Time lapse of baby playing with toys

Four hours play compressed to 2 minutes. Notes at eBay from the parents indicate that the child was not ignored during this time; the parental interactions were just edited out of the video.

Gynandromorph cardinal... maybe

This is a gynandromorph cardinal, half male and half female... a genetic abnormality that happens when the sex chromosomes (Z and W in birds) do not separate normally during early embryonic development. Credit for this find goes to Bob Motz and the photos were taken by Jim Frink. (via Kottke)

Addendum: Discussion elsewhere indicates some of these bicolor cardinals may not be gynandromorphs, but rather partially leucistic birds (via i am the finch wench).

The obedience of children

Credit here, via.

Vancouver, British Columbia

Photo taken from the top of Cypress Mountain 01/21/09. Credit here. Click to enlarge

David Attenborough receives creationist hate mail

During an interview regarding his latest documentary on Charles Darwin, David Attenborough revealed that he has been receiving hate mail from creationists, who tell him to "burn in Hell and good riddance."

The reason for their anger is apparently because he doesn't give "credit" to God.

"They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

Did Goya paint "The Colossus"? Does it matter?

The giant, fierce figure of The Colossus as he rises above a fleeing crowd of people, carts and animals is one of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya's most dramatic and famous pictures – at least it was until yesterday, when Madrid's Prado museum declared he had not painted it.

The museum has said the giant - whose clenched fist is seen as a symbol of Spanish resistance to Napoleon's army during the Peninsular wars - would continue to hang in its place but confirmed that a plaque attributing the painting to Goya would be changed.

Experts at the museum now believe The Colossus was painted by one of Goya's assistants, whose initials may appear in a corner of the canvas.

The final decision to remove Goya's name from the painting followed a lengthy study by the Prado expert Manuela Mena, which the museum published yesterday...

Mena said X-rays of the picture had allowed her to spot significant differences between this and other Goya works.

Not least of these was the discovery of the top half of the faded initials "AJ", scribbled in the bottom left-hand corner, which she said may point to it being the work of one of his assistants, Asensio Juliá...

The Prado's expert, however, also claimed the quality of The Colossus was far below that of Goya's other masterpieces.

"Seen in the right light, the poverty of the technique, of its light and colour, along with the considerable difference between The Colossus and his other masterworks, become clear," she said in the study.

Mena said doubts about the picture's authenticity began to surface when restoration work began more than a decade ago. Restorers discovered then that the quality of the materials used was not up to Goya's normal standards.

See also this editorial.

The final list of "1000 novels everyone must read"

The Guardian has been running a series of articles about the thousand novels they recommend everyone should read. Obviously a project like this has to be done a little tongue-in-cheek, but their rationale regarding the selection process is here.

The novels have previously been listed in seven categories. Now they have published a single list of the titles (by category, alphabetically by author). By their calculations, if one started at age 8 and read 13 novels a year, one would finish at age 85.

To the best of my memory I've read 8 in their "Comedy" list, 15 of "Family and Self," 19 of "Love," 23 of "State of the Nation" and 23 of "War and Travel," 34 in the "Crime" list, and 37 of the "Science Fiction and Fantasy." (If movies counted, the total would be twice that).

That's 159 down, 840 to go (because I'll never get past the first chapter of "Ulysses.") Based on my age and a 30-year expected lifespan, I'll need to read 28 per year. That's doable. Assuming I don't spend so much time blogging. Or play Civilization III so much. Or get started with "Spore." Decisions, decisions...

"How the mighty have fallen"

The Bay of Biscay windstorm that crossed France this past week took down a 223-year-old beech tree planted in 1786 to honor Marie Antoinette.

Since my summer hobby is working and exploring woods, I see lots of treefalls. What never fails to impress me is the shallow root system of even the largest mature specimens. Many people have a mistaken preconception that tall trees have deep roots, but in fact there are few species (typically desert ones) that have anything approaching a taproot. There is no advantage to a tree to send deep roots, since all the nutrition and water rests in the top few inches of the soil.

Giant trees are typically brought down not by wind alone, but by winds that follow soaking rains that loosen the topsoil. Another prominent factor is the susceptibility of isolated trees planted in the center of parks and lawns, where there no other trees to block the wind or provide lateral support when the top sways.

Impressive size, majesty, and dominance can all be toppled when there is a shallow root system and inadequate lateral support. It's a principle that can be applied equally to people, economic pyramids, nations and empires.

(image credit Remy de la Mauviniere, Associated Press)

Supernatural dyslexia? An image of DOG appears...

Several years ago, a Colorado family had to put down their chocolate lab Fletcher; they placed his ashes in the back yard. Recently while getting ready to fire up the backyard grill for a barbecue, they noticed an image on the grill cover (top photo).

The image looks like the head of a dog, and, in fact, remarkably like the profile of Fletcher. The image was created by water dripping down from the patio cover onto the dirt on the grill cover. It's just a coincidence that it looks like a dog.

And the smaller image to the right of the dog - it looks like a fish jumping out of the water. Fletcher used to love to go fly fishing with the family.

There's a video of a local news report at the link. (via J-Walk)

A letter written by the father of John Wilkes Booth...

...threatened to assassinate President Andrew Jackson!

Dismissed for 175 years as a fake, a letter threatening the assassination of President Andrew Jackson has been found to be authentic...

The letter, which addressed Old Hickory as "You damn'd old Scoundrel," demanded that Jackson pardon two prisoners named De Ruiz and De Soto who had been sentenced to death for piracy in a high-profile trial of the day...

Pardon the pirates, the letter writer demanded, or "I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping."

America's seventh president had become accustomed to threats, according to Robert V. Remini, author of the biography "Andrew Jackson" and history professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"It wasn't a crime to threaten the life of the president back in Jackson's time," Remini said.

His motive for penning the threat was probably intrigue over the piracy trial, Feller concluded.

"He's interested in the same way you and I were interested in the O.J. Simpson trial," Feller said.

The story of their investigation will be featured this summer on PBS' "History Detectives."

A sexually deceptive orchid...

"...so convincing that male wasps will mate with it to the point of ejaculation."

After reading that in Harper's Magazine ("Findings" section, Sept '08), I Googled the relevant terms and found that this has been known for a century, and there's an abundance of such reports, most of them originating from Australia.

Some orchids can imitate the olfactory cues used by males to locate females, including producing pollinator-specific sex pheromones. As the pollinator approaches the orchid, he is again deceived by the coloration or shape of the blossom.

Now here's the even-more-interesting part: "Because unfertilized female wasps can produce sons but not daughters, the orchids on which the wasps waste their sperm will eventually create a larger population of male wasps to pollinate them."

Excellent discussion here and here with photos. Here is an abstract of the original research, which was done on Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species). Curious to know what they looked like, I searched Google images and found the photos above at this link.

Remember, to a male wasp, these orchids look and smell like female wasps. What they look like to you is not relevant here.

Shaun Micallef tilted room comedy sketch

Last spring, when TYWKIWDBI was in its "infancy," the first non-U.S. visitors were from Australia. In honor of their arrival, I blogged this brief comedy bit by Shaun Micallef. I had occasion to watch it again tonight and decided it deserves to move to the top of the blog. Enjoy.

"Perfect Balance" online puzzle game

The reason I blogged so few items today is that I encountered this challenging and addictive game. The images above are screencaps. The game is at this link (click on the blue "Harmony" button to start the first level).

You are given an assemblage of geometric shapes which you must then balance on a provided base. The puzzles do not have unique, single solutions; any arrangement you can make that balances the pieces will move you to the next level.

The game controls are simple. Click once to "pick up" the object, use the "a" or "d" key to rotate the object while you are holding it, and then click again to set it down.

There are 40 puzzles in the "Harmony" level; when you finish those, there are 40 more in the second "Inferno" level. The puzzles do not necessarily get harder as you move through the sequences. There is no penalty for a collapsing structure - just click reset and try again - and there are no time limitations (I spent hours getting through the 80 puzzles).

If you decide to play, you will almost certainly want to use the index screen to mute the annoying background "music" and the sound effects. Also, be aware that the objects have "weight" proportional to their size, and there is a small amount of "friction" on sloped surfaces. The objects also develop momentum, so don't drop them from a height; there is also a kinetic component in that you can place an object, and, as the structure tilts, place another object to block or counterbalance the first one.

If you're at work when you read this, don't get started on the puzzles. The American economy is already in the dumps; I don't want to be blamed for making it worse.

There are no "tricks." It's all basic, elementary physics.

You may or may not find that reassuring.

Jane Eyre's secret staircase found

Charlotte Bronte is believed to have based the deranged character Mrs Rochester, who was locked away at Thornfield Hall, on a story she heard while visiting a country mansion in 1839.

The house, Norton Conyers, [is] near Ripon, North Yorks... Only the grand rooms are on show but now the owners have discovered a hidden staircase linking the first floor directly to the attic, just as the novelist described.

Norton Conyers dates from the Middle Ages and the family of the current occupiers, Sir James and Lady Graham, have lived there since 1624...

They lifted floorboards in the attic above and discovered the top of a narrow flight of 13 steps. Lady Graham said: "We were hoping to find the Norton Conyers' treasure. That's another family story about a hoard of gold and jewels supposedly hidden during the Civil War. But all we found was lots of woodworm, some old nails and a collar stud."

At the bottom of the steps was a door, fitted with a spring to ensure that it always closed after use. Sir James said: "The stairs are only just wide enough for one person. They are hidden within the thickness of the panelled wall. There is no way you could tell there was anything behind it. The door at the bottom would have been visible originally, certainly at the time Charlotte Bronte visited..."

Lady Graham said: "It is such a sad room, it has such a tragic feel about it. It is very awkward to reach. It is north-facing with a small gable window. Most people don't want to stay there. It's creepy.

Image credit to a remarkable publication - Secret Chambers and Hiding Places: Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc. - a full-text, fully illustrated e-book available at Project Gutenberg.

RSPCA seizes obese dogs

Early 2008, an RSPCA inspector called at Miss Davidson's home in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, after an anonymous phone call about the animals. The official carried out an assessment of the dogs, Rocky and Chubby, and said they were overweight. The inspector gave advice on how their weight could be reduced.

Miss Davidson, who works for Hertfordshire social services and who has owned dogs for more than 20 years, followed the instructions and managed to bring down their weight. However, she had to cancel three vets appointments to have her pets weighed, after her mother fell ill and she had to care for her.

After the missed appointments, an RSPCA inspector returned to her house in October while Miss Davidson was at work. The inspector asked her partner, Terry Shadbolt, for permission to take the animals to the vets [to get weighed].

"Following an examination of the animals, the independent vet contacted the police, who after viewing the dogs and listening to the veterinary advice, made the decision to seize the animals under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

The organisation has not allowed Marie Davidson, 48, to see her animals, or even told her where they have been kept for the past three months.

The only correspondence she has had from the society has been two letters, both received in the last fortnight – one to say that its investigation is continuing and another detailing its complaints procedure.

When the dogs, who are three and half years old, were initially inspected, Rocky weighed 73kg and Chubby 60kg, according to Miss Davidson. According to the RSPCA, when they were taken, Rocky weighed 63kg and Chubby 52kg. The organisation says a healthy Labrador should weigh no more than 34kg.

If Miss Davidson is prosecuted under the Animal Welfare Act she faces a fine, a ban on keeping animals, or even a jail term. If she is not, and the dogs are returned, she could be asked to reimburse the RSPCA for the cost of keeping them in kennels.

I understand that overfeeding animals can be considered a form of abuse, but in this case the organization's response seems to me to be deceptive and unnecessarily heavy-handed, so I'm on the lady's side. Found at Nothing to do with Arbroath.