tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4893535017109801962024-03-05T19:11:41.126-05:00Leopards and DragonsDNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.comBlogger448125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-43748486392801280622022-06-02T11:59:00.002-04:002022-06-02T11:59:15.955-04:00New Website In the possibly vain hope that I will once again start posting more regularly and start participating in the virtual world more again, I have created a new website - https://leopardsanddragons.com/ Right now I am setting it up predominantly for my students, but I hope to use it for more once I have it up and running. I might still use this site for books reviewsDNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-43129493572205622162022-05-27T10:34:00.001-04:002022-05-27T10:34:39.353-04:00AH - I still exist! Everything is on fire. And just when you start to get to some kind of grip, MORE FIRE. But I still exist! Yay. DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-73859361743506804982020-05-19T15:45:00.000-04:002020-05-19T15:45:24.843-04:00I can't believe that is has been so long! And here I thought that stepping down as chair would mean that I would have more time to do other things. Good grief was I wrong!
Well, here or someplace else, lets see if I can get something rolling again.DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-27407249183755182922018-10-03T12:14:00.002-04:002018-10-03T12:14:31.328-04:00Cybils Nominations are open!
Nominations opened October 1st! Go to http://www.cybils.com/2018/10/the-2018-nominations-are-now-open.html and nominate your favorite books that were published between October 16, 2017 and October 15, 2018. And remember ONE book per person per category.
DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-86345751350832421592018-09-18T16:29:00.002-04:002018-09-24T09:32:41.434-04:00Cybils Round 1 Judge for 2018!
Yay! I have been chosen to be a Round 1 Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction Judge for the 2018!
Once again I really feel honored since I have been so inactive on my blog. I did manage to get that PXRF article I mentioned a year ago done, so that is good. The better news is that I am no longer department chair and should theoretically have more time to do things like outreach rather than DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-75590689633716304582018-09-05T12:22:00.003-04:002018-09-05T12:22:50.073-04:00Arggghhhhh! For God's Sake VOTE! Okay - I always knew this was a problem. I regularly poll my upper division environmental classes and find that less than half of them vote. In the majors only capstone course I have had several years where NO ONE in the class bothered to vote. They all get righteously outraged when we talk about how environmental laws work and how they get made, and they get even more outraged when I make DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-47748945559626500992018-09-04T13:45:00.003-04:002018-09-04T13:45:49.522-04:00Free!!!! I am no longer Chair !!!!! Which means that I might, just might, once again start to have a life and time to read and blog and do things that have nothing to do with filling out reports and doing administrative work!
I spent the week before classes frantically moving out of the chairs office and into my normal faculty office. Give the size difference and the fact that I still won't have a lab until the last phase of the DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-77950728313959332312017-10-03T10:02:00.002-04:002017-10-03T10:04:27.563-04:002017 Cybils Judge!
I have been chosen to
be a
Round 1 Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction Judge for the 2017! This is a lovely honor, since I am still so inactive - work and life have taken over all my so-called "free-time." As I type this is really should be working on my XRF article (I am running the PXRF right next to me.) I love doing this.
The Elementary/Middle Grade Non-Fiction Category DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-54843034980349583842017-10-03T09:42:00.000-04:002018-09-05T12:23:39.720-04:00Ozone "Hole" and Global Warming ... it's probably not what you think ... it's complicated First - the "hole" is the ozone layer isn't really a hole but a zone of exceptional depletion that forms over the Antarctic during southern hemisphere Spring (August to October). A much smaller zone forms over the Arctic during northern hemisphere spring. It is caused by some extraordinary conditions and human release of synthetic compounds, most notably CFCs. Soooo - a toupee won't help.
DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-83458828425307432422017-09-06T11:58:00.002-04:002017-11-29T09:40:57.793-05:00What happened to 2017? So - obviously I have been on something of an unintended hiatus. The combination of being Department Chair and Life have totally overwhelmed me for awhile now.
On the plus side - I have been more active in Twitter - so I am still alive, but apparently only able to communicate in 140 word bursts. Sigh.
I have been working on some new research in addition to lots of administrative planning/DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-26465297555740355702017-01-26T13:57:00.004-05:002017-01-26T13:57:46.313-05:00Environmental Legislation Links and Links for Homework For Homework #1
League of Conservation Voters Score Card http://scorecard.lcv.org/
Open Secrets 114th Congress List http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary_all.php
From Class
Library of Congress https://www.congress.gov/ (this is where you follow the progress of Bills)
United States Code Office of the Law Revision Counsel http://DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-72056133381119228562017-01-10T13:26:00.000-05:002017-01-10T13:26:34.882-05:00Feeling very cranky
'cause National Parks and holding lands in trust for the public is totally a
waste of exploitable resources!
Obviously clean water costs too much and impedes business growth!
And clean air regulations are a huge impediment to growing the economy
Blow up more mountains, drill more holes, get at those fossils fuels! Regardless of the costs
Bring DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-69355039536012927772016-09-30T11:46:00.003-04:002016-09-30T12:03:58.791-04:00Hoyt Lake Closed to Recreation According to the news, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) has confirmed the presence of a harmful algae bloom in
Hoyt Lake at Delaware Park. Yesterday, Buffalo's Department of Public Works began installing signs in Delaware Park notifying park patrons that "recreational
water activities have been suspended until further notice. That includes
no swimming, no DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-60286283605388151952016-09-29T17:08:00.003-04:002016-09-29T17:13:41.112-04:00Over 400ppm permanently ?!?! Just noticed this depressing news - CO2 readings from the Mauna Loa Observatory for the month of September haven't dropped below 400 part per million. If you remember the Keeling Curve, the graph that shows how carbon dioxide levels fluctuate with the seasons but overall are increasing through time, you might already understand how this is important.
Keeling Curve
Normally near the end of DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-89472383416033679542016-09-21T13:30:00.001-04:002016-09-26T09:01:14.001-04:00I get to be a Cybils Elementary/Juvenile Non-Fiction Judge
Yippee! I can now announce that I have been chosen to be a
Round 1 Elementary/Juvenile Non-Fiction Judge! This is such a great
honor, and an unexpected one really since I haven't been very active on the blog since last years Cybils. Work took over my life I and just had no energy for blogging. I am trying to fix that now.
This category is a bit different than in the past DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-86056565864114606182016-09-20T13:37:00.001-04:002016-09-20T16:29:28.757-04:00Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Second Lowest Yearly Minimum Ever Recorded in the Satellite Record
Each summer the ice cap in the Arctic melts to a point of lowest annual extent or "minimum" before the temperature once again drops, the sun falls below the horizon in the Arctic, and the sea ice once again regrows during the frigid fall and winter months. This first six months of this year have been the warmest in the recorded history of surface temperatures, a record that extends back to 1880.DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-69594852948751632882016-09-13T15:07:00.001-04:002016-09-13T15:07:15.168-04:00New Office - again - in new Building this time So, last September I posted about how I had become department chair and moved into the Chair's office? I didn't even get to keep that particular office for a whole year. Over the summer we had to move everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, out of the old Science Building and into the newly renovated Science and Mathematics Complex (Phase 2). The department office, my faculty office, my DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-27079897007845620162016-09-13T13:45:00.003-04:002016-09-13T13:58:44.809-04:00August was the hottest August on record - like, ever
According to the scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (which has the unfortunate acronym GISS which sounds more like a gas leak than a science agency) August 2016 globally was the warmest August on record out of the 136 years of record-keeping. Last month also tied with July 2016 as the warmest month ever. This is hard to comprehend, but this graphic from NASA Earth DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-83850574553592304312016-09-12T14:41:00.000-04:002016-09-12T14:41:53.081-04:00Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke - mini review
Mighty Jack
by
Ben Hatke
Published by: 1st Second
Publication Date: September 6, 2016
Format: paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Graphic Novel - Children's
Source: purchased book
Book blurb from Amazon, but here is the author's website just for good measure:
Jack might be the only
kid in the world who's dreading summer. But he's got a good reason:
summer is when his single DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-74494535017195421922016-09-07T15:21:00.000-04:002016-09-07T15:21:14.345-04:00The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
The Invisible Library
by Genevieve Cogman
Published by: Roc
US Publication Date: June 14, 2016
Format: paperback
Pages: 351
Genre: Speculative Fiction ??
Source: purchased book
From the author's website:
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests
fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic
assistant Kai, she’s posted to an DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-66318285492214505802016-09-07T14:54:00.000-04:002016-09-07T14:54:42.863-04:00I got to visit Cape Town South Africa!
View down into Cape Town from the road up to Table Mountain
I got to visit Cape Town, South Africa ! Happy dance! Unfortunately it was a flying visit for a conference so I didn't get to see or do nearly enough.
I was there to present a talk entitled Portable X-ray Fluorescence (PXRF) Spectrometry of Soils: Method Limitations at the 35th International Geological Congress held in DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-65713197683139914892015-10-01T15:16:00.004-04:002015-10-01T15:16:42.479-04:00Cybils Nominations are Open!
Now is your chance to nominate your favorite elementary, middle grade and young adult books from the past year (technically from October 16, 2014 to October 15, 2015).
All the official information you need is at
http://www.cybils.com/2015/10/the-2015-cybils-are-open.html
Remember ONE book per CATEGORY per PERSON. The form will kick you
back if you try to nominate more than one book (or if DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-90899886142516493102015-09-28T11:54:00.000-04:002015-10-01T15:10:15.394-04:00Cybils Nominations Open October 1st
Nominations open Thursday!
Rules are roughly as follows (the official version is here):
Anybody (real people only!) can nominate a book.
You may nominate one book per category.
If you have more than one book you’d like to nominate, enlist a
friend or co-worker to help you out. (Real human friends only - no
imaginary friends or pets or anything like that.)
Nominated books DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-81830763125859300812015-09-17T16:04:00.002-04:002015-09-17T16:04:17.746-04:00I am a Cybils Judge again!
Hurray! I can now announce that I have once again been chosen to be a Round 1 Elementary/Middle Grade Non-Fiction Judge! This is such a great honor. I had a blast last time, reading over 100 books and struggling with ways of articulating why I thought some were standouts in a field of very strong contenders. There are such wonderful non-fiction books being written. Yay!
DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489353501710980196.post-67646961485965150072015-09-11T15:50:00.004-04:002015-09-11T16:09:32.497-04:00Murder is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens
Murder is Bad Manners
by Robin Stevens
Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
US Publication Date: April 21, 2015
Format: hardback
Pages: 320
Genre: Children's Mystery
Age Range: 10 and up
Source: purchased book
From the author's website:
When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they DNAPLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604877399252352202noreply@blogger.com0