The following are links to information about selected plants in California, including pictures, descriptions, uses, and historical information.  Enjoy!

• Calflora – Southern California Wildflowers
• Alphabetical lists with pictures and scientific name
• Look up by common name
• e.g. mustard, black is on the M-N page
• Las Pilitas Plant List
• Alphabetical list with range and uses
• Look up by scientific name, or use Ctrl+F to search for common name
• USDA Plants Database
• Pictures, scientific name, range, family, and description of plants
• Search by scientific or common name in the field on the lefthand side

You can also just google for any of plants and see what comes up.  I know quite a few are on Wikipedia.

I know that's a tall claim for a title, but look at it! Sooooo beautiful. I feel like a moth to a light around this picture. (Be certain to click to enlarge!)

Quite possibly soon to be removed from Wikipedia. So I had to archive it here! Picture taken by the SOHO.

In Germany, a zoo flew in four female Humboldt penguins in order to entice three gay penguin couples into mating. Alas, the males were happy with their mates, sitting on stones that they treated like eggs, and snubbed the female birds. The zoo abandoned the plans, and the director said, ""Everyone can live here as they please."

In New York, Wendell and Cass, two male penguins, have been living together happily at the New York Aquarium. One of their penguin keepers describes Wendell as "pretty shy" and Cass as "aggressive" regarding feeding habits. However, she notes that when they are "in their burrow together, they are very affectionate.

This is a link to the Soil Science Society of America Journal since 2000. Just click on a year and month, and then choose a general topic.

Heard about those folks in Atlanta, Georgia who want to put a sticker on biology textbooks warning that it references evolution, which is just a theory? Well, now you have. At first this kind of bothered me, but my ethics teacher brought it up in class today, and we had a good discussion about it. Essentially, we came to the conclusion that it *is* a theory-- a scientific theory which is based on observations and verifiable facts, just like the theory of relativity. Not to be confused with the non-scientific theory (read as speculation or conjecture)of creationism, which is based on faith.

Someone devised a warning label for the Bible as well, which is well-written and actually highly agreeable. Here are a bunch of these stickers that someone posted, which get increasingly funny as you continue on down the page :)