These (admittedly funny) clips show how "Jurassic Park" would have looked like if the "raptors" (really Deinoychus) had been "scientifically accurate". Maybe this wasn´t known back in 1993, but the raptors are still scientifically inaccurate in the new movies of the franchise...thank god! Since dinosaurs apparently looked really cringey in real life, like some kind of big peafowl or something?!
Bring back Boomer science!
Bala surrounded by parakeets and hypocoliuses. Which is supposedly the plural of hypocolius. The strangest bird-name in the English language? If you know, you know...
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| Credit: Rhododentrites |
Breaking news: for the first time ever (literally ever), a red-eyed vireo has been spotted in Sweden. At Djurgården in Stockholm, to be exact. Usually, these little critters only annoy the denizens of the North American continent.
But...
There is something strange about the report. Yes, you´ve guessed it: it hasn´t been properly vetted yet. Or peer reviewed, if you like that term better. LOL. This reminds me of scientists who publish pre-prints of their papers on-line, before proper peer review.
In fact, it´s even more extreme, since it´s the chair of the bird-watching committee vetting reports who broke the news to the media...before his own committee had vetted it?!
:D
Not that I give a damn, but sure, if I had been a crazy bird-watcher, I suppose Djurgården would be my next call!
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| Credit: Kai Dahms (Unsplash) |
Thomas Sheridan knows what kills all those birds...
Changing bird migration patterns
I kind of like Hungary´s new EU slogan "Make Europe great again". What a pity it comes from a people historically allied with the Ottoman Empire...
:D
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| Dinosaurs are extinct, right? |
So I recently visited the Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Sweden. In the climate crisis exhibition, they show a funny video featuring a dinosaur scaring the hell out of the UN General Assembly. Then, the dino addresses the diplomatic multitude, saying things like "extinction is bad" and "I know a lot about extinction".
There´s just one little problem.
The dino seems to be a Deinonychus (the "raptor" of "Jurassic Park" fame). But while the Deinonychi are extinct, some of their close relatives are not. They belonged to the group of dinosaurs from which birds evolved. Indeed, birds *are* dinosaurs. So the entire dino extinction rebellion is fake news!
Somebody should school the Museum of Natural History on the basics of cladistic systematics.
Yeah, really.
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| Credit: I, Luc Viatour |
Seen a lot of these lately, everywhere around where I live, usually don´t see them at all?! Yes, it´s an "Eurasian Jay". Europe is just an Asian peninsula with an attitude. LOL.
