THE SEARCH FOR THE BLIND MONSTER

My old pal Joe Furman has been filming amphibians for pretty close to forever. He's shot great footage of all aspects of the natural history of dozens of species in their natural habitat, from all over the world, but when I learned that he was putting together a documentary about the Texas Blind Salamander (Eurycea=Typhlomolge rathbuni) I really took notice. This bizarre little shovel-headed creature (the salamander, not Joe) is only known from the Edwards Aquifer, beneath San Marcos, Texas. Its claims to coolness include being the most advanced troglobitic salamander known, as well as the first species listed on the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Before Joe turned up, the Texas Blind Salamander had never been filmed in its natural habitat, and with good reason; it takes a special kind of pathology to squeeze one's self through an unstable crack in the ground to lower one's self to a subterranean lake, then jump in. Be that as it may, I just received a copy of Joe's finished film, and it's a thorough look at what's known of E. rathbuni: its natural history, ecology, habitat and the history of its discovery. It also gives (I imagine) a pretty clear depiction of what that trip down to the aquifer must be like. DVDs of the documentary are available for sale.
...And speaking of projects, I've just learned that writer and internet dating advice guru Vicky Zhou is working on a comprehensive blogosphere guide titled "The Top 500 Blogs." The book will be available in boostores and on Amazon.com by the end of 2008, and will include Rigor Vitae in the category of "Personal Blogs."
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upper: Digital sketch of Eurycea rathbuni done with the little paint program that came installed on my computer.
lower: Cover image of Joe's documentary ripped off from his website.