Nov 6, 20070
great headline: “Eye Ointment Can Cure Frog Fungusâ€
also a nice find, that will help save amphibians: Eye Ointment Can Cure Frog Fungus
Nov 4, 20070
First Chimp to Sign Dies
if i had known that i was two blocks away when i visted friends in ellensburg, i’d have insisted on going to visit her:
A female chimpanzee believed to be the first nonhuman to acquire human language has died of natural causes at the Washington State research institute where she was kept.
Washoe, who first learned a bit of American Sign Language during a research project in Nevada, had been living on Central Washington University’s Ellensburg campus since 1980. She had a vocabulary of about 250 words.
Nov 3, 20072
Laika, first dog in orbit – Yahoo! News
Just nine days before the launch, Doctor Vladimir Yazdovsky chose one of them — 2-year-old Laika — for the mission.
Stories about how she was chosen vary. Some say Laika was chosen for her good looks — a Soviet space pioneer had to be photogenic. Others say space doctors simply had a soft spot for Laika’s main rival and didn’t want to see her die: Since there was no way to design a re-entry vehicle in time for the launch, the glory of making space history also meant a certain death.
“Laika was quiet and charming,†Yazdovsky wrote in his book chronicling the story of Soviet space medicine. He recalled that before heading to the launchpad, he took the dog home to play with his children.
“I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live,†Yazdovsky said.
Oct 11, 20070
black dogs
my family is fond of black dogs
trogdor turned five this year, and he’s turned into an almost perfect dog. he gets a little testy with j2, but is learning to be more patient with his (too hard) hugs, and j2 is learning trog’s quirks and how to not trigger a growl.
chandler, who is, yes, named after friends is my parents dog. he is, in a word, pathetic. he has to be around people, all the time.
gwyneth is nine (9!) now and she’s looking like an old lady, but is still the most obedient dog in the world.
Oct 2, 20070
10,000 Wildebeest Drown in Migration “Pileupâ€
In a bizarre mishap that conservationists describe as “heartbreaking,†an estimated 10,000 wildebeest have drowned while attempting to cross Kenya’s Mara River during an annual migration.
The deaths, which occurred over the course of several days last week, are said to account for about one percent of the total species population.
The drownings created a grotesque wildlife pileup, after part of the migrating herd tried to ford the Mara at “a particularly treacherous crossing point,†according to Terilyn Lemaire, a conservation worker with the Mara Conservancy who witnessed the incident.
10,000 Wildebeest Drown in Migration “Pileupâ€
Technorati Tags: drowning, nationalgeographic, nature, wildebeest
Sep 30, 20070
one ugly monkey revisited
the phrase “one. ugly. monkey.†generates quite a bit of traffic to this blog, and this photo has over 19,000 views at my flickr account.
so i thought i would take the time to use this platform to point out that this ugly little guy is one of the most endangered creatures on earth.
he is an aye-aye, a sort of lemur who lives, like all lemurs, only on madacascar.
i first learned about the aye-ayes in douglas adams’ amazing book last chance to see.
“Last Chance to See†(Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine)
this book gave me my interest in endangered animals, and ultimately led to my fascination with evolution and how this amazing universe works.
i highly recommend that everyone read it, or better yet, listen to the book on tape, like i do.
well, MP3. i could be persuaded to let friends borrow my last chance to see CDs if they wish to hear the book on tape.
or something could be worked out.
if you are the kind of person that likes watching discovery channel, you owe it to yourself to read or listen to this book.
Technorati Tags: aye-aye, biology, douglasadams, evolution, lastchancetosee
Jun 13, 20070
humans finally off 115 year old whale
The bomb lance fragment, lodged a bone between the whale’s neck and shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time, Bockstoce said.
It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890. The small metal cylinder was filled with explosives fitted with a time-delay fuse so it would explode seconds after it was shot into the whale. The bomb lance was meant to kill the whale immediately and prevent it from escaping.
The device exploded and probably injured the whale, Bockstoce said.
“It probably hurt the whale, or annoyed him, but it hit him in a non-lethal place,” he said. “He couldn’t have been that bothered if he lived for another 100 years.”
The whale harkens back to far different era. If 130 years old, it would have been born in 1877, the year Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president, when federal Reconstruction troops withdrew from the South and when Thomas Edison unveiled his newest invention, the phonograph.
The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting.
19th-century weapon found in whale – Yahoo! News
humans: 2,406,302,123
whales: 1
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