grrlscientist | May 30, 2006The Institute for Bird Populations announced that its journal, Bird Populations, will become entirely electronic beginning with its upcoming issue.
First published in 1993, Bird Populations fills a major gap in the scientific literature because no other technical publication is dedicated to the study of dynamic avian demography and biogeography from a global perspective. This annual publication carries peer-reviewed papers of original research, reports from major avian monitoring projects around the world, and review, synthesis and commentary articles.
Hattip: Thomas Gardali; PRBO…
grrlscientist | May 30, 2006
Black-throated green warbler, Dendroica virens.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Pamela Wells.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Birds in Science
Wendy Reed and her research team's study found that male dark-eyed juncos, Junco hyemalis, with extra testosterone were more attractive to females and produced more -- but smaller -- offspring. Smaller offspring had lower survival rates than larger offspring. The extra testosterone also made the male birds sing more sweetly and fly farther. The testosterone-laden birds proved irresistible to older,…
grrlscientist | May 29, 2006
I have been working on Birds in the News for several hours already on this humid day, so I thought I was the only one writing a blog entry today. I was wrong. The Big Apple Blog Festival, issue 33, is now available for your reading pleasure. As the name suggests, this carnival is all about NYC, what it's like to live here, what people do to entertain themselves, where they go, and on and on. Oddly, especially in view of the fact that there are 9 million people living in NYC, and there are thousands of blog writers here, this carnival has become rather sporadic in its publication schedule for…
grrlscientist | May 29, 2006The mothership recently began asking us a question each week and then linking to our answers each Wednesday in a blog carnival-like format from the staff blog, Stochastic. (more about the rules here). This week's question is;
Since they're funded by taxpayer dollars (through the NIH, NSF, and so on), should scientists have to justify their research agendas to the public, rather than just grant-making bodies?
"Justify?" No. The public does not have a clear and precise understanding of scientific research so the public is not qualified to make decisions about how research money should be spent…
grrlscientist | May 29, 2006Birds in the News has been postponed until tomorrow, when it will appear at the usual time.
grrlscientist | May 28, 2006Thanks to my blog sibling, Orac, I now know how I will die;
What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
You will be sucked dry by a leech. I'd stay away from swimming holes, and stick to good old cement. Even if it does hurt like hell when your toe scrapes the bottom.Take this quiz!
Quizilla |
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And I thought I was going to be run over by a speeding bus. ...
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tags: online quiz, Edward Gorey
grrlscientist | May 28, 2006
Manhattan Sunset, 2001.
Click here for larger image in its own window.
Image: Neil deGrasse Tyson/AMNH.
Tonight at 820pm EST, Manhattan will be flooded with sunlight because the sun will set precisely on the centerline of every street.
The skyscrapers that line Manhattan streets usually hide the setting sun, casting the streets into shadows before sunset. If Manhattan's road grid was perfectly aligned east to west, today's effect would instead occur on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes, March 21 and September 21, which are the only two days when the sun rises and sets directly in the east…
grrlscientist | May 28, 2006
Yes, I laughed because I am starring in this same movie right now, although I have enacted a few minor costume alterations, of course. (Be sure to watch the people's reactions to the star of this film, keeping in mind that all these people appear to be in Hollywood, where weird sights can be found around every street corner).
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tags: streaming video, satire, humor, I Will Survive
grrlscientist | May 27, 2006This is an online personality test, based on your drawing of a pig. I wanted to save my picture of a pig to share with you because I thought it was rather nice, especially considering that it was drawn online and freehand. Unfortunately, this site does not keep your picture available for very long after you've finished drawing it so be sure to "grab" it before it goes away forever.
I'll show you my results if you show me yours!
Ho-hum, inaccurate as usual, but I'll spare you the details.
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tags: online quiz, personality test, draw a pig
grrlscientist | May 27, 2006
The "Phylogeny" of Scientific Life.
Image: created by Websites as Graphics.
KEY: What do these colored dots mean?
blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags
After PZ posted the graphical representation of web tags for his blog, I couldn't resist doing the same for my site, especially since this graphic superficially…
grrlscientist | May 27, 2006
After watching this video, I am not sure if I should shake my head or just drink excessively.
grrlscientist | May 27, 2006
Take the quiz: What kind of cat are you?Alcoholic CatYou like beer and bars. Maybe you should calm it down before you get a beer belly, if you don't already have one.
Hey, this quiz is rigged, methinks! Quite honestly, I cannot afford an alcohol habit (my so-called "rent habit" leaves little for anything else!). Besides, I went back and changed all my overtly alcohol-related quiz responses (momentary lapses into wishful thinking, anyway) to something that is a little more respectable and realistic and the quiz still insists that I am an "alcoholic cat"! WTF?? Anyway, that said, what kind of…
grrlscientist | May 26, 2006Last night, instead of writing some blog entries for you to read today, I went to the movies and saw An Inconvenient Truth.
An Inconvenient Truth is the companion film to the book with the same name by former-Vice President Al Gore. This film chronicles Gore's life as he discusses some of the science that substantiates one of the most important issues facing this, and future, generations, global warming. In the film, Gore also tells the story of his growing personal concerns with this phenomenon, beginning shortly after he first entered politics up through his loss of the White House after…
grrlscientist | May 25, 2006This is a humble blog, as you know. I certainly do not talk about politics here as much as I do in real life, and everyone knows that writing about politics is the best way to gain a large and devoted readership. But I am most amazed and astonished to report that as of this moment, Living the Scientific Life has received more than 244,623 visits (122,499 as of 12 January 2006 at this site and 122,124 since 12 September 2004 at its original blogger site).
Thank you so very much, dear readers, for making me a small part of your life.
grrlscientist | May 25, 2006I've awaited this book of poems for years, and now it's finally published! Shannon Borg's first published book of poetry, Corset (Cincinnati: Cherry Grove, 2006), is now available and as soon as I learned it had been published, I eagerly requested a review copy from the publisher.
This book contains 43 collected poems, some from the author's dissertation and others that were originally published in a variety of poetry journals, and these poems are divided fairly evenly between three separate parts in the book. Despite the wide variety of topics explored in these poems, they all focus on the…
grrlscientist | May 25, 2006Since the world ended today, I am guessing that all of us (and our blogs) have been collectively elevated to a higher plane of being without our knowledge, unless we experienced The Rapture during our sleep. That might explain this morning's king-sized headache. Anyway, whatever happened, it was a true non-event, since today is, as it was yesterday and the day before and the day before that, "business as usual." And part of that business as usual is .. blog carnivals!
The 24th edition of the carnival devoted to celebrating the best blog writing about birds, I and the Bird, is now available.…
grrlscientist | May 24, 2006
Ghost owl.
Dustprint on glass of an Eastern screech-owl, Megascops asio.
Photograph appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Dave Rintoul.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Dave writes;
The image is a dustprint that an Eastern Screech-owl left on a sliding glass door. The bird was pursuing a moth (the dustprint of which is actually visible in the image) and smacked into the door. I presume that the components of this image, like those of the Shroud of Turin, might be mysterious, but I hypothesize that it is dust, or feather dust. At any rate, the owl was…
grrlscientist | May 24, 2006The Tangled Bank, issue 54, is now available. As usual, this carnival has a lot of essays for you to read, including a contribution from me.
The Carnival of the Vanities, issue 192 is now available. This carnival is focused on the meaty goodness of the blogosphere, as suggested by the name "carnival" (which means, goodbye, meat). And yes, there is a contribution from me somewhere in there.
grrlscientist | May 23, 2006Before I name the winner of the "Nickname That Bird" contest, let me share Pete Dunne's favorite bird nicknames with you;
Solitary sandpiper: Puddlepiper
American woodcock: Meatloaf on a stick
Rock pigeon: Bronx petrel
Belted kingfisher: Aquakestrel
Red-headed woodpecker: Tri-colored woodpecker
Bluethroat: Rainbow in a Plain Brown Wrapper
American Robin: Lawn Plover
Yellow-rumped Warbler: Swarm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler: Zebra Creeper
American Redstart: Flash Dancer
And the list of all entries received, in reverse chronological order;
Natalie
Kathy
Rolan
comments and rules.
If I…