education
grrlscientist | June 11, 2009tags: Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus, photographed at roughly 9am in the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana. [I will identify these birds for you tomorrow]
Image: Bardiac, 7 June 2009 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 11, 2009tags: TEDTalks, ornithology, dodo bird, Adam Savage, streaming video
A unique ecosystem of plants, birds and monkeys thrives in the treetops of the rainforest. Nalini Nadkarni explores these canopy worlds -- and shares her findings with the world below, through dance, art and bold partnerships [18:15]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on…
esiegel | June 10, 2009This week at work, we're interviewing candidates for the job that I'm leaving. And one of the questions that came up was so simple and so fundamental to all that we do here that I thought I would ask it to you:
With all the problems in the world -- economic, political, social, and military -- what's the point of spending money on basic science? For example, why spend money looking for gravitational waves, the Higgs boson, or life on Mars?
Yes, these things are expensive. The total cost of LISA -- the space antenna that will look for gravitational waves -- is around 5 billion dollars; the cost…
bioephemera | June 10, 2009One of the challenges we faced with our new blogosphere initiative, Silence is the Enemy, was how to mobilize people to do something about the plight of rape victims. It's not that people don't have empathy for rape victims; it's that the experience of living in a war-torn nation where rape and murder are routine facts of life is so foreign and horrifying to us, we tend to tune it out. Part of the way to deal with this is to give people a clear mission - something simple they can do; in our case, donating to Doctors without Borders (as I am for the month of June), or writing to Congress, or…
drorzel | June 10, 2009OK, it's not really a full post-mortem, because I haven't graded the final exams yet, but I wouldn't tell you about those, anyway. Still, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past term, which was my first teaching introductory mechanics on the Matter & Interactions curriculum.
On the whole, I continue to like the approach. I like the way that the book focuses on the major physical principles-- the Momentum Principle, the Energy Principle, the Angular Momentum Principle-- because those are the real take-away message from introductory physics. I also thing it's good that the class…
grrlscientist | June 10, 2009tags: Northern Pygmy-Owl, Glaucidium californicum, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Northern Pygmy-Owl, Glaucidium californicum, photographed in Clallum County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 23 May 2009 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/2000s f/7.1 at 300.0mm iso400
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 9, 2009tags: The Ant Whisperer, ants, hymenoptera, pheromones, EO Wilson, behavioral ecology, sociobiology, evolution, streaming video
Because I do not own a television, I was thrilled to find that Lord of the Ants, the Nova program that aired on PBS tonight, is freely available as a streaming video. This program describes some of EO Wilson's amazing discoveries about ant communication, behavioral ecology and evolution [52:23]
grrlscientist | June 9, 2009tags: Pangani Longclaw, Macronyx aurantiigula, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pangani Longclaw, Macronyx aurantiigula, photographed in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Dan Logen, 30 August 2007 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | June 9, 2009Every year around this time, references to that damn sunscreen speech pop up again, as people start thinking of graduations. It's in the air (Union's graduation is this Sunday, and I don't think I've ever been happier to see the end of an academic year).
And, of course, I have actually been asked to give a graduation speech. Which leads naturally to thinking about what one piece of advice I would give to a high school student who came up to me and said "I plan to study physics in college. What one thing should I study?"
(Hey, it could happen...)
My one-word piece of advice for students…
grrlscientist | June 8, 2009tags: Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, photographed at Anahuac Refuge, Texas. Are they all the same species? [I will identify these birds for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 1 May 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 7, 2009tags: Streaked-Back Oriole, Icterus pustulatus microstictus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Streaked-Back Oriole, Icterus pustulatus microstictus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 21 October 2007 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2007:10:21 07:34:06
Exposure Time: 1/400
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 800
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 6, 2009tags: Northern Harrier, Circus cyaneus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] female Northern Harrier, Circus cyaneus, photographed on the Fort Pierre National Grasslands in South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 26 November 2008 [larger view]
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
clock | June 5, 2009Of course the Course description for JOMC 449 - Virtual Communities, Smart Mobs, Citizen Journalism and Participatory Culture is made in video. All the 'readings' are viewings of video, all assignments are video-making. So cool!
Fall 2009 MW 3:30 - 4:45, UNC Chapel Hill, Instructor: Paul Jones
drorzel | June 5, 2009This may be too late in the day to generate much action, but I thought of it just a little while ago. Two questions:
1) If you were writing a letter of recommendation for a student, would you refer to them as "Firstname" or "Mr./Ms. Lastname"?
2) Does your answer depend on the level of the student? That is, would you refer to an undergraduate the same way as a graduate student?
I've seen both, and have a definite opinion on the subject, but I'm curious as to what people think.
grrlscientist | June 5, 2009tags: Swainson's Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Swainson's Hawk, Buteo swainsoni, photographed near Anahuac Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 29 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with tsn-pz camera eyepiece 1/1500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
bioephemera | June 5, 2009Thanks to SEED's matching Bloggers Challenge funds and some generous donors who gave me DonorsChoose gift certificates for Christmas, I got to push several worthy projects to completion this winter (by "topping off" their funding). That meant that I got real, snail mail thank-you packages from those classrooms.
At first I was a little ambivalent because I didn't really want the kids to spend their valuable classroom time thanking me. But then I realized that while writing those thank-you notes, they spend at least a few minutes thinking about the fact that a complete stranger cares about…
gregladen | June 4, 2009There is an interesting post on The Intersection called Civility and the New Atheists, by Chris Mooney. In the post, Chris reviews Barbara Forrest's statements that in engaging int he cross-world-view debate (scientists vs. creationists, atheists, vs religion, etc.) one should maintian etiquette, respect and understand diversity, and practice humility.
Atheist and pro-science writer Mooney notes in speaking of a talk by Forrest:
Forrest therefore concluded her talk by saying that we need are "epistemological and civic humility"-providing the groundwork for "civic friendship." To which I…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2009tags: Townsend's Solitaire, Myadestes townsendi, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Townsend's Solitaire, Myadestes townsendi, photographed in Clallam County, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Marv Breece, 23 May 2009 [larger view].
Canon EOS 350D 1/2000s f/7.1 at 300.0mm iso400
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 3, 2009tags: Sandwich Tern, Sterna sandvicensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Sandwich Tern, Sterna sandvicensis, photographed at Corpus Christi, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Dan Logen, 2 May 2009 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 3, 2009tags: Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, H$U$, cloning food, terrorism, animals, pets, false advertising, streaming video
I have followed this video as it has been removed from YouTube and been suppressed several times due to legal bullying by the activist and terrorist organization, the Humane Society of the United States (H$U$). This investigative report, which appeared a couple weeks ago on WSB TV [channel 2 in Atlanta], reveals that H$U$ uses misinformation to trick the public into thinking they are donating funds to build local shelters for homeless pets, and to help rescue pets…