Friday, September 12, 2008

Links & More-- (Mostly Bio Stuff)

Glad to know Matt weathered this storm-- let's hope they do as well in the coming one(s).

Reid is up to his ass in metaphorical alligators but is well and we hope for his return soon.I am now writing three more (long) chapters for my at- some- time- to- be- revealed project that has been consuming my time since April. I am being neurotically perfectionist about it. I must. The hawk was briefly in the air but the truck has been broken down all week which gets in the way of that. Fall and first frost feel imminent.

Stingray has new tattoos of deep- sea life. (There are also internal links to LabRat's Neotropical wildlife.) On their main page is Stingray's eloquent INFORMED dismantling of the Large Hadron Collector's doomsayers.

Wildlife: Carel Brest van Kempen does a takedown of the WSJ piece I linked to earlier on Komodo dragons. Carel knows more about them than most-- has been there and done the science, and some of the things they said are just flat untrue. I expect better of the WSJ. Nice pic of Carel with a dragon too!

More cheetahs.

And other cats. I thought this was satirical and would end in carnage, but it is actually rather heart- warming, though as they say don't try this at home. The white- bearded guy is George Adamson so it is old. Remember, lions ATE his famous wife.

How to give cats (and dogs) their pills.

At the NYT, my favorite bio- journalist, Carl Zimmer, tells us how invaders may actually increase biodiversity. John Haskell--- if you are out there, check in on this!

From IndigoGlyph at Chalk on Water comes this BBC radio program on New Guinea singing dogs. As I told him, this is more than relevant to my current project.

Walter Hingley gave this link to a YouTube of a robot "dog". It is fascinating but it creeps me out too-- the giant housefly sound effects and its headlessness make it more resemble an enormous alien insect. I sort of wanted a huge flyswatter.

More soon...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Turned out Joy Adamson wasn't killed by lions but murdered by a former employee.

See Wikipedia for details. I remember when the first account came out and then when the man was arrested.

Steve Bodio said...

Thanks, mouseworks-- I was winging it. Do you remember what happened to George?

Good video though.

R Francis said...

Steve did you hear the BBC Report on the RSPCA pulling out of Crufts because of dangerous inbreeding in pedigree dogs?
Here is a text link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7610000/newsid_7616800/7616873.stm
Now for the ASPCA....?

Unknown said...

Very interesting..the Fringe Science robotics but I came to this the usual parody
K
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNGx2uLA2nc&feature=related

Anonymous said...

Steve Bodio--were you asking what happened to George Adamson? Sadly, he was killed by humans, too. Some "shifta" terrorists tried to stop him and a student helper on a road in the bush--George was having none of that, and hit the gas and tried to blow past them, but the thugs had automatic weapons, and killed them both. I actually found George's book MUCH better than Joy's, about his many adventures in Africa--titled "Living With Lions" or something like that. He was an amazing guy.....L.B.

Karen Carroll said...

Study that falconry techniques improve survival of peregrine falcons and brown goshawks.

From the Journal of Avian Medicine & Surgery: March 2006.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1647/1082-6742(2006)20%5B15%3AFLAADF%5D2.0.CO%3B

Falconers have always known this, There is now independent confirmation.