new orleans
zooillogix | February 17, 2009The Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans just bred these rare pink katydids and I find them captivating/delicious.
Pink Katydid Facts:
⢠The parental katydids, both pink, were brought to Audubon Insectarium during
the summer of 2008 as donations by visitors.
⢠The pink katydids were sent off to Cokie Bauder, Manager of Animal Collections
at the Insectarium's Insect Rearing Facility, for supervision and care.
⢠The pink katydids are oblong-winged katydids, Amblycorypha oblongifolia.
⢠This unusual katydid coloration was first written about in a scientific article in
1878.
⢠The first…
awild | January 20, 2009New Orleans, January 2009
The first major public exhibit to open in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was the Audubon Nature Institute's Insectarium. We took advantage of a lull in our schedule last week to make the pilgrimage to what turns out to be a surprisingly ambitious operation. It well exceeded our expectations.
The entrance on Canal Street.
Spying on live bumblebees.
Inside the bees' nest.
Yes, educational bits too.
This ant looks familiar.
Not a family exhibit: stick insects have sexual relations in public.
They let non-insects in too.
Another one.
The proud…
awild | August 1, 2008I am minutes away from shutting down this computer to pack it away for the long trip to Illinois tomorrow, but before I do that let me point out the New York Times' review of what may well be the most ambitious arthropod exhibit ever: The New Orleans Insectarium.
If any of you have the opportunity to visit the Insectarium, drop me a line as to what you think. I've not had the chance to see it, but I do have several photographs appearing in the displays and am curious about how they look.
mikethemadbiologist | September 1, 2007One of the most shameful things about the destruction of New Orleans was the attempt to blame the victims.
Too many Americans--disproportionately Republican--could not rationalize two beliefs:
Americans and George Bush are good people.
These same good people deserted other Americans and left them to die.
So they blamed the victim, rather than accepting responsibility for electing what might be the most incompetent--often by design--administration in U.S. history.
Shameful.
mikethemadbiologist | February 5, 2007Never doubt the prognostication of the Mad Biology. A couple of days ago, I wondered if the Mighty Conservative Wurlitzer would unleash its awesome fury against the Edwards campaign bloggers. Turned out I was right. First, there was some hardhitting investigative reporting from the National Review bloggysphere that yielded...nothing. But then Michele Malkin got in on the act.
For those of you who don't who Michele Malkin is, one of her claims to fame is authoring a book that defends the racially-motivated interment of Japanese-Americans during World War II (because if it's ok when FDR did…
mikethemadbiologist | January 7, 2007While Iraq was the national backdrop for the 2006 elections, individually many campaigns succeeded (or did better than they had any right to do) due to a desire to end corruption (e.g., the Ohio state elections). Yet Rahm Emanuel, head of the DCCC, and the Congressional Black Caucus ('CBC') just don't seem to get that. First, Rahm Emanuel.
In Mark Foley's old district (FL-16), David Lutrin, a progressive liberal, was poised to run against Mark Foley. He certainly wouldn't have been a favorite to win, but then again, many successful Democrats didn't look like winners in early 2005 either.…
cmooney | March 2, 2006I'm really proud of two of my old high school classmates who still live in New Orleans, Cory Morton and Hal Braden. Not only did they get in Sports Illustrated recently--they did so for a good cause.
Here's the story: These guys are big basketball fans, and have season's tickets to see the New Orleans Hornets play. Only, lately the Hornets haven't been playing in New Orleans because of Katrina. Instead, the team has been playing in Oklahoma City.
So, my two buddies, presumably because they're season tickets holders (and big movers and shakers to boot), got to attend a private cocktail party…
cmooney | February 24, 2006Hey, maybe when they're done with the rather inappropriate Mardi Gras celebration this year, they can gather up all the trash left on the street and use *that* to plug holes in the levees. Or better yet, how about asking all the tourists who come down to spend half a day cleaning up the mess left behind by Katrina, since the city obviously isn't capable of doing it?
I'm from New Orleans, I'm allowed to be this cynical and nasty.
cmooney | January 18, 2006I've never been impressed with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, but I did not know he was this batty. From the Washington Post:
[Nagin] said "God is mad at America" and "is sending hurricane after hurricane" because He disapproves of the United States invading Iraq "under false pretenses."
I agree with basically all of this, excluding all the parts about God and hurricanes.
Seriously, though: It's not at all amusing to learn that Ray Nagin thinks in an alarmingly Robertsonian vein (albeit with a leftwing twist). Robertson has considerable influence but is not in a political leadership position.…
cmooney | January 13, 2006Bush was in New Orleans yesterday, the day we learned that the federal budget deficit is going to be $ 60 billion more than expected, thanks to spending related to hurricane Katrina. Of course, that $ 60 billion hardly represents the only economic impact of the hurricane. For example, there are the insured and uninsured losses, which have been estimated at well over $ 100 billion. And then, of course, there's damage to the economy. Richard T. Carson, an economist at the University of California San Diego, has put the figure for that at around $ 1 trillion due to losses in shipping and tourism…