grrlscientist | December 24, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Male Broad-billed Hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris, with a pollen cap.
Image: Greg Scott [wallpaper size].
Birds in Science
A new research paper shows that female blue tits use plumage color to clue in males of the species to their genetic quality: the brighter their blue cap coloring and their yellow collar coloring, the better mothers they make.
Some birds nesting in the central and eastern United States have moved their range over a hundred miles farther north in less than three decades. Scientists at…
grrlscientist | December 24, 2007I was looking through my unread emails and found a list of modern euphemisms, which was sent to me by a reader of mine. Since many of you reading today are at work, but wishing to be elsewhere, and probably won't get much done today as a result, I thought that today would be the perfect day to post this for you to enjoy.
404:
Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. "Don't bother asking him ... he's 404, man."
Adminisphere:
The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and…
grrlscientist | December 24, 2007tags: magic milk, surface tension, physics, streaming video
This is a really interesting video that shows a fun science experiment that you can do in your kitchen using all that extra milk that you have hanging around in the refrigerator -- this is especially good entertainment when the conquering hoards of relatives' kids have invaded your home for the holidays [1:14]
grrlscientist | December 23, 2007tags: All Women Blogging, blog carnivals
The 24 December edition of All Women Blogging Carnival is now available for your reading pleasure. I admit that I sent them an update on my new roommate, Orpheus, instead of something serious and intellectual, but there's plenty of other things to read there, besides updates on one's pets.
grrlscientist | December 23, 2007tags: NYC, holidays, photography
I finally figured out how to use the optical zoom setting on my new camera.
Amsterdam Avenue in NYC at Christmas, as seen from the window of my watering hole. The snowflakes were made by the staff and customers by cutting up paper placemats and taping them to the window.
Image: GrrlScientist, 23 December 2007.[larger view].
grrlscientist | December 23, 2007tags: Carnival of Political Punditry, blog carnivals
I have written three essays about ScienceDebate2008 and was disappointed to see that none of them was picked up by SlashDot, so I sent them in to a variety of political blog carnivals, hoping to increase the visibility of this important issue: the campaign to have the presidential candidates discuss their policies as they relate specifically to science and technology. If you wish to read these essays, along with other political commentaries, then you should visit today's edition of the Carnival of Political Punditry.
grrlscientist | December 23, 2007tags: Carnival of the Cats, blog carnivals
The latest edition of the Carnival of the Cats is now available for you to enjoy. This is a great way to relax after a busy day of drinking eggnog.
Hopefully, I will be drinking some eggnog soon, too. Maybe tomorrow, with any luck.
grrlscientist | December 23, 2007tags: ice storm 2007, ice fingers, photography, nature, Image of the Day
I am running a series of images that my friend and long-time reader, Dave Rintoul, took in the aftermath of the recent ice storm that gripped the midwest of the United States. This series began on 20 December and the last image in this series will appear on 24 December.
Icy Fingers (Ice Storm, December 2007)
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view]
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007You may not realize this, but "us SciBlings" do occasionally talk to each other behind the scenes, and one thing that we like to talk about is .. you! One of my commenters on the previous thread wrote something that has made me laugh most of the evening, so I shared this comment with my fellow SciBlings and they loved it too. So now, inspired by my anonymous commenter, two of us are having a little contest.
What do you think Noah's Ark looked like with six (or is it eleven?) species of giraffes on board? Please show us in a picture because as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.…
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, giraffe species, Giraffa camelopardalis, speciation, evolution, conservation, molecular phylogeny
West African giraffe, currently Giraffa camelopardalis peralta.
Image: Wikipedia (Creative Commons) [larger view]
How many species of giraffes are there? Well, it may surprise you to learn this, but some people have actually thought about this throughout the decades, and they decided that there is only one species, Giraffa camelopardalis. However, a paper published today in BMC Biology convincingly demonstrates that giraffes are actually comprised of at least six…
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007tags: ice storm 2007, curly twig in ice, photography, nature, Image of the Day
I am running a series of images that my friend and long-time reader, Dave Rintoul, took in the aftermath of the recent ice storm that gripped the midwest of the United States. This series began yesterday and the last image in this series will appear on 24 December.
Curly Twig in Ice (Ice Storm, December 2007)
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view]
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007tags: Observation on Life, blog carnivals
The newest edition of the blog carnival, Observations on Life, is now available. This is the first time I've contributed to this carnival, so you will find a new group of blogs that are out of your usual internet travels to read.
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007tags: holidays, handbell hero, online game
Ahhh, this online game brings back memories! When I was an undergrad in college, I was a member of the Handbell Choir .. So when a long-time reader of mine sent this online game, HandBell Hero, to me, I had a lot of fun playing with it and so I (of course) had to share it with you, too.
How did you do? I didn't do very well. I can promise you that I was a better handbell choir member than I am a handbell player in this game!
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007I'm tempting the fates by putting my words above the fold this time.
death (15x) dangerous (11x) sex (8x) crap (7x) hell (6x) dead (5x) murder (4x) bitch (3x)
It seems that the naughty word sensor on that site gets burned out rather quickly, because it didn't pick up "whore" or "sexy" this time, and further, I didn't beat Rana at all, although we are tied at this point.
my evil word list;
death death death death death death death death death death death death death death
dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous
sex sex sex sex sex…
grrlscientist | December 22, 2007Rana was bragging in comments to the previous entry about his blog movie rating. Naturally, being the competitive sort, I had to try to beat his score by using even more naughty words than he did. But did I succeed in my quest? No, I did not.
whore (3x) sexy (2x)
One way to game the system; put your naughty words above the fold ...
... Because it doesn't pick up words that are below the fold, apparently;
death death death death death death death death death death death death death death
dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous dangerous
sex…
grrlscientist | December 21, 2007
I've done this before, but thought I'd try it again. This time, my blog is rated "PG" for parental guidance. The reason? I used the word "whore" three times, and the word "sexy" once.
grrlscientist | December 21, 2007tags: citation, book reviews
Wow, one of my book reviews was cited on the authors' webpage. It's nice to see that my writing is appreciated outside of the blogosphere, even if it is only a book review. I never would have thought that anything I wrote would be cited alongside Nature, Neuron, New Scientist, Psychology Today and the Washington Post.
grrlscientist | December 21, 2007tags: Just Write, blog carnivals
The fourth edition of the blog carnival, Just Write is now available for you to enjoy. This carnival focuses on all aspects of the writing game.
grrlscientist | December 21, 2007tags: seedhead on ice, plants, photography, nature, Image of the Day
Beginning today, I am running a series of images that my friend and long-time reader, Dave Rintoul, took in the aftermath of the recent ice storm that gripped the midwest of the United States. The last image in this series will appear on 24 December.
Ice on Branch (detail)
(Ice Storm, December 2007)
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view]
grrlscientist | December 21, 2007tags: Eclectus parrot, Eclectus roratus, rollerskating, streaming video
This is another one of those "parrot struts his stuff" videos because, in this video, Stewie, a male Eclectus parrot, shows off his rollerskating abilities [1:06]