Happy Earth Day, Planet Earth!

Here is a perfect example...

...of the Bush administration's dismissive, careless anti-environmental policies and cocky, unconstitutional above-the-law attitude. This goddamn border fence is just as illegal as, if not more illegal than, the immigration it is supposed to prevent. I do not know how many specific laws there are prohibiting illegal entry into the United States. But according to this article, the Bush administration has "waived more than 30 environmental and land-management laws" in its hurried determination to build this disaster to wildlife. The DHS spokeswoman is quoted as saying, "For a number of miles, we've determined that it would have only insignificant impact." Bullshit. We all know that the administration, Congress, Senate, and other government asses have no clue about the importance of plant and wildlife dispersal and migration, habitat fragmentation, inbreeding depression, keystone species concept, and other relevant aspects of community ecology, and they won't listen to those scientists who do know about such things. The DHS spokeswoman further proves this point by saying that the fence could actually help the environment by reducing trash by border-crossing immigrants! Does she think the American people, especially us environmentalists, are idiots? This is even more ridiculous than the whole cutting-down-trees-to-prevent-forest-fires gimmick. Can you picture a bunch of Mexicans LITTERING as they attempt to sneak stealthily over the border? I commend those brave scientists who are so outraged that they actually plan to lay in front of the bulldozers, and I commend the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife for taking this issue to court. Thankfully, there are only 274 days left in the Bush dictatorship. However, I'm honestly not sure how much better Obama, Clinton, or McCain would be on this issue. They all voted for the initial bill, but I don't know if they favor the waiver of environmental laws. Those of us who care enough will have to write letters and lobby our representatives and new President for a plan that is not environmentally destructive, more cost-efficient, and more effective at addressing the root of the immigration issue.

Article about Catholic priest abuse

This is a really good blog posting by the president of Chicago Theological Seminary about the Catholic Church sex abuse problem. I totally agree - it is not homosexuality that causes pedophilia, it is "immature sexual identity and a negative attitude toward sexuality".

Orioles SHUTOUT the Yankees!

Boo-yah!!!!!!!!

This is so sad...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_on_re_us/beach_debris

The group that did this looks like something I'd like to be involved in:

Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup

Here's a picture of volunteers beautifying the waters of Maryland (borrowed from here).




I will be moving closer to an ocean! But it looks like they do inland waters, too. We limnologists appreciate that!

The Orioles won again today!

THEY WON AGAIN!

What a great game! They've already equaled their longest winning streak from 2007.

This site is for bird lovers not baseball fans, but I may have to make a purchase.

Bonus today: The Phillies won and the Yankees are currently losing, but it's only 5-2 in the 7th. Double bonus: Jeter is injured and A-rod is 0-for-3 w/ 3 strikeouts.

O YEAH!!!

My Orioles are HOT!! Yes, it's less than 10 games into the season but I can still savor the fact that they're tied with the Brewers for the best record in MLB!



Aubrey Huff breaks the tie today by hitting a homer:

This is awful...

...on so many levels:

Environmental Laws to Be Waived for Fence

Confronting danger in Afghanistan - sigh, how romantic!

I missed this news when it first came out, but I was watching a Colbert Report rerun last night and he talked about this videoconference Bush had with the troops in Afghanistan. I could not believe the President actually said these things, so I had to go find the Reuters article. Colbert gave a "wag of the finger" to the troops for arousing the President's envy (har!)

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

Well gee. Now when I think of war and its impact on troops, I will no longer think of PTSD! I think how lucky these young people are! And gosh, if they're having such a "fantastic experience" what's with all this "support our troops" hogwash anyway? If things really are "exciting" and "romantic" over there they don't need our support.

Days until the idiot is outta there: 305

12 days until BASEBALL SEASON starts!!

Some interesting environmental science news

There's cool environmental science news every week, but I thought these two studies were especially interesting. The first is an excellent example of why temperature fluctuations, more so than simple increases, are an important climate change-related phenomenon to study further (original article here). I was out of the country at that time, so I didn't remember it, although I do recall people talking about it afterward. It just shows how the basic physiology of most organisms can only handle so much!

I found this article very surprising, even after all the reading I've been doing on dams. I never would have thought that all the world's dams store enough water to reduce sea-level rise! That's kind of scary. As Sahagian (from the EES dept. at Lehigh, my graduate alma mater!) noted, we're not going to be building many more dams. But what wasn't mentioned in the article is the fate of existing dams. Dams have a finite existence - the reservoirs behind them fill up with sediment rather quickly. Plus, dams are being torn down in some areas, because people are recognizing that they are not economically feasible and are ecologically destructive. So how will that impact sea level in 100 years or less, when all the reservoirs are losing their capacity due to sedimentation and/or the dams are torn down?

LBL Marathon picture

They posted pictures from LBL. I'm actually smiling! Probably because I'm only at mile 3. It looks kinda dreary and cloudy, but it really was a lovely day.

How my birth-control pills are connected to your catfish dinner

We limnologists have a job to do! By the way, I love how they call "tiny zooplankton" a "sentinel species".

Giant City State Park

After the LBL trail races (see post below) we went to Giant City State Park in southern Illinois. The hike we took was only a mile, but that was enough to loosen up my sore foot without over-exerting it. The snow and icicles on the limestone formations was very picturesque and reminded me that spring is coming soon!

LBL Trail Marathon

On Saturday I ran the Land Between the Lakes trail marathon. It was my fifth marathon and my second trail marathon. The weather on Friday and Saturday was highly atypical for western Kentucky in March. There was about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground and a temperature of ~22 F when the race started at 6 am! But actually it turned out to be a really nice day. The clouds cleared out, giving way to a beautiful sunny blue sky, but it stayed cold enough that the snow didn't melt. The sun on the snow-covered trees was really pretty, and at times I wished I had a camera during the race. Despite the snow, the trail wasn't that difficult to run on. By the time us middle-of-the-packers got going on it, it was packed down. It did get a little slushy and muddy by the second half of the race, though. The trail was fun, but parts of it were quite hilly, and so I was pretty pleased with my time of 4:49. It was my slowest marathon ever, yet the miles really seemed to fly by! Maybe this was because I was running with friends part of the time and I didn't look at my watch ONCE during the race. Usually I check my time at least every mile, but with my gloves and running jacket it was kind of too much effort to look at my watch:) I felt pretty strong when I finished, but I had absolutely no desire to try for the 60 K distance (you're allowed to switch events during the race - 23 K, marathon, 60 K, or 50 miler). Even if there had been a 50K option, 26.2 was plenty. Today I feel pretty good. My foot was bothering me this morning, but it feels fine now.

After I had finished the marathon, I rode around with Cuzn Don and Byroni to different aide stations along the course to catch Ellen on the last loop of her 50 miler. While we were waiting at one of the stations Cuzn Don and Byroni built this lovely snowman. I just helped touch it up a bit:



Note its gel packet ears! Also, here is the lime-green shirt we all got in our race packets. It's too bad it's such a boxy, unflattering cut, because it's a nice fabric and color:

27 Days Until Baseball Season!

Madeline's String Toy Art

I came home yesterday afternoon and found this. I was very impressed with Madeline's perpendicular arrangement of two of her favorite toys:



She should be featured in volume 2 of Why Cats Paint.

Yesterday my friend Adam and I went cross-country skiing at the Allerton Schroth Trail. I feel lucky to have gotten to ski twice this winter! The conditions weren't the best - the snow was a little wet and melty in the sunny open areas - but the majority of it was fun. When I was running this trail a couple weeks ago, it was flooded. So lots of the trees by the river had these "ice skirts" - sheets of ice stuck around the trunk, remnants of where the previous water level had frozen. These pictures didn't turn out that well, but they looked pretty cool in person:

Long Weekend

I flew to MD this past weekend for my mother's big 60th birthday bash. It was much fun to see relatives I hadn't seen in years. I'm not sure if they all want me posting pictures of them, so instead I'll post the cake...



...and the kitties (Mooch and Hobbes):





Aren't they cute! I also got to see my friends Erin and Kate this weekend. We went to the Body Worlds exhibit in Baltimore on Sunday. Then on Monday, after running 18 miles in SUNNY 70 DEGREE WEATHER IN FEBRUARY, I hung out with Pasha, my mom's neighbor's cat, who apparently considers our porch her second home:





Then my mom and I went to see the frog exhibit at the National Geographic museum:



Let's get it on!

Mucus Haikus

Chin to the sky. SNEEZE!
Slimy yellow booger string
Flies splat across nose.




Tongue cannot reach it
Try to wipe off on Mommy
No, Madeline, no!

Greg Craven's video

If you haven't yet seen this geeky science teacher's You Tube video "How it All Ends", take a look (it's about 10 minutes). Even if you don't agree with his risk-management logic and ultimate conclusion (ahem, CG), it's still entertaining!



Here's his website.

February!

Happy Birthday to me! I got 7 inches of snow for my birthday, and so the next day Andrew and I went cross-country skiing. It was a gorgeous winter day and we had a blast:





Then afterward we went to KRR's Fat Ass party where we each won a Mardi Gras shot glass like no other:



I have updated my "current reads" in the favorite book list part of my profile. I am reading (or rather listening to in the lab) a really great novel that I randomly picked up in the library. It is called The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh, and I highly recommend it. It's fiction, but it actually goes quite well with the non-fiction book I'm reading When Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce. On the lighter side I'm also reading Stephen Colbert's I Am America (and So Can You!), which I got for my birthday.

HaHa

Bush the Repairman

Yummy

Does anyone else out there have a kitty who likes to lick bars of soap? Or is Madeline just weird?



Sweetheart, did that taste good?

Holiday Review!

Egad! Sorry for the long silence. My internet connection at home STILL does not work! I can only handle such primitive conditions for so long. Anyway, I had quite a fun-family-n-friends-filled Christmas/New Years break, some of which I will recap for you. Madeline and I drove to MD. Here is the Cooke living room in all its Christmasy glory:



Here is Madeline playing with her new teddy bear:



Here is me trying to look sexy with my new toy - a pasta maker:



...and here are the results of my first attempt at pasta. Not bad!





After Christmas I visited lots of friends and relatives, which I always look forward to. I also went to the InToneNation reunion and discovered that I still remember most of our songs! One random thing I promised in my last post was a picture of a hawk. It's not that great, but here it is:



This hawk got caught in some vines in our yard. My mom handed me oven mitts and said "go free it!" Fortunately, the hawk freed itself.

And of course, I must conclude with yet another piece of photographic artwork from www.icanhazcheezburger.com:

I hope everyone had warm, relaxing holidays like I did. Once my internet connection at home starts working, I'll post some pictures of Madeline, pasta, a hawk, and other interest tidbits of my time in MD and PA. For now, I wanted to point out this excellent opinion piece appearing in today's Washington Post.


(this is TOTALLY something Madeline would do!)

Haha

Madeline MOSTLY ignores my Christmas tree, but maybe I should try this. She definitely won't touch the most expensive cat toy I've ever gotten her. It's the same thing with her food - she won't eat the expensive stuff, but chows down on the cheap food.

---

I saw this article in the Post today. I like the explanation provided by the Ohio governor's office:
"The governor supports abstinence education," Keith Daily, a spokesman for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D). "What he does not support is abstinence- only education. We are asking to put the money toward abstinence in the context of a comprehensive age-appropriate curriculum."
Amen to that! It's just stupid to not teach kids about STDs, contraception, etc. Because even if someone abstains from sex until marriage, you still need to know all that stuff! Some of our politicians are so narrow-minded when it comes to issues like this.