A very dear friend and neighbor of mine tried to kill himself today. Had I not been at work when his mother called, frantic, knowing I have a key to his house, I would have been the one to find…
Me
Our newest yard bird (#133) was a very sleepy Northern Saw-whet Owl, roosting in one of our cedar trees, right outside our kitchen window. Although it wasn’t deeply concealed, we never would have noticed it if my husband hadn’t seen…
Crap. I knew this would get to me eventually. An interesting animal I had. This is easy. I’ve had a lot of interesting animals. But probably the coolest were the two flying squirrels I rescued from a pet store which…
Last year, the web site of the journal Nature posted a list of 50 popular science blogs, and bootstrap made the list. Now the weekly magazine The Scientist is also compiling a list. I see at least one kind soul…
John tagged me with a birding meme. 1. What is the coolest bird you have seen from your home? Hmm. Although I see this species regularly, it was pretty cool and unexpected seeing our first yard American Woodcock rocketing over…
I’ve been tagged with the eight random facts meme by Birders on the Border. Clare strove to come up with things that were interesting and moderately modest. Not sure I have any of those left, considering I slogged through 50%…
Okay, so for the most part I’m really not into self-promotion. My tendency to focus on my work rather than myself has in some ways handicapped my career advancement. It has certainly not helped make the jobs of the development…
Hard to believe I’m beginning my third year as a blogger, considering how many blogs go extinct. Of course, at times Bootstrap has felt a little moribund (like lately). Nonetheless, the year in blogging has had some cool highlights for…
It has only been a week since winter rudely and abruptly arrived in Michigan. And what more appropriate bird to ease our transition to Arctic-like weather than a Snowy Owl? This bird was found by a friend who was driving…
The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006 has just been published at Lulu.com. You can check out the table of contents and see which of your favorite brilliant science bloggers were included. As I previously noted, yours…