Posted: December 14, 2018

Do salamanders in Washington State need a bridge? How about coyotes and elk?

A busy highway cuts through forests and wetlands beside the Cascade Mountains in Washington. The highway makes it possible for people to get from place to place. But it stops countless wildlife species from moving around. If they try to cross the highway, they risk getting hit by cars—and drivers risk getting into accidents.

But the animals need to move. Animals as little as salamanders and animals as big as elk need to cross the highway to find food and mates. Sometimes they need to move to find new places to live as their populations expand or a fire breaks out. Animals, especially elk, move to the lower lands as the season changes and the mountains get colder and snowier. But how can they get past the highway safely?

Soon they will be able to walk over it! Builders are finishing work on the largest wildlife bridge in Washington State. The bridge is 35 feet tall and 66 feet wide. It rises out of the forest. Its two arches go over the highway. Eight-foot walls around the bridge will block out car noise.

More and more wildlife bridges are being built in the United States. The crossings exist to keep wildlife and drivers separated. Animal populations are growing. Collisions between cars and animals are increasing too. Not many people die in these collisions. But many animals do.

At least one animal has already tried out the new bridge in Washington. A wildlife camera captured video of a coyote scampering across.

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. ― Psalm 50:10

Traffic passes beneath a wildlife bridge on Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 13, 2018

City frogs and rainforest frogs don’t sing the same tune. Panama’s tiny tungara frogs change their mating calls when they live in urban areas. Researchers want to know why. What they find surprises them. The city frogs don’t have many predators nearby to hear, so they’re singing louder. And what are they singing? Love songs! The louder male frogs can sing, the more attractive they are to females.

Tungara frogs don’t croak like American bullfrogs. To human ears, their call sounds like a low-pitched, video-game beep. Every evening at sunset, the one-inch male brown frogs crawl into puddles to start wooing females with songs. The lady frog selects a mate based on his love song. Researchers find that the urban frogs call faster. They call more frequently and add a series of “chucks” on the end of their first whine. Those fancy city love songs are three times more likely to attract the ladies. Scientists learn this by playing back recordings of both city and forest frog calls to an audience of female frogs in a laboratory. Thirty of 40 female frogs hop over to the speaker playing the urban frog calls. Both city and country female frogs favor the city song.

So why don't rainforest frogs sing the same way? The extra “chuck” sounds also bring more trouble from frog-eating bats and parasitic midges (bugs). The researchers use camera traps and sticky paper to catch those predators. Longer, louder frog calls brought more predators to the frogs. In the rainforest, the frogs must balance two goals: attracting a mate and staying safe. In the city, there are no frog-eating bats, and far fewer snakes and midges. Go ahead, male frogs. Sing your hearts out!

A male tungara frog uses his vocal sac to call out in Gamboa, Panama. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 12, 2018

Fake dye in foods? Many company officials say, “Ditch it!”

What color are pistachios? They have pale shells and green insides. But until the 1980s, most Americans expected the nuts to be red. Pistachios were mostly imported back then from places where the nuts were dyed to cover imperfections. People even got the red dye all over their fingers!

McDonald’s officials announced in September that artificial colors had been removed from many of its burgers. Officials from the cereal company Kellogg promise to take them out of its cereals by the end of this year. But are people ready for the switch?

Americans at least seem to love the technicolor cereal pieces that float around in their milk. Last year, cereal company General Mills removed artificial colors from Trix cereal. People wanted the colors back! General mills workers poured them back in. They called the artificially-colored cereal the “classic” version.

But it’s not just processed and packaged foods that trick the eye with colors. The companies Boar’s Head, Cabot, Kraft, and Tillamook all make cheese. Check your fridge. Can you find a package of cheddar cheese? Does the package list an ingredient called annatto? Annatto is a plant extract commonly used for color. Cheesemakers have used extra colorings for a long time. English cheesemakers skimmed butterfat from milk to make butter. The leftover milk was whiter. So cheesemakers added pigments to recreate the golden color that comes from butter. Mozzarella gets a little help too. Without titanium dioxide, a common ingredient from natural sources, mozzarella wouldn’t be bright white. It would be beige. Mozzarella is whitened mostly in the United States, where it is made from cow milk. In Italy it’s naturally white because it comes from buffalo milk!

Eggs get beauty treatments too. Many home cooks think darker egg yolks are fresher or more nutritious. But the color may have another source: marigold petals, alfalfa, or coloring products added to chicken feed. Bright pink flesh may signal freshness to shoppers eyeing salmon filets. That’s why farmed salmon may have been fed astaxanthin, a man-made version of a compound found in nature. It may not sound appetizing. But manufacturers know the difference color can make. Salmon with a darker flesh can get people to pay an extra 50 cents or dollar per pound!

God made people to enjoy the taste of food. He made food beautiful too . . . and gave people skills to prepare it beautifully. What do you think about artificial colors in food? Would you rather have prettier food—or food without the fake stuff?

The darker orange yolk of a homegrown chicken egg, left, is compared with the lighter yolk of a store-bought egg in Gillette, Wyoming. What makes them different? Carotenoids do—pigments in plants eaten by hens. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 12, 2018

Some moms are on a mission. They’ve waged their very own “Battle of the Books.”

For one mom, it started with a song. Susie Jaramillo wanted everyone to know “Los Pollitos.” That’s a bedtime song about a mother hen and her chicks. In the Spanish-speaking culture, this song is as popular as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”! Ms. Jaramillo wondered: “We’re always singing the American songs in Spanish and our songs are great. Why aren’t people singing them in English?” Ms. Jaramillo couldn’t find many bilingual books to read her own kids. So she and another mom took matters into their own hands. They created Canticos, a series of bilingual (two-language) books, apps, and videos. Do you recognize the series? You might! It was developed into a cartoon series this year.

These Hispanic-American moms are bringing bilingual books to bookshelves near you. The two moms are working with the giant retail store Target. Target also sells books from Lil’ Libros, a publishing company started by two other Hispanic-American moms. Those moms looked for books that celebrated Latin-American culture. They couldn’t find any! So they published their own, a book called Counting with Frieda. And it was a best-seller!

Have you been to a bookfair? School bookfairs give kids a chance to find good books at good prices. One year, two other moms volunteered to help out with their kids’ school bookfair. The moms were shocked to see how small the Spanish section of books was. So they came up with a plan. They called a Mexican book publisher and asked for help. The publisher sent some books. The moms sold every single book! The moms decided to start their own business. Now they sell Spanish books at bookfairs, online, and from their own bookstore.

All of these moms are right. We need more bilingual books! There are many bilingual schools now. More and more parents want their children to learn Spanish. In the United States, there are 41 million Spanish speakers. But there is a shortage of bilingual books. There aren’t even one half of a million bilingual books on the market in the United States!  

Can you sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” in Spanish?  Do you know someone who can? Thanks to these moms on a mission, it won’t be hard to find bilingual children’s books anymore. What story would you like to learn in another language?

We can honor God through translation work and through learning other languages. Did you know that the entire Bible has been translated into around 700 languages? The New Testament has been translated into 1,521 languages!

Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! ― 1 Chronicles 16:23-24

Celene Navarette helps with an art project at her bookstore on November 3. She started La Libreria book store to help provide Spanish language books for children. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 12, 2018

Lammie the elephant is 39 years old. In September, her male companion died. Some say, “Lammie needs to go somewhere else.” Others say, “No. Keep her here in the Johannesburg Zoo!”

Elephants are the world’s biggest land mammals. They are known for their intelligence. They form strong bonds with each other. Elephants can even grieve when they lose a companion. Lammie refused to eat when her partner died. The day before he died, she was seen trying to help him get up. Now she is the last elephant left at the zoo in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Lammie’s situation is a lot like another elephant’s. Happy the elephant has lived in the Bronx Zoo in New York since 1977. She has lived for more than a decade without another elephant. Some say Happy should go to a sanctuary with other elephants. But zoo officials say Happy is healthy and comfortable. They say she has bonded with the people who care for her.

In Johannesburg, Lammie lived for 17 years with Kinkel, a 35-year-old male elephant. Kinkel was rescued in the wild after his trunk was caught in a snare in 2000. “Now that Lammie has lost her companion, she is in desperate need of a happier existence,” says Audrey Delsink, wildlife director of Humane Society International/Africa. She thinks Lammie should move somewhere else to live with other elephants for the rest of her life.

But Johannesburg Zoo officials see things differently. They say Lammie helps people learn about elephants by staying in the zoo. People who may never get a chance to see an elephant can see Lammie there. Besides, Lammie is an old elephant. She might not adjust well to a new place. Zoo officials have another idea: find Lammie a friend. Bring a new elephant to the zoo!

Lammie kicks a ball at the Johannesburg Zoo. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 11, 2018

Meet the 2019 color of the year! It’s the color of underwater reefs and the sky at dusk: Living Coral. Living Coral is a little bit orange. It’s a little bit gold. It’s a little bit pink.

Pantone is a company that forecasts color trends. People who work for Pantone study colors. They give officials from other companies advice about what colors to use in their products. But companies don’t have to pay for one very important piece of advice: Use the color of the year! Last year, Pantone researchers picked Ultra Violet. They picked Greenery the year before. Pantone’s vice president Laurie Pressman says Living Coral is warm, welcoming, and lively. Is that how you would describe Living Coral?

Ms. Pressman says living coral works for both men and women. It looks good in artwork, inside homes, and inside businesses. The color gives a room life without being overpowering. Living Coral’s official name is Pantone 16-1546. What does that mean? The numbers refer to a color’s level of lightness, shade, and “chroma” on different scales. Chroma has to do with how intense a color is.

The world contains an infinite amount of colors. People can see about 1,000 levels of light and dark. Multiply that by the 100 levels they see between red and green. Times that by the 100 levels they see between yellow and blue. That already adds up to 10 million colors! And that doesn’t count viewing conditions. A color in a painting can look different based on what colors surround it or what kind of surface is beneath it. It can even appear different based on the way someone sees. Researchers at Pantone spend all year selecting one color out of these infinite choices. But not even Pantone officials know all the colors. No one but God ever could!

A swatch shows the new color of the year: Living Coral. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 10, 2018

Roy Funch stares across miles of cone-shaped mounds of mud in the distance. What built them? How many are there? How long have they been here?

Mr. Funch is an American plant scientist who lives and works in Brazil. For years, he tried to get people interested in the mysterious mounds. Finally, he met Stephen Martin. Mr. Martin is an English expert on social insects. Together, Mr. Funch and Mr. Martin made startling discoveries: Termites built the mounds. There are over 200 million of the dirt piles. They stretch across 88,800 square miles—about the size of Great Britain! And some of the dirt heaps are nearly 4,000 years old!

“While the Romans were building their columns, these termites were building their mounds,” says Mr. Funch.

The mounds can be seen in a vast desert-like region called the Caatinga in Brazil. They stand between six and 13 feet high. The termites built them almost equal distances apart — between 52 and 72 feet. To landowners who clear brush to plant crops, the mounds are a nuisance. Bulldozing them is difficult. Over years of being baked in the hot sun, the already-hard dirt and clay become like stone. Poor people in the area use chunks of the mounds to build adobe houses.

Mr. Funch and Mr. Martin say the mounds were built by Syntermes dirus, a large termite species. Syntermes dirus feeds on leaves and lives underground. The two researchers cut into several mounds. They found only a small, tube-like hole going to the top of each one. The termites made the mounds while they were looking for places to dig underground tunnels. Mr. Martin says the huge piles are just waste heaps. Normally, people wouldn’t see them. In more humid areas where the same termites live, wind and rain wear the mounds away. But the Caatinga gets rainfall only a few weeks a year.

Many people view termites as pests because some species eat wood. (You would think of any animal that chewed up your house as a pest!) But termites are also some of the world’s best engineers. They build vast networks of underground tunnels and huge heaps of dirt. In Brazil, that’s easy to see. The mounds seem to go on forever in every direction!

Giant termite mounds cover a field near Palmeiras, Brazil. The mounds are bigger than they look—between six and 13 feet tall! (AP Photo)

Posted: December 7, 2018

New Yorkers grab their cameras and rush to Central Park . . . all to see a duck!

Photographers have been gathering in the park every day for more than a month. They each hope to catch a glimpse of an exotic bird called a Mandarin duck. It has pink, purple, orange, and emerald green markings and feathers. Joe Amato comes almost every day from his home in Queens, towing his expensive camera equipment. He says the bird is like “a living box of crayons.”

The bird glides across the water. It preens its wings near the Plaza Hotel. It even takes a “vacation” to a lake in nearby New Jersey. Bird lovers document the duck’s every move.

Mandarin ducks come mainly from parts of Asia and Europe. They mate for life. People in China think of the duck as a symbol of faithfulness. But people don’t hunt the ducks for food because Mandarin duck doesn’t taste good.   

Ornithologist (bird scientist) Paul Sweet takes care of a huge collection of bird specimens at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. He isn’t as excited as others are about the duck. Mr. Sweet says there’s nothing special about a Mandarin duck in Central Park. He says from time to time, a Mandarin duck escapes from a private owner into the wild. Mandarin ducks do not come from North America. If the duck was really wild, that would be an exciting find. Mr. Sweet says that is probably not the case. But the bird is still an amazing sight to see. Just ask the photographers lined up in the park!

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory!” ― Isaiah 6:3

A Mandarin duck walks in Central Park on December 5. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 6, 2018

Eight-year-old Bella Maloney wakes up next to her little brother in a queen-size hotel bed. Her mom brings a bagel and cream cheese from the lobby for breakfast. Bella, her brother Vance, and thousands of other kids in Northern California lost their homes or classrooms in wildfires last month. But now life is getting a little closer to normal. They climb into their car. They’re going back to school!

Schools in Bella’s county have been closed since November 8. That’s when the fire swept through the town of Paradise and surrounding areas. The blazes destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. It killed at least 85 people. It was the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century.

About 31,000 students in all have been away from school since the disaster. Nearly all of them are going back. Some attend class in other buildings because their schools were damaged or destroyed. Some will start classes online.

Bella and her family of five have lived in the small, tidy hotel room for two weeks. They lost nearly everything they had to the fire. They may be living there until February!

People in California feel grateful they survived the fires. But recovering after fire is still hard. Imagine what it would feel like if your home, school, and church, and possessions were suddenly gone!

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ― Psalm 46:1

Bella and her family get ready for school in the hotel. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 6, 2018

Knock, knock, Bennu! You have your first visitor . . . ever! It’s Osiris-Rex!

The NASA spacecraft Osiris-Rex has been flying toward the asteroid Bennu for two years. Now it pulls within 12 miles of the diamond-shaped space rock. People guess Bennu measures about 1,600 feet across. (That’s almost as wide as the Sears Tower in Chicago is tall.) Compared to a person, that’s huge! But for space, it’s really not so big. No spacecraft has ever orbited around such a small space object.

U.S. flight controllers clap and high-five when they hear Osiris-Rex has made it to Bennu. “Relieved, proud, and anxious to start exploring!” tweets lead scientist Dante Lauretta. “To Bennu and back!" The spacecraft will try to gather asteroid samples from Bennu. Osiris-Rex should collect at least two ounces of dust and gravel. The spacecraft won't land. It will use a 10-foot mechanical arm in 2020 to touch down for just a moment. It will vacuum up tiny bits. The sample container should break loose and head toward Earth in 2021.

The container should parachute down in Utah. It will hold the biggest collection of space-stuff brought back to Earth since astronauts brought back Moon rocks in the 1960s and 1970s.

The asteroid Bennu (NASA, AP Photo)

Posted: December 5, 2018

This photo shoot will go down in history. All nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices gather in Washington, D.C., for picture day. What are the Justices thinking? It’s hard to tell! Some of the photos show the Justices laughing and making silly faces. A few photos show a Justice or two looking away from the camera. Other Justices are caught giving very serious stares. But at least one photo is filled with pretty good smiles!

Each time a new Justice is appointed to the bench, a new photo is taken of the group. This is the first official photo to include the newest Justice, Brett M. Kavanaugh. In June of 2017, the Justices gathered for another photo shoot. That one was the first to include Justice Neil Gorsuch. Since that photo was taken, Justice Anthony Kennedy has been replaced by Justice Kavanaugh.

This is a busy time of year for Justices on the Supreme Court. It’s a busy time of year for photographers too! Did the Supreme Court Justices mind taking a break from their busy schedules to smile for the camera? Will this new court photograph end up on a Christmas card?

One place it will end up is in the Supreme Court Office of the Curator. Workers in this office manage the court’s collection of historic photographs. There are photos of Supreme Court Justices that date as far back as 1864! These photos can also be found in the Library of Congress.

Do you like having your picture taken? Do you smile for the camera, or make silly faces? Are you serious or shy? Do you giggle and wiggle or stand very still? Some kids have their class picture taken every year at school. Some families have group pictures taken each Christmas. These yearly photos are reminders of things we’ve done and friends we’ve been with. They are reminders of people in our lives we can thank God for.

I thank my God always when I remember you. . . (Philemon 4)

The group portrait of the U.S. Supreme Court, taken on November 30, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Seated from left: Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Standing behind from left: Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Posted: December 5, 2018

Can you throw snowballs where you live? In one Colorado town, throwing snowballs has been against the law for almost 100 years! But the law is changing, thanks to a nine-year-old boy.

Dane Best lives in the snowy town of Severance, Colorado. He goes to a town board meeting. He says, “I think it’s an outdated law. I want to be able to throw a snowball without getting in trouble.”

Kyle Rietkerk works for the town of Severance. He says the rule was part of a bigger set of rules. Those made it illegal to throw or shoot stones or missiles at people, animals, buildings, trees, or vehicles. Snowballs counted as “missiles.” Kids in Severance are always surprised to hear that throwing snowballs is illegal. Town leaders remind them they can help change the law. Dane decided to do just that. He wrote letters with his classmates asking town officials to make snowball-throwing legal. At the meeting, everyone voted “yes”!

But Dane might not be done arguing at town meetings. He and his family have researched other Severance laws. One defines pets only as cats and dogs. Dane has a guinea pig. That’s illegal in Severance too!

Dane Best poses in the council chambers in Severance, Colorado, on November 29. (AP Photo)

Posted: December 4, 2018

Over the weekend, Americans mourned the loss of the 41^st president, George H.W. Bush. A dog mourned too. Former President Bush’s service dog honored his master. He rested in front of the flag-draped casket.

George Bush became president in 1989. During his lifetime, he was also a combat pilot, diplomat, and vice president. But people who knew Mr. Bush remember him for his leadership, kindness, and faithfulness as a husband. Mr. Bush was married to his wife Barbara for 73 years! He was 94 when he died. Mr. Bush’s body will lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda. The public is invited to pay their respects from Monday evening through Wednesday morning. Mr. Bush will be buried Thursday in Texas.

The yellow Labrador retriever’s name is Sully. He came to live with President Bush in June. The president had a form of Parkinson’s disease, a sickness that can make movement very difficult. To get around, Mr. Bush used a wheelchair and an electric scooter. Sully could open doors for Mr. Bush. He could pick up items. If he needed to, he could bark for help. Sully made a good companion for Mr. Bush after his wife died in April. A dog was a good choice for former President Bush. He had loved and owned dogs since he was a boy.

Now Sully will help another veteran.

Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days. ― Job 12:12

Sully, President George H.W. Bush’s service dog, lies in front of the former president's casket in Houston, Texas.

Posted: December 3, 2018

Farmer Jamie Butler tries out a new worker on his 450-acre farm in England. The worker checks Mr. Butler’s wheat crops for weeds and pests. And he doesn’t break a sweat. He’s a four-wheeled robot named Tom. Tom uses GPS, artificial intelligence, and smartphone technology to make a digital map of the field.

Tom’s creators work for the Small Robot Company. That’s just one company working to change farming. Most farm robots are still just being tested. But farmers hope the bots can keep costs low and help decrease how many pesticides and fertilizers are used. It’s hard for a farmer to go around and check each plant he or she grows. On large farms, it’s impossible! But a robot doesn’t get tired. Its artificial intelligence stays focused on the task ahead.

Farmers have used machines like robotic milkers and self-driving tractors for years. But it’s hard to commit to buying an expensive machine like Tom. Farmers rent him by the month instead. Tom has a bright orange 3D-printed body and big wheels. He kind of looks like an oversized roller skate! Tom is light. He doesn’t squish valuable soil like tractors do.

On Mr. Butler’s farm, Tom trundles along crop rows. He takes hundreds of thousands of pictures during the growing season. The images are fed to Wilma, the artificial intelligence platform. Wilma is being trained to tell the difference between wheat and weeds.

In 2019, the company will test two more robots: Dick and Harry. Dick will deliver fertilizer directly to soil around roots. Harry will put seeds into the ground, all equally spaced. If Harry does his job, farmers will not need plows to make furrows.

Joe Allnutt, lead roboticist at the Small Robot Company, inspects a Field Botsfarming robot named Tom in East Meon, England, on November 30. (AP Photo)

Posted: November 30, 2018

Plastic bottles bob in the water. Blue garbage bags, discarded vegetables, coffee cups, and an old television float along shore. Yuck! Something has gone very wrong on the beaches of Lebanon.

People in Lebanon were once very proud of their shoreline. But now many feel embarrassed about the trash swirling in the water. And fishing isn’t so good anymore either. Fisherman Ahmad Obeitri has worked along Lebanon’s shore for 30 years. He says the trash is killing off what’s left of marine life. “These days if a fish comes our way it will only find nylon bags, garbage, and sewage to feed on,” he says. People eat and drink as they walk on the shore. They toss their cans, tins, and other containers in the sea. Mr. Obeitri jokes that you could open a café underwater using all the old food and drink containers.

Littering is not Lebanon’s only problem. In 2015, people rioted as trash piled in the streets. Government officials solved the problem by moving trash into dumps that run into the ocean. That’s not much of a solution! Swimmers have another complaint. Open sewage is running into the sea!

Does God care what we do with our garbage? Psalm 24 says “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” He made the world as a good home for people and animals. And He gave people a job: to take care of His creation. That includes individuals—people who might litter—and governments responsible for what happens to waste.

How can people clean up the sea? Read about one man’s idea for ocean cleanup in Jet Balloon.

Trash floats in the Mediterranean Sea on the Beirut shore, Lebanon. (AP Photo)

Posted: November 29, 2018

Hot dogs! Tamales! Toys! Tools!

People can buy almost anything from tables and pushcarts on the streets of Los Angeles. There’s just one problem . . . that kind of selling is against the law!

Still, the pushcarts and tables seem to be everywhere. Around 50,000 people along Los Angeles sidewalks sell souvenir hats, sunglasses, T-shirts, and food from countries all over the world. Many of the vendors are immigrants—people who have come to the United States from other countries. They have wanted the laws to change for years. They say, “Make street selling legal!”

Street vending is already legal in other cities like New York and Chicago. In Los Angeles, laws against street vending are not often enforced. So a tourist who forgets his cell phone charger can buy one on the street. A hungry visitor can purchase freshly-made pupusa. (Papusa is a delicacy from Salvador made with a corn tortilla stuffed with salsa, beans, and cabbage.) And when visitors buy, they make it possible for sellers to live.

City Council officials in Los Angeles meet this week to decide: Should they change the laws? If they make street selling legal, they will have other choices to make too. How many vendors can work on each street? How much will a selling permit cost?

God has given government officials an important job. The Bible says officials are God’s servants for our good. (Romans 13: 4) Street sellers hope they will be able to make a living and obey authorities at the same time.

A young girl looks at goods for sale on Los Angeles sidewalks November 27. (AP Photo)