Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
June 15, 2007
tags: blog carnival
This is a new blog carnival, Doing It Differently, which just published its fifth edition. This blog carnival is devoted to the concept of stepping outside of the box and living our lives "beyond the norm". Whether you want to learn unique ways to think or act differently, or if…
June 15, 2007
tags: online quiz
I kinda liked the results from this quiz -- how about you? How did you score?
You Are 86% Creative
You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity.
Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!…
June 15, 2007
tags: schoolhouse rock, media-opoly, streaming video
This schoolhouse-rock satire streaming video was only shown only once on TV. [2:25]
June 14, 2007
tags: human genome, DNA, ENCODE
New research shows that the human genome is much more complex than once thought.
Image: ABC News.
A study was published this week in the journal Nature, revealing that genomes are more complex than previously thought. These studies, which analyzed just 1% of…
June 14, 2007
tags: Paris Hilton, humor, satire, streaming video
Okay, I hate to give in to the current state of media stupidity, but this video is just so funny that I had to share it with you. The last verse of this song is especially amusing. [2:47]
June 14, 2007
tags: bowhead whale, whaling, aging whales
This bomb lance fragment, patented in 1879, was removed from the neck of a male bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus, killed near Barrow, Alaska, in May 2007. The shiny scars are the result of a chain saw cut.
Image: AP.
Here's an interesting twist to a…
June 14, 2007
tags: book review, Nature, The Open Laboratory
Some of you might be aware that The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006 (2007) was reviewed in this week's issue of Nature magazine. This is a volume that I, along with 49 other science blog writers, contributed to (actually, most…
June 14, 2007
tags: blog carnival, bird, birding
I and the Bird, issue 51, is now available for your reading pleasure. Not only have they included a piece that I wrote, but as an added bonus, this issue is a sweepstakes where those people who correctly answer 20 questions will be placed into a drawing for a…
June 14, 2007
tags: book review, birding, birds, Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches, Mike O'Connor
Have you ever wondered if backyard birds can choke on peanut butter? If robins really are the first birds of spring? Where should you hang your new bird feeder? Whether there is such a bird as a horned House Finch…
June 14, 2007
tags: environment, humor, streaming video
Martin Short revisits his classic character Nathan Thurm, the nervous, sweating, chain smoking big business lawyer. In this skit, Robert F. Kennedy grills him on global warming and how his clients, the big oil companies, are contributing to it. [2:18]
June 13, 2007
tags: behavior, evolution, humans, mate choice
A recent study has found a strong correlation between a woman's choice of a partner and her relationship with her father. Basically, the better she was treated by her father when she was a child, the more closely that her partner's face resembled her…
June 13, 2007
tags: dinosaurs, fossils, Kevin Padian
For those of you who posted comments or questions about The Agonized Deaths of Dinosaurs Captured in Stone, you will be pleased to know that Kevin Padian, one of the study's authors, has responded to you. He said that you had some very interesting thoughts --…
June 13, 2007
tags: blog carnival, carnival of the vanities
The 245th issue of the Carnival of the Vanities is now available for your reading pleasure. This blog carnival links to the best recent writing in the blogosphere, regardless of topic. This issue was a few weeks slow, so they accepted more than one link…
June 13, 2007
tags: researchblogging.org, dinosaur, bird, fossil, Gigantoraptor erlianensis, China
An artist's painting of the newly discovered Gigantoraptor dinosaur, depicted with other smaller dinosaurs. Fossilized bones uncovered in the Erlian Basin of northern China's Inner Mongolia region show the…
June 13, 2007
tags: environment, humor, streaming video
This wierdly humorous piece by an Australian comedy team, Clarke and Dawe, is something akin to a Monty Python sketch. It is funny despite the subject matter. [2:01]
June 12, 2007
tags: constitution, humor, streaming video
This biting political piece by Bill Maher has been around for a little while but it is but it is definitely worth watching. "I email myself a copy of the constitution every morning in the hopes that they [the Feds] will open it to see what it says." [6:11]
June 11, 2007
tags: reasoning, Wändi Bruine de Bruin, behavior
Have you ever known someone who is intelligent but still makes astonishingly stupid decisions again and again? According to a recently published study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reasoning is a distinct skill, and not…
June 11, 2007
tags: poetry, block city, Robert Louis Stevenson
Today, I am having a lot of trouble accessing the internet. On Mondays, my wifi access is typically provided by a pub because the libraries with wifi are closed. But this pub was closed until after 5pm tonight, so I had to wait and wait and wait some…
June 11, 2007
tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
King penguin stretches on the Falkland Islands.
Image: BBC News [larger]
Birds in Science
If you've looked the articulated 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossils, you probably have noticed that they all have a weirdly…
June 11, 2007
tags: teaching, streaming video
Everyone knows that "those who can, do, while those who can't, teach". Right? Wrong. This streaming video of Taylor Mali, slam poet and teacher, speaks his mind regarding what teachers make. While it speaks to the traditional foundations of the teaching role, it also…
June 10, 2007
Where in the brain does déjà vu originate? Why it happens more frequently with increasing age and with brain-disease patients? Basically, the brain generates memories near its center, in a looped wishbone of tissue called the hippocampus. But a new study suggests only a small chunk of it, called…
June 10, 2007
The most recent edition of the Carnival of Cats is being hosted by Feline Theocracy. They include a submission from me, so I am purring loudly.
June 10, 2007
tags: death penalty, murder
I am a person who argues against the death penalty for ethical and economic reasons (I won't get into those here), but I was quite surprised to learn that one argument that has been made against the death penalty (but not by me) seems to have been refuted; whether the…
June 10, 2007
tags: internet, Pew Research Center, poll
The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of 4,001 adults and found that half of them only use the internet occasionally, and even many avid Internet users surf the Web in the same way they did 10 years ago. Yeowza, not me!
"We were struck by a couple of…
June 10, 2007
tags: urban sports, humor, streaming video
While writing tomorrow's issue of Birds in the News, I found this hilarious video that you might enjoy. Like most sports, urban sprinting is simple. First, you find a shop with a security guard, then you take an alarmed tag off merchandise and walk out the…
June 9, 2007
tags: Rags to Riches, Belmont Stakes, Triple Crown, Horse racing
Rags to Riches (7), ridden by John Velazquez, won the 139th Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York on Saturday, 9 June 2007. Curlin, ridden by Robby Albarado (background), finished second. Rags to Riches is the first…
June 9, 2007
tags: Rags to Riches, Belmont Stakes, Triple Crown, Horse racing
Rags to Riches working out.
Rags to Riches will be only the 22nd filly to ever attempt to win the Belmont Stakes, and the fifth since 1980.
Image: NYTimes
Often, when the first two races of the Triple Crown of Horse Racing have…
June 9, 2007
tags: Secretariat, Belmont Stakes, Triple Crown, Horse racing
Since the Belmont Stakes will be run soon today, I thought I'd show you a streaming video of the great Secretariat winning the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes in 1973, and smashing the old record. This particular race is probably one of…
June 9, 2007
Every time I hear about a teacher quitting his or her job because a kid dares to read a Harry Potter book, I automatically think this person is a religious wingnut employed somewhere in the United States. So it was surprising to me to learn that this basic scenario occurred recently in south London…
June 9, 2007
tags: horseshoe crab, Limutus polyphemus, red knot, Delaware Bay
Horseshoe Crab, Limutus polyphemus,
a living fossil.
Image: Pier Aquarium, Florida [larger].
In a controversial ruling, a Delaware Superior Court judge partially rolled back the two-year ban on the horseshoe crab harvest by…