Website of the Week: North American Moths Backyard Inventory

If you've read my previous posts, you know that Kerm and I have a soft spot for caterpillars. So, as I was drifting about the Internet today, I was pleased to find a new blog devoted to moths.

The North American Moths Backyard Inventory , or NAMBI, aims to coordinate citizen scientist observations and photographs about the habitat and range of moths. If you choose to participate, your data may be included in an upcoming Peterson's Field Guide to the Moths of Northeastern North America.

New to studying moths? NAMBI has that covered too: you can find books and tips to help you learn to identify moths. And if you enjoy writing about your nocturnal moth-chasing adventures, consider contributing to The Moth and Me blog carnival!

Where in the world?

I took this photo last summer during a family trip. Do you know where I was? What does the landscape tell you? Notice the elevation differences and the color of the soil. Is this an arid or damp climate? Where in the world can you still find American bison? Any guesses? Here's a big hint.

OT: Celebrate Fat Tuesday with Free Pancakes!

Well, this post is off-topic, but I wanted to share it with you anyway. :) The International House of Pancakes is celebrating National Pancake Day today until 10 pm. Stop by your neighborhood IHOP and enjoy one free short stack of pancakes per party. IHOP only requests that you consider donating to Children's Miracle Network. According to the IHOP website, this event raised more than $875,000 for charity last year!

(My thanks to my friend Maria for letting me know about this event.)

Learn Bird Songs!

Photo credit: Dave Menke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
As we're getting ready for spring here in the northern hemisphere, it is the perfect time to start birding. I found a nice resource today to help you identify the birds in your neighborhood. Lang Elliott's Learn Bird Songs! provides photographs and recordings of nearly 40 birds common to North America. You can listen to birdsong by habitat (click on the bird pictures to find the audio files) -- countrysides, forests, cityscapes, and wetlands -- or pick a species from the main page, like Blue Jay Song and Sounds. Be sure to check out How to Learn Bird Songs for tips on memorizing the sounds made by different birds and enjoy the sounds of spring!

Website of the Week: TryEngineering.org

In honor of Engineers Week, this week's website is TryEngineering.org. If you are between the ages of 8 and 18 and are considering a career in engineering, this website is for you! You can Ask an Expert what it's like to be a working engineer or engineering student. You can learn what courses to take to prepare, what engineering specialties are available, and check out 101 different Pre-University Student Activities (like camps, competitions, and projects) on your way to Becoming An Engineer. Be sure to Play Games while you are there!

If you're a parent or educator looking for engineering lesson plans, there's something here for you, too. Check out over 50 Lesson Plans on topics like flashlights and batteries, solar panel design, and building a canoe.

(A tip of the hat to the 2009 Chicagoland Engineers Week website for pointing me toward this site!)

Thoughts on George Washington Carver

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in."
--George Washington Carver (1864? - 1943)


Traditionally, February has been known as Black History Month. This got me thinking about my favorite African-American scientist, George Washington Carver, and his rise from slavery to esteemed professor and agricultural researcher.

I'm not sure why it influenced me so much to read a profile about Carver in the late 1970's. I'll be honest, back then I didn't think much about science outside of school. Maybe it was because President Carter was in office and their names were so similar and they both were peanut farmers.

But I remember thinking that it was really cool that Carver thought of so many different things to do with peanuts. In the truest definition of a scientist -- he saw the world in a different way. Dr. Carver seemed determined to squeeze every possible type of peanut product out of this simple crop. Along with numerous foodstuffs (like peanut butter!), he found the peanut could be used to make paper (from the skin and vines), wall boards (from the hulls), axle grease, laundry soap, laxatives, and hundreds of other products. In addition to his work with peanuts, Carver taught crop rotation and developed new uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes. As a result, cotton farmers devastated by the boll weevil were able to find new crops to replace cotton in the American south.

I like that Carver patented very few of his inventions, instead making them available to help everyone. He could have become discouraged early in his career -- he faced discrimination while trying to pursue his education -- but he didn't. He kept on trying. Both humble and persistent, he was a man on a mission. Carver turned down jobs for higher pay so that he could continue his agricultural work and help the southern farmer.

In these bleak economic times, I thought this quote of his especially relevant:

"Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable." George Washington Carver

P.S. You can print out a cool Coloring and Activity Book about Carver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Giant frog gets new friend: Titanoboa

Well, the ancient giant "frog from hell" finally has some company! As reported by Nature, scientists have recently unearthed the world's biggest snake fossil. The snake, thought to have been about 42 feet long and have weighed 2,500 pounds (!), lived about 60 million years ago in northeastern Colombia. Primarily aquatic, the snake could slither on land and is thought to have crushed its prey like a modern day boa constrictor.

So what did this mammoth monster eat? Probably crocodiles or fish, according to an article written by TimesOnline environment reporter Lewis Smith. Based upon the size of these cold-blooded creatures, scientists are hypothesizing that the earth must have been quite warm back then, over 7 degrees F hotter than today's average temperatures.

Now, I realize that the giant frog was hopping around Africa some ten million years earlier than the giant snake went cruising along in South America. But doesn't it make you wonder what our planet looked like so many millions of years ago? (How big were the bugs?!)