Blog

Stanley Tippett, or why I’ve Privatized Posts

This morning I got an email letting me know that I had a comment on the blog ready to be moderated. I went to read it, and some of the most vitriolic words I’ve read on-line jumped from the screen. Since I published, and subsequently apologized for, a post that compared Stanley Tippett to a movie character with facial deformities, these two posts have driven the highest amount of traffic to this website. It’s something that I’m not particularly proud of—that my adolescent comment about someone is the most popular post—and comments on the post indicate to me that it is polarizing issue. But this is not a blog about Stanley Tippett. I don’t need to host adjective-laden conversations concerning Tippett’s character, or my character for being so foolish to post it originally. So, I’m making these posts private—in effect, deleting them.

But this is the Internet. Making them private does not make them disappear. People with interest and a little know-how can find them. Which is why I’m talking about it and justifying my decision. I’m not making these posts private because of what I wrote. The original post was stupid and a mistake, yes, but I chose to leave it up for over a year precisely for the reason that things just don’t disappear on-line. Deleting the posts could be interpreted as trying to hide what I did or said. The post and the subsequent apology were a learning experience for me. I continue to own my actions.

Now, however, I am no longer interested in the posts becoming a sounding board for anonymous commenters spouting hate. Trolls, be gone.

Fragmented & Young Forest preferred by Migrating Songbirds

Black-throated Green Warbler
Creative Commons License photo credit: Jim Frazier

Research published in Vol. 126, Iss. 3, pg. 579 of The Auk has some interesting implications for habitat conservation for migrating bird species here in eastern North America. In short, during Spring and Fall migration, migrants showed no preference for stopover locations based on distance from a continuous, connected (river corridor) habitat, nor were they more likely to be concentrated in one forest patch over another. Plainly, the migrating birds appear to show no preference for connected habitats versus fragmented ones. Clearly, if this is the case, birds are using other criteria to select where they stop while migrating.

What is interesting, and not surprising, is the finding that during Fall migration, birds do select habitat described as “early succession forest” with high density of native and non-native fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. In the cannon of conservation, habitats that are fragmented or in the early stages of succession are seen as lower quality when compared to continuous and stable habitats. And this may still be the case when it comes to nesting (less nest predation in larger forests, for example)—but it would seem as though we might need to re-evaluate the assumption that these younger, more fragmented landscapes are of little or no use to birds and ultimately, bird conservation.

As migratory stopovers, it would seem that all forested landscapes—no matter how mature—are important.

Waves



Water & Waves, originally uploaded by Gavatron.

We’re back from our annual kayak trip to Cedar Island & Northern Georgian Bay. We had a great trip: Ollie enjoyed himself (as usual) and Griff went on his first kayak trip. Rather than being the crazy puppy that we expected him to be, he cooled down after the first night and was a super-dog.

I’ve posted this photo just ’cause its the synthesis of Northern Georgian Bay: waves and rock, each ending where the other begins. In other words: no strict boundaries. And, if you think of the processes involved in the movement of rock and water, waves are a commonality. This exposed rock took its form underground millions of years ago—subjected to incredible heat and pressure, it was more like a liquid than a solid. Bands of molten rock folded on itself, just like wind pushes the surface of the bay into ripples and waves. Now, captured in the photograph, the forms echo each other and act as a reminder. A reminder that often, that when it comes to perceptions about the natural world, all is not what it seems. Rocks can be waves. If we returned here in six months time, I could probably suggest to you that, in the cold of February, that waves have become rock.

Black Widow Spiders and Toronto: No Need to Panic

Black Widow Lit
Creative Commons License photo credit: snowboard4bradley

On July 22nd, 2009, The Toronto Star reported that two Northern Black Widow spiders (Latrodectus variolus) have been found in the GTA within the last year. This shouldn’t be news, as the article itself outlines that these spiders have been found throughout Ontario over the “past decades” but the reporting in the Star bordered on sensationalism (the spider is described at one point as “this fabled doyenne of death”) and, in my opinion, irresponsibly overstates the risk of the spider to those that live in the GTA.

Here’s what the article should have said:

If you live in the GTA, be aware that a female Black Widow Spider might be in a web underneath your discarded bits of wood from your deck-building project. But temper that knowledge with the fact that she’ll likely not bite you. If she does, she’s doing it in defense and while it the bite will hurt, odds say you’ll be just fine after a visit to a doctor.

So, do we need to worry about Black Widow Spiders? In a word, no. Here’s why:

  1. Black Widow Spiders are not aggressive. The spider will only bite as a last, defensive resort. This would likely be due to a human unknowingly placing a hand on the spider. Why unknowingly? Because:
  2. Black Widow Spiders are often found in out-of-the way places. Think corners of cupboards, under the pile of wood in the garage (they do like to hang out in outhouses, which is more of an issue in cottage country, not the GTA).
  3. The Black Widow’s venom is a neurotoxin. This means it does not kill flesh, resulting in necrosis. It hurts like a sonofabitch, yes, but the bite will not lead to sepsis and the associated concerns of a systemic bacterial infection.
  4. Mortality rate is less than 1%. If bitten by a Black Widow Spider your likelihood of dying from the bite is equivalent to your lifetime risk of dying in a car crash. For most of us, the likelihood of driving in a car is much greater than the likelihood of getting bitten by a Black Widow spider.

The Star article’s tone was alarmist by suggesting that we’re in some kind of deficit situation due to the lack of anti-venom:

Anti-venom is available in this country, but is in very sparse supply, says Dr. Margaret Thompson, medical director of the Ontario Poison Centre. “There might be two vials of it in Canada.”

Let me say that the reason that there is such little anti-venom in the country has to do with the fact that it’s not what is first used in the treatment of bites. It is true that kids, the elderly and the immunocompromised are at a greater risk of suffering severe symptoms of Latrodectism, the clinical name of a Black Widow Spider bite, but most outcomes from treatment for bites are positive and without the need for hospitalization, let alone anti-venom.

On-line, people seem to have reacted in the same tone as the article.

Case in point, commenters on the Star’s article are suggesting that the presence of these spiders is reason enough to bring back cosmetic pesticide use:

We need to bring back pesticides especially considering the fact the summer is so mild, not enough heat to burn anything off, not enough winter to kill things there now either. I for one will be using it regardless.

The use of 300 cosmetic pesticides has been banned in the Province of Ontario since April 2009. I’ll highlight the term cosmetic, aka pesticide use for looks only. If we do, perchance, happen to become overrun with Black Widow spiders, it will no doubt be considered a public health concern and pesticides will be used in eradicating the spiders. Just to reiterate: pesticides have not been banned outright in the Province and the presence of Black Widow spiders is not reason enough to bring back their use to make your lawn look nice.

Experience “Manhattanhenge” in Toronto

Toronto photographers, mark this date & time: October 25th, 2009 @ 4:18pm. 6:18 pm

This is the date and time, according to a piece of software called The Photographer’s Ephemeris, that the sun will be setting down the majority of East-West streets here in Toronto. Here is a screencap of the sunset along Bloor:

Sunset down Bloor

This phenomenon is called “Manhattanhenge” in New York and should occur (according to my quick calculations) two times a year and isn’t limited to New York or Toronto—any city with streets arranged in a grid will have two days a year where the sun sets down the street. I suspect that you’ve really got +1/-1 days to capture the phenomena.

Here are Toronto’s other upcoming ‘henge date:

February 15th, 2010 @ 5:47pm

This also works for sunrise, but I suspect that it’s a less popular option. But for those who are interested:

Sunday Aug 23rd, 2009 @ 6:31am

Sunday April 18th, 2010 @ 6:29am

To figure this out for where you live, download The Photographer’s Ephemeris (an Adobe Air app) and move the map to your location. Play around with the dates until the orange line lines up with the street grid. Easy-peasy!

As an added bonus, here’s more on Manhattanhenge.

2010-11 Dates

Sunset

Tuesday, October 26th @ 18:16
Tuesday, February 15th @ 17:47

Sunrise

Wednesday, August 25th @ 6:33
Sunday, April 17th @ 6:32

One week, two confrence-esques

look up
Creative Commons License photo credit: jnthnhys

I’m in la belle provence for the next seven days attending & presenting at the 5th World Environmental Education Congress and participating in the 10th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research (you can read more about the outcomes of the 9th seminar). The congress is during the latter half of the seven days in Montreal and the seminar happens from Thursday May 7th to Sunday May 10th in beautiful Montebello, Quebec (seeing as I’ve never been there, I should reserve the beautiful adjective until after I return).

For the seminar on Environmental Education (EE) research, I’ll be spending time in conversation and thought wondering why, for example, the above photo “screams” environmental education. More than just that, and perhaps more importantly for EE research, if the experience depicted above screams EE, what other kinds of experiences might we be missing as researchers? The theme of the seminar is “Making a Difference” and looks to be focusing on just how we can make the kind of research that gets done under the name of EE make a difference–for the environment, obviously, but also for different populations, including humans as well as non-humans. Think of EE research done in the name of social and environmental justice in addition to strict education about the environment. At least, that’s going to be my M.O. going into it ;) I’ll be pushing the non-human agenda, as is my want; so much so that I’m pleased to be co-facilitating a session titled “How can we move beyond the human?” with Leesa Fawcett, Sue Hamel, Gail Kuhl, Jan Oakley and Traci Warkentin. The whole event should be great food for the brain.

While I wasn’t initially enthused about presenting my research at WEEC via a poster, I’ve come around and I’ve enjoyed the challenge of turning some of my preliminary findings into a poster. Part of the fun is getting to be a bit controversial with the poster–I can put forward some of the more challenging findings, and see how the masses react. It will be interesting to see what kind of reactions, if any, I get from my poster. I do have a provocotive title (Am I being a tease? The poster is titled “Birding ≠ Bird Conservation”) so I’ll see if that gets me in trouble from any birding environmental educators.

I’ll be tweeting the WEEC confrence using the #weec5 hastag. Follow along and add your own voice if you’re going to be in Montreal. Tweeting confrences seems to be de rigeur for tech confrences. We’ll see if anyone in EE is into twittering too.

Why are people intrigued about Dolphins protecting Chinese ships from Somali pirates?

Dolphins protecting chinese ships from pirates

A recent story, that appears to have originated on Chinese news radio and picked up by Xinhuanet, suggests that thousands of dolphins helped protect a Chinese ship from attacking Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Best line in the whole thing:

The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor [sic] the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.

While the story is, at the very least, over-exaggerated, and likely completely made-up, it’s interesting that this narrative has caught peoples’ attention (as of April 17th, it had been bookmarked 55 times on Delicious and had been dugg 43 times). My simple question is: why?

(more…) “Why are people intrigued about Dolphins protecting Chinese ships from Somali pirates?”