No matter how much time you spend outdoors, you will never see the Milky Way like this. Even on the best viewing nights, the galactic bulge is just little more than a smudge in the sky. But with a digital camera, an extended shutter speed, and some patience, you can pull in light and snap pics that will you blow your own bad self away, not to mention your friends. And with a simple method of stitching together still images, you can produce gorgeous little films like William Castleman’s.

In the first, Castleman used a Canon 5D with an EF 15mm f/2.8 lens on a weighted tripod. Exposures were 20 seconds at f/2.8 ISO 1600 followed by 40 second interval.

Until recently, the big problem with shooting digital photos are night was the ridiculous amount of noise produced by high ISO settings (high ISO = better light sensitivity), which made the pictures look mottled and junky. But a new wave of more light-sensitive sensors is changing that. This shot, which you can see bigger at stevecasimiro.com, was taken with Nikon’s D3 in New Zealand 18 months ago; the latest version of the top Nikon, the D3S, has an almost unbelievable ISO capability of 102,400. Canon’s 1D Mark IV also snaps at 102,400. And Sony recently redesigned both camcorders and still cameras, putting the “Exmor R” sensor closer to the lens, and the result is remarkable. I tested the TX1 not long ago and was blown away by its low-light performance.

But shooting for extended periods at night requires commitment. This little video, also from the Mt. Cook area on New Zealand’s South Island, started out with great intentions. I set up the tripod, fully charged the batteries, and settled into the car for a snooze. An hour later, cold and stiff, I bailed. Makes me realize how special Castleman’s short films really are.

Face with shortages of food, the Zimbabwe army has taken to eating elephant meat, say reports from the sub-Saharan country. With 1,700 dead from a cholera epidemic, runaway inflation, and a dictator that doesn’t seem to care about his country’s misfortunes, Zimbabwe would seem to have more than its share of disturbing news, but a new report from independent web-based news outlet ZimOnline says that the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has delivered elephant carcasses to army barracks around the country.

“Soldiers started eating elephant meat last week,” said a senior officer at Cranborne barracks, a few kilometers outside Harare city center.

The army, which has been critical to Robert Mugabe’s grip on the presidency, has been plagued by shortages of food, boots, and other essentials. For most of the last year, soldiers have been fed little more than a gruel of ground maize, and late last year angry army members rioted in protest in the capital, Harare. Poor agricultural yields since 2000 have crippled Zimbabe’s ability to feed itself, and inflation as high as 231 million percent has made it practically impossible for Mugabe to import food.

Elephants are one of Zimbabwe’s riches. A ban on ivory and poaching has enabled the population to grow to 100,000, more than twice that 45,000 that scientists say the country can support. And while culling is standard to keep the herds in check, serving elephants for dinner is not—at least not officially. But illegal bushmeat trade is a huge issue in Africa. The Wildlife Conservation Society estimates that one million metric tons of meat are taken from African forests annually. In East Africa, refugees are eating chimpanzees, buffalo, and sable antelope. One-fifth of the endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “red list” are being reduced by bushmeat trade.

Eating elephants seems especially hard to stomach given today’s story from Scientific American, which reports that elephants really do have phenomenal memories, which enable them to track all individuals in a large herd or recall an elephant they’d known briefly years before. They’re also the only animal besides man, chimps, and dolphins that can recognize themselves in a mirror.

Neither the defense nor parks ministries would comment.

“Vote the Environment” doesn’t stop with the culmination of the presidential election: Congress is set to protect 3 million acres of land across the United States and add safeguards to 1,000 miles of rivers‚Äîbut it needs encouragement to get its lame-duck butt back to D.C. to approve it.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has promised to call back the Senate to vote on the massive Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2008, but House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has not said whether she’ll force her fellow reps to return and consider it. She should. And you should call her office and tell her so. Here’s why:

The omnibus bill is a collection of 140 smaller pieces of legislation that were cobbled together earlier in the year in the face of opposition from Republican Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). It includes proposals from members of both parties and would protect land from Virginia to Oregon. The president has promised to sign the bill if it passes and while there’s nothing to stop it from being reintroduced in part or total when the new Congress is sworn in next January, Reid is determined to get it through the Senate before this session expires. The House is in recess until January 3, but can be brought back by the majority leader. If Pelosi doesn’t whistle her colleagues back, the bill is dead.

The legislation would also shift the focus of the Bureau of Land Management, known under the Bush administration for its extremely proactive stance on oil and gas drilling, to be more environmentally conscious. It also identifies 26 million acres and 850 sites of special natural, archeological, and cultural value.

“The omnibus package is a bipartisan proposal and the product of years of negotiations among federal, state and local officials, conservation groups and private citizens,” wrote a New York Times editorial last week. “President Bush has indicated that he would sign it. Its only real enemy is time. Failure to approve it this year would require many of the negotiations to start all over again. Congress should not miss this chance.‚”

How to act? Pick up the phone, call Pelosi’s office (202.225.4965; sf.nancy@mail.house.gov), and tell them she should call them back. Then send this letter to your representative and senators telling them to vote “yes”.

What’s at stake? It’s an impressive list of lands. Take a look:

CALIFORNIA
Would add 465,000 acres of wilderness and protect 52 miles of rivers in the eastern Sierra and White mountains.

Would add 77,000 acres of wilderness to Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park and protect the largest stand of giant sequoias and California’s largest cave.

Would set aside 190,000 acres in Riverside County as wilderness.

Would add 31 miles to Wild and Scenic Rivers system.

Would add 5,000 acres to the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.

COLORADO
Would convert 250,000 acres of Rocky Mountain National Park to wilderness.

Would create the 200,000-acre Dominguez-Escalante Canyons National Conservation Area, with 66,000 acres of wilderness.

IDAHO
Would add 500,000 acres of wilderness to the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands.

Would add 315 miles of waterways to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system.

NEW MEXICO
Would create 15,000 acres of Sabinoso Wilderness in San Miguel County.

OREGON
Would add 128,600 acres of wilderness on Mt. Hood.

Would add 40,000 acres of wilderness to the Oregon Badlands and Spring Basin.

Would add 143 miles of Rogue River to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system.

Would add 4,000 acres to the Oregon Caves National Monument.

Would create the 23,000-acre Soda Mountain Wilderness.

Would protect 13,700 acres of pristine old-growth forest surround the headwaters of the Elk River in the Siskiyou National Forest.

VIRGINIA
Would protect 55,000 acres in the Jefferson National Forest as wilderness, wilderness study or national scenic areas.

WEST VIRGINIA
Would expand 37,000 acres of wilderness in Monongahela National Forest, enlarging three current wilderness areas and creating three new ones.

WYOMING
Would add 440 miles of rivers and streams of the Snake River headwaters to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system.

Would block oil, gas, and mineral leases in the Wyoming Range south of Jackson.

You’ve been there, you know the pain. For social, weight, or practical issues, the iPod stays home, not in the backpack. And despite one last listen of a really cool tune before you lock your vehicle and head into the backcountry, it happens: The worst song in the world gets stuck in your head. Over and over and over….

In German, they’re called ohrwurms, in English earworms, and short of a self-lobotomy or drunken stupor, there’s no real cure. Scientists don’t even know what causes them, though some have proposed that certain songs have “resonant frequencies” that make them more likely to stick. The University of Cincinnati’s Dr. James Kellaris, a.k.a. Dr. Earworm, has suggested the Theory of Cognitive Itch–some songs act as histamines do on the skin and the only way to scratch them is by playing them repeatedly in your head.

Regardless of how or why, here’s my list (feel free to post your own)…but be careful…you might want to put on some good music first. Just reading these titles shows how contagious these tunes really are.

10. “We Built This City,” by Starship
9. “Achy Breaky Heart,” by Billy Ray Cyrus
8. “Tom’s Diner‚” by Suzanne Vega
7. “Whoomp! There It Is,” by Tag Team
6. “Who Let the Dogs Out,” by Baha Men
5. “Copacabana,” by Barry Manilow
4. “Ants Go Marching,” by artist unknown
3. “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” by Tony Orlando
2. “My Sharona,” by The Knack
1. “My Humps,” by Black Eyed Peas