23-Foot Wingspan!

The news in this article from MSN isn't really that this huge bird is a new discovery so much as new insight into how it flew, but it's just the existence of the bird that thrills me. The drawing makes it look like a raptor of some sort...but 23-foot wingspan, 150 pounds. It may not be big enough to lift an elephant (or even a human for that matter), but still, that's a roc. I love prehistoric animals, have ever since I was very young, and especially when that animal seems to tie into ancient oral traditions (though this bird lived millions of years before humans).

If the menu at the bottom hasn't changed, there's also a link to an article about hybrid oak trees in Utah that are between 5,000 and 7,000 years old. If there's something I like more than prehistoric animals, it's trees. Trees just fascinate me. So that article is almost as cool as the first. (In case the menu does change, here's the link directly to this second article.)

Comments

Beth said…
off-topic - if you can find a book called "The Dedalus Book of Spanish Fantasy", you'd probably like it. It's even got a short story about walking trees.
Daniel Ausema said…
Nice suggestion, Beth--thanks for pointing that out. I can't seem to find a table of contents for it, though I've found mention of a few of the stories. Looks like it has a broad range of both recent and older stuff.

I hope it has something by Bécquer--I don't know what, if any, of his work have been translated into English, but I have a collection of his Leyendas somewhere in my crates of books downstairs, and some of his Rimas are great too. I'll have to pull that back out and reread it once we get our bookshelf built.

But this is definitely an anthology I'll have to look for.
Daniel Ausema said…
Ah, now I find a list, and it does have three of Bécquer's Leyendas. I don't recognize any of the other names, though it's possible I studied some of them and have simply forgotten.
Daniel Ausema said…
Or is it Benet who has three fables and Bécquer has "The Kiss"? The way the contents are listed on this page is a bit confusing. Bécquer has a poem that could be translated "The Kiss" but I don't recall any of his Leyendas with that name...but it's probably been 7 or 8 years since I read them.
Beth said…
I don't know because...my library card expired so I can't actually take books out:) But I liked the Isabel Del Rio and the Eduardo Mendoza.