Update June 8

My posting has been erratic at best I know, but I have new motivation now to write and will try and post every few days at least, during this field season. I met a man named Ed (who is a retired outdoors writer - more on him below) and have since been inspired to try and write on this thing more often.

Field season started the first week of May and we have been camping ever since. We first started in MT for a couple weeks to catch some birds I didn't get last year (damn woodpeckers) as well as some new species my adviser added, and then headed down to CO where we have been since just before Memorial Day. I have been catching lots of birds and overall having a good time but the start in MT was cold since it was still pretty much winter and below freezing at night. In CO so far we have had a lot of rain and thunderstorms but it is supposed to get to be more normal in terms of weather soon. I think we have about a week left on Colorado and then we are off to Utah. I have met some great people here in Colorado and one of them is a couple named Ed and Suzan Dentry; Ed is a retired outdoors writer for the rocky mountain newspaper who knows pretty much everyone who is anyone in the outdoors (hunting and fishing) scene over the last 40 years and is friends with many of the fly-fishing authors I have read and Suzan has an antiques website SuzanDentryAntiques.. Ed also covered the 1988 Yellowstone fires which he was nominated for a Pulitzer and has regaled us, more me though with some hunting/fishing and general outdoors stories which I have thoroughly enjoyed. They have also been kind enough to let us sleep in their guest room and couch so we have been out of the tents for a few days and loving the "normal" comforts (we also caught a number of birds at their place which is sorta important since that's required before we get to move on to the next destination).

We also ran into a few other people with bird feeders which makes it easier to catch birds and a few have been really kind to offer us home cooked meals. One of them was a couple in Boulder and the man was a retired psychology professor and incredibly good pianist where we spent the night after catching the birds chatting away and had a great time. Back in MT we camped on this older couple's land (Jane owns the local Birds and Beasleys bird store in Helena along with her daughter Sandy - both of which helped us out immensely; thank you both!) where we were for about a week since they had showers we could use, which is always a good thing.

Nothing too exciting to report really and with all the run-off I haven't had a chance to fish but soon! There was a sighting of a mountain lion and two yearling cubs here which is exciting and I hope to see them. No bears so far but we are planning on heading to another family's place to camp and they have a big black bear that regularly come around so hopefully I will see it (but not from too close up). Originally I was thinking of camping in their meadow/draw but then my field partner Karley reminded me that the bear is thought to be hanging out in that exact area so.... we are staying up by the house instead.

A Sweet Gesture

So I met a couple in Montana where we banded a few birds at their feeder and saw something I really wanted to share. The gentleman suffers from a bad back and has an electrical stimulator for pain reduction and as a result has difficulty moving around a lot. He did make it out a couple times to look at a few of the birds we caught but that obviously took a little effort. The couple was fantastic and we hung out at their place talking and sharing stories while we waited for the birds (on a side note though I couldn't believe that we didn't get any woodpeckers at their place - it was perfect habitat! I have no idea where they went since apparently they are ALWAYS around: actually I think that woodpeckers in Montana just know when I am around and disappear just like they did last year and again this year at Joe and Sally's place where once again there was perfect beautiful cottonwoods etc., and NO WOODPECKERS!).

Back to the point; the man proceeded to walk on out to the meadow about 200 feet or so away from the house and walk around for about 45-60 minutes with his beautiful golden retriever, bending over and looking at the ground, then walking a little and doing it again. I was only half paying attention because of the birds in the net but eventually he came back to the house with a hat full of flowers (shooting stars, bird bells etc.), all of which were his wife's favorite, and he put them in a little vase for her. I don't think anyone realized that I even noticed, but for some reason witnessing this act brought about a huge flood of memories and feelings. The first thing I thought about was my grandparents (maybe because the couple were older, in general) and the many times I have witnessed both of them do things like this for each other ever since I can remember. I can think of so many times that my grandfather has made a comment or a little gesture declaring his love for his bride which he has said many times and which we always chuckled at but knew he was serious, the many times I have seen him and my mom over the years pick gardenias for my grandmother, mom or aunt etc., for example, which they love(d), or my grandfather picking oranges known from the backyard (these are by far the best the best valencia oranges in the world which were sometimes even delivered to far away destinations) for some fresh oj in the morning for my grandmother and others (maybe a little brandy in our oj?), or my mom and dad going out of their way to get to my brother's plays/shows when we were younger (which he still does today) or my soccer games, or especially my grandfather ordering enough olives in his beefeater martini for all of us and I mean ALL of us to have one - by the way I have started drinking these and it never fails to make me think of him and my family, great-grandparents/aunt included at Arnoldi's restaurant in Santa Barbara when I was a kid - this picture isn't Arnoldi's but it was all I had).



I know life and love is not all about just little gestures and I could easily write about how much respect I have for what my dad did for my mom while she was sick which I may do someday, but not today and probably not for a while, but I think the little things are important: the fact is that most people have many more opportunities for the little gestures than the big sacrifices. And this one moment brought back all of these little gestures I have witnessed by friends and family (I am leaving out most of them of course) and for some reason I wanted to write about it.




I think these are the best evidence of how people feel about each other, and they show who is conscientious of other people's wants or needs ,or even better maybe and to quote Maria, love is being able to fill out someone else's list of "my favorite things" and provide a few once in a while.

Vodka

On a lighter side - Bakon Vodka...bacon flavored vodka??? who in the hell wouldn't want to try this? Bloody Mary? I can easily see pasta sauce with this in it... there has to be some more ideas out there.

Biblical Marriage

Since I blogged before on the "traditional" definition of marriage, I thought I would copy a good list of biblical marriages by vorjack over at Unreasonable Faith. The main point he makes, which is a good one, is that NONE of these are depicted as being better than any other anywhere in the bible - they are all valid and recommended by "10 out of 10" different versions of the bible.

"Here’s a summary:

1. Polygynous Marriage

Probably the most common form of marriage in the bible, it is where a man has more than one wife.

2. Levirate Marriage

When a woman was widowed without a son, it became the responsibility of the brother-in-law or a close male relative to take her in and impregnate her. If the resulting child was a son, he would be considered the heir of her late husband. See Ruth, and the story of Onan (Gen. 38:6-10).

3. A man, a woman and her property — a female slave

The famous “handmaiden” sketch, as preformed by Abraham (Gen. 16:1-6) and Jacob (Gen. 30:4-5).

4. A man, one or more wives, and some concubines

The definition of a concubine varies from culture to culture, but they tended to be live-in mistresses. Concubines were tied to their “husband,” but had a lower status than a wife. Their children were not usually heirs, so they were safe outlets for sex without risking the line of succession. To see how badly a concubine could be treated, see the famous story of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19:1-30).

5. A male soldier and a female prisoner of war

Women could be taken as booty from a successful campaign and forced to become wives or concubines. Deuteronomy 21:11-14 describes the process.

6. A male rapist and his victim

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 describes how an unmarried woman who had been raped must marry her attacker.

7. A male and female slave

A female slave could be married to a male slave without consent, presumably to produce more slaves.

and of course …

8. Monogamous, heterosexual marriage

What you might think of as the standard form of marriage, provided you think of arranged marriages as the standard. Also remember that inter-faith or cross-ethnic marriage were forbidden for large chunks of biblical history."

Is you housemate an ATHEIST???

I saw this cartoon and had to share (you can click on the picture for a larger version) - the irony is completely lost on the original author/poster and that the original intent of making fun of atheists completely fails and this is actually a parody of anti-atheists. Read his blog here if you have doubts as to the original author's need from some psychiatric help. (Thanks to Greg for sharing this email that was sent to him by the comic author)

Atheist's Ten Commandments

I found these over at Greg Laden's Blog and thought I would share for those that don't know his blog. (thanks Greg!)

These really should really apply to everyone!

1. Thou SHALT NOT believe all thou art told.
2. Thou SHALT seek knowledge and truth constantly.
3. Thou SHALT educate thy fellow man in the Laws of Science.
4. Thou SHALT NOT forget the atrocities committed in the name of god.
5. Thou SHALT leave valuable contributions for future generations.
6. Thou SHALT live in peace with thy fellow man.
7. Thou SHALT live this one life thou hast to its fullest.
8. Thou SHALT follow a Personal Code of Ethics.
9. Thou SHALT maintain a strict separation between Church and State.
10. Thou SHALT support those who follow these commandments.

The thing that made the thing for which there is no known maker

"Brilliant"

This is stupid - Updated 3/13

For UPDATE see bottom of post:

Sorry but this is why the catholic church is wrong (and anyone else who says abortion is wrong for any and all cases):

Brazil girl, alleged rape victim, aborts twins:
The procedure on the 9-year-old girl draws complaints from Catholic church

The title says it all but the story says the girl is "alleged" to have been raped by her stepfather, she is 80 lbs and SHE IS 9 YEARS OLD!!!! and it isn't just one it's TWINS!!! In Brazil abortion is illegal except for specific circumstance (endanger the mother) and the the catholic church says she should carry it to term; it's the law of GOD - WTF???? They even tried to take legal action to stop it..."inconceivable" - it is the will of God for her to get pregnant and then if she dies carrying the babies to term...that's all on him too I guess and we should just let it go????? AND to top it off, get this, the Archbishop excommunicated the child's mother, doctors and others involved! I don't even know what to say to that.....

If you want a little more detail and a better discussion see Mike's blog at The Questionable Authority

UPDATE 3/13/09 - From PZ: "After all of this the president of Brazil took a public stand against the church's unjust decision. Now at last, we hear from the top of the Catholic hierarchy…and the Vatican sides with fetuses over children. No surprise there at all."

The stupid, it hurts. Sorry but I have absoutley zero tolerance for this! To say we should force a 9 year old rape victim to carry to term twins (that are her stepdad's....) NO WAY.

Oh the irony, it hurts

So I am sitting at the Nature Centre here in Lethbridge watching my birds and listening to podcasts on my Ipod. I was listening to one from NPR Science titled Eyes in the Skies and Drying up Rainforests

Most of the podcast is about rainforests, global warming and CO2 sources/sinks but a portion of it is on in vitro fertelization and pre-implantation genetic haplotyping. A couple who had a child that died at approximately 8 weeks I think from a neuromuscular genetic disorder had decided they wanted to have more children but did not want to have another one with the same genetic disorder. The woman took hormone therapy for in-vitro and after harvesting 17 embryos and fertilizing them, all of them had one cell removed (at the 8 cell stage this doesn't do anything to the embryo really) for testing to make sure which ones didn't have the gene for the disorder. After all that, and having a lab identify about 10+ embryos without the disorder (any not implanted in the first round are frozen for future attempts if desired) the journalists asked the couple how many children they wanted and she said "however many God wants us to have"! Apparently it is all up to God and the lab personnel, her own active hormone supplementation, freezing embryos and then all of the extra stuff you do for implantation of the fertilized embryo(s) is all up to God and just God's plan (which correct me if I am wrong was an infant with the disorder?). Now don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for anyone that has to deal with the loss of a child at any age but especially so young but the irony of their statement vs actions is lost on this woman/couple, going through all of this effort/actions and still claiming it is all up to God! That just drives me crazy and I couldn't believe it just came out so naturally and without even the briefest pause from these people who are actively playing "god" regarding their own reproductive efforts but still clinging to this predetermined plan from their deity.

The Darwin Song

This is great! These kids already know more about Darwin than many adults I know.



hat tip to Greg Laden where I found it, and Evolving Complexity

Faith: can justify anything as from God

It amazes me how the "faithful" can attribute ANYTHING to God. If a plane crashes and everyone dies it was God's will, if a plane has a problem and lands on the Hudson safely it was God's hand, if a Hurricane or Tsunami hits it was God's will, if a new job comes along, a long lost relative calls when you think of them, you turn left instead of right and it was a good thing ..... etc. A believer can justify why either God or prayer works, fails to work, or explain a positive random event as the will of God or an answer to prayer. I wont get into the psychological aspect of the difficulties the human mind has with correlations or the natural tendency and evolutionary reason that the human mind looks for patterns which I will save for a future blog, but I will recommend reading this blog by Harry McCall on How the Human Mind Reasons which I think is really good. I am actually working on a similar blog regarding God's love and another on the effect of giving up the idea that you can control all of your life which when you fully accept that you can't, you need to accept life as it comes and enjoy it for what it, Which when do this removes a huge burden/weight and is a relief; it's just that believers attribute this to God (God's will or path they are willing to follow) and atheists attribute it to learning to accept life (such is life), but the end result is still the same! Sorry for rambling but I got work to do and just wanted to post real quick AND recommend the above blog posting: McCall's blog is interesting, especially the personal organ transplant story about his daughter!

Rivals of Jesus

For those of you interested in this stuff here is a good little video on the rivals of Jesus before, during and just after his time. Jesus wasn’t the only messianic prophet in the ancient world — but he’s the only one most people remember. This National Geographic documentary presents some of the rivals of Jesus and Judaism like Mithras, Simon Magus, Apollonius of Tyana, Simon Bar Kochba, and Isis (Tip to Daniel for the post I noticed)