The Illinois Department of Agriculture's comprehensive site about the emerald ash borer isn't as boring as you'd think. Ho, ho. Remember, EABs can be found in firewood, so "buy locally and burn locally." The more you know. Speaking of emerald ash borers, the Chicago Furniture Designers Association is putting together a touring show of pieces made with the salvaged wood from infested trees. "Rising from the Ashes: Furniture from Lost Trees" has some very attractive......

Armadillos are the latest surprising species to be making its way through Illinois. A New Athens man spotted one in the woods of St. Clair County in March (and took photos), and according to Dr. Joyce Hoffman of the Illinois Natural History Survey, 130 'dillos have been spotted in the Land of Lincoln since 1999. "The thing we don't exactly know is how they are getting here," Hofmann said. "They can swim, but the Mississippi......

No idea if those flowers are native, but they sure are pretty. Photo by Rebecca Anne Chilly weather be damned, we're focusing on spring. That means planting stuff, and for some that means planting stuff native to Illinois. Native trees and shrubs are more likely to thrive than non-native horticultural specimen, and they're better for native wildlife, too.......

Today's a big day for pest control: The USDA, the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the City announced today that we're the first state to eradicate the Asian longhorned beetle. Go us! ALBs, as they're known, first appeared in Chicago about 10 years ago. The most recent infestation was in 2003, but since then, despite what the USDA calls "active surveys," no one's seen any, which means they're gone. ALBs can destroy entire trees if......

Argh, shittiest vandalism ever! A chainsaw-wielding asshole or possibly a team of assholes cut down 15 cottonwood trees in Burnham Park sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. The 50-year-old trees were about 50 feet tall and 11 1/2-feet wide, and park officials estimate damage costs of around $25,000. The trees were part of the nature area between 45th and 47th streets and Lakeshore Drive and the Metra tracks. [Trib]......

Photo by johnsadowskiii You know winter has fully set its icy claws into your heart when you hear "35 degrees" and think "hey, I'll take it!" So run outside now to soak up some rays while they last. It's supposed to get cloudy this afternoon and snow a little tonight, with temperatures dropping the rest of the week and into the weekend. Speaking of the weather, mark your calendars for April 5 when WGN......

Triptych by fjsjr Psst. Down there. Hey! It's me! Nature! I live in the sky and throw water down on you whenever I feel like it. Guess what? I super feel like it this year. Guess what again? It's going to snow tonight for the 35th time this season. I know--it usually only snows 30 times all season. But I like to think of myself as a wild bird who can't be caged. Sadly......

Oh man, we almost forgot about the Children's Museum debate! Luckily, Alderman Brendan Reilly wants to keep it front and center, which is why he sent the Museum a list of 24 possible places it could relocate that aren't Grant Park: + Museum Campus + Northerly Island + Logan Square + Garfield Park Conservatory + Pritzker Park + Washington Park + Bronzeville + Calumet Park + Englewood + State and Van Buren + McCormick Place......

We read somewhere that the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (formerly the Chicago Academy of Sciences) is one of the least visited of the Chicago museums, but it’s one of our favorite places in the city to bring our toddler. Unlike the MSI, the Notebaert’s exhibits are accessible to those under three feet tall. The taller displays have low interactive panels and those that don’t have stools nearby. And the bugs! What kid doesn’t like bugs?......

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

Great goose shot by Photoshop Abuser A Lake Zurich man has started using pyrotechnics to rid his neighborhood of pesky Canada geese. Robert Warren recently got village approval for his new de-geeser; in previous years, he used his dog to shoo the birds. Warren will now be allowed to fire a rocketlike device that emits a shrill whistle or booming sound in the geese's direction, reaching clusters of the birds that Warren's dog cannot.......

We thought we'd been hearing jugbands downtown recently, and now we know we have: River otters are making a comeback in Chicago waterways. According to the Chris Anchor, chief biologist for Cook County (jobs we didn't know existed: that one), "Almost all the watersheds in Cook County have otters. They're everywhere...there's definitely otters downtown." No one's sure exactly why the otters have re-emerged, but the Brookfield Zoo and Forest Preserve District will be tagging......

UIC's Dr. David Featherstone and his colleagues have isolated a gene in fruit flies that, when mutated, makes them bisexual. And not because they want to be on TV. Because their synapses work differently! Featherstone et al published their findings in an article ("A glial amino-acid transporter controls synapse strength and homosexual courtship in Drosophila") in this month's Nature Neuroscience journal, which doesn't give its articles away for free online sadly. But apparently the researchers......

Jeff Cagle and SceenUnseen both get into the spooky tree game.......

Big surprise — the weather is going to be wildly unpredictable on and around Thanksgiving. Holiday travel will most likely be ludicrously difficult for the thousands of weary travelers coming and going in the Midwest via plane, train and automobile. According to Tom, we can expect rain as the week goes on. The rain will probably change to snow on Thanksgiving eve following a low pressure storm that may (or may not?) be moving northeasterly......

Monica Eng at the Trib must be helping Chicago win its title of "most caffeinated" city; she tried 32 different coffees for a story in today's paper about which coffees taste the best. Coming out on top are cups of coffee from Metropolis, Intelligentsia, Coffee Beanery Ltd., Whole Foods, Cafe Colao, Illy, Peet's Coffee (our personal favorite), and Julius Meinl. She also recommends picking up the banana cream tart at Fox & Obel to......

There's a November-y chill in the air already, and the rolling out of Christmas decorations drives home the fact that winter is rapidly approaching. This year, Jack Frost is bringing more than just snow and seasonal affective disorder, though: Canadian artist Gordon Halloran is building a enormous ice sculpture in Millennium Park. Halloran's piece, "Paintings Below Zero," will be unveiled February 1, and will be a 95-foot long, 12-foot tall wall of pigmented panels......

If you were looking for some new books to cuddle up with for the oncoming winter, the Chicago Book Festival is here to help. There's an events booklet available at libraries and bookstores and a PDF online. Much of the information is on readings in the city that happen anyway, but we are excited about the extra discussions for this fall's One Book, One Chicago, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which we haven't read since high......

Everyone loves Bonnie Hunt, right? So much she should have her own talk show? A stroller is "a child's wheelchair?" WTF? This is why we sold our condo and refuse to go co-op. Today you can check out the Nature Center at night. You can see "raccoons, opossums, skunks, and even a flying squirrel." How about a talking moose? Remember how The Reader used to run BobWatch so you didn't have to read Bob......

As being "green" continues to grow in trendiness, even clothing designers are hopping on the bandwagon, offering up pieces in everything from tree fibers to our state's favorite crop, corn. Tomorrow, the Notebaert Nature Museum plays host to Sustainable Convergence '07, a party that brings together people with sustainable subjects on the brain for socializing, networking, inspiration, and of course, some old fashioned boozing. The highlight of the party is EcoModa, an exhibit of "eco......

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires......

Crime Fiction started life in 2005 as a modestly-budgeted project by some University of Chicago students. It's a sly dark comedy of artistic ambition, deceit and murder (no, it is not based on the day-to-day workings of Chicagoist). When we last chatted with associate producer Marc DeMoss in January, it had just gotten into the Slamdance Film Festival. That screening seems to have been some kind of golden ticket, because since then it's played at......

Nike opened up a store on the South Side and people in the neighborhood are hoping others will too. Motorola is cutting 4,000 more jobs. 27 students died violent deaths this school year. What's grosser than gross? A former nurse's aide was sentenced for raping and impregnating a disabled nursing home resident who couldn't walk, talk or feed herself. He said he did it because he was bored. Tank Johnson binged on junk food......

Along with what seemed like half of Chicago, we headed down to Lincoln Park yesterday to check out the conservatory, a building we've somehow failed to check out, despite living relatively close by. Although the sweat-inducing humidity didn't make the conservatory the best choice for a hot day, the space was nevertheless a wonderful urban oasis, brightly lit, calming, and full of exotic orchids and even oranges. We're sure we'll return for more photo......

Remember last year when you all got your collective tights in a wad over speculation that Goose Island was being bought by Anheuser-Busch? It's nice to have some hometown pride, but in the world of brewing it's also hard to find a major beer company that isn't involved with a craft brewery in some fashion. It could be a stake in the company. It could be the use of a major beer group's distribution network......

We were going to post a nice, typically Chicago snow photo, but then we realized how sick we are of talking about (and looking at) the snow. While we find it a nice novelty, our feelings toward the flakes are much like a summer fling — fun and enjoyable for a brief period of time, but after a month or two, we are more than fine with bidding it adieu. We dug into the......

It's easy to watch a lot of crappy comedy on TV. "The Daily Show" is always reliable for some laughs, and "30 Rock" and SNL have their moments. But by and large contemporary TV comedy is a wasteland of retreads, anemia and laughless vulgarity. We're becoming increasingly convinced that the future of television isn't television at all. It's the internet. Because there's plenty of really funny stuff online, and most of it is even free.......

Concerned environmentalists in Chicago should know better than to expect satisfaction when the fate of a 100-year-old maple tree rests in the hands of the Department of Streets and Sanitation. In fact, when said tree is blocking the development of a multi-million dollar home, as we learned from this instructive Tribune report, they shouldn't just expect to lose their argument, they should also prepare to watch the object of their mercy get fed into a......

Yesterday we walked outside and couldn't believe our senses. We walked back inside. We came back out and - behold! - it really was sunny and mild! We had almost forgotten how awesome fall could be. We even held out some hope for the trick-or-treaters today. Alas, Mother Nature is one cruel-ass bitch. Sure, you could blame it on Chicago, the wind, the "wait five minutes and it will change" Midwestern weather reality, but we......

Every once in a while an opportunity presents itself that we must hoist upon you from way up high at the Chicagoist offices, an opportunity not to be missed. On Wednesday, at the Chicago Architecture Foundation lunch lecture series, Tim Wittman will give a lecture on “Sullivan and the Synthesis of Nature and the Machine”. Tim Wittman is an architectural historian and Adjunct Professor of Architectural History & Historic Preservation at The School of the......