grrlscientist | March 16, 2007
Leafy Sea Dragon, Phycodurus eques.
The photographer writes; Though close relatives of sea horses, sea dragons have larger bodies and leaf-like appendages that enable them to hide among floating seaweed or kelp beds. Sea dragons feed on larval fishes and amphipods, such as and small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids ("sea lice"), sucking up their prey in their small mouths. Many of these amphipods feed on the red algae that thrives in the shade of the kelp forests where the sea dragons live. As with their smaller common seahorse (and pipefish) cousins, the male sea dragon carries and…
grrlscientist | March 16, 2007This streaming video is amusing, but also very disturbing at the same time.
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tags: religion, cult
grrlscientist | March 15, 2007
A circle of carrots.
Image is compliments of USDA Agricultural Research Service, where researchers have selectively bred carrots with pigments that reflect almost all colors of the rainbow. More importantly, though, they're very good for your health.
Image: source.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world…
grrlscientist | March 14, 2007
A handful of baby crocodiles.
Image: source.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life forms, the least we can do is to know…
grrlscientist | March 14, 2007It's wise to think about those petitions that you are signing before you put your name on the dotted line!
grrlscientist | March 14, 2007Welcome everyone to the 75th edition of Tangled Bank! There is plenty of material here to read so I think that you all will find something to interest you in this collection of the most recent stories about science, nature and medicine. So without further ado, I will let you jump right in.
Science and Religion
Tara at Aetiology wrote about a recent talk about Intelligent Design by Fred Skiff -- a presentation that was long on rhetoric, short on light.
I wrote a book review about God: the Failed Hypothesis by Victor J. Stenger. The book critically examines both empirical data and scientific…
grrlscientist | March 13, 2007There is one word in English that can have many different uses and meanings. Watch this streaming video to see which word I am referring to. Also notice all the misspelled words -- it's a good thing that this flexible word has only four letters, otherwise, it might also have been misspelled!
grrlscientist | March 13, 2007
The photo was taken years ago, in the pre-digital era, and was originally a slide. This was taken at Squaw Rock, just inside the eastern boundary of Glacier National Park, very near and slightly above an outcropping of the Lewis Overthrust Fault.
Image:
Martin Richard.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this…
grrlscientist | March 13, 2007Well, well, well, it looks like Bush's Attorney General, Alberto R. Gonzales, is scared: he accepted his top aide's resignation in an attempt to divert attention from his firings of eight federal prosecutors. These dismissals appeared to be politically motivated since these prosecutors said they felt pressured by powerful Republicans in their home states to rush investigations of potential voter fraud involving Democrats.
Rove emerged as the Democrats' newest target after weekend news reports said the New Mexico Republican Party's chairman urged deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, the…
grrlscientist | March 13, 2007At first glance, I thought this book was too slim to accomplish its stated goal, but I was wrong. In God: The Failed Hypothesis (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), Victor J. Stenger critically examines both empirical data and scientific models for the existence of a supreme, transcendant being -- God -- and finds them to be inadequate.
Stenger begins by defining God according to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic scriptures and asserting that the existence of God is a hypothesis that can be tested scientifically. Thus, as with all hypotheses, this allows us to make predictions of what we should…
grrlscientist | March 13, 2007This streaming video shows the fun that one can have with a gas, sulfur hexafluoride.
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007Emma (Wedgwood) Darwin, who was Darwin's cousin and wife, kept a diary from the time she was 16 years old, throughout her marriage and until the last year of her life. These 60 pocket books have events recorded in them such as appointments, family visits and illnesses. Previously acessible only to scholars, these diaries have been scanned and are accessible on the internet.
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.
Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.
How. Incredibly. Embarassing.
Cited story.
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007What is it about girl scout cookies that can transform an otherwise mundane day into something extraordinary? Is it their seasonal character, like bird migration .. the fact that, like unusual bird sightings, I cannot have them anytime I want them? But what makes them so perfect in every way? For those who care, I had a samoa, several tagalongs -- only because everyone else ate most of them before I got there -- and a bunch of little brownies, and I am still thinking about them, just as I think about the birds I see after I have been out birding.
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007
The photographer writes; On the same dive as I took the picture of the mullet (yesterday's image of the day), I took this one under the Port Noarlunga jetty. I came across this little character (length about 100-120mm and the siphons about 25mm diameter). I guess it is related to sea squirts/cunjevoi and I have been using the CSIRO website [to identify it] but there is not too much information there. Stolidobranchia(?), ascidiacea(?). Just another poorly recognised (at least by me!) coinhabitant of this planet. Port Noarlunga is about 10km south of Adelaide in South Australia.
Image:…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007
Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Pamela Wells.
Birds in Science
People have long wondered how cowbirds can get away with leaving their eggs in the nests of other species, who then raise the baby cowbirds. Why don't the hosts just toss the strange eggs out? Now researchers seem to have an answer -- if the host birds reject the strange eggs, the cowbirds come back and trash the place. "It's the female cowbirds who are running the mafia racket at our study site," Jeffrey P. Hoover, of the Florida Museum of Natural History and…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007According to this streaming video, what the iRack needs is .. more things.
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tags: streaming video, satire, humor, politics
grrlscientist | March 11, 2007The tundra is is a special habitat where tree growth is inhibited by low temperatures and a short growing season. In the Arctic, the tundra is dominated by permafrost, a layer of permanently frozen subsoil, so the only vegetation that grows under such conditions are grasses, mosses and lichens. Forests of spruce trees and shrubs neighbor these tundra areas, and the boundary where they meet is called the treeline. However, climate change has extended the summer warming season and promoted tree growth, causing the treeline to encroach on the tundra faster than researchers thought possible.
"The…
grrlscientist | March 11, 2007A policeman found an abandoned rental truck -- its engine still warm -- sitting by the side of the road, the back stuffed with plastic-wrapped bundles of marijuana.
"Somebody's going be in some major trouble for walking away and leaving that quantity sitting on the side of the freeway," said Sgt Telfinues Preszler Jnr of the California Highway Patrol.
"I'm glad I'm not him."
A recent report estimates that despite intensive eradication plans, $35 billion of marijuana is produced every year in the US, making it this country's top cash crop.
Of course, this makes me ask the obvious question;…
grrlscientist | March 11, 2007
Taken while diving at port Noarlunga, Australia.
There are at least three species of fish known as "red mullet" in Australia This one is Upeneus tragula.
Image: stephenk at internode dot on dot net.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve…