Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
July 3, 2006
Birds in the News is postponed until next week. Sorry about that. I hope you all have a good holiday and that you come back next week for the next issue. You can also browse previous issues of Birds in the News.
tags: Birds in the News, BirdsNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
July 2, 2006
Mendel's Garden has been published at Genetics and Health. Included are plenty of my SiBlings, along with a bunch of other essayists whom you will find interesting. Even though this blog carnival has been around for awhile, it is new for me, so I hope that you find your way there for a little…
July 1, 2006
After two really hot games today, I wonder how long has it been since the World Cup has consisted exclusively of European teams? What happened to Brasil? Over the past few days, I was warned that "if any team can beat Brasil, it's the French team", but no one said anything about the possibility…
July 1, 2006
Considering that the USA was disqualified early from World Cup competition, I decided that I need to find out who my inner European is, just so I know who to root for. I am currently enjoying every team, since each game is so exciting right now (ignoring the ref, who is a moron). So .. after taking…
July 1, 2006
The advertizing slogan generator is responsible for the title for this entry -- not me! What is your slogan?
Thanks for this latest bit of weirdness to my SiBling, Coturnix.
tags: Online Quiz
June 30, 2006
"Space," wrote The Bard,"is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-boggingly big it is."
And who can argue with that? But seriously, how big is "vastly hugely mind-boggingly big"?
This website will help you comprehend the size of our solar system. It shows the sizes of each…
June 30, 2006
I thought you all would enjoy this silly video of a British journalist interviewing several members of the Iraqi resistance in the swirling sands near Tikrit.
tags: satire, humor, streaming video, interview, Iraq
June 29, 2006
Wild specimen of the butterfly species, Heliconius heurippa.
Researchers recently demonstrated that this species is a naturally-occurring
hybrid between H. cydno and H. melpomene.
Image: Christian Salcedo / University of Florida, Gainesville.
Speciation typically occurs after one lineage splits…
June 28, 2006
Question: What makes a good science teacher?
It took me forever to answer this question, mostly because I don't know the magic formula that makes a good science teacher, but I finally came up with a useful answer. Well, I think.
I think that a good science teacher has the same qualities that…
June 28, 2006
Am I unpatriotic if I don't own a TV?
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tags: satire, humor, George Bush, politics
June 27, 2006
Or .. how to gross out your friends at dinnertime and make them wish they never met you!
Believe it or not, in honor of their 75th anniversary, the crazy people at Hostess compiled the Twinkies Cookbook (2006) that was just published by Ten Speed Press. This amazing book gives you 50 recipes --…
June 27, 2006
Dear XXXX,
Thank you for your rejection letter. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me a position.
This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and…
June 27, 2006
JK Rowling (pictured), the author of the successful Harry Potter series of books, says that, even though she has not finished the last book yet, she is "well into it now." When asked how she felt about Book Seven when she gave a reading at Buckingham Palace in honor of the Queen's 80th birthday,…
June 26, 2006
Six flamingos, Phoenicopterus ruber,
bored with people-watching at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, Texas.
(Can you see all six birds?)
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Michael C. Hamilton (contact).
Birds in Science
A new study of global avian biodiversity published…
June 25, 2006
Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment and the fine family dining communities.
The Pillsbury Dough boy died yesterday of a yeast infection and complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.
Dough boy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of…
June 25, 2006
The referees for the World Cup games are truly ridiculous. They are not doing their job very well because they have consistently missed making important penalty calls, such that some of the games have gotten out-of-control at times. One especially unpleasant example was today's Nederlands-…
June 24, 2006
Okay, this is truly stupid, but being the crazy futebol fan that I am (I am defintely a "crazy futebol fan" by American standards, which pales when compared to international standards, I know), I had to submit my blog pseudonyms to this name generator for the Brasilian futebol team (Yes, I am…
June 24, 2006
I am sitting in my usual free-wifi watering hole in Manhattan, watching the "Round of 16" series in the World Cup. I am the only one here with a laptop, so I am "command central" for digging up streaming video from the other World Cup games. All of the video I've located thus far is terrible (…
June 23, 2006
This parody of The Lord of the Rings is from the MTV Movie Awards. It depicts how The Fellowship was set up in the first film. It is absolutely funny, but it is a bit er .. bawdy .. or, er .. suggestive .. as well (not that I disapprove; just warning you).
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tags: streaming video, satire, parody,…
June 23, 2006
To join the Geography Challenge in support of your country, you simply need to select which country you will be representing and take the quiz. This quiz consists of trying to locate 10 randomly selected countries on a map of the world. It is different every time. You may take this quiz up to 3…
June 22, 2006
The Brazil-Japan World Cup game was amazing. Despite the lopsided score (4-1), the game was beautiful to watch, unlike the USA-Ghana game, which was mostly just a duty to watch because, you know, I am an American who really likes football (soccer). No; unlike USA-Ghana, the Brazil-Japan match was…
June 22, 2006
This was not a pretty game. Neither Team Ghana nor Team USA showed any particular skill or passion; Ghana simply outlasted USA, and honestly, Team USA was its own worst enemy, so Team Ghana only had to sit back and allow the USA to destroy themselves. So easy. Mechanical.
If this game was a novel…
June 22, 2006
Uh-oh! Things are not looking good for Team USA in World Cup action: first, they aren't wearing red uniforms. Second, the American team captain, Claudio Reyna, was carted away on a stretcher after losing the ball to a player on Ghana's team -- who immediately scored a goal. I am not sure if Reyna…
June 21, 2006
A reader wrote to tell me that my wee rant about Stephen Hawking's comments was quoted -- but not linked! can you believe it? -- in a piece that appeared yesterday on Spiked.
Um, yeah. This is good .. I guess.
June 21, 2006
An informed public and open debate is vital to a healthy democracy, but they depend upon free access to the facts. A free and fair media is indispensable to democracy because they are the only institution that can regularly question the president and other public officials. However, not everyone…
June 20, 2006
I want to share this amusing video with all of you, particularly with one very special reader, Joe [surname elided to protect him from his stupidity], who was so moved by this piece that I wrote that he has been emailing repeatedly to let me know that I am a poorly-educated liar. In fact, Joe was…
June 20, 2006
For those of you who are following the World Cup, I ran across an article this morning at that has quite a few links that describe the science of World Cup soccer. Linked from this article are interesting studies showing that teams who wear red uniforms are most likely to win, that winning is great…
June 19, 2006
Every time I heard that stupid song, that's what I thought the Beach Boys were singing, too! It took years before I could hear them singing "Barbra Ann" instead.
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tags: streaming video, satire, parody, humor, Iran
June 19, 2006
Soccer-playing carrion crow, Corvus corone
(This is a captive domesticated bird).
Image: Koichi Harada, Asahi Shimbun/AP.
Birds in Science
Filling a gap in the evolution of birds, scientists have dug up fossils of a bird, Gansus yumenensis (pictured), that lived 110 million years ago and looked…
June 19, 2006
Did you know that Dutch football (soccer) fans' orange lederhosen offended the Fédération Internationale de Football Association or FIFA, because they carry the logo for the Dutch beer, Bavaria? The Dutch brewery that makes Bavaria beer is not a sponsor for the games, so officials did not want…