Yellow cardinal

An extremely rare cardinal has birders and biologists flocking to Shelby County, Alabama this week, as images of a yellow cardinal have circulated around social media.

Auburn University biology professor Geoffrey Hill said the cardinal in the photos is an adult male in the same species as the common red cardinal, but carries a genetic mutation that causes what would normally be brilliant red feathers to be bright yellow instead...

Hill said that cardinals and other songbirds need to consume substances called carotenoids (found in sweet potatoes and carrots) from the environment around them to achieve their bright colors.

"Songbirds like cardinals almost never consume red pigments; rather they consume abundant yellow pigments," Hill said. "So, to be red, cardinals have to biochemically convert yellow pigments to red."

More information at AL.com.

Apollo 11 conspiracy theory

Conspiracy theories are often fun to explore and sometimes more interesting than "real life." I have never found the Apollo 11 "fake moon landing" very interesting, but for those interested in the subject, Wired has a good summary of some of the arguments and counterarguments.

Photo credit: LIFE magazine archives.

Google has digitized LIFE magazine

It was almost a year ago that Google made available the remarkable photograph archive of LIFE magazine. Ten million photos!

Now they have digitized not just the photographs, but the entire magazine - everything, including all the advertisements, beginning with the first issue in November of 1936, up through the end of 1972. They have also converted the tables of contents and the "story continues on page xyz" directions to links. The above are screenshots of pages from an issue in mid-1946.

Here is the link.

I don't need to warn you that you can expend endless hours exploring these archives. And a reminder that the material is copyrighted, so that use of images should be accompanied by an appropriate acknowledgement of the source.

The Crown of the Statue of Liberty

The Obama administration wants to reopen the crown on the Statue of Liberty to the public. Access to the island was closed after the attack on September 11 for security reasons. When the island was reopened, access to the crown was not reestablished, in part for security reasons, but also because officials deemed it too risky.

The stairway to the crown consists of 354 steps in what apparently is a narrow stairwell without alternative routes, so officials were concerned that if there were a fire at the base, people at the top would be endangered, as would anyone suffering a heart attack at the top.

A study is now underway re whether and how to reopen the crown access, perhaps to a limited few (presumably random) visitors. In TYWKIWDBI's view, such an event would be a welcome rollback of the ever-increasing nanny state in this country where everything seems to be forbidden for fear that something might go wrong. Tell people the risks, and let them decide for themselves. It also represents a wonderful rollback of the knee-jerk "anti-terror" measures instituted after 9/11, and a sign that perhaps we can return to a more normal lifestyle.

(Top image credit LIFE archives. Bottom image credit lost; probably found on Reddit. Story credit via J-Walk.)

Human-driven evolution

Those who have doubts as to whether evolution can modify the characteristics of a population could learn from an article in the current Newsweek which suggests that humans hunting big game are favoring the survival of the "weak and scrawny."

Selective hunting—picking out individuals with the best horns or antlers, or the largest piece of hide—works in reverse: the evolutionary loser is not the small and defenseless, but the biggest and best-equipped to win mates or fend off attackers. When hunting is severe enough to outstrip other threats to survival, the unsought, middling individuals make out better than the alpha animals, and the species changes. "Survival of the fittest" is still the rule, but the "fit" begin to look unlike what you might expect. And looks aren't the only things changing: behavior adapts too, from how hunted animals act to how they reproduce...

Other species are shrinking, too. Australia's red kangaroo has become noticeably smaller as poachers target the largest animals for leather. The phenomenon has been most apparent in harvested fish: since fishing nets began capturing only fish of sufficient size in the 1980s, the Atlantic cod and salmon, several flounders and the northern pike have all propagated in miniature...

Tusks used to make elephants fitter, as a weapon or a tool in foraging—until ivory became a precious commodity and having tusks got you killed. Then tuskless elephants, products of a genetic fluke, became the more consistent breeders and grew from around 2 percent among African elephants to more than 38 percent in one Zambian population, and 98 percent in a South African one...

Cramming for finals at Santa school

Southdale, 1956

The photo above, from the LIFE archives, depicts Southdale - the first indoor shopping mall in the United States, as it looked shortly after opening in 1956. When this picture was taken, I was 10 years old, and our family lived a short distance from this mall, so I would have walked across this same plaza many times.

To the modern viewer, it appears quite unremarkable. In 1956, however, this was a sensational development. It's hard to explain how startling it was to go to an indoor, climate-controlled mall in Minnesota - in the winter.

Riding a cow through the snow

Photo taken in Minnesota's Northwest Angle in 1950.

Since we'll never have another occasion to mention this topic, the Northwest Angle is that little pointy part of Minnesota that sticks into Canada and is the northernmost part of the contiguous lower 48 states. You can only reach it by going through Canada, because it is separated from the rest of Minnesota by Lake of the Woods. The population at the last census was 152 in a 600 square mile area (including the water).

I have no idea why someone was riding a cow there in 1950.

Man with "revolving head"

"Revolving-head man Martin Laurello, turning his in complete opposite direction as he takes a glass of beer fr. a bartender which he is able to drink while maintaining this freakish position at party held for Robert Ripley's oddities."

How utterly bizarre is this??

Tina Fey and John McCain on cover of LIFE magazine... in 2004!!

The LIFE magazine archive

When Google does something, the blogosphere takes note. This week Google announced that they are (it is?) making available all of the LIFE magazine photographs - not just the covers, mind you, but all of the photos - including ones that were never published in the magazine itself.

10 million photos.

The database is searchable here, or by adding "source:life" to any Google image search.

Like every other blogger, I'll be making use of these images from time to time, either as illustrations for stories that need one, or as stand-alone curiosities a la Shorpy.

The image above comes from a search for the term "recession." It's the cover for a 1992 issue of Time magazine. Bet you didn't even remember that there was a recession in 1992 - it sure didn't feel like the current one...