Manhattanhenge

I'm not sure how this slipped by me for so long, but twice a year (at the end of May and again in mid-July), the sun is perfectly aligned with the east-west street grid of Manhattan. The event happened most recently yesterday, and made for a spectacular sunset at 8:17pm. It was dubbed "Manhattanhenge" by astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Dr. Tyson writes, "What will future civilizations think of Manhattan Island when they dig it up and find a carefully laid out network of streets and avenues? Surely the grid would be presumed to have astronomical significance, just as we have found for the pre-historic circle of large vertical rocks known as Stonehenge, in the Salisbury Plain of England. For Stonehenge, the special day is the summer solstice, when the Sun rises in perfect alignment with several of the stones, signaling the change of season. For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes twice a year. For 2011 they fall on May 30th, and July 12th, when the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan's brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough's grid. A rare and beautiful sight. These two days happen to correspond with Memorial Day and Baseball's All Star break. Future anthropologists might conclude that, via the Sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshiped War and Baseball." Of course, they might be thrown by the fact that a similar alignment occurs at other times of the year in Chicago and Toronto.

1st image) The sun sets down 34th St. as viewed from Park Ave. on July 13, 2007, in a photo taken by astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2nd image set) Manhattanhenge photographed 2007-2009, 3rd image) Looking west along 42nd Street at 8:23pm on July 13, 2006.

Happy Memorial Day!

Do you remember this photograph? Back in May 2009, Army Spc. Zachery Boyd - a 19-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas - did not stop to put his pants and boots on when the Taliban ambushed his fellow platoon members at firebase Restrepo in Afghanistan's Kunar Province (1st image). The world would not have known he wore pink "I love New York" boxer shorts except for Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder embedded with his unit of the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry. Next thing you know, his butt is on the front page of the New York Times (3rd image)! The candid image drew worldwide attention and elicited comment from Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said, “Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage.” Upon his return to Texas on a 4-day pass to visit his family in July 2009, Boyd (2nd image shows his face) said of his fellow soldiers, "They gave me a lot of grief about it, but out there they use anything they can to give a guy some grief." He had actually bought the boxers during a New York layover before deploying and chose pink because he thought his friends would laugh. Imagine the additional teasing Boyd received when they learned that the now-famous pink underwear was to be displayed in the 1st Infantry Division museum at Fort Riley, Kansas!

Rainbow igloo

It came to him in a dream. Daniel Guay is a schoolteacher in Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada (that is his 10th grade social studies class, 4th image). In Fall 2010, he was excited to learn that his wife was pregnant. With thoughts of the new life filling his waking hours, a symbolic structure appeared to him in a dream – an igloo made of many brightly-colored blocks. "The contrast of the vibrant colors against the white snow was incredible," he describes. He was compelled to build the igloo as a celebration and something no one in his small Arctic community had ever seen before or would likely forget.

Dan faced many setbacks, some as a result of his determination to use colored ice, instead of the snow blocks from which a traditional igloo is constructed. Dozens of the 75 tinted ice blocks he would need cracked. Many of the blocks being molded had been accidentally pulled over and destroyed by his dog Kajuq. Others shattered when he attempted to remove them from their molds, or remove imperfections by sponging them with hot water. But by April 2011, Dan had perfected his technique and reached his goal - despite temperatures as low as -47º F. He built the igloo in 3 days (time-lapse video here, with stills above) and set the final blue keystone in place at 2am. It now existed as a metaphor for strength of the whole based on individual parts, the diversity of experiences that he would impart to his coming child, and determination to finish a difficult task.

"The rainbow igloo was finally complete. I placed a light inside, and with elation saw that my dream had come to life. It dawned on me that perhaps most significantly of all, my igloo represented the tiny new person growing contentedly in my partner’s womb, and that in my own small act of creation I had symbolically willed this being into existence. From hidden subconscious and dark womb to tangible, colourful blocks, I felt that my child was ready to be born. And in becoming a father, I am ready to create something truly beautiful, the likes of which the world has never seen before, and which it will never forget," writes Daniel.

Accident in 1882

I met my friend Sue through Sally, who works at the cemetery in town. Sue often walks her dogs there in the morning and noticed a strange marker (pictured):

"IN
MEMORY
OF
ROBERT -
HANNAH
WARBURTON
AND THERE
TWO CHILDREN
PETER, BESSIE
WHO DROWNED
IN FIDDLER
POND MAY
21 - 1882"

Sally explained that the family died accidentally, and Sue loaned me a history of the town, which confirms the details: "A resident who came from England, Robert Warburton, along with his wife and 2 children, drove a horse and wagon to Eustis one day in 1882. Either on the way or coming back the horse, thirsty for refreshment, ran to a small lake, Fiddler's Pond, just north of Mount Dora. But the horse slipped on the bank, plunged into the water, pulled the wagon after him, and the entire family drowned. This event is memorialized in one of the oldest monuments in Pine Forest Cemetery." Sue took me to see the stone several months ago (along with the nesting owls), but it was too overcast for a good photograph. Sally kindly e-mailed this one to me yesterday. And always on the lookout for weird news parallels, I had made a note of a passing bicyclist in Fort Worth, Texas, who stopped to rescue a drowning woman and her 7-year-old daughter from the Trinity River last summer.

Chicago beef

Due to the decline of the meatpacking industry, Chicago no longer qualifies as what poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) called "Hog butcher to the world." Still, the meat must get to the market, which is how a trailer-full of cattle landed in the weird news - and on the highway. On Sunday, the trailer transporting the animals to slaughter tipped over on a Chicago-area overpass and broke apart, causing them to spill out and rain down on the cars below. Kevin Willis, whose car was hit by falling cows, describes his reaction (video here), "I'm like, 'Oh, my God!' and I'm trying to get over, trying to get over and the more I got over, the more the cows came down....The trailer itself was tipping over and dropping these cows out, and the trailer itself was still moving, so it was dropping 'em off from left to right off the freeway so they covered the whole freeway." A loose and angry bull was shot by a police officer, 15 other cows died in the accident, and the remainder were rounded up and taken to a nearby farm.

Even though there is not as much beef being moved through Chicago, you can still get a great steak there. My Mom and I wondered how meat is aged, and why that improves the flavor. Here is the answer, compliments of the century-old Allen Brothers in Bridgeport, Chicago:

• Wet aging The beef is sealed airtight in plastic for about a week,which ages the beef from the inside-out, breaking down the tissues of the meat with its own enzymes and resulting in a sweet taste and tender texture.
• Dry-aging This method is costlier and more time-consuming. The beef rests in conditions of controlled temperature and humidity for an average of 28 days (or as long as 75 days), aging from the outside in. As it loses moisture, it shrinks and forms a crust which has to be cut away. Dry aging intensifies the flavor of the steak, leaving it very pungent, sometimes tangy."

Dry age is almost like a fine wine," remarks Chef Hans Aeschbacher of Smith & Wollensky.

1st image: Carcasses hanging in a Chicago slaughterhouse, awaiting the "disassembly line." 2nd image: Cuts of beef in the dry aging room at David Burke's Primehouse in Chicago.

Look at me

I am a giant water bug (1st image). We are found worldwide. Those of us in the Lethocerinae family are the largest of all (up to 15cm). We have been known to prey upon small vertebrates including fish and frogs. Most recently one of our kind was photographed eating a juvenile Reeve's pond turtle (2nd image) in a ditch next to a rice field in central Japan. The same researcher who observed and recorded the turtle conquest, Dr. Shin-ya Ohba, had already taken a picture of a giant water beetle eating a snake (3rd image). We giant water bugs are known to only attack moving prey, so you can assume that my fellow insect - all 58mm of him - captured and killed the prey in both instances before making a meal of it. And here's how we do so: by gripping it with our powerful front legs and inserting our rostrum (which scientists like to describe as "syringe-like") into the neck. Our venom kills it and then we can feed. I have to say we are proud of our nicknames: toe-biters, electric-light bugs, giant fish killers, and alligator ticks (in Florida). By the way, we can also fly.

St. Vitalis

I couldn't find an image of the right St. Vitalis. Turns out there are 6, most of them martyrs:

• Saint Vitalis of Milan (1st or 2nd c.)
• Saint Vitalis (3rd-4th c.)
• Saint Vitalis (4th c.)
• Saint Vitalis of Gaza (6th-7th c.)
• Saint Vitalis of Savigny (11th c.)
• Saint Vitalis of Assisi (14th c.)

St. Vitalis of Gaza (pictured above) ministered to prostitutes and was killed by a jealous man who misinterpreted his visit to a local brothel. St. Vitalis of Assisi (1295 –1370) was not martyred, but is honored as the patron saint of those suffering from diseases of the genitals. This St. Vitalis did not suffer the chopping block, but will soon face the auction block. His decapitated and skeletonized head will be sold to the highest bidder by Matthews Auction Rooms of Co. Meath, Ireland, next Sunday. "It is strange and it is macabre but it is very interesting object," said Mr Matthews. The relic has been in the possession of a family in Co. Louth. How it ended up in Ireland is unclear, although it may have been acquired in the 19th c. by an Anglo-Irish couple on a "grand tour" of Europe. The head is housed in an ornate Queen Anne case and is expected to fetch between €800 and €1,200.

Branson's brood

Sir Richard Branson announced plans in April to import lemurs to his 120-acre private island in the Caribbean (photo here) to save them from the deforestation that threatens them in their native Madagascar. "Here on Moskito Island we've got a beautiful rainforest - we brought in experts from South Africa, and they say it would be an absolutely perfect place where lemurs can be protected and breed," he said. The idea raised red flags among conservationists, who pointed out that the introduction of non-native species often has unforeseen consequences. They pointed to the example of cane toads released in Australia and fear that the lemurs would devastate the local lizard populations like the non-native brown tree snake has done to the birds of Guam. Scientists described lemurs as "opportunistic predators," so even though they are threatened themselves, they are a threat to native species and are unsuited for the island's habitat. One biologist disagreed, explaining, “Lemurs are extremely soft on the environment. They eat mostly flowers and leaves. That doesn’t mean they’re not opportunistic if they get a chance to grab a fly or a spider.” Still, environmentalists called the plan reckless and risky.

Despite the concerns, the plan was approved by the government of the British Virgin Islands, and was to begin with a shipment of 30 ring-tailed lemurs moved from zoos in Sweden, South Africa, and Canada. 'The debate about the plight of the lemurs and what should be done about them, and whether or not my idea was a good idea or bad idea was certainly an eye-opener to me," Branson said. But after consulting with the world's leading experts on lemurs, he will house them in enclosures rather than allow them to roam free. Branson hopes to provide assurance colonies for several species of lemur should they disappear or become severely depleted in the wild.

1st image) An as yet unnamed lemur born in March at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo receiving a lick from its 1-year-old sister Salina, 2nd image) The same baby riding on the back of its 7-year-old mother Nebbie (short for Nebuchadrezzer), 3rd image) The south end of some ring-tailed lemurs going north, 4th image) Lemurs frolicking with their billionaire benefactor Branson.

Charles Gaal, Jr.

Charles "Chuck" Gaal, Jr.
(1916-2007)

I could have appended this story to American laryngologist Chevalier Jackson in a follow-up, but I decided to give Charles Gaal, Jr., a post of his own. If Jackson were alive to treat him, Gaal might have lived a few years longer. Here's what happened.

Gaal was a U.S. Air Force pilot, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, a piano player, a ham radio operator, father of 2, and a devoted husband for 50 years. Born in New York, the Gaal had been stationed in Germany, Japan, Puerto Rico, and Scotland before settling in Florida. When the 90-year-old had trouble with the dentures in his bottom jaw in October 2006, he sought the help of Winter Park dentist Dr. Wesley Meyers. In the process of installing dental implants, Meyers and his staff dropped a tiny screwdriver down Gaal's throat. A colonoscopy was required to remove the object from his large intestine. Nevertheless, Gaal returned to Meyers in May 2007 when his denture made his mouth sore. This time Meyers dropped a miniature torque wrench down the patient's throat. Although the dentist attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver, x-rays taken later that day at the hospital showed that the wrench had been inhaled and was lodged in his lung. Gaal underwent surgery, but never fully recovered and died the following month.

Meyers was fined a total of $27,000 by the Florida Board of Dentistry and prohibited from performing more dental-implant procedures until he had further training. The 69-year-old, who closed his dental practice of 30 years last summer, voluntarily surrendered his license to the board last week. In 2010, Gaal's son and daughter won a civil judgment against Meyers for an undisclosed amount. They issued a statement through their attorney: "With today's decision, the board has demonstrated that it is committed to protecting the people of Florida and Mr. Gaal's family finds comfort in the fact that his death was not in vain."

Floating

The world didn't end as predicted yesterday. The Rapture (depicted above) did not happen. I was reminded of one of my favorite episodes of "Six Feet Under." A woman sees people floating into the air and thinks the moment has come, so she jumps out of the car she is driving - and is promptly struck and killed. As it turns out, the rising bodies are helium-filled blow-up dolls that have escaped from the bed of a pick-up truck. The plot is based on an urban legend that has circulated since 2001, in which a man dressed as Jesus was bringing the dolls to a costume party.

Among the uses of blow-up dolls - other than for party props or, er, personal pleasure - is as additional passengers to entitle drivers willing to risk being ticketed to travel in the carpool lane on the highway, or to allow women to feel safer driving at night. But my favorite story from the weird news is about the 2 teenagers who swam down the swollen Yarra River in Australia earlier this year. They were buoyed by inflatable dolls, but required rescue. The first responders were not pleased, pointing out that the dolls were "not a recognised flotation device" (click link for delightful photo)!

Jane Todd Crawford

Have I got a doozy for you today! The photograph above is in a slideshow of early medical images of cancer treatment from the Stanley Burns Collection. One of the photos purports to be - but could not have depicted* - Jane Todd Crawford (1763-1842), a wife and mother of 4 when she sought treatment for a large growth in 1809. Her vivid story, however, can be found on-line. The 46-year-old woman (daguerreotype reproduced here) had to ride 60 miles on horseback to reach Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830) in Danville, Kentucky. Dr. McDowell agreed to operate and - before the benefits of anesthesia and antiseptic technique - removed a 22lb ovarian tumor through a 9" incision in 25 minutes. Crawford recovered in about 5 days, and within a matter of weeks got back on her horse and rode home. She lived another 32 years.

Jane Todd Crawford secured lasting fame for Dr. Ephraim McDowell, now considered the father of abdominal surgery. His accomplishments are celebrated in 2 biographies, a United States postage stamp, statues in the U.S. capitol and the Kentucky state capitol, a museum at his home where he performed the historic ovariotomy in 1809, and a monument and park in his hometown. As brave as she was, Crawford's name has been given to the trail she took, and her grave in Graysville, Indiana, is marked.

Weird news afficionados will be well aware that there have been many modern counterparts to this extraordinary case. Here are just a few examples (caution when clicking the links): a 93lb ovarian cyst removed from a 32-year-old woman, a 50lb ovarian cyst removed from a 66-year-old woman, a 42lb ovarian tumor removed from a 57-year-old woman, and a "'voluminous" ovarian cyst removed from a 35-year-old woman.

*I am grateful to the curator of the Ephrain McDowell House Museum for contacting me in Dec. 2011 to point out errors that I have now corrected in this post.

Human ashtray(s)

American sideshow performer Richie Magic (1st image) put Ripley's Times Square Odditorium in a bit of a bind. He was slated to do his act on Monday, May 23rd. That is the day that New York's ban on smoking cigarettes outdoors in the city's 1,700 city parks goes into effect. Magic made headlines in 2009 when he quit smoking on the day he set a world record for extinguishing 200 lit cigarettes in his mouth in the fastest time (6 minutes, 3.7 seconds). He was scheduled to attempt to break his own record and send an anti-smoking message - until Ripley's learned that he had not kicked the habit after all. He attempted to stop smoking after 40 years, but resumed after only 2 months. "We admire Richie for his courageous attempt to bring to light the harmful effects of smoking in such an outrageous fashion. We support Richie in his pursuit for a new world record. However, as Richie is still -- like many others -- battling his addiction to smoking, Ripley's Times Square has decided to cancel the upcoming event," read the prepared statement. If only they had secured London-based Missy Macabre (2nd image), they wouldn't have had to cancel the event...

Zombie timeline

"Zombie got tattoos he
thought would disgust
other people, using
his body to express his
anger and social alienation.
But instead of pushing
others away, his tattoos
drew them to him."
~sociologists Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp

2001
Montreal native Rick Genest (above) gets inked for the 1st time at the age of 16, and eventually - over 3 years and at a cost of several thousand dollars - has 80% of his body tattooed by Frank Lewis to resemble a cadaver.

2008
Taking the stage name "Zombie Boy," Genest (click here for extensive slideshow of color portraits be professional photographer Neville Elder) performs for sideshows - including the one he established, Lucifer's Blasphemous Mad Macabre Torture Carnival - as a geek, a blockhead, and a fire-eater.

2010
Someone creates a Facebook page featuring Genest called "I bet this guy will regret getting this tattoo once he's older!" The Facebook page is seen by Nicola Formichetti, who is both a creative director for fashion designer Thierry Mugler and personal stylist to Lady Gaga. She hires Genest to debut the Autumn/Winter men's collection in Paris. Lady Gaga, who debuted her song "Born This Way" on the same Mugler runway, taps Genest to appear in the video. Genest is then hired to appear on the small and big screens, including a cameo in "47 Ronin," a forthcoming Keanu Reeves film. Offered more work in fashion, Genest explains, "To set the record straight, it was never my intention to become a model."

Future:
Genest would like to have the whites of his eyes tattooed, his teeth filed into points, his tongue split. and his ears removed.

Thanks to my brother-in-law Nicholas for bringing this to my attention.

Weedrobes

"Weedrobes" is the name of a multi-faceted project that Canadian environmental artist Nicole Dextras began in 2005. "Striking a careful balance between style and commentary, the message behind Weedrobes is aimed squarely at the not-always-so-sustainable practices of the fashion industry, while also redefining the perceived immortality of haute couture," writes Kimberley Mok of TreeHugger. Instead of fabric, Dextras' designs are made from materials including wild red rose, willow, hydrangeas, crab apples, kale, rose hips, laurels, thorns, and even invasive species like Japanese knotweed.

The "Camellia Countessa" (be sure to scroll to the right after following link) is based on the 18th c. French Pannier dress, which required turning sideways to fit through the doorway. Dextras constructed it entirely from leaves (yucca, laurel), branches (willow), and flowers (camellia buds and blooms, lilac blossoms). Harvesting the materials from her garden, she taught herself how to work with them, including plaiting together the yucca fronds. Once the dress was finished and modeled (1st image), it was restored to the garden, where it withstood 3 months of rainstorms, wind, and bleaching by the sun. The pinks and purples faded to golden and rusty browns (2nd image).

In her Artist's Statement, Dextras explains that the Weedrobes series plays out in several steps: 1st, constructing the wearable sculpture from local and renewable plant materials; 2nd, photographing the garment being worn in a landscaped urban setting to emphasize the impact of humans on the natural environment; 3rd, allowing the model to interact with passersby in a shopping area to highlight issues about disposable consumer goods; and 4th, installing the garment in a garden or park and letting it decompose over time. The project relates to ecology, culture, and eco-feminism, and draws on the tradition of art in which clothing is an extension of the body.

The artist grew up in her mother’s ladies-clothing store, worked in a non-union sweatshop in her teens, and became a costume designer as an adult. She writes, "The Weedrobes philosophy is based on being a free thinker, creating one’s own sense of style while also raising awareness about the impact of industry on our eco-system. Our most effective tool for change is for consumers to demand more equitable products. It may be impractical to wear clothing made with leaves but our future depends on the creation of garments made from sustainable resources."

Bull in a boutique

Amidst plenty of jokes about a "bull in a China shop," last week's weird news included accounts of a bull in a clothing boutique in Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Brazil. After posing briefly in the front window, the bull - on the loose after a traffic accident - smashed through the plate glass. The bull was lassoed and taken to a local cattle farm. (Story here, video here.)

A couple of years ago, something similar happened at a local supermarket in Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland, but luckily that store had an automatic door! (Story here, video here.)

Beard and Moustache Championships

The World Beard and Moustache Championships was held in Trondheim, Norway, this month. I have declined to post about this biennial contest in the past only because there are so many outrageous entries that I can't narrow them down to a few representative examples! (See slideshows of the world and European contestants from CNN, The Telegraph, and Time.) The officials award 3 prizes in each of 17 categories, in addition to declaring 3 winners overall. The 1st prize winner in 2009 was David Traver from Anchorage, Alaska, whose beard - woven into the shape of a snowshoe (photo here) - represented 20" and 2 1/2 years of growth. After looking at the impressive facial ornamentation of so many entrants, I'm not even certain which category of beards and moustaches I favor. I do know one thing for sure: they require a lot of primping and preening! Burke Kenny, a 2007 winner, revealed that he had nurtured his beard and moustache daily for 4 of his 22 years, scrubbing it with Grandpa's Pine Tar soap, paddle brushing and trimming split ends. His advice: "If you're going to go for it, go big and go for quality."

(1st image, Bernhard Greller examines himself in the mirror; 2nd image, Hans-Peter Weis gets styled; 3rd image, Sigfried Weindl curls his beard); 4th image, Hans Peter Jahn applies hairspray to his moustache; 5th image, Elmar Weisser, several-time beard world champion, gets his beard styled; 6th image, Reinhard Buerker trims his beard.)

Gentlemen?

I always thought the word "gentleman" denoted a man of good behavior, but in fact the definition derives from a man of good breeding. I looked it up last night because I've had a pet peeve for a while now, and that is the use of the word to describe someone who has committed a horrible crime. Here are 2 recent examples:

"Apparently this gentleman without any motive or any reason, although for this there is no reasoning, entered the shop and then cut this woman's neck and took the head in his hand outside up to the sidewalk."~Local councilor Manuel Reveron, who saw a 28-year-old homeless Bulgarian man exit a supermarket in Tenerife, Canary Islands, after using a knife from the shelves to behead a 62-year-old British woman and before he was tackled by Spanish police

“The way I would describe it is, when people are standing at Ground Zero and the White House chanting ‘USA, USA,’ I am really glad for the U.S. that we were able to bring justice to the gentleman who killed my brother and my friends, but it’s not the sort of thing we would celebrate.”~Wall Street broker Howard W. Lutnick about the military take-down of Osama bin Laden (1957-2011), director of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that killed hundreds of Lutnick's employees and his younger brother.

Dictionary.com defines a gentleman as refined, cultured, and courteous. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary site characterizes him as chivalrous and well-behaved. And the Oxford English Dictionary clarifies a gentleman as a man in whom gentle birth is accompanied by appropriate qualities and behavior. No matter their genealogy, the men referred to above are neither gentle - the opposite of violence - nor genteel.

Image: "Wanted" poster of John Wesley Hardin (1853-1894), who killed a man at the age of 15 and fled, then killed a 2nd man. After being arrested a couple years later for a murder he didn't commit, Hardin escaped from prison. By age 21, he was wanted by the Texas Rangers, and killed 5 more men while he was a fugitive. He was finally sentenced to life in prison, but was pardoned on the grounds of self-defense after 15 years. He is said to have killed a total of 40 men - many of them lawmen - by the time he was shot and killed at age 41.

Escapees

Isn't she pretty? She is a peahen (the female counterpart to a peacock) who lives at the Bronx Zoo, where she is allowed to roam free on the grounds. But she decided to walk the streets last week and strutted her stuff (1st image) for a day and a night before she was captured. "Usually they wander back on their own. They want to be at the zoo. There's lots of food and less traffic," said Nancy Clum, the zoo's curator of ornithology. The bird jaywalked, perched on top of a parked van on Morris Park Avenue, and hung out near the E. 180th St. subway station. After the peahen was corralled in a garage at an undisclosed location, zoo director James J. Breheny clarified, “We will keep our tradition of free-roaming peafowl at the Bronx Zoo. We are confident that after this peahen’s recent adventure, she won’t want to wander from her home at the zoo.”

This follows the escape of a venomous Egyptian cobra (2nd image) in March. Breheny held a press conference to announce that the snake had been found, after a week on the lam, coiled near a "labyrinth of pipes" in a nonpublic area of the zoo’s Reptile House. Public interest in the snake led the zoo to hold a naming contest, which drew more than 33,000 entries, and prompted the newly-dubbed "Mia" to open her own Twitter account. Her May 10th remark to her fellow escapee:

"Seriously, peacock!? We agreed we'd go tomorrow at dawn!"

Fingers and thumbs

Koalas have fingerprints identical to humans and that has now been documented down to the microscopic level (1st image set). "The remarkable thing about koala prints is that they seem to have evolved independently....Scientists think the koala's fingertip features developed much more recently...because most of its close relatives (such as wombats and kangaroos) lack them." That was the weird news earlier in the month, although it is not that unusual for animals that grip, such as gorillas and chimpanzees to have fingerprints. What’s more surprising to those of us unfamiliar with Australian wildlife is that koalas have 2 thumbs on each hand (2nd image, illustration, and 3rd image, by Irish photographer Jody Neville)…

Dead birds as size scale

I was struck by the beautiful photograph above (1st image) of a hummingbird being used to show the size of a "monstrously big" ant that lived roughly 50 million years ago. The fossil was brought to his attention by the curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and reexamined by Bruce Archibald of Canada's Simon Fraser University. The prehistoric insect - "about the body mass of a small bird" - had remained unidentified since its discovery in Wyoming. Archibald named the new North American species Titanomyrma lubei and believed it to be closely related to German giant ants. When I researched the paleoentomologist's name, I found that he had used this visually exquisite size comparison not only with a different pose, but with another hummingbird (2nd image). I can only assume that Dr. Archibald had access to entire drawers full of birds and could take his pick - drawers that are the evocative subject of Rosamond Purcell. Above (3rd image) is one of the images from her most recent book, Egg and Nest.

Just another dead bird

Yesterday's post about bald eagles being poisoned by lead shot was more momentous than this peculiar instance of a single dead bird. But yellow-bellied sapsuckers have rights, too. Like the bald eagle, it is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), which prohibits the taking, killing, possession, transportation, and importation of migratory birds, their eggs, parts, and nests. That's why the charge of violating the MBTA was added to citations against Josephine L. Winsor back in December for being in Valley Forge National Historic Park after dark and driving under the influence of alcohol. The 74-year-old artist was driving around with the dead woodpecker in her car. In her defense, her lawyer explains that she was unaware that the species was protected and that she has used birds as models in her artwork in the past: "There was no criminal intent here. She had no idea that what she was doing was wrong." She had in fact worked at a nearby nature conservancy, which is where she had recently obtained the sapsucker specimen. As punishment for her indiscretion, Winsor was fined $350 and ordered to pay up to $500 in taxidermy costs so that the National Park Service could "place the bird into service either for educational and/or display purposes."

Image: A Victorian preserved and mounted green woodpecker arranged in a display case.

Shot...

...not the verb, but the noun. This bird (1st image) did not get shot directly, but died from ingesting the lead shot used by hunters to kill other game. Bald eagles and other birds scavenge from the entrails left when deer, for instance, are gutted in the field. They also eat mammals shot with lead and fish that have swallowed lead weights. The wildfowl inadvertently supplement their diet with the lead (2nd image), which affects the central nervous system, so that even if they are found before it kills them, the effects often cannot be reversed (photos and videos here). Rescued birds are severely underweight because their digestive systems have stopped working and they have lost their ability to walk or fly. They may need to be restrained if they go into convulsions, but excessive handling itself can cause them to die of stress. The poisoned bird is medicated and its blood is chelated, but a majestic bird with a lifespan of 30 years can be killed by lead poisoning in a matter of weeks. Scott Mehus of the National Eagle Center says, "[B]y the time that these birds are found with lead poisoning, it's so debilitating at that point that it's unfortunately a death sentence..." It's not an anti-hunting message - its about using alternative ammunitions crafted from copper, bismuth, tungsten and nickel. "It's so sad to see bald eagles dying from lead, and if we don't talk about it, it's going to keep happening," says Terese Evans of Iowa's Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation Project.