Little Birdies! mentioned in Bird Talk Magazine...

Just thought I'd point out that Little Birdies! is mentioned in this month's (Jan, 2010) issue of Bird Talk Magazine. Look for it on page 32, in the "For You" section. I'll post a cover pic as soon as they post one on their site...

Thanks guys!

More on the CBS/Jack Horner segment: Real-Life Jurassic Park...

Lesley Stahl was on the CBS Early Show pitching her 60 Minutes segment. They're going to be covering the T-Rex soft-tissue controversy, and it looks like she's giving a lot of time to Prof. Horner's dinosaur retro-engineering/dino-chicken idea...



Must-see TV...
You know, you could always read about dino-birds here: Little Birdies! 

Paleontologist Jack Horner on 60 Minutes this Sunday...

Famed "Jurassic Park" paleontologist Jack Horner will be interviewed by Lesley Stahl this Sunday (Nov. 15, 2009).

"(CBS) If you saw "Jurassic Park," you've already met Jack Horner - sort of. That's because he was the inspiration for the film's main character, paleontologist Alan Grant, and he worked as a consultant on all three films. 

 To find out what Horner is like in real life, 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl met him at a dig site in the badlands of Montana and reports on how the famed dinosaur hunter is shaking up the paleontology world like a rampaging T. Rex - claiming to have found organic material from dinosaurs that has survived for tens of millions of years.

Her story will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. ET/PT." 

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Should be good...
Read the entire article here: Scientist's Dino Findings Making Waves

1970 Model 2 Norton...

This is a beautifully restored example of a 1970 Model S Norton Commando 750. It's the model my bike started out as. When I got it, mine had a blue metal-flake tank, and the tips of the upswept pipes had been sawed off for a little added sound. And I always loved that little ventilation opening on the front drum brake. The brakes on that bike barely worked at all; luckily it was one of the best handling motorcycles ever made, so I just made a habit of accelerating around obstacles instead of trying to stop in front of them. Worked every time...


I eventually got my hands on a burnt-up 1972 Norton, which turned out to have a Combat engine on it. I swapped engines and mounted the traditional roadster exhaust pipes, replaced the leaky Amal carburators for a pair of Mikunis, painted the tank a high-gloss black, had Vic Kessler do the gold pinstriping on the tank and side plates and proceeded to terrorize Flushing. Oh yeah, and there were those flat black headers. Vroom - vroom...

Preview of Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes...

The first seven chapters (56 pages) of the late Michael Crichton's new novel, Pirate Latitudes, have been posted on the Harper Collins web site. You can get there from here. Very cool...

Happy Birthday to the Bronx Zoo!

The Bronx Zoo opened its gates 110 years ago this past Sunday. From Gathering of Animals (Bridges, 1974):

"It had been a wilderness fifteen months before; it was a wilderness still beyond the twenty-two islands of accomplishment linked by graveled roads and walks, but there were 843 animals of 157 species behind its five and a quarter miles of fence, and it could proclaim itself the New York Zoological Park at last. And it did, proudly, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 8, 1899."

"It was an overcast day, with a cold northwest wind, and the speechmaking from the bunting-draped platform in front of the Bird House was mercifully short. ... at about 3:30, President Morton said: "Ladies and Gentlemen: I now take great pleasure in declaring the New York Zoological Park, and all its collections, open to the public."

"The visitors straggled out of the park before the early sunset, and no doubt the director, the staff, and the keepers were not far behind. Assistant Curator Ditmars and his keepers had worked until after midnight to get the Reptile House ready, and Hornaday's desk was piled high with unanswered correspondence for which he would be apologizing for weeks  to come. Madison Grant said good-bye and announced that he was leaving the next morning on a moose-hunting expedition in the Maine woods."

There's a nice, short Flash video and article here: Bronx Zoo Celebrates Milestone Birthday.

Buffalo vs. Montana...

Here's a comprehensive and up-to-date look at the depressing political machinations involved in wild bison moving out of Yellowstone Park and into Montana cattle grazing lands. This issue, of course, is brucellosis, a disease carried by wild bison that doesn't harm the bison, but can cause spontaneous abortions in domestic cattle.


In The Third Revolution, they solved this problem by getting rid of all of the cattle in the state (this was precipitated a trade embargo related to the little dust-up Montana was having with the U.S. federal government at the time). Unlike domestic cattle, bison are native to the land, eat the native grasses, can deal with predators on their own and don't need to be sheltered in the winter. And yes, they make better burgers...