Beautiful Bird Pics

DW and LM sent me these awesome pictures of their resident birds down in Arlington, VA. I understand that the cardinal showed up after he saw DW photographing the new bird family - wonder if he is related to my pal?

Save Molly!!!

Wednesday afternoon, a courageous cow defied all odds. She escaped a terrible fate at New York City slaughterhouse Musa Hala Inc, wandered around Queens for an hour, and eventually ended up in an Animal Care and Control center awaiting claim by, gulp, that wretched meatpacking plant or (fingers crossed) a farm sanctuary.

According to this MSNBC survey, nine out of ten agree that Molly's "bid for freedom should be rewarded."

Heroic dog

So this has little to nothing to do with the usual theme of the blog but I just have to share it because Hoagie is awesome.

New Farmers' Market: Downtown Baltimore

Every Tuesday between now and October, from 10:30am to 2:30pm, local farmers will be selling fresh veggies, fruit, cheese, eggs and more along the Paca Street sidewalk in the park in front of the University of Maryland Medical Center. This is great news for the many employees at the center and for residents in the area who otherwise would have to make the trip across town on Sunday mornings before noon. Bay & Environment blogger for The Baltimore Sun, Tim Wheeler, reports:

The medical center, University of Maryland Baltimore and the local community have teamed up to bring fresh, locally grown food to the workers, patients, visitors and residents of that busy corner of downtown. Local food reduces the energy and air pollution caused by long-distance transportation, according to advocates, and the types of food offered are generally pretty healthy.

Hopeful for more careful consideration...

The Economist's Green.view reports that a new bill calling for stricter controls and evaluations on wildlife imports, and banning non-native wildlife species that would harm the economy, the environment, human health or another animal species, is currently under consideration by Congress. The Non-Native Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act has come about in part due to research led by Katherine Smith at Brown University:

"Dr Smith found that almost 1.5 billion creatures had been imported by America between 2000 and 2006. Some 95% of these were aquatic creatures: fish and live corals for aquariums; and almost all were imported for commercial reasons, mostly as pets. They came from 190 countries and almost 70% originated in South-East Asia. The countries that sent the most animals were Indonesia, the Philippines, Fiji, Tonga, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Solomon Islands... American law states that each of these creatures must be precisely identified by its scientific name. However Dr Smith and her colleagues found that most contained insufficient information for them to be catalogued properly. Almost a third of shipments were described in general terms such as 'marine fish' or 'live invertebrates'. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is supposed to keep proper records at American ports of entry. "

Plant Database

Check out this awesometastical plant database that The Baltimore Sun now offers. Go to the advanced search. Very cool.

Weeds = Superfood?

I believe I have mentioned that weeds are naturally high in antioxidants due to the simple fact that they flourish without human aid, but I will admit that tossing weeds into the salad mix hasn't been a top priority for me until now. Baltimore Sun reporter, Julie Deardorff, points to Dandelion greens as an excellent source of vitamin A, calcium, iron, folate and potassium, in this great interactive on the newspaper's website. Talk about turning a negative into a positive, huh? Dandelions taking over your lawn? As you yank 'em, pull off those leaves!

Tulipmania

Adrian Higgins, for The Washington Post, wrote a great article about tulips and the craze that gripped Holland in the 17th century - a topic near and dear to my heart since Michael Pollan dedicated a quarter of The Botany of Desire to it. Higgins, however, initially approaches the mania not so much from a co-evolutionary standpoint, but rather in regards to the "lust for illusory wealth" and the parallels to our current economic crisis. I love what she wrote here:

Those who had borrowed to invest in shares found themselves ruined. Here's another interesting parallel between tulipmania and our current economic mess: The most coveted bulbs had bicolored petals whose patterns danced like flames or feathers. Scientists later discovered that this was due to a virus transmitted by aphids. Talk about toxic assets.

She also reports on her favorite varieties found in the bulb fields of Brent and Becky Heath, down in Gloucester, VA. Some of her faves include: Brown Sugar, World Peace, Gavota, Banja Luca, Silverstream, Juan, Cynthia, and Lady Jane.

If you are interested in learning a little more about Tulipmania, here are a few other resources:

Bulb Bubble Trouble by Daniel Gross for Slate

When the Tulip Bubble Burst, a BusinessWeek review of Mike Dash's Tulipomania

shocking visualization

Check out this website, Sugar Stacks, that shows how sugars in foods literally stack up. I wish peanut MnMs were on there. I even looked under "breakfast foods."

CARAZZAY Cardinal

I keep meaning to post about the territorial Northern Cardinal who claims the bird feeder as well as my gas guzzler. Here he is near some of the windows he crashes into an attempt to scare off the other cardinal, which is of course his own reflection. He's kinda cute, huh?