Results tagged “science”

DCist readers had plenty of opinions about the unusually bad ginkgo season that Washington experienced last year. As the fragrant fruits fell on sidewalks and streets last autumn, ending up crushed by passersby, that familiar vomit/jizz/poop stench combo emanated from all corners of the city. But the Georgetown Metropolitan observes that at least so far, it looks like the city's efforts to curb the female trees from producing fruit may have paid off this time around.

This time last year we we’re under a deluge of foul smelling berries. The city had switched to a new concoction to stem the growth of the ginkgo berries. It was a total disaster. We had berries straight through the spring.

Continue reading "Is the Ginkgo Situation Better This Year?"

       

In a circular plot of land in upper Northwest, the U.S. Naval Observatory has acted as America's timekeeper for over 150 years. Most people associate the USNO with the Vice President, but Number One Observatory Circle – a house sitting on the grounds, separate from Navy operations – has only been the VP's official residence since 1974. The real cultural and scientific draw of this institution is its role in using the Sun and stars to create our modern concept of time and navigation.

Though the National Zoo had expected and prepared for a second black and rufous giant elephant-shrew birth in as many weeks, staff grew concerned when the giant elephant-shrew appeared outside its nest three days after it was born -- nearly three weeks before it should have. Something was wrong. But on Sunday, before zoo staff could intervene, the baby elephant-shrew was killed by its mother.

We have to concur with We Love D.C.'s brownpau that the answer to Wonkette's inquiry from earlier this week about why downtown Washington "smells like dog-shit" right now is undoubtedly ginkgo fruit. The nasty little berries settle on city streets and sidewalks every autumn, though we admit that this year has seemed especially bad, with the mashed up fruit and accompanying stink lingering far longer than recent years. Brownpau plays scientician:

The seed is encased in a fleshy berry-like layer called a sarcotesta, which contains butanoic acid — a chemical found in vomit, feces, and rancid butter. (And delicious parmesan cheese!)

With so many museums in D.C., it's easy to overlook the wealth of fun and interesting events that are happening at them. Here's a round-up of some of the notable events and exhibits going on in July, including a look at baseball in D.C., a hip-hop happy hour and a chance to finally see what's living in your refrigerator.

If you don't have your milk, toilet paper and candles, Washington, you are so screwed. Why? 'Cause it's (probably) gonna snow. The local weather prediction deities at CapitalWeather are calling for a 70 percent chance of snow in the area Wednesday, with a 50-50 chance that we'll get more than an inch of snow. And as we all know, just like a child can drown in three inches of water, Washington can work itself into...

A happy Friday to you, Washington. Hopefully you all made it in to work on time despite Metro having reduced the speed of their rail cars in several areas this morning. Speed restrictions were in place until 8:10 a.m. along portions of the Orange line in Maryland and Virginia, the Red line from Union Station to Silver Spring and from Shady Grove to Grosvenor, and the Green line from Branch Avenue to Congress Heights...

MONDAY: Peter J. Gomes, pastor of Harvard’s Memorial Church, will be at Politics and Prose to read from his book The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus. Gomes believes Christians should be heeding the messages of Jesus, not objectifying the man. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Washington Post literary critic Michael Dirda wants you to know it's OK to love Fowler's Modern English Usage. How else would you learn that the "n" in damning, when it means "fatally conclusive,"...

Tomorrow we'll be greeted with the strange dissonance of 73 degree weather and a sunset at ten to five. Confusing as it is, the tilt of the Earth will finally win out, and winter will arrive sooner or later. But if you ask CapitalWeather.com, it won't be any great shakes. Bad news for us snow lovers and school kids, but great news for southern transplants and bad drivers. According to CapitalWeather's famed Winter Outlook, posted...

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: War/Dance Sometimes you need an antidote before the poison even arrives. Next week Hollywood releases yet another of those diabetic-shock-inducing films about musically gifted youngsters and how they can be an inspiration to us all, designed to make soccer moms everywhere weep into their hankies. One week prior to that, though, comes a documentary from...

MONDAY: Makes Me Wanna Holler and What's Going On author Nathan McCall will be at the Olsson's in Penn Quarter to read from his new novel, Them. It might sound more like science-fiction than a Marvin Gaye song, but it's about the complex relationship that develops between two neighbors in downtown Atlanta. 7 p.m. Robert Kuttner, founder and editor of the American Prospect, will be at Politics and Prose to discuss his new book, The...

>> Four D.C. firefighters were injured while battling a rowhouse fire at 619 4th St. NE this afternoon. [WTOP] >> A Jewish first-year GWU student and reporter for The Hatchet has found a series of swastikas drawn on her door. [The Hatchet] >> The leaders of a National Institutes of Health program recruiting minority D.C. high school students for science careers are disappointed that representatives of D.C. schools failed to show up for a...

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just...

TUESDAY: Tomorrow is a treasure trove for science and sci-fi junkies. Our reviewer raved about The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula. Hear author Eric Nuzum muse on the undead at Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St. NW, which will offer drink specials, while Olsson's will have books for sale at the bar. Fangs and capes encouraged. 7 p.m. Over at Politics and Prose, author Ira Flatow will discuss his lengthily titled...

Good morning, D.C. With much of the hot political action this week taking place at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, it's our job to pull your focus away from trivial issues the mainstream media seem obsessed with, like global climate change, and bring it back down to what's really important at the local level, like complaining about how gasoline could be about to get really, really expensive in Maryland. What's that you...

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Foreign: Stalker Revered in his prime as perhaps one of the best filmmakers Russia ever produced, Andrei Tarkovsky built his reputation on just seven feature films. As is so often the case, some of the most poignant art comes from those artists who must fight to bring their vision to an audience. Tarkovsky's films, often restless...

>> Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry feels "disrespected and misled" by Mayor Adrian Fenty regarding the changes the administration made to the development of Poplar Point, where plans for a new stadium for D.C. United have now been abandoned. [WTOP] >> The accused "D.C. Madam," Deborah Jeane Palfrey, is alleging that national security concerns related to the fact that Muslim men used her escort service before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks might...

One could say sitarist/composer Anoushka Shankar has music flowing through her veins. Daughter of Ravi Shankar, the most celebrated indian musician in the world, she grew up immersed in the ancient traditions of indian classical music. With her 2005 release, Rise, the 26-year old musician, who will be performing with her father at the Kennedy Center this fall, began a quest to merge her musical heritage with more contemporary sounds and influences. Thus, it comes...

>> Continuing their trend of showing only the weirdest awesome movies for free in this city, the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater will actually screen an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 tonight as part of their Screening Shakespeare series. Really. It's the episode of MST3K where the crew is forced to watch a laughably bad German made-for-TV adaptation of Hamlet -- as the press release rightly notes, "is that Ricardo Montalban as...

In our first installment of Buyin’ Oeno introduced you to a few “need to have” summer wines. Now that we’ve covered a few topics (and the end of summer is quickly approaching), we feel you’re ready to break out and be a little more daring. Therefore, we have come up with a list of some of you not-so-ordinary summer wines. We are always intrigued when we come across a varietal we’ve never heard of or...

>> The hippest bill tonight is new Saddle Creek Records artists Tokyo Police Club, a pop-rocking group of Canadians who will bring their catchy tunes to the Rock and Roll Hotel tonight to play with Ra Ra Riot, and D.C.'s Jukebox the Ghost. 9 p.m., $12. >> Band of Horses take the 9:30 Club stage tonight, and tickets are still available. Check out our review of their show at the Black Cat last year....

With Congress in recess, it's officially the August doldrums here at Reader, Meet Author. If you have any tips, feel free to drop us a line. Otherwise, read some good books and stay cool. MONDAY: Pushcart Prize-winning author Katherine Taylor will be at Olsson's Books & Records in Dupont Circle to talk about her debut novel Rules for Saying Goodbye, a coming-of-age tale that straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Man...

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Sunshine A group of astronauts are on a suicide mission to save a dying Sun, lest the earth perish as well. While it may sound like a plot suitable for Michael Bay's Armageddon 2: Bigger and Hotter, in the hands of director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) and his 28 Days Later screenwriter, Alex Garland, it may...

Written by DCist contributor Valerie Paschall Fitting the Montreal six-piece The Besnard Lakes into the small Backstage at the Black Cat seemed like a stretch. Containing the dense sound of three guitars and keyboards in the small room without destroying onlookers’ eardrums looked like it would take a small feat of science. Yet, the true feat was that even in that small room for no more than 75 people, The Besnard Lakes effectively conveyed...

>> National Zoo Panda Mama Mei Xiang may not be pregnant after all -- a recent ultra sound showed no evidence of a panda fetus. Sniff. [WTOP] >> Mayor Fenty thinks people should be able to swim in the Potomac. Sure, if they're willing to become bi-gendered. [WTOP] >> Just when you thought moving to Canada was the solution to trying live a saner, more civilized existence, they go and throw out the hallmark...

Big, buttery, and oaky wines, specifically California Chardonnays, are being pushed aside as cleaner, crisper wines are becoming the style of choice. Why the change? Well, there could be a number of reasons why people are shunning any white wine that has come anywhere near oak. One reason could be that the market has been completely saturated with this particular style of wine for the past two decades or perhaps it is as simple as...

The women of Venus want to once again experience a man's touch. A former Miss D.C. transcends all normal applications of the term "statuesque beauty". And Jane Fonda does what Jane Fonda does best: save the world. The Hirshhorn brings high camp into the realm of high art with the kickoff of their free "Summer Camp" film series this Thursday. The theme? The feisty, dangerous, and scantily-clad women of adolescent male fantasies 50s & 60s...

>> Two quality offerings from the Black Cat tonight: Japan's uber-weird noise outfit Melt-Banana take the mainstage with Hex Machine at 8:30 p.m., $13. Plus Falls Church native and now Richmond-based newgrass singer Josh Small is in the Backstage tonight, with Tim Barry and The Wading Girl, for a paltry $8 at 8 p.m. >> Campus Progress is calling all summer interns and other young folks to head over to Science Club tonight for...

MONDAY: French journalist Sylvain Cypel will speak about his book Walled, a look at relations between Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the barriers — both cultural and physical — between the two groups. Politics and Prose, 7 p.m. D.C.-area Star Wars geeks will want to check out Olsson's Arlington/Courthouse, where science-fiction author Karen Traviss will be talking about her new novel Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice. We love Han, Chewie and the gang as...

Three cheetah brothers, named Draco, Granger and Zabini after the Harry Potter characters, have arrived at the National Zoo to help add genetic diversity to its breeding program. The new cheetahs go on public display Friday. Zoo reproduction specialist JoGayle Howard explained to WTOP that the new cheetahs are vital because their genetic line is not represented in North America. Cheetahs are both critically endangered and very difficult to breed, so the introduction of a...