Art
grrlscientist | November 12, 2009tags: invertebrates, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video
I absolutely love this video. It features an ant discovering a lollipop in the road and the battle that ensues between the ants and the flies over possession of this food bonanza. The end of this video is truly hilarious.
grrlscientist | November 12, 2009tags: insects, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video
A Ladybug family goes out for a Sunday flight with their three offspring. One of these youngsters is a wee bit hyperactive and sets out on a series of adventures of her own, as detailed in this video.
grrlscientist | November 11, 2009tags: insects, comedy, humor, bentekr, animation, streaming video
A Ladybird educates her youngsters into the challenges and pleasures of life.
grrlscientist | November 9, 2009tags: insects, comedy, humor, satire, bentekr, animation, streaming video
This is a silly video that will make you smile.
dmunger | November 5, 2009Greta and I did our undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, or as a commonly-sold T-shirt on campus put it, "where fun goes to die." To say that Chicago didn't emphasize academics over a social life is to deny that people literally lived in the library (a full-scale campsite was found behind one of the stairwells in the stacks; students had been living there for months). It's not that the administration didn't try to encourage its students to socialize. The library did close at 10 p.m. on Friday nights. There was not one but two film societies, so often students had to choose…
grrlscientist | November 2, 2009tags: Short-tailed Magpie, Cissa thalassina, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Short-tailed Magpie, Cissa thalassina, endemic to the South Pacific Maritime
Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Java. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Watercolour and gouache sketch on paper.
Image: Thomas Lewin, early 1800s [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | October 18, 2009tags: 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt Messe, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, image of the day
Frankfurt Messe.
Frankfurt Book Fair 2009.
Image: Bob O'Hara, 18 October 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | October 16, 2009tags: Memorial to the Synagogue, Platz der Synagoge, Göttingen, Germany, image of the day
The memorial to the Synagogue in Göttingen, Germany, burnt down 1938 during the Kristallnacht, at the Platz der Synagoge (Synagogue Square) as seen from the inside looking straight up.
Image: Bob O'Hara, October 2009 [larger view].
Synagogue Memorial, Obere-Masch-Str. and Untere-Masch-Str. This memorial, designed by Corrado Cagli in 1973, stands on the site of a synagogue that was destroyed in 1938. The names of Göttingen's Jewish residents who were murdered during the "dark time" are listed below…
sciencepunk | October 16, 2009The last chance to win a huge illustrated encyclopaedia of science!
And so we come to the end of our delightful foray into the thrill and passion for science of you, dear readers. It's been absolutely wonderful, and I've really enjoyed all your comments. I wish had a book for each of you.
So I opened the mighty SCIENCE: THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL GUIDE, edited by the always-excellent Adam Hart-Davis, and who should I find but ultimate invention-master and scientific entrepreneur Thomas Edison! Now, I think we can all agree that Edison was a bit of an asshole. It is true, for example, that he…
sciencepunk | October 15, 2009Another day, another beautifully-illustrated definitive guide to SCIENCE to be won!
With the contest in its fourth day, I have only two more of these huge books to win. They're worth a princely £30 each, and were edited by the venerable Adam Hart-Davis. SCIENCE: THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL GUIDE is a great tome of wonder and intrigue, with some great photographs and imagery that I've never seen before. Truly, the art editor was top notch. Here's one example:
We had many wonderful suggestions yesterday on what was the world's best-ever invention, from transistors to tools to light itself. Which…
sciencepunk | October 14, 2009Another chance to win a gorgeous illustrated encyclopaedia of science!
Thank you everyone who donated their thoughts to yesterday's provoking question, the consensus seems to be that we are, right now, living in a bloody great time for science. The winner was Dave Ferret, who gets a copy of the massive, beautiful, 512 page SCIENCE: THE DEFINITIVE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE edited by Adam Hart-Davis. Today another copy must be won!
So I was leafing through this book (with the help of a JCB, because that's how big this book is), and I chanced upon this marvellous entry:
Even though Charles Babbage…
ddobbs | October 14, 2009For its pure strangeness.
The Makura-gaeshi (âpillow-moverâ) is a soul-stealing prankster known for moving pillows around while people sleep. The creature is invisible to adults and can only be seen by children. Anatomical features include an organ for storing souls stolen from children, another for converting the souls to energy and supplying it to the rest of the body, and a pouch containing magical sand that puts people to sleep when it gets in the eyes. In addition, the monster has two brains â one for devising pranks, and one for creating rainbow-colored light that it emits through its…
sciencepunk | October 13, 2009Another day, another chance to win SCIENCE: THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL HISTORY!
Well, it's going to be hard to beat the massive response to the first round of this competition - thank you to everyone who commented. It was heartening to see so much love for science, and I've now got a fantastic collection of reading material to add to my list.
Back to the book! Here's a beautiful spread in SCIENCE of on one of my favourite inventions ever: Harrison's Chronometer, which helped to solve the Longitude Problem, changing the world forever. It's a tale of obsession, invention, and cruelty retold…
sciencepunk | October 12, 2009This week, five SciencePunk readers will win a copy of SCIENCE: THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL GUIDE, edited by Adam Hart-Davis!
I received a copy in the post today, and let me tell you, this book is HUGE. Huge in scope, in detail, and in raw physical presence. That is I am going to insist on calling it SCIENCE, all in caps. Words couldn't do justice in describing just how massive this hardcover is, so here's a picture of me shortly before I was crushed under the weight of it and had to be rescued by my pet ants:
Science follows in the tradition of publisher DK's lavishly produced pictorial…
grrlscientist | October 10, 2009tags: art, humor, satire, The Big Snit, Canadian cartoon, streaming video
Here's another peculiar yet amusing Canadian cartoon that I only just saw for the first time: The Big Snit by Richard Conde.
sciencepunk | October 7, 2009
PDN Photo of the Day website says:
Here we present ten of the finalists from Nikon's 35th Annual Small World Photomicrography Competition, which recognizes photographs shot through a microscope. Contest winners will be announced on October 8. Until October 2, the public can select their favorites in the "Popular Vote" section of the Nikon Small World web site.
Above image: © Shamuel Silberman, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Embryo of guppy fish (40X)
Reflected light by fiber-optics
omnibrain | October 6, 2009I've seen a lot of illusions... but this one is really f'n cool:
CHOP CUP from :weareom: on Vimeo.
-via neatorama-
grrlscientist | October 2, 2009tags: art, humor, satire, But the Cat Came Back, Canadian cartoon, streaming video
I've never seen this cartoon before today, but it's a classic Canadian cartoon that my spouse watched when he was a kid. So he introduced it to me.
grrlscientist | October 2, 2009tags: artwork, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Hevoset "Horses" (dark granite; 1940).
Gunnar Finne (1886 - 1952).
(Bäcksbacka collection donated to The City of Helsinki in the 1970's)
Photographed outside Taidemuseo Meilahti (Meilahti art museum)
in Helsinki, Finland, as I walked to Seurasaari.
Image: GrrlScientist, 4 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
This sculpture was photographed outside the front doors of the Taidemuseo Meilahti (Meilahti art museum) as I walked to Seurasaari, in Helsinki, Finland. I think I've shown this sculpture to you before since I certainly did…
grrlscientist | October 2, 2009tags: physiology, The Bloodmobile, They might be Giants, music video, streaming video
Here's another fun music video; "The Bloodmobile" by the creative group, They Might be Giants. This song tells about the many functions of blood, from providing oxygen to tissues to helping transport hormones (well, hormones are generally transported in the plasma).