January 20, 2009
A red wolf (Canis lupus rufus), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo. The two wolves in this enclosure were the least shy of any that I have seen (as Tracey said, they were "dogified").
January 19, 2009
This blog has been a little quiet over the last few days, but I was simply having too much fun at the Science Online '09 conference to find the time to sit down and blog. I got to meet some of my favorite bloggers, too many to mention them all here (I would undoubtedly forget some if I tried to…
January 19, 2009
A male Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), photographed at the North Carolina Zoo. Apparently I was a little too close for comfort and he made sure I saw how impressive his canines were.
January 18, 2009
It took about 8 and 1/2 hours, but Tracey and I made it back to New Jersey safe & sound. I have a lot to share about my experience at the conference, but for now I figured I would just share one of my favorite photos from the NC Zoo. More tomorrow...
January 18, 2009
A group of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), photographed in suburban New Jersey.
January 17, 2009
A young white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), photographed in suburban New Jersey.
January 16, 2009
Finally, after a very strange day, I am able to sit down and relax. Last night I had intended to go to bed early to get enough sleep for the drive down to North Carolina but, for a variety of reasons, I did not get as much rest as I wanted to. There wasn't much I could do about this, though, and my…
January 16, 2009
I had not noticed it at the time I took this picture, but this juvenile white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) had a compound fracture on it's lower left hind limb. It had been limping a little, but I did not figure out why until I saw this image.
January 15, 2009
The skull of Koch's "Hydrarchos".
In the summer of 1845 Albert Koch was relieved to receive a collection of Basilosaurus bones he had collected in Alabama. He had shipped the fossils ahead of him to New York, but when he arrived at the city he was told that they ship they were on had wrecked. He…
January 15, 2009
Late tonight (or is it early tomorrow?) Mrs. Laelaps* and I will start on our drive down to North Carolina for the Science Online '09 conference! We'll be making stops at the NC Zoo and the Duke University Lemur Center along the way, but when we recover from Friday's traveling we'll be ready for…
January 15, 2009
I'm about to enter the Spring 2009 semester, a term that will probably be one of the most difficult I have ever faced. (For me, at least, the fall semester is always good and the spring is invariably wretched.) What has made it worse is the fact that I am required to shell out $60 for a course…
January 14, 2009
Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
January 14, 2009
In considering the history of science, it is easy to think of scientific discovery and debate as distinct from the rest of culture. Academics picked away at fossils and squinted at the eyepieces of microscopes in isolation, and only in exceptional cases did science jump the cultural barrier to…
January 13, 2009
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
January 13, 2009
So this is it; the Darwin Year. From blogs to books and lectures, lots of people are going to be talking about Charles Darwin and his scientific legacy. It was the same in 1909. (Alright, they didn't have blogs, but you know what I mean.) Lectures were delivered, books were published, and…
January 12, 2009
A polar bear (Ursus maritimus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
January 12, 2009
Tell him you're cutting funding. (Photographed at the Bronx Zoo).
In a given year it is not unusual for me to visit the Bronx Zoo or other WCS-run parks a half dozen times or more. They are some of my favorite places to go, and I have taken thousands of photographs of the well-kept menagerie…
January 11, 2009
A Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
January 11, 2009
Frank Peretti's book Monster was bad, but the recently-aired SciFi Channel movie Monster Ark is worse. Not that SciFi original movies inspire much hope in me in the first place (they are better for riffing on than anything else) but I simply have no words to fully convey how atrociously bad Monster…
January 11, 2009
A red panda (Ailurus fulgens), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
January 9, 2009
John Daniel the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), photographed at the American Museum of Natural History.
January 8, 2009
A mass of tusks, teeth, and bones. From William Buckland's Reliquiae diluvianae.
The problem with a lot of folks tapped as "authorities" on Charles Darwin is that they don't seem to know much about history. We assume that eminent evolutionary biologists and vocal personalities in the creation/…
January 8, 2009
Just because I have not been writing much here doesn't mean I have not been writing. This week I have devoted most of my energy to tidying up the chapter of my book on human evolution, and I am pleased to say that it is now practically complete.
The chapter, as it is now, stretches about 41 pages…
January 7, 2009
Bella the feral cat (Felis catus).
January 6, 2009
A red panda (Ailurus fulgens), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
January 6, 2009
I knew it would happen someday; someone has found one of my photographs, captioned it, and posted it to icanhascheezburger.com. I stumbled across it while flipping through the "Upcoming" section.
see more crazy cat pics
I took that photo in August of 2006 at the Animal Kingdom Pet Store & Zoo…
January 5, 2009
A California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Central Park Zoo.
January 5, 2009
I'm a little late to the game on this tidbit, but in case you haven't heard, please welcome the newest addition to the Sb family, Rebecca Skloot! She's a (*GASP*) journalist who has written some fantastic pieces for the New York Times and she also has a new book in the works called The Immortal…
January 4, 2009
A cast of the skull of Australopithecus africanus, photographed at the American Museum of Natural History.
January 4, 2009
The best thing about Frank Peretti's 2005 novel Monster was that it was over quickly. I was able to zip through the 419-page yarn in about five hours, although after about five minutes I felt I had wasted too much time on this anti-evolution screed.
I was loaned the novel by a friend who thought I…