The Dangers of Working with Woodpeckers

The offender's names have been redacted, but they don't deserve such protection.

More Woodpecker Boxes

A friend read my previous post about artificial nest boxes for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and forwarded the following press release:


Ithaca, NY - The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has taken a note out of the pages of Red-cockaded Woodpecker conservation plans, and have rolled out a new artificial nest cavity, specifically designed to provide nestling habitat for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. This photo shows the new "Giant Pecker Boxes" before they are shipped to the darkest reaches of the southern United States for implementation.

Fear the fuzzy!

What brings people here?

My frequent posting schedule? Ha! (I am in fact working on more posts, just slowly. Got a lot on my plate) Here's a funny little aside that I thought I'd share. A little over a month ago I signed up with Google Analytics to see what new stats I could track about blog visitors. Well, the funniest thing ever is seeing what google searches lead people to my site. Here are the best searches in the past month:

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.5 new species of fish discovered in 2008
all about potamotrygon in indonesia 2009
amazonian river turtle reproduction
are deer mice found in durham, ontario
books of pack of wild dogs rabies
color changing socks
coma and doldrum
cruel
does the alligator snapping turtle have any enemies
dose trout eat snakes
explain the existence of blue snow geese
fresh water stingrays in wv rivers
got milked
gull newfoundland doritos
hairless bat
he is 13 years older than me
horrible fish photos of cayuga lake
in relationship what we have to do
lethal in 8 months i do mean lethal
milked me
mtdna of tuscarora indian
nelson briefer goshawk specialist
oh me oh my oh
platypus, wary paradox
the fields apartment in virginia
the taxonomy name for the death stalker scorpion
trout enemies
varanus dans bloody roar 6
where can i buy loose genes that are a little baggy in the south maine north new hampshire area
who is the best genus
win win biological relationship
youngster gargoyle
your friends says,class insecta is most diversified and biological successful taxa.do u agree with this?give rasons

In reviewing the best searches, I noticed a trend. People seem to enjoy large dead African mammals, but don't seem to know what to do with them. They've repeatedly found my blog using these searches:

dead giraffe
uses for a dead giraffe
rhino meat
rhino meat pictures
where to buy dead rhino meat
what to do with rhino meat
can you eat black rhino meat?

To all of the people who have crossed through my blog using these bizarre searches, I salute you, and I hope you found the answers you were looking for.

I <3 the BBC

I already preferred BBC for the quality of their international reporting, but they just took it to a whole new level. Accompanying a straight-forward article on the Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe's latest abuse of power and his birthday party, they posted a photo of a cake-scarfing Mugabe glaring with evil intent at a very young girl, with the caption "The birthday cake reportedly weighed 85kg (187lb)". The article may be neutral but their opinion is clear. I am totally in love with the BBC.

Source: BBC News: Mugabe vows to seize more farms

Dr. Horrible

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It sounds tacky, but it is truly wonderful. Watch this 40-minute masterpiece here.

Songs of Science

If you need a little study break, like I do every day, here are a few wonderful tunes about Science. (Warning: some are rated R for language)

Richard Dawkins: Beware the Believers
So what if it's viral marketing for Expelled, this video is still funny as hell.

"Still Alive" ~ GLaDOS
This one is from the game Portal, so a lot of the references will go over your head if you haven't played. But I live by the last verse: "Look at me still talking when there is Science to do..."

"Trace Elements" ~ Hard N' Phirm
This one is particularly dirty, but when else are you going to hear a country song about Science?

The PCR Song
I've posted this one before, but it's still amusing.

"Lonely Lab of Broken Hearts" ~ The Arrogant Worms
This is a sweet, funny song, if you want a break from dirtier humor. The video itself is some random unrelated youtube video, just ignore it and listen to the music.

"Creation Science 101" ~ Roy Zimmerman
I had to finish with this...

Euphemism

While checking out the news on msn.com, I saw this on the scrolling banner of headlines:


You can't tell me that's not a euphemism! Look how happy he is!

The best genus name ever

Paleontologists have unearthed a Cretaceous fossil frog from Madagascar that was twice the size of the largest living frog. What did they name it? Beelzebufo. Devil-toad. Kudos to those paleontologists for having the balls to get such a ridiculous name published - I'm still laughing! Unfortunately, the artist's illustration seems to have simply scaled up a modern-day Ceratophrys, the Beelzebufo's most similar modern equivalent.

Update: Pharyngula weighs in with some more info from the actual publication (which I couldn't find on PNAS, guess I didn't look hard enough).

When you need to find the daddy...

It's amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do...

Source of Green Feather Pigments

From the abstract of a paper on a ring species of Phylloscopus warbler in Asia:

These results might provide an explanation as to why some species, such as the greenish warblers (Phylloscopus trochiloides), have phylogeographic breaks in mitochondrial or chloroplast DNA that do not coincide with sudden changes in other traits.

I guess we know why they're greenish now.

Feline Evolution

(Source)

Platypus Paradox

This makes me laugh every time:

This parrot has rhythm

Biochem for hippies

They certainly knew how to make biochemistry fun in the 70's



The description:

Directed in 1971 by Robert Alan Weiss for the Department of Chemistry of Stanford University and imprinted with the "free love" aura of the period, this short film continues to be shown in biology class today. It has since spawn a series of similar funny attempts at vulgarizing protein synthesis. Narrated by Paul Berg, 1980 Nobel prize for Chemistry.


(more)

Bio-nerds and babies

Sometimes I think I lead a normal life, with normal friends. Then I get this email from a professor and it reminds me that I am deep in Bio-nerd land.

[They] are getting close to the moment where they have quantifiable direct fitness -- an event greatly worthy of a collective celebration in our cooperative, group-living species.

The invitation (attached) may be pink, but even those of us with Y-chromosomes are included!

Yes, he was talking about a baby shower.

Me in 10 years?

Source: PhD Comics

Stand back...

(Source: the wonderful XKCD)

Youtube hits of the week

I've got some herping posts I've been working on, but I've been pretty busy and haven't finished them. So, here's a few amusing videos to tide you over:

We need to recruit this kid as a herpetologist:


Panda teamwork:


A neat science experiment. "The reaction is said to be product-favored"... oh, the droll understatements always crack me up :)

Comic

Haven't had time for any new posts recently, and won't until next week, as I'm busy wrapping up the end of the semester and moving. But, here's a comic to hold you over:


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net