2006-04-09, 08:20 AM — post your adverts here!
Discovered a not-so-cool little thing called "blog-spamming" last night, while going through some of my old entries. Someone decides to add a series of comments with basically inane phrases like: "Nice job!" "Awesome!" "That's great!" all with different names, and then somewhere down the line puts in "Barcelona Hotels!" Or insert other vacation destination, ad for viagra, etc.
At first I was all "What the hell?" and then fishy told me what was going on. Then, he kindly erased 600 extraneous messages from my comments. 600! And there are still more! People, it's not like I have more than ten others reading my website, much less my comments from a year ago. I need to keep on top of that, I guess. It irritates me. I am not a billboard.
In other news, saw my first phoebe of the year yesterday at the storm water management pond. I was over there doing some recon for a program I am doing Monday. I have a feeling I am going to learn a lot more about pond life very, very quickly. It will be kind of embarrassing if a bunch of grade eight students know more than me.
2006-04-06, 11:53 AM — first spring trailwalk
I have to watch myself. I keep referring to the kingfishers that nest along the creek next to our apartment as "my" kingfishers. In addition to the fact that this is not remotely true, it also leads to a very warm, fuzzy, proprietary feeling for that particular stretch of trail.
If (when) we move away from this apartment, I'm going to miss that trail very much. It led to a surprising pang of sadness this morning as I was walking it for the first time this spring.
In addition to the kingfisher, I saw a muskrat, chickadees, a white-breasted nuthatch, starlings, robins, a song sparrow building his nest, golden-crowned kinglets all over the place, goldfinches, mallards, and squirrels. I think that's it. I'm not including the clouds of gnats which seem to be back in force. Which would be why the kinglets were everywhere, I'm guessing.
2006-03-20, 08:58 PM — fund this, John Tory
I have to write about this here, because I cannot express how deeply this particular story distresses me.
If nothing else, it is a giant, flashing red warning to anyone who researches something John Tory doesn't feel is important. If you vote for this man, say goodbye to research grants.
I suspect he wouldn't have been interested in funding my lichen research, either, because it was a little removed from the air quality work Dan was doing.
He probably isn't so interested in the effects of urban noise and light pollution on screech owls. I doubt he gives a damn about dendrochronology.
Frankly, the ignorance that is painfully obvious behind his dismissive statements is appalling, and terrifying. I can't imagine how any biological researcher is going to feel safe if the Conservatives come into power in Ontario.
All this said, I do know that healthcare is important. I know that our resources are stretched. But it's so frigging hard to get funding for any sort of research that's not directly connected to human interests these days. And by "directly" connected I mean "having expressly to do with human health and welfare." The thing that John Tory is missing is that all knowledge, no matter how distant it seems from human interest, is in the human interest. The more we know, the better off we'll be in the long run. That kind of snarky, short-sighted attitude is absolutely abhorrent.
I think I'm going to write that researcher a letter of support. And if I can control my outrage, I might send John Tory a strongly worded letter of condemnation. Unfortunately, I suspect they tend to throw out letters that include the words "You and your small mind can go to hell."