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2013/05/03

Retrospeculative

Posted by db johnston under Uncategorized | Tags: |
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escherAs if I don’t waste spend enough time on the computer, I’ve decided to start another blog…

I’m not sure what the blog will eventually look like (if past projects are any indication, I’ll notice some scope creep…), but it’s starting out as a retrospective look at speculative fiction (an ‘umbrella’ term that never quite caught on, but is often used and includes science fiction (with its relatives, utopian, dystopian, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic and alternate history), fantasy, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, et cetera).

If you’re at all interested, the site — Retrospeculative.wordpress.com — is up and running with the first post, my pick for the best speculative novel of 1952 (I’ve also added Retrospeculative to my blogroll).

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2012/01/14

The World’s Smallest Vertebrate

Posted by db johnston under Current events, Images, Interesting stuff, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , |
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I first saw this picture in the newspaper yesterday (I’m one of the dinosaurs that still gets a hard copy). It’s not only the world’s smallest frog, but the world’s smallest vertebrate (a creature with a spine). In the picture, the frog is resting on a dime [photo credit: Christopher Austin, LSU].

The frogs — named Paedophryne amanuensis — live in damp, fallen leaves on the floors of the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea and were discovered by a team led by Christopher Austin.

They found the frog by focusing on its peculiar “tink-tink-tink” call, which apparently sounded a bit like a cricket. They scooped up a large bundle of leaves — from within which the sound was emanating — and, when the diminutive creature hopped from one of the leaves, they were surprised that it was not an insect.

 

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