encountered: wild dogwood, a big white russula, several different lactarius, Stereum complicatum, Collybia, Amanita, vaginata, Russula emetica, A. virosa, A. flavaconia or flavirubescens (cup is yellow), Beech tree virus, Leotia lubrica, Erinia (gall on beech leaves), Oak galls, slime molds....Ceratiomyxa, the ever so teeny tiny Leocarpus fragilis (first time I've ever seen it....photo below), Tricaptum bisporous parasitized with 1mm talk little black stalked fungi growing all along the edges (Sam used to offer a $1 prize to anyone who could spot these barely visible to the naked eye wonders). Then farther up that dead deciduous tree Caryl spotted Stipticus, and on a nearby birch many Fomes fomentarius and more Russula emetica.

And this other one against Jim's purple shirt: Leocarpus fragilis growing on a twig and 2 little white pine needles (sticking out to the right)...estimated size of each sporangia is approx 0.5-1.0 mm. Tiny! At first glance I thought they were insect eggs. Their bright yellow/orange color really popped out against the brown decaying leaves and twigs.

Full sized image here: View image

Caryl reminisces about Sam and his bathroom in the woods philosophy (smile please):

Caryl Remembers Sam from Ruthie Ristich on Vimeo.

Erinea....tiny mites cause this hairy gall on the leaves of beech. Other info here: Erinea galls. Photo of what we saw on beech leaves here:

Jim and Chris caught up with us at Station One with their sweet yellow lab Bella. We only made it to Station Four since we were finding so many things to marvel over. Hope to see you on the next trail walk which is on Saturday September 17, 2011. For more info on the trail go to the Sam Ristich website: Sam Ristich Nature Trail link.

Photo of Station 4 (of 16) on the Sam Ristich Nature Trail.

Cambodian sex slave survivor and activist Somaly Mam eloquently answers the questions: What does peace mean to you? and Who is your peace hero? If you are not familiar with her life story, find her book The Road to Lost Innocence. It will change your life. And visit her foundation website to see how you can help.http://somaly.org/

More info and other peace activists go the the Newark Peace Education Summit website:
http://newarkpeace.org/. Their conference is in mid May.

Website below with interviews collected from an organization called the GoodPlanet Foundation....an environmental organization created and chaired by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Ideas for children and adults to participate in helping the environment. You will be astounded at what this world renowed French photographer is doing. He needs your help. See what you can do at any one of these websites.

http://www.goodplanet.org/en/

http://www.6billionothers.org/

Of Forests and Men by GoodPlanet. 2011 is the International Year of the Forests.

Of Forests and Men from GoodPlanet on Vimeo.

And HOME, the movie:
http://www.homethemovie.org/

A whimsical romp starring 4 monarch butterfly caterpillars (Howard, Rita, Baby and Mr. Poops-a-Lot) and 2 young boys (Lars, age 4 and Anders, age 15 months). Guidance by my entomologist father Sam Ristich, and digital media professor Eric Martin, with songs inspired by Duke Ellington and Gioachino Rossini and the greatest inspiration of all, Mother Nature. Sound track, Hi-8 shooting and Adobe Premier editing by Ruthie Ristich. Screened: Boston Film and Video Festival, New Orleans Film and Video Festival, Providence Film and Video Festival

Photo album here:

http://flic.kr/p/97TCic

Teaser here:

Remnants of the 1860-1920's logging era, collected over 35 years, and brought first by little truck and then by big truck. Town of High Falls, Clove Road