grrlscientist

tags: Harry Potter, computers Those of you who love Harry Potter might be deceived into downloading a worm onto your computer via infected USB memory drives. If users plug these drives into their Windows PCs, they are liable to infect their machines with the appropriately named Hairy-A worm.…

tags: teratornis, Argentavis magnificens, birds, ornithology, giant bird Dr. Kenneth E. Campbell, (one of the discoverers) in front of the 25 ft. wingspan Argentavis magnificens. Display from the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles. The feather size from such a bird is estimated to have been 1.5…

tags: employment, urban dictionary, modern euphemisms As our workforce has become increasingly hostile towards the very workers that it depends upon and our world at large has become hostile to the very idea of individuality, there have been new words developed that hide the true function of those…

tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter I don't want you to worry, but I did not work on Birds in the News this weekend. I know, I am bad (bad bad bad), but considering how little traffic I have this week, it seems best to postpone BITN until next week!

tags: blog carnival, writing The 247th issue of Carnival of the Vanities is now available for your reading pleasure. This blog carnival focuses on the very best writing published recently on a blog, regardless of topic. I am pleased to report that they selected a submission from me to be included…

This rating, oddly, is because I used these words (to answer my previous question, no it does not seem to pick up words below the fold); sexy (7x) ass (6x) poop (5x) porn (4x) Well, now that I have forever ruined any remote chance that I might have had to become gainfully employed (ho-hum), I am…

This rating is because I used these very dangerous words; sexy (6x) ass (5x) poop (4x) Okay, let's see if it picks up nasty words that appear below the fold; sex xxx handcuffs whips dominatrix

I have a boring rating because I only use these very scary words; hell (4x) dangerous (2x) sexy (1x) Dangerous?? I can't help it, I am compelled to try to raise my rating to something more respectable; porn porn porn porn poop poop poop poop boobs boobs boobs boobs ass ass ass ass ass naughty…

tags: oceanography, plastic bathtub toys, duckies Have you seen one of these duckies? (May be bleached white by now). If so, please report your find to researcher, Curtis Ebbesmeyer. Image: Simon de Bruxelles. If you live in Great Britain, you could earn a £50 (US$100) reward if you find a…

tags: blog carnival, birds, birding, ornithology The 52nd edition of I and the Bird blog carnival is now available for your reading pleasure. As usual, they included one (and only one) of my many submissions, along with lots of other essays that you are sure to enjoy.

tags: book review, birds, birding, ornithology Gulls are found nearly everywhere, from their usual haunts on the shorelines of oceans, lakes and rivers, to newly tilled fields, garbage dumps and sewage treatment plants. Due to their ubiquity, they are popular among birdwatchers, but gulls are often…

tags: vocabulary, online quiz I did well on this quiz -- how about you? How did you score? Your Vocabulary Score: A Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person. How's Your Vocabulary?

tags: Mika Brzezinski, news, Paris Hilton, streaming video MSNBC's news anchor, Mika Brzezinski, refuses to report on the Paris Hilton story on the Morning Joe show, even though her bosses made it the lead story -- against her wishes. Perhaps more people in the media & news outlets should…

tags: blog carnival, medicine The June issue of All Things Medical blog carnival is now available for you to enjoy. They included several pieces that I wrote, so this is good. So be sure to go over there and give them some support!

Okay, a frequent commenter on my blog, Bob O'Hara, has started writing his own wonderful blog, called deep thoughts and silliness. Bob is an English statistician who lives in Finland. So far, he has made a great start because he wrote a fun entry about using statistics to predict the number of…

tags: Icadyptes salasi, giant penguin, ornithology, birds, avian Two fossils recently discovered in Peru reveal that early penguins responded differently to natural climate change than scientists would have predicted. The larger skull, Icadyptes salasi (top), would have been fearsome to encounter…

tags: Scientific American, free magazine The July issue of Scientific American is avilable for download as a PDF for free. They are introducing an appealingly bright, colorful design and open layout along with deeper changes in content that make the magazine an even more valuable resource for…

tags: hell, humor, streaming video This streaming video is Rowan Atkinson's sketch about the Devil Welcoming People to Hell [3:04]

tags: blog carnival, books The 4th edition of the Festival of Good Books is now available. They were so kind as to include a piece that I wrote in their round-up.

tags: blog carnival, life The most recent installment of the Observations on Life blog carnival has been published. They were so kind as to include one of my pieces along with their other links that you will enjoy.

tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter Lark Bunting, Calamospiza melanocorys -- the official state bird of Colorado. Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU. [larger] People Hurting Birds The number of birds of prey poisoned illegally in Scotland rose to a record high last…

tags: microwave science, humor, streaming video This week's science experiment while drunk asks what happens when you light a match, place a glass over it, and then microwave it? [1:03]

Some days, we learn too much about everything that we prostitute so we can have a wee bit of belonging and meaning in our lives. Today has been one of those days for me; Fast Car by Tracy Chapman You got a fast car I want a ticket to anywhere Maybe we make a deal Maybe together we can get somewhere…

tags: online quiz How about you? You Should Learn French C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs. You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up... What Language Should You Learn?

tags: employment, science, math, engineering, streaming video Why would any sane and intelligent American even consider getting a college education in science or math when it can mean months or years of unemployment or underemployment? I mean seriously, large corporations are hiring H1-Bs instead…

tags: We, two-headed snake, reptile, World Aquarium Leonard Sonnenschein, president of the World Aquarium in St. Louis, holds We, a two-headed albino rat snake. The snake came to the aquarium's attention when its previous owner distributed a circular offering it for sale days after its birth. The…

tags: cancer, liposarcoma, trabectedin, Ecteinascidia turbinata, sea squirt A toxin derived from a humble sea squirt, Ecteinascidia turbinata (pictured, right), shows great promise as an anti-cancer drug. This toxin, known as trabectedin (ecteinascidinin-743), shrinks and even completely removes…

tags: seal, Image of the Day Orphaned image. Can you ID this species?

tags: cat, cat chat, streaming video This sweet kitty, named Tiggy, is quite talkative. In this streaming video, she is looking for her people, using auditory cues. Awww ...

tags: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, humor, streaming video No matter what you haters say, I think that Hillary does have a sense of humor. Not bad, considering that she's the front-runner in that most deadly-serious of American hobbies; running for president of the United States [1:35]