grrlscientist | November 6, 2007tags: book carnival, blog carnival
The latest installment of the Book Carnival is now available for you to read.
grrlscientist | November 6, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, supermouse, Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase, PEPCK-C, glucose metabolism
Like a Lance Armstrong equivalent among ordinary mice, a group of American scientists report that they altered a single gene involved in glucose metabolism in a mouse and discovered that this genetically altered mouse demonstrates remarkable athletic abilities. For example, this supermouse runs 20 meters per minute for five hours or more without stopping -- a distance of 3.7 miles (6 kilometers)!
"They are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees. They utilize…
grrlscientist | November 6, 2007tags: American tree sparrow, Spizella arborea, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. These images are scheduled to appear at 3 pm beginning today, 6 November through the 16th of November.
American tree sparrow, Spizella arborea.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU.
grrlscientist | November 6, 2007tags: parrots, aviculture, conservation, personal story
Things are going well with the parrots, especially the new hawk-headed parrot (this bird has been living with me for one week and one day now). As I already mentioned several times, this bird is eating on his(her?) own now, although I still handfeed the bird each evening before we all go to sleep.
Speaking of food, this little bird is as eager an eater as any of my birds are. This morning, for example, I gave all my birds their breakfast* and the hawkheaded parrot immediately dove in to the bowl, head-first and began eating. Elektra,…
grrlscientist | November 6, 2007tags: kitchen science, recharge batteries, streaming video
This streaming video describes a quick and easy way to recharge your dead batteries -- for free (unless you consider the expense of nearly boiling them in the process). I am not entirely convinced that this will work, but on the other hand, it is an interesting example of "kitchen science" where you can actually test this experiment for yourself and report back here. [1:07]
Recharge Batteries For Free - Free videos are just a click away
grrlscientist | November 5, 2007tags: She Blog, blog carnival
The second issue of the She Blog blog carnival is now available for you to read and enjoy. The author of this blog carnival says it has received such a tremendous response that she is planning to change it from a once-per-month blog carnival to weekly, to encourage people to visit each and every blog that sends a submission.
grrlscientist | November 5, 2007tags: drugs, pharmaceuticals, Drugs and Pharmacology carnival, blog carnival
Hey you guys, the very first edition of the new blog carnival, Drugs and Pharmacology carnival, is now available for you to read. This is a monthly blog carnival that focuses on essays related to drugs -- ranging from the medicinal to the recreational.
grrlscientist | November 5, 2007tags: parrots, pets, aviculture, bird breeding, avian, history
A reader, Natasha, asked a question in response to a recent blog entry I made that is probably no doubt on the minds of at least a few others of my readers;
Hi, Please don't take this badly, I really don't mean to troll. But I've noticed that a few Science bloggers, Jonah, Shelley and you, have parrots. I was wondering where you get them from, what their provenance is? Are they bred in the US? Or are they from the fairly huge amount of wildlife trade? If it is the second, does it make you in the least uncomfortable? Most of you…
grrlscientist | November 5, 2007tags: writing, Writers from across the blogosphere, blog carnival
The latest edition of the Writer's Block blog carnival is now available for your reading pleasure. This blog carnival focuses on writers and their writing, so be sure to go there to read good prose on a variety of topics.
grrlscientist | November 5, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Lesser flamingo, Phoenicopterus minor, in flight.
Lake Natron in Tanzania, Africa, is the only site in East Africa where Lesser Flamingos reliably breed.
Image: James Warwick[wallpaper size].
Birds in Science
The changing of the seasons finds millions of birds migrating over thousands of kilometres. How they find their way is a question that has perplexed biologists for decades. It is known that birds have built-in compasses attuned to the Earth's magnetic field. But how those compasses work and what they are made of…
grrlscientist | November 5, 2007tags: talking deer prank, humor, streaming video
This streaming video shows what happens when two city boyz strap a stuffed deer to the hood of their car, and leave it in the parking lot of a local truck stop. Oh, did I mention that this stuffed deer can also move and .. talk? Much hilarity follows [4:17]
grrlscientist | November 4, 2007tags: Humanist Symposium, blog carnival
The 10th issue of the Humanist Symposium is now available for your reading pleasure. Unknown to me until just now, they included a piece that I wrote (I didn't submit my essay to this blog carnival, so someone else out there did it on my behalf, which is quite an honor, methinks), so be sure to go over there and show them some appreciation!
grrlscientist | November 4, 2007tags: NYC Life, Central Park turtles, turtle yoga, Image of the Day
Central Park turtles show cruisers how it's done.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [Wallpaper size]
grrlscientist | November 4, 2007tags: Mendel's Garden, blog carnival
The November issue of Mendel's Garden is now available for you to enjoy. This issue was written so as to read like the narrative of a soccer game (it also includes a streaming video of philosophers playing soccer).
grrlscientist | November 4, 2007tags: Harry Potter, online quiz
This is a silly quiz, but hey, there's worse out there, as I am sure you will remind me. Here are my results;
Witch Harry Potter character are you?created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Hermione Granger
"Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!"
Albus Dumbledore
100%
Rubeus Hagrid
100%
Hermione Granger
100%
Minerva McGonagall
83%
Sirius Black
67%
Ginny Weasley
67%
Harry Potter
67%
Fred and George Weasley…
grrlscientist | November 3, 2007An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself.
A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find -- the brush tool, the eraser tool -- to get back at his tormentor. It's resourcefulness versus power. Who will win? You can find out yourself. [3:10]
This animation took three long months.
Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART
grrlscientist | November 3, 2007tags: NYC Life, Turdus migratorius, American robins, Image of the Day
Water was flying in all directions from rain filled indentations on Warbler Ridge in Central Park as a flock of American Robins enthusiastically took advantage of several temporary birdbaths after the rain ended.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [Wallpaper size]
grrlscientist | November 3, 2007
Adult red fan (hawk-headed) parrot, Deroptyus a. accipitrinus.
(Adults of both sexes are distinguished from juveniles
by the creamy white spot on the forehead
and the orange ring around the pupil of the eye.
The skin around the eye darkens in adults if
the birds are exposed to sunlight).
Image: Dale R. Thompson.
Several people have asked me how my new bird is doing now that (s)he has been living with me for five days.
The bird is doing well: (s)he openly solicits attention from me and is eating on her (his?) own, although (s)he still wants to be handfed in the mornings and evenings. (S)…
grrlscientist | November 2, 2007tags: book review, white-collar unemployment, job hunting, Bait and Switch, Barbara Ehrenreich
While I was flying back to NYC last weekend, I read (yet another) book about job hunting. This book detailed the obvious; that searching for a white-collar job is not as easy as you might think, as you'll learn in Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich (NYC: Metropolitan Books; 2005). In this book, Ehrenreich posed as an unemployed white-collar worker, in search of a job in public relations and event planning. To avoid being identified as a journalist via a…
grrlscientist | November 2, 2007In this streaming video (below the fold), Steve Carell teaches Stephen Colbert how to trick-or-treat. I know this is a little late, but late is better than never, right? [4:39]