MOS Week: Old (or not) Paleoart at the Museum of Science!

Well, first I have to open with some disappointment. I was hoping to visit the library at the Museum of Science and see if I couldn't go home with a camera packed with vintage paleoart. And maybe - just maybe - old Ranger Rick illustrations (I will never give up hope). I knew they had a copy of McLoughlin's Archosauria, of a crazy-awesome book called The Dinosaur Scrapbook with loads of old paleoart in it... and now this sign:



Wah. Got a nice view of the city, though, so there's that.



Even so, I found a terrific variety of old -or not- paleoart in the Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic exhibit. First up, something weird that is, thankfully, hidden away in a corner, as if embarrassed:



Wow... Wow...! And then I had a nasty flashback to something I saw in the traveling "Reptiles: The Beautiful and the Deadly" exhibit (with my reaction, via Arthene and Squee):



Oh, sweet Raptor Jesus no... (And fridge logic I'm angry at myself for not noticing right away: Clyde Peeling doesn't care about Tuataras. Or, as pointed out in the comments, every kind of extinct reptile after the "ancestral reptile".)

Thankfully, the record is set straight in their massive Dinosaur Family Tree. Sadly, I do not know who the artists are who made this or the sculptures, but this is pretty awesome. Click for the huge version:



Gorgeous, gorgeous mural (though it skimps on the maniraptors). All the colors and poses are in line with the wonderful and dearly missed Battat Museum of Science dinosaur model collection. This is the case with most of the recent art in the room. And yes, those murals are by the wonderful Douglas Henderson:













These Nyctosaurs are brand new, and they are amazing! They are probably the most recent addition to the room.



This guy puzzles me deeply. I really can't tell if he is more recent or older. He doesn't look anything like the Battat sculpt, and the low tail and naked skin screams 60's. But the color pattern seems a little modern. I wonder this because the older version of the MOS's dinosaur exhibit was almost nothing but 60's era dinosaur models. Here's a flashback to what this exhibit looked like in the 80's:





I have no problem at all with this whole room being gutted and started over. There is one little remnant of this version of the exhibit, and it's a strange one:



For the majority of the 80's, this was the most up-to-date model in the Museum of Science's dinosaur hall. They've still got him on display, with a card explaining how he is a reflection of the time in which he was made, and he looks very odd, especially with the more up-to-date small theropod in the mural right behind him.

I'm ending with this craziness from the gift shop:



Addendum: O.T.I.S. recently added a blog post about MOS and I am pretty sure we saw the exact same Opossum.

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Feederwatch Friday!

BIRDS!!! They are dinosaurs; deal wit' it. Also, I forgot to update this section before it published, but it's been a very strange week.

Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Song Sparrow 1
House Sparrow 25

Let us not forget the true meaning of Thanksgiving.

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It's funny how food-centric this holiday season really is.  I stopped at CVS on the way home and was delighted to find that Archway Gingerbread Men are back! For some reason, I remember these little gingermans were a favorite Christmastime snack and I hadn't seen them in a long time. I also seem to recall that they used to have about as much icing on them as that paragon of mass-marketed cookie, the Iced Animal Cracker. Oh well. Something finally something occurred to me while I was eating one of these cookies. Maybe you've wondered this too. They're always Gingerbread *Men*. You hardly ever see gingerbread cookies baked in any other shapes. So who in the world decided to anthropomorphise gingerbread?
Well, anyway, it's just nice to have them to accompany a mug of cocoa with a wonderful Christmas Tree Peep floating within (I am to understand that the Christmas Peeps that are flavored as stuff are the real finds but these are good too [note: this is before I knew about Cocoa Cats]) and the customary airing of Charlie Brown.----
As a fun Black Friday bonus, here's a "Q-Bert" Thanksgiving special. The 1980's was a magical time when you could make a cartoon about anything, but I had no idea that there was a "Q-Bert" Thanksgiving special. Here is an abridged version, care of The Retroist:

And speaking of YouTube joy, I can't believe I failed to link to this earlier:

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Feederwatch Friday!
I am thankful for having a lot of biodiversity in my backyard.
Rock Pigeon - 9
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 4
Black-capped Chickadee - 3
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
House Finch - 3 (Haven't seen these guys in a while.)
House Sparrow - 25

In addition, I had a flock of about thirty Starlings descend upon my lawn for about as long as it took to count them, a pair of Blue Jays, and a male Cardinal who quickly established himself as King of the backyard. All on non-count-days.
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"Why are the cute ones always insane?"

Forgive me if my "Simpsons"-quoting-Fu is a little off.  

Ah, TetZoo (the lovely Tetrapod Zoology Blog), how I love you. I have not sung your praises enough, but you teach me new things about animals I thought I knew everything there was to know about (or at least enough). And just recently, you taught me that Ti... er, Paridae have been known to wreck the guano out of Pipistrelle bats. Seriously. (NOTE: There are some graphic photos in that link that aren't appropriate for small children or big babies. That poor bat.)

Dude.Dude!
Really, I wish I could come up with a more eloquent word or phrase with which to verbalize my reaction to this, but... dude...
On a lighter note, and on the subject of blogs in my reading list thingie, I found this little stop-motion slice of awesome whilst doing an archive binge of Cake Wrecks:



I love how each different kind of frosting has their own personality and style of movement. It just goes to show that there are some concepts that a certain animation technique is just perfect for.
(Speaking of Cake Wrecks, my favorites are screaming Hannah Montana, this hilariously inappropriate "video games theme cake", clearly based upon the first interesting thing that turned up during a Google image search for "Video Game", and this truly horrifying edible reenactment of birth trauma.)
I am retaining the "two posts a week" for the next few weeks, as I am going to be working on a Super Special Awesome project starting next week. I don't know how much I can talk about it here, but I have to have it done by the end of the month.
I hate to be cryptic, but when the time is right, you'll learn more.

"Fun in the Backyard" 33

This time, Woodpecker courtship. Sort of. This episode was inspired by the comedy hit of the winter.

It isn't spring until I feel like I've thrown my back out while transplanting daffodils...

"Fun in the Backyard" Episode 32

We've covered Nut-hatch courtship. Here's Chickadee courtship. As usual, click for the big (and readable) version and it's followup:

If it wasn't yet clear that "FITBY" is my "just for fun experiment with different formatting, media, storytelling methods" outlet, it will be on Friday...

My gosh, it is actually not raining on Earth Day! I get to work outside!

Edit 3:45 PM: Yeah... I spoke too soon on that one. But I got to hook the hose up. :/

Wait... is it 1.18?!?

"Fun in the Backyard!" - Chapter the Third
Originally uploaded by Babbletrish

Seems like a good time to revisit this. It's "Fun in the Backyard!" - Chapter the Third. And with 4,566 views, it is - for whatever reason, I won't question it - the most popular piece I have ever uploaded. Weird.
(Though, now that I've actually seen "Cloverfield" - which was awesome - it's actually funnier. Also on-topic, new "Lost" on Wednesday!)