Could be verse: poetry ripped from the headlines
By JAMES PARKER | December 16, 2008
Lines upon learning that scientists have recently isolated methane-mitigating microbes in the intestinal lining of the kangaroo, and plan to replicate them in cattle to reduce the emission of “cow-created” greenhouse gas
The cow, our windy sister, sends up fumes
that linger in the rafters of the world.
Low-flying angels get their eyebrows curled!
(She does not mean to do this, one assumes.)
I’ll imitate the noble kangaroo
who — though he shares her dietary whims —
is fart-free, back-sprung, bouncing on his rims;
not gassing off, like cows and humans do.
Related:
You light up my litter tray, Springtime for Darwin, Keep it moving, More 
- You light up my litter tray
Lines upon learning that South Korean scientists, by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, have produced cloned cats that glow in the dark.
- Springtime for Darwin
There are two stories, and two stories only.
- Keep it moving
The Pilobolus troupe was named after a common barnyard fungus whose spores accelerate from 0-40 mph in the first millimeter of flight.
- 14. Levi Johnston
If John McCain had won the White House, then this hockey-playing Johnny-came-unwisely would have been poised for the life of Riley: from a penalty box in Wasilla to a luxury box in Washington. All that for impregnating Bristol, the Alaskan governor’s unwed daughter. But whereas as late as last summer he was vaunted as a knight in shining honor by various GOP pundits for choosing life and doing the right thing by standing by Miss Palin, he has since authored his own “bailout” and left her a single mom.
- God and Darwin
Julie Raines has been teaching biology at Yarmouth High School for 25 years. She hasn't always taught evolution.
- Rage against the machines!
We’re on the cusp of a perilous era. Our pitiful carbon bodies are evolving much slower than the silicon and steel gizmos we’re inventing. And the guys in the lab coats and pocket protectors are starting to worry we’ve opened Pandora’s hard drive.
- Weathering the weather
Sweltering summer heat is finally upon us, along with how-to-keep-cool considerations.
- Show me the monkey
On December 27, 1831, Charles Darwin sailed from Plymouth, England, an unpaid naturalist aboard the British brig HMS Beagle.
- Maggots ate my flesh!
If you met Dana — attractive, athletic, and tan, somewhere in her 30s — you’d never guess her secret.
- Thanaphobe
Novelist Julian Barnes is a brilliant writer, but he’s not self-revelatory.
- Origins of a species
In her excellent theatrical pairing for Daniel Productions at the Players’ Ring, billed as 2 x 2 x 2 , director Liz Korabek juxtaposes two modern takes on the human quintessence.
- Less
Topics:
Lifestyle Features
, Science and Technology, Mammals, Nature and the Environment, More
, Science and Technology, Mammals, Nature and the Environment, Wildlife, Biology, Life Sciences, Sciences, Earth Science, Climatology, Global Climate Change, Less
