Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Friday, September 07, 2007
One sentence about the 2007 Detroit Lions
While I am very excited that the football season FINALLY began last night with the NFL season opener (the college games last weekend were still preseason, right? right?????????? please????), I am afraid that I find myself still a Lions fan. Despite the 10 win season predicted by our fearless QB Kitna, my attitude is much closer to that of ESPN columnist David Fleming, who gives this wonderful, one sentence explanation of why the Lions will win fewer than 8 games this year:
"The Lions were 9-7 in 2000 and missed the playoffs by one play (a game-winning 54-yard field goal by the Bears on the last snap of the season) when owner William Clay Ford, the great grandson of Henry Ford himself, pulled his own uber-Edsel and tabbed former NFL linebacker Matt Millen to run the franchise for a cool $3 million a year, despite the fact that Millen would continue to live in Pennsylvania most of the time (the Lions are located in Michigan), that he was legally blind in his eye for talent, that he wore sneakers with suits and that he possessed no actual front office experience of any kind whatsoever, zero organizational skills and, on occasion, the social couth of Britney Spears -- fatal flaws that first showed up with Millen's doomed decision to let interim coach Gary Moeller go in favor of the 49ers unknown and slightly quirky offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who has since become a good coach but was overmatched at the time and consequently went 5-27 -- a historic run of ineptitude highlighted by two things: his decision to kick the ball after winning a coin toss in overtime; and the choice of quarterback Joey Harrington as the third pick overall in the 2002 draft; Harrington, of course, was the first in a string of draft blunders by Millen (including, but not limited to, first-round busts wideouts Charles Rogers and Mike Williams) which were then layered by even poorer decisions in free agency that -- because of the current economic structure of the game that places a premium on fortifying your roster with inexpensive, young talent through the draft -- have crippled the the Lions at a rate of two years for every bad draft, which, by my calculations, puts them in the clear somewhere around 2047--something Millen might understand by now had he not spent so much time doing damage control for things like telling Mike Ditka during a radio interview about one of his players who was a "devout coward"; the true definition of which Millen himself conveyed a little later when he told Mornhinweg his job was safe while, behind his back, he was negotiating to bring in former 49ers coach Steve Mariucci, something he did, but only after being fined $200,000 by the league for not interviewing a minority candidate, an egregious error, to be sure, but also another fundamental, fatal, front office flaw considering how Mooch's schemes didn't match well with the personnel Millen had been able to cobble together through years of under drafting and over spending, leading to yet another season of futility, another sickening outburst (after a loss in Kansas City in 2003 Millen shouted a homophobic slur at Chiefs wideout Johnny Morton but kept his job) which led to the first recorded speculation four years ago about Millen's imminent dismissal (when, in fact, no one ever gets fired in this franchise, not even people who can't dress themselves) and then to what I think is the lowest point in the franchise's 77-year history: when Ford himself said he actually was pleased with Millen's drafts and his leadership and scoffed at complaints about Millen's 10-38 start, saying, "the fans, and I don't blame them, are interested in the won-loss record and I guess that's the barometer you judge success or failure by if you're a fan"; well, right, exactly, because everyone knows how unfair and subjective those silly NFL standings can be, I mean, that would be like someone measuring the Lions' heart only by that string of 24 consecutive road losses or something like the Ford Motor Company being judged strictly by its losses, layoffs and plant closings like the ones going on when, in 2005, Millen was given a FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION (the second most shocking thing in Michigan sports history after the App State loss) and Mooch was fired but allowed to continue earning more than $10 million not to coach the Lions -- something most NFL coaches would gladly do for free, just not potential candidates in Detroit like Jim Haslett and Russ Grimm who never received the courtesy of a phone call from Millen after he hired Rod Marinelli, a well-respected coach from Tampa who, nonetheless, led the Lions backwards to 13 more losses (seven of them on the road) and a humiliating 27-10 shellacking by Miami and former Millen scapegoat Joey Harrington on, of all days, Thanksgiving which, at least, inspired fan protests and walk-outs like the Millen Man March as Detroit -- softer (32nd in rushing and 28th in total defense), sloppier (minus-9 in turnover ratio) and slower than ever before -- suffered its sixth-straight losing season under Millen (who is now 24-72 with a league-worst .250 winning percentage during his realm despite once promising to "get out" if he couldn't win it all in five years) which, one could argue, did put the Lions in a position to draft fourth-time's-the-charm wideout Calvin Johnson whose huge frame fits perfectly with the rounded routes of offensive coordinator Mike Martz's schemes, thus giving the Lions the potential for a scary-good offense with a loaded backfield, a better line and three legit, downfield homerun hitters (Mike Furrey increased his catches by, oh, 97 balls in 2006); which, trust me, I know, is like waving a Vernors, a Coney (no mustard, light onions) and some Sanders ice cream under the noses of starving Lions fans, but could still all be for not if Kitna, 34, who got sacked 63 times in 2006, can't stay healthy and Millen's stellar backup plan, someone named Dan Orlovsky (career passing: 63 yards) takes over for the Motor City Kitties: a transaction that likely would lead to what is the only sure bet with the Lions these days: another contract extension for Millen."
"The Lions were 9-7 in 2000 and missed the playoffs by one play (a game-winning 54-yard field goal by the Bears on the last snap of the season) when owner William Clay Ford, the great grandson of Henry Ford himself, pulled his own uber-Edsel and tabbed former NFL linebacker Matt Millen to run the franchise for a cool $3 million a year, despite the fact that Millen would continue to live in Pennsylvania most of the time (the Lions are located in Michigan), that he was legally blind in his eye for talent, that he wore sneakers with suits and that he possessed no actual front office experience of any kind whatsoever, zero organizational skills and, on occasion, the social couth of Britney Spears -- fatal flaws that first showed up with Millen's doomed decision to let interim coach Gary Moeller go in favor of the 49ers unknown and slightly quirky offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who has since become a good coach but was overmatched at the time and consequently went 5-27 -- a historic run of ineptitude highlighted by two things: his decision to kick the ball after winning a coin toss in overtime; and the choice of quarterback Joey Harrington as the third pick overall in the 2002 draft; Harrington, of course, was the first in a string of draft blunders by Millen (including, but not limited to, first-round busts wideouts Charles Rogers and Mike Williams) which were then layered by even poorer decisions in free agency that -- because of the current economic structure of the game that places a premium on fortifying your roster with inexpensive, young talent through the draft -- have crippled the the Lions at a rate of two years for every bad draft, which, by my calculations, puts them in the clear somewhere around 2047--something Millen might understand by now had he not spent so much time doing damage control for things like telling Mike Ditka during a radio interview about one of his players who was a "devout coward"; the true definition of which Millen himself conveyed a little later when he told Mornhinweg his job was safe while, behind his back, he was negotiating to bring in former 49ers coach Steve Mariucci, something he did, but only after being fined $200,000 by the league for not interviewing a minority candidate, an egregious error, to be sure, but also another fundamental, fatal, front office flaw considering how Mooch's schemes didn't match well with the personnel Millen had been able to cobble together through years of under drafting and over spending, leading to yet another season of futility, another sickening outburst (after a loss in Kansas City in 2003 Millen shouted a homophobic slur at Chiefs wideout Johnny Morton but kept his job) which led to the first recorded speculation four years ago about Millen's imminent dismissal (when, in fact, no one ever gets fired in this franchise, not even people who can't dress themselves) and then to what I think is the lowest point in the franchise's 77-year history: when Ford himself said he actually was pleased with Millen's drafts and his leadership and scoffed at complaints about Millen's 10-38 start, saying, "the fans, and I don't blame them, are interested in the won-loss record and I guess that's the barometer you judge success or failure by if you're a fan"; well, right, exactly, because everyone knows how unfair and subjective those silly NFL standings can be, I mean, that would be like someone measuring the Lions' heart only by that string of 24 consecutive road losses or something like the Ford Motor Company being judged strictly by its losses, layoffs and plant closings like the ones going on when, in 2005, Millen was given a FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION (the second most shocking thing in Michigan sports history after the App State loss) and Mooch was fired but allowed to continue earning more than $10 million not to coach the Lions -- something most NFL coaches would gladly do for free, just not potential candidates in Detroit like Jim Haslett and Russ Grimm who never received the courtesy of a phone call from Millen after he hired Rod Marinelli, a well-respected coach from Tampa who, nonetheless, led the Lions backwards to 13 more losses (seven of them on the road) and a humiliating 27-10 shellacking by Miami and former Millen scapegoat Joey Harrington on, of all days, Thanksgiving which, at least, inspired fan protests and walk-outs like the Millen Man March as Detroit -- softer (32nd in rushing and 28th in total defense), sloppier (minus-9 in turnover ratio) and slower than ever before -- suffered its sixth-straight losing season under Millen (who is now 24-72 with a league-worst .250 winning percentage during his realm despite once promising to "get out" if he couldn't win it all in five years) which, one could argue, did put the Lions in a position to draft fourth-time's-the-charm wideout Calvin Johnson whose huge frame fits perfectly with the rounded routes of offensive coordinator Mike Martz's schemes, thus giving the Lions the potential for a scary-good offense with a loaded backfield, a better line and three legit, downfield homerun hitters (Mike Furrey increased his catches by, oh, 97 balls in 2006); which, trust me, I know, is like waving a Vernors, a Coney (no mustard, light onions) and some Sanders ice cream under the noses of starving Lions fans, but could still all be for not if Kitna, 34, who got sacked 63 times in 2006, can't stay healthy and Millen's stellar backup plan, someone named Dan Orlovsky (career passing: 63 yards) takes over for the Motor City Kitties: a transaction that likely would lead to what is the only sure bet with the Lions these days: another contract extension for Millen."
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Home sweet home!
I'm back at home (and reunited with my cat!) after a nice two week vacation. I accomplished my vacation goal of riding the Seadoo every day (even when it was 62 degrees and raining!, pictured above) and I also waterskiied for the the first time in a few years which felt great! Several of my friends came out to visit for a day, which was fun, and the weather was only semi-bad that day instead of terrible like usual. Finally, we had some excitement our 2nd to last night when a big storm came through and blew our boat away. (We later recovered it.) Now, it is back to real life and back to work. New goal: writing my thesis. My Seadoo goal was a lot more fun!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Read this if you eat meat
The text below is from an article by Gregg Easterbrook (one of my favorite ESPN.com writers). He is discussing the Michael Vick dog fighting situation but in doing so he does a great job pointing out why any of us who eat meat are responsible for cruelty to animals that is equal to or worse than what Vick did.
"Yet I can't help feeling there is overkill in the social, media and legal reactions to Vick, and that the overkill originates in hypocrisy about animals.
Thousands of animals are mistreated or killed in the United States every day without the killers so much as being criticized, let alone imprisoned. Ranchers and farmers kill stock animals or horses that are sick or injured. Some ranchers kill stock animals as gently as possible, others callously; in either case, prosecution is nearly unheard of. As Derek Jackson pointed out last week in the Boston Globe, greyhound tracks routinely race dogs to exhaustion and injury, then kill the losers, or simply eliminate less-strong pups: "184,604 greyhound puppies judged to be inferior for racing" were killed, legally, in the last 20 years.
Hunters shoot animals for sport. They do so lawfully, while the manner in which Vick harmed his dogs was unlawful. But from the perspective of the animal, there seems little difference between a hunter with a state game license zipped in his vest pocket shooting a deer as part of something the hunter views as really fun sport, and Vick shooting a dog as part of something Vick views as really fun sport. In both cases, animals suffer for human entertainment. The animal-ethics distinction between Vick's actions and lawful game hunting are murky at best. A first-time offender should go to prison over a murky distinction?
Much more troubling is that the overwhelming majority of Americans who eat meat and poultry -- I'm enthusiastically among them -- are complicit in the systematic cruel treatment of huge numbers of animals. Snickering about this, or saying you're tired of hearing about it, doesn't make it go away. Most animals used for meat experience miserable lives under cruel conditions, including confinement for extended periods in pits of excrement. (Michael Pollan, who enthusiastically consumes meat and fowl, describes the mistreatment in his important new book The Omnivore's Dilemma.) Meat animals don't magically stop living when it's time to become a product; they suffer as they die. One of Vick's dogs was shot, another electrocuted. Gunshots and electrocution are federally approved methods of livestock slaughter, sanctioned by the Department of Agriculture for the killing of cows and pigs. Regulations under the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958 give federal sanction to shooting cows or pigs, or running electrical current through their bodies. Shooting and electrocution are viewed by federal law as humane ways to kill animals that will be consumed. Federal rules also allow slaughterhouses to hit cows in the head with a fast-moving piston that stuns them into semiconsciousness before they are sliced up. Being hit in the head with a powerful piston -- does that sound a bit painful, a bit cruel? It's done to tens of thousands of steers per year, lawfully.
Don't say "eew, gross" about how meat animals are butchered, then return to denouncing Vick. If you're eating a cheeseburger or BLT or steak or pot roast today, there's a good chance you are dining on an animal that was shot or electrocuted. You are complicit. You freely bought the meat, you did not demand Congress strengthen the Humane Slaughter Act. Livestock can be calmed and drugged before being slain. A few slaughterhouses do this, but most don't because it raises costs, and you, the consumer, demand the lowest possible price for your meal. Now about your turkey sub or coq au vin. Federal slaughter regulations apply mainly to large animals, leaving considerable freedom in the killing of fowl. Many poultry slaughterhouses kill chickens by slashing their throats rather than snapping their necks. Snapping the neck kills the bird quickly, ending suffering, but then the heart dies quickly, too. Slashing the throat causes the bird to live in agony for several minutes, heart still beating and pumping blood out of the slash -- and consumers prefer bloodless chicken meat.
Further, the Humane Slaughter Act exempts kosher and halal slaughter. In both traditions, the cow or lamb must be conscious when killed by having its carotid artery, or esophagus and trachea, slashed. The animal bleeds to death, convulsing in agony, as its heart pumps blood, which is viewed as unclean, out of the slashed openings. The delicious pastrami we consumed at a kosher deli, or the wonderfully good beef we could buy at a halal butcher, comes from an animal that suffered as it died.
Yes, Vick broke the law; yes, he arrogantly lied and refused to apologize when first caught; and yes, his actions before and after the dog killings indicate he is one stupid, stupid man. But Vick's lawbreaking was relatively minor compared to animal mistreatment that happens continuously, within the law, at nearly all levels of the meat production industry, and with which all but vegetarians are complicit. There is some kind of mass neurosis at work in the rush to denounce Vick, wag fingers and say he deserved even worse. Society wants to scapegoat Vick to avoid contemplating its own routine, systematic killing of animals. We couldn't all become vegetarians tomorrow: that is not practical. But American society is not even attempting to make the handling of meat animals less brutal, let alone working to transition away from a food-production order in which huge numbers of animals are systematically mistreated, then killed in ways that inflict terror and pain. We won't lift a finger to change the way animals die for us. But we will demand Michael Vick serve prison time to atone for our sins."
"Yet I can't help feeling there is overkill in the social, media and legal reactions to Vick, and that the overkill originates in hypocrisy about animals.
Thousands of animals are mistreated or killed in the United States every day without the killers so much as being criticized, let alone imprisoned. Ranchers and farmers kill stock animals or horses that are sick or injured. Some ranchers kill stock animals as gently as possible, others callously; in either case, prosecution is nearly unheard of. As Derek Jackson pointed out last week in the Boston Globe, greyhound tracks routinely race dogs to exhaustion and injury, then kill the losers, or simply eliminate less-strong pups: "184,604 greyhound puppies judged to be inferior for racing" were killed, legally, in the last 20 years.
Hunters shoot animals for sport. They do so lawfully, while the manner in which Vick harmed his dogs was unlawful. But from the perspective of the animal, there seems little difference between a hunter with a state game license zipped in his vest pocket shooting a deer as part of something the hunter views as really fun sport, and Vick shooting a dog as part of something Vick views as really fun sport. In both cases, animals suffer for human entertainment. The animal-ethics distinction between Vick's actions and lawful game hunting are murky at best. A first-time offender should go to prison over a murky distinction?
Much more troubling is that the overwhelming majority of Americans who eat meat and poultry -- I'm enthusiastically among them -- are complicit in the systematic cruel treatment of huge numbers of animals. Snickering about this, or saying you're tired of hearing about it, doesn't make it go away. Most animals used for meat experience miserable lives under cruel conditions, including confinement for extended periods in pits of excrement. (Michael Pollan, who enthusiastically consumes meat and fowl, describes the mistreatment in his important new book The Omnivore's Dilemma.) Meat animals don't magically stop living when it's time to become a product; they suffer as they die. One of Vick's dogs was shot, another electrocuted. Gunshots and electrocution are federally approved methods of livestock slaughter, sanctioned by the Department of Agriculture for the killing of cows and pigs. Regulations under the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958 give federal sanction to shooting cows or pigs, or running electrical current through their bodies. Shooting and electrocution are viewed by federal law as humane ways to kill animals that will be consumed. Federal rules also allow slaughterhouses to hit cows in the head with a fast-moving piston that stuns them into semiconsciousness before they are sliced up. Being hit in the head with a powerful piston -- does that sound a bit painful, a bit cruel? It's done to tens of thousands of steers per year, lawfully.
Don't say "eew, gross" about how meat animals are butchered, then return to denouncing Vick. If you're eating a cheeseburger or BLT or steak or pot roast today, there's a good chance you are dining on an animal that was shot or electrocuted. You are complicit. You freely bought the meat, you did not demand Congress strengthen the Humane Slaughter Act. Livestock can be calmed and drugged before being slain. A few slaughterhouses do this, but most don't because it raises costs, and you, the consumer, demand the lowest possible price for your meal. Now about your turkey sub or coq au vin. Federal slaughter regulations apply mainly to large animals, leaving considerable freedom in the killing of fowl. Many poultry slaughterhouses kill chickens by slashing their throats rather than snapping their necks. Snapping the neck kills the bird quickly, ending suffering, but then the heart dies quickly, too. Slashing the throat causes the bird to live in agony for several minutes, heart still beating and pumping blood out of the slash -- and consumers prefer bloodless chicken meat.
Further, the Humane Slaughter Act exempts kosher and halal slaughter. In both traditions, the cow or lamb must be conscious when killed by having its carotid artery, or esophagus and trachea, slashed. The animal bleeds to death, convulsing in agony, as its heart pumps blood, which is viewed as unclean, out of the slashed openings. The delicious pastrami we consumed at a kosher deli, or the wonderfully good beef we could buy at a halal butcher, comes from an animal that suffered as it died.
Yes, Vick broke the law; yes, he arrogantly lied and refused to apologize when first caught; and yes, his actions before and after the dog killings indicate he is one stupid, stupid man. But Vick's lawbreaking was relatively minor compared to animal mistreatment that happens continuously, within the law, at nearly all levels of the meat production industry, and with which all but vegetarians are complicit. There is some kind of mass neurosis at work in the rush to denounce Vick, wag fingers and say he deserved even worse. Society wants to scapegoat Vick to avoid contemplating its own routine, systematic killing of animals. We couldn't all become vegetarians tomorrow: that is not practical. But American society is not even attempting to make the handling of meat animals less brutal, let alone working to transition away from a food-production order in which huge numbers of animals are systematically mistreated, then killed in ways that inflict terror and pain. We won't lift a finger to change the way animals die for us. But we will demand Michael Vick serve prison time to atone for our sins."
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Star Wars Hilarity
I'm sure some of you have seen this already, but if not check out this parody of Star Wars from Robot Chicken. It is amazing!
Part 1:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gzrjAAzJ73w
Part 2:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T2eg0gM2hHQ
Part 3:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0wFqHatgAXI
Part 1:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gzrjAAzJ73w
Part 2:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T2eg0gM2hHQ
Part 3:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0wFqHatgAXI
Monday, July 16, 2007
(Less than) 100 days until hockey season!
I missed the start of my annual "100 days until hockey season" countdown. We are actually at 96 days until opening night for the Griffins! Woohoo!
Friday, July 13, 2007
10 best Simpsons Episodes?
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/08/top10simpsons200708
The monorail episode is one of my favorites. I am glad to see that one on there.
I would add the episode with the alcohol ban (which gave us the classic quote: "To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!")
The monorail episode is one of my favorites. I am glad to see that one on there.
I would add the episode with the alcohol ban (which gave us the classic quote: "To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!")
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Note to editors: make sure headline and article say the same thing
The following is one of the headlines on Google News right now. Read the headline, then read the text below it (and the alternate headlines at the bottom).
Eating tomatoes may help prevent some cancers
Food Consumer - 2 hours ago
By Ben Wasserman
A review by the Food and Drug Administration concludes for now that there is little evidence to suggest eating tomatoes and lycopene supplements would reduce risk of many forms of cancers.
Tomato study yields confusing results Canada.com
How Tomatoes Flunked the FDA's Anticancer Test MedPage Today
I love it how the first and last headline completely contradict each other. Is this another example of how the media never seem to be able to report accurately on scientific studies? (See the headline from Canada.com.)
I'll still be eating my tomatoes though...because they are sooo delicious!
Eating tomatoes may help prevent some cancers
Food Consumer - 2 hours ago
By Ben Wasserman
A review by the Food and Drug Administration concludes for now that there is little evidence to suggest eating tomatoes and lycopene supplements would reduce risk of many forms of cancers.
Tomato study yields confusing results Canada.com
How Tomatoes Flunked the FDA's Anticancer Test MedPage Today
I love it how the first and last headline completely contradict each other. Is this another example of how the media never seem to be able to report accurately on scientific studies? (See the headline from Canada.com.)
I'll still be eating my tomatoes though...because they are sooo delicious!
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Happy 7s Day!
Today is 07/07/07! How fun. I hope everyone enjoys the day. My only regret is that we can never have a 13/13/13. That would be really cool.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
4 years since college
Katie W and I recently were discussing how long it has been since we graduated from college. (Katie’s comment: “Lindsey, you could have had two bachelor’s degrees by now!”) This made both of us feel very old. (But notice that Katie is even older than me!) It is crazy to think that it has really been over 4 years since I graduated from college. It got me thinking about all the things I have done in the last 4 years. I’ve:
--Attended over 120 Griffins games
--Set foot in 3 foreign countries and 11 US states (it will be 12 in a few weeks!)
--Taken blood samples from over 1,200 house wrens
--Attended at least 15 weddings…and 4 funerals
--Taught 3 classes at MSU and attended 11
--Bought my first (new) car, couch, cell phone, and adult-sized bed
--Given at least 10 formal talks about my research
--Moved 9 times (although those were all during the first 2 years after college)
--Used 3 different cell phone carriers and 4 phones
--For my wren project: used 249 nest boxes, 6 assistants, 2 pairs of field pants, and one pair of boots
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Happy Solstice!
I'm celebrating the official start of summer by celebrating (counter-intuitively) the end of my summer field season! Woohoo! The good thing about starting your field season earlier than everyone else is that you get done earlier than everyone else! This summer I'm ending a little earlier than usual, even for me, because my Jr. labmate Jean is taking over the 2nd brood. Now there is time this summer for me to start writing that pesky little thing called the thesis...
Also, more good news: my PCR is working! I finally figured out what was wrong (only took me 1 1/2 years) and now my lab tech is making progress on getting my nestling blood processed.
The only sad news of the day is that my good friend Katie L left this morning for her new job (and new husband!) in California. I will miss her a lot. :(
Also, more good news: my PCR is working! I finally figured out what was wrong (only took me 1 1/2 years) and now my lab tech is making progress on getting my nestling blood processed.
The only sad news of the day is that my good friend Katie L left this morning for her new job (and new husband!) in California. I will miss her a lot. :(
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
My phone is broken...
...so if you need to contact me please use email. Luckily, I got my phone 356 days ago and it has a 1 year warranty, so they are sending me a new one which should arrive in a few days. I feel so out of contact with the world...how did we survive without cell phones? ;)
Friday, June 15, 2007
Fun name link
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
I'm not expecting a baby anytime soon, but this website has a really fun interactive graph that shows the popularity of different names over time. (It goes as far back as the 1880s.) You can look at a specific name or parts of a name (for example all the names that start with Li" and you can look at each gender separately or together. I wasted way too much time playing around with it just looking at all the cool trends. :) For instance, the name Jessica had a peak in popularity around the time I was born but has since died off while Emma was popular around the turn of the century, almost disappeared for a while, and now is really popular again.
(Yes I am a nerd.)
I'm not expecting a baby anytime soon, but this website has a really fun interactive graph that shows the popularity of different names over time. (It goes as far back as the 1880s.) You can look at a specific name or parts of a name (for example all the names that start with Li" and you can look at each gender separately or together. I wasted way too much time playing around with it just looking at all the cool trends. :) For instance, the name Jessica had a peak in popularity around the time I was born but has since died off while Emma was popular around the turn of the century, almost disappeared for a while, and now is really popular again.
(Yes I am a nerd.)
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Isis' big adventure
I arrived home from the office today to find the screen from my window lying on the grass. Since nothing in the house was missing, it suggested to me that someone had broken out, not broken in. That's right, Isis staged a jail break! I was so worried for her, but luckily about an hour after I got home I saw her stalking around in the backyard. I grabbed some treats and called her to me and amazingly she came! I brought her back into the house safe and sound! Now she keeps sitting by the window and crying though...she wants me to let her back out! I wonder what exciting things she did during her few hours of freedom.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Photo-a-day changes
To completely copy Lisa, I have moved my older photo-a-day photos (from Jan-Mar) into a new folder. (Apparently everyone's internet is not as fast as mine and load times are getting a little long for some. Sorry!) The new pictures (Apr-present) are still at the same link that many of you have. If you would like the link to the old photos, just let me know. Also, if you don't have the link to the current photos but would like it, let me know that too. Just reply to this post or send me an email. Happy Memorial Day!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tales from the field
I've been seeing a lot of interesting wildlife in the field lately (besides the ubiquitous wrens, adult deer, and ticks). For instance, last week on a cold, wet day Brian noticed a baby fawn curled up in the grass. Of course Jean and I had to whip out our cameras while saying girly things like awwwwwwww! Brian probably wished he had never pointed it out.
We've also had some non-target captures in our mist nets, including a ferocious cardinal that kept trying to take bites out of Jean's fingers (pictured below), a catbird, and some near misses by other birds like chickadees and sparrows.
Yesterday I had a great day for wildlife viewing as Jean and I saw two birds that we are 95% sure were juvenile bald eagles!!!! They were much bigger than the red tailed hawks that we usually see and a uniform brown color (unlike the golden eagle which has a lighter colored head according to my bird book.) The head also looked very eagle-like and not much like a hawk at all. Unfortunately they flew away before we could get the camera out. I also saw the pair of sandhill cranes that have babies right now and we had a fun encounter with a snapping turtle who was not happy about me standing so close to get a picture!
It is a good thing the wildlife was so interesting yesterday because aside from that I had a very crappy day in the field. First, my severe seasonal allergies kicked in several weeks early (hopefully they still will only last a week or two like usual) and my nose was like a faucet all day! It was miserable. To top that off, my spectrometer (a crucial piece of equipment) broke! And then the Wings lost later that night to be eliminated from the playoffs one round short of the finals! :( (Although my head was so messed up from being totally clogged by snot and then by the allergy medicine I took when I got home that I wasn't really feeling much of anything at that point.)
Luckily, today was better. Claritin is a miracle drug, and I borrowed a new probe for my spec from my generous labmate until we can order another one. There are 47 nests with eggs now, and I expect them to start hatching on Monday!
We've also had some non-target captures in our mist nets, including a ferocious cardinal that kept trying to take bites out of Jean's fingers (pictured below), a catbird, and some near misses by other birds like chickadees and sparrows.
Yesterday I had a great day for wildlife viewing as Jean and I saw two birds that we are 95% sure were juvenile bald eagles!!!! They were much bigger than the red tailed hawks that we usually see and a uniform brown color (unlike the golden eagle which has a lighter colored head according to my bird book.) The head also looked very eagle-like and not much like a hawk at all. Unfortunately they flew away before we could get the camera out. I also saw the pair of sandhill cranes that have babies right now and we had a fun encounter with a snapping turtle who was not happy about me standing so close to get a picture!
It is a good thing the wildlife was so interesting yesterday because aside from that I had a very crappy day in the field. First, my severe seasonal allergies kicked in several weeks early (hopefully they still will only last a week or two like usual) and my nose was like a faucet all day! It was miserable. To top that off, my spectrometer (a crucial piece of equipment) broke! And then the Wings lost later that night to be eliminated from the playoffs one round short of the finals! :( (Although my head was so messed up from being totally clogged by snot and then by the allergy medicine I took when I got home that I wasn't really feeling much of anything at that point.)
Luckily, today was better. Claritin is a miracle drug, and I borrowed a new probe for my spec from my generous labmate until we can order another one. There are 47 nests with eggs now, and I expect them to start hatching on Monday!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Happy Birthday Isis!
Thursday marked the 2nd anniversary of the day I picked out Isis at the Humane Society! I've been so lucky to have this wonderful cat in my life for two years!
Isis' birthday cake: treats with catnip sprinkles!
Isis' birthday present: she destroyed the feathers after about two minutes!
Isis' birthday cake: treats with catnip sprinkles!
Isis' birthday present: she destroyed the feathers after about two minutes!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Funny math song
For my math geek friends, check out this song (courtesy of Mike):
Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton
Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The boys are back in town
My male wrens are finally starting to arrive en masse! (The picture above is the view looking straight down into a nest box with some sticks that a male wren has placed there to begin construction of his nest.) The males were about a week late, so I was starting to get worried. I'm guessing that the late snowstorm we had slowed them down some. But, as of Sunday I had 28 (out of 68) boxes where a male had begun nest construction. I expect more males every day and that the females will be returning sometime next week.
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