Friday saw the start of the Chinese new year, with this being the year of the horse.
Unfortunately the BBC News subtitle system didn’t understand the memo quite right, and instead declared this the "year of the whores", much to the embarrassment of the channel.
“Welcome to the year of the whores. People around the globe celebrate,” read the subtitles.
Via independent.co.uk
Multiple sources are reporting the awful news this Sunday that Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of Hollywood's most engaging actors, was found dead today in his Manhattan apartment of an apparent drug overdose.
Sticky Rice DC announces their newest thing that makes an already great place even that much better... DRAGON HOURS! Read on and happy weekends to you...
Bees are having a really, really bad time right now. They're being killed by mites, by viruses, by spores. They're malnourished by the monoculture, they're being poisoned by pesticides, and they're stuffed with high fructose corn syrup. Now, flies are laying eggs in their abdomens—parasites that mind control the bees and send them to their deaths.
Katherine Harmon wrote about the new rash of parasitism in 2012 when it was first discovered affecting honeybees in California.
The parasitic fly lays eggs in a bee’s abdomen. Several days later, the parasitized bee bumbles out of the hives—often at night—on a solomission to nowhere. These bees often fly toward light and wind up unable to control their own bodies. After a bee dies, as many as 13 fly larvae crawl out from the bee’s neck.
When we observed the bees for some time—the ones that were alive—we found that they walked in circles, often with no sense of direction,” Andrew Core, a graduate student who works with Hafernik and a co-author on the new paper, said in a prepared statement, describing them as behaving “something like a zombie.
But from California the parasite spread, and now, says the Associated Press, the the zombees have made it to Vermont.
“Right now, we don't know if it's an isolated thing," Stephen Parise, Vermont agricultural production specialist, said Tuesday at the state's annual farm show.
According to the website ZombeeWatch.org, a citizen science website set up to help bee keepers track the spread of the parasite, however, it would seem that the rash of zombee infestations is far from contained
Gluten-averse folks, rejoice! You will no longer need to stare, drooling and full of futile longing, at those tantalizing Thin Mints or scrumptious Samoas during Girl Scout Cookies season. You're going to be plenty busy stuffing your face with a delightful confection of your own.
As People magazine happily pointed out this week, there's a new Girl Scout cookie in town, and it's 100 percent gluten-free. Yes, you heard right: Gluten. Free.
Per the Girl Scouts' website:
According to the website of ABC Bakers, a maker of Girl Scout Cookies, the chocolate chip shortbread cookie will be making its debut in 20 test markets this year. The gluten-free snacks will be available in some parts of Maryland, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New York and Wisconsin, among a handful of other states.
"ABC will conduct research during and after the sale to determine whether to go national with this cookie in the future since ABC Bakers is all about staying on the cutting edge, and bringing people what they want in today’s world," the company's website reads.
Sometimes your craving for In-N-Out's double-cheeseburger and animal style fries is so strong, so fervent, that you'll be willing to wait half an hour (even an hour!) in the drive-thru line for it. FoodBeast put together a list of In-N-Out spots that have the longest lines from Google Maps' satellite images and we had some local joints that made the cut.
The Irvine, Redondo Beach, Huntington Beach, Glendale and Pasadena locations made the top eleven list. Out-of-state locations Las Vegas, NV and Dallas, TX made the list, as well as Daly City, Auburn and Pinole in NorCal.
Over 65 years, the family-run Baldwin Park burger restaurant has expanded into 295 locations throughout California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. And most amusing is the fact that In-N-Out's birthplace, the city of Baldwin Park, banned new drive-thru restaurants in 2010 to shed its fatty stereotypes as being a fast food hub. Plus, the residents there were getting tired of all the long lines spilling into the streets and causing traffic. Sound familiar?
Long lines are an important part of the In-N-Out may business model. Real estate blogger Brigham Yen asked the burger chain why they wouldn't open a location up in downtown. Turns out, they have some strict requirements: they said they'd need an acre of land with at least 45 surface parking spots and a drive-thru lane with enough space for 15 cars.
However, the award for the In-N-Out with the longest line surely has to go to the one in Texas on its opening day.
Via LAist
St. Petersburg, FL - How about an extra hour of evening sunshine in the Sunshine State?
State Rep. Mark Danish of New Tampa and state Sen. Darren Soto of Kissimmee both think it's a great idea and are proposing Florida become the first state in the country to move to daylight saving time year-round.
The move would mean an extra hour of daylight during the winter months because Floridians would no longer roll their clocks back in the fall.
"It'll be very good for the economy, it'll also save energy by not having to use the light so early, so it does help us," Danish told 10 News on Thursday.
Danish says the extra hour would be good for the state's tourist industry, giving visitors an extra hour of daylight to enjoy at Florida attractions.
He also cites a 2008 report to Congress that concluded an extension of daylight time saved about 0.5% of the nation's electricity per day. That's enough energy to power 100,000 homes for a year. However, opponents have argued in recent years that gain is offset by an increased use of the A/C.
Soto told 10 News he thinks the biggest hurdle in getting their bill passed is that "it's a new idea." He says federal approval may also be needed to make the year-round change.
Currently Hawaii, Arizona and Puerto Rico do not observe daylight saving time.
If approved, the change would take effect July 1, 2014.
Via WTSP
For an island of only 24 square miles, Manhattan sure has a lot of neighborhoods. Many have distinct monikers that might not seem intuitive to the lay-tourist, or even to a lifelong New Yorker. Here's where the names of New York's most famous 'hoods came from.
Hell’s Kitchen vs. Clinton
In recent decades, businesses and real estate agents have tried in vain to clean up the lively reputation of this west side neighborhood by renaming it “Clinton.” Gentrification and expansion from the neighboring theater district have certainly helped the beautification cause. Nonetheless, the area spanning 34th Street to 59th Street and 8th Avenue (or 9th, depending on who you ask) to the Hudson River just can’t shake the nickname “Hell’s Kitchen.”
At one time not so long ago, Hell’s Kitchen lived up to the nightmarish implications of its name—and then some—but the actual origins of the name have become something of folklore. One legend involves a seasoned cop and a green cop watching a riot take place in the heart of the neighborhood. The story goes that the young cop remarked, “This place is hell itself!” to which the older cop responded “Hell is a mild climate. This is hell’s kitchen.”
The second widely accepted origin comes from the name of a local gang, aptly called “The Hell’s Kitchen Gang.” It was the transgressions of this rough group upon which Herbert Asbury based his 1927 book Gangs of New York, which Martin Scorsese would later adapt into a film by the same name. Hell’s Kitchen was first mentioned in the New York Times on September 22, 1881; the paper used the term to refer to a tenement house on 39th between 9th and 10th.
The days of ethnic strife and poverty that once defined Hell’s Kitchen are long gone, but the name has stuck. Government and business officials drew the alternative name from DeWitt Clinton Park located on the outskirts of the neighborhood. Named for the 19th century New York governor, officials thought the local park and the name Clinton would evoke a sense of New York pride. But for now, residents and other New Yorkers alike proudly call this area Hell’s Kitchen.
Harlem
For a neighborhood with such a rich artistic and cultural history, the origins of its name are rather muted. Harlem is a modification of the name Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands after which this former Dutch village was named. The neighborhood is huge, beginning at 110th Street between 5th and 8th Avenues, and from 125th Street up to 155th Street from 5th Avenue to the water, and eventually from the East River to the Hudson River.
Greenwich Village
The heart of bohemia in 1960s New York, this lower Manhattan neighborhood has the Dutch and the British to thank for its name. Greenwich comes for the Dutch word “Greenwijck” which means “Pine District.” When the Dutch ran New York (or New Amsterdam, as they called it), a Dutch man named Yellis Mandeville purchased property in the Village. He allegedly renamed the area after another village on Long Island by the same name. The first recorded appearance of this name change appeared in Yellis’ will at the turn of the 1700s; the name has since been Anglicized to Greenwich. "The Village," as it's often now called, extends from 14th Street to Houston Street and from Broadway west to the Hudson River.
Chelsea
A quarter century before the American Revolution, retired British Major Thomas Clarke bought 94 acres of land located between what is now 21st and 24th Streets, and from 8th Avenue to the water. He built a home on the property and named it “Chelsea,” after a veterans’ hospital and retirement home for elderly soldiers located in Britain. Chelsea Estate would pass through many more hands over the years, but the name Chelsea hung around long enough to become the official name of the neighborhood, which currently extends from 14th Street up to 30th Street, and from 6th Avenue to the water.
The Districts
Many districts make up the island of Manhattan, but the names of a few in particular have become part of the geographic vernacular.
The Flatiron District
A rather recent addition to the Manhattan neighborhood family, the Flatiron District has the triangular shaped Flatiron Building on 23rd Street to thank for its eponym. The structure, built in 1902, was one of the tallest at the time of its construction and its shape resembles a hot clothing iron. Though initially designated the Fuller Building, people kept referring to it as the Flatiron until eventually that just became the accepted name. The Flatiron District became a “named district” in the mid-1980’s when the neighborhood started to become more residential. Today, it is also nicknamed “Silicon Alley” due to the proliferation of tech start-ups in the vicinity, and ranges from E. 20th Street up to 26th Street, between Park Avenue South/Lexington Avenue and Sixth Avenue.
The Meatpacking District
Now bustling with hot clubs and expensive clothing retailers, the “Meatpacking District” name has a very literal beginning. In the late 1800s, New York decided to name two acres of lower Manhattan’s west side after General Peter Gansevoort. This area became a commercial district, known as Gansevoort Market. By 1900, the market would boast more than 250 slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants. In the later part of the century, the district—which stretches between 9th and 11th Avenues, from Gansevoort Street to 14th Street—became less of a commercial food market and more of a haven for sex clubs and other “special interest” nightlife. Eventually, all other industry gave way to exclusive nightlife and high-end apparel, but the name remains.
The Garment District
Only one square mile, this midtown west area located just below Times Square (from 34th to 40th Streets, between Sixth and Ninth Avenues) housed half of New York City’s garment plants in the early 20th century. In its heyday, the Garment District serviced all facets of the fashion industry, from design to manufacture to sale. Most of the manufacturing business has since faded away from the area, but its historical contributions live on through the name—and a giant needle and button sculpture on 6th Avenue.
In The Heights
Though the island is relatively flat, Upper Manhattan still has a few heights.
Morningside Heights
The Heights formerly known as Vandewater, from the name of Dutch settler Harmon Vandewater, became Morningside around the time Columbia University was expanding into the area (around 1896). A city surveyor appraising the surrounding land found one spot he deemed unsuitable for anything other than a city park. This particular park was situated on the east side of a hill, perfectly positioned for a nice wash of sunlight every morning. In 1870, the city named it “Morning Side Park,” and it is believed to have inspired this particular Heights’ new first name of Morningside. The neighborhood's current boundaries are 110th to 125th, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River.
Washington Heights
Located below Inwood, the uppermost part of Manhattan, and above Harlem and Morningside Heights, Washington Heights (155th Street to 181st Street, river to river) is named in honor of Fort Washington. Built on what was at the time the highest elevated part of Manhattan, this fortress allowed American Revolutionary forces to observe the British Redcoats from afar. The name started commonly appearing in association with the area in the late 19th century.
Hamilton Heights
Once an under-settled area of mansions and estates in what is now West Harlem/Upper Manhattan, Hamilton Heights—which stretches from 135th to 155th Streets between St. Nicholas Avenue and the Hudson River—derives its name from the Hamilton Grange, the country home of Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton. He had little time to enjoy the leisurely life on his vacation estate, as he was gunned down in the infamous duel with Aaron Burr only two years after the home was built.
The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Murray
The hill may be long gone, literally leveled by urbanization, but its namesake lives on below 34th Street, from Madison Avenue to the East River. In the 1760’s, Robert Murray was a Quaker merchant who purchased land in the area of Iclenberg, a large hill somewhere around modern day 36th and Park Ave. Though the Murrays may have called their homestead Iclenberg or, later, Belmont, locals referred to his family’s estate as Murray Hill. The voice of the people won, and we have them to thank for the neighborhood’s name, though we can hardly blame them for its modern reputation as a frat boy haven.
To Bay or Not To Bay
These areas along the East River aren't technically bays, but that didn't stop residents from using the word.
Turtle Bay
In 1639, the Dutch Governor bequeathed to a few Englishmen a piece of farmland, through which a creek flowed—well, trickled—into the East River bay. The men would call the property Turtle Bay Farm. Some historians believe “Turtle Bay” came from the healthy population of turtles living in the creek, but the Turtle Bay Association posits the name was actually adapted from the Dutch word “deutal,” meaning “bent blade," because the bay resembles that shape. At some point in time, New Yorkers dropped the Farm part of the name and that area east of Midtown Manhattan—which stretches from E. 42nd Street to E. 53rd Street between Lexington Avenue and the East River—simply became “Turtle Bay.”
Kips Bay
Just a few blocks south of Turtle Bay, from E. 23rd Street to E. 38th Street and between Lexington Avenue and the East River, is Kips Bay. The neighborhood was named for Dutch settler Jacobus Hendrickson Kip, who bought property in the area during the 1600s.
Hip to Be Squares
Though technically not neighborhoods, the names of these rectangular city hubs have a few stories—and mysteries—of their own.
Times Square
When the New York Times moved its headquarters to then-named Long Acre Square in 1904, publisher/owner Adolph Ochs strongly encouraged Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr. to change the name to Times Square. McClellan agreed, and it was henceforth Times Square. Today, the tourist trap—and the 'hood most dreaded by New Yorkers—stretches from W. 40th Street to W. 53rd Street between 6th and 8th Avenues.
Union Square
Originally named Union Place, this New York City hub marked the intersection, or “union,” of two major city thoroughfares—what are now 4th Avenue and Broadway at 14th Street. There has been some speculation that the Civil War might have influenced the naming, but historical evidence points to Union Square receiving its name many years before the war broke out.
Lincoln Square
Lincoln Square, which lies between W. 59th Street and W. 72nd Street and stretches from Central Park West to the Hudson River, remains one of the great name mysteries in Manhattan. City records from 1906 show a NYC Board of Aldermen decreeing this piece of property be called “Lincoln Square.” However, either no one took minutes at this meeting or they were lost somewhere in the annals of time, because there exists little evidence as to why they chose “Lincoln.” Historians have yet to uncover public records of a prominent New York landowner with the surname Lincoln. Perhaps it was an homage to President Abraham Lincoln, but there’s just as little evidence to support this theory.
Herald Square
34th Street and 6th Avenue was named after the New York Herald. The newspaper no longer exists, leaving this Square’s name as its lasting legacy to the city.
Madison Square
Not to be confused with home of the New York Rangers—Madison Square Garden—Madison Square refers to the park at 23rd Street and 5th Avenue and the square surrounding it, both of which attribute their name to the fourth President of the United States, James Madison.
Washington Square
Originally farmland, like most of Manhattan, this public park located at 5th Avenue and Waverly Place was named after President George Washington, who was inaugurated in New York City. Fun fact: It was once a cemetery. A 2005 archaeological assessment by the City Parks Department estimates some 20,000 bodies are buried beneath the park.
The Acronyms
Finally there are the original acronym neighborhoods, which popped up throughout lower Manhattan and have a reputation for hipness. They’re also pretty handy helpers for learning downtown geography:
SoHo: SOuth of HOuston Street
NoHo: NOrth of HOuston
Tribeca: the TRIangle BElow CAnal Street
Nolita: NOrth of Little ITAly
Via Mental Floss
Moving Color is an innovative technology which takes glass tiles to new heights in terms of interior design. These are temperature sensitive textured glass tiles which change color with the ambient, body or water temperature. So when someone touches them or if warm water from a shower hits them, the tiles then literally “bloom with color”! How neat is that?
The manufacturer offer tiles in different sizes and for all sorts of applications - wall, floor and counter tops. There are also texture and base color options which allows you to custom the look you want. Clients can also choose the activation temperature of the tiles which will then go through 3 shimmering phases, each with a 6 – 10° rise in temperature. ”Once the temperature peak is passed, the base color returns and remains the same until the temperature drops.”
How much is this going to cost? It’s approximately $17 per standard size 4″ x 4″ x 3/8″ tile or $149/ft with reductions for volume discounts. It’s not cheap because the tiles are all individually hand made from recycled glass but you have to admit, they are “cool” when hot!
– Via bookofjoe
This year please dont forget to vote - Best Roof Top Bar, The Lodge at Red Rocks (heated and covered w/Capitol views!), Best DJ - SHARKEY, Best Dance Floor, The Lodge at Red Rocks
Peter Ogburn’s life of crime began with a copper mug stuffed down his pants. The radio producer was drinking a Moscow mule at the bar at Senart’s Oyster and Chop House not long after its 2011 opening when the impulse struck him: He’d always wanted one of the shiny cups but had no idea where to find them. So he unbuttoned his pants. And he took one.
“If you are a restaurateur and you see somebody walking out of the restaurant with a giant bulge in the front of their pants,” Ogburn says, “they’re either having a really good date, or they’re robbing you.”
Since then, Ogburn has accumulated three more mismatched mugs, taken from D.C.’s Boxcar Tavern and other bars in Las Vegas and Charleston, S.C. He regularly busts them out to make Moscow mules for friends. He admits he has a tinge of guilt about it, but he still ranks the thefts low on the scale of bad etiquette and crime. “People that are bad tippers and people that walk out on a bill are the most deplorable people,” Ogburn says. His justification is simple: “I always overtip bartenders, so karmatically, I think it’s all kind of worked out.”
Copper mugs, which are traditionally used for Moscow mules and help keep the vodka, ginger beer, and lime cocktails icy cold, have become a particularly hot target for covetous bar-goers. But they’re not cheap: The mugs can cost anywhere from $15 to $25 each. Pearl Dive Oyster Palace stopped using them because so many were stolen; Bar Pilar lost its entire collection of 50 mugs and doesn’t plan to replace them. Lincoln Restaurant tried requiring drinkers to turn in IDs to use its mugs, but that created a new problem—too many people just forgot their IDs—so the anti-theft measure was quickly dropped. Instead, Lincoln, which has lost about 30 dozen mugs to thieves, stopped engraving the mugs with the restaurant’s name to at least make replacements cheaper.
Copper mugs, forks, paintings, candle holders—it doesn’t matter. Patrons will take just about anything from bars and restaurants. The problem is so rampant that Eater has a recurring feature called “Shit People Steal,” highlighting pinched items ranging from a bulldog sculpture at Bearnaise to bar stools at Poste Moderne Brasserie. But restaurant thieves aren’t just your run-of-the-mill kleptos (though there are surely plenty of those, too). Fueled by some combination of thrill, sentimentalism, and alcohol, people who wouldn’t dream of taking a pack of gum from a 7-Eleven have no qualms about sticking beer glasses in their coat pockets. For some reason, many otherwise-law-abiding citizens don’t consider stealing from bars and restaurants to be stealing at all. And unlike in retail stores, where there are price tags, diners don’t always think about how the costs of their impulse grabs add up for restaurants.
More HERE Via Washington City Paper
Puppies/p>
Live video by Animal Planet L!ve
For peace of mind, we may prefer to imagine restaurants as sanitized bastions of total cleanliness. Their spotless surfaces have to exemplify the lofty standards upheld by tax-funded health and safety organizations, with everything from tables to spatulas properly scrubbed after each use. That's true, right? Guys?
But of course, restaurants vary in terms of actual sanitation practices. We recently revealed the hard, germ-coated truth about lemon wedges -- one study found 70 percent of them to contain microbial growth. Not all such growth is harmful to human health. Even one of the researchers behind the lemon study concedes, "Microbes are ubiquitous ... You're not going to escape unscathed forever." You can sure try, though.
Here are some other things to keep in mind the next time you're dining out.
Nearly 60 percent of food workers reported working while sick.
In a 2013 survey of 491 food service workers from 391 restaurants throughout nine states, the Center for Disease Control found that 60 percent remembered going into work at least once while sick. Of those, 20 percent went into work despite having symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea. Not okay!
Only seven percent reported being forced by management to work while feeling under the weather. So why'd they do it? The most common reasons cited were lack of paid sick leave, inability to find someone to take their shift, obligations to co-workers and thinking their symptoms weren't that contagious. Meanwhile, the CDC reports that handling of food by an infected person is a big factor in at least two-thirds of pathogenic outbreaks -- so someone is wrong here.
Saru Jayaraman of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United suggests giving the almost 90 percent of restaurant workers who reported inability to take paid sick leave access to that privilege would cut down on the scourge of flu each year. Activists in the District of Columbia recently won a victory for restaurant workers, helping pass a bill giving them the right to use paid sick leave after 90 days on the job.
More HERE Via HuffPo
What began as a wild west-style cattle-stealing case may have ushered in a brave new world of law enforcement officials using drones to gather evidence to put Americans behind bars.
In the first-ever case of a U.S. citizen being convicted and sentenced to prison based in part on evidence gathered by a drone, Lakota, N.D., farmer Rodney Brossart got a three-year sentence for his role in an armed standoff with police that began after he was accused of stealing his neighbors' stray cattle in 2011.
Brossart was arrested on June 23, 2011, but his family refused at gunpoint to let authorities armed with a search warrant onto their 3,600-acre property to investigate the neighbors' complaint. Brossart was later released on bail, and warrants issued for his three sons, but the family refused for months to respond to orders to appear in court, prompting Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke to have the U.S. Border Patrol deploy a Predator drone conduct live video surveillance of the farm.
More HERE Via Fox News
This weird trick could determine whether you or your friends are good liars.
As celebrity psychologist and possible magician Richard Wiseman explains in the above video, just extend the first finger on your dominant hand and, taking just five seconds, trace a capital Q on your forehead.
(Waits five seconds)
If you traced the tail of the Q on the left side of your forehead then that means you subliminally intended the letter to be legible for other people, meaning you are likely to be aware how others perceive you, are happy being the centre of attention and are probably a good liar.
However, if you drew the Q in a way so that the tail was on the right, so that you yourself could read it, then it means you are likely to be an introvert – and not very good at lying.
Of course, Richard Wiseman could just be lying about the whole thing…
Via Metro
Celebrity chef Mario Batali has agreed to whip up a $5.25 million payment to the captains, waiters and other workers at his restaurants who claimed they had been stiffed out of tips.
Two-thirds of what may be the biggest settlement of its kind will be shared by 1,100 workers — everybody from the bartenders to the busboys — at swanky Manhattan eateries like Babbo, Bar Jamon, Casa Mono, Del Posto, Esca, Lupa and Otto, and Tarry Lodgein Port Chester, court papers revealed Wednesday.
The rest goes to the lawyers who took on Batali and business partner Joseph Bastianich.
When the workers sued two years ago, Bastianich called it a “shakedown” and made a point of sarcastically thanking some of the staff who took him and Batali to court.
He also discouraged other workers from joining the suit, saying, “Only the lawyers make money on these lawsuits,” the court papers state.
There was no immediate comment from either famous foodie after word of the huge settlement leaked out.
Lawyers for both sides issued a single statement saying, saying, “The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”
Both
Batali and Bastianich have known for several months that a giant tab was heading their way.
The agreement was hammered out after a marathon mediation meeting in October and still needs to be approved by a Manhattan federal judge before any checks are cut.
The settlement covers staff who worked for Batali’s restaurants from July 2004 through February of this year, and the payouts will be proportional — based on the number of hours worked.
The case against Batali and Bastianich was filed by Stephanie Capsolas and Hernan Alvarado, a waitress and a kitchen runner at Babbo.
Capsolas claimed she was harassed after she sued.
“I have found the word ‘rat’ written on my locker at work,” she said in court papers.
Capsolas and Alvarado claimed they were forced to share their tips with other workers who weren't legally entitled to them — and charged they’d been short-changed on wages and overtime.
More than a hundred other workers at Batali’s and Bastianich's restaurants then joined in the suit.
Many claimed the multimillionaire owners refused to pay them the minimum wage — and forced them to work more than 40 hours a week.
Previously, the biggest settlement for tip skimming was the $3.9 million paid by the Shelly Fireman's Restaurant group, which owns Trattoria Dell'Arte, Cafe Fiorello, Fireman's of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Diner USA, Redeye Grill and Shelly's New York.
The famed Sparks Steakhouse had to pay out $3.1 million for the same practice, as did the Nobu restaurants,who settled with their workers for $2.5 million
Read Full Settlement HERE
Via NYDaily News
The majestic snowy owl that has captivated Washington in recent days was apparently hit by a bus in downtown Washington early Thursday.
The owl was struck near 15th and I streets NW and brought by police to the National Zoo, where it was treated. The owl suffered a head injury and survived, but details of the incident remain sketchy.
The zoo said it summoned veterinarian Jessica Siegal-Willott, who examined the bird at the zoo’s hospital.
Upon arrival, the owl was alert and responsive but subdued, the zoo said. There were no obvious physical injuries, although there was blood on the bird. Blood was found in the bird’s mouth, however, which is consistent with head trauma.
The owl was given pain medication and fluids sub-cutaneously.
Wild animals such as this snowy owl are provided care and released back into the wild by a state-affiliated, or in this case a District-affiliated, animal organization, the zoo said in a statement.
The zoo said the owl was taken to City Wildlife, a D.C. wildlife rehabilitation facility.
Abby Hehmeyer, a wildlife biologist at the facility, said the owl will get X-rays in order to check for other injuries, but the goal is to release the bird as soon as possible, according to the statement.
The zoo said it believes the owl is female, based on its size and color. Females tend to be a little larger and darker than male snowy owls.
“Oh my God, don’t tell me this!” Ellen Paul, executive director of the Washington-based Ornithological Council, said when told of the incident.
“Raptors will focus like a laser at whatever prey they’re going after,” and ignore everything else, she said in a telephone interview. “I knew that bird was going to get hit.”
The owl was first sighted amid last week’s frigid weather, perched on a awning near McPherson Square, 15th and K streets.
It dazzled pedestrians and photographers with its white feathers, yellow eyes and swiveling head. It later appeared on a ledge outside The Washington Post, on L Street just west of 15th Street, drawing a day-long crowd of gawkers.
Snowy owls have been spotted this winter from Revere Beach, Mass., to Little Talbot Island State Park near Jacksonville, Fla.
According to an eBird tracker operated by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the birds have been spotted in the Great Lakes region, the Dakotas and Arkansas.
They normally live in the treeless tundra of the Arctic.
In this region, there have been sightings at Reagan National Airport, Hains Point and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
