science

Chopper and I watched the PBS documentary The Natural History of the Chicken tonight courtesy of Netflix and absolutely loved it. The documentary includes some startlingly funny moments, including the stories of Mike the Headless Chicken and the fellows who grabbed a six pack to “watch the rooster” and Valerie, the poor hen whose creepy old lady owner left outside in a blizzard and then performed CPR on. Surprisingly touching was the story of Liza, the hen who protected her chicks at the risk of her own life. Definitely worth a watch.

Astronomy Magazine has a good article on the discovery.

If you have started podcasting, I have a recommendation for you. Quirks and Quarks is a weekly radio show from Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that I have gotten seriously hooked on. The show brings science to the masses in a very accessible way. The first show I listened to was a question-and-answer show that included answers to (among others) why a bicycle is stable when moving and not when standing and why you get dizzy when looking down from a high place.

When I told Chopper it was a little like an audio version of Discover Magazine (another of my personal favorites), he groaned and said that Discover made his head hurt.

I have been under the weather this week, namely with a prolonged muscle spasm in my neck and the side effects of the meds I’ve been taking. When I woke up one morning with thoughts of the ivory-billed woodpecker in my head, I naturally assumed that it was another one of the odd imaginings of my dreams. However, I was intrigued enough to wake Chopper up and ask him if he had in fact mentioned that the ivory-billed woodpecker had been rediscovered this week. “Yes,” he said, with a sleepy smile, and rolled back over to resume sleep.

My dream, it seems, was shared, and real.
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