Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media
This is a good, explanatory message. However, the most telling line in this message is Nick... [was]always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell. This describes the difference between entertainment (the story the person filming wants to tell) vs. science (recording the story the subject is telling). Warren W. Aney Senior Wildife Ecologist Tigard, Oregon -Original Message- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of Cara Lin Bridgman Sent: Friday, 24 September, 2010 00:23 To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media In 2003, my husband and I were fixers to Nick Upton, a BBC-trained producer of nature films. We helping him and his camera men work with Taiwan's scientists and local people to produce the film 'Typhoon Island.' To this day, I think this film is the best introduction to Taiwan's geological and ecological diversity. The scientists acting as advisers were most pleased with their interactions with Nick (who actually read their papers) and with the scenes portrayed in the film. On some of his other films, Nick even managed to film behavior that was suspected but not yet observed. Almost all the herp shots and night shots were filmed on constructed sets in labs. Many of the close-ups were filmed in Taipei Zoo. Many of the mammal shots were of animals raised in captivity since they were young. Even so, the animals do what animals do. Other than trying to get frogs to hop at certain times and snakes to slither in certain directions, hiding raw chicken meat in rotten logs, and offering branches laden with acorns to captive bears, there wasn't much in the way of training or manipulating the animals. There is, however, a great deal to be said for careful editing, especially for scenes that appear to portray close calls between predators and prey. No animals were hurt in the making of the film, but the film crew were nearly sucked dry by mosquitoes and during one on-scene outdoor shoot a skink escaped captivity, managing to return to where it had been originally captured. This film has been enormously enjoyed by all age groups in Taiwan. I've shown it to my undergraduates every semester, because they have such a poor understanding of their own country's wildlife and environments. Taiwan's own wildlife photographers, however, have been almost uniformly critical of the film. Many of them have spent years in the field and never seen some of the things Nick documented. Nick was accused of using computer graphics, of training animals, and of filming animals and places outside Taiwan. As someone who has spend years trying to observe a rare species in the field, I can understand the complaints of Taiwan's own photographers. They spent years trying to film the animals in the wild. Nick, who spoke no Chinese, spent 6 months in Taiwan, sometimes filming in the wild, sometimes filming in the zoo or lab, but always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell. My own experience is that even when filming animals in the wild, it's hard to say the animals are truly untouched or unaffected by humans. A little documentary made by a Taiwanese photographer of my own study species, Taiwan's mikado pheasant, was mostly filmed in my study site, used blinds constructed by my research team, and featured animals I had watched and followed for over two years. The most important thing I have learned about nature filming is that when film crews and scientists cooperate, great things can be done and stories can be told accurately and well. Nick did his homework, finding out from scientists and local people the times and places where things were most likely to happen. CL who has no problems with hiding jelly beans in carcasses for grizzlies to find or imitating splashing sounds, who liked the few Steve Irwin shows she saw, but who has been unimpressed with Bear Grylls type of man-vs-nature films where the narrator psychs himself up to harassing an animal. ~~ Cara Lin Bridgman cara@msa.hinet.net P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin Longjing Township http://www.BugDorm.com Taichung County 43499 TaiwanPhone: 886-4-2632-5484 ~~
[ECOLOG-L] Ecology and Gardening Re: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game)
Ecolog: Gardening (and all cultivation) should be seen for what it is, human culture manipulating its habitat/environment to suit humans rather than being changed/evolved by the habitat/environment/ecosystems which, by definition, are not cultivated. WT - Original Message - From: David Inouye ino...@umd.edu To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 2:06 PM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game) Want to help the average American learn and care more about the fascinating phenomena, behaviors, and inter-relationships of the natural world that prompted you to become an ecologist in the first place? A student team from University of Southern California graduate schools is designing a gesture-based gardening/ecology game in which the game-play and logics are founded on the mechanics, behaviors and interrelationships of real-world animals, birds, insects and plants. We're seeking specialists from fields including (but not limited to) botany, ornithology, and entomology willing to collaborate with us and to help us design a fun, high-quality game that teaches, entertains and heightens players' interest in - and commitment to -- the natural world all at once. While this is a student project, some games (e.g. The Adventures of PB Winterbottom, Reflection) developed through this route at USC have received commercial contracts and become commercial games. Thus, work with us might help both your research and you, as an individual, to obtain more attention from broad, non-specialist audiences than they would otherwise receive. Interested in contributing to and/or in learning more about the game? Contact Diane Tucker at diane dot tucker at usc dot edu No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.445 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3156 - Release Date: 09/24/10 06:34:00
[ECOLOG-L] Ph.D. Graduate Research Assistantship
Ph.D. Level Graduate Research Assistantship – We seek an advanced graduate student with strong interdisciplinary interests in biogeography, ecology and evolution to join us in an NSF-funded project studying body size of mammals that inhabit islands. This project will be conducted collaboratively with Drs. Mark V. Lomolino – College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, USA (biogeographer and community ecologist), Dov F. Sax – Brown University, Providence, RI, USA (an invasion biologist) and Dr. Maria R. Palombo - Università degli Studi “La Sapienza” – Roma, Italy (a vertebrate paleontologist) to examine a diverse array of evidence for changes in body size that occur following colonization of islands by mammals. The position will involve significant travel, but will be based in the research lab of Dr. Lomolino in Syracuse, NY. The position is available beginning January, 2011, or earlier depending on availability of applicant. Please send a curriculum vitae and letter of inquiry as email attachments to Professor Lomolino at isl...@esf.edu; please fill in the subject line as “Island GRA”. *** Matthew Heard Brown University Ecology Evolutionary Biology Box G-W Providence, RI 02912 hear...@gmail.com 401-863-2789 www.mattheard.com
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media
This is a very distorted response to CL's posting. The fact that Nick had a story to tell does not mean that it was only for entertainment. If I were making nature films the story I would want to tell is what I as an ecologist think is going on in nature rather than what is easy to photograph. For example, CL writes Nick even managed to film behavior that was suspected but not yet observed. which I suspect meant filming actions that were scientifically significant but not very evident. An example of what I have in mind is films of whale corpses in deep water being degraded by hagfish and other detritivores. The process of recycling dead animals is very important, but ugly and often hard to film. Coming upon a dead whale on the seabed would be a rare event indeed, and I assume that to make these films they find a dead whale that has washed up on shore and tow it out to sea for the filming. Purists might cmplain that this is fakery, but I would call it deciding what story deserves to be told and manipulating nature to tell it. Entertaining? Not necessarily. Bill Silvert - Original Message - From: Warren W. Aney a...@coho.net To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: domingo, 26 de Setembro de 2010 6:46 Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media This is a good, explanatory message. However, the most telling line in this message is Nick... [was]always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell. This describes the difference between entertainment (the story the person filming wants to tell) vs. science (recording the story the subject is telling). Warren W. Aney Senior Wildife Ecologist Tigard, Oregon -Original Message- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of Cara Lin Bridgman Sent: Friday, 24 September, 2010 00:23 To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media In 2003, my husband and I were fixers to Nick Upton, a BBC-trained producer of nature films. We helping him and his camera men work with Taiwan's scientists and local people to produce the film 'Typhoon Island.' To this day, I think this film is the best introduction to Taiwan's geological and ecological diversity. The scientists acting as advisers were most pleased with their interactions with Nick (who actually read their papers) and with the scenes portrayed in the film. On some of his other films, Nick even managed to film behavior that was suspected but not yet observed. Almost all the herp shots and night shots were filmed on constructed sets in labs. Many of the close-ups were filmed in Taipei Zoo. Many of the mammal shots were of animals raised in captivity since they were young. Even so, the animals do what animals do. Other than trying to get frogs to hop at certain times and snakes to slither in certain directions, hiding raw chicken meat in rotten logs, and offering branches laden with acorns to captive bears, there wasn't much in the way of training or manipulating the animals. There is, however, a great deal to be said for careful editing, especially for scenes that appear to portray close calls between predators and prey. No animals were hurt in the making of the film, but the film crew were nearly sucked dry by mosquitoes and during one on-scene outdoor shoot a skink escaped captivity, managing to return to where it had been originally captured. This film has been enormously enjoyed by all age groups in Taiwan. I've shown it to my undergraduates every semester, because they have such a poor understanding of their own country's wildlife and environments. Taiwan's own wildlife photographers, however, have been almost uniformly critical of the film. Many of them have spent years in the field and never seen some of the things Nick documented. Nick was accused of using computer graphics, of training animals, and of filming animals and places outside Taiwan. As someone who has spend years trying to observe a rare species in the field, I can understand the complaints of Taiwan's own photographers. They spent years trying to film the animals in the wild. Nick, who spoke no Chinese, spent 6 months in Taiwan, sometimes filming in the wild, sometimes filming in the zoo or lab, but always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell. My own experience is that even when filming animals in the wild, it's hard to say the animals are truly untouched or unaffected by humans. A little documentary made by a Taiwanese photographer of my own study species, Taiwan's mikado pheasant, was mostly filmed in my study site, used blinds constructed by my research team, and featured animals I had watched and followed for over two years. The most important thing I have learned about nature filming is that when film crews and scientists cooperate, great things can be done and stories can be told accurately and well. Nick did his homework,
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Ecology and Gardening Re: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game)
This seems like an unnecessary put-down. What suits humans? Sometimes selfish desires for pretty plants, sometimes a sense that we are restoring order to the world by making up for past environmental errors. This can be compared to the caprive breeding programs used to save endangered species. In some areas there are groups of gardeners who focus on native plants to shift the balance away from exotics. This kind of gardening should be promoted, not scorned. Bill Silvert - Original Message - From: Wayne Tyson landr...@cox.net To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: domingo, 26 de Setembro de 2010 1:40 Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Ecology and Gardening Re: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game) Ecolog: Gardening (and all cultivation) should be seen for what it is, human culture manipulating its habitat/environment to suit humans rather than being changed/evolved by the habitat/environment/ecosystems which, by definition, are not cultivated. WT - Original Message - From: David Inouye ino...@umd.edu To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 2:06 PM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game) Want to help the average American learn and care more about the fascinating phenomena, behaviors, and inter-relationships of the natural world that prompted you to become an ecologist in the first place? A student team from University of Southern California graduate schools is designing a gesture-based gardening/ecology game in which the game-play and logics are founded on the mechanics, behaviors and interrelationships of real-world animals, birds, insects and plants. We're seeking specialists from fields including (but not limited to) botany, ornithology, and entomology willing to collaborate with us and to help us design a fun, high-quality game that teaches, entertains and heightens players' interest in - and commitment to -- the natural world all at once. While this is a student project, some games (e.g. The Adventures of PB Winterbottom, Reflection) developed through this route at USC have received commercial contracts and become commercial games. Thus, work with us might help both your research and you, as an individual, to obtain more attention from broad, non-specialist audiences than they would otherwise receive. Interested in contributing to and/or in learning more about the game? Contact Diane Tucker at diane dot tucker at usc dot edu No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.445 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3156 - Release Date: 09/24/10 06:34:00
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media
Scientists do story selection all the time, though they may be reluctant to admit it. They (we) select the hypotheses to be tested, then select the subjects, data to be collected, field and analytical methods, presentation methods, etc. It's not much different than what documentary filmmakers or journalists do. All are choices driven by the need to make the best use of the medium you are communicating in. Scientists shouldn't be so blind to the subjectivity that goes into their work. Such blindness, as we have seen in the scientific controversy over the past few years, has helped feed the erosion of credibility that many institutions in our society have felt. Dave On 9/26/2010 10:43 AM, William Silvert wrote: This is a very distorted response to CL's posting. The fact that Nick had a story to tell does not mean that it was only for entertainment. If I were making nature films the story I would want to tell is what I as an ecologist think is going on in nature rather than what is easy to photograph. For example, CL writes Nick even managed to film behavior that was suspected but not yet observed. which I suspect meant filming actions that were scientifically significant but not very evident. An example of what I have in mind is films of whale corpses in deep water being degraded by hagfish and other detritivores. The process of recycling dead animals is very important, but ugly and often hard to film. Coming upon a dead whale on the seabed would be a rare event indeed, and I assume that to make these films they find a dead whale that has washed up on shore and tow it out to sea for the filming. Purists might cmplain that this is fakery, but I would call it deciding what story deserves to be told and manipulating nature to tell it. Entertaining? Not necessarily. Bill Silvert - Original Message - From: Warren W. Aney a...@coho.net To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: domingo, 26 de Setembro de 2010 6:46 Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media This is a good, explanatory message. However, the most telling line in this message is Nick... [was]always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell. This describes the difference between entertainment (the story the person filming wants to tell) vs. science (recording the story the subject is telling). Warren W. Aney Senior Wildife Ecologist Tigard, Oregon -- -- David M. Lawrence| Home: (804) 559-9786 7471 Brook Way Court | Fax: (804) 559-9787 Mechanicsville, VA 23111 | Email: d...@fuzzo.com USA | http: http://fuzzo.com -- All drains lead to the ocean. -- Gill, Finding Nemo We have met the enemy and he is us. -- Pogo No trespassing 4/17 of a haiku -- Richard Brautigan
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Ecology and Gardening Re: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game)
Bill and Ecolog: I thought I took special care to avoid bias, but I understand fully that the statement could be interpreted as such. My purpose is to examine the phenomena, not to value-load. I don't understand how what I said can fairly be termed scorn. I do understand that it could be interpreted as scorn when seen through a history of argument based on either-or rather than getting at a basic phenomenon as it is, not as we tend to color it to be. If my statement lacks discipline in any way, I urge others to modify or restate it in intellectually honest and science-based terms. WT PS: I have supported captive-breeding programs vigorously (but not hunting farms or collections in zoos merely for amusement); for example, I lost a contract with Audubon, lost friends, and was widely scorned after writing a couple of articles in support of bringing the last of the condors in from the wild in 1986 (The Last Days of the Condor? The New York Times, February 8, 1986; The Only Hope for the Condors? San Francisco Chronicle, January 16, 1986.). I have spent most of my life getting down and dirty politically and in the field with ecosystem restoration, including promoting a marriage of ecosystems and gardening/cultivating. - Original Message - From: William Silvert cien...@silvert.org To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 7:31 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Ecology and Gardening Re: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game) This seems like an unnecessary put-down. What suits humans? Sometimes selfish desires for pretty plants, sometimes a sense that we are restoring order to the world by making up for past environmental errors. This can be compared to the caprive breeding programs used to save endangered species. In some areas there are groups of gardeners who focus on native plants to shift the balance away from exotics. This kind of gardening should be promoted, not scorned. Bill Silvert - Original Message - From: Wayne Tyson landr...@cox.net To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: domingo, 26 de Setembro de 2010 1:40 Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Ecology and Gardening Re: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game) Ecolog: Gardening (and all cultivation) should be seen for what it is, human culture manipulating its habitat/environment to suit humans rather than being changed/evolved by the habitat/environment/ecosystems which, by definition, are not cultivated. WT - Original Message - From: David Inouye ino...@umd.edu To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 2:06 PM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Help with development of a gardening/ecology teaching tool (game) Want to help the average American learn and care more about the fascinating phenomena, behaviors, and inter-relationships of the natural world that prompted you to become an ecologist in the first place? A student team from University of Southern California graduate schools is designing a gesture-based gardening/ecology game in which the game-play and logics are founded on the mechanics, behaviors and interrelationships of real-world animals, birds, insects and plants. We're seeking specialists from fields including (but not limited to) botany, ornithology, and entomology willing to collaborate with us and to help us design a fun, high-quality game that teaches, entertains and heightens players' interest in - and commitment to -- the natural world all at once. While this is a student project, some games (e.g. The Adventures of PB Winterbottom, Reflection) developed through this route at USC have received commercial contracts and become commercial games. Thus, work with us might help both your research and you, as an individual, to obtain more attention from broad, non-specialist audiences than they would otherwise receive. Interested in contributing to and/or in learning more about the game? Contact Diane Tucker at diane dot tucker at usc dot edu No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.445 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3156 - Release Date: 09/24/10 06:34:00 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.445 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3160 - Release Date: 09/26/10 07:01:00
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media
Ecolog: The first question is, Is the charge of 'naturefaking' valid or fake? It seems to me that there is a tendency to cherry-pick cases to support biases. Somewhere between a batty batter batting bats for money, and setting up a shot that doesn't mislead is a grey area that needs to tip the balance toward simple honesty. There is some point where a filmmaker or a writer or speaker has got to say, ENOUGH! and say either This is fakery, or at least on the edge, and I have a duty to truth; I'll find a way to make it entertaining enough to illuminate the truth or This is so boring and tedious it won't open up the grandeur of Nature for my audience, I'll have to set up a shot or tell the story in such a way as to illuminate rather than mislead. WT There are two types of professional; one puts the buck first, the other puts the work first. - Original Message - From: William Silvert cien...@silvert.org To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 7:43 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media This is a very distorted response to CL's posting. The fact that Nick had a story to tell does not mean that it was only for entertainment. If I were making nature films the story I would want to tell is what I as an ecologist think is going on in nature rather than what is easy to photograph. For example, CL writes Nick even managed to film behavior that was suspected but not yet observed. which I suspect meant filming actions that were scientifically significant but not very evident. An example of what I have in mind is films of whale corpses in deep water being degraded by hagfish and other detritivores. The process of recycling dead animals is very important, but ugly and often hard to film. Coming upon a dead whale on the seabed would be a rare event indeed, and I assume that to make these films they find a dead whale that has washed up on shore and tow it out to sea for the filming. Purists might cmplain that this is fakery, but I would call it deciding what story deserves to be told and manipulating nature to tell it. Entertaining? Not necessarily. Bill Silvert - Original Message - From: Warren W. Aney a...@coho.net To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: domingo, 26 de Setembro de 2010 6:46 Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media This is a good, explanatory message. However, the most telling line in this message is Nick... [was]always filming in a way most likely to get the shot for the story he was trying to tell. This describes the difference between entertainment (the story the person filming wants to tell) vs. science (recording the story the subject is telling). Warren W. Aney Senior Wildife Ecologist Tigard, Oregon -Original Message- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of Cara Lin Bridgman Sent: Friday, 24 September, 2010 00:23 To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media In 2003, my husband and I were fixers to Nick Upton, a BBC-trained producer of nature films. We helping him and his camera men work with Taiwan's scientists and local people to produce the film 'Typhoon Island.' To this day, I think this film is the best introduction to Taiwan's geological and ecological diversity. The scientists acting as advisers were most pleased with their interactions with Nick (who actually read their papers) and with the scenes portrayed in the film. On some of his other films, Nick even managed to film behavior that was suspected but not yet observed. Almost all the herp shots and night shots were filmed on constructed sets in labs. Many of the close-ups were filmed in Taipei Zoo. Many of the mammal shots were of animals raised in captivity since they were young. Even so, the animals do what animals do. Other than trying to get frogs to hop at certain times and snakes to slither in certain directions, hiding raw chicken meat in rotten logs, and offering branches laden with acorns to captive bears, there wasn't much in the way of training or manipulating the animals. There is, however, a great deal to be said for careful editing, especially for scenes that appear to portray close calls between predators and prey. No animals were hurt in the making of the film, but the film crew were nearly sucked dry by mosquitoes and during one on-scene outdoor shoot a skink escaped captivity, managing to return to where it had been originally captured. This film has been enormously enjoyed by all age groups in Taiwan. I've shown it to my undergraduates every semester, because they have such a poor understanding of their own country's wildlife and environments. Taiwan's own wildlife photographers, however, have been almost uniformly critical of the film. Many of them have spent years in the field and never seen some of the things Nick documented. Nick was accused of using computer graphics, of training animals, and of filming
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media
I disagree. The key question is whether the message is accurate or distorted. If it takes fakery to show what really happens (perhaps because it is too hard to get a decent video of reality) then a fake shot may convey more real information than sticking to what can be photographed, and I consider that valid. Keep in mind that a lot of important animal activity occurs at night, and night-vision photography is a relatively recent development. I suspect that a lot of earlier documentaries with night scenes were manipulated, but that makes more sense than ignoring periods of darkness just because there isn't enough light. What really matters is whether the viewer sees a representation of reality or whether he gets a misleading picture. The fact that a film is shot with no trickery does not mean that it offers an honest picture of reality. Think of my earlier posting with reference to penguins - one can certainly shoot a film that shows the funny side of penguin life, but if you leave out the agony of guarding the egg and chick and the desperate search for food in seal-infested waters it gives a very false idea of what it is like to be a penguin. Bill Silvert - Original Message - From: Wayne Tyson landr...@cox.net To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: domingo, 26 de Setembro de 2010 17:48 Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media Ecolog: The first question is, Is the charge of 'naturefaking' valid or fake? It seems to me that there is a tendency to cherry-pick cases to support biases. Somewhere between a batty batter batting bats for money, and setting up a shot that doesn't mislead is a grey area that needs to tip the balance toward simple honesty. There is some point where a filmmaker or a writer or speaker has got to say, ENOUGH! and say either This is fakery, or at least on the edge, and I have a duty to truth; I'll find a way to make it entertaining enough to illuminate the truth or This is so boring and tedious it won't open up the grandeur of Nature for my audience, I'll have to set up a shot or tell the story in such a way as to illuminate rather than mislead. WT There are two types of professional; one puts the buck first, the other puts the work first.
[ECOLOG-L] Portulaca oleracea seeds
Hey Everyone, Just wanted to see if anyone had access to seeds of Portulaca oleracea (Common Purslane, Pigweed, or Little Hogweed are the common names). I'm looking to do an experiment using Portulaca with a friend and we were hoping to collect some seeds from across it's range. If you have any or know of anyone who might please let me know. We don't need a lot, just a few seeds from wherever you are and a note about where you found them. I'll be happy to pay for your postage or to send a self-addressed envelope with postage. Thanks, Matt Brown University Ecology Evolutionary Biology Box G-W Providence, RI 02912 hear...@gmail.com 401-863-2789 www.mattheard.com
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media
I thank Dave for his posting, which addresses the controversial topic of subjectivity in science. Many scientists condemn any hint of subjectivity even though it is always present. I have run into this a lot because I have been advocating the use of fuzzy logic, which is often rejected out of hand because of the overtones of subjectivity. It is intersting that reference to paradigms does not generate the same hostility, even though the concept implies that the whole field is prone to subjective bias! Bill Silvert - Original Message - From: David M. Lawrence d...@fuzzo.com To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: domingo, 26 de Setembro de 2010 17:02 Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Naturefaking in media Scientists do story selection all the time, though they may be reluctant to admit it. They (we) select the hypotheses to be tested, then select the subjects, data to be collected, field and analytical methods, presentation methods, etc. It's not much different than what documentary filmmakers or journalists do. All are choices driven by the need to make the best use of the medium you are communicating in. Scientists shouldn't be so blind to the subjectivity that goes into their work. Such blindness, as we have seen in the scientific controversy over the past few years, has helped feed the erosion of credibility that many institutions in our society have felt. Dave
