grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: blog carnival, genetics
The 9th edition of the new blog carnival, Gene Genie is now available for your reading pleasure. They included a story that I wrote, along with a very nice introduction to it. But there are a lot of other stories that you also will enjoy, so be sure to go there to give them some support!
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: Harry Potter, JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I have been told by assholes who want to feel superior to people like me, that Harry Potter is a children's book, that adults who read it are perverts, and other stupid stuff, but I have proof that adults love the stories at least as much as kids do: it turns out that the seventh and last Harry Potter book with the so-called "adult cover" is outselling the edition with the so-called "children's cover". Yep, so those sales only compare the boring adult's cover version to the (much more interesting) children's cover version…
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: poetry, The Summer Day, Mary Oliver
A person sitting next to me noticed that I was working on my blog. Upon learning that I was writing about science, he challenged me to read a poem, so this is the one that I chose. He had never read it before, and loved it very much, so of course, I thought I'd share it with you, too.
Carolina Grasshopper, Dissosteira carolina.
This insect is sometimes called the Carolina locust. It is less destructive than most other species in the genus. One distinguishing characteristic is the high, narrow ridge down the center of the pronotum. They are found…
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: blog carnival, Family Life
Another blog carnival is available for you to enjoy; the latest edition of the Carnival of Family Life. There are a bunch of interesting entries there, including the amusing "Daddy Look Penis, Penis!!" and Fun with Shaving Cream (well, I thuoght it looked like fun).
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: blog carnival, Encephalon
The 25th edition of the blog carnival, Encephalon, is now available for you to read. They include a bunch of pieces, including Pigeons playing ping pong - a little help? and The faculty of Imagination: Neural substrates and mechanisms.
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: panda, Image of the Day
Porn fans unite: this is your playmate of the week, courtesy of GrrlScientist.
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
American redstart, widespread throughout North America, is under threat from climate change and future land-use changes.
Image: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [larger]
Birds in Science
Scientists in China revealed that they found a giant bird whose fossilized bones measure 8 meters (26 feet) in length, 5 meters (16 feet) tall and which weighed 1,400 kilograms (3,000 pounds) and lived 85 million years ago. The fossil was uncovered in the Erlian Basin of northern China's Inner Mongolia, said Xu Xing, a paleontologist at…
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: air traffic, FAA, streaming video
The Flight Pattern visualizations are the result of experiments leading to the project Celestial Mechanics by Scott Hessels and Gabriel Dunne. FAA data was parsed and plotted using the processing programming environment. Basically, these are some amazing videos of air traffic over the USA as seen by the FAA. [2:59]
grrlscientist | June 17, 2007Well, here's something that you don't see every day; an owl that insisted on watching a soccer game by flying between the two goals. The commentary is not in English, and the video is somewhat pixelated, but there are a few good shots of this bird when it perched on the goal posts. Can you identify the species, dear readers? [5:56]
grrlscientist | June 17, 2007tags: Junkin's warbler, birds, ornithology, DNA technology
An ornithologist prepares to band a mysterious Junkin's warbler.
Image: Sandy Junkin.
With all the skilled birders and ornithologists in North America, it is truly remarkable to find a bird that cannot be identified, especially when that bird was captured in a mist net. After all, when you have a bird in your hand, you have the opportunity to examine its field marks closely.
Enter Dave Junkin. Junkin was the director of Buffalo Audubon's Beaver Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary in Java, and even after his retirement, he is an expert bird…
grrlscientist | June 17, 2007Here is a sweet little video that you will enjoy. In celebration of Father's Day, the filmmakers behind the Evolution of Dad documentary project filmed close to 150 people around New York City, talking about their dads. The interviews are touching, funny and heartfelt. [1:31]
grrlscientist | June 16, 2007A looong time blog pal of mine (I am proud to say), YoungFemaleScientist did me the honor of mentioning me today on her blog in response to an email she received;
It is interesting to note (and I dont mean this as a dig at you) that all the FEMALE scientific blogs do not really cover science at all but are generally full of moaning and bitching about people in the lab colleagues etc. Whereas the majority of male scientific bloggers concentrate on science issues. Strange!
She responded by saying;
This is a very astute observation, though not strictly correct. Grrrlscientist, over at…
grrlscientist | June 16, 2007tags: Paul Potts, opera, Britain's Most Talented, streaming video
During the past couple weeks, I have been following the amazing and inspirational story of Paul Potts on YouTube. Paul is a cell phone salesman from South Wales in Great Britain -- a very quiet and unassuming man. He has been suffering from a lack of self-confidence throughout his life even while he has been relying on an amazing talent to bolster his self-esteem. But one day, he entered Britain's Most Talented competition and has been "wowing" the public ever since. You have to see this latest video about Paul (there are more…
grrlscientist | June 16, 2007tags: educated, online quiz
This quiz is actually is a lot more fun than than its name implies.
You Are Not Stupid
You got 10/10 questions right!
While acing this quiz doesn't prove you're a genius, you're at least pretty darn smart.
Are You Stupid?
grrlscientist | June 16, 2007tags: blog carnival, Oekologie
The sixth edition of the new blog carnival, Oekologie is now available. It is fashioned after a newspaper and has a lot of great stories to read, including a bunch that I didn't write.
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, global warming, climate change, ornithology, birds, avian biodiversity, habitat destruction
White-crested hornbill, Tropicranus albocristatus, also confined to African rainforests, may see more than half of its geographic range lost by 2100.
Image: Walter Jetz, UCSD. [larger]
Thanks to the combined effects of global warming and habitat destruction, bird populations will experience significant declines and extinctions over the next century, according to a study conducted by ecologists at the University of California, San Diego and Princeton University. This…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007Below the fold is a list of sentiments about George Bush that have been found on t-shirts and bumper stickers throughout the United States. My favorite is #19, although I do have a certain fondness for #5 and #22. Which one do you like best?
(On an infant's shirt): Already smarter than Bush.
1/20/09: End of an Error
That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway
Let's Fix Democracy in This Country First
If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran
Bush, Like a Rock. Only Dumber.
You Can't Be Pro-War And Pro-Life At The Same Time
If You Can Read This, You're Not…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007tags: polar bear cub, Knut, Image of the Day
Six-months-old polar bear Knut snoozes with his minder, Thomas Doerflein, at the zoo in Berlin. Hundreds of visitors still flock to Berlin zoo to get a glimpse of the little bear, who has become a global sensation after surviving rejection by his mother.
Image: AFP [larger]
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007tags: conservation, rainforest, Costa Rica, birds
Cagan Sekercioglu of the Center for Conservation Biology used a radio antenna to monitor bird positions in the agricultural countryside at Las Cruces Biological Station in Costa Rica.
Image: Scott Loarie
We all know the common wisdom; coffee grown on open plantations in Costa Rica is bad for the native tropical forest birds' long-term survival. But a new study shows that this situation is more complex than originally thought. According to this study, by Cagan Sekercioglu, senior scientist at the Stanford University Center for Conservation…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007tags: blog carnival, Friday Ark, animal pictures
For those of you who love looking at animal pictures, Friday Ark is blog carnival is for you. Every link posted here features a large image of an animal that you will enjoy (it might also contain a story, but the picture is the primary focus of this carnival). This is the 143rd issue of this weekly carnival.