A blue bird day with clear, sunny skies:
Next day, a weather front moving in:
And a snowstorm:
Then a brilliant sunset, fair promise of better weather:
17 April 2009
Skywatch Friday, Springtime in the Rockies: Day-to-Day Skies
Springtime in the norther Rocky Mountains near Butte, Montana. The sky changes with the new season.
A blue bird day with clear, sunny skies:
Next day, a weather front moving in:
And a snowstorm:
Then a brilliant sunset, fair promise of better weather:
A blue bird day with clear, sunny skies:
Next day, a weather front moving in:
And a snowstorm:
Then a brilliant sunset, fair promise of better weather:
14 April 2009
Springtime in the Rockies: Livin' it Day-to-Day
Easter Sunday dawned as a bluebird day with temperatures in the high 50s F.
The warm sun teased the first blossoms of spring from a Biscuitroot (Lomatium cous). I have never seen this species bloom so early, so I take this to be a bit of a freak of nature. The Biscuitroot's fleshy, starch root was an important food for native peoples. It is often confused with other members of the parsley family such as Cymopterus spp:
The Bitterroots (Lewisia rediviva) are going crazy this year--with the rosettes just carpeting the ground in some areas. It'll be interesting to see if this results in a lot of bloows, or if conditions have favored a high rate of seed germination and the plants are storing resources for blooms in coming years:
The patches of snow around the house were becoming few and far between. As they become scarcer, RolyTheDog values them all the more. Here is RTD, appropriately in a "dog hole"--a shallow, exploratory mining pit that holds a bit of snow:
Clear blue skies, here looking 15 or so miles to the south of Butte, Montana, to the Highland Mountains:
A day or two later? Welcome back, winter, as we woke to greet the snow once again (view from my building at Montana Tech):
So much for my fishing plans this evening.
The warm sun teased the first blossoms of spring from a Biscuitroot (Lomatium cous). I have never seen this species bloom so early, so I take this to be a bit of a freak of nature. The Biscuitroot's fleshy, starch root was an important food for native peoples. It is often confused with other members of the parsley family such as Cymopterus spp:
The Bitterroots (Lewisia rediviva) are going crazy this year--with the rosettes just carpeting the ground in some areas. It'll be interesting to see if this results in a lot of bloows, or if conditions have favored a high rate of seed germination and the plants are storing resources for blooms in coming years:
The patches of snow around the house were becoming few and far between. As they become scarcer, RolyTheDog values them all the more. Here is RTD, appropriately in a "dog hole"--a shallow, exploratory mining pit that holds a bit of snow:
Clear blue skies, here looking 15 or so miles to the south of Butte, Montana, to the Highland Mountains:
A day or two later? Welcome back, winter, as we woke to greet the snow once again (view from my building at Montana Tech):
So much for my fishing plans this evening.
09 April 2009
Skywatch Friday: Butte, Montana sunset
Walking with my wife and friends along Blacktail/Silver Bow Creek Greenway earlier this week in the heart of Butte America. We were watching the wood ducks, kingfisher, mink, and other wildlife with this beautiful sunset:
08 April 2009
Rally 'Round the Creek: A Big Success
[Preface: links to EcoRover articles will no longer be posted on Montana Tech's Clark Fork Watershed Education Program website per an order from Tech's Chancellor. Readers familiar with Tech and the Barbara Oakley colloquium can probably guess the situation, but I would ask that you refrain from commenting on EcoRover about it since I will remove any such comments.]
Rally 'Round the Creek was organized to celebrate the ongoing cleanup and restoration of Silver Bow Creek ("Stream Side Tailings Operable Unit"), and to focus attention on ongoing challenges that pose a threat to the $3 million per mile (X 26 miles) project. The main challenge is contamination from the Butte Hill ("Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit"). Ideally, the Butte Hill (being upstream) would have been cleaned up first, but Superfund being Superfund, ideals are seldom realized. Furthermore, the Butte Hill remedy has been delayed more than two years. While we wait, arsenic and metals run-off from the Butte Hill is recontaminating Silver Bow Creek.
The Rally was designed to have something for all citizens that care about Butte and Silver Bow Creek. Shawn Crowe of the Butte Silver Bow Arts Foundation hosted a station on charcoal drawing. The charcoal, appropriately enough, was made from willows along the creek:
Good tunes by local musician Mike Tierney:
Plenty of time to meet other folks and say "hi" to the neighbors:
And have some good one on one conversation:
Here were a few of the key folks behind organizing the event, Wendy Thomi (EPA Citizen Outreach), Elizabeth Erickson (CTEC President), and Janice Hogan (CTEC Secretary):
There were two brief presentations about the technical issues, by CTEC's consultant Ian Magruder:
And CFRTAC's consultant Jim Kuipers:
These were followed by brief overviews by Wendy Thomi (EPA):
And Dori Skrukrud, the lead staffer for the award winning 26-mile long Silver Bow Creek Greenway:
The BIG hit of the day was CFWEP's Justin Ringsak, who led an educational tour of the creek and how water quality is monitored:
After the event, Jan Munday, Andrea Stierle, Don Stierle and EcoRover took a walk along the creek. We enjoyed the sight of a kingfisher and mink (too shy for the camera) as well as a muskrat:
A feisty wood duck that was more than a match for the mallards trying to move in on this turf:
A rising almost-full moon:
And a gorgeous Butte America sunset (silhouetted are Mt Haggin and other peaks of the Pintler):
------------------------------
Butte, Montana: at the headwaters of the Clark Fork River in America's largest Superfund site.
Rally 'Round the Creek was organized to celebrate the ongoing cleanup and restoration of Silver Bow Creek ("Stream Side Tailings Operable Unit"), and to focus attention on ongoing challenges that pose a threat to the $3 million per mile (X 26 miles) project. The main challenge is contamination from the Butte Hill ("Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit"). Ideally, the Butte Hill (being upstream) would have been cleaned up first, but Superfund being Superfund, ideals are seldom realized. Furthermore, the Butte Hill remedy has been delayed more than two years. While we wait, arsenic and metals run-off from the Butte Hill is recontaminating Silver Bow Creek.
The Rally was designed to have something for all citizens that care about Butte and Silver Bow Creek. Shawn Crowe of the Butte Silver Bow Arts Foundation hosted a station on charcoal drawing. The charcoal, appropriately enough, was made from willows along the creek:
Good tunes by local musician Mike Tierney:
Plenty of time to meet other folks and say "hi" to the neighbors:
And have some good one on one conversation:
Here were a few of the key folks behind organizing the event, Wendy Thomi (EPA Citizen Outreach), Elizabeth Erickson (CTEC President), and Janice Hogan (CTEC Secretary):
There were two brief presentations about the technical issues, by CTEC's consultant Ian Magruder:
And CFRTAC's consultant Jim Kuipers:
These were followed by brief overviews by Wendy Thomi (EPA):
And Dori Skrukrud, the lead staffer for the award winning 26-mile long Silver Bow Creek Greenway:
The BIG hit of the day was CFWEP's Justin Ringsak, who led an educational tour of the creek and how water quality is monitored:
After the event, Jan Munday, Andrea Stierle, Don Stierle and EcoRover took a walk along the creek. We enjoyed the sight of a kingfisher and mink (too shy for the camera) as well as a muskrat:
A feisty wood duck that was more than a match for the mallards trying to move in on this turf:
A rising almost-full moon:
And a gorgeous Butte America sunset (silhouetted are Mt Haggin and other peaks of the Pintler):
------------------------------
Butte, Montana: at the headwaters of the Clark Fork River in America's largest Superfund site.
07 April 2009
Springtime Hike in the Northern Rockies: Along the Big Hole River
Sunday, Dave Carter and I took a spring hike on a favorite ridge along Montana's Big Hole River, just a half-hour south of Butte America.
We started in along the railroad tracks and took a route up the "back" side:
The river was noisy with the reciprocating honks of mating pairs of the Canada geese people:
We put out a few white-tailed deer from the river bottom (and of course 50 or 60 mulies along the ridge):
RolyTheDog loves deer, or at least deer bones:
Watch out for those treacherous cave ins from the tunnels of the old phosphate mine:
Lichens--you just gotta "like 'em:"
Ah, the first caterpillar of spring:
As we started up the ridge, a sentinental big horn sheep ewe watched us from the ridge (fuzzy photo by holding my little camera to the eyepiece of my spotting scope):
While her kids fed nearby:
As we topped the ridge to the "front" (highway) side, there was knee-deep snow. JackTheDog (Dave's new dog) soon found a lovely mule deer carcass:
Which he generously shared with RTD:
A deer mouse, too, appeared to have been making trips to the carcass:
I was so inspired by my hike with Dave and the dogs that I made a few hours to fish the Jefferson River canyon (of which the Big Hole is a tributary):
While fishing, I was treated to the sight of an osprey, a golden eagle, and two bald eagles. Here is a pic of one of the balds:
The fishing was a little slow, with one rainbow(catch & release required), and one brown trout (for supper):
Welcome spring!
We started in along the railroad tracks and took a route up the "back" side:
The river was noisy with the reciprocating honks of mating pairs of the Canada geese people:
We put out a few white-tailed deer from the river bottom (and of course 50 or 60 mulies along the ridge):
RolyTheDog loves deer, or at least deer bones:
Watch out for those treacherous cave ins from the tunnels of the old phosphate mine:
Lichens--you just gotta "like 'em:"
Ah, the first caterpillar of spring:
As we started up the ridge, a sentinental big horn sheep ewe watched us from the ridge (fuzzy photo by holding my little camera to the eyepiece of my spotting scope):
While her kids fed nearby:
As we topped the ridge to the "front" (highway) side, there was knee-deep snow. JackTheDog (Dave's new dog) soon found a lovely mule deer carcass:
Which he generously shared with RTD:
A deer mouse, too, appeared to have been making trips to the carcass:
I was so inspired by my hike with Dave and the dogs that I made a few hours to fish the Jefferson River canyon (of which the Big Hole is a tributary):
While fishing, I was treated to the sight of an osprey, a golden eagle, and two bald eagles. Here is a pic of one of the balds:
The fishing was a little slow, with one rainbow(catch & release required), and one brown trout (for supper):
Welcome spring!
06 April 2009
Evil Genes: Barbara Oakley to Speak at Montana Tech in Butte
"Bad to the Bone: Horrors!–Can Our Genes Help Make Us Act Badly?"
by Barbara Oakley
Library Auditorium, Montana Tech--Monday, April 6th, at 7:00 PM
Ever wonder about the "successfully sinister," Machiavellian people in your life? Here are some pithy quotations from the book Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend by Barbara Oakley. It’s an excellent read, and recommended highly for anyone that must deal with manipulative people.
· “[Machiavellians are] capable of great sympathy and comforting but often may lack true empathy”
· This lack of empathy is shown by being “oblivious to the hurt they cause others”
· Machiavellians employ a phenomenon called splitting: “[the Machiavellian] swings between idealizing and devaluing people” (they pit people against one another in part by dividing them into “white hats” and “black hats”)
· Machiavellians employ the phenomenon of “Gaslighting…deny another’s perceptions, memory, or very sanity,” in part by “changing the facts to fit their feelings.”
· “[Machiavellians] set the emotional tone, perhaps through mirroring and emotional contagion, for their followers and those around them.”
· “At the professional level, they can beguile and mislead…as they set subordinates, colleagues, and superiors at each other’s throats.”
· “[Machiavellians succeed through their] extraordinary ability to stack any deck in their favor, their relentless need for control, and their self-serving ruthlessness…”
· “the Machiavellian can play a cutthroat game of backbiting, back scratching, building a personal power base, reporting falsely rosy pictures of their work, demonizing adversaries, and siphoning assets…”
· “[For supervisors and co-workers] it is often much easier to simply ignore, evade, justify, or silence the speech of anyone who does speak out than to constructively act [to curb the Machiavellian].” There is “a tendency for those in power…to ignore the message.”
If you have ever experienced this type of person, don’t miss this talk!
From Barbara Oakley's flier:
This is a great opportunity to enjoy an outside the box look at interdisciplinary connections between psychology and many different fields, including history, sociology, politics, and biology. Professor Barbara Oakley uses neuroscience and evolutionary theory--as well as an unusually adventurous background that has earned her the nickname of a "female Indiana Jones," to knit together disparate pieces of research that point toward answers to one of the most compelling questions today--why do some people intentionally inflect emotional and physical pain on others?
What Others Have Said about Evil Genes:
“A fascinating scientific and personal exploration of the roots of evil, filled with human insight and telling detail.”
—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Stuff of Thought
About the Speaker
As a recent Vice President of the IEEE-Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, as well as a Fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, Dr. Oakley has worked hard to help build a public understanding of the bioengineering profession. Her research work involves investigations of the complex relationship between neurocircuitry and social behavior. Her recent best-selling book: Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend, was researched over a period of six years, and lauded by a number of top-ranked psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists from institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, and King's College, London.
by Barbara Oakley
Library Auditorium, Montana Tech--Monday, April 6th, at 7:00 PM
Ever wonder about the "successfully sinister," Machiavellian people in your life? Here are some pithy quotations from the book Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend by Barbara Oakley. It’s an excellent read, and recommended highly for anyone that must deal with manipulative people.
· “[Machiavellians are] capable of great sympathy and comforting but often may lack true empathy”
· This lack of empathy is shown by being “oblivious to the hurt they cause others”
· Machiavellians employ a phenomenon called splitting: “[the Machiavellian] swings between idealizing and devaluing people” (they pit people against one another in part by dividing them into “white hats” and “black hats”)
· Machiavellians employ the phenomenon of “Gaslighting…deny another’s perceptions, memory, or very sanity,” in part by “changing the facts to fit their feelings.”
· “[Machiavellians] set the emotional tone, perhaps through mirroring and emotional contagion, for their followers and those around them.”
· “At the professional level, they can beguile and mislead…as they set subordinates, colleagues, and superiors at each other’s throats.”
· “[Machiavellians succeed through their] extraordinary ability to stack any deck in their favor, their relentless need for control, and their self-serving ruthlessness…”
· “the Machiavellian can play a cutthroat game of backbiting, back scratching, building a personal power base, reporting falsely rosy pictures of their work, demonizing adversaries, and siphoning assets…”
· “[For supervisors and co-workers] it is often much easier to simply ignore, evade, justify, or silence the speech of anyone who does speak out than to constructively act [to curb the Machiavellian].” There is “a tendency for those in power…to ignore the message.”
If you have ever experienced this type of person, don’t miss this talk!
From Barbara Oakley's flier:
This is a great opportunity to enjoy an outside the box look at interdisciplinary connections between psychology and many different fields, including history, sociology, politics, and biology. Professor Barbara Oakley uses neuroscience and evolutionary theory--as well as an unusually adventurous background that has earned her the nickname of a "female Indiana Jones," to knit together disparate pieces of research that point toward answers to one of the most compelling questions today--why do some people intentionally inflect emotional and physical pain on others?
What Others Have Said about Evil Genes:
“A fascinating scientific and personal exploration of the roots of evil, filled with human insight and telling detail.”
—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Stuff of Thought
About the Speaker
As a recent Vice President of the IEEE-Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, as well as a Fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, Dr. Oakley has worked hard to help build a public understanding of the bioengineering profession. Her research work involves investigations of the complex relationship between neurocircuitry and social behavior. Her recent best-selling book: Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend, was researched over a period of six years, and lauded by a number of top-ranked psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists from institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, and King's College, London.
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