Squirrels have a secret weapon!

Here in the NewScientist:

The ground squirrel heats up its tail then waves it in the snake’s face - a form of harassment that confuses the rattler, which has an infrared sensing organ for detecting small mammals.

This defensive tactic remained invisible to biologists until they looked at the animals through an infrared video camera.

(via the ever-amazing Brad DeLong)

Donor

On my way back home via bicycle, I saw a man on a motorcycle demonstrate a lack of concern for his own safety. Aside from the bike being a formerly-plastic-covered sportbike of some kind, now missing most of the plastic panels and held together, in part, with bungee cords, he was also lacking not just helmet, gloves, any sort of sturdy clothing on top or bottom, but also shoes of any kind. He made a quick right turn, got the rear wheel caught in a pothole and had a somewhat exciting moment, then recovered and, rather than reacting by taking it easy, gunned it and wheelied on down the road a bit. That’s pretty much the opposite of what they taught us in motorcycle safety class.