Well, it’s been two years. But this time, we’re not moving houses. I’ve moved to a new blog- thegoddess.ca has been a great home, but it’s time to move on. My new home on the ‘net is at robertataylor.ca, but don’t go there, because there’s nothing to see yet. I have set my blog up at http://blog.robertataylor.ca so you can go there to update your rss feeds, or click here.This will be my last post from thegoddess.ca- see you at the new place (drinks are on me)!
Yesterday, I took a 4 hour pre conference session with Alan November called ‘Leadership: Managing the Transition.” It may sound a bit dry but I can assure you that it was nothing of the sort. While I was in geek heaven, most details would bore the average reader of this blog (I’m using it because there’s something wrong with my SD92 blog and my server guy is a 4300km away), but I did learn about some one resource in particular that may be of more general interest.A very cool opportunity lies in a website called Kiva, where anyone can invest as little as $25 to provide an entrepreneur with a micro-loan. This not only is an amazing and proven way to help alleviate poverty, but Alan showed us how it could be a great teaching tool as well. Imagine a group of fourth graders researching their chosen entrepreneur’s country and livelihood and making a case before their class, just as though they were pitching a project proposal to a corporation. Imagine seeing where the other people who have also loaned $25 are on google earth, or even connecting with them to discuss the updates your entrepreneur posts. Imagine doing this for a child as a gift- Kiva sells gift certificates! Neat stuff in so many ways- check it out.
One of my secret loves is learning about the ocean. Knowing that there is a place so close to home about which we know so little (we know more about the surface of the moon than the deep ocean floor) is enticing. And deep sea life is alien- tiny creatures hiding inside metre-wide filters of mucus, long floating scraps of jelly with myriad stomachs, fish which use lit lures to capture prey … I am fascinated.
All this to say that when I found out that one of the pre-conferences at BLC this year was to be held at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute, I was crazy excited. The subject focus was global warming, but that didn’t matter. To be in one of the foremost ocean research facilities in the world was something I couldn’t pass up.
The day began with an address on global climate change which highlighted the evidence but ended with the reminder that we have the knowledge and technology to mitigate and adapt to these changes. Check out carbonfootprint.com, climatecounts.org, and climateproject.org for more information.
Next, I attended a session on the Encyclopedia of Life and bio-diversity at the aquarium, which was sadly closed for the day. If you aren’t familiar with the Encyclopedia of Life, go there now. This project plans, as one of its stated goals, to never be completed, as their aim is to catalogue all living things- plants, animals, fungi, bacteria… The amazing thing about the EOL is that you can view the same article with simple information in layman’s terms or in full scientific mode, so elementary students and scientists may all make use of the same resource. So neat.
The afternoon session was equally neat, with talks by two scientists who are both studying the very small- one studies micro-organisms and is doing longterm site surveys in the oceans at 13 sites around the world. Microbes are the most abundant life form on earth, and there are more of them in your body than human cells by a full order of magnitude! Check out http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/ and http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php
Microbial population data sets and tools which could be used in math and science classes are available at vamps.mbl.edu.
The second scientist shared her work studying phytoplankton, which are single celled organisms which utilize photosynthesis. These organisms are hard to study seasonally, so her team built a portable version of the tool used to identify and use them, called a flow cytometer. Water is sucked into the machine, run very slowly through a tube and past a laser which triggers a camera when it identifies living organisms. The images are sent back to shore over a cable where they are analyzed. This information is of interest to scientists but can also be of immediate practical use- for example, using this tool, they were able to identify an unusual toxic algae bloom off of the Texas coast and close the harvest to prevent any illness just days before a local oyster festival (the festival went on with oysters from another state, in case you were worried). A tour of the lab was a great way to end the session and see two flow cytometers being built.
At the end of the day, there was time to wander Woods Hole, which is a pretty little spot (the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket departs from here) and enjoy a cup of tea and croissant from a great local coffee spot- thanks, Sam! All in all, I loved every moment of the day, and my understanding of the oceans got a little deeper.
Well, it’s been a long week. I’ve been sick, had an emergency root canal, dealt with myriad stressy things at work, and the combination of all these things caused my arthritis to flare up badly. The weather is horrid too. But it doesn’t matter. I get to see my Thing One in just over a week. I am so looking forward to having my whole family back under one roof. We’re going to badger the boys into playing Settlers of Catan, sew lots of things, bake until the house smells like heaven, and talk face to face, not over the phone, for hours on end. I think that Thing One isn’t the only one counting the days…
(photo stolen from Thing One’s Facebook)
Via How About Orange, a marvelous set of prints by Korean artist Yeondoo Jung. The artist has taken a series of childrens’ drawings and interpreted them as photographs. Check out the whole set- they’re sure to make you smile.
Saturday, June 7th 2008. 8:23 pm.
It’s been a nice, weekendy sort of weekend, the sort that we haven’t quite managed to have for far too long. We spent only a bit of time in town, running a few errands and keeping the grocery bill to an all-time low. The Badger puttered outside, working on my greenhouse, and I did house-wifey things.
Yesterday I baked an herb bread flavoured with my mom’s dried tomatoes and Narnia Farm’s foccacia seasoning blend, as well as a rhubarb cake, and both were wonderful. Today, after making poached eggs for the Badger and I on left-over herb bread toast for breakfast, I baked the amazing New York Times No-Knead bread which I’ve blogged about before, got a wonderful rendition of Beethoven’s 9th symphony by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra put onto our music server so I can listen to it in the house, watered my garden, took my camera for a stroll, and got the laundry off the line just before the skies opened (shouldn’t have bothered watering the garden I guess). After reading for while and having coffee with friends I made a scrummy pasta tossed with roasted roma tomatoes, fresh basil from a neighbor’s greenhouse, and farm-cured bacon from Smithers for dinner. We ate organic strawberries and sweet pineapple over french vanilla ice cream for dessert, and now I’ve just finished playing Citadels with Thing Two, who beat me both games, though only by one point the last time.
Now I’m off to read in my amazing bathtub, then I think I’ll lie in bed and watch the sunset reflect off of Goat Mountain.
I told you it’s been a nice weekend. And there’s still Sunday…
Wow. And oh, wow! I just got a beta invite to Spoonflower - a new website that lets you - get this- upload your own images and have fabric printed. AND, at 18$ US a yard, which is less than our local quilting shop charges for most prints, I can actually afford to do this. In moderation- maybe I’ll stop buying food.
I really don’t know where to start. Art nouveau? My original north-coast first nations designs? Large scale, non-repeating designs like Marimekko’s? Some coordinating prints for a dress? The mind boggles.
Let the photoshopping begin!
I’m still alive. Really. We had an amazing trip to Thailand at the beginning of May, but I returned home to a few fires to put out at work, so I’ve not really been in the mood to blog. I’m sorry.
There are pics from our trip up on my Flickr stream, for those who haven’t already seen them- my favorites are the ones with the elephants. I love elephants, turns out.
Anyhow, the cookies are done- gotta go take them out of the oven. Hopefully the writing brain recovers soon.
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