grrlscientist | November 7, 2006Last night, I found this small word with many big meanings in Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion.
sop (sop) [Italian, from sopra, above, from Latin supra.]
n.
a piece of solid food, as bread, for dipping in liquid food.
anything thoroughly soaked.
something given to pacify or quiet, or as a bribe: The political boss gave him some cash as a sop.
a weak-willed or spineless person; milksop. -verb (used with object)
to dip or soak in liquid food: to sop bread in gravy.
to drench.
to take up (liquid) by absorption (usually followed by up): He used bread to sop up the…
grrlscientist | November 6, 2006
Queen Butterfly, Danaus gilippus.
from the Butterfly Room at the Phipps Conservatory (Pittsburgh).
Image: Rehana Rodrigues.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: butterfly, queen butterfly, insect, Lepidoptera, zoology
grrlscientist | November 6, 2006I just started reading Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion, and already discovered an interesting new word.
Bowdlerize (bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-) [Origin: 1830-40; after Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), the English editor who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare in 1818.]
tr.v.
To expurgate (a book, for example) prudishly.
To modify, as by shortening or simplifying or by skewing the content in a certain manner.
to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.
Usage: The very word 'religions' is bowdlerized to '…
grrlscientist | November 6, 2006It appears that the writers of The Simpsons are writing more astute political analysis than has the main stream media. To see more about what I am talking about, you can watch a streaming clip from last night's episode of The Simpsons below the fold.
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tags: The Simpsons, streaming video, political opinion
grrlscientist | November 5, 2006
Ambush Bug, Genus Phymata.
Found on a raspberry bush,
Upper Arlington, Franklin County, Ohio.
Summer, 2006.
Image: Dave Schreiber.
I have been receving some gorgeous images from you, dear readers, images that I can hardly wait to share with you! If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: ambush bug, insect, Phymatidae, zoology
grrlscientist | November 5, 2006Speaking of unacceptable losses, this cited story (below the fold) describes how Bush and his squadron of flying monkeys blatantly betrayed our nation and our military by not sending enough troops to Iraq to do the job properly. Further, this cited story continues on to reveal that there was little chance that a replacement government could be successful in Iraq, especially if it is perceived by the Iraqi peoples as weak, a puppet, or out-of-step with prevailing regional governments.
The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq…
grrlscientist | November 5, 2006I found this fine word in the interesting and well-written book Not in Our Classrooms, edited by Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch.
Atavistic (at-UH-vis-tik) [French atavisme, from Latin atavus, ancestor: atta, father + avus, grandfather]
adj.
Of, pertaining to, or characterized by atavism; reverting to or suggesting the characteristics of a remote ancestor or primitive type.
The reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by the chance recombination of genes.
An individual or a part that exhibits atavism. Also; throwback.
The…
grrlscientist | November 5, 2006
Our neighbor Bob Gildner.
Image: Gazette/Amy Allan.
Bob Gildner from northern Delaware county has been protesting the war in Iraq for years. In an effort to give people a mental image of how many soldiers have been killed in this war, Bob has painted a blood red star on his property for every life lost.
"I started painting stars on my barn last summer," he said. There are 1,660 blue stars on the white 45-by-60 pole barn with "WMD?" (weapons of mass destruction) painted at the top of the barn. The front of the barn was filled with stars, so Gildner started making signs for his yard and…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2006I am truly amazed by this administration. Here's the latest practical joke that curious george and his squadron of flying monkeys are perpetrating on the American public;
First: Torture someone until you are satisfied that he or she has coughed up the desired information.
Second: Tell the torturee that torture is a state secret so they can't tell anybody about it, not even his or her attorney.
Third: Tell the judge presiding over your war crimes trial that you were obeying the law.
So you ask; What am I talking about?
The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2006Even though Haggard is a flaming hypocrite, the Overseer Board at his church apparently is not.
The Rev. Ted Haggard agreed to resign as leader of the New Life Church after its independent investigative board recommended removal, saying he was guilty "of sexually immoral conduct."
"We, the Overseer Board of New Life Church, have concluded our deliberations concerning the moral failings of Pastor Ted Haggard," a statement from the church said. "Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct."
A man…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2006The results of a recent poll show that the British think that Bush is the second most dangerous man in the world, just behind bin Laden. But I think the Brits are wrong; Bush is more dangerous than bin Laden because bin Laden is sitting in a dank cave somewhere in the Middle East, surrounded by a ragtag handful of poorly educated misfits and losers, whereas Bush is an incompetent bible-thumping elitist with anger management issues who is currently sitting on top of the biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the entire world, surrounded by a ragtag group of professional crooks, pedophiles and…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2006
Thornbush Dasher, Micrathyria hagenii.
Valley Nature Center, Weslaco, Texas, October 2003.
Image: Biosparite.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: dragonfly, thornbush dancer, insect, Odonata, zoology
grrlscientist | November 4, 2006I found this fine word in the interesting and well-written book Not in Our Classrooms, edited by Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch. You might notice that this is first verb that I've used for word of the day so far.
Vitiate (vish-ee-eyt) [Latin vitiÄre; to spoil.]
v.
to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil.
to impair or weaken the effectiveness of.
to debase; corrupt; pervert.
to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate: to vitiate a claim.
Usage: The sigificance for creationist claims about irreducible complexity is clear: the possibility of change of function in…
grrlscientist | November 3, 2006tags: global warming, Permian-Triassic boundary, mass extinction, weather
Computer simulation of the Earth's annual average surface temperatures in degrees Celsius 251 million years ago, at the Permo-Triassic (PT) boundary. Approximately 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species became extinct at the PT boundary, creating niches that the dinosaurs then occupied as the dominant animal group during the next geological age.
Image: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
A computer simulation of the Earth's climate 250 million years ago…
grrlscientist | November 3, 2006
Red-bordered Pixie, Melanis cephise,
23 October 2004.
Image: Biosparite.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: butterfly, red-bordered pixie butterfly, insect, Lepidoptera, zoology
grrlscientist | November 3, 2006I found this fine word this morning in the New York Times story about William Styron entitled Styron Visible: Naming the Evils that Humans Do, by Michiko Kitutani.
Oeuvre (Å-vruh) [French uvre from Old French uevre, work, from Latin opera, plural of opus, work]
n.
A work of art.
the works of a writer, painter, composer or the like, taken as a whole.
any one of the works of a writer, painter, composer or the like.
Usage: Although Mr. Styron's oeuvre seems somewhat slender in retrospect, each of his major novels built upon its predecessor's achievements, working variations on earlier…
grrlscientist | November 3, 2006Well, I'm shocked -- simply shocked, I tell you!
After Pastor Ted Haggard publically denied allegations of a homosexual affair, senior church officials admitted that Pastor Ted Haggard has confessed to some of the claims made by a former male escort.
Thursday morning, Mike Jones, a former male escort, was a guest on a Denver radio talk show and said Pastor Haggard paid him for sex over the past 3 years. Jones also claims Haggard used drugs with him.
Tsk, tsk.
Currently, the situation is being investigated by an independent panel of leaders from four outside churches. The leaders are from…
grrlscientist | November 3, 2006
I loved this one .. perhaps this also is how I was introduced to jazz and blues, which are passions of mine?
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tags: schoolhouse rock, education, teaching, streaming video
grrlscientist | November 2, 200629% of all fish stocks have collapsed.
32% of all amphibians globally are threatened with extinction, and 43% of all amphibian species are in decline.
14% of all bird species are predicted to be extinct by 2100 (as opposed to 1.3% for the 500 years previous), and total number of birds globally estimated to have dropped by 20-25%.
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tags: extinction, endangered species, fish, amphibian, bird
grrlscientist | November 2, 2006
White Peacock, Anartia jatrophae,
Valley Nature Center, Weslaco, Texas,
23 October 2004.
Image: Biosparite.
If you have a high-resolution digitized nature image that you'd like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email it to me, along with information about the image and how you'd like it to be credited.
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tags: butterfly, white peacock butterfly, insect, Lepidoptera, zoology