grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: birds, bed and breakfast, investment opportunity
Image: VivaVictoria [larger]
A reader emailed me with another idea for the house-for-sale with the nesting vultures living in the back yard; why not turn the place into a bed and breakfast for vultures?
There are some religious sects that use vultures as the method for final disposition of human remains. There are problems with this practice because of the differences in metabolism of vultures and humans, and some drug residues are quite toxic to the birds.
An expert on birds would be the ideal caretaker of a site where human remains…
grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: personality type, online quiz
Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)
Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant.
Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.
How Rare Is Your Personality?
4% of all people have my personality type, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men .. does this mean that there are fewer men than women out there if only 4% of everyone shares this personality type?
grrlscientist | July 13, 2007tags: Harry Potter, movie trailer, streaming video
The fifth Harry Potter film was released in several cities on the 11th, including NYC (no, I haven't seen it yet, but I've already talked to several fans on the subway who have seen it and loved it). But as of today, the fifth Harry Potter film is released for worldwide distribution. The positive reviews continue to pour in, so I am dying to see it, especially since the Luna Lovegood character has been so well received (she is one of my favorites in the books, especially since I see myself as a combination of Luna and Hermione).
I've posted…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: PZ Myers, Pharyngula trailer
I have noticed with dismay that certain people around here have been bashing PZ Myers (not naming any names, but you know who you are), and I find that upsetting. For the past few years, I have considered PZ and his wife to be good friends of mine, although we do not communicate as frequently as we have in the past (but we're all busy, whatever). But, as with all good friends, I know that they are there for me whenever I might call on them, and I would absolutely do whatever is in my power to help them out as well.
What cemented this friendship? I had long…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: George Bush, al-queda, politics, political opinion
George Bush, who loves to ignore the facts in favor of telling a good fairy tale, denied that al-Qaeda is as strong as it was at the time of the 9/11 attacks. Just as he does with science, Bush ignored recent media coverage of a US intelligence report entitled Al-Qaeda Better Positioned to Strike the West, which claimed that intelligence analysts told Congress on Wednesday that al-Qaeda had created a safe haven in remote parts of Pakistan.
In short, the report flatly stated that Al-Qaeda is "considerably operationally stronger than a…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: cockfighting, animal cruelty, First Amendment, free speech
When I learned recently that my neighbors regularly engage in cockfighting and dog fighting (illegally, of course) I was thoroughly disgusted with them. But I learned just today that cockfighting is also streamed over the internet, which shouldn't be surprising to anyone who is familiar with the 'net, but nonetheless, I think it is absolutely disgusting and distressing, since it serves to underline the basic lack of compassion and empathy that some people have for animals in general, and for birds specifically.
However, the…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: online poll, scienceblogs
While we are talking about online polls, I'd like to point out that ScienceBlogs is conducting a poll on the right sideboard that they will use to improve the site based on reader feedback. Their poll is kinda fun and will only take about 5 minutes or so of your time to answer. Not only that, but you have the chance to win a free iPod nano in a drawing. Of course, I can't win this, because I am a SciBling, but I'd sure love it if one of my readers won!
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: Perija parakeet, Pyrrhura caeruleiceps, tags: birds, parrots, ornithology, zoology, Image of the Day
The critically endangered Perija Parakeet, Pyrrhura caeruleiceps.
Image: ProAves Colombia.
(more images below the fold)
The critically endangered Perija Parakeet, Pyrrhura caeruleiceps, was photographed in the wild for the first time by Adriana Tovar and Luis Eduardo Urueña on the same expedition where they photographed the recurve-billed bushbird, thanks to Loro Parque Fundacion. The Perija parakeet population is estimated to be between 30 to 50 individual birds due to habitat…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: Harry Potter, books, reading
As many people have said, the Harry Potter books were wonderful for getting kids to put down that GameBoy and curl up with a book. However, a recent study has shown that as kids grow up, they rarely read for fun "almost every day" as they did when they were younger. The reason? They are becoming more socially active as they get older, and that apparently precludes them from reading books.
However, another study, commissioned by Scholastic books, the American publisher for the Harry Potter books, showed that more kids were reading as a result of the Harry…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: birds, bed and breakfast, investment opportunity
Okay, do any of you want to help make an investment with me? Would you like to buy a house that I would turn in to a bed and breakfast? It is very cheap .. er, affordable .. because of one extra feature it has .. nesting vultures on the premises. Yes, indeed, it would be a fascinating place for bird watchers and nature lovers to visit, and I would love to host them, and I would love to be a proud steward of the black and turkey vultures who nest there (I have a soft place in my heart for vultures, after having met several tame turkey…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: birds, blog carnival
The 53rd edition of I and the Bird blog carnival is now available for you to enjoy. Even though they did link to a piece that I wrote (yippee!!), I was a bad grrl because they wanted me to write a 20 word descriptor about my blog, which I did not do because I was being a dork.
grrlscientist | July 12, 2007tags: creationism, creation story, humor, satire, streaming video
Richard Dawkins spent so much time crafting his arguments, but comedian Ricky Gervais did an even better job refuting the creation story simply by reading the Bible aloud. [9:57]
grrlscientist | July 11, 2007tags: religious, online poll
I have recently been conducting online polls on my left sideboard in an effort to learn more about my audience as a collective without putting any of you "on the spot". The first question that I asked seems rather obvious, but I thought I got some surprising answers anyway.
I did not expect so many atheists and agnostics in my audience, nor did i expect to see any readers who were fundamentalists or evangelical. When writing up the quiz, I expected to see a large number of respondents who were "spiritual, but don't go to church."
Anyway, I have a new question…
grrlscientist | July 11, 2007tags: Richard Carmona, Surgeon General, Bush Administration, Henry Waxman , politics
Bush and his cronies have been caught at their old tricks yet again! This time, they have been weakening or suppressing important public health reports written by Dr. Richard H. Carmona, who served as the nation's Surgeon General from 2002-2006. Not only was their behavior anti-science, but limiting one's freedom of speech is against the constitution.
"The surgeon general has to be independent if the surgeon general is going to have any credibility," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the…
grrlscientist | July 11, 2007tags: courtship dance, bird of paradise, ornithology, birds, avian, streaming video
Every time I see this clip on The Life of Birds Planet Earth, I am impressed and amused. [0:48]
grrlscientist | July 10, 2007tags: electric fish, Brienomyrus brachyistius, mormyrids, fish, behavior, evolution
Image: JEB Biologists
As they swim through their muddy riverine homes in east Africa, the African elephantfishes use a special organ at the base of their tail to produce weak electrical pulses that enable them to sense their surroundings, detect prey, communicate with each other and, as it was recently discovered, to find a mate. Surprisingly, after listening to their electrical "buzzes", scientists discovered that these fishes engage in behavior that is remarkably similar to the courtship duets that…
grrlscientist | July 10, 2007tags: recurve-billed bushbird, Clytoctantes alixii, ornithology, birds, avian, endangered species
Chris Sharpe, an Associate Researcher with ProVita in Venezuela, contacted me (initially through my friend, Ian) regarding this entry about the "smiling bird" that I wrote and he would like to clarify several things for all of you. This message is especially intended for the ornithological and conservation communities;
[I wish to thank my Seattle bird-pal, Ian, for his concern about this issue as well as his long-term attention to my Birds in the News newsletter. I am more than happy to set the…
grrlscientist | July 10, 2007tags: creationism lies, fossils, ordovician, avian, streaming video
A streaming video revealing that the Creationist museum was built upon a huge layer of Ordovician fossils, including brachiopods, trilobites, and bryozoans [10:11]
grrlscientist | July 9, 2007I always find it interesting that people try to hide their likenesses from their blog and then spend the rest of their blog careers trying to recreate an icon or avatar that looks just like them.
Anyway, here's my avatar (it's not a very good likeness), thanks to a fellow SciBling.
Create your own Simpsons avatar.