11/24/10

GREEN FRIDAY – Frog Gifts for the Holidays

Although this Friday is Black Friday, we’d like to offer an alternative: GREEN FRIDAYa day to order some wonderful frog gifts online—no pushing and shoving at the big box stores requiredl!  Enjoy!

FROG BOOK

Frog by Thomas Marent

Frog by nature photographer Thomas Marent features over 400 truly stunning images of frogs and other amphibians. A beautifully designed and produced book (published by DK), Frog is guaranteed to turn anyone into a frog enthusiast.

FROG PUZZLE

For kids ages 9-12 (and for puzzle-loving adults) here’s a good project for a winter’s day—a 300-piece Ravensburger puzzle of colorful poison dart frogs.

FROG CALENDAR

A gorgeous mini-calendar for frog lovers.

ADOPT A FROG

Adopting a frog or other animal from the World Wildlife Fund is a great gift for a child or an adult who cares about animals.

For a $50 adoption, you will receive:

  • plush frog
  • adoption certificate
  • full-color photo of a red-eyed tree frog
  • spotlight card full of fascinating information about your frog

Ipad/Ipod Apps

If you’re planning to buy your loved one a new ipod or ipad, why not fill it with a few frog or amphibian apps! Refer to our recent post on apps.

screenshot from the FROGS! app

SAVE THE FROGS totebag:

Forget plastic bags. Do your shopping with this cool eco-friendly Save the Frogs totebag and help support a great amphibian conservation organization.

PLUSH FROG

Here’s a cute frog to cuddle with: Ty Pluffies Pond Frog

CLOTHES FOR KIDS and ADULTS

Frogs Are Green Tees

Send a positive eco-message with our It Is Easy to be Green T-shirt with art by internationally renowned illustrator Paul Zwolak. Available in kids and adult sizes. (Proceeds go to amphibian conservation organizations.)

FROG SLIPPERS

We’re not sure we can resist buying these cozy frog slippers for the women in our lives.

FROG GIFTS FOR BABY

Happy Blankies

When you buy a blanket from Happy Blankie, one is also donated to a child in need. The blankies, available in different sizes, are made with luxuriously plush “minky” dot fabric, trimmed and back with silky, charmeuse satin.

ANGEL DEAR PILLOWS, BLANKETS, AND ACCESSORIES FOR BABY

Angel dear features cashmere-soft baby blankets, rattles, clothes etc. I have the frog pillow below, which has been adopted by our new “baby” (an 8-month-old kitten) as her preferred place to nap. It is unbelievably soft and cuddly!

Frogs Are Green Onesie

Let the youngest member of your family spread the word about our amphibian friends with a Frogs Are Green Onesie. (Proceeds go to amphibian conservation organizations.)

POSTERS

This year at Frogs Are Green a couple of amazing artists have donate their work to help our cause.

Children’s book illustrator Sherry Neidigh donated her art for this lovely poster—A Frog’s Dream: Save Our Home. (Proceeds go to amphibian conservation organizations.)

Paul Zwolak donated his art for this poster —It Is Easy Being Green. (Proceeds go to amphibian conservation organizations.)


STOCKING STUFFERS

Frog key chain

My husband gave me this frog key chain, which has a button activated bright LED light and makes “Ribbet” sounds. Occasionally I bump my purse and my keychain starts ribbeting, and I enjoy seeing people’s reactions!

10/30/10

Five Interesting Frog Apps for iPhone and iPad

Susan has taken a look at five of the popular froggy apps for iPhone, iPhone touch, and iPad. A few will teach you about frogs, one is for admiring beautiful frogs, and one is for fun only:

1. U.S. State Amphibians app

Want to find out what amphibians live in your backyard? Download the U.S. State Amphibians app by Scott W. Hotaling, which lists the amphibians of each state along with detailed information and a photo. You can zoom in on the photos.

Screenshot from U.S. Amphibians app

2. Frog Flip: Flashcards of Frogs and Salamanders

If you want to test your knowledge of frogs, check out Frog Flip by Proffitt Ink ,which has assorted pictures of frogs and their names, and then a little test section for memorizing them.

3. Frog Dissection

We’ve blogged in the past about alternatives to frog dissection.  One new app that’s been getting a lot of attention is Frog Dissection by Emantras for iPad, which received the Mark Twain Ethical Science Award from PETA. It is available on the iPad app store and features:

  • A virtual specimen
  • Clear instructions
  • Dissection tools like pins, marker, scissors, scalpel, and forceps
  • Touch-operated dissection
  • Dorsal (back) side of the specimen
  • Ability to open the external skin and muscles of the specimen using digital tools
  • Individual organs viewed in large 3D imagery
  • Below is a video introduction to the app. While most kids don’t have iPads, schools might buy a few for this purpose for kids to use for dissection. My college-age son Tim didn’t attend his biology class on dissection because he has ethical objections to dissecting any animals. A tool like this would have been ideal for him.

    4. Frogs!

    If you’re interested in amphibian eye candy, check out Frogs! , a slideshow of one hundred stunning frogs by different photographers. The app doesn’t provide information about the frogs or the photographers, but has lots of interesting photos. All the photos can be used as wallpaper by simply tapping the screen and pressing the “Save” button. This will save the image in your Photos app.

    screenshot from the FROGS! app

    5. Pocket Frogs

    Finally, if you need a break from all that amphibian study, check out Pocket Frogs. For the past two months, our google news alerts about frogs keeps coming up with stories about this new game. After a bit of investigation, it turns out that Pocket Frogs is a widely popular free app for the iPod and iPad.

    Pocket Frogs features lots of cute imaginary frogs and is a Pokemon-type game. You discover, collect, breed, and trade over 10,000 unique frogs. You can connect with other frog fans through Facebook or other online social media sites and it is fun.  We know because we have it!  With background music of the peepers, birds, and the sound of streams, it simulates being among them in nature. We hope it will put people in a froggy state of mind.

    If you know of any other fun,  interesting, or educational amphibian apps, please let us know.