grrlscientist | February 9, 2010tags: NASA, Endeavour, International Space Station, spaceship launch, STS-130,Kennedy Space Center, space exploration, physics, astronomy, engineering, streaming video
Space shuttle Endeavour, carrying Commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Bob Behnken, Steve Robinson and Kay Hire, successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the early hours of February 8, headed for its 13-day STS-130 mission to the International Space Station.
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: environment, education, conservation,animal welfare, dancing bears, India, sloth bear, Kartick Satyanarayan, TEDTalks, streaming video
Traditionally, the Kalandar community of India has survived by capturing sloth bear cubs and training them to "dance" through extreme cruelty. Kartick Satyanarayan has been able to put an end to this centuries-old practice, and in so doing discovered a lesson of wider significance: make the practitioners part of the solution.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is just one week away and it is still seeking submissions! Can you help by sending URLs for well-written blog essays to me?
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days.
The most recent edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: evolutionary biology, molecular biology, Thoroughbred race horses, horses, aerobic capacity, muscle development, myostatin, MSTN, myostatin-suppressing C variant, myostatin-suppressing T variant, Horse Genome Project, Equinome, researchblogging.org, peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper
Emerging from the mist is Rachel Alexandra, a champion American Thoroughbred who excels at winning both long and short distance races.
Image: Rob Carr, 2009, Associated Press [larger view]
If you've worked at or been around a racetrack very much, as I have, you'll quickly realize that everyone…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: Eagle Hawk, Gopher Hawk, Squirrel Hawk, Ferruginous Rough-legged Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, Buteo regalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Ferruginous Hawk, also known by a variety of other common names such as Eagle Hawk, Gopher Hawk, Squirrel Hawk or Ferruginous Rough-legged Hawk, Buteo regalis, photographed in Lyman County, South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 17 January 2010 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase photographs from this photographer. I am happy to email his contact information to you.
Canon 50D, 400…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: Parisian Love, long-distance relationship, Google, Superbowl Ad, streaming video
The one nice thing about the StuporBowl is the ads that are aired during the game. Well, some of the ads that are aired .. most of the 2010 StuporBowl ads were really stupid, but this one, by Google, was quite nice. In this ad, an American finds true love in Paris, France. The ad was really nice because it shows what Google is about, and it tells a sweet story. Congratulations on the superb ad! Way to go, Google!
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010tags: gay adoption, United States, equality, religion, children, religion, hypocrisy, Dan+Savage, streaming video
Unlike straight parents, gay parents cannot go out one night, get drunk and adopt. Unlike straight parents, gay parents have children because they are wanted and planned for. Certainly this was the situation for my (straight) so-called parents, who not only didn't plan for me and didn't want me, but they were horribly abusive and neglectful after I was born, and after they'd finished trying to destroy me, they gave me up to the state when I was a teen-ager. I would love to have…
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010tags: Jackson's Widowbird, Euplectes jacksoni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Jackson's Widowbird, Euplectes jacksoni, photographed in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 600 x 1.4, ISO 320, f/5.6, 1/800 sec.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is almost here once more and it is still seeking submissions for next Monday's edition of this blog carnival! Can you help by sending URLs for well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me?
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere…
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010tags: religion, cults, humor, funny, silly, hypocrisy, Edward Current, streaming video
"I just found out that my favorite YouTuber for Christ is actually a godless atheist God-mocker. Blocked!"
grrlscientist | February 6, 2010tags: religion, cults, humor, funny, silly, weird, Ali G, streaming video
Ali G talks to religious wingnuts about their beliefs .. oddly, religious wingnuts don't like talking about aspects of their own religion that offend them .. if their religion and its real-life applications are so offensive, why believe all that wingnuttery in the first place?
grrlscientist | February 6, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is less than two weeks away and it is seeking submissions! Can you help by sending URLs for well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me?
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days.
The…
grrlscientist | February 6, 2010tags: Lesser Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lesser Striped Swallow, sometimes also known as the Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, photographed in the Mikumi National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300s, 600 mm lens with 1.4 extender, ISO 500, f/7.1 1/640 sec. Exp compensation +1.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 6, 2010tags: weather, humor, funny, silly, weird, Jim Kosek, meterology, streaming video
AccuWeather.com forecast video for the coming Snowpocalypse in the DC/Baltimore area shows meteorologist Jim Kosek freaking out a little about the storm. Oh boy.
grrlscientist | February 5, 2010tags: Ode to Joy, humor, funny, silly, weird, Beaker, The Muppets, streaming video
Ode to Joy, as performed by that strange little Muppet, Beaker;
grrlscientist | February 5, 2010tags: evolutionary biology, paleontology, taphonomy, plumage color, feathers, color, melanin, eumelanin, phaeomelanin, dinosaurs, theropod, paravian, avialae, fossils, Anchiornis huxleyi, ornithology, birds, researchblogging.org,peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper
New research reveals that recently-described 155-million-year-old Anchiornis huxleyi,
a woodpecker-like dinosaur the size of a modern-day domesticated chicken,
had black-and-white spangled wings and a rusty red crown.
Image: Michael DiGiorgio, Yale University [larger view]
Fig. 4. Reconstruction of the plumage color of…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2010tags: Cape Widow, Cape Bishop, Yellow-rumped Widow, Yellow Bishop, Euplectes capensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Yellow Bishop, also known as the Cape Widow, Cape Bishop, or the Yellow-rumped Widow, Euplectes capensis, photographed in the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 5, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is less than two weeks away and it is seeking submissions! Can you help by sending URLs for well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me?
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days.
The…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2010tags: A Brief History of the United States of America, humor, funny,comedy, African-Americans, Black Americans, guns, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, NRA, National Rifle Association, racism, streaming video
This video explains the intimate relationship between guns, freedom and racism. Yes, I know there are exceptions to this guns-freedom-racism link, but I grew up among morons like this, and I couldn't escape from their festering hatred fast enough.