a rap version of Wordsworth

Research Blog | September 30, 2009

I’ve been meaning to post this – I think maybe I was initially horrified but my standards are slipping. Wordsworth was inspired to write Daffodils by the glorious flowers on the shores of Ullswater in the Lake District. A Cumbria Tourism spokesman said: “Wordsworth’s Daffodils poem has remained unchanged for 200 years and to keep…

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REd vs Grey update

Research Blog | September 26, 2009

Local papers in Northumberland report today that Thousands of culled grey squirrels later, the invader’s advance into remaining red squirrel territory is still relentless. CHILLING killing figures emerge from a new study of the effectiveness of measures in the North of England to halt the spread of the grey squirrel and the decline of the…

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r.i.p. Akituusaq

Research Blog | September 10, 2009

The Coney Island Aquarium lost its 2 yr old baby walrus, Akituusaq this week. Both his parents were orphaned wild walruses whose parents had been killed in legal Inuit hunts. He was a big sensation in New York, and his keepers loved him very much. NY Times article here

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you can’t wipe your ass with a spotted owl

Research Blog | September 8, 2009

I was cracking open a new roll of toilet paper, purchased at the discount store, and feeling guilty because I’d usually buy recycled paper products only right now, I have no time. No doubt it was made with new forest “materials” (that would be trees). I remembered being in Alaska with Ruth, doing some TV…

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Early Mammals

Research Blog | August 30, 2009

Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber (1739-1810), student of Linnaeus: The above illustrations  from ‘Die Saugthiere in Abbildungen‘ at Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon (named as ‘Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes‘ – either misslabelled or this is the title of the french edition) — there are about 200 illustrations available from the original 775 engravings published: Volume…

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Animal Wall

Research Blog | August 30, 2009

…Making animals part of a building site’s program: In Wales, artist Gitta Gschwendtner matches new apartments built one for one with bird and bat nesting environments. Commissioned by the Wales-based public art consultancy Safle, Animal Wall’ is part of a 50 metre long wall, running along the south-western edge of ‘Strata’, a new residential development…

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Squirrel Ninja Training

Research Blog | August 29, 2009

thanks Nancy / wecanok!

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Pieter Brueghel the Elder, “Big Fish Eat Little Fish” (1556)

Research Blog | August 19, 2009

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Drawing VI (REd vs Greys)

Research Blog | July 18, 2009

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Veni vidi vici (crest II sketch)

Research Blog | July 13, 2009

Schematic/crest of 3 shields of the Grey Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). Originally imported from America to Great Britain ca. 1840 as a living lawn ornament. On left, the nationalist  imperative that the Greys should now be exterminated; on right; deforestation in part to supply the Briitsh Royal Navy with timber historically contributed to the near-vanquished Red…

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Boswell and Mark

Research Blog | July 8, 2009

I have a wonderful friend named Mark; you’d never guess his best friend is a goose. Boswell became famous last year – he’s very personable – during his successful battle against leg cancer. He has his own blog. Anyway, I was very honored that he answered my recent inquiry about his well-being. (Trip back from…

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Drawing V (study for a taxidermy arrangement)

Research Blog | July 7, 2009

Working on a plan to make a taxidermy sculpture, if I can get Paul Parker to give me all his bullet-ridden Grey culls. They’ll be put to good use, employ one of my favorite taxidermists, and look something like zombies from Shaun of the Dead. (The Red will be old fare, nothing newly killed unless…

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Holy Island Tourist Owl

Research Blog | June 27, 2009

I usually don’t post personal thrills (liar) but I have a soft spot for owls. I’d only ever gotten to pet a taxidermied one. This is a 4 year-old barn owl rescue; some teenagers brought their imprinted charges out to Holy Island from Berwick on Tweed, to raise money for their parents’ rescue operation. There…

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Drawing IV (sketch for a taxidermy arrangement)

Research Blog | June 27, 2009

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Drawings III (reds)

Research Blog | June 25, 2009

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Nutkin’s Last stand, a film

Research Blog | June 24, 2009

A US filmmaker, Nicholas Berger, made an 18 min doc in 2008 looking at the red vs grey issue, and came out for the reds. I have yet to see the film, but I’m happy someone made it and blurred any nationalist allegiances. http://www.nutkinslaststand.com/

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who doesn’t love a trampoline?

Research Blog | June 24, 2009

Michelle Hirschhorn pointed this out last night… the UK craze for trampolines + happy little wild things  (and some call them pests…)

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Drawings II (the friend feeder I)

Research Blog | June 22, 2009

“The Friend Feeder I” a.k.a. British Birds. After Lucien Freud’s Leigh Bowery. Sketch for a life-sized wildlife feeder.

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Propping up the species

Research Blog | June 21, 2009

The red squirrel needs our help. And so local school children near Greenhough responded,  raising the money to build a  rope bridge to help squirrels cross the road — a rare stretch of two-lane road near Kielder (as opposed to single track) on which reds were getting flattened. I couldn’t find any online local news…

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