Animals in Woodbourne seized in 'worst ever' abuse

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By Victor Whitman


Fallsburg police and animal control officers removed numerous animals on Tuesday from a ramshackle trailer home in the Town of Fallsburg and charged an elderly woman and her son with animal cruelty.Police executed a search warrant at 333 Rose Road outside Woodbourne, and found goats, rabbits, geese and two dogs living in "deplorable" conditions.Virginia Wagner McCombs, 81, and Donald Wagner, 62, were charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the section of Agriculture and Markets law that refers to "overdriving, torturing and injuring" animals.When authorities arrived in the morning, two cocker spaniels were tied by a rope to a pickup truck. The rabbits were in handmade chicken coops covered with feces. Goats were crowded into fenced enclosures on muddy ground. The property was strewn with detritus and hoarded items. Large rats were running around."This is the worst I have ever seen," said Joanne Gerow, Fallsburg's animal control officer.Gerow said authorities seized two dogs, 14 goats, seven baby goats, 23 rabbits, four geese and four chickens. All the animals were taken to a rescue farm in Sullivan County. Gerow said the animals appeared to have been fed, but will be evaluated..."  More

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2011

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As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2011 and posted it on Spotify.
The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there.
Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks A great song to kick off the collection, it also kicks off a short gun-themed set. Note that the collection ends with a gun-themed song too.
Imelda May – Johnny Got A Boom Boom
Danger Mouse – Two Against One (feat. Jack White) Danger Mouse's Rome CD was amazing - I chose 2 songs for this collection, but there are many more great songs too.
Chris Difford – Like I Did Good for all the rock-loving parents out there, and quite a lovely tune too.
Diego Garcia – Under This Spell I'm guessing Amy's Leo will like this one.
Gomez – Options
Imelda May – I'm Alive Sounds quite a bit like Nick Lowe; and each of the 3 Imelda May songs here sound different from each other.
Nick Lowe – Shame on the Rain Yeah, I should have included his song "I Read A Lot" but this fit better.
The Steep Canyon Rangers – Atheists Don't Have No Songs Steve Martin is amusing here. This song kicks off a short (and hopefully not-too-offensive) religion set.
The Dirt Daubers – Wake Up, Sinners
Eliza Gilkyson – 2153
Eleanor Friedberger – Heaven
Emmylou Harris – Big Black Dog A great sing-along song, whether you have a dog or not. It's fun for cat lovers too.
Iron & Wine – Tree By The River How can you not love a song with this lyric: "I mean the world to a potty-mouth girl, with a pretty pair of blue-eyed birds." ?!
Danger Mouse – Black (feat. Norah Jones)
Sarah Jarosz – Annabelle Lee
Robbers On High Street – Second Chance Thanks to Amy for alerting me to Robbers on High Street; this isn't the song she first recommended, but it's quite a fun song anyway.
Garland Jeffreys – Rock On The first of two covers; I want to pair this one with Spiders & Snakes.
Imelda May – Tainted Love The start of this song makes me think of the Waitresses, which surely was intentional.
Noah And The Whale – Just Me Before We Met My favorite line: "don't be shy; be brave little champion."
Peter Bjorn And John – Tomorrow Has To Wait
Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane Lolhusband doesn't like that there is only one lyric here, but I love how it sounds.
Thomas Dolby – Road To Reno It's been a long time since he's had a new album, and this was worth waiting for.

If CDs were more than 80 minutes, we'd have more songs here ... but these are the cream of the 2011 crop.

A Librarian's View of ScienceOnline

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I've submitted a photograph to #scio12 science-art show.  I wanted to convey something about science, which is tough since what I most like to photograph is flowers and cats. Ok, I could have argued that they were science photos, but I thought it was a stretch.
I thought more about it and decided to take photos of some of the books I've acquired (for myself or for my library) as a result of ScienceOnline past & current.  Here, therefore, is my view of ScienceOnline:

The books are, from top to bottom:

• Graedon, J., & Graedon, T. (2011). The people's pharmacy quick & handy home remedies. Washington, DC: National Geographic.
• Zimmer, C. (2011). A planet of viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers.
• Dunn, R. R. (2011). The wild life of our bodies: Predators, parasites, and partners that shape who we are today. New York: Harper.
• McKenna, M. (2010). Superbug: The fatal menace of MRSA. New York: Free Press.
• Linden, T. (2011). The New York times reader: Health and medicine. Washington, D.C: CQ Press.
• Tucker, H. (2011). Blood work: A tale of medicine and murder in the scientific revolution. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Mooney, C., & Kirshenbaum, S. (2009). Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future. New York: Basic Books.
• Specter, M. (2009). Denialism: How irrational thinking hinders scientific progress, harms the planet, and threatens our lives. New York: Penguin Press.
• Meredith, D. (2010). Explaining research: How to reach key audiences to advance your work. New York, N.Y: Oxford University Press.

You can check out (literally and figuratively) these books on my WorldCat list of ScienceOnline Books.

Field trip to Durham's @LifeandScience museum! #scio12

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I was thrilled to go on a behind the scenes tour of Durham's fabulous Museum of Life and Science at last week's ScienceOnline conference. Here is an annotated visual tour of the trip, with photos taken by several of us on the tour. I used Storify to curate the images, which were posted on Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube (the bear video is awesome; especially the last 10-20 seconds).

Thanks especially to Keeper Mikey for the tour!

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2012

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As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2012 and posted it on Spotify.

The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there. 

• When I Was 12 – Explicit Content This Stephanie-friendly, lite-pop album Dear Eskimo came out in 2009. How did I miss it then?! Fortunately, Amy came to the rescue & shared it with me in 2012 ... and three of their songs made the cut.
• Stars – The North (Breakglass Version)
• Lana Del Rey – Diet Mountain Dew So many great songs on her two-volume set Born to Die, the Paradise Edition, but I limited myself to this one.
• Chairlift – Cool As A Fire Haunting lyrics: "now that I found you, I don't have a choice ... with or without you, I don't have a choice." There are a lot of great songs on their album Something. 
• Carolina Chocolate Drops – Country Girl
• Norah Jones – If the Law Don't Want You ... neither do I. This is one of two songs I selected from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell. They're all a little country (or Americana), and they're all just like a Mary Karr novel. 
• The Little Willies – Jolene I heard -- and loved! -- this version before I heard Coach Beiste sing it on Glee. Coach's version makes the song even more heartbreaking, tho' I prefer listening to the Little Willies. 
• Lisa Marie Presley – Heartless Storm & Grace is my favorite Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis) album ... and this is the best song. 
• Lee Ann Womack – Momma's On a Roll The second of two songs from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell.
• Steve Forbert – Can't We Get Together? This is second of Steve's songs that mentions being in another time zone from his girlfriend; it also mentions the Raleigh airport.
• Josh Ritter – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home This whole album is amazing, even tho' it's an EP. Josh Ritter could make a great song out of a phone book.
• Citizen Cope – One Lovely Day 
• Leonard Cohen – Come Healing The entire album Old Ideas is terrific, but this song, with Dana Glover is especially haunting. 
• Josh Ritter – Why 
• Glen Hansard – Talking With the Wolves
• Sea Wolf – Old Friend
• The Mavericks – Back In Your Arms Again Not nearly enough Mavericks on the Suited Up & Ready EP, but what's there is great fun.
• When I Was 12 – Kitten I'm Smitten Really, who doesn't like a song with that title?  Of course, mittens are also mentioned. 
• Calexico – Puerto
• Allen Stone – Sleep This turned into a huge earworm for me ... mostly when I can't sleep, and this song comes to mind when I "feel it [sleep] on the ends of my fingers / Taste it on the tips of my teeth" ... You've been warned about the earworm!

Animals in Woodbourne seized in 'worst ever' abuse

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By Victor Whitman


Fallsburg police and animal control officers removed numerous animals on Tuesday from a ramshackle trailer home in the Town of Fallsburg and charged an elderly woman and her son with animal cruelty.Police executed a search warrant at 333 Rose Road outside Woodbourne, and found goats, rabbits, geese and two dogs living in "deplorable" conditions.Virginia Wagner McCombs, 81, and Donald Wagner, 62, were charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the section of Agriculture and Markets law that refers to "overdriving, torturing and injuring" animals.When authorities arrived in the morning, two cocker spaniels were tied by a rope to a pickup truck. The rabbits were in handmade chicken coops covered with feces. Goats were crowded into fenced enclosures on muddy ground. The property was strewn with detritus and hoarded items. Large rats were running around."This is the worst I have ever seen," said Joanne Gerow, Fallsburg's animal control officer.Gerow said authorities seized two dogs, 14 goats, seven baby goats, 23 rabbits, four geese and four chickens. All the animals were taken to a rescue farm in Sullivan County. Gerow said the animals appeared to have been fed, but will be evaluated..."  More

The Easter Bunny's Important Message

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Every year, around June and July, animal shelters around the country are seemingly instantly flooded with rabbits that are no longer wanted. Countless well-meaning families buy cute baby bunnies as Easter presents for the children, only to realize a few months down the line what complex creatures these are, what complex care they require, and what a bad combination a skittish, unneutered rabbit and a rambunctious child can be. Read this article on why rabbits don't always do so well with children and vice versa and read here about the importance of spaying and neutering.

Buying a rabbit as an Easter present is a time-tested bad idea. Sure, baby bunnies are ridiculously adorable, but they also require a varied diet, not inexpensive vet care, a spay/neuter surgery, daily attention and playtime, and intricate rabbit-proofing (which in turn requires a watchful eye and sometimes infinite patience). Rabbits are excellent pets, but only in the right circumstances, which includes knowing full-well what you're getting into. And if you've done the research and still think you're ready to get a rabbit, don't ever buy from a pet store! Instead adopt from a shelter or a rescue and save a life!

Buy a toy rabbit for Easter-- adopt a real rabbit for life!