My office, perched atop MaisonBlue as it is, might offer a view, except there is a huge tree that basically blocks the window (an evergreen, no less, so this is a year-round blockage). This doesn't bother me though, because I enjoy watching the antics of the birds and squirrels in the tree, so this is a bit of nature TV (a tailless squirrel is walking by my window as I write these words), and a bit of compensation for when we moved out of the concrete jungle, leaving behind the mama mourning dove that annually raised broods on our fire escape. This is a bit more of a taste of actual nature than that formerly citified view, though... for example, one of the things I get to see on occasion is the incredible feistiness of blue jays, who when they are worked up will chase after all the other birds, up to and including the huge crows we get around here. None of this prepared me for yesterday though, when after catching a flurry of motion through the window, I saw some manner of bird of prey perched in the tree... not terribly large (smaller than a crow, for instance), but clearly a falcon, hawk, or perhaps even an eagle (I poked around the 'net to see if I could identify a mug shot, but so far have no positive ID). The wild thing here is that he was holding a bird in his talons... that's right, if I had happened to be watching a moment earlier, I would have seen him snag his prey, rather than just sense the motion. I then did get to watch in fascination from just a couple of feet away as he plucked and devoured his prize. Living in the suburbs is not exactly like being on the wild frontier, but I imagine there are naturalists and forest rangers that haven't ever gotten such a close-up view of this scenario I encountered yesterday.

Links of the Day:	Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day. Thanks Mike Martinez. The Chronicles of George. Thanks Wamphyr. Following the sys admin theme.
Story of the Day:	Court rules 'Barbie Girl' can party on. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Weird Science:	Yale Accuses Princeton of Hacking. Thanks [MP] Wolverine [MP].
Wild Science:	Laser communications crucial for space exploration. Thanks again [MP] Wolverine [MP].
Auction of the Day:	M41- Pulse Rifle from ALIENS prop gun !!! Thanks pr0nstar.
Image of the Day:	The MechWarrior Treehouse. Thanks Greg Walrath. The coolest dad EVAR.