NYC life
grrlscientist | December 14, 2007tags: Northern cardinal, Aix sponsa, birds, NYC, Central Park, Image of the Day
Male wood duck, Aix sponsa, in Central Park, NYC.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [wallpaper size].
The photographer writes: I was so lucky to get this shot that I had to create an entirely new file for it. After sunset, I started on my way home down the path along the Riviera (i.e. a section of the northern shore of Central Park Lake). I noticed a group of Mallards coming out of the water. They began to forage along the shoreline where they were joined by a male Wood Duck. Only a few Wood Ducks -- if…
grrlscientist | November 4, 2007tags: NYC Life, Central Park turtles, turtle yoga, Image of the Day
Central Park turtles show cruisers how it's done.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [Wallpaper size]
grrlscientist | October 31, 2007In NYC, the going fashion seems to be for the men to dress up as bumblebees (they walk around in suits and ties with the bouncing bee eyes mounted on slender springs on their heads), while the women all dress up as lampshades in red and black. Although one of my friends is dressed up as a barfly (can't imagine why ..). The little kids are dressed up as skeletons, princesses, angels and ghosts. I did run into one kid whom I accused of cross-dressing as the Easter bunny, although her mother told me that she actually was a pink poodle. I suppose some of the kids are dressed up in fancy,…
grrlscientist | September 29, 2007tags: white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, birds, Image of the Day
White-throated Sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, 1st winter plumage.
Image: Kevin T. Karlson [larger view].
This morning, I ran into a little bird at the entrance to the library where I go every day. I was actually distracted, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed this was a white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, instead of the ubiquitous house (english) sparrows. Not only are white-throated sparrows the sister species to my dissertation bird, the white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, but…
grrlscientist | August 8, 2007tags: NYC subways, NYC Life, MTA
So I awoke this morning at 6am to the sounds of a deluge of biblical proportions. My windows are all wide open (no air conditioning), so this rainstorm was impossible to ignore. This deluge lasted approximately an hour and a half, and it flooded the sewers and the subways and it shut down most public transit. Well, all the subways, LIRR, and PATH trains were at a standstill (either shorting out or swimming with the fishes), so everyone instead used buses and cabs to get around, which resulted in gridlock.
You can only cram so many cars into the streets of NYC…
grrlscientist | May 27, 2007This is Memorial Day weekend in America, a time when we supposedly remember all of America's war dead. NYC celebrates Memorial Weekend by embedding it firmly in the middle of its annual "Fleet Week." So during this week, NYC is crawling with military people, mainly Navy and Marines. Basically, NYC is a huge celebration of hedonism, filled with drinking games, push-ups, scantily-clad women and hot, steamy sex. And I am sitting in the middle of all this chaos, using the free wifi connection at my watering hole.
So tell me what you are doing, dear readers.
grrlscientist | March 17, 2007Today, I had to take care of some cats for a vacationing NYCer, so this meant that I had to brave the snow, slush and Lake Erie-sized mud-puddles in the process. Because today is the Saint Patrick's Day parade, I had to get out early, before all the streets were blocked off on the east side of town where my client lives.
After I had returned to the west side of town, I decided to reward myself for having beaten all the traffic chaos and went to Starbux for a coffee and cookie. While I was there, I met a German woman who was also having a coffee. She told me that she had a pigeon with a…
grrlscientist | February 28, 2007Today, I went downtown to fetch a book that Houghton-Mifflin had sent to me to review. Because the UPS station is at 43rd, this required me to go through Times Square with its huge tangle of humanity. When I got there, Times Square consisted of barely controlled chaos, as usual, with its sunshine and commotion and bright lights, giant televisions and blinking advertizements everywhere. Sirens whooped and police directed traffic as thousands of people poured across the streets like a river of corpuscles in a blood vessel.
Just as I reached the other side of the street, there was a huge…
grrlscientist | February 15, 2007NYC is the first city in the world to sanction its own brand of condom. To introduce them to the public, more than 150,000 of these condoms were handed out free to subway riders across the five boroughs on Valentine's Day.
The condoms' basic black plastic wrapper simply says "NYC condom" on the front, with each letter in a circle, similar to the letters used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to denote subway lines. (The authority gave the city permission to use the letters, which are the intellectual property of the subway system.)
Distributed by Ansell Healthcare Products of…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2007Did you hear the one about the NYC cabbie who returned a suitcase full of diamond rings to a Texas woman who only gave him a 30-cent tip on a $10.70 fare?
No, I am serious. It really happened here in NYC. Then, after the cabbie went to some time and expense to return the loot, she gave him a check for $100, snort. Some people just don't get it do they??
Cited story.
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tags: NYCLife, cabbie, diamond rings
grrlscientist | January 25, 2007
Image: Photo illustration by John Blackford; original photograph by Cameron Davidson.
A good argument for building UP instead of OUT: It looks like a lot of people will be going to work via water taxis in the future.
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tags: Manhattan, global warming,sea level
grrlscientist | January 23, 2007
Rogue MTA notice.
Image: David Harmon.
The text reads;
All trains will be running at the normal unsatisfactory rate, along with track diversions and problems with closing the doors, which will make you late for any appointment or job you have. We sincerely do not apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
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3AM until 9 PM
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MTA Transit
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This service notice has been brought to you by none other than Peet Skeet. Please enjoy the over priced, over populated, shit ass ride on the train.
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tags: NYCLife, MTA, notice, rogue MTA notice
grrlscientist | December 2, 2006
Crystal Methamphetamines compared to a dime.
Image: www.streetdrugs.org.
Hey! These guys stole my money-making idea!
Seriously, though .. now I am worried about what my neighbors might be brewing in their apartments, considering that I live half a block away from an infamous "drug alley" where I can purchase nearly any illegal drug or gun or who knows what else in less than 24 hours' time.
A Citigroup executive turned his fancy 38th-floor penthouse apartment overlooking the United Nations into a crystal meth lab, one of nine secret dope factories shut down by drug agents, federal…
grrlscientist | November 30, 2006
Three NYC High School Students were invited to attend the 2006 Nobel Prize Ceremony Honoring Six American Nobel Prize Winners. The students, known as The Laureates of Tomorrow, were chosen on the basis of an essay contest.
Three New York City high school juniors will join the six American Nobel Prize winners in Stockholm, Sweden, during the Nobel Week Festivities from December 5 - 12, 2006.
Natasha Plotkin, Avishai Don, and Gena Rozenberg are the 2006 winners of The Laureates of Tomorrow - Nobel Essay Contest (tm), which is a partnership between the Consulate General of Sweden in New…
grrlscientist | November 25, 2006
Statue of Liberty.
Image: source.
Would you like to learn a few things about NYC? Well this page is filled with interesting facts and pictures and it even has streaming footage from the borough of Queens.
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tags: NYC streaming, NYC wired
grrlscientist | October 11, 2006
A small airplane (some observers in the area) or helicopter (FDNY report, some people in the area) or small fixed-wing airplane (FAA report) crashed into the Belaire Building in NYC's fashionable Upper East Side on 72nd and York streets. It crashed between the 30th and 31st floors of the 50-story building. The crash occurred at 242pm today and 3-6 buildings are reportedly affected. Two people were reported killed. They were on the airplane.
The plane belonged to Yankees Pitcher, Cory Lidle, 34 (pictured. Photo: Mary Altaffer, AP). Lidle had been a licensed pilot for 8 months and purchased…
grrlscientist | October 6, 2006I wish I could live on the Upper West Side of NYC but circumstances (finance$) prevent me from doing so. Where should your inner New Yorker live? This test will give you a rough idea, although I doubt it includes my favorite neighborhood in the list (but you all can help me figure out the various answers to the test by reporting your results). You can see my results below the fold.
You Belong in the East Village
A little bit arty, a little bit punk - you seem to set trends that many people follow.
It's likely that you're an academic of sorts, even if it's just on the weekends.
Where…
grrlscientist | August 3, 2006
100 Degrees of Perspiration: Hot, Hazy and Humid.
The sun sets over the Hudson River at the end of a long, oppressively hot day.
New York City is in the foreground, New Jersey is in the background, across the river.
Image: Swerz.
I was happy to see this day end, especially because I had to be out, running around in the heat.
grrlscientist | August 2, 2006
100 Degrees of Perspiration:
Staying cool in the heat.
Image: 2beanornot2bean.
As some of you might recall, I live with some parrots (an Eclectus parrot, an African grey parrot, and some yellow-bibbed lories). I am keeping them cool today by giving them a bath, and feeding them frozen fruits and vegetables. Even though I do not have an air conditioner, I left all my windows open (as usual) and I do have a fan that I got for them, so I hope that is sufficient to keep them healthy while I am gone for the day.
So dear readers, are any of you experiencing extreme heat today? If so, what are…
grrlscientist | August 2, 2006
100 Degrees of Perspiration:
cooling off in a bathtub of cold water with a hendrick's gin-on-tonic..
and um.. fuck yeah, it's a measuring cup.
Image: fast boy.
Today is the hottest day I've experienced in all the years I've lived in NYC. Depending on who you listen to, it is predicted to get up to somewhere between 102 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit today and, because of the high humidity, the heat index is 115 degrees. To make matters worse, the ozone levels are also quite high, so people with asthma need to be especially careful of their health.
So WNYC radio, one of the local NPR…