Flying kiwis, purring monkeys, a blind elephant and tiny horses

What a week... I am deep, deep, deep into several new features, but the weekly news stories continue.

First up, this week's two new Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

Rarest Kiwi Species Takes Flight

Critically Endangered Purring Monkey and 1,900 Other Species Added to IUCN Red List


And here's my latest batch of articles for Mother Nature Network, which definitely gave me odd stories to write about this week:

Neigh-sayer: Utah congressman seeks to be ban miniature horses from restaurants

Auburn tree poisoning trial update: Jury selection begins [I can't believe I've been covering this story for a year and a half!]

How clean is the air? Your smartphone has the answer [This was reprinted by Forbes.]

Swarming bees keep New York City on alert

Surgery prepares elephant for possible contact lenses

That's it! More next week!

Cougar comeback, underwater astronauts, an aphrodisiac fungus and more

This week brought "only" five new, but they were good ones:

Cougars Are Returning to the U.S. Midwest after More Than 100 Years

Yarsagumba: Aphrodisiac Fungus Faces Extinction in Nepal

Live webcams follow NASA astronauts as they simulate asteroid mining on the ocean floor

Mexican drug trafficker accused of laundering profits through American race horses

Sacred banyan tree from Bhagavad Gita slowing dying

In addition to the new articles, Mother Jones reprinted another of my endangered species pieces.


Lots more in the week to come!

Platypus in peril, the wisdom of crowds, history mysteries and more

Wow, this is my 200th post here at the John Platt Library. That's a lot of articles and other goodies. I'm scared to actually go back and count the number of items that I have linked to over the years.

Anyway, here are this week's new articles. I'm going to start the links with this week with my latest feature article for IEEE-USA's Today's Engineer:

Crowdfunding: A New Opportunity for Science and Innovation


Next up, this week's two Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

100 Amazon Bird Species Are at Greater Risk of Extinction Due to Deforestation


Platypus Populations on Small Australian Islands Show Lack of Genetic Diversity

Meanwhile, last week's saiga article was reprinted by Mother Jones, linked to by io9 and a bunch of others, and ripped off by more than a few sites. It's good to be loved.


Moving on, here are four new articles for Mother Nature Network:

2,000 former NFL players file lawsuit over brain injury risks


New web site offers landowners interactive tools for managing woodlands


Lost for 147 years: First doctor's report from Abraham Lincoln's assassination unearthed


Amelia Earhart: Anti-freckle cream and forgotten distress calls may hold clues to her disappearance


And finally, the new annual report for Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences contains 5 articles by me. They're not bylined (I got a credit at the end), but that's fine. Bigelow does phenomenal work and I had a lot of fun working with them on this.

More next week!

Blame the spaceman, Chagas disease, Creativity and more

Last week, the week after Memorial Day, may have only lasted four work days, but my productivity didn't suffer: I had 6 new articles and a few reprints appear during those 96 hours.

First up, my coverage of endangered species for Scientific American:

3rd Annual Antelope Die-Off in Kazakhstan—Was a Spacecraft to Blame? [This was also reprinted by the Huffington Post.]

Researchers Capture Fleeting Images of Incredibly Rare Sumatran Rabbit [Video]

Meanwhile, Mother Jones reprinted last week's article on California Condors.


Next up, four new articles for Mother Nature Network, some of which were in the queue as the week began:

Chagas disease called 'the new HIV/AIDS of the Americas'

Kalamazoo ospreys get safe new roost thanks to enterprising filmmaker

Study: Nature inspires more creative minds [This was also reprinted by CNN's HLN]

New ParkScore website ranks 40 largest American cities 


In other news, the IFAW posted a short video from their Animal Action Awards. Give it a watch for a few brief comments from me:



 
I have at least four new features pending publication this month. One or two might be online as early as this week. Keep watching my Twitter feed for updates.

Asiatic lions, floating cities, starving dolphins and an award for me

It's the Tuesday after Memorial Day which means it's more like Monday for most people which means it's time for my weekly Monday morning compendium of the prior week's articles. Except it's actually been two weeks since my last post so this is a double dose of articles.

Why two weeks? Well, last week was an amazing change of pace as I trekked out to Cape Cod, where the International Foundation for Animal Welfare honored me as one of this year's recipients of its Animal Action Awards for my work writing about endangered species, wildlife trafficking, climate change and related topics.

It was a great thrill to meet the folks from IFAW and the other honorees. I'm proud of the writing I do and I am glad it is making a difference. Thanks, IFAW. This award means a lot to me.

Okay, on to the articles from the last two weeks. Sticking with the endangered species theme, here are the last several Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

Photo (c) Kishore Kotecha. Used with permission.

The Last 400 Asiatic Lions Need More Room to Grow–but Where Will They Go?

China Feeds Extra Fish to Finless Porpoises to Save Them from Starvation

California Condor Populations Hit Important Milestone, but Still Face Threats

Sanctuaries Established to Help Save Spectacular Kashmiri Goat


On a different note, here's my latest feature for IEEE's The Institute:

Online Magazine to Spark Engineering Interest in Teens


And finally, here's a big batch of environmentally-themed articles for Mother Nature Network:

Airlines see profits in shipping animals

Battle of the climate-change billboards rages on

PayPal co-founder funds floating city for entrepreneurs

Maine man to be buried in coffin made from the tree he protected for 52 years

Want the freshest fruit? New sensor improves upon the human nose

Scientists generate electricity from viruses


That's it for this time around. I already have several articles pending publication this week and next. Stay tuned for the latest updates!

Gorillas, Innovation, Aviation and Some Icky Stuff

Monday comes along but once a week, but I seem to have new articles appear just about every day. This week was particularly satisfying, as two long-gestating features appeared and my other articles did extremely well.


Let's start with this week's two Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American:

Photo courtesy Wildlife Conservation Society

Amazing Video: First Camera Trap Footage of Critically Endangered Cross River Gorillas [This was my most popular Extinction Countdown article in the last year!]

New Polar Bear Counting Method Creates Confusion [Boy did this one get the climate skeptics in a huff.]


Next up, my latest feature for Today's Engineer:

Career Focus: Aerospace Engineering Careers Still Flying High 


And here's another new feature, for IEEE's The Institute:

Get Creative with Free E-book on Innovation


And let's finish the week with this batch of articles for Mother Nature Network -- two of which you'd better not read while eating:

Necrotizing fasciitis claims woman's leg after zip line accident

Houston doctors live-tweet patient's brain surgery

Rio de Janeiro beautifying famous beach by removing billboards 

It'll probably be two weeks before my next list, for reasons I can't disclose quite yet, but make sure to follow me over on Twitter for the latest links as they happen!

Rhino sex, horse racing, volunteering and climate change

Okay, so the more controversial or sensational the topic you write about, the more readers you attract. Got it.


Guess which one of this week's Extinction Countdown articles for Scientific American got about six times the normal number of readers:

The Most Eagerly Awaited Rhino Porn of All Time [Yup, it was this one.]

New Conservation Plan Will Protect Endangered Zebra Species


Meanwhile, this feature for Mother Nature Network was the most-read story on their site for a few days, during which time it generated a pretty good number of comments. It probably didn't hurt that CNN linked to this story from their home page:

Horse racing: An industry in crisis


Meanwhile, these other stories for MNN were fun to research and write:

Where do urban chickens go to retire? Portland

IKEA introduces disposable cardboard camera

Wind turbines contribute to global warming? Media outlets say they do

Oh, and an earlier MNN story was reprinted by the Huffington Post last week.


Finally this week, my latest feature for LION magazine appears in their May 2012 issue. I can't link directly to the article, but you can flip through the whole thing online here. My story --First Responders Since 1951 -- appears on page 38.


This week should see two new features, if not three, and a whole bunch more of the usual environmental reporting. Stay tuned for updates!