*Tap Tap* Is this thing on?

Hello!

You might have noticed I've been absent for a little bit again. I was out in the field again, wrapping up the season with some various and sundry work. I've run into a tiny snag in my personal life, and although I'll try to have some posts out, it'll definitely be fewer and longer between posts until everything is peachy again.

In the interim, here's a moose staring at you.

A newly old brand of crazy?

I was going to write about the big behav-ecol kerfluffle that's stemming from E.O. Wilson's decision to go off the deep end (gee, I wonder where Tuuk stands?), but time has conspired against me. I didn't have enough time to write it up today, and probably want to put it off so I have a chance to re-read the paper. It's familiar - I was there for a lecture previewing the arguments about 6 years ago (?) at the University of Utah.

Instead, here's a brand of crazy I had no clue existed. There are people out there who dispute germ theory? Seriously? Are we going back to the witch based theory of disease?

Awol in the SE

Things will be quiet here at Geneflow for the next little bit, as I'm heading out to the SE to go poke at bears for a while. I'm looking forward to getting away from this gosh darned smoke!

Aaaand, we're back!

I got a new power-supply for my decrepit laptop just in time for my blogaversary! In 2007 I decided to try blogging about something other than me (since I'm very boring), and opened this one up to ramble about Alaska, Science, and things that hit my fancy. 3 years is nothing in person time, but in blog-time it's forever. Alas, I haven't hit the big-time yet - I've the same 30ish readers from a years ago, though I get a lot more hits from India these days. Hi India! But despite this, my total traffic has gone up a bit, thanks to Research Blogging.org. I get a nice little spike in traffic whenever I do a story as part of that collective, and sometimes people give me later link-backs.

I haven't tapped a co-blogger, though I keep meaning to. I'm thinking of looking for someone who does a branch of Science I don't know much about (though, maybe I'd have to change the name). But that's harder than finding a roommate! What if they leave the milk out, and forget to close their HTML tags? Anyhow, I've gone and freshened up my blog a bit in terms of layout and so forth. The most noticeable change is my icon - I've finally ditched the old one I didn't take for one of UAF's handsome reindeer!

Will I still blog a year from now? Aipaagni! Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I don't know the future. But I do know I'm going to have another beer tonight.

Happy Birthday, Blog!

Computer blahs

I'd love to hammer out a few more posts, but my computer is developing new broken parts all the time. The latest one is the power supply - I shouldn't be shocked, I suppose. This is a 4 year old computer! Here's two things to keep your attention for a few

Kangaroos fighting!



Apparently, I write like this guy:

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Blogger problems?

I had a post with some misc things I had found (like a drought map for Alaska, and a link to a Obituary for Peter Jacob)... but I don't see it in my blogger Archive. Did anyone see it at all?

Oops!

I couldn't throw my blog post up for today, due to problems with blogspot. Sorry folks! I'll sit on it for monday, for now. Instead, here's a picture of a waterfall. :P I can't wait for things to start greening up!

Begich's driving habits redux

I check my traffic with regularity, so I can shamelessly pander to my audience. I was checking the last couple days traffic, when I noticed this visitor to my post about Begich and the Toyota...

:P  Never had that visitor before!

We're number 1!

We're number one!

... in food stamp usage.

The Wade Hampton Census area, generally called the lower Yukon River region, is tied for the nation's highest rates of food stamp use, a state official said.
"It's 49 percent of all people," said Craig Kahklen, senior research analyst at the Division of Public Assistance.
A county in Kentucky and South Dakota share that rate, he said.
"It's a dubious honor," he said.
The region had one of the nation's lowest per capita income rates during the 2000 U.S. Census, so it stands to reason that food stamp use would be high there, he said.
Food stamp use grew rapidly across the state last year, mostly in urban areas, Kahklen said.

I'd thought it'd be higher, honestly.

Other news, aside from my normal Wed post (which I've already picked out), I'm laying low until Friday. I need to buckle down and work on prepping for Thursday. And I anticipate being too bleery on Thursday to make a serious attempt at a blog post.

Catch up

The great irony of being sick while having a lot of chores to do is that although you suddenly have a lot of time to do them in, you're much less able to do them. I caught the damned gastric virus going around, and now that I'm feeling somewhat better, today is going to be a day of hurrying to catch up.

So! All that to say, no real post today, but here's a cute comic! Read all of it Here!

Hooch and TV reception.

This has been bugging me: Is it just me, or does ADN's coverage of Bethel's proposed alcohol changes read something like this:

Oh my god! Natives are going to get into the booze! Everyone panic!

Maybe I'm reading into their coverage too much. Or not enough: ADN loves to be moralistic and patronizing.

Unrelated note, I might be a bit quiet the next few days. I'm in the processes of moving to new place. First thing I noticed is that Goldstream has much better TV reception than Farmer's Loop. I know this because my TV wasn't even slightly pixel-y as I watched last night's House M.D.

An attempt at flickr.

 Here's an attempt at posting a Flickr photo. It's a bird from my vacation to Michigan and Ohio.

I think Alaskan Ravens can kick Michigan Ravens' feathered cloaca.

And here's a funny sign:

In the bush

I'm out of town and into the bush. Back Tuesday (probably). Monday if things go well. Until then, here's something to contemplate:

It's your birthday!

XKCD has an incredibly timely and cute comic about woodpeckers and birthdays.
Today is my Blog's Birthday. It was an experiment in whether I could keep a blog focused on things other than what I was doing that day. It was also an experiment in whether I could write about science for the public. My blog peaked at about 100 unique readers, and is now somewhere around 30-40, depending on whether some IP addresses are different people. Not a lot of you post comments! That's sad. ; )

A lot of the things I meant to use this blog for, I haven't. I was going to practise Yugcetun writing in here more, but I've slowly figured it out, mostly, and I get plenty of practise in other ways. I meant to rope in a co-blogger, to pick up some of the slack, but I haven't found another person at the University who I could ask. I meant to write more about politics, but Troopergate and Palin's VP run removed any urge to talk about these things, since we're bombarded with it daily now.

Will I still blog a year from now? Aipaagni! Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I don't know the future. But I do know I'm going to have another beer tonight.

Happy birthday, Blog!

late

Notice I'm late with today's post-o-blog? That's because I'm officially on vacation. We get two days off before the fourth, because too many holidays fall on weekends this year. Or something like that. I'm not going to question a good thing, since I'm eating at my own home for a change! I'm now minus one graduate student, as he's now Dr. Jerk, Ph.D. ;) Also, thanks to my father, who I called about making BBQ sauce. A quick way to modify sauce is to take the craft stuff, add 1 part vinegar for 10 parts kraft sauce, and cumin to taste. Everyone at the Ph.D. defence potluck loved the pulled-venison. It didn't hurt that 90 people brought beer, and I brought actual food...

Anyhow, I might not be around tomorrow, or monday. I'm looking at heading down river to fishcamp, to see if I can get enough in my freezer until I can get out for caribou.

Or maybe not...

So much for fishing. I remembered that I have a prior obligation. I'll be helping out with the Yukon Quest's event on Sunday, which precludes me being out on the river. Oh well! That'll give me some time to work on the boat. I've got much of the sewing done! And if you have time, swing on by the Midnight Sun celebration!

After this, I've got the American Society of Mammalogists meeting to help set up and co-ordinate (And I'm probably presenting as well), so next week posting might be sporadic. And I probably won't be able to go fishing next weekend either. Boo!

Uh-Oh... better update the will..

I have statcounter, which keeps track of how many hits (I average about 50 a day, weekdays).

On the list I found this... you might have to click to see it well.Uh-oh! COORS? And they're reading all the bad things I said about them... If I mysteriously disappear, tell the police to look for my body in the bottom of Molson Coors' brewing vats. I might be wearing concrete shoes!

Home

Home. Landed late last night. I'd make a bigger post, but I'm going to try at least a half-day at work (even though technically I'm still on vacation). This way I can take off half of Friday, and spend it out either actually fishing or climbing some rocks (I'm iffy on the plan because we're winging it).

Administrivia and a quick personal note

Just a quick heads-up on Administrivia. I fixed commenting on the preceding post. I've no clue why Blogger suddenly turned comments off. Thanks to GPC for pointing it out!

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Well, students are gone, grades were due yesterday, and most of my lab members are off in Anchoragua for an All Hands meeting from a funding agency. That means it's fairly quiet up here, and I've got a few moments of spare time to worth with again. Since I apparently haven't mentioned it before, I'm working on building a boat. I won't use here as a build-log, but I'll throw up pictures when I'm done. It's skin-on-frame, and I'll probably use PVC (or something similar) as its amiq.

Briefly

I'm feeling markedly unwell today (heart burn), and exhausted to boot, so I'm going to be brief.

Usually, I have ads turned off, thanks to a plugin. But today, I had the plugin turned off to watch a few hockey highlights (Go wings!), so I saw this on the DNM website today:
Is it just me, or does that look real old timey? So old that you have to spell it olde. When I saw it, I thought of this places' adverts (They are satire, by the way).

The skull from last week was a Ringed Seal (Pusa hispida), or Nayiq. I love that one, because someone - someone who is not me - wrote nayiq right on the label. I just imagine all the students seeing that and wondering what that's supposed to mean.

I'd throw up a new museum specimen for you all, but it seems interest in that is waning (or was never really there).