grrlscientist | July 18, 2007tags: Harry Potter book disguises, satire
Below the fold is the second in this short series of my favorite Harry Potter book disguises. Today's cover is a manly-man cover for you sensitive types;
Cover by Remington Lonespear.
Print Size
Image: Pointless Waste of Time.
grrlscientist | July 18, 2007tags: BrewCam, beer, fermentation, streaming video
This is a three minute video depicting a week long process -- a fermenting beer. The finished product is Judy Garland Stout -- Like Judy, it grew up in the public eye and then turned bitter... I am curious how the photographer got the camera into the fermenter -- any ideas? [3:00]
grrlscientist | July 17, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, birds, ornithology, evolution, radiation, Chernobyl
Normal Barn Swallow (a),
while the other pictures show signs of albinism (white feathers; b & c),
unusually colored feathers (d), deformed beaks (e & f), deformed air sacs (g),
and bent tail feathers (h & i).
Images: Tim Mousseau.
Twenty years after the Chernobyl reactor disaster, which released clouds of radioactive particles in April 1986, the uninhabited forests within the 19 mile (30 kilometer) "exclusion zone" around the disaster site are lush and teeming with wildlife, giving the appearance…
grrlscientist | July 17, 2007tags: Hoverfly, Image of the Day
Hoverfly nectaring on frogfruit near Anahuac NWR VIS 7-8-07.
This is a much-sharpened picture of a difficult and fast-moving subject. Hoverflies are bee mimics. Notice, however, the big eyes of the fly (q.v., movie "The Fly").
Image: Biosparite
grrlscientist | July 17, 2007tags: coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, fish, living fossil, Indonesia
Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, and Arnaz Mehta Erdmann, at about a 50 foot depth -- this is to give you an idea of the fish's size.
Image: Mark V. Erdmann, July 1998 (Smithsonian Institute [larger]).
This past Saturday, a rare living fossil, the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, was captured by fishhermen off the shores of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is an island archipelago comprised of numerous small islands and two large ones located 25-50 km off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean. The coelacanth (…
grrlscientist | July 17, 2007tags: Harry Potter book disguises, satire
Do you love the Harry Potter books, but are afraid that you are too old and too professional to be seen reading them? Well, never fear, I have found a few book-sized covers that you can use to disguise your new Harry Potter book from prying eyes so you can read it in public with impunity. I will post a few of my favorite book cover disguises below the fold, one per day through Saturday, for you to enjoy (and to print out, if you wish to use any of them).
This first one is a manly-man cover for you shoot 'em up types;
Cover by 86.
Print Size.
Image…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007
A male Blue Moon or Great Eggfly butterfly, Hypolimnas bolina.
A butterfly-killing bacteria that is only lethal to males has given rise to skewed sex ratios in populations of this species on two islands in the South Pacific, but researchers have found that male butterflies on one island have bounced back, thanks to the rise of a suppressor gene. [larger].
In a dramatic demonstration of how quickly evolution can occur, a butterfly species that is found on two adjacent islands in the South Pacific Ocean has rapidly evolved genetic defenses against a bacterial parasite that is lethal only…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007tags: blog carnival, oekologie, environment
The 7th issue of the Oekologie Blog Carnival is now available. This blog carnival links to the best ecology and environmental science posts of the month from all across the blogosphere.
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007tags: Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus attenboroughi, monotreme, endangered animals, New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Cyclops mountain range
Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus attenboroughi,
the only specimen known to exist in museum collections.
Prepared as a shmoo (a flat skin lacking most bones).
Image: Natural Museum of Natural History in the Netherlands (NMNH) [larger]
In May of this year, a team of experts from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) went on a one-month preliminary research expedition to the Cyclops mountain range in Papua on the island of New Guinea.…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007tags: Viceroy Butterfly, Image of the Day
Viceroy on Buttonbush, Anahuac NWR Butterfly Garden, 7-8-07.
Image: Biosparite [larger]
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
This adult piping plover was on the beach at Kettle Point in the morning of 10 July 2007. The bird eventually flew off when beach strollers were approaching.
Image: appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Alf Rider.
Birds in Science
The love songs of 1979 just don't cut it anymore with the ladies -- lady sparrows, that is. Today's females are better wooed by the song of their contemporary male counterparts, according to Duke University researcher Elizabeth Derryberry, who is studying the attraction…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2007This amazing video depicts thousands, hundreds of thousands and then billions of birds -- all caught on video courtesy of the Planet Earth series. This video also features some wonderful music, a piece called "Rushing" from the album called Play by Moby, that will send chills up your spine. [2:37]
(Incidentally, those of you who saw the amazing movie, Seabiscuit, also know of Moby from another piece of his entitled "Everloving", also from the album, Play. That particular piece was the background music for when Seabiscuit ran his first race after recovering from his leg injury -- can you tell…
grrlscientist | July 15, 2007tags: BOOK, new product announcement
A friend sent this new product announcement to me, never expecting that I would enjoy sharing it with you.
Announcing the new Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device, otherwise known as the BOOK.
It's a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere -- even sitting in an armchair by the fire -- yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD.…
grrlscientist | July 15, 2007tags: global warming, human warfare, politics
Did you know that there is a positive correlation between cold temperatures and warfare? According to a study recently carried out by David Zhang of the University of Hong Kong and colleagues, human warfare increases as temperatures plunge.
Zhang's team looked at the frequency of warfare in eastern China during the previous thousand years and compared it with paleoclimate data. They found that there were 899 wars in eastern China between the years 1000 and 1911 and that nearly all peaks in warfare and dynastic changes coincided with cold phases…
grrlscientist | July 15, 2007tags: Harry Potter, movie review
With one more agonizing week to wait for the last Harry Potter book to arrive in my mailbox, I finally saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. I literally could not wait one more minute for my Harry Potter fix, so I went to the very last showing of the movie for the night, which kept me in the theatre until early this morning. Since I have been talking about Harry Potter for months now, I am sure you all want to know what I thought of the film, so here it goes; I liked it. But I'll give you more details below the fold (although my comments…
grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: Harry Potter, satire, streaming video
If you have just returned from seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I think you'll enjoy this streaming Harry Potter movie spoof as a visual apéritif. (Well, okay, I thought it was funny) [5:21]
grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: animals, blog carnival
Calling all animal lovers .. the latest edition of the Friday Ark is now available. It's packed with lots of animal images for you to enjoy.
grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: books, blog carnival
For those of you who love to read good books (everyone who pops in here, apparently), the 5th edition of the Festival of Good Books is now available for you to enjoy. Incidentally, there are two bird books mentioned there, so don't trip over yourselves in your eagerness to find out what the titles are!
grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: Harry Potter, Simpsons spoof, streaming video
Since we have been playing with making our own Simpsons avatars here on SB, I thought you all might enjoy seeing the Simpsons Hallowe'en Spoof of Harry Potter -- this is hilarious, especially for you HP fans! I have been sitting here in the library watching it, wondering if they are going to throw me out because I am laughing so much. (in honor of today's movie release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) My favorite line? HEY!! We stayed for your kids! [6:55]
grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: Harry Potter, movie trailer, streaming video
To put it bluntly, I am going crazy waiting to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I should have gone to see it on Wednesday midnight-oh-one in the morning because, well, I can't stand to know that it is getting generally wonderful reviews (especially the young woman who plays Luna Lovegood) and I run in to fans on the subway who have seen it and who say "it is the best yet!" and I have not seen it yet!
So this has made me want to ask you, where were you when you saw all the other HP films for the first time? My list, along…