Fragments From Floyd

Dog vs Hog

Dog won. Tsuga caught, subdued, devoured and upchucked ole Chuck, the rotund barn-dwelling groundhog who got so fat that it couldn't waddle faster than T-dog could run. Unfortunately yet again, when viscera and wildlife death were involved, I was gone and Ann was left here holding the bag (and shovel.) I did, however, perform the duty of ultimate undertaker of the gathered remains, and drove the black plastic body bag on the top of my Subaru to the green box on the way to work yesterday.

Blog to Book

There's a prize for the best blog-to-book conversion being offered by Lulu, and I've sent a copy off just this week for next year's competition. I think the time will come when the entrants come to a popular vote, so of course I'll hope I still have some readers then to ask a favor. I think first prize is $10k. That would fund a lot of book-related travel and maybe even a couple of small extras--like that wide-angle lens I've been thinking about.

Climate Repair Manual

Scientific American devotes an entire issue to global warming, and has posted the "no more business as usual" introduction online.

Wish I Was Teaching

This is the first fall since 2004 that I am not teaching since that long-abandoned, chalk-dusted post was resumed part-time at RU. Do I miss it? Yes, in some ways, I do. I drive the county roads lined with wingstem and touch-me-not and think about those couple of field trips along the New River Trail with a gaggle of 20 students (five times for five different labs last fall.) I think about how the teaching fully immersed me in the current events of planetary health and current events in a way I had not been for decades--since leaving teaching in 1987. But part-time teaching is full-time work with nothing paid for the tens of hours spent outside class and lab. The PT work is more concise and more productive, even if it isn't as intellectually stimulating as watching 120 students yawn and instant-message during my lectures. I got to a few of them. And they got to me.

New Kid on the Block: CA-MRSA

Healthcare workers know and dread the hospital-nursing home variety of Staph Aureus (SA), for some time now resistant to Methacyllin (MR). Clusters of community-acquired (CA) staph have started appearing in day cares, locker rooms, prisons and in other community places, and this is not a good thing. All the more reason to practice good hygiene per the CDC recommendations.

Flotsam

Hubble Image of Lagoon Nebula makes a great desktop image. Awesome. And from the Land of Plenty: Taco Town. Wait! There's More! (YouTube) And finally, to the tune of Summertime Blues: Avian Flu (this one's for Doug)