Free email delivery
Please sign up for email delivery in the subscription area to the right.
No salesman will call, at least not from us. Maybe from someone else.
Why it’s perilous to go within 1.34 meters of a penguin
If you want to p…p…p…pick up a penguin, just stay 1.34 metres away from its bottom. Otherwise, a study has shown, you run a significant risk of being p…p…p…pummeled by the explosive after-effects of its “high rectal pressure”.
The Sunday Times (of London) | Tom Whipple, Science Editor | July 8, 2020
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
Not your average bird brain
When a bird brain tops Harvard students on a test.
The Harvard Gazette | by Juan Silizar | July 2, 2020
Video by Justin Saglio/Harvard Staff
Experiment tests human vs. parrot memory in a complex shell game
What happens when an African Grey Parrot goes head-to-head with 21 Harvard students in a test measuring a type of visual memory? Put simply: The parrot moves to the head of the class.
Click the link below. If it doesn’t work, go to the blog to view it by clicking on the blog title above. If the film stops & starts in an annoying manner, press pause (lower left double bars ||) to let it buffer and get ahead of you. Thanks to Joyce Waterman for the suggestion. [Chuck Almdale]
The World’s First Freeway
Local History Files
In 1939 The Arroyo Seco (Dry Creek) Freeway – now the Pasadena or #110 Freeway – was still being built, but sections were already open to traffic. This early film captures the look of Los Angeles’ – therefore California’s, therefore the U.S.’s, therefore the world’s – first freeway.
As you might expect, drivers weren’t really ready for it. If you closely watch this film, and several other films on the same YouTube page, you’ll see some close calls, bad merging, bad exiting, too-fast cornering and people driving on the wrong side of the road.
If no film or link appears in this email, go to the blog to view it by clicking on the blog title above. If the film stops & starts in an annoying manner, press pause (lower left double bars ||) to let it buffer and get ahead of you. Thanks to Hollywood Dave for the link. [Chuck Almdale]
The Bearded Vulture
An amazing clip from a BBC film showing how the Bearded Vulture gets and eats its food.
Links: HERE for the vulture episode. You will have to keep an eye peeled for the longer (57 minutes) film – I could not find it online.
Science News for Students
One of my favorite magazines, to which I began subscribing about thirty years ago, after learning that Isaac Asimov was a long-time reader, is Science News, the magazine of the Society for Science & the Public. For decades the Society has run an annual science competition for students, with significant cash awards.
The magazine comes twice a month, 32 pages of 1/4-page to 8-page stories, covering all sorts of science topics. I recommend it, but that’s not the point of this posting.
They also have a free website of Science News for Students, designed to spark and encourage a thirst for science, science research, science reading. That’s all good, in my book. [You may have noticed that while our blogsite was created to focus on birds, we’re also interested in many other areas of science.]
Here’s a series of screen shots from the site, beginning with the top of the opening page.
A bit lower down on the first page, some categories of topics…
Here’s one of those topics, experiments you can do at home…
They have a section on our most recent planetary catastrophe, obsession and favorite pandemic…\
Check them out.
[Chuck Almdale]
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 