ListenThis week Gilda Salomone and Carmel Kilkenny join me, Marc Montgomery, to review some of the many stories we’ve covered this week, as Wojtek and Lynn enjoy a hot muggy summer vacation.
We start with a conversation with a railway expert who gives us his take on the terrible rail tragedy in Lac Megantic.
A train loaded with oil tankers was parked about 10km from the small Quebec town. It somehow rolled downhill during the night crashing and burning in the heart of the town.
E Wayne Benedict talks about a variety of aspects of the tragedy, the full interview is available in the highlights section
Then, more signs that there’s trouble in the natural world.
The striking black and orange Monarch butterfly used to be a very common sight in summers, especially in eastern Canada.
But they’ve been declining in the past few years, and this year their numbers are down dramatically. Sightings are extremely rare.
Many think it’s due to relatively rapid changes in climate.
And then, a new study show that crickets can be show-offs..if they get into a fight over a female, the winner starts to do some showboating.
The winner also engages in a cricket version of hooting and hollering, and one suspects, some trash talking about the loser, who skulks away.
The new study by a couple of Ontario researchers also seems to indicate that the amount and type of “grand-standing” depends on the audience, whether its big, and whether male, female, or mixed.
The researchers, whose work caught the attention of National Geographic, says it shows that crickets, and possibly other insects, are more complex than we thought.
I hope you enjoy the show, and as always don’t hesitate to send us your comments.
Marc