Hedwig Pöllöläinen
grrlscientist
Posts by this author
tags: dateline, parody, humor, to catch a predator, streaming video
This amusing parody of a scene in Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" TV show was banned, and so, it will make you laugh. Lesson learned? Make sure the predator isn't wearing Nikes [1:06]
tags: Harry Potter, collegiate Quidditch teams, JK Rowling
Quidditch balls, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
There is a new sport to be found on college campuses this year; Quidditch. Yes, you read that correctly! This is an earth-bound replica of the airbourne game invented by JK Rowling…
I was browsing the NYTimes list of the 100 notable books of 2007 and was surprised to note that only one science book is included on that list! This is even more amazing when you realize that Natalie Angier, who wrote The Canon (a book that I reviewed but didn't like), was not even included in the…
tags: crow, kitten, unlikely friends, streaming video
This is a story that I've linked to before, but the video is new since then; it tells the story of a wild crow that befriended a motherless kitten, fed and protected it and now that the kitten (now more a cat than a kitten) has found a home with…
tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Swainson's Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, in flight.
Image: Justawriter [wallpaper size].
People Hurting Birds
An extremely rare lesser spotted eagle, shot earlier this year by dumbass human hunters on the island of Malta, has…
tags: star wars, star trek, lego, streaming video
This is an amusing fan-flick using starships made from legos, showing a battle between the starship enterprise and the x-wing fights from star wars [3:16]
tags: Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, birds, NYC, Central Park, Image of the Day
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [wallpaper size].
tags: Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, birds, Image of the Day
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [wallpaper size].
The photographer writes: On November 18, you posted an image of a male English (House) Sparrow. "Albatrosity", an astute parrot pal commentator, noted that the black…
tags: housecat, pets, birth defect, Lil'Bit
Do you notice anything strange about the cat in the photo? At first, I didn't believe this .. er, cat .. was alive, instead of being the product of a zit-faced basement-dwelling photoshop prankster with too much time on his hairy-palmed hands. But…
tags: sanderling, Calidris alba, birds, Image of the Day
Sanderling, Calidris alba, in the early morning light on Thanksgiving Day.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [wallpaper size].
The photographer writes: A sanderling, taken on the beach at Bald Head Island this morning. The fact that this…
tags: hawk-headed parrot, red-fan parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus, clicker training, streaming video
As some of you know, I recently added a four-month-old hawk-headed (red-fan) parrot, Deroptyus a. accipitrinus, to my household. I plan to learn how to clicker-train this bird (I already have the…
tags: thanksgiving, holidaze
Now that I finally have a wifi connection tonight (it disappeared yesterday afternoon, boohoo), I discovered that a reader sent this e-card to me, so I thought I'd share it with all of you.
Image: orphaned.
tags: dinosaurs, movie magic, streaming video
This interesting time-lapse streaming video shows how the movie industry built some amazingly realistic life-sized dinosaurs [shockwave: 3:50]
tags: dragonfly, Orthemis ferruginea, rosease skimmer, Image of the Day
Male Roseate Skimmer, Orthemis ferruginea, November 2007.
Image: Biosparite [larger view]
tags: star trek, blu-ray phaser, streaming video
Hack a Playstation 3 blu-ray laser and turn the Star Trek Phaser into a Blu-Ray Laser Phaser! First time in the world this has ever been done! Less than$100 [1:27].
Blu-Ray Laser Phaser!
tags: Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, birds, Image of the Day
Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis.
Image: Justawriter [larger view].
A very photogenic red-tailed hawk. North Dakota has become something of a haven for raptors. I never saw a bald eagle until seven years ago. Now they are so…
tags: mouse party, drugs, drug mechanisms, illegal drugs, video game, educational tool
Now that the school year has started again, I think it is worthwhile to repeat an earlier blog entry where I linked to a really interesting interactive game, called Mouse Party. This interactive game is a…
tags: cats, jenna, swimming cat, streaming video
This streaming video shows a half-grown cat, named Jenna, playing with water -- in a bathtub! [1:44]
The fourth edition of the new Natural Sciences Blog Carnival is now available for you to read and enjoy. They saw fit to include a few pieces that I wrote -- considering that I have felt very discouraged and depressed this past month (terminal unemployment combined with lots of job rejections can…
tags: Swainson's Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, birds, Image of the Day
Swainson's Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, in flight.
Image: Justawriter [wallpaper size].
tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Black-necked weaver, Ploceus nigricollis.
Image: Basia Kruszewska, author of India Ink. [Wallpaper size]
Birds in Research
A native Hawaiian bird has surprised researchers with its ability to survive malaria, apparently…
tags: cats, kizzy, cat does dog tricks, streaming video
This is a video showing the amazing Kizzy, an eight-year-old bengal cat that does tricks as well as any dog does [2:03]
Those of you who have been unemployed realize that businesses are always trying to figure out another way to punish you for committing the crime of being unemployed while not being wealthy, but hey, this has got to be the worst: one of our elected congresscritters is working on another way to…
tags: house sparrow, Passer domesticus, birds, Image of the Day
House sparrow, Passer domesticus, which I usually refer to as an English Sparrow, in honor of where it originally came from. This is a young male that lives in Central Park, NYC.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [larger view…
This story reminds me of those days not so long ago when I was teaching molecular biology to a small group of motivated and talented high school sophomores and juniors. Basically, a group of high school biotechnology seniors from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, California, were…
Image: orphaned.
It seems that I am really having some strange but memorable Thanksgiving holidays in NYC. For example, since I arrived in NYC, I spent my first three Thanksgivings at a local natural history museum (whose name I am not allowed to mention on my blog) where I was employed as a…
One of my readers, who shall remain anonymous, recently purchased the 2006 book, Chosen by a Horse, by Susan Richards, for me. I loved that book so much that I reviewed it on my blog (I usually only review new books, and almost all of the books that I review are sent to me by either the publisher's…
tags: white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, birds, Image of the Day
White-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, in the central valley of California.
Image: Madhu [larger view].
tags: song sparrow, Melospiza melodia, birds, Image of the Day
A friend who is a professor of Biology at KSU sent me a bunch of lovely images of sparrows that he took recently while birding. The song sparrow is one of the species that I studied for my dissertation work, although most of my…
tags: hawk-headed parrot, red-fan parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus, clicker training, streaming video
As some of you know, I recently added a four-month-old hawk-headed (red-fan) parrot, Deroptyus a. accipitrinus, to my household. I plan to learn how to clicker-train this bird (I already have the…