Comments for Pokerbird: Avian Travels

Comment on Recent Migrants by Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:51:34 +0000

Now that the north-easterlies have swung round to the south, swallows, swifts and martins are streaming past Gibb Towers.

Comment on Climate Wars by Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:46:24 +0000

Somewhat unrelated but interesting all the same. Thanks, Mark.

Comment on Birdstack Shut Down by Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:33:26 +0000

All I know is what it says on their home page: to whit, code mothballed and data in a CSV file. So I think it's RIP for them. I didn't hear any more about someone else taking over.

Comment on Birdstack Shut Down by Stuart Cooney

Stuart Cooney — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:21:12 +0000

As someone who is still missing Birdstack, I wonder if there has been any progress with re-launching Birdstack? As Andy says, Birdstack was far superior to anything else on the web for my purposes! In terms of suggestions, the only one that regularly occurred to me was that it would be good to have tick boxes to enable bulk changes to sightings, species, locations etc. Good luck with your efforts! Stuart (Elanus)

Comment on Climate Wars by Learn about Science

Learn about Science — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:14:39 +0000

Hey everybody! The May 5th 2012 full moon is a Super Moon! In case you don’t know the Super moon is a moon that is full at the point in its orbit at which it is closest to the earth – AKA perigee-syzygy.

The Perigee of course is the term for being closest to the earth and the syzygy is the term for the alignment of the Sun, the Earth and The Moon (in that order) creating the full moon!

The moon appears about 16% larger but its relative as you don’t have anything to gauge it against.

Just a fun FYI!
Mark

Comment on 1999: Curlew Sandpipers & Little Stint, Titchfield Haven by Andy

Andy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:36:00 +0000

Feel free. All my posts are licensed for Creative Commons anyway.

Comment on 1999: Curlew Sandpipers & Little Stint, Titchfield Haven by Frasi Poetiche

Frasi Poetiche — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:12:25 +0000

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Comment on Long-Billed Dowitchers, Shapwick Heath by Andy

Andy — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:32:31 +0000

This is just a test because I am being plagued with spam.

Comment on Strategy to Save the Planet by Andy

Andy — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:47:25 +0000

I'll have something to say about Christianity and how it stacks up against Islam with regards to responsibility and capitalism in a later post. And I can refer you to The Long Emergency, part of which is a gloomy analysis of what education actually does.

Comment on Strategy to Save the Planet by Allan McD

Allan McD — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:53:04 +0000

I haven’t read this book yet, but it’s becoming clear from other sources that one of the main problems is the perception of ‘value’, which has moved almost entirely from intrinsic to monetary. Nothing really important gets done unless someone gets a payoff. Even the health and well-being of people gets stopped in its tracks by the amoral agenda of economics (eg “we can’t cure that person of cancer because they can’t afford to pay for it”). Crucially, the well-being of this planet and the preservation of species diversity is subject to the same criteria.

In this respect, whatever value we place on things is therefore the engine of a wider morality. The change from intrinsic to monetary value is related closely to a ‘powering down’ of the moral values encompassed within religion (I say this as an agnostic).

Given that religion has now allowed itself to become commodified and politicised – and (surprise surprise) is now largely impotent as far as morality goes, what now informs morality? The answer is nothing much, except perhaps the media – and I need not say any more about that…

The only door left open to future generations (apart from direct action) is how we educate. Schools can teach moral values, if only teachers could be allowed to teach from the heart, rather than being suffocated by government meddling and hidden agendas.

It makes my blood boil when I hear that the Heartlands Institute are advocating the teaching of Climate Science Scepticism as part of the curriculum in the US. I wonder who it is pushing that particular pen?