grrlscientist | April 16, 2006A friend sent a link to this 12-minute long video collection of amazing little machines that are part of a collection of Rube Goldberg-like inventions. Rube Goldberg was Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, author and inventor. However, while most machines make difficult tasks simple, Goldberg's inventions made simple tasks amazingly complex. So this eventually led to the use of Rube Goldberg's name by the media to denote a tremendously complex program, system or set of rules such as our "Rube Goldberg-like tax system". Goldberg's inventions act as a unique commentary on life's…
grrlscientist | April 16, 2006
I know this cartoon is as old as I am so you've all seen it a hundred times already, but it never fails to make me laugh, so I am sharing it with you anyway.
tags: cartoon, easter, humor
grrlscientist | April 15, 2006
This test is a little more involved than most, and probably takes 10 minutes to complete, unless your neighbor's wireless connection that you are piggybacking crashes on page eight, as happened to me. In that case, it will take a little longer to complete.
So what are your results according to this test? Do you agree with these results? What did you think of the questions?
I found many of the questions very difficult to answer because the situation causes me to react differently to a similar scenario. For example, the question regarding a familiar/new dish at a familiar/new restaurant…
grrlscientist | April 15, 2006
You Are Marcia Brady
Confident yet kind. Popular yet down to earth. You're a total dream girl.
You've got the total package - no wonder everyone's a little jealous of you.
What Brady Are You?
Hahaha. Inaccurate, as usual, but I like what it said, anyway.
tags: online quiz
grrlscientist | April 14, 2006After several of you asked me to make a wishlist, I did so. Shortly after that, one of you sent me a book from my wishlist that I've wanted for quite some time, Dinosaurs of the Air, by Gregory Paul (2002). I just received the book today and I want to thank you, Biosparite, for your kindness. As soon as I pulled it out of its packing, I showed this book to several of my colleagues, all of whom are very interested in it and they all thought the drawings are wonderful, too.
By the way, I am sorry for falling silent for so long. I have been overwhelmed these past few weeks with a paper and with…
grrlscientist | April 13, 2006I am going to try an experiment. For this next month, I will publish Birds in the News on Monday instead of Friday. I want to expose it to a greater readership than it currently enjoys. So this issue will be postponed until Monday.
grrlscientist | April 10, 2006A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper, the New Straits Times, reported Monday.
Yes, you read that correctly; a $218 trillion phone bill.
Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after his father died, and he settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported. But it wasn't clear whether the outsized bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's late father used the phone illegally after his death.
Yahaya…
grrlscientist | April 10, 2006
A friend of mine is prescribing medicine without a license; I hope this at least does something .. mood-enhancing. I could use a good bout of the giggles, without any embarassing drool.
Thanks, Dawn!
tags: humor, cartoon
grrlscientist | April 10, 2006As many of you know, I read and comment here about avian influenza fairly often, and you also know that I like to review books as a way of staying in touch with the publishing world without resorting to a life of crime to support my book habit. So I was interested when the publicist at Thomas Dunne Books kindly offered to send a copy of their new book, The Bird Flu Pandemic: Can It Happen? Will It Happen? How to Protect Yourself and Your Family If It Does (Paperback) by Jeffrey Greene and Karen Moline (2006). I will not belabor my issues here because I truly dislike writing bad reviews, but I…
grrlscientist | April 9, 2006A little while ago, several of you, dear readers, mentioned that you wanted me to set up a wish list, so I did that. You can also find the link on the left sidebar, below the site meter.
As you can see, it's rather long but don't forget that this list has been several years in the making, too. Not only that, but I currently have seven books sitting next me right now, courtesy of several publishers, waiting impatiently for me to read and review them, so there's no need to add substantially to the pile for fear I might be crushed when it topples over. However, there is one book that I want…
grrlscientist | April 9, 2006
Female hummingbird, asleep.
Photo by Dylan Maldonado.
A flash of scarlet and emerald zooms past me as I poke my sleepy head out of the kitchen door, a vibrant splash of summer color against the sullen winter sky. Suddenly, an indignant Anna's Hummingbird, Calypte anna, confronts me, beak-to-nose, demanding his breakfast. Shivering, I retreat quickly into the kitchen to prepare warm sugar water for my feathery guest.
Hummingbirds are classified into the avian family, Trochilidae, which is from the Greek word, trochilos, or "small bird." In fact, the smallest avian species alive today is the…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2006It's been two of those weeks in a row, and what works best to fix that? Iscream, that's what!
You Are Chunky Monkey Ice Cream
Truthfully, you're too spazzy to be chunky - you cheeky monkey!
What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?
Don't forget that 25 April is Ben and Jerry's annual "Free Cone Day" which is the anniversary of their opening day. These free cones are a special "thank you" to their customers.
So what special iscream did you end up being? I took the liberty of figuring out PZ Myers' special iscream flavor (below the fold) .. it's too perfect, indeed, it's soooo…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2006
You Belong in Dublin
Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.
You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.
What European City Do You Belong In?
What's your city?
My other city (depending upon how I answered question 5) was Amsterdam.
tags: online quiz
grrlscientist | April 8, 2006Okay, everyone, I just wanted to let you know that Birds in the News will be back this Friday, as usual. I just hit a rough patch this past two weeks, and have been struggling with absolutely everything, and BitN is, as I've said, a fairly big commitment, so it was easiest to get frustrated with it.
To answer some comments, I have thought about publishing one section each day, rather than all sections together weekly, but the news stories don't pop up in topical aggregates like that, so I really don't know how I would do that. I have also thought about publishing it on a different day (I…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2006
In an effort to help us learn more about our common ancestor with the fishes, I found a quiz that tests your knowledge of modern fish.
(Pictured above: Coelacanth. Image linked to source)
My score - 100%
That was rather easy, wasn't it?
tags: fish, online quiz
grrlscientist | April 8, 2006
More commentary on Tiktaalik roseae, this time from the Wichita Eagle (click image and you will be magically transported there). Do be sure to read the little sign on the lower left side, too.
Update: this morning on National Public Radio's show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! they asked this;
Question: Why would fish want to leave the water?
Answer: Because fish schools were teaching creationism!
Thanks, Ian!
tags: evolution, Tiktaalik rosea, fish, cartoon, humor
grrlscientist | April 7, 2006JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, recently wrote on her website that she worries about her daughters growing up in a "skinny-obsessed world", stating that she doesn't want them to grow up to become "empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones."
"Let my girls be Hermiones," she declared, referring to the brainy female character from the Harry Potter novels.
Rowling has two daughters, Mackenzie, age 1, and Jessica, age 12.
I think Rowling has gone a long way towards making it easier for girls to break out from rigid social stereotypes by creating her character, Hermione.…
grrlscientist | April 7, 2006
By Tony Auth. Click image to be magically transported to the Washington Post, where it is linked from.
Thanks, Ian!
tags: evolution, Tiktaalik rosea, fish, cartoon, humor
grrlscientist | April 7, 2006This quiz is really low-tech, so I have the questions here, and the questions with their answers below the fold. This is, of course, a self-graded, self-reported quiz.
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get catgut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands are named after what animal?
7) What was King George VI's first name?
8) What color is a purple finch?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the color of the…
grrlscientist | April 6, 2006Due to a lack of interest, Birds in the News is postponed, possibly indefinitely. Thanks to my bird pals for sending bird news story links to me throughout the lifetime of Birds in the News.
tags: Birds in the News, ornithology, birds, avian