""
RSS feed
To talk back:
Send email to my first name at my last name dot com
-Keith Pelczarski
Random Nuttiness
Why go nutty?
Recalling London
Drink me
RageBoy Speaks!
More equal
Wonder Woman
Raging King, Fear Driver
31 Flavors
Refreshing?
On the edge?
Good Morning, Sunshine
Where is that post?
Interesting Voices
Randy Cassingham
Jonathan Coulton
Kevin Fox
Vince Hanks
Mark Hurst
Jason Kottke
Jeffrey Martian
Kerah Pelczarski
Max Pelczarski
Dave Pell
RageBoy
ResearchBuzz
Doc Searls
Tracy Sigler
Oliver Thylmann
Sites of Note
All Music Guide
Boing Boing
Financial Engines
The Fray
Google
Google News
How Stuff Works
Internet Movie Database
Memepool
Metacritic
The Motley Fool
Netflix
The Onion
Slashdot (/.)
Tigers and Elephants and Naked Mole Rats, oh my!
Yesterday, Kerah and I went to the National Zoo in DC. We went to see the baby tiger and the pandas, but stayed for the baby elephant, which was much more entertaining as it played with a ball out the exercise area. The baby giraffe, which got lots of love last year, got no play from zoo-goers at all. Kerah joked that it must be because he's in that awkward gangly adolescent stage. Of course, that pretty much describes giraffes for their entire life cycle, but what can you do? As cute as the animals on the other web cams are, I have to give the "Best Zoo Webcam Award" to the Naked Mole Rats.
Another cool thing at the National Zoo is the under-publicized Amazonia exhibit. It's actually cool that it doesn't get much press, because that translates into fewer visitors. It's a building where curators have recreated a little bit of the rain forest in a walk-through environment with birds and monkeys roaming free. It's similar to the Amazon River Forest at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Speaking of which, they have a totally kick-ass seahorse exhibit. The leafy seadragons alone are worth the trip.
But I digress... attached to the Amazonia exhibit is a really cool Science Gallery, which we had somehow missed on all of our past trips. It has lots of books, aquariums with more critters, a bunch of stereoscopes for checking out insects and stuff, a huge globe printed from satellite imagery, and some really cool computer exhibits. One computer had me entranced with the visualization of seismic and volcanic activity around the globe from 1960 to the present. The program they use is even available online if you're interested. The map of the globe starts out blank, but the tremors and eruptions stay visible as time goes on, so you can really get a good idea of where the serious tectonic action is. I just wish it was available as a screen saver.
In any case, you should check out the National Zoo if you're ever in DC. It's totally worth the trip. Just try to go on a weekday when it's not so crowded, unless you like to take in the roaming anthropological exhibits.
Monkeys are funny.
:: Keith 16:58 [link] :: ::
