National Geographic

Now this is for the birds. Literally. National Geographic has just launched a line of birding products. Backyard birders can choose from an array of bird-houses and birdfeeders, such as the Napa Wild Bird Feeder (pictured, $39.97), which is solid-steel, rust-resistant, holds up to 2 1/2 pounds of seed, and is perfect for attracting jays, finches, cardinals and grosbeaks. Also, birders can find several varieties of birdseed, including safflower seed, which deters squirrels; finch blend; or cardinal and songbird blend.

With its triangular, armored head, bulging eyes and serrated forearms, the predator attacking its prey is a menacing sight. The Transformer-like creature on the computer screen in George Grall's home office is actually a Carolina mantis chowing down on a red-legged grasshopper. And the larger-than-life shot shows what the Ellicott City photographer does best: capture the inner workings of nature up close. Grall, a freelance photographer for National Geographic magazine for 23 years and staff photographer for the National Aquarium in Baltimore since 1984, will give a presentation Friday, Nov. 16, at the Howard County Conservancy on one of his favorite subjects: the reawakening of amphibians in vernal pools.

The National Geographic Channel makes its debut next Sunday not from studios in some exotic location, but from 17th and M streets N.W. in Washington, also home of the National Geographic Society headquarters. In its first year, the new channel plans to broadcast some 400 hours of original programming, a blend of news, features and global field reports on topics including history, science, exploration and adventure. But perhaps as much of a draw for locals is the show's studio, which has the same interactive, on-the-street design as NBC's "The Today Show" (the sets share the same architect)

Stroll with Lynn Abercrombie through her clapboard house on the West River and check out the alabaster mask from Yemen, the head-to-toe woman's cloak from Afghanistan, the smoking implements from Egypt and the shrunken head from Ecuador. You'll see mementos of a life the retired photographer, a Shady Side resident, never set out to lead. "Oh, heavens, no! When I was a girl, if you went to Canada, it was a big deal," says Abercrombie, 81, who grew up in rural Minnesota and ended up seeing and chronicling the world with her husband, the late National Geographic photographer-journalist Tom Abercrombie.

In "The Bridges of Madison County," fictional photographer Robert Kincaid calls National Geographic about a photo he's pitching for a magazine calendar."

ODDS 'N' ENDS OFF THE BROADCAST BEAMS:* Anybody who's ever had a cat knows the word "owner" is a mere honorific. You never really own these creatures, but merely serve as a temporary landlord. Further, their aloof nature has a lot more in common with tigers in the wild than with that other domesticated pet, the dog -- at least according to tonight's 15th season premiere episode of the fine PBS series "National Geographic" (at 8, channels 22 and 67).* We saw them last spring for a few moderately well-received weeks, but they didn't make the fall docket.

SEATTLE - Getty Images Inc., the largest provider of stock photographs and images to media companies, has signed an exclusive agreement to make photography from National Geographic magazine accessible through its Internet site. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The Seattle company will begin offering the National Geographic Image Collection, best known for photographs of travel, wildlife, adventure and scientific imagery, on its www.gettyone.com in the third quarter. Getty, whose biggest rival is Corbis Corp.

Reg Murphy, a former publisher of The Baltimore Sun, has been elected to the top management post at the National Geographic Society, a job in which he will direct the ventures of one of the world's largest scientific and educational organizations.Mr. Murphy, who joined National Geographic in 1993, will become president and chief executive officer May 1. He will succeed Gilbert M. Grosvenor, the society's president for the past 15 years and a member of the family that has run National Geographic for five generations.

It may finally be time to clean out the garage.The National Geographic Society is putting all 108 years of its magazines onto computer disks that can fit on your bookshelf.The CD-ROM versions are being produced by National Geographic Interactive, a for-profit arm of the venerable not-for-profit educational organization. The company also is unveiling an Internet version of the magazine, which went online in mid-June."We're taking every page of every magazine for the past 108 years and putting them on CD-ROM," said Lawrence Lux, vice president of National Geographic Interactive.

CAN YOU NAME the longest river in Egypt? What do you call the imaginary lines on a map that separate east from west and north from south? How about naming the island nation that is famous for reggae music? We may not know the answers, but Michael T. Hauhn does. The Brooklyn Park Middle School sixth-grader knew enough answers to this type of questions to earn a spot in the state competition of the National Geographic Geography Bee on May 4 at Montgomery College in Germantown. Jan Meaney, geography bee coordinator at the middle school, said 76 students entered the first stage of its competition.

Yes, there's actually stuff to do this Thanksgiving weekend. Here's our list of happenings for the week of 11/21-11/27. MOVIES OPENING (Wednesday) Arthur Christmas The Descendants Hugo The Muppets (Friday) My Week With Marilyn NOTABLE TV MONDAY Basketball Wives L.A. Reunion, Part 1 (special; 8 p.m.; VH1) Designs Wars (series debut; 8 p.m.; HGTV) The Layover (series debut; 9 p.m.; Travel) Scare Tactics (season finale; 9 p.m.; Syfy)

Emma Carroll Diggs, a homemaker and volunteer, died Nov. 2 of a stroke at Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson. She was 97. Emma Carroll Gibbs was born in Danville, Ky., and raised in Adelphia. After graduation from high school, she earned a degree in 1933 from the University of Maryland, College Park. During World War II, Mrs. Diggs, who was known as Emma Carroll, worked in the archives of the National Geographic Society in Washington. In 1942, she married Dr. Everett S. Diggs, a gynecologist, who later established the gynecology and urology divisions at the old Hospital for Women of Maryland on Bolton Hill.

I 'm at that stage in my life where I really don't care about stuff like leadership, productivity and adding value. Sure, 10 years ago, I read "Getting to Yes," "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and "In Search of Excellence." I even skimmed "The One-Minute Manager" because that seemed apt. But now I don't aspire to build consensus, be efficient and achieve unparalleled success in the process. I just want to do the right thing. And I don't care if you follow me or not. I guess what I'm saying is: Go ahead and move my cheese all you want - as long as you don't eat it, because I love cheese, particularly Havarti and Gorgonzola.

T hose with the luxury of premium cable came face to face in 2002 with a side of Baltimore that city leaders would have shuddered to display even on public access channels. Taking advantage of HBO's patience with complex plots and permissiveness with coarse language, "The Wire" shined a most unflattering light on Baltimore's blemishes: the crime, the drug infestation, the poverty, the corruption. Categorized as fiction, the show played liked something from National Geographic.

The world is a big place and many of us have a bit of trouble finding our way around it. A 2006 Geographic Literacy Study found that two-thirds of Americans ages 18 to 24 couldn't locate Iraq on a map. I can't find my car in the garage at the end of the day; it's only because I read so many travel guides -- and keep the National Geographic Atlas handy at my desk -- that I have even an average knowledge of geography. But 14-year-old Peter Meehan, a North Harford Middle School student, has no such problems.

Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations National Geographic, $40 There are many definitions of the word sacred. For this book, the staff of National Geographic defines it as "those places that channel the wisdom of the ages, of far-flung cultures, and unique perspectives." The "Sacred Landscapes" chapter, for example, visits serene Crater Lake in Oregon and the mysterious Mount Ararat in Turkey, but also otherworldly Devils Tower in Wyoming and the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

WASHINGTON - A replica of 40-foot crocodile longer than a bus, with bone-crushing teeth and what its discoverer calls an "ambush lifestyle," took up residence recently at the National Geographic Society's Explorers Hall. Fortunately, the Sarcosuchus imperator - nicknamed SuperCroc - has been dead for 110 million years. Its bones, recovered from a desert in central Niger in Africa by a team led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, are forbidding enough. Sereno, an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic, and Brady Barr, a reptile expert, supplemented the real bones with plaster ones to create the complete SuperCroc skeleton model that went on display at the society.

For the first time in more than a decade, the National Geographic Society will launch a new magazine.And a Baltimore advertising and public relations agency will help make that magazine, National Geographic Adventure, happen. It launches in April 1999, but the work starts now with a year-long, $1 million-plus campaign.The Campbell Group, based in Baltimore, with offices in New York and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has done projects for National Geographic for a dozen years. But this one strikes especially close to home for Andy Dumaine, vice president and creative director of Campbell, and his business partner and wife, Cristina Creager.

Rarely is the question asked (at least until a president of the United States asked it): "Is our children learning?" Well - is them? It's a question that nags at me, editor of an online magazine devoted to such things as the beauties and the befoulings of the Chesapeake Bay and the oceans - especially in times like these, when, as our president also says, "You're working hard to put food on your family." Really. What if, while I'm trying to make this project pay for the noodles with cream sauce and capers I'll heap on my loved ones this evening, what if the readers I want don't even know where the Atlantic and the Pacific is?