grrlscientist | April 8, 2009Okay, I hate "microblogging" since I view it as a form of electronic trivial pursuit, which is anathema to any real learning or knowledge, unlike .. erm, blog writing.
Okay, you can all stop laughing out there (yes, I can hear you!) since I set up my very own twitter account, which means you all can communicate with each other and with me using your iPhone, or you can text me (and each other, of course!) using your mobile phone or whatever else you drag around with you from one wifi source to another. (Personally, I use my laptop, a gorgeous new MacBookPro, but it is rather large and heavy…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: Chambers Street, Park Place, World Trade Center, Oculus, Andrew Ginzel, Kristin Jones, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC
Oculus #33, 1998.
Stone mosaic on walls throughout Chambers Street station complex (A & C trains); also, there is a stone and glass floor mosaic at Park Place entrance, which connects to this station via a tunnel.
Artists: Andrew Ginzel & Kristin Jones.
Image: GrrlScientist, 3 January 2009 [larger view].
Oculus is located in passageways under the World Trade Center and was largely untouched by the events of 9/11. Oculus will also be…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: microbiology, astrobiology, new species, Indian Space Research Organization, bacteria
Bacterial colonies.
Image: Hub Testing Laboratory [larger view].
According to a recently published press release, three new species of bacteria have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists in an experiment conducted by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This discovery lends some credence to the hypothesis that life might have originated elsewhere in the cosmos and was seeded on Earth after colliding with a foreign body, perhaps a comet or asteroid, that was…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: Hietaniemi Hautausmaa, Hietaniemi Cemetery, nature, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
A huge gravestone in Hietaniemi Hautausmaa (Hietaniemi Cemetery).
Image: GrrlScientist, 19 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: lories, Loriinae, Loriidae, ornithology, molecular biology, natural history museums
A young pair of Meyer's Lories (Lorikeets), Trichoglossus flavoviridis meyeri.
Image: Iggino [larger view].
"Can you help us identify a mystery lory in our collection?"
I was pleasantly surprised to find this email request from Donna Dittmann, Collections Manager and Museum Preparator for the Section of Genetic Resources at Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
"Sure," I wrote back. "Send it to me and I'll see what I can do."
I, and some of my lories,…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: Eastern Screech-Owl, Otus asio, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Eastern Screech-Owl, Otus asio, photographed at the Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship building in Manhattan Kansas, Photographed from the inside with the woods outside to the south. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: photographed by Thomas Manney, this image appears here at the suggestion of Dave Rintoul.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, biodiversity, streaming video
This streaming video shows our planet by looking at our planet as a whole. There is a lot of gorgeous bird footage in this part [10:00]
grrlscientist | April 7, 2009tags: Chambers Street, Park Place, World Trade Center, Oculus, Andrew Ginzel, Kristin Jones, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC
Oculus #32, 1998.
Stone mosaic on walls throughout Chambers Street station complex (A & C trains); also, there is a stone and glass floor mosaic at Park Place entrance, which connects to this station via a tunnel.
Artists: Andrew Ginzel & Kristin Jones.
Image: GrrlScientist, 3 January 2009 [larger view].
As you can see, even these artworks are not immune to the attentions of those who seek to destroy beautiful things.
Oculus is located…
grrlscientist | April 7, 2009Here's the latest carnivalia for you to read and enjoy;
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People), inaugural issue. This is THE science blog writing carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing in the blogosphere.
Circus of the Spineless, 37th edition. This newly revived blog carnival focuses on invertebrates, as its name suggests. This issue is particularly fun, with a nice mix of science, photoessays, video and images.
Review Bloggers, 38th edition. This is a collection of reviews about all sorts of things, from books to baby toys.
Carnival of Homeschooling,…
grrlscientist | April 7, 2009tags: Greenland, image of the day
Grønland fra luften (Greenland from roughly 38,000 feet up).
Image: GrrlScientist, 10 March 2009 [larger view].
Can someone tell me; are those (relatively) straight lines fault lines?
grrlscientist | April 7, 2009tags: Lazuli x Indigo Bunting Hybrid, Passerina amoena X Passerina cyanea, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lazuli x Indigo Bunting Hybrid, Passerina amoena X Passerina cyanea, photographed in South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 18 December 2008.
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
A blue bird with a conical bill can be only a Passerina bunting. The absence of cinnamon on the wing…
grrlscientist | April 7, 2009tags: Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, biodiversity, streaming video
This streaming video shows Earth by looking at our beautiful planet as a whole. [10:00]
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Chambers Street, Park Place, World Trade Center, Oculus, Andrew Ginzel, Kristin Jones, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC
Oculus #31, 1998.
Stone mosaic on walls throughout Chambers Street station complex (A & C trains); also, there is a stone and glass floor mosaic at Park Place entrance, which connects to this station via a tunnel.
Artists: Andrew Ginzel & Kristin Jones.
Image: GrrlScientist, 3 January 2009 [larger view].
Oculus is located in passageways under the World Trade Center and was largely untouched by the events of 9/11. Oculus will also be…
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Scientia Pro Publica, Science for the People, biology, evolution, medicine, earth science, behavioral ecology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, blog carnival
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Since Tangled Bank has gone the way of the Dodo (Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker -- insert the name of your favorite extinct species here) and will probably never be seen again, despite promises to the contrary, there is a huge hole in the science writing blogosphere. A hole…
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009Here's the latest blog carnivals for you to read and enjoy;
Carnival of the Godless, issue 114. This blog carnival focuses on writings about a world without religious wingnuttery polluting it.
Just Write blog carnival, 3 April 2008 edition. This is filled with writing goodness for you to enjoy.
Academy of Science and Technology blog carnival, 30 March edition. I was unaware that this blog carnival had been published until yesterday, so I am late notifying you of its existence. So please support the host by going there and reading through it!
All Things Eco, #43. This blog carnival…
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Greenland, image of the day
Grønland fra luften (Greenland from roughly 38,000 feet up).
Image: GrrlScientist, 10 March 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
In a dramatic discovery, BirdLife has filmed Common Cuckoos calling with a "Ooo-Cuck, Ooo-Cuck". (April fools?)
Image: Greg & Yvonne Dean/WorldWildlifeImages.com.
Birds in Science and Technology
Count your chickens after they hatch, and they may do a little arithmetic themselves. Chicks only 3 or 4 days old manage an animal version of adding and subtracting, says Rosa Rugani of the University of Trento Center for Mind/Brain Sciences in Rovereto, Italy. Inspired by experiments with human babies, Rugani and her…
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Sora, Porzana carolina, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Sora, Porzana carolina, photographed in San Bernard Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
A pudgy-bodied, short-tailed, short-billed bird creeping cautiously through the marsh is a crake. Only one species,…
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, biodiversity, streaming video
This streaming video shows Earth by looking at our beautiful planet as a whole. [9:40]
grrlscientist | April 6, 2009tags: Circus of the Spineless, invertebrates, insects, arachnids, plants, algae, blog carnival
Welcome to Circus of the Spineless! This is the migratory blog carnival that specializes in all things spineless, and the contributions that you'll find here range from essays and photoessays, to photographs with some accompanying explanatory text and even a few videos. This blog carnival has seen some scary times in its recent past where it almost went extinct, but thanks to some friends of mine who are much more expert in spineless things, it was revived after I made a bunch of noise about…