Thesis timeline

Here is the short version: TOO LONG.

Now for a little bit longer version: TOO LONG, but it may end.

And for further details:

My graduate studies have had a few breaks here and there. I didn't go to any classes for an entire year. (I did attended one class, but I didn't get credit.) I got married in the middle of one semester. I went through a strange change in my program of study and traded out one committee member for another the next semester. I still really like this former committee member (Hi, Cliff), but I moved from a thesis in Science Education to one outside of Education. Next up, there's no financial assistance during the summer. There's a year for you.

While I've been in school I'm sure I could have done more along the way, but some of the time has seemed to slip on by. After babies being born (we've got two you know) and Laura's surgeries following having babies (she's had two you know), I lost a little bit of time to just taking care of the family. Laura wasn't supposed to be lifting our girls for a good while after each surgery. Some class loads have been heavy some semesters, and it's hard to work your TA hours part-time and study full-time and see your wife at least some-time.

And then there is the total work load. ¿Who knew that there would be so much work to sorting all of these bugs? So many people have put some time into these bugs:
- a dozen and then some undergraduate students
- at least four graduate students
- 30+ secondary science teachers.

Some people have put in less than 10 hours. Others put in a few hours a week for a semester. A few have committed to a solid 10+ hours per week for more than a semester. I have no idea how much time I have spent with these bugs, but I'm sure I've pulled every sample out of every bag at least once, if not twice and many of them 3 or more times. SO MUCH TIME.

here are the numbers:
- 11 Orders of insects
- 13 Orders of arthropods
- 44 families of flies
- 66 overall taxa
- 71 samples sorted completely, and another dozen partially but we won't use their data.
(one bag got lost somewhere that we did want to sort, but what can you do.)
- Over 81% of the individuals identified was a fly of some sort. In non-scientific terms, you could say that we had "a lot" of flies. (one, two, many, lots).
- 62,497 individuals have been identified, and sized. (a few estimates were done with a couple of groups, but seriously... i checked the accuracy of our estimation procedure and 62,497 is the number I'm sticking to.)

I personally had gone through all of the samples at least once by Friday, March 5th. By then, every insect had a name label connected to it. There were bugs that still needed to be sized after that, but all of them were named. ¿Didn't I tell you that our experimental design guaranteed that every bug was going to get handled at least twice? YEESH.

Since March 5th I've consolidated multiple spreadsheets, corrected spelling errors from all of the different people who have entered this data on to a computer, and tried to make one coherent body out of this information we've collected. Spreadsheets, pivot tables, databases, statistical and community analysis software. With scientific names, there is a high propensity for misspelling. Misspelling really makes your data come out wrong when you're trying to explain how many groups of things you have caught.

I also spent time going back and identifying insects that were named wrong the first time through. There are a few names that I knew gave other identifiers problems. There were a few names that I knew that gave me problems. I got smarter, so I went back to as many of the problem children as I could find.

I have made quite a sum of graphs and charts this last month and a half. Today, I slapped some of the results together into PowerPoint. I had my Defense of Research. The Defense of Research is with your committee members. I basically got to say, "Here is my data so far," "This is how I plan to analyze it," and the committee tells me what I REALLY should be doing instead.

We collected in two habitats, during two summers, with two types of traps. From what I've analyzed so far the habitats are significantly different, the years are probably significantly different, but trap type doesn't seem to matter.

My committee likes my data. During the defense they wondered if I could do both a methodology paper (trap types) and a diversity paper from my data. Then, right at the end I remembered that I had done a bunch of Jaccard's similarity indices with my data. ¿Why did I do that? Nerd is the answer. The abundance analysis (#s of individuals per category) in my presentation says that habitats are different, but the richness analysis (# of types of bugs) using Jaccard's says that habitats are very much the same. My little "oh, yeah" at the end of the defense gave my committee even more reason to consider two publications. And if we don't get two publications, we lump the whole study into one submission and try again.

Here is some other good news. I was going to do a species listing of Bombyliids (Bee Flies) from the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, but my current data will give me enough to graduate. I didn't present any data on the Bombyliids today, and my committee was fine with that. Riley would like me to finish my work, but my Master's will not depend on finishing the Bombyliid study. I can sort Bombys after I submit my thesis at the first of July. It would be good for me to work for another publication or two and I know too much about Bombys to just let them slip away. Above all, it's nice to know that I don't have to also have all of that sorting done by the end of June, in addition to writing up all of this work.

All week long I was working out how I was going to discuss the Bombyliid issue. I got exactly what I was hoping for: A place to work on those bugs if my time works out for that, but I can still graduate without knocking down that next mountain before July.

Here's to defending my thesis at then end of June. Whew!

Observations on Diego: i've seen too much

Over Christmas break we found out that Maggie is a fan of Diego from Go Diego Go. Grandpa Evanson had DVRed a bunch of episodes. After seeing a couple of episodes, Maggie asked for Diego almost every day.

i may be projecting my own feelings onto Maggie, but i think that she at least likes Diego more than Dora. i feel a little better about that. Diego has animal stories and she can be quite cute as she says and signs all of the animal names. Her dancing and singing to the music is pretty good too.

Laura and i had avoided those kinds of shows for a long time; not having cable and much less TV in general made it easier to avoid the 30 minute commercials for kids. But now, Maggie's hooked.

To keep Maggie content from time to time, we have checked out a few DVDs from the library. I have seen too much Diego. ¿how do i know? i know because i have questions, queries and complaints about the strange place Diego comes from.
- gravity is SLOW: rocks, branches, ropes, and animals take FOREVER to fall.
- BRANCHES are DANGEROUS and apparently quite loosely connected to trees: i have seen parrots, marmosets, chinchillas, sloths, kinkajous (and possibly other animals too) barely escape these perilous limbs, and i haven't seen that many episodes.
- Diego is not very bright and needs more parental supervision: Adults are hardly ever around and for some reason and Diego is not the sharpest kid. Apparently he's to slow to realize that it's easier to get down a SNOWy slope with a SNOWboard than it is with a telephone. (idiot!)

And i keep waiting for the real animal lessons to kick in. i am a biologist after all.

Diego: Baby kikajous are afraid of harpy eagles!
Why?! Because harpy eagles EAT baby kinkajous!

or ¿how about this correction?

Diego: Help get the baby mountain gorillas out of the net before the poachers come back to cut off their hands to sell as ashtrays!

well, maybe those lessons won't happen anytime soon.

in the week or so before our requests for Diego from the library came up, Laura tried to find some episodes on YouTube. She didn't find any real episodes, but rather an abundance of odd Diego and Dora iterations.

i've seen a few video mash-ups, and have never been very impressed. i don't really like the music much, but i must say that this one isn't bad. they really synched up the audio and the video. watch for a bit. Laur and i got a chuckle out of it.



0z iEiO

Grumpy Rooster

Yesterday, my over 2 year-old niece and my under 2 year-old daughter found some of Grandma and Grandpa's books that they brought back from their mission in Africa. They were good picture books and children's stories. The book they snuck into the other room had a big color drawing of a rooster on the cover: Le coq qui ne voulait plus chanter. (If my French is any good: "The rooster who no longer wanted to crow".) This is a children's story by an Ivory Coast author, Fatou Keita.

My niece was excited when she saw that I was willing to read her the book and we could look at all of the pictures. Turning to the third page as I continued reading my niece stops me.

"I'm gonna get another book."

I know I didn't pronounce every word correctly, but I didn't think my French pronunciation was unbearable. Maybe I'll just finish the book on my own.

* And what better to illustrate a post about an African story in French, than a painting by Spanish artist. At least the title is Le Coq (Joan Miro, 1940).

I like it

I do like cool paper. It's part of why I took a bookbinding class at the University.

I also like bugs.

I think I'm a little partial to green too.

This little guy* is pretty cool.

You can check out the story here at NPR's The Picture Show blog.

!ORAGAMI!

* Leaf Katydid, by Brian Chan

Little Things

on my way up to campus today, i stopped by the botany pond on the south end of campus. for my Wetland Ecology class we're supposed to be putting together a PowerPoint presentation on some of the terminology and concepts from the curriculum. i was looking for Daphnia (water fleas).


Daphnia are little planktonic crustaceans that feed on the bits of algae and other junk floating in the water column. these little critters aren't much longer than a milimeter (although some make it up to 2mm and others as small as 0.5mm) and they swim around in little jumps by swishing their antennae with rapid little twitches.

to catch them, i just went to the edge of the pond and dipped in a 25mL vial close to the edge where i could see these guys swimming. the vial filled up with water and only a couple of Daphnia, but the water surface tension had temporarily affixed dozens of these arthropods to my skin as my hand passed through the water. i scrapped the Daphnia into the vial to take them too their photo shoot; one more slide for my assignment.

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i also collected a leaf from a bunch of cattails in my neighborhood. who ever heard of someone growing cattails as an ornamental plant? this set of apartments thought it was a good idea, and i get to take a good picture of the lacunar spaces inside the leaf. the spaces help move oxygen down to the roots so the cattails can grow in wetland soils. Below are pictures of the torn edge of the leaf, and then i cleaned up a small section for a cross-section photo.

Leave the Starfish Alone

someone has to stand up and say something.

in the recent past the internet, rather than helping to disseminate knowledge, has been burdened with a lot of junk and people have passed that junk on to their friends. sure there were some dumb but relatively harmless pictures that came your way with titles like, "You Have to See This!!" or "You'll Never Believe it!!" but then there are the hoaxes that have the hopelessly naive people trying to get free trips to Disneyland from Bill Gates and sending their money straight into the wallets of some marginally clever Nigerian thieves.

prior to the advent of the internet, there were similarly viral stories that were able to creep into the vocabulary of seemingly sensible people. these are those stories that share some moral ideal, but through an unfortunately contrived tale. some of these stories are purported as true. other stories are told because they just seem "nice". there are probably even some true stories that have had some well intentioned embellishments or some editing due to forgetfulness.

listen up folks -- ENOUGH ALREADY!

passing these stories on isn't doing anyone a favour and this behaviour has been going on too long. Pope Gregory turned Mary Magdalene from a normal person into a whore with his good intentions in 591. it's time for the stories to stop.

• the olive tree is not the only tree in the world to grow counter to the natural way that all other trees grow, giving the tree it's venerable status in the Bible.
• a little girl was not saved from a car accident by a guy that looks like your culturally preferred picture of Jesus.
• your particular religious faith was not miraculously diverted from the World Trade Center on 9/11.
• the Pope does not have 666 inscribed on the inside of his hat,
• we're all still looking for the scripture where Jesus defines the difference between "easy" and "worth it", and finally...
• no one needs to save the starfish.

on behalf of the starfish, i would like to note that SEA STARS CAN WALK! their movement is unique in the animal kingdom, but they can still move and they move surprisingly fast. secondly, sea stars have sensory organs and enough brains to decide where they feel comfortable on their own. the fabled soul who was chucking starfish back into the sea would have at best made the sea stars uncomfortable, along with giving them a chance to take a long walk back "home". at worst, the idiot cast them out beyond where the sea star can find food and shelter or even get back to these necessities... killing them slowly. thanks a lot.

and one final word: that other metaphor is worn out too. (Jesus is tired of walking on the beach.)

Bugs and Trousers

all is calm on the email front and i get a one-line email from a friend.

"Dave – I have a question to ask you. Do bugs like trousers?"

then i'm left to sit there and wonder what inspired that question.

i am the TA for the entomology course this semester, but when that information is usually shared the reaction i get is, "Oh, bugs... hmmm..." it's as if most people are reacting as if they have almost stepped all the way into an oversized mud puddle. they're hoping to back track and if they don't say another word i won't bump them off that precarious edge into the scary abyss that is the world of creepy-crawlies. with just a one-liner and no context, i chalked that email up to the sender's tendency for corny jokes.

"as for bugs and trousers... i'm waiting for the punchline.", i respond.

the next email to me was essentially, "Actually, I was kind of hoping you'd have the punch line, but I can see how you are going to make me figure it out instead of just giving me the answer."

apparently my assumption was wrong. i try and excuse my poor judgement.

i thought that the "bugs and trousers" bit was another one of your corny-joke fits. i was waiting for you to send the punch line. and then when i don't have a response to your question, you say:
...I can see how you are going to make me figure it out instead of just giving me the answer.
i don't know what you mean, but apparently, things make sense to you. i'm happy for you. i can only think of one reason why you might be asking me about bugs and trousers, and i'll be sending you more information right away.

after having a little more time to think things through, i remembered that i had sent out an email to some friends about six months prior. maybe my roommate, the person who first introduced me to this positor of questions, had told her to ask me about bugs and trousers. one quick search in gmail and the answer to the original question was on its way.

Subject: Contemplating the Myrmecological Connection to Trousers

PANTS!!!

ANTS!!!

those six months ago i had the simple urge to draw an anteater and send it to some friends. maybe my roommate had decided that i hadn't sent the picture to enough people, and had suggested to the questioning one that she ask me a question sufficient to direct the picture her way too. i was satisfied that i finally got things right.

the reply to my solution:

Subject: just because you use words no one else knows like myrnamologicallisterson doesn't mean you are cooler than me

sheesh. you ask a simple question and get some sort of sarcastic remark back! i was being absolutely sincere! however, i see now that i should have added some clarification to the question about why bugs dig trousers...

...Have you ever noticed that when people tell a bug story, somehow trousers are always involved? weird bug + trousers = really entertaining story...

...i'll take my bug questions elsewhere next time...

somehow, i had failed AGAIN! ¿how often do people use the word "trousers"? that word was in the original subject line of my email with the drawing and in her question. i thought for sure i had solved the puzzle, but instead i had let someone down a second time. i was almost starting to question my own validity as an entomology instructor. for my own personal pride i needed to find an answer to "bugs and trousers".

so, i thought for a while, and gave the question a third try at a solution.

right now i can think of two categories that may help to explain the frequency of the bug-pant nexus.

1. the legs may just be more amenable hosts

• legs are the body part that have only the feet between them and the ground. some bugs may choose the overland route and on to a foot and then the pants. plenty of people wear pants that brush the ground too.
• as people wade their way through daily life, maybe our lower extremities are permitted to brush up against more things without our notice: leaning our hips against what ever surface may support our weight; the little things that brush against our legs as we walk.
• even though most bugs have wings, gravity still applies. a bug may fall or be brushed off of a surface, and they are just landing on whatever is below. the probability of hitting pants on the way down is just a matter of topography.
• pants are often thicker, and the lower portions of our pants typically hang loose off of our limbs. maybe there is less chance for us to feel the little critters crawling across the surface of our clothes and we perform less subconscious grooming. in addition, hands can brush off arms, shoulders, torsos, heads and hips much easier than the legs on down.

2. maybe the pants surface makes bugs more visible
granted, i just mentioned that maybe we notice less when it comes to bugs on the lower half, but some of those final ideas in the first category still may apply to this one.

• a bug that we don't feel (and thereby may be subject to less subconscious grooming) may have more of a chance to get into visual range, or more of a chance to get into a perceivably threatening proximity.
• a bug on our back may come and go before we've noticed it's presence.
• when we sit, a good portion of our legs become a horizontal surface, and much easier to inspect than other body parts.

i'm not sure how you could test these hypotheses, but i think it is sufficient to say that the likelihood of bugs just being inherently attracted to some platonic ideal of pants might not be the most parsimonious deduction.

maybe i was thinking too much.

Me and the Bears

i've been lucky in life. good things have come my way and i've always had enough, if not more.
unfortunately, the collection and possession of things can be a snare that engulfs us, blinding us as to what really matters.

in an effort to distinguish what counts in life, there may be nothing that clears the vision quite like living without. i'm not saying that you have to move to a third world country, but time overseas can have a similar effect. what i'm talking about here is time in the woods. even if it's just for a short recreational time, your vision increases. a hike up a hill can make you appreciate a cool drink of clean water, even without the aid of artificial refrigeration surprisingly enough. riding the trails on your mountain bike gives a certain sense of the enjoyment of just being able to chose for yourself where you will go. camping overnight can help to broaden your understanding, but what will happen if you extend this trip to more than a weekend escape?

i've been lucky in being able to have more than one job that has sent me to the woods for a day, a week or even the whole summer. needs are nearly reduced to shelter, food, and water. walls, roofs, doors and floors become luxuries. the body quickly gets used to sleeping on the ground as it begins to realize that more important than cushioning layers beneath is just a flat place to lay. artificial schedules, like TV programming and the rotation of movies through the Megaplex, are replaced by a simple cycle of when to work, when to eat, when to sleep, sunrise and sunset. you give up being defined by what you own, and become what you have learned and the character you display. even social customs can be viewed under new light as you learn what you can live without. (i'll shower... ¿next week?)

i hope that this description doesn't sound too much like an transcendentalist's dream. i won't claim to have ever gone so far that i was completely cut off from the world outside of the woods. i have been far enough out that i stopped getting dirty because there just wasn't any more room for dirt, and i've carried my room and board on my back for a number of miles. it's out there that i've started to think.

each time i come back from the woods, whether it was a short day trip or a week long trek, i take a look at the dirt i've collected. fine dust has settled through my clothes onto my skin. wash water quickly turns brown with spinning clothes, and it's the second shower that finally washes away the remaining hints that i may have tanned a little in the sun. my boots have often been caked with mud. other camping equipment and the vehicle used to get "out there" have similar fates. as all this dirt washes down the respective drains i start to wonder if i'm taking too much from the environment. ¿how many pounds have i brought home with me, only to be cast off like second hand material? there's nothing wrong with that dirt, and had a purpose of its own. ¿was that dirt going to be the home for something new to grow? or ¿was it just simply helping to hold up that mountain side? i wonder if i'm treating the dirt the way it deserves to be treated ¿am i taking more from the environment than i'm giving back?

i think it's time to go give something back, and i think i know what i'm going to do.



(i'm gonna go poop in the woods)



and i'm going to feel good about it every time i do it.

Happy "If Pets Had Thumbs Day"

hey folks,

i just thought i'd wish you all a happy If Pets Had Thumbs Day.



the original art work is from www.toothpastefordinner.com, where you can find a huge archive of odd and funny doodles.

the joys of science

"An intact frog loses water nearly as rapidly as a skinless frog."
- Animal Diversity, 2nd ed., page 313
(C.P. Hickman, L.S. Roberts & A. Larson, McGraw Hill, 2000)

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"For Science" - They Might Be Giants - Miscelleneous T

Newscaster:
There has been a spacecraft sighted
Flying high above the sky
Sirens declare there's one among us from Venus

Lt. Anne Moore:
Volunteers, we need volunteers
Soldiers to meet them
Have no fear
Have no fear
You will be killed right away

Male Lead:
I will date the girl from Venus
Flowers die and so will I
Yes, I will kiss the girl from Venus for science
I'm so brave
I'm so brave
I'll be her love slave

Lt. Anne Moore:
He's so brave
He's so brave
He'll be her love slave forever

Male Lead:
Yes, I will date the girl from Venus
Flowers die and so will I
Yes, I will kiss the girl from Venus for science

Let's get those missiles ready to destroy the universe!

MONKEY!

it was a wednesday. the day before was february 8th, 2005; the last day of the year of the monkey. we were in the first day of the year of the rooster; the furthest point in the next twelve years from the next day in the year of the monkey. i've never been so depressed.

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interestingly enough, many primate species establish or maintain the social order among the extended family or the larger troop through social grooming. while we see on the outside one monkey de-lousing another this is not a mere instance of cleanliness, but the monkey nit-picking is confirming their social status in relation to the monkey being groomed.

what may be even more interesting is how the primate species Homo sapiens cannot seem to resist a little minor social grooming. ¿who hasn't picked a hair or two off the back of the person sitting in the row in front of them?

Dreams: Rabbit-man X (Down, down, down you go, No way to stop)

As you fall, hear me call
"No, no, no."

Dreams: Rabbit-man IX

Dreams: Rabbit-man VIII (Chicken Boo)

http://piratemonkeysinc.com/Pirate/index.htm
and in case you need some convincing, check out "Monkeys and Pirates are Funny"
http://www.ericdsnider.com/shop.php

Dreams: Rabbit-man VII (In the bear-trap of its tender warm embrace)

Dreams: Rabbit-man VI (The lunchtime crowd, they won't even blink...)

But what words rhyme with buried alive?

Dreams: Rabbit-man V (Little skinny chicken... big skinny skinhead...)

Had a dream... Magic Johnson was there...

Dreams: Rabbit-man IV (Whatever you do, take care of your shoes)

Your time is near, the mission's clear
It's later than we think

Dreams: Rabbit-man III

In the sun...

Dreams: Rabbit-man II