Just saw this, and wanted to share: there is a new world record for the largest dance done by a group of mascots. And of course it was done in Japan.
It seems that 141 regional and town representatives got together to try to break the record for synchronized dancing by mascots. Not sure if there’s a specific category for kawaii mascots, but… The full explanation is here.
I’m sad to say that I didn’t see Niigata’s lovable soybean-based mascots in the video, but I think I caught a glimpse of Sento-kun!
A New Zealand biologist has described a new species of hitherto unknown (to science, at least) flightless bird! What’s most surprising is that this species in from North America, and still exists today!
We made a moderately unplanned visit yesterday to the Bell Library at the University of Minnesota, which specializes in books, manuscripts, and maps before 1800. They have an extensive map collection, focusing on travel and trade- so a lot of maps from the “age of exploration.” Since we didn’t plan this trip ahead (it was a spontaneous suggestion of my Dad’s), we didn’t have any serious research in mind…
At any rate, they have quite a few old astronomy texts, as well as other natural history types of things. For me, the fun part was being able to read a 1st American edition of Origin of Species, printed in New York in 1860! (The larger library of which the Bell collection is a part has “newer” works like this one.)
Title page of the NY edition.
Since I’ve been reading this book in recent months for my metaphor project, it was pretty cool to see it in its original form. I got to play with the fold-out map, which was actually located on a different page than in the 1859 London edition. I’m not sure of the reason for that. Also, I feel there just aren’t enough fold-out maps in books nowadays- especially science books!
I had fun paging through the text and looking for various passages. It was especially cool to read the final “tangled bank” paragraph, which is quite poetic.
No, I did not take any photos of me reading it! Although I could have. I just never think of these things in time…
I’ve just realized that we have a travel style that can probably be described as eclectic. Or maybe simply geeky in a sciencey way, with a twist of highbrow culture and finding good vegetarian food.
We’ve visited the La Brea Tar Pits (fossils), Vasquez Rocks (no Gorns, but lots of White-Headed Sparrows), Westminster Abbey (dead scientists, and a few kings & queens too), and the ancient tombs at Gamla Uppsala (dead Vikings).
Vasquez Rocks.
We’ve hunted for mud volcanoes near the Salton Sea (and failed), endangered Palilas on Mauna Kea (and succeeded), and the tomb of Anders Celsius in Uppsala (actually, we came across this one quite unexpectedly).
One of the Salton Buttes, a lava dome generally near the mud volcanoes. (Y. Fernandez)
Meridian (and gnomon) in the Basilica de Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. (Y. Fernandez)
This summer, we’ll be doing a random tour of the Western Great Lakes region, with possible stops at Effigy Mounds National Monument, the Bell Museum of Natural History, Taliesin, Science Museum of MN, Field Museum, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and Royal Ontario Museum. We’ve sadly concluded that visits to the World’s Largest Ball of Twine and Spam Museum are probably too out of the way, as is the nesting area of the Kirtland’s Warbler. Still undecided on The House on the Rock.
We’re especially looking forward to the ROM, because it’s the place we ordered the “Primeval Predators” toys that became our wedding cake toppers.
Wiwaxia corrugata and Laggania cambria on vegan green tea and adzuki bean cake. (B. Martin)
Any suggestions for other interesting/geeky sights to see in the general areas of southeast MN, south WI, north IL, and Toronto?
Well, today I’d planned to proceed to the next bunny behavior list item and discuss pooping. Which is quite an important bunny activity, as we shall see! However, today continues the very busy trend of this entire week, so I’ll have to delay this critical topic till later…
On today’s menu for me: working on dissertation, trying to get to Titusville and fight traffic for STS-134 launch (final launch of Endeavour) (well, the launch was apparently scrubbed, so that means more time to work on dissertation stuff), then proceeding to downtown Orlando (fighting more traffic) for opera this evening (La Boheme).
On today’s menu for Noe: snack of lettuce, a long nap, then dinner of timothy pellets followed by orchard grass hay, then a nice forehead rub from humans.
I can already tell who will have the more relaxing day!
Via Jessica Palmer, here’s an interesting project: a multimedia essay on ecological mythos, Romanticism and 19th-Century science, filmmaking, and Middle-Earth.
It’s called The Mythoecology of Middle-earth: A report from the Shire, a landscape born of high fantasy, natural science, and geek tourism, by Peter Nowogrodzki, and it’s a virtual cabinet of curiosity (or confection, as Tufte would say) inviting readers to explore connections between natural history, travel, and mythology:
In the century before Tolkien’s birth, the study of nature itself had become the subject of ardent imaginative exploration: The Age of Discovery’s there-and-back conquests uncovered troves of biological data, fodder for the Age of Wonder, in which “Romantic science” strived to imitate poetry—not just describing nature but transforming the world by fundamentally altering our perception of it.
It has birds (eagles, giant: real and mythical), trees (as illustrated by Haeckel, Blake, and the Weta Workshop), meditations on the virtual and the mythology of filmmaking, demands by Maori for respect for indigenous landscapes and by labor unions for better pay.
I’m not sure it has a point, but it creates some interesting juxtapositions.
I just found this via Sociological Images and just had to post it. It’s a “Good Morning America” “Today Show” clip from 1994, in which Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric, and a co-host try to decipher the ‘@’ symbol and explain what the ‘Internet’ is. They eventually have to ask one of the (presumably) tech guys behind the scenes for help.
So you have some context, this sure-to-be-a-classic conversation took place after the January Northridge earthquake in California.
Does this mean the “series of tubes” description is pretty historically recent?
Feb. 3: Looks like this Youtube video has been deleted- hope you got a chance to see it!
Need a special gift for that bunny lover in your life?
I’ll be the first to admit that, with a pet rabbit, I talk about poop a bit more often than normal people do. (Though much less than people with babies do…) I’ve even used rabbit poop as fertilizer (works really well, but can contain grass seeds that will sprout).
However, I’d’ve never thought of this: Silver-plated rabbit poop made into earrings.
Oh, you read that correctly.
These are available fromAlora Designs. (I guess they’ve been sold! But I bet you could request another pair…)
