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!

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.

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:

--Driven my car almost 60,000 miles

--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

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. :(

New Phone!

Fyi, my replacement phone has arrived, and I can now contact the world again! :)

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? ;)

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.)

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.

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!

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!

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!

Funny math song

For my math geek friends, check out this song (courtesy of Mike):
Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton

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.

Hockey Playoffs Update

Red Wings:
The Wings won game 5 today 5-1, giving them a 3-2 lead in the series! Game 6 is tomorrow in Calgary. The home team has won every game so far, so the Wings will try to change that tomorrow! I was disgusted by Calgary's dirty play at the end of the game today once the game was out of their reach, including the backup goalie swinging his stick like a baseball bat into one of our players and another one of their players cold-cocking one of our guys in the face. What a bunch of thugs. GO WINGS!


Griffins:
The Griffs won tonight too 4-1, tying their series with Manitoba at 1-1. Now we have 3 games at home this week (Mon, Wed, Fri), so I'm looking forward to some exciting playoff action. If anyone wants to tag along to a game just let me know, as there will be plenty of tickets. GO GRIFFS!

GO WINGS AND GRIFFINS!

Least surprising scientific study results of the year

Abstinence-Only programs don't work

"A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration's social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex..."

I feel so much safer now

I can't help but think of the Simpsons episode where the dolphins took over the world...

Navy shows off anti-terror dolphins

Congrats National Champion Spartans!

The Michigan State University hockey team just won the national championship game 3-1 in a come-from-behind victory over favored Boston College! GO SPARTANS! Incidentally, a Red Wings prospect (and future Griffin?), Justin Abdelkader, got the game winning goal for the Spartans.

Game recap from ESPN.com

12 Angry Lindseys

Bah! I just got summoned for jury duty! Now if this had happened in say October it would only be a mild inconvenience. However, my date is right in the middle of field season and while I could probably spend half a day at the court house, I CANNOT actually get put on a jury during field season. At least not and still be able to graduate. There's something on the form about asking for a deferral or excusal or whatever. Has anyone had to do this before? Any tips on getting out of it (or at least getting them to move my date to after field season is over)?

More memes

From Tina's blog

Surprise surprise...

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Drama Nerd
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Musician
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Artistic Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Hmm ok...




Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?
this quiz was made by Lori Fury

Movie meme

From Nancy's blog...

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
Star Wars (all 3 originals)

2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.
Lord of the Rings (all 3)

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Johnny Depp

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Any of the Wayans brothers

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
Clue, The Princess Bride

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Phantom of the Opera, several animated Disney movies (Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King, Aladdin...I had the soundtracks when I was a kid!)

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
See above

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Dogma

9. Name a movie that you own.
Gattaca

10.Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Will Smith

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in?
No

12. Ever made out in a movie?
No

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet gotten around to it.
The Godfather

14. Ever walked out of a movie?
No

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Forrest Gump

16. Popcorn?
I prefer something sweeter.

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
In the summer (when good movies are coming out) probably every other week. Only every three to four months in the winter.

18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
The newest James Bond movie (It has been a while!)

19. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Sci Fi/Fantasy/Action Adventure

20. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
The Little Mermaid

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
Scary Movie

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Moulin Rouge

23. What is the scariest movie you've seen?
Silence of the Lambs (I don't watch many scary movies.)

24. What is the funniest movie you've seen?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail