grrlscientist | February 23, 2008tags: Berlin Archaeopteryx cast, birds, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
A cast of the Berlin Archeopteryx specimen (including moronic graffiti)
as portrayed in bronze on the walls of the NYC downtown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
I took a brief break from the AMNH tile artworks to show you this bronze cast on the downtown platform. I have repeatedly photographed this and the other bronze casts that are there, hoping that I can get some decent images to share with you. Unfortunately,…
grrlscientist | February 23, 2008tags: Elizabeth Dodd, Moonrise over chimney rock, photography, photoessay
Poet and writer, Elizabeth Dodd, and Moonrise over Chimney Rock.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [wallpaper size].
I have mentioned Elizabeth Dodd's poetry on this blog in the past, so I thought I'd share this photoessay of hers, Moonrise Over Chimney Rock, that was recently published in Notre Dame Magazine. Elizabeth Dodd teaches creative writing at Kansas State University. Thanks to photographer Dave Rintoul, Professor of Biology at KSU, I have posted the images here that pertain to Elizabeth's piece, so you might want…
grrlscientist | February 23, 2008tags: nature, moon over desert, Image of the Day
I have been digging through my image archives in my gmail account and found some real treasures that my readers sent to me. Unfortunately, I overlooked quite a few images that were sent when I was in the hospital and had poor computer access. So let me fix this oversight during the next few weeks;
Moon over desert.
(Possibly White Sands National Monument in New Mexico?)
Orphaned image. [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 23, 2008
Today's view out the windows of my new neighborhood coffee shop.
It's cold outside today, and, as you can see, it snowed.
GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
This past week has been a real challenge because my bathroom is apparently disintegrating, which has caused the building "super" and his assistant to bang loudly on my apartment door bright and early every morning this past week, even last Monday, which was supposed to be a holiday. Worse, they hang around most of the day, so that I cannot leave my apartment during business hours so I can, you know, do things.
Normally, I wake up…
grrlscientist | February 23, 2008tags: Evolution: What The Fossils Say And Why it Matters, fossils, dinosaurs, creationism, Donald Prothero, book review
I was in love with dinosaurs when I was a kid, and I still am. It was my love for dinosaurs and fossils and especially my time spent learning the minutea of the evolutionary history of horses that quickly brought me into direct conflict with the church that I was being inculcated into when I was very young and innocent. Subsequently, I had to learn about evolution in small niblets on the sly. But I wish I had been able to read paleontologist Don Prothero's beautifully…
grrlscientist | February 22, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Friday Ark
The 179th edition of the Friday Ark is now available for your viewing pleasure. This is the carnival that focuses specifically on sharing images of ANIMALS, although some of these images are accompanied by words.
grrlscientist | February 22, 2008tags: amphibian, frog, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Red-eyed tree frog and either Ichthyostega or Acanthostega shadowing it
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 22, 2008tags: Charles Darwin, crabs, crustaceans, University of Oxford, Oxford Museum of Natural History, online database
Fiddler crabs are easily recognised by their distinctive asymmetric claws. This specimen was captured in May 1835 when the Beagle arrived in Mauritius.
Image: Oxford University Museum of Natural History [larger view].
The University of Oxford Museum of Natural History has electronically catalogued Charles Darwin's crabs that had been collected by the famous naturalist while he was making his voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836.
These crustaceans were…
grrlscientist | February 22, 2008tags: mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, birds, Image of the Day
I have been digging through my image archives in my gmail account and found some real treasures that my readers sent to me. Unfortunately, I overlooked quite a few images that were sent when I was in the hospital and had poor computer access. So let me fix this oversight during the next few weeks;
Male mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, coming in for a landing.
Orphaned image. [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 22, 2008tags: cave of the swallows, Sótano de las Golondrinas, pit caves, cave diving, streaming video
The Cave of the Swallows is an enormous pit cave in a rainforest in San Luis PotosÃ, Mexico. The cave is known by the native name of Sótano de las Golondrinas, which means Basement of the Swallows, because of the large number of birds living in holes in the cave's walls. The low point of the entrance provides a 1094 feet (333 m) freefall drop to the bottom of the cave while the high point provides a 1220 feet (372 m) freefall drop. To free themselves from the cave, the birds fly in circles around…
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Carnival of Cities
Now that I have finished putting together the 69th edition of I and the Bird (*whew* that's hard work!), I now am focusing my energies on another blog carnival that I am hosting next week: Carnival of Cities. This is a relatively new (to my readers) blog carnival, but that is alright because the 20 February edition was just published for you to read. So even though many of you are not familiar with this blog carnival, you now have the opportunity to read the most recent edition and get some ideas for your own blog entries that you can share with all of…
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008tags: blog carnivals, Tangled Bank
I have been so focused on putting together the blog carnival that I am hosting, the 69th edition of I and the Bird, that I have not yet mentioned that my favoritest of all blog carnivals, The Tangled Bank, is now available. Go here to read the 20 February edition, and don't forget that one of my contributions was included, too.
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008tags: insect, wasp, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
I think this is an Ichneumon wasp species (but which one?)
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008tags: lynx, Lynx canadensis, mammals, Image of the Day
I have been digging through my image archives in my gmail account and found some real treasures that my readers sent to me. Unfortunately, I overlooked quite a few images that were sent when I was in the hospital and had poor computer access. So let me fix this oversight during the next few weeks;
Lynx, Lynx canadensis.
Orphaned image. [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008
The Oblivious Birder.
Jeff created this photo for use in a recent keynote address given at the Spacecoast Bird & Wildlife Fest. Clearly this was tongue in cheek as the birder is completely unaware of the oncoming traffic. However, when he gave the example all admitted that they had seen someone on past field trips where folks had to be asked to get out of the road to allow traffic to pass! He also used this photo as a segue into his look at "birder fashion"!
Image: Jeff Bouton [larger size].
Below the fold is the latest installment of the blog carnival, I and the Bird. I have arranged…
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008tags: birds, ornithology, flamingos, courtship dance, streaming video
This video documents the highly synchronized mating dance of wild flamingos, just one of many surprising animals hidden among the Andes in South America. This footage is from the NATURE premiere of "Andes: The Dragon's Back." It is narrated by F. Murray Abraham. [1:42]
grrlscientist | February 20, 2008tags: spider, arachnid, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia, guarding her egg case,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | February 20, 2008tags: environment, commercial fishing industry, bottom trawling, orange roughy, Chilean sea bass, seafood
Landsat satellite image, Gulf of Mexico (mouth of Vermillion Bay, Louisiana), taken on 10/12/92. Note the abundant narrow sediment trails, most in shallow water (<20m), possibly caused by trawling.
Image: SkyTruth [larger view].
Ain't technology grand? Thanks to Landsat satellite images, which are available on the internet, the ordinary citizen can now see what is happening to our planet -- but sadly, much of it is not good. For example, the above image of the Gulf of Mexico was…
grrlscientist | February 20, 2008tags: birds, Mergus merganser, common merganser, Image of the Day
I have been digging through my image archives in my gmail account and found some real treasures that my readers sent to me. Unfortunately, I overlooked quite a few images that were sent when I was in the hospital and had poor computer access. So let me fix this oversight during the next few weeks;
Common merganser, Mergus merganser, and chicks.
Orphaned image [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 20, 2008tags: book review, HIV, AIDS, Africa, epidemic, public health, Helen Epstein, The Invisible Cure
"AIDS has come to haunt a world that thought it was incomplete. Some wanted children, some wanted money, some wanted property, some wanted power, but all we have ended up with is AIDS."
-- Bernadette Nabatanzi, traditional healer, Kampala, Uganda, 1994.
The occurrence of AIDS in East and southern Africa is uniquely severe: even though less than 3 percent of the world's population lives here, this region is home to more than 40 percent of all those people with HIV infections. Throughout much of the…