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Drew may be ready to rock, but he is not amused.
Conservation
Earlier this week, Dr. M of Deep Sea News evaluated President Obama’s science and conservation policies and awarded him a B-. I gave President Obama a C+ overall after his first 100 days in office, noting that some things haven’t had enough time to be given a fair grade, and I think things have gotten much worse since then. I was a little shocked at how high this grade was, and I left Dr. M a snarky comment (sorry, Craig).
In the interest of fairness, I wanted to find a way to objectively grade these policies. The best that I can find is the Obameter, run by non-partisan fact checker Politifact. Basically, they record every promise that President Obama made during the campaign and since he’s become President, and they keep track of how each is progressing. Each is rated “promise kept”, “compromise” (something similar happened though not exactly what was promised), “in the works” (not done yet but actively being worked on), “stalled” (no work being done but it may happen at some point), and “promise broken”.
Read More “Grading President Obama on science and conservation” »
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The academic blogosphere is bursting with discussion over this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: The Shadow Scholar. A professional academic ghostwriter spills the beans on how his business works, who buys his services, and how the system enables it. Go ahead and give it a read, we’ll be right here. So what do … Read More “Open Thread – Ghostwriters, academic integrity, and the Shadow Scholar” »
Popular Culture
I am excited to announce that I am now a part of the planning team for the 2nd Annual Beneath the Waves Film Festival!
This festival, which is associated with the Benthic Ecology conference, provides a unique opportunity for scientists and filmmakers to interact. Since the festival is part of a scientific conference, filmmakers will be able to get feedback from scientists, and even plan collaborations for the future. Scientists who make movies for fun will be able to ask professional filmmakers for tips.
Unlike many other film festivals, Beneath the Waves is free to enter, which makes it an ideal showcase for films by students, amateur naturalists, and starting filmmakers.
The focus is on marine/coastal/freshwater science and conservation issues. They must be shorter than 30 minutes, and we request that they be shorter than 20 minutes if at all possible. The submission deadline is January 15th, 2011.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional, a young filmmaker just getting started, or a scientist who has taken some cool video, the Beneath the Waves Festival is for you.
Uncategorized
Long night at the Wine Bar.
Conservation, Science
The shark blog-o-sphere has been busy lately. Here are some of the headlines from the world of shark science and conservation.
Chuck from Ya Like Dags has a fantastic post explaining the ecology of fear and how it relates to sharks. As it turns out, predators can have a major impact on an ecosystem just by being there- prey change their behavior in ecologically significant ways because they want to avoid being eaten. If you’re looking for scientific reasons why sharks are important to the ocean or if you’re just looking for a cool ecology story, check it out!
Al Dove of the Georgia Aquarium explains that whale sharks are curious animals that will sometimes swim over to check out humans. I’ve found that most sharks tend to avoid people, but he has a pretty convincing video.
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You know we’d have to get Josh in there eventually.
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Chapter 32 of Herman Melville’s classic – Moby Dick. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale. Cetology Let this be the book of the whale, chronicle of tortured naturalists. For who could fathom those … Read More “Finding Melville’s Whale – Cetology (Chapter 32)” »
Science
In this edition of Shark Science Monday, James Cook University researcher Sally Whatmough discusses using content analysis of magazines to track how SCUBA diver attitudes towards sharks have changed over the last fifty years. If you have a question for Sally, leave it in the comments below. ~WhySharksmatter