grrlscientist | August 17, 2009The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 3831 - 1661 - 1394 - 1147 - 1113 out of 491 candidates registered. I am now in third place, and sloooowly creeping up on second place. But I need your votes more than ever to recapture first place, so please ask your friends and relatives to vote for me now!
If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about it for the public on a blog. Here is my 300-…
grrlscientist | August 17, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
A closer look at one of the buildings overlooking the town square.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
I couldn't help myself but to imagine what it might feel like to live in one of these apartments that overlook the town square.
grrlscientist | August 17, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Town Square.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
Walking through the town square made me feel transported back in time to the middle ages, a time that I view as being very mysterious. Except for the modern clothing, it seems that this scene has taken place a million times or more just as you see it here.
Town Square.
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
grrlscientist | August 17, 2009Since I have recently developed quite a history of visiting cold and snowy places, often during the winter, I wish to preserve that tradition. I am competing for the opportunity to go to Antarctica in February 2010 -- a dream adventure that I've always wanted to pursue (and almost did pursue when I was an undergraduate researching Fin Whales and Crabeater Seals at the University of Washington). To enter, all candidates must publish a picture of themselves and write an essay explaining why we think we are the best choice, and solicit votes from the public. Whomever receives the most votes wins…
grrlscientist | August 17, 2009tags: Short-billed Dowitcher, Limnodromus griseus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Probable Short-billed Dowitcher, Limnodromus griseus, remains were fairly close to a busy industrial road northern Alberta (roughly 300 km northeast of Edmonton) Canada. [short of microscopic examination of these feathers or DNA analysis, this bird will probably never be definitively identified, sorry]
Image: Marcel Gahbauer, August 2009 [larger view].
Scanned, not photographed.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
The collector writes;
The location of…
grrlscientist | August 17, 2009The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 3823 - 1634 - 1374 - 1128 - 1113 out of 486 candidates registered. I am now in third place, and sloooowly creeping up on second place. But I need your votes more than ever to recapture first place, so please ask your friends and relatives to vote for me now!
If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about it for the public on a blog. Here is my 300-…
grrlscientist | August 17, 2009tags: How DNA is Replicated in a Living Cell, biology, molecular biology, DNA, streaming video
I still remember when I learned how DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) replication occurs, and it was like a lightning bolt from the sky: it changed my view of the world and a molecular biologist was born. This video uses the latest research to create an animation of how DNA is replicated in a living cell [1:54]
DNA replication is a fundamental process underlying biological inheritance that occurs in all living organisms to accurately copy their DNA. This process occurs through a "semiconservative"…
grrlscientist | August 16, 2009tags: 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 | August 16, 2009
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 a 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. To send your submissions to Scientia Pro Publica, either use this automated submission form or use the cute little widget on the right (sometimes that widget doesn't upload when the mother site is sick). Be sure to include the URL or "…
grrlscientist | August 16, 2009tags: Fledgling American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Fledgling American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, photographed at Bear River Bird Refuge in Utah. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 27 July 2009 [larger view]
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L lens.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 16, 2009tags: Faith Is Retarded, religion, faith, delusion, streaming video
Clearly Christianity, as with all religions, has been a necessary cog in the machinery of human social evolution. But it is a crutch that we no longer need. It is time for us to move past this primitive mindset and into a world based on reason and logic. [5:50]
grrlscientist | August 16, 2009tags: The Most Amazing Bible Passages Ever, humor, funny, Edward Current, streaming video
In this video, Edward Current shares his favorite Bible verses to recite for nonbelievers who just don't get it -- especially when the going gets tough. [5:03]
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 3809 - 1624 - 1358 - 1121 - 1113 out of 486 candidates registered. I am now in third place (the second place candidate mysteriously disappeared from contention sometime yesterday). But I need your votes more than ever to recapture first place, so please ask your friends and relatives to vote for me now!
If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about…
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities
Angles
Photographed in Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia.
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
Even though this is not a great picture for many reasons, I really like the angles and the contrasting shapes in this image. It would probably work better as a surreal painting than as a photograph, so I like to think of this image as a "working idea" rather than an actual "good photograph."
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009It is rare when I manage to break my own blog. Like most people, I have managed to break my blog by doing truly stupid things like deleting the main template, for example, but I've never managed to break it by adding a plugin to Firefox, so this is the reason I mention it here: so no one else will do the same thing I did and then find themselves dead in the water for a couple days as a result.
The Sage-Too plugin -- an RSS blog and newsreader -- was the culprit. The strange thing is that adding this plugin not only destroyed my ability to publish blog entries using Firefox, but it also…
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009tags: Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Common Moorhen chick, Gallinula chloropus, photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 9 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 3806 - 1614 - 1349 - 1116 - 1113 out of 484 candidates registered. I am now in third place (the second place candidate mysteriously disappeared from contention sometime yesterday). But I need your votes more than ever to recapture first place, so please ask your friends and relatives to vote for me now!
If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about…
grrlscientist | August 15, 2009tags: TEDTalks, laptops, future success, Nicholas Negroponte, streaming video
(TED follows Nicholas Negroponte to Colombia as he delivers laptops inside territory once controlled by guerrillas. His partner? Colombia's Defense Department, who see One Laptop per Child as an investment in the region. This project will have a bigger and more lasting effect on the damages created by poverty, destitution, crime and violence in the world than any other single thing I can think of -- how about you? [6:31]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference,…
grrlscientist | August 14, 2009My blog has been experiencing some sort of identity crisis, the nature of which is still being worked on. But it appears that I can once again post entries, although I can do so only very slowly -- saving each change (title, text boxes, etc) one-at-a-time. The mystery birds and other entries that I schedule for you will return tomorrow, hopefully. I will be tweeting and sending these new entries to newsfeeds, so if you don't automatically check here, that's where notification will appear.