New Year's Conservation News

Like many biologists, the Phactor is both concerned about and supports conservation efforts even though his research is not focused on that issue. Conservation is an interesting field where PR is as important as the research, and generally biologists are good at the latter and poor at the former. That being said, it explains my uncertainty of how to react to this particular New Year's Eve conservation PR activity planned by the Center for Biological Diversity. CBD is going to distribute 50,000 condoms this evening each displaying one of six different slogans and artwork : the polar bear (“Wrap with care, save the polar bear”), jaguar (“Wear a jimmy hat, save the big cat”), American burying beetle (“Cover your tweedle, save the burying beetle”), snail darter (“Hump smarter, save the snail darter”), coquí guajón rock frog (“Use a stopper, save the hopper”), and spotted owl (“Wear a condom now, save the spotted owl”). Needless to say the six species are considered threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Oh, let me see it! How big of an audience does one expect will be viewing these PR messages? After all this is quite a bit different than a lapel button or bumper sticker. One wonders about sizes: snail darter vs. jaguar, and new sexual euphemisms: burying the beetle. And did George Carlin ever approve the term "tweedle"? What are parents to do because the tweedle is used in a children's book (hmm, a tweedle beetle bottle paddle battle, or some such phrase, if memory serves. F1?). Wonder who the lucky people will be? What will be the ratio of male to female recipients? What will be the age range of the recipients? If you want to have the biggest impact on human population growth the mean age will be about 16, and you might have a bigger impact giving 500 condoms to 100 teenagers (You want the bear or the hopper tonight?). Clearly the Phactor isn't cut out for PR work. And this seems a good note upon which to finish the year and wish us all better for 2011. So becareful out there tonight; you never know what someone will hand you in the name of conservation.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Orchid

The end of December is a tough time to find a fabulous flower, but the rain forest ecology field trip archives always come to the rescue. This particular orchid (Prosthechea fragrans) as the specific epithet indicates has a wonderful fragrance, which is a bit unusual in orchids. Also unusual it's a "right side up" flower. Most orchids are resupinate meaning that their flower stalk twists 180 degrees, or the inflorescence is pendent and therefore upside down, which places the distinctive petal on the bottom, while here it is on the top. The neat thing about this view is that you can see the two pollinia, waxy masses of pollen, ready to be picked up and dispersed. No idea what pollinates this flower; never seen a visitor, but the nectar guides and flower size (~3 cm across) would indicate a bee.

Been there and done that.

A recent poll tells me something that the Phactor said was coming from day one of the invasion; the majority of USA citizens oppose the fighting in Afghanistan. Yes the people say "war" but since there has been no congressional declaration of war (read your constitution people), it's just fighting, not a war. And it's Vietnam deja vu all over again, a pointless conflict with no clear objectives, no way to win, no easy way to disengage, and you wonder if you're doing more harm to people than good. Do you remember how bad things looked when the USA finally left Vietnam? But now over 3 decades later Vietnam certainly turned out OK, and not at all like the dire predictions. When you do not learn from your past you are doomed to repeat it, but hey, that's what "military intelligence" is all about.,

Making fruits and leaves - sweet!

Here's a great little video about making fruit and leaf shaped hard candy. No translation needed.
HT to Bioephemera.

Predictions for 2011 - Divide between rich and poor will increase

It hard to believe what can be accomplished in a great country like the USA; you can become wealthy and enjoy the fruits of your labors. But one thing seems to be missing and the thought occurred to me while walking home from campus. How wonderful that you own a house or apartment house, but does that not include responsibilities as well? And one such responsibility would be to shovel your sidewalk clear of snow. In a similar manner you may well ask what are the responsibilities that come with great wealth? In the past 30 years, and especially in the last decade, the gap between the richest and poorest has grown ever wider, and yet the political policies that not only allow this, but promote this, are arguably supported by the majority of citizens because they vote for politicians who have produced this inequity of wealth while at the same time placing more and more of the citizenry, nearly the majority, into the poor category. Why vote for people who continue to hose you? It would seem that social issues provide the glue that binds and blinds people to economic policies that do not help them at all. And as Sam Harris points out so well, the rich have never had it better. If Reagan trickle down economics were going to work, by this time you would certainly know it. All the data indicate this is a falsified economic hypothesis, and yet still the cry is "tax cuts, tax cuts". For a very small % of our citizens, 2011 will be a very good year. So until more people figure this out, there will be more of the same.

Predictions for 2011 - Politics and politicians to remain dumb

Unlike more professional soothsayers, the Phactor likes predicting sure things, so in the coming year we may expect that our politicians and the politics they practice will not get any smarter. Although it will not bother me a whit when some of the dumbass political actions being foisted off on us as solutions when actually they are merely sound bites being prepared for the next round of elections which is as far as most of these near-sighted morons can see, end up biting some of these twits in the butt, but the troubling aspect of this is that politicians are exactly what the voting public makes them. So if our representatives act like ideological idiots it's because the voting public made them that way, and if we could wish for anything it would be more choices because too often the choice between dems and doze is nothing by a lesser of two evils.

Seed Catalogs

Sacrozona asked if the Phactor could recommend some seed catalogs, and the answer is yes, but to do so would violate this blog's no pay-no play policy. Throwing my considerable reputation behind a recommendation that all too easily could be construed as an endorsement would violate my pure amateur blogger status and sully an otherwise pure nonprofit status. Afterall if this blog ever began to make money, the Phactor might have to take it seriously. That being said, all the major purveyors of garden seeds have nice catalogs as well as online sites, and then there are dozens of smaller and more specialized catalogs for all manor of seeds. Nonetheless in an effort to please a regular reader please consult Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs. But if you are just planting a small patio type garden, there isn't any real need to buy onling or mail order; a visit to a local garden shop will have all the seeds and plants you will need. The only things the Phactor purchases from catalogs or online sources are some hard to find items and unusual offerings, otherwise support your local garden shop.

Make way a cartoonist is coming

Cartoonists particularly those that translate politics and its foibles into hilarious renderings have always struck me as having the sharpest mightiest pen that can cut most deeply perhaps because they can convey so much with so little, and the Phactor does so like to see justly deserved ridicule meted out so amusingly. So imagine my delight to discover Marc Roberts on my lunchtime romp through various science blogs (HT to Gareth Renowden of Hot Topic and the Science Blogs of New Zealand).

Beat the Winter Doldrums - Seed Catalogues

Joy to the world! The firest seed catalogues for 2011 arrived yesterday, which seems rather early, but most appreciated. Can there be anything that generates more anticipation than gardeners contemplating the pictoral promises so wonderfully displayed? And the Phactor has a list and he's checking it twice to make sure he knows what to buy and when. Red currents are high upon this year's list. A new location is ready, and that's good because the supply of current-cranberry jelly (a dynamite combination discovered when there just weren't quite enough currents) is running low. Temptations always run high (oh, a double fernleaf peony), but the rule is simple, there has to be a space to plant something before the purchase can be made, which is such a stupid rule, but Mrs. Phactor is trying to rein in the impulsive purchases (unless they're shoes). A considerable rear shady border area was been cleared of trashy plants last year and awaits new landscape plantings granting lots of purchasing latitude! And it's only 2-3 months away!

Berry-go-Round #35 - Plants for the Holiday Season

The Decemeber edition of Berry-go-round is up over at the Accidental Botanist where Mary did a fine job of rounding up all sorts of plant blogs for the season. Oh, except no one blogged about poinsettia, although the Phactor did post about a Christmas tree in the same family.