How do you like your eggs?

Please forgive me a moment of self-congratulation, but yours truly has just won the Second, Maybe Annual, MBSL&S Spring Ocean Egg Hunt hosted by that magnanimous coral conservationist, Rick MacPherson. All those years of either studying or teaching invertebrate zoology have finally paid off! Amy Johnson would be proud - and would have disowned me if I had missed Mystery Egg #4.

I've always prided myself in being somewhat of a natural historian, so I jumped at the chance to test my knowledge and sleuthing skills. Of the 15 different photos up for identification I can proudly say that I immediately knew what 11 of them were, at least generally. It took some googling to narrow them all down to species level. Mystery Eggs #7, #10 and #13 proved most difficult. With a helpful hint from Rick, #7 came into focus. #13 gave me fits and out of frustration decided they must be related to #7 - turns out my frustration served me well. #10 was easily identified to suborder, but almost impossible beyond that. Luckily, Rick gave another hint, some fellow bloggers, Eric of The Other 95% and Christie of Observations of a Nerd, ran with it, and I did nothing more than swoop in at the final second. I certainly owe them both a cold, frothy beverage or two.

Other than blogosphere bragging rights, what, you ask, do I get out of this win? How about a copy of the incredible-looking book Reef and a snazzy Coral Reef Alliance "Hawaiian" shirt. Who's stylin' now? (though the bragging rights are pretty good too)

So, thanks Rick for hosting a great contest and for the reefy swag. I will wear the shirt proudly and can't wait to flip through Reef. And for those of you not familiar with Rick's coral reef conservation work, head on over to the Coral Reef Alliance, read all about it, and maybe make a charitable donation to a worthy cause.

Cooking 4 Four

Even though my blogging has slowed down considerably, especially in terms of actual scientific content, I've decided to launch another blog - Cooking 4 Four. This second blog is going to be a more personal and focused space, reserved for food-related topics and issues. Food in general, and healthy, local, organic, sustainable, home cooked food in particular have become an increasingly more passionate subject in my life, especially in terms of providing a healthy lifestyle for my family. Cooking 4 Four is an attempt to capture and share that passion.

At the moment, there is just a single, "welcome" post over there, but hopefully in the coming days, it will begin to fill up and take on the identity I have envisioned for it. Hopefully "from A to Z" will shape up soon as well - perhaps the focus I give Cooking 4 Four will help me re-find the focus here. Anyways, since there's nothing new to read here, why not check out the new place. And leave a comment in the welcome post to let me know you stopped by. Thanks!

Too soon to worry? part 2

Not only is Rick still incommunicado, but now Kevin Z. has gone strangely quiet...Should we start organizing a search party yet?

Too soon to worry?

It's been a week since Rick posted anything over at MBSL&S. I'm starting to fear the worst...

Critter collecting

I just came across this blog that documents a fish critter collecting expedition in the Bahamas by the President of the New England Aquarium. The collecting has finished (and thus the blog as well), but this "behind-the-scenes" account of the week-long trip is an interesting read.

Probably doesn't taste like chicken

Drop what you're doing and go check out Coral Week at Deep Sea News - everything you never wanted to know about those cnidarious crusteose critters.

Better yet, start with ChrisM's post about echinoderms that eat corals.

best excuse evah

Kevin Z. of Deep Sea News and the Other 95% (or is it the Other 95% and Deep Sea News?) was supposed to be part of the Earth Day Earthcast 2008. Howevah, he ran into a small problem on the way...

Darwin on acid?

Gibbon Jockey made a rare find - one of Darwin's music videos. Who knew?

I've always wanted one of these

Michael over at The Dispersal of Darwin has graciously bestowed upon this humble (yeah right!) blog the award of excellence. Thank you, Michael. I am honored.

The acceptance of this award seems to stipulate that I nominate other blogs for this award. Well, the number of blogs I read is relatively small. Those that I deem excellent and thus read daily (if not hourly) are those that I have added to the right over there under "Me Bloggin' Mates". So, if your blog appears there, consider yourself nominated for blogging excellence. Occasionally, I add new blogs to my blogroll, so if your name is added in the future, please also consider yourself nominated for this prestigious award.

Deep Sea News - Just One Thing Challenge

Do you want to help protect the deep sea?

Are you up to a challenge?

If you answered 'yes' to both of those questions then head on over to DSN and sign up for their weekly "Just One Thing Challenge".

Best of the Deep Sea

As one of the honored judges of this year's Best of Deep Sea News, I'm happy to announce that Craig and Peter have got their self-congratulatory series of posts online - "The Best of the Abyss", "The Best of DSN", and the "Fuzzy Yeti Award", where you can cast your vote for the best DSN post of 2007 (sorta like an Academy Award for Best Picture if it were only awarded to films by James Cameron) . So, head on over to Deep Sea News and enjoy the best of the best (does that make Craig and Peter, the Eric Roberts and Chris Penn of the deep sea?)