Nature
grrlscientist | March 12, 2009tags: Northwestern sweeps the skies, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Luode taivaan luutii.
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | March 11, 2009tags: winterland, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Talvimaa.
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | March 8, 2009tags: fortress, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Suomenlinna.
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | March 7, 2009tags: Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Päivä pääsi kalliosta.
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
Se on seppo Ilmarinen sanan virkkoi, noin nimesi:
"Mitä, lintu, tänne lennit, tulit, kyyhky, kynnykselle?"
Vastasi otus ovelta, virkkoi kyyhky kynnykseltä:
"Tuota lienen kynnyksellä sanomata saattamassa:
jopa kuu kivestä nousi, päivä pääsi kalliosta."
-- Kalevala, Yhdeksäsviidettä runo.
English translation:
"Wherefore…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2009tags: Snow and sun, Aurinko Ja Lumi, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Aurinko Ja Lumi.
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | March 3, 2009tags: Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | March 2, 2009tags: Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Päivä kaunis.
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
"Kuu kulta, kivestä pääsit, päivä kaunis, kalliosta,
nousit kullaisna käkenä, hope'isna kyyhkyläisnä
elollesi entiselle, matkoillesi muinaisille.
"Nouse aina aamusilla tämän päivänki perästä!
Teepä meille terveyttä, siirrä saama saatavihin,
pyytö päähän peukalomme, onni onkemme nenähän!
"Käy nyt tiesi tervehenä,…
grrlscientist | March 1, 2009tags: Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Pohjolan kivimäkehen.
Photographed at Suomenlinna on Kalevalapaäivä (Kalevala Day).
This is one of my favorite places to visit in Helsinki, Finland.
Image: GrrlScientist, 28 February 2009 [larger view].
Kun oli kuun kulettanunna sekä päivän saattanunna
Pohjolan kivimäkehen, rautaisehen kalliohon,
jopa valkean varasti, tulen Väinölän tuvilta:
sai tuvat tulettomaksi, pirtit valkeattomaksi.
Jo oli yö alinomainen, pitkä, pilkkoisen pimeä.
Oli yö Kalevalassa, noilla Väinölän tuvilla
sekä tuolla taivahassa, Ukon ilman…
awild | February 28, 2009
Gnamptogenys mordax, Venezuela.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/13, flash diffused through tracing paper
awild | February 27, 2009
Trichodes ornatus, the ornate checkered beetle. California.
Don't let the pretty colors fool you. Trichodes ornatus, like many checkered beetles, is a fierce predator whose larvae attack the young of wood-boring insects.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS D60
ISO 100, 1/200 sec, f/13, flash diffused through tracing paper.
terrasig | February 27, 2009I've been scarce around these parts and hope to get a Friday Fermentable up before midnight. However, I just wanted to share the following on the last couple of days discussions about Nature Publishing Group's various pronouncements on the importance of science blogging, especially their mention in Nature Methods of ScienceOnline'09, an unconference I co-organized this year with founders and online science visionaries, Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker.
Bora has the main stories and DrugMonkey adds commentary and his own personal experiences.
But leave it to Anton Zuiker to capture the whole…
awild | February 25, 2009
Solenopsis geminata, the tropical fire ant
The latest upload concerns three species in the subfamily myrmicinae that have been traveling about the globe with human commerce. Solenopsis geminata, the tropical fire ant, is the most worrying of these tramps, but the other two, Pheidole moerens and P. obscurithorax, are rather poorly known and probably merit more study than they receive. Click to visit the gallery.
Incidentally, if I'd known at the time that Solenopsis geminata confers hero status on their collectors, I'd defintely have spent more time pointing them out to everyone within…
grrlscientist | February 24, 2009tags: skiing, Saunalahti, Helsinki, Finland, nature, image of the day
Walking on Water.
These crazy people are skiing on the frozen saltwater bay, Saunalahti, western Helsinki, Finland [map].
Image: Bob O'Hara, 22 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 23, 2009tags: Eteläinen Pukkisaari, Saunalahti, Helsinki, Finland, nature, image of the day
Eteläinen Pukkisaari.
This is a very small rock island as photographed from the larger
island, Läntinen Pukkisaari, in western Helsinki, Finland. The tiny
black specs on the white background are people who are walking
on the frozen saltwater bay, Saunalahti [map].
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 22, 2009tags: Seurasaari, nature, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Seurasaaresse ("On Society Island" -- Western Helsinki, Finland).
Image: GrrlScientist, 22 February 2009 [larger view].
awild | February 21, 2009
The port at Mobile, Alabama, photographed from across the bay.
The port city of Mobile, Alabama holds special significance for students of ant science. Jo-anne and I took a weekend trip down to the gulf coast in January, and as we are both myrmecologists we felt compelled to stop and take a few photographs. Not only is Mobile the childhood home of ant guru E. O. Wilson, but the city's docks have been the point of introduction into North America for some notorious pest ants. We'd have neglected our intellectual heritage to just drive through.
Mobile's busy international commerce has…
grrlscientist | February 21, 2009tags: Hietaniemi Hautausmaa, Hietaniemi Cemetery, nature, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
Orthodox portion of Hietaniemi Hautausmaa (Hietaniemi Cemetery).
Image: GrrlScientist, 19 February 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 19, 2009tags: fruiting bodies, fungi, nature, image of the day
Lichen Fruiting Bodies.
Image: Biosparite, 2009 [larger view].
Is this the sporocarp of a basidiomycete or an ascomycete?
The photographer writes;
I photographed these at the Katy Prairie Conservancy Field Office, about 40 miles west of Houston, where the air is clean enough to permit luxuriant growth of lichens. The photo was taken in late afternoon in October 2007.
awild | February 19, 2009
Leptomyrmex rufipes, the red-footed spider ant. Queensland, Australia.
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS D60
ISO 100, 1/200 sec, f/11, flash diffused through tracing paper
denialism | February 17, 2009Dan MacArthur has started a big discussion on whether or not the relationship between IQ and race should be studied. Inspired by a pair of essays for and against the idea it has created a pretty healthy debate among the sciencebloggers including Razib with whom I will likely never agree on this issue. For the record, I'm on the side of those like Richard Nisbett (for a good review of his analysis of race and the black white divide see here PDF) that genetics are a poor explanation for the divide.
But this issue aside, why do I believe this is a still a bad idea to expend resources to…