grrlscientist | July 6, 2008tags: emergency pet care, hospitals, companion pet issues
Elektra is one of the survivors.
My companion female Solomon Islands eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis.
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 April 2008 [larger view].
I want to talk about something that has bothered me ever since I spent nearly five months in the hospital: what happens to your companion animals when you are suddenly not there to take care of them? If you live alone and don't have a local support system, as is true for me, then this is a very real problem, as I became painfully aware of nearly two years ago.…
grrlscientist | July 6, 2008tags: English Elm Tree, Ulmus procera, tree bark, Image of the Day
Bark of the English elm tree, Ulmus procera.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | July 6, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase.
New and Recent Titles:
Shubin, Neil. Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. 2008. Pantheon. Hardbound: 229 pages. Price: $24.00 U.S. [Amazon: $16.32]. SUMMARY: Details the discovery of…
grrlscientist | July 5, 2008tags: Lincoln Center Subway Art, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC
At last, a new subway platform for you to enjoy looking at!
This station was recently renovated with a "retro look" makeover, complete with new plaques and tablets in the original 1904 Heins-LaFarge style. The new plaques are made of faïence and look like restorations of original work (but they are not; Lincoln Center did not exist in 1904!).
West 66th Street/Lincoln Center Subway tile mosaic art #1
as seen at NYC's West Lincoln Center stop at Broadway for the downtown…
grrlscientist | July 5, 2008Since it is a holiday in the USA and my traffic was down, I spent the morning and afternoon doing things, like laundry, which are terribly boring but necessary. After I escaped the laundromat, I ended up roaming the subways and began planning a route so I could photograph the tile mosaic artworks on several subway platforms for you all to enjoy. I aborted part of my originally planned route because it was taking so long to get around, but I still managed to photograph three platforms, so stay tuned to see which of the platforms I am presenting to you tonight!
I have come up with an idea for…
grrlscientist | July 5, 2008tags: White Ash Tree, Fraxinus americana, tree bark, Image of the Day
Bark of the white ash tree, Fraxinus americana.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | July 4, 2008tags: Jesse Helms, politics, rethuglicans
Image: Orphaned (please contact me so I can properly attribute this image to its photographer).
This morning, I learned that America is celebrating its independence from one of the politicians whose goal was to ensure that this country was a colder, meaner-spirited place for millions of its citizens to live; a former senator of North Carolina, Jesse Helms. A lot of people called him "Senator No", although I (and no doubt others) thought of him as "Senator Hate."
How should we remember a right-wing religious control freak who has caused so much…
grrlscientist | July 4, 2008tags: companion parrots, Solomon Islands eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis, hawk-headed parrot, red fan parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus accipitrinus, Friday Parrot Blogging
Elektra (left), a 5-year old female Solomon Islands eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus solomonensis, and
Orpheus (right), a 1-year old male hawk-headed (red fan) parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus accipitrinus.
Images: GrrlScientist 4 July 2008
[Elektra, larger view and Orpheus, larger view].
Orpheus, especially, is camera-shy, and always manages to turn his head or turn his back on me when the camera comes out.…
grrlscientist | July 4, 2008tags: maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba, tree bark, Image of the Day
Bark of the maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | July 4, 2008I have lived with companion animals for my entire life. Cats, dogs, a variety of bird species ranging from finches to chickens, parrots and lories, tropical fish, goldfish and koi, hermit crabs, ants, stick insects, golden hamsters, dwarf hamsters, mice, rats, guinea pigs, bunnies .. and that's just the short list of animals who lived in my bedroom with me! So you would think that I am an expert at dealing with the death of a companion animal, but honestly, nothing could be farther from reality. I still have not gotten over the deaths of several of my pets (and cannot even say their names…
grrlscientist | July 4, 2008tags: 4th of July, humor, firecrackers, streaming video
This is what many politically conservative, rural, beer swilling, smoking, gun toting Americans (alias "rednecks") do on the anniversary of this nation's independence: they spend their hard-earned money on diluted blobs of dynamite so they can blow up shit [3:21]
Hrm, lots of noise and expense but overall, a big disappointment .. kinda reminds me of ejaculation. How was it for you?
Since firecrackers (and fireworks, which contain less dynamite) are illegal in NYC, this means that all my neighbors have purchased hundreds and hundreds of…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2008tags: politics, pollution, hunger, global warming, environmental destruction, biofuels, overpopulation, birth control, soylent green
Image: Matt Groening (The Simpson's).
A friend sent a link to an interesting article that was published today in the Guardian. This article reveals that the increased reliance on biofuels by the US and the EU is driving a worldwide food crisis. The confidential World Bank report, researched and written by an unnamed but "internationally-respected economist," has not been published but was instead leaked to the Guardian. Among other things, this report claims…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2008tags: West 34th street Penn Station subway art, Circus of Garden Delights, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC
This is the last artwork from this station that I will show you -- tomorrow I will feature a new (to you) subway station!
Circus of Garden Delights.
West 34th Street/Penn Station Subway tile mosaic art #5
as seen at NYC's West 34th Street stop at 8th for the A, C and E trains.
Artist: Eric Fischl, 2001.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
According to the artist, this subway station artwork "depicts a commuter being drawn into the bizarre and surprising world…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, endangered species, estimating extinction risk, demographic heterogeneity, demographic stochasticity, environmental stochasticity, Mechanistic stochastic models, Brett Melbourne
The endangered pelagic thresher shark, Alopias pelagicus.
More than half of the world's shark species are under the threat of extinction
due to overfishing by humans, especially for sharkfin soup.
Image: Kevin Markey, 2004 (Pacific Shark Research Center).
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released a report in 2007 indicating that more than 16,000 animal species…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2008tags: Norway Maple Tree, Acer platanoides, tree bark, Image of the Day
Bark of the Norway maple tree, Acer platanoides.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | July 3, 2008I have made several trips to my councilperson's office regarding my weird rent increase so far. These fruitless subway trips are becoming costly!
I made my first trip on Monday, but instead of seeing me, they made me sign up for an appointment for today -- why didn't they just have me make an appointment when I was speaking to them on the phone?
So I returned today and had to wait for an hour for my 11am appointment. While I waited, I sat around listening to everyone speaking in Spanish, and resolved to spend an hour every day working on improving my Spanish. After I got tired of worrying…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2008tags: Just say Yes, humor, telemarketers, streaming video
Since I am a Seattle native, and since Seattle is the home of the grunge rock band, Nirvana, some of my readers are trying to use to get me in a London sort of spirit. In this case, a reader sent me this video of the Nirvana's hit song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as played by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain [4:53]
I don't know if I should laugh or scream.
grrlscientist | July 2, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, open access, publishing, life science research, Declan Butler
Image: Orphan.
Wow, have you read Declan Butler's nasty little hatchet job that was just published in Nature about the Public Library of Science (PLoS)? My jaw hit the top of the table in my little coffee shop where I am ensconced -- why would Nature demean their journal by publishing such a snotty little screed where they attack the normal, but probably painful, financial ups-and-downs of a new journal?
Because Nature represents the old way of doing things, so Nature is afraid of those upstarts, PLoS…
grrlscientist | July 2, 2008tags: West 34th street Penn Station subway art, Circus of Garden Delights, subway art, NYC through my eye, photography, NYC
Circus of Garden Delights.
West 34th Street/Penn Station Subway tile mosaic art #4
as seen at NYC's West 34th Street stop at 8th for the A, C and E trains.
Artist: Eric Fischl, 2001.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
According to the artist, this subway station artwork "depicts a commuter being drawn into the bizarre and surprising world of the circus, meeting animals, clowns, acrobats and fire-breathers on his way to work."
I have photographed tile…
grrlscientist | July 2, 2008tags: Pin Oak Tree, Quercus palustris, tree bark, Image of the Day
Bark of the pin oak tree, Quercus palustris.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].