laelaps |
Shrimp is fancy food for anyone's dinner table. Boiled, baked, grilled, poached... the culinary possibilities are almost endless, and the low price of shrimp at grocers and superstores makes it easy for us to keep on eating. Yet this abundance of shrimp obscures the true costs of the competing industries that keep supermarkets and restaurants supplied, and those stories are at the center of Jack and Anne Rudloe's new book Shrimp: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold.
To be honest, I almost shelved this book without finishing it. After an interesting autobiographical introduction about what it is…
laelaps |
Almost two decades ago vertebrate paleontologist Bruce MacFadden published his monograph Fossil Horses, an instant classic that was as much about new approaches in paleontology as the equids considered in the book. For over a century the family history of horses had been depicted as some of the best, most-accessible evidence for evolution the fossil record had to offer, and MacFadden's book provided an excellent synthesis of what had been discovered. Since the publication of Fossil Horses, however, no other books have appeared to follow-up on what MacFadden presented. Brief nods and short…
laelaps |
Two views from the balcony on this snowy, snowy morning.
And, since it's Caturday, here is a shot of one of our new foster cats, Steve.
laelaps |
I got a pretty nice surprise yesterday morning; Laelaps was listed as one of the "Top 30 Science Blogs" by the Times science magazine Eureka! I was proud to see this blog featured alongside those of Scicurious, Ed, Carl, David, Sheril, Bora, and many of the others who made the list. Even better, Eureka wants to expand the list to include the top 100 science blogs, so be sure to send in your nominations for the best of the best to eureka@thetimes.co.uk, with "Best blogs" in the subject line.
And, as Ed already said, Times science editor Mark Henderson deserves three cheers (and a bit more) for…
laelaps |
A female lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
A note about "Photo of the Day": I recognize that this daily feature has not been as exciting lately. I often visit zoos, museums, and other places rich in photo ops throughout the year, but during the past several months my opportunities to do so have been limited. I have therefore had to mine my stores for miscellaneous photos from previous trips which I have not posted before, but I am hoping to get back out to take some fresh shots sometime around my birthday at the end of the month. Thank you for your patience.
laelaps |
A restoration of Titanoboa (foreground) in its natural setting. (By Jason Bourque, image from Wikipedia.)
When I was growing up I used to spend hours poring over the Time/Life series of nature books in my little library, absolutely enthralled by images of strange creatures from all over the world, but one photograph was particularly arresting. A grainy black-and-white double-page spread showed an anaconda that had wrapped its crushing coils around a caiman and a tree, slowly squeezing the life out of the crocodylian. Without any frame of reference for size it was easy to envision the two…
laelaps |
A grizzly bear (the black dot in the middle of the photo) walking near the treeline in Yellowstone's Hayden Valley.
The quiet of my evening wildlife watching was suddenly broken by a thick Boston accent. "Oh my gawd! Look! It's a grizz! That's the last animal I needed to see! It's a grizz!"
He was right. Lumbering across the valley was a big dark shape that could only be a bear. It was not very close, being little more than a dot moving along the distant treeline, but through the zoom lens of my camera it was just possible to make out the hump that distinguishes black bears from grizzly…
laelaps |
Rokan, the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
laelaps |
The due date for Written in Stone is still nine months away, but I have already started to compose a list of potential op-eds, essays, and articles that will help promote its release. They range from summaries of the book's premise to stories that were hacked out during the editing process, but the question is where I should pitch these ideas. There are only a limited number of popular science publications now in operation, and even among this small pool there are some that cannot pay writers and others that do not accept unsolicited proposals. As you can guess, trying to be a freelance…
laelaps |
The WCS-run Bronx Zoo welcomed four new additions this week; a trio of brown bear cubs from Alaska and an adolescent bear from Montana. All were rescued after their mothers had been killed for becoming too habituated to humans. According to the Bronx Zoo press release:
The three brown bear cubs are siblings, born in early 2009 on Baranof Island in southeastern Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game rescued the orphaned trio and temporarily transferred them to Fortress of the Bear, an education and rescue center in Sitka, Alaska. The young grizzly bear, a male from Glacier National…
laelaps |
Part of a bison herd (Bison bison) walking down the road. Photographed in Yellowstone National Park.