Photos

First in Decades: South China Tiger Sighting

I’ve been away for parts of three days. Time to play a little catch up. This following report is interesting as this felid subspecies (Panthera tigris amoyensis) may not be extinct. (File photo of the South China Tiger.) Beijung — A type of tiger thought to be extinct in the wild for more than two decades has been photographed in a mountainous area in northwest China, state media reported Saturday. The endangered subspecies known as the South China tiger was spotted by a farmer on Oct. 3, the China Daily said. Experts confirmed that it was a young wild South [...]

New Bird Discovered in Brazil

A beautiful new species, Formicivora antwren from Brazil, has just been discovered. Intriguingly, this bird’s status as a new species was argued based on its distinct vocalizations. A new species of antwren from Bahia, Brazil has recently been described in the journal Zootaxa. Sincorá Antwren Formicivora grantsaui is found only in the campo rupestre vegetation of the Serra do Sincorá between 850 m and 1,100 m in the Chapada Diamantina region. This is an important area that holds other restricted range species such as Grey-backed Tachuri Polystictus superciliaris and Pale-throated Pampa-finch Embernagra longicauda. First observed in 1997, it is closely [...]

The Dover Demon Lives

Move over Ortiz, Manny and Beckett! Share the media airwaves Boston Red Sox! I will be on television around 4:15 p.m. on Boston’s “NewsDay Live,” this Friday, October 12th, on the New England Cable Network, speaking about Mysterious America and specifically, the Dover Demon. A figurine of the Dover Demon is displayed at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. The strange creature was spotted in Dover, Massachusetts, in 1977. The Dover Demon sculpture is by artist Steve Goodrich of New York State. (Photograph: Amber Waterman/Sun Journal.) This weekend (see poster below), I will also be speaking about the Dover [...]

Boing Boing Museum

Boing Boing is the big boy and girl on the block in blogging, there’s no two ways about it. In an article in today’s New York Times entitled “Nerd Chic Arrives on TV” by David Carr, it is noted that Boing Boing is expanding to television broadcasts via the internet, spurred on by the talented Xeni Jardin. But what Boing Boing, created by Mark Frauenfelder, does just with their blog is already rather amazing. According to that article: “Boing Boing has become one of the five most visited blogs on the Web, according to Comscore, with a monthly traffic of [...]

Boing Boing Frogs

Nyctibatrachus minimus, the tiny nightfrog of India. Conraua goliath, the goliath frog of West Africa. We shall pick up an existence by its frogs. Wise men have tried other ways. They have tried to understand our state of being, by grasping at its stars, or its arts, or its economics. But, if there is an underlying oneness of all things, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle, beginning anywhere.Charles Fort, Lo! After I posted my blog (“Incredibly Tiny Frog Discovered”) on the [...]