Oekologie #3 is available and comes with crime, deceit, pestilence, and goats!  Oh, and a lot of other stuff.  Go take a look at the best ecology and environmental science from around the blogosphere.

Don’t forget to visit Friday Ark #130 throughout the weekend for a growing collection of animal photos and news.

A Scottish sea spider: What a beautiful and bizarre creature.

Be sure to act surprised.  “The northern hemisphere has just experienced its warmest winter since records began 128 years ago, a U.S. government agency reported, adding fire to global warming concerns. A record warm January worldwide pushed average temperatures to 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for the 20th century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. It was the highest average temperature for the December-February period since records began in 1880, the NOAA, said in a report released Thursday.”  But even more disturbing is this: “During the past century, global surface temperatures have increased at a rate near 0.11 degrees per decade. ‘But the rate of increase has been three times larger since 1976, or 0.32 degrees per decade, with some of the largest temperature increases occurring in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere,’ they said.”

ROFL CAT: I nearly wet myself.  It’s just a collection of cat images, some with augmentative verbiage.  Oh how I laughed…

And because I’m not an animal bigot, I also checked out LOL PUPPY.  Yep, same thing goin’ on over there, except it’s dogs instead of cats.  And it’s equally funny.