Penguin Corkscrew and Then Some

The cool penguin goodies ordered from the NY Gift Show a few weeks ago just keep on arriving at a fast and furious rate.  Yes, it’s raining penguins at Penguin Place ladies and gentlemen, and just today we’ve received new  kids penguin backpacks and water bottles, as well as the return to our shelves of the fun Mr. Penguin Hat for adults and kids, the toddler penguin picture frame, the always handy penguin glasses holder and the personal penguin fan in everyones favorite black & white design.   But, without a doubt the king penguin this day is the very cool Penguin Corkscrew.  The classic deco design and pure & simple functionality make it todays, “New Penguin Product of The Day”.

Penguin Corkscrew ready for service.

St. Patrick’s Day Penguins Are Waddling In

With St. Patrick’s Day looming about a month away Penguin Place is introducing not one, not two, but a trio of plush penguins all decked out for the Blarney.  Back from last years parade is our own St. Patty Pete in his cream colored sweater with green four leaf clover front and center, and joining him this year is the very cute Patty McPenguin the 8″ tall Emperor Chick in green sparkling top had and matching scarf, and his second cousin  Seamus McWaddle also decked out for a festive St. Patrick’s Day.

They're always after McWaddle's lucky charms.

You can search in every county in the Irish Republic for the next hundred years and you’ll never find a better collection of St. Patrick’s Day Penguins than at Penguin Place.

Patty McPenguin is ready for a pint or two.

Central Park Zoo Debuts 4 New King Penguins

They are the new kings of New York!
The Central Park Zoo unveiled its renovated Polar Seabirds exhibit Wednesday  – and introduced four new King penguins.
Slappy, Lyle, Will and Robert, who waddle in that order, stood majestically on the rocks of their new home.
The gang of four were unfazed by their neighbors – dozens of Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins.
“You don’t really know what’s going to happen and we were set for anything,” zoo director Jeff Sailer said of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s decision to add the King penguins to the exhibit.
“But it was kind of anti-climactic. The Gentoos came up and formed a little circle around them. Then they walked away.”
At 30 inches, the Kings tower over the other penguins.
Slappy is the largest at 36 pounds. He eats more than  100 capelins a day.
“He is definitely the leader,” Sailer said. “The other day they were walking, he stopped short and they all ran into him.”
If all goes well, the Wildlife Conservation Society will start hunting for some lady penguins to join them.
“First, let’s see how they do,” Sailer said. “They are a little young.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the penguin crowd is gearing up for an active -  and noisy – breeding season.
“They are checking each other out and pairing up,” Sailer said, as he watched the penguins eyeball each other and squawk.
“It gets so loud in here, it’s almost unbearable,” he said with a laugh.

BY LISA L. COLANGELO  (N.Y. Daily News)

Penguin Prison Has A New Single On The Way

The Penguin Post has learned that Penguin Prison has a new 7” coming out on March 22nd via Neon Gold, featuring the tracks “The Worse It Gets” and “Something I’m Not”. This next single is an exciting first taste of things to come…

Penguin Prison!

Penguin Plunge to Benefit Special Olympics

For the 10th year, brave souls with warm hearts will heat up the chilly winter waters around Connecticut for a Special Olympics Connecticut 10th Annual Middletown Penguin Plunge on Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Polish Falcons Club, Nest 519 on Crystal Lake. All proceeds will benefit Special Olympics Connecticut.

Registration is at 10 a.m. with the plunge starting at noon. To register, join a team, make donations or volunteer please visit www.soct.org/penguinplunge.

For more information on how to support this event, contact Marc Mercadante at marcm@soct.org or call 860-887-1555, Ext 503.

Penguin Observations From The Toy Show

Walking (o.k. waddling) around the Javits Center this past weekend I noticed more than couple of trends. First, either the toupee’s of the veteran salesmen are getting better or they’re just not wearing them anymore. Maybe it’s the recession, but back in the day I use to walk the show and spot 2 or 3 big time rugs per aisle, and now I think I only counted a handful for the whole show.  Also, the free samples of cookies and treats are down, way down.  Another sad sign of the times.  Now, to the Toys. It looks like big eyes are in on many new plush lines this year and that includes penguins. When I say big eyes, I mean big like E.T. eyes.

Wait till you see the new TY Penguins.  This looks like a trend and only the market and you the consumer will have a say on whether it’s a keeper or not. I also noticed that many a toy manufacturer are knocking off my all time favorite low tech Playful Penguin Race game. I counted at least three straight knock offs, with only the box or the cardboard header at the top of the stairs tweaked. Apparently there is no patent on Penguin Race escalating stairs technology. There was also a Penguins Of Madagascar Race Game in which the penguin race side sticker panels were replaced with Madagascar Penguin stickers and the penguin racers look a bit like penguin / monkeys. The nice saleslady told me they were prototypes and will look more like penguins, less like monkey’s in short order. There was also a live Fox News report about Penguin Robots while I was standing right there at the penguin robot booth, and I was tempted to jump right into the live report yelling “Penguin Robots! What’s this about Penguin Robots!”, but truth be told I never really  came close to doing that. As for the penguin robots,  they  don’t do much other than purr and coo, and flap their little wings. There’s also a little robot baby that pops out and makes a cute sound if that’s your thing.  I’m not a big fan of high ticket silly items like these, but we’ll see.  I did like the penguin ice cream maker call Pengice, which I ordered and will arrive in early Summer. I also liked the very silly but very cool Penguin Chia Pet in which a plant will grow out of your penguins head.

In the end after about 20 miles or so of walking the Javits I ended up fairly satisfied with my haul for Penguin Place. About a dozen or so new items have already arrived here from my early February NY Gift Show orders including todays recent arrival Penguin Birdhouse and Penguin Thermometer. More penguins will be waddling in during the next few weeks.

PENGUIn Group Heading To Antarctica

A group from Siena College will be heading to Antarctica to conduct research that could improve green power as well as astronaut and aircraft safety.

The project is being funded through $2 million in stimulus funding announced today by Siena College President Fr. Kevin Mullen and U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko.

“The Recovery Act made an unprecedented investment in research and development to help foster the innovations of the future,” said Tonko. “Congratulations to Siena College and to the Science Department not just for being awarded this grant, but also for creating a culture that is advancing student skills, understanding, and opportunity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

The collaborative research program is called PENGUIn, said Allan Weatherwax, professor of physics and associate dean of the school of science.

PENGUIn (Polar Experiment Network for Geospace Upper-atmosphere Investigations) includes science and engineering teams from Siena, Dartmouth, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, The New Jersey Institute of Technology, the University of New Hampshire and Augsburg College, officials said.

“Siena College will lead a consortium of scientists that will continue to develop and maintain a series of autonomous observatories in Antarctica that provide critical year-round ‘space weather’ data from the Earth’s harshest environment,” said Weatherwax.

The money was allocated to the National Science Foundation through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Hope For Protecting Penguins

The globally declining state of penguin populations worldwide has motivated many biologists and other scientists to investigate possible solutions to this crisis that could inform policymakers. French experts at the Centre d’ecologie fonctionnelle et evolutive, working together with colleagues from the University of the Cape in South Africa, have found that closing fish zones in the ocean may have a beneficial effect on Cape penguins, which have been dwindling in numbers recently. These Marine Protected Areas (MPA) could also work for penguin populations in other regions of the world as well, according to AlphaGalileo.

Working together with government authorities and the South African fishing industries, the researchers were able to set up a unique experiment that gaged the impact of halting these activities on the penguin population. This was conducted at two colonies, and the full results of the investigation appear in the February 10 online issue of the respected scientific journal Biology Letters. Between 2001 and 2009, in just eight years, the Cape penguin Spheniscus demersus – which is also the only African penguin – has experienced a 60-percent decline in population, due to the lack of food.

The primary cause for their demise is the relocation or displacement of banks of sardines and anchovies, which are the main food source for these flightless birds. A further threat is posed by human activities, which compete with the birds in exploiting the low amounts of fish that have endured along the South African Cape. The country’s Marine and Coastal Management cooperated with scientists, and closed a 20-kilometer radius of the ocean in January 2009, so that no fishing vessels could enter. Another region, near a second penguin colony, was designated as a control zone.

Scientists then attached small, water-dynamic GPS devices to 91 birds, so as to analyze their feeding patterns, and the routes they took. In 2008, before the area was closed, the animals covered as much as 150 kilometers in two days, while searching for food, due to the lack of fish in their region. Some three months after the area was closed, in 2009, the vast majority of penguins traveled less than 20 kilometers in any direction, and always remained within the MPA. In the control area, the penguins traveled just as much during both 2008 and 2009.

Penguin Place Off To The Toy Show

As if we didn’t get enough new penguins at the Gift Show two weeks ago I’m off to NY for the weekend for the New York Toy Show.  Hope to find some great waddling treats for Penguin Place and one & all there.  This week marks the return of the Penguin Jack In The Box, the penguin wrap around bracelet, Waddles, Calvin, Mr. Peterman, Hugging Penguin Couple & Mr. Stripes Plush, Penguin Pill Box, Penguin Alarm Clock and the Fun Four Picture Frame.   I’ll be back Monday night with announcements of more new waddlers.

Oh boy! On the road to the NY Toy Show.

Lot’s of New Penguin Books Arriving This Week

We’re not ones to complain about having too many books, but we may have gone overboard at the recent NY Gift Show. This week alone we’ve received How Much Is a Million, How High Is The Sky, How Deep Is The Ocean, Penguins (Touchy Feely), Penguins (Level One), Penguins (Level Four), The Penguin (Animal Close-Up), and Sea World’s Baby Penguin (Board Book). That’s eight books in total with more on the way. I was always a sucker for books about penguins, but given that most of these books are redundant (they’re all kids books), and I’m trying to save money on the cost of shipping (books are heavy), I probably have over done it with my latest literary penguin additions. Oh well.