the night air

i love npr.

there, i've said it.

i had always known what it was and had occasionally heard it on roadtrips flipping stations. and of course, the infamous parodies of it on SNL. but three years ago when i started working at the farm it was on all day, friday, saturday and sunday. and i could gauge the day based upon what was on. for example, on sundays it would be soooooooo slooooowwwwwww and then my favorite show WAIT, WAIT, DON'T TELL ME would come on and i knew instantly it would get BUSY!! grrrr

on saturdays it would be weekend edition, weekend edition, repeat of last sunday's car talk, and then michael feldman's what do you know and then (gack) prairie home companion, then jazz. it had been that way for three years. then this year i left for mexico, came back and it was weekend edition, weekend edition, repeat of last sunday's car talk, and then weekend america. WHAT?

i felt violated how could they change it?? and i just refused to like weekend america. blech!

and so now i'm embarassed to say i love weekend america *blush*
weekend america

one day they had a guy on talking about podcasts and he said one of his favorites was "THE NIGHT AIR" out of australia. you could go to this link below and:
science section
and look for this text on the page:
"Radio to go
There are thousands of podcasts available on the Web — music shows, business programs, public radio. American Public Media technologist Chris Spurgeon talks about the phenomenon of podcasting and brings in a few of his favorites. (10/01/2005)
Online resources:
» The Night Air website
» The Night Air podcast link
» iTunes link to The Night Air podcast
» Podcast instructions and Weekend America's podcast link"
and listen to that segment and then go to the night air. so i checked it out and it's fantastic. weird and sensual and random. i was really bummed that the segment of the night air they played 'stars' wasn't available anymore on podcast but i've suscribed (FREE!) and i get the new episode loaded to my computer on sunday evenings. i love them. i put them on my ipod and then i put my itrip on my ipod and put it on shuffle and i get my music and then every once in awhile i get this 25 minute aural experience and it's just fantastic for a long road trip where you're a prisoner to FM radio.

so check it out.

and i don't know why when i post from a mac the links don't automatically work, but i'll fix it later

**update** fixed i was just too lazy earlier....

giving credit

i'm so excited. i found the artist that i liked in the aquarium and couldn't see his name in picture like i thought i would. his name is JAMES WILLE FAUST and here is a non-glare version of the painting.



i'm finding that i really like his stuff. and like i said, i'm not normally into abstract but i love his ability to create form from different colors and shapes. it's really a difficult thing to pull off.

more examples of his stuff:



anyway, check him out. you could easily google his name like i did and see lots of his stuff.

more monterey

these are the last of the pics i've uploaded.
i love ray troll. i like his style and i like his sarcasm and wit. in an interactive wing of the aquarium they have prints from his book SHARKABET.




i bought one of his books, RAPTURE OF THE DEEP, at the alaska conference and got it signed, along with a poster and the shirt with the conference artwork. i'm supposed to get this shirt soon:
because i ran/walked the "salmon run" at the alaska conference. still waiting...
here is a link to the ray troll official site. feel free to buy me something...heh

warning

you should not attend the silent auction at WSN if you have been drinking.

here's why...

This is the stuff I won at the WSN auction. yay me right? well when I say won I mean it in a very e-bay kind of way...i paid for it.



the proceeds of the auction go towards the student travel awards. I'M a student. and if i told you how much i paid for the stuff you would conclude not a very smart one...because yes, you're looking at a preserved fish in acrylic in a frame.

postcards from monterey (cont.)

when i went to make my hotel reservation i realized it was too late to make one at the hotel the conference was being held at so the conference $119/night was no longer available (and not that cheap to begin with...) so i went on to travelocity and found the cheapest hotel. i also figured, i'm driving all the way down to monterey and i haven't had a day off in months. literally. i have been working 7 days a week since june and combined with some other personal goings on in my life i am so ready for a vacation. but decided i could only afford (time and moneywise) one day. so i said i'm definitely going to stay past sunday and go to the monterey bay aquarium. and i figured monday would be a good day since most people will be at work or school.

i was completely stoked that the entire time i was at the conference the weather was GORGEOUS and even though i was staying in a cheaper hotel i was still really close to the ocean and could smell it when i opened the door. ahhhhhhhhhh, breathe it in, bring it in. i love it.

monday morning proved to be just as beautiful



i just love this aquarium and i was bummed that in my rush to leave i forgot my tripod so taking pictures without flash becomes extremely difficult even if you move a tiny bit. but i tried. and that's such a good reason to love digital because i love to take pictures and play with framing and you know instantaneously if it sucks and you can delete it and try again and you're not wasting money or paper or chemicals to see you got one good picture out of 4 rolls. so i would try to do longer exposures and hold real still. this is inside the entrance to the open ocean exhibit. in the ceiling there is a circular tank with anchovy and they just swim round and round. i never think about owning my home because i figure by the time i ever make professor i'll never have enough money to buy something. but for some reason when i come here i imagine if this was my room with the blue and the circling fish. i just want to lay down on the floor and stay there. it's so calming

although i'm mainly a fish person i just think this is one of the most beautiful exhibits. i took a really great picture a couple of years ago from farther back away from the display but despite my plan to avoid lots of people and children they were still there and they still have no concept of not taking up the same physical space that you are...
anyway...so i took this one from up close. still turned out pretty cool.

although this picture doesn't really give you an idea about the "thing" that it is i liked how it came out with the motion and colors of the fish and the color of the water reflected from the really low angle i took the picture from.

one of the things i really love about the aquarium beside the obvious (FISH!!!!!!!!!!) I LOVE the gorgeous and super professional looking displays. this is the entrance to the vanishing wildlife exhibit and it's just stunning. i don't think people really understand what amazing skill it takes to be creative and to produce a very professional display but with the artistry and technical knowledge of the organisms as well to give a beautiful and accurate portrayal of the different species. i would love to have a job like that. i would love to be good enough to have a job like that. maybe i'll consider it a back up if this whole scientist thing doesn't work out for me.

besides the artists that have to create the displays the aquarium has also displayed artists over time. i feel bad i can't remember this artist, i thought i would be able to see it in the photo on the plaque, but alas...

it is displayed in the jellies living art exhibit and i'm normally not a fan of abstract art but this one struck me. it's a whale spouting and i thought it was interesting because i'm not this kind of artist. if someone had said paint a whale spouting i would have spent so much time researching the animal and then getting photos and on and on and would have painted like ten of them as PERFECTLY as i could and then liked one of them but it never would have occured to me to interpret a whales spout like this. also i was struck because before i approached the painting i thought it was like a 3-d paper piece with different colored papers arranged and elevated and what not. and i got closer and it was a painting. i was impressed with the cleanness of the lines but the very skillfull execution of shadows on the different shapes and colors that make this pop.

postcards from monterey

even though i've been there and back already...

The conference started on Thursday with a student workshop (which I missed...ooops) and then a student social (which I did NOT miss...heh). I actually didn't leave Davis until 2 in the afternoon and got to Monterey around 5:30 or so. I was stoked when I got to the econolodge because there was a microwave AND a fridge so I could actually put beer and the food in there instead of hauling my giant icechest up the stairs. yes, the simple pleasures of a poor grad student...

I should have given a talk at this conference, it was silly of me not to, but I've been so busy I figured it would be worse to give a lame talk than to have given no talk at all and make it look like I'm not the one whose project it really is... was that out loud?

Quite a few people I know from Davis gave talks and the ones I saw were awesome, impressively professional. I took my camera to the talks but I was taking notes and stuff too so I ended up not taking much. And there wasn't much in the way of decoration like there was at AFS so no pics of the actual conference.

Every year they have a president's banquet, which I usually don't go to because it's expensive. I usually pony up for the AAH (Attitude Adjustment Hour) since that's cheaper and usually a lot more fun. This was the function that was in the aquarium last year and all that carousing happened...and I was also reminded this year that I wrestled David in a parking garage. Had completely forgotten about that. **note to self: no witnesses from now on...**

After the president's banquet they open it up for the auction for the student travel awards to pay for next year's travel. There's a silent auction that's going on during the real auction. Every year Raphael Sagarin is the auctioneer. He's hysterical and really does do a great job with the bids and with deriding people into bidding.
This year they had an extra special "vanna" displaying the prizes throughout the crowd. His professor was concerned that he enjoyed himself a little too much in the costume and his girlfriend couldn't bare to watch.
Here's David. He knows I usually have some beer healthy snacks in my icechest with my food and so we shuffle out to my car to get them so we don't have to pay $6 a beer for Corona. We were coming back from the car to the hotel and David showed some of his fashizzle.



Never make the mistake of thinking that you can trust a pregnant woman to hold your beer. Whatever Amy! gah!



WSN SUPAHSTAHS! They all gave talks! They all sounded smart! I know them!!

postcards from monterey

beginning tomorrow...hee

under the gun

crazy crazy weeks. but hopefully that will end this coming week and i can actually just stop and breathe and maybe do a load of laundry...or two...

on tuesday i submit my grant proposal and then i just have to let it go and make my research trip plans. i have three different sets of plans right now which are:

i get the grant, i get the collecting permit: i go to mexico for six months and finish in spring of 2007

i don't get the grant but i get the collecting permit: i go to mexico for 3 months in summer and finish in the winter of 2007

i don't get the grant and i don't get the permit: i go to mexico for 3 months in spring and finish the end of fall 2006

i haven't explored the "i get the grant but i don't get the permit" scenario because i don't think i could handle it emotionally lol

and i'm toying with the possibility of going for six months anyway if i get the permit but not the grant...i mean i'm already dead broke what's a little more broke gonna do? besides, like i always say, i have so much credit card debt from school and research, if i die now, i win!

just kidding...

so, tonight, monday and tuesday are my last chances to polish this grant and turn it in. THEN i'm heading to Monterey Thursday for a conference and i'm soooo stoked. it's the Western Society of Naturalists (http://www.wsn-online.org/) and it's one of my favorites. most of the talks are marine talks A LOT of them are fish talks. i'm just hella sad because last time the conference was held in monterey they had one of their social events inside of the aquarium after hours. it rocked. well, what i could remember of it...lol. it was awesome because it was one of those nights you would NEVER plan for but it just goes all night with the non-stop spontaneity and drinking and walking and being lost and laughing and a PHAT 4 am breakfast with an 7 o'clock wake up call in the morning and a looooooong drive home.

totally worth it

sad day for science

Evolution Critics Score Win in Kansas

By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 12 minutes ago

TOPEKA, Kan. - Critics of evolution won a big victory with the approval of new public school science standards that cast doubt on Darwinism.
The standards were approved Tuesday by the Kansas Board of Education on a 6-4 vote that was lauded by "intelligent design" advocates, who helped draft them. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.

The vote came amid an increasingly rancorous national debate on teaching evolution. In Pennsylvania on Tuesday, voters punished Dover school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum.

Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism — a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation — camouflaged in scientific language, and it does not belong in a science curriculum. They worry that the vote will encourage attacks on evolution in other states.

"This action is likely to be the playbook for creationism for the next several years," said Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, Calif. "We can predict this fight happening elsewhere."

The Pennsylvania election unfolded amid a landmark federal trial involving the Dover public schools and the question of whether intelligent design promotes the Bible's view of creation. Eight Dover families sued, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

In August, President Bush endorsed teaching intelligent design alongside evolution.

The Kansas board's vote is likely to heap fresh national criticism on the state. In 1999, the board deleted most references to evolution in the science standards. That decision was overturned in 2001.

But supporters of the new regulations say they will lead to open discussions.

"We are being very brave. We are brave enough to have all areas discussed," said board member Kathy Martin, a Clay Center Republican. "Students will be informed and not indoctrinated."

The board does not mandate what will be taught to public school students; that decision is left to local school boards. However, it does determine what students are expected to know for state assessment tests. The new standards will be in effect starting in 2008.

Some educators fear pressure will increase to teach less about evolution or more about creationism or intelligent design.

"What this does is open the door for teachers to bring creationist arguments into the classroom and point to the standards and say it's OK," said Jack Krebs, an Oskaloosa High School math teacher and vice president of Kansas Citizens for Science, which opposes the changes.

The new standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that basic Darwinian theory — that all life had a common origin and that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life — has been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

postcards from alaska part V, if anyone still really cares...

geeez, where the HELL have i been?

well, i actually shouldn't even be here now i have so much work to do but i feel bad not finishing this section.

so, these young men gave demonstrations of some of the athletic events they compete in in the arctic winter games. they represent the activities that natives participated in during the long winters to stay in shape while they were holed up waiting for the spring to go out and hunt.

they started with a reach where a ball is hung from a pole and they raised and balanced themselves on one hand and touched the ball. the ball is raised after each turn until only one person is left to touch it.


this is a one-legged reach where they hold one foot with the opposite hand and raise themselves up on the other hand and kick the ball without letting your foot go




this is the two footed leap. you could get as big a run start as you needed to leap up with both legs together and land with them together


it was amazing. and they did them several times. i think i took about 40-50 pictures of these guys. i couldn't imagine how flexible you'd have to be and what strength you would need in your torso to do these. i was so impressed. and then i made the mistake of telling my trainer about it...