folking around

Been playing with my itunes today. quite engaged with this up-and-coming folk band faustus who do a dazzling rendition of 'the new deserter' which is a classic folk tune - it tells of the woeful tale of a soldier who deserted the army for his sweetheart, before being caught and shot by his own ranks. it's currently my song of the week.

Dark Skies

Dark Skies is an American UFO conspiracy theory-based sci-fi television series that aired from the 1996 to 1997 season for 18 episodes, plus a two-hour pilot episode. The success of The X-Files on Fox proved there was an audience for science fiction shows, resulting in NBC commissioning this proposed competitor following a pitch from producers Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman. The series debuted September 21, 1996 on NBC, and was later rerun by the Sci-Fi Channel. Its tagline was "History as we know it is a lie."

Varied Bunting

The Varied Bunting (Passerina versicolor) is a species of songbird in the Cardinal family, Cardinalidae.
The range of the Varied Bunting stretches from the southern parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States south throughout Mexico as far as Oaxaca. Small disjunct populations occur in the state of Chiapas in Mexico and southeastern Guatemala.

This stocky bird has a short tail and rounded bill. It is 11–14 centimetres (4.3–5.5 in) long, has a wingspan of 21 centimetres (8.3 in), and weighs 11–13 grams (0.39–0.46 oz). Breeding males are purple-red with bright red patched on the nape, and become browner in the fall. Females are plain light brown, resembling the female Indigo Bunting but lacking streaking on the breast. Varied Buntings inhabit deserts and xeric shrublands, preferring thorny brush thickets, thorn forests, scrubby woodlands, and overgrown clearings. They forage on the ground for insects, fruit, and seeds. Varied Buntings weave open-cup nests of grass and spider webs in the outer branches of thorny shrubs, usually near water. Females lay 2-5 bluish-white to bluish-green eggs, which they incubate for about fourteen days. The young are fully feathered after 10 days, and are ready to leave the nest several days later.