I heard of a writer, whose name I don't recall, responding to a question about writer's block something along the line of "You know, my father was a trucker but he never had 'trucker's block'". And I suppose its true to a point, but just like there are days when his father probably rued climbing into the cab of his truck for want of being inspired, this writer is feeling uninspired.
After coming up with better than a post a day for the last little while, I'm stuck. Its a beautiful time of the year, even at 11pm there is a glow in sky, the inky blackness of our winter skies suddenly gone. I should have things (and do) to write about, but can't bring any cohesive thoughts down onto the "page". So I'm going to rely on others this morning. Here are three distinct and diverse things that caught my eye this morning online.
It bears repeating, but if you are not drinking a sustainable coffee you're not only drinking an inferior beverage but you're contributing to the deforestation of the tropics, Developing World poverty, and the loss of critical migratory and tropical bird habitat, including critical habitat for some of our most endangered neo-tropical migrants. It is a simple, and relatively inexpensive way to do some good by switching to a sustainable coffee. Really a win-win-win situation.
Julie, one of my all time favourite writers/bloggers/friend was recently down in Guatemala on a sustainable coffee finca banding birds. It behooves you to visit two of her blogs, Coffee and Conservation and Net Results all of the time. But if nothing else go to them now and read her reports on her visit down there. Great photos, fantastic birds.
Wanderin' Weeta is another blog I regularly visit. Like many of the authors I enjoy, Susannah has an eye for detail and a curiousity about the tiny lives around us. Check out her latest post on the moth that is most unmothlike, and a fascinating study. She discovered a bagworm, Dahlica triquetrella, an introduced species of moth that, as an adult, has no wings, no mouth, no eyes, and in Canada at least is a population that only consists of females. It reproduces by parthogenisis, so essentially all of its (all female) offspring are clones of itself. What is more, depending on how many individuals were introduced from Europe, it may very well be a clone of a single individual. Nature is so utterly fascinating.
Finally be sure to visit The Arctic Bay Atlas, a joint mapping project of Nunavut Youth Consultants (a local youth group/business) and the Inuit Heritage Trust. The project is mapping the area around Arctic Bay and is fascinating. Hover your curser over a spot on the map and you'll hear (faintly) the Inuktitut name of the place. Click on the spot and you'll get information on the Inuktitut name, English name, features and on some, photos of the location. For instance you can see photos of Qurlurniq, the place I had coffee on my last adventure.
For those Nunavumiut who are interested, the official launch of the website is at the Nunatta Campus of Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit (Iqaluit? Why not Arctic Bay?) on March 30th, 2009 from 10:15 am to 12:00pm. Light refreshments will be served.
Comments
8 responses
Thanks for the link! I hadn’t considered that last point you added; all these bagworms may possibly be clones of one single individual.
Curiouser and curiouser!
Kia ora Clare,
Wow, a lot to “say” after pondering a slow start. Thanks for the links, always curious to check out new places. Have a great day.
Cheers,
Robb
Interesting you mentioned being a bit stuck for a post. I’m sort of in the same boat or else there’s a few things I’d like to blog about but just can’t at the moment. But perhaps I can pitch one to you since I’ve been meaning to ask you this but kept forgetting and then someone else asked me about this not too long ago and jarred my memory and this “this” is the role of the RCMP Special Constable, something I’ve always wanted to know more about. I had intended to blog it once many moons ago but I just don’t know enough to speak with any real knowledge/authority.
It is curious Susannah. One thing that might lend credence to the idea that it was one (or a very small colonizing population) is the absence of sexually producing bagworms here. One would think, that if it was a larger colonizing population that it would include the sexually producing ones.
Thanks Robb, I guess I’m rather verbose even when I have nothing to say. All I had though was comments on other’s words.
Its a pretty complex subject Darcy. Do you have something specific. There were many different categories of Special Constables over the years. Generally speaking S/Csts were hired for specific jobs. Airport S/Csts for example did security (and more) at airports. There were S/Csts for surveillance, others were pilots (that category bounced back and forth many times) and Native S/Csts. There were, again, different rolls for them at different times. Probably the longest lasting category of them were what was commonly known as 3Bs (after the paragraph on the discussion paper that was the option chosen). A large part of their job was supposed to be police community relations but in reality they served much the same roll as Regular members. Most of the S/Cst jobs in the Force have been eliminated.
Its a wildly complex topic.
Unfortunately, time and money necessitated that the first launch be in Iqaluit.
Our research group at Carleton University built the atlas with content assembled by Nunavut Youth Consulting and Inuit Heritage Trust, and we were down to the wire getting it done for the March 31 end of grant deadline (and there are still a few more pieces of media to get in there for this version.) The terms of the grant stipulated that the launch funding had to be spent in that timeframe too, so it has been a bit of a mad rush to get a launch together at all. With all the key partners (except for me) being in Iqaluit at the moment, along with the media and government likely to attend, this seemed like the only option at the moment and we hope it will actually give the whole project and community a boost in exposure.
The atlas isn’t done and there is more work to do this coming year, including a two week workshop sometime this fall where I’ll be coming up to Arctic Bay to work with everyone who’s interested in documenting for the atlas, and collecting feedback and design input on the atlas and the wiki-map type of functionality we’re now working on for Arctic Bay and other communities. We hope to spend some time with people in the field and work through the whole process of recording/photographing, processing, documenting, and uploading so that we can improve the quality of the content on the site. As you have noticed, the volume of the place name clips is too faint and the clips have a bit too much dead air at the beginning. These are the sorts of kinks we’d like to work out over time.
Thanks for the feedback. Please feel free to send any other thoughts my way.
Thanks for the information Amos. Look forward to meeting you this fall.
I’m familiar with the role of special constable mainly through my readings about the North. I wasn’t aware they were also used in other parts of the country or just how many roles they played. I suppose mainly It would be interested to hear about the role these individuals played in the North. My curiosity has been piqued for sure at any rate.
In the early days, up here especially, S/Csts were hired essentially to act as guides, interpreters, hunters and to keep the members alive until they could acquire some survival skills up here and after. The intent was not to make them policemen, but that in no way dilutes their importance to the Force in its work in the Arctic. They were, in no uncertain terms, essential.