Friday, January 25, 2008

-- Say What?... --

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In case you haven't glanced at them, just a few of the quotes that are part of the "Just Some Quotes" link in left-hand margin, to take you into the weekend:
"If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain... In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar." -- Richard Feynman

"It is really quite amazing by what margins competent but conservative scientists and engineers can miss the mark, when they start with the preconceived idea that what they are investigating is impossible. When this happens, the most well-informed men become blinded by their prejudices and are unable to see what lies directly ahead of them."
-- Arthur C. Clarke, 1963

"It's like religion. Heresy [in science] is thought of as a bad thing, whereas it should be just the opposite." -- Dr. Thomas Gold

"You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it." -- Carl Sagan, 1987

"Modern science should indeed arouse in all of us a humility before the immensity of the unexplored and a tolerance for crazy hypotheses." -- Martin Gardner

"I ask you, which is the greater threat to science and mankind, accepting a claim that can have no possible benefit, or rejecting a claim that can have great benefit?" -- Dr. Edmund Storms

"What we need is not the will to believe but the will to find out." -- Bertrand Russell

"If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day."
-- J. A. Wheeler

"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity." -- T. H. Huxley

"The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively not by the false appearance of things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice."
-- Arthur Schopenhauer

"Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world." -- Arthur Schopenhauer

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." -- Sir Martin Rees (astronomer)

"Advances are made by answering questions. Discoveries are made by questioning answers."
-- Bernhard Haisch, astrophysicist

"...By far the most usual way of handling phenomena so novel that they would make for a serious rearrangement of our preconceptions is to ignore them altogether, or to abuse those who bear witness for them." -- William James

"Everything we know is only some kind of approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws yet. Therefore, things must be learned only to be unlearned again or, more likely, to be corrected." -- Richard Feynman

"One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have." -- Einstein

"We do not understand much of anything, from... the "big bang," all the way down to the particles in the atoms of a bacterial cell. We have a wilderness of mystery to make our way through in the centuries ahead." -- Lewis Thomas

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny...' " -- Isaac Asimov

"The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect." -- Lewis Thomas

"Sit down before facts like a child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." -- T.H. Huxley

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
-- William James

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

-- Helicopter Search + addendum --

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Next week searchers with telephoto lenses in-hand plan to commence a 10-day survey of the Cache River Refuge by helicopter in the ongoing search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas, hoping to scour ~100,000 acres:

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=59442

There's always been some debate over whether such overflights increase the likelihood of spooking an IBWO out into the open for catching on film, or only cause them to cower more tightly in the safety of the tree canopy... but, there would seem to be little to lose at this point in the effort. Back in 1958, wildlife biologist Herb Stoddard reported sighting an Ivory-bill during a flyover (small plane) of the Altamaha River Basin in Georgia.

Addendum: For the sake of completeness, someone informs me that the helicopter search will include the White River NWR and Wattensaw SWA in addition to the Cache River NWR. Good to know.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

-- Ivory-billed "Boom" Goes "Bust" --

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NY Times article here on how the potential economic boom brought to parts of Arkansas by the the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has, for now, gone bust.

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-- S.C. Volunteer Chimes In --

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One of the South Carolina (Congaree) searchers briefly recounts his initial week involved with the S.C. search here. Nothing momentous to report. Can't be much fun searching or camping in the current frigid cold sweeping across the southeast.

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Sunday, January 20, 2008

-- Sidenote --


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Attended an annual all-day conference of science bloggers this weekend with scientists, bloggers, educators, journalists, and the like from around the country in attendance (and all ages, and levels of interest/credentials represented) --- a very broad-umbrella group; in the future might be nice to see more "nature" and even "birding" bloggers present, as several of the topics/issues discussed would be of interest to all (I assume it will occur again next year in January, and again in central North Carolina).

Much of the energy and agenda for the get-together comes from folks associated with the 'Scienceblogs' network on the Web. I'll just mention one of the more general issues they've focussed on lately, for any not already aware of it: an effort afoot to hold a 'Science Debate 2008' as part of this year's Presidential contest, in which candidates are specifically asked their views on various science topics that might guide policies should they make it to the Whitehouse (debates of course often focus on 'foreign policy' or 'domestic issues,' but rarely touch much on science perspectives, which could play a far greater role in the future of the nation and planet at large).

Go here (for starters) to get more info on this developing matter. (Realistically, Republicans will likely resist any discussion of science, so doubt such a debate will happen, but with enough outside pressure, just maybe....)

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And here a follow-up to the story of the killed Bald Eagle linked to on Thursday. Rewards leading to the shooter have now climbed from $1000 to $14,000.
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Saturday, January 19, 2008

-- Ahead --

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Reminders:

The 2nd Gala of the "Ivory-billed Woodpecker Foundation" is about a month away (Feb. 23) in Huntsville, AL. with keynote speaker Dr. Jerome Jackson. More details and registration here (pdf).

Also, a heads-up for the first annual "Santee Birding and Nature Festival" in South Carolina, April 18th - 20th, with outings to the Santee, Congaree, and other areas of interest in central S.C. Info here (pdf).
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Thursday, January 17, 2008

-- For What It's Worth... --

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A massive new genus of palm tree is found hiding in plain sight in Madagascar (perhaps for 80 million years):

here and here.

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Elsewhere on the Web:

Yet another sad, inexplicable Bald Eagle story here:


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080116/NEWS/801160583/1418/RSS03

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

-- "Stalking the Ghost Bird" --

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Michael K. Steinberg's (now of the Univ. of Alabama) volume "Stalking the Ghost Bird," about the historical search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana, is now available for pre-order (March release).

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Elsewhere on the Web:

here some footage all of us who feed squirrels, er uhhh, birds, can relate to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWU0bfo-bSY

and tragic, odd, gory story of Alaskan eagle deaths here:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/262449.html

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

-- Cornell Posts --

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Cornell has a new page at their site for following their current search season here.
I've placed a link to their Arkansas Search Log in left-hand margin links.

And Bobby Harrison's Ivory-billed Woodpecker Foundation has begun its own blog here.

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Wednesday, January 09, 2008

-- Arkansas Interview --

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Here a public broadcasting report/interview on the Ivory-bill search in Arkansas; includes Alan Mueller mentioning his sighting from last year and some new strategy for this season. Worth a listen (~10 mins.)
[Thanks to Ross Everett over at IBWO Researchers Forum for passing this along.]

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Tuesday, January 08, 2008

-- Auburn Update --

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Latest update from Auburn's Dr. Hill here on the Choctawhatchee search, officially renewed now in a leaner, scaled-back form.

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Monday, January 07, 2008

-- Mobile Team Update --

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Cornell's Mobile Team has posted an update recounting their December movements:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/current0607/0708TravelLogs/MSTlog/document_view

Some nice pics along the way, but nothing new IBWO-wise. I assume by now they've moved on from Louisiana's Atchafalaya, but not totally clear from the post.

Otherwise, things pretty quiet from the official searches.

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Friday, January 04, 2008

-- 'nother Mississippi Searcher --

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Article on another Mississippian looking for the Ivory-bill here.

Thus far the search has taken him "through Morgan's Brake, Tallahatchie County, Dahomey, Malmaison, Delta National Park, Panther Swamp, Anderson Tully, Mahannah and St. Catherine Creek." While "down the road, he plans to branch out through the Desoto National Forest, the Pascagoula River and the Bogue Chitto River." Cornell's Mobile Search Team should be in Mississippi this month as well.

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From the Web Grab Bag:

Author Michael Pollan has a fresh new book out:
"In Defense of Food" --- looks to be excellent, especially for anyone who has enjoyed his prior writings. And biologist David Wilcove is out with "No Way Home" on the disappearance of migratory animals.
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Sunday, December 30, 2007

-- John Arvin on the Search --

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John Arvin speaks about the IBWO search in Texas here.

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

-- hmmmm... --

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Just noticed that the ACONE (remote computerized camera system) folks in Arkansas have posted an additional pic from back in March 2007 up at their site, here:

http://www.c-o-n-e.org/acone/controversy.htm

Before you get too excited be sure to read the accompanying comments below photo.
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Saturday, December 22, 2007

-- A Holiday Reading --

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In this season of miracles, in a time of conflict between science and religion, and debate over the state of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, just a reading today from astronomer/physicist Chet Raymo, one of my favorite science/nature writers, focused on the Red Knot (a well known western hemisphere shorebird) --- appropriately enough from his 1998 volume entitled "Skeptics and True Believers," another book I recommend to all (passage
highly edited for brevity's sake):
"...Now here is the astonishing thing... The young red knots, by the thousands and without adult guides or prior experience, find their way along the ancient migration route. From northern Canada to New England's Atlantic shore, across the Atlantic Ocean to Guyana and Suriname, then down along the eastern coast of South America, arriving precisely at those feeding grounds along the way where they are sure to find food. At last they join their parents and others of their species on the beaches of Tierra del Fuego for the southern summer.
"How do they do it? How do the young birds make their way along a route they have never traveled to, a destination they have never seen? How do they unerringly navigate the long stretch of their journey over featureless sea? We know exactly what the red knots accomplish --- where they go, when they arrive... But how the uninstructed young birds accomplish their epic feat of navigation remains mysterious...

"This much is certain: A map for the journey and the instrumental knowledge to follow it are part of the red knot's genetic inheritance. Each bird begins life as a single fertilized cell. Already, that microscopic cell contains the biological equivalent of a set of charts, a compass, a sextant, and maybe even something akin to a satellite navigation system...
"How can a map of the globe and the skill to follow it be contained within a cell too small to be seen with the naked eye? Medieval theologians are said to have debated how many angels can dance on the head of a pin; in the flight of the red knot we are engaged with a mystery more immediately present but no less marvelous...

"In the case of animal navigation, the answer to our question turns out to be quite incredible. The urge to make the red knot's planet-spanning flight, the map of the journey, and the skills to follow it, are written into a DNA molecule in a language of stunning simplicity... The red knot's map and navigational manual are written in a chemical language of only four letters!

"In each cell of the red knot's body, there are identical strands of DNA, about an arm's length in all, a blueprint for making a small russet bird with an urge to fly and the skills to make a 9,000-mile unpracticed journey. Can it be possible?... Believe it or not, several sets of the Encyclopedia Brittanica could be transcribed into the red knot's genes!...

"For some years I have been on the Board of Overseers of Boston's Museum of Science. On my visits to the museum, I always make my way to the ten-foot-high model of a segment of DNA. To my mind it is the most extraordinary exhibit in the museum... I stand in front of this partial strand, gape-jawed at the beauty, at the simplicity --- a simplicity out of which emerges the astonishing diversity and awesome complexity of life. What I feel as I stand before the model cannot be adequately put into words. Call it reverence, awe, praise --- in short, the full range of religious feeling.
"Nothing I learned during my religious training is more wondrous to me than the flight of the juvenile red knot... Such real-world mysteries inspire my awe far more than the so-called miracle on display in the cathedral of Turin. In the red knot's story we catch a glimpse of a God who never lifts his hand from his work, and who leads everything to the purpose for which it was ordained. As the British writer and cartographer Tim Robinson observed: Miracles are explainable; it is the explanations that are miraculous."

--- Every waking moment, of every day, I would argue, we all witness things (which we blissfully take for granted) that are far more miraculous than the continued existence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers could ever be argued to be. Such is life... In this season of joy and wonder may we all come to recognize some of those daily miracles continually before us, which dwarf the debate over the Ivory-bill, the outcome of which is yet to be known, no matter who or how many, prematurely consider it settled.

A Merry Christmas to all, and best wishes for a 2008 full of surprises... and awe.
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

-- Chit-chat --

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Some IBWO chatter over on BirdChat this week here, as well as a brief thread on Rich Guthrie's earlier (April) Ivorybill sighting in Arkansas this year can be found here, (little over half-way down).

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Elsewhere on the Web:

A list of year-end science book recommendations from John Brockman here:


http://www.edge.org/documents/books07_index.html

ADDENDUM: Museum specimens of Ivorybills here:

http://bryanholliday.blogspot.com/2007/12/ivory-billed-woodpeckers.html
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-- Mobile Team Travel Log --

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Cornell's new Mobile Search Team's travel log has been posted on the Cornell site, actually going back to their start in November:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/current0607/0708TravelLogs/MSTlog/document_view

A bit surprised to see they headed over to the Tyler, Texas area to start things off before heading to Louisiana's Atchafalaya region where, in another slight surprise, they say they will spend a month's worth of time.
I'll change my Mobile Team blog link in left-hand margin to the current travel log (from last year's log).
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