Link List: More Miscellany

1) Another case of parrot cleverness. Here's a Live Science video of a pet parrot controlling his own robot scooter.


2) A truly stunning gallery of altered book sculptures by Jodi Harvey-Brown. I first came to it via this short article about her work on io9.

3)Fabulous pictures of the Earth at night as seen from space posted on Wired. They're all gorgeous, but if I had to pick one, I'd say this this one, of Africa, with the crescent, is my favorite.

4) An interesting Nature article: "City Birds Use Cigarette Butts to Smoke Out Parasites". Birds often use plants that repel parasites when they build their nests; cigarette butts, particularly smoked cigarette butts, have a lot of nicotine which repels arthropods (Remember all those British stories where the man of the house is sent out to "smoke the roses"?). Anyway, it's possible city birds have taken to finding used cigarettes useful. If so, it may be a useful, intelligent adaptation on their part: Or it may be causing them other problems because of carcinogens and pesticides.

Photo from Wired

5) And speaking of codes (which I did on the last link list! I'm sure you remember
): Try these 7 Codes You'll Never Break" on Wired. I love the flower manuscript (The Voynich Manuscript, to give it it's correct name).

6) Why do wounds take so long to heal? It's a matter of conserving energy. Physics, meet biology. Biology: Physics.

7) Christmas photos around the States "Christmas Superfan Photos Reveal a Nation Full of Care and Kitsch", posted on Wired. The article also has a link to Jesse Reiser's Christmas page, which I really do want to see but could not, for the life of me get to load. I'm guessing a lot of other people wanted to see it, too.