Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
August 11, 2006
So when you're happy (Hurray!) or sad (Aw!)
Or frightened (Eeeeeek!) or mad (Rats!)
Or excited (Wow!) or glad (Hey!)
An interjection starts a sentence right.
Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Hey!) or emotion (Hey!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by…
August 8, 2006
Image appears here with the kind permission of its creator, John Kyrk.
A friend sent me a link to an interesting website. John Kyrk, an artist and biologist, has recreated a huge variety of biology topics using interactive flash animations, ranging from animo acids and proteins to water…
August 7, 2006
Would you like to give GWB a brain? Well, so would I, so I found this game where you have ten chances to solve the world's problems by giving Bush a brain. Every time a brain plops into his open noggin, he rewards you with an intelligent and pithy quote, whereas missing his open skull creates a…
August 5, 2006
After centuries of mistreatment, the Archimedes palimpsest is in bad shape. During its thousand-year life, it has been scraped, singed by fire, dribbled with wax, smeared with glue, and ravaged by a deep purple fungus, which in places has eaten through its pages. Without the use of computer…
August 4, 2006
What is global dimming? It is a cooling effect that appears to have partially masked the effects of global warming. Global dimming is caused by a reduction in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth due to the presence of aerosolized particulate pollution, such as jet contrails. These airborne…
August 4, 2006
Finally, an online quiz that tells you everything that you need to know about yourself, and it's all so simple, too!
What Your Underwear Says About You
Admit it, you've dreamed of being a underwear model.
You're comfortable in your own skin - and don't care to impress anyone.
The Underwear…
August 4, 2006
We the people
In order to form a more perfect union,
Establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility,
Provide for the common defense,
Promote the general welfare and
Secure the blessings of liberty
To ourselves and our posterity
Do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of…
August 3, 2006
Several blog carnivals were published recently that you should take a look at.
For those of you who love birds, the 29th issue of I and the Bird was recently published. This blog carnival focuses on stories and photographs of wild birds and birdwatching.
The Carnival of Authors, Readers, and…
August 3, 2006
This streaming video shows an interview with ex-muslim, secular humanist and feminist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali Wafa Sultan, discussing her beliefs about the clash between Islam and "the West": essentially she argues this is a clash between the Middle Ages and all it represents and the 21st Century, and all…
August 3, 2006
100 Degrees of Perspiration: Hot, Hazy and Humid.
The sun sets over the Hudson River at the end of a long, oppressively hot day.
New York City is in the foreground, New Jersey is in the background, across the river.
Image: Swerz.
I was happy to see this day end, especially because I had to be…
August 2, 2006
The Bush administration proves once again that they hate your Constitutional rights as much as Al Qaeda does.
U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts…
August 2, 2006
100 Degrees of Perspiration:
Staying cool in the heat.
Image: 2beanornot2bean.
As some of you might recall, I live with some parrots (an Eclectus parrot, an African grey parrot, and some yellow-bibbed lories). I am keeping them cool today by giving them a bath, and feeding them frozen fruits and…
August 2, 2006
100 Degrees of Perspiration:
cooling off in a bathtub of cold water with a hendrick's gin-on-tonic..
and um.. fuck yeah, it's a measuring cup.
Image: fast boy.
Today is the hottest day I've experienced in all the years I've lived in NYC. Depending on who you listen to, it is predicted to get up…
August 1, 2006
I just received this emergency email from the American Bird Conservancy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to make a decision on whether to ban the bird-killing pesticide, carbofuran. This is the most deadly pesticide to birds currently being used in the United States. It is…
August 1, 2006
Nacreous clouds above McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
Image: Matt Thompson.
Nacreous means pearlescene or pearl-like, and these clouds are commonly referred to as "mother of pearl clouds".
These rare clouds form at altitudes of 15,000-25,000 meters (50,000-80,000 ft) above the earth's surface…
August 1, 2006
I am sure that some of you have read this already, but here is a printable version of the cogent article published last year in the excellent magazine, The New Yorker, that discusses so-called "intelligent design". This article, entitled Why Intelligent Design Isn't, was published in May 2005 and…
July 31, 2006
Image source.
A published author who now is a friend of mine after I reviewed his book sent me some words that he found in a top-secret copy of the Republican-English Dictionary. He noted that these words and their definitions are useful for those of us who have been recently experiencing…
July 31, 2006
Look, Ma! Dinosaurs and people must have lived at the same time because The Flintstones says so!
Like most natural history museums, this one has exhibits showing dinosaurs roaming the Earth. Except here, the giant reptiles (sic) share the forest with Adam and Eve.
This reporter has it all wrong…
July 31, 2006
Taking the Plunge
(Female Belted Kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon).
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, David Seibel, who writes;
"I never realized, until freezing the motion with my camera, that kingfishers dive from
their perch with wings completely folded. I've captured…
July 31, 2006
"If you were to hang out with me here it won't be five or 10 minutes before you see a Republican hug me. That is almost as entertaining as some of the films."
Who said that?
Michael Moore, who wrote, filmed and produced the controversial film, Fahrenheit 9/11, is apparently benefiting from…
July 31, 2006
Birds in the News will appear on Mondays at noon EST, to benefit from the traffic peak that occurs shortly after noon. I have written Birds in the News for a year and a half. It is a weekly link harvest that features photographs and news stories about birds from around the world. You can browse…
July 30, 2006
I displayed this quiz result on my original blog for quite a long time, until I decided it was having a negative impact on my social life, whereupon, I removed it. However, because I no longer have a social life, not any sort of life whatsoever, I realize it probably wouldn't hurt to put this quiz…
July 29, 2006
This poll is not scientific, but it's still quite interesting, especially when one realizes that, according to any poll results from the past 18 months, Bush's approval rating are astonishingly low, particularly for a second-term war-time prez.
[Added 1945 in response to blog SiBling, James]…
July 29, 2006
This animated tutorial allows you to view the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. It then moves through space towards Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee,…
July 28, 2006
It takes three legs to make a tri-pod
Or to make a table stand.
It takes three wheels to make a ve-hicle
Called a tricycle.
Every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less.
You don't have to guess.
When it's three you can see
It's a magic number.
Do you…
July 28, 2006
[Note: the previous quiz screwed up the formatting for my entire blog, so I substituted this quiz in its place. Please accept my apologies for messing up this entry. Also keep in mind that my readers are not crazy; they were responding with their results to the original quiz]
Arr, as a parrot-lovin…
July 28, 2006
By the river Fnjoska, in Fnjoskardalur, Northern Iceland.
When I was a kid, I always wanted to go to Iceland. I've never managed that (nor have I traveled anywhere outside of North America, except to Japan, twice), but after looking at this amazing photo collection, I can already feel my…
July 27, 2006
Throughout the years, I have read quite a bit about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but because I do not claim to be an expert on the situation, I rarely comment about it. Despite this, I have long been convinced that there is a much better way to deal with that tragic situation than what is…
July 27, 2006
Can you recognize the voices in this video?
Horsefly: George W. Bush
Horse: Tony Blair? some British dude
Spider: typical misinformed American AKA; Britney Spears
Hog at trough: Richard Clarke
Bloodhound: Donald Rumsfeld
Fox by garbage cans: Colin Powell
Dog: Ayman Al-Zawahiri
Pigeon: Condoleezza…
July 26, 2006
"Why do I feel most alive when I am working myself to death?"
"I feel like I am missing some pieces of the puzzle."
"I don't even feel 39."
Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs at LiveJournal. Every few minutes, the system searches the…