Chrysocyon Baby Pictures

I am putting together the PowerPoint version of my honors thesis to present at our undergrad research forum next week, and so am scrounging Google images for maned wolf pictures. They have miserable reproductive success in captivity (details in the thesis!), so there aren't too many pictures of pups, but this one absolutely melted my heart and I have to share:


Poor kid looks like he already knows his species is on the brink. And look at that little tail! Bless his heart . . .but I think the next one wins the prize . . . who knew your offspring's ears make good toothbrushes?


And some human raised pups:


And one last one, now we know how their legs get so long, baby yoga:


(Image 1 credit, Image 2 credit, Image 3 credit, Image 4 credit)

GRF Season

The graduate school search has been inching along over the past few months. I applied to about five schools, visited three, and am now down to deciding between my top two choices. As with everything else in the country these days, finances and funding issues are unfairly large factors as well. I applied for the NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship grant back in November, and after months and months of patient waiting, notification season is upon us. Awardees are supposed to be receiving their letters over the next week or so.

I have been putting the little red flag up on my mailbox every day, even though I have no outgoing mail, just so I can tell at a glance when the mail has been delivered. But even when I see the mail has been delivered, I wait all afternoon and make myself complete the day's list of work and writing goals before actually checking it, just in case the letter has come, because I know that once I recieve the news, for better or for worse, I'll be too worked up to accomplish anything for the rest of the day.

At this point I'm not even really having anxiety over the fellowship itself, the main concern is that this award pretty much determines which school I'll be attending in the fall. I would like to know, already! But I am stuck in neutral as far as decision-making until I get word on the GRF.

So, that is the current status on my quest to become a graduate student. I have found a really great job for the summer, but am holding off on blogging about it until it is 100% certain, still waiting for all the paperwork to go through.

Pondering Pikaia has been neglected recently, I intend to be a better updater in the near future. In case you missed the announcement earlier this year, science news and research blogging has moved to Endless Forms over at the Nature Network, and PP is going to be more of a chronicle of my (hopefully) continuing progress through the world of academia.

Meanwhile, is anyone else awaiting notification about the GRF? Any stories about the experience from people who have applied in the past?