Here are some updates on things I've written about before.

Ice melt raises passage tension, says the BBC. I usually try to keep the ice out of all my passages for just this reason, but this is the story that global warming is opening up the northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, passing north of Canada. It's always been a sea, but this year enough ice has melted so you can actually sail it.

You can see why this story's so important. It's a sign that if we don't mend our ways all the bad stuff that might happen probably will. Except that most of the fuss over the new passage is about who controls it. Canada says it's theirs, everyone else says it's international waters. Well done for spotting the crucial issue, guys.

Maybe they ought to sign up for some of the government's new science training. If it ever gets out of the report stage, and if the shamans let it into the classroom. And at least they can use butterflies to measure how fast things are falling apart. That's not quite what the butterfly effect is, but well done anyway.

And after coming up with a potential solution to motor neurone disease, they're also making progress on multiple sclerosis. If aliens ever come and investigate the drowned wreckage of our civilisation, I'm sure they'll be impressed by our ability to solve a very specific subset of our problems.

At least we're good for the Californian moose. Apparently pregnant moose hang around roads. This is because humans aren't a threat to them, but we are to predators. Bears in particular avoid roads.

Actually, I wonder if maybe humans do shoot moose for food, but not when they've got young. After decades of legally enforced seasons, moose who approach roads out of season but not in season are being selected for.

And just to bamboozle you all, here's one that isn't about science. They've found the world's oldest rock painting. It looks like a Paul Klee.

Oh yeah, I was forgetting, half of you are science nerds. It looks like a Paul Klee. The guy with all the paintings?

I have too written about art before. And to make up for the gross stereotyping, here's two more brilliant art sites. This is Morbid Anatomy, which really is as delightful as the title would lead you to think, and here is the excellent Who Killed Bambi.