Tuesday Tunes – The Bug Song – Stompin’ Tom Connors

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tongue in Cheek, Tuesday Tunes  1 Response »
Apr 192011
 

Ryan FleacrestIt’s been brought to my attention that I’ve missed a Canadian musical icon: the sweet dulcet tones of  Stompin’ Tom Connors! Most may know him for his Hockey Song, but when he’s not singing about sports or condiments, he’s paying an homage to those pesky bugs.

 

 

Stompin’ Tom really is one of the great lyricists, with some truly fantastic songs. The Bug Song is right up there, and bound to buzz around your head for another day or two at least, despite the rather negative tone towards our six-legged friends!

 

This song is available on iTunes – The Bug Song – Stompin’ Tom Connors and the Moon Man N****e

The End is Near…

 Entomology, Life as a Grad Student, Taxonomy, Tongue in Cheek  10 Responses »
Apr 132011
 

My MSc Defense Poster

 

The Quest for the Master’s Degree is nearing it’s conclusion! If you’ll be in the Guelph area on Monday, I invite you to stop in and see what I’ve been up to for the past 3.5 years. I can promise plenty of taxonomic discussion (hopefully well defended by yours truly), plenty of pictures and diagrams, and the world premiere of 3 species new to science! There will be Timbits and coffee for those who require further encouragement/bribes.

The last month has been all over the place, with periods of extremely long days full of final revisions and paperwork, and an eerie academic Limbo without needing to work on my thesis for the first time in years. There’s always work to be done however, and I’ve been preparing the chapters for peer-reviewed publication. Once everything is said and done, I’ll be doing a series of posts reflecting back on my first graduate degree; the highs, the lows, and some tips for those considering doing graduate work in taxonomy. Until then, have a good weekend, and I’ll see you on the other side!

Weevil-Doers Prepare!

 Blogosphere, Entomology, Tongue in Cheek  4 Responses »
Sep 212010
 

Green Weevil on green leaf in Costa Rica

For those looking for a little beetle love eight days a week, An Inordinate Fondness #8 was posted up at Arthropoda yesterday. Most magazine’s may feature paperback writers, but AIF is a monthly “magazine” of blog posts from here, there and everywhere around the insect blogging community, all focusing on beetles, whether through photography, paper reviews, or field observations. I’ve been following AIF for a few months now, and with a little help from my friends and fellow bloggers, it’s always a fun read. I don’t want to spoil the part, but this month’s edition features a recent Bug of the Day post by yours truly in addition to a whole lot of info on all sorts of beetles! So I hope you’ll come together and check out AIF today! The End.

P.S. There are BioPoints available in this post, if you can figure out the hidden signals! You’ll get 5 points for each correct answer!



Costa Rican Adventure – Day 16 – The Journey Part 2

 Entomology, Tongue in Cheek, Trip Report  2 Responses »
Aug 262010
 

With a full day’s collecting (as unproductive as it was) already under my belt, I’m ready for some dinner, and the cook staff at ACG provides the best meal of our visit; fried fish and purple salad, plus the ubiquitous rice and beans I take out of pure hunger. I finish my dinner in a hurry, as our next adventure will be beginning shortly; a trip to the beach searching for nesting sea turtles. Although the chances are low that we’ll actually witness an arribada, the opportunity to explore another region of this conservation area was all I needed to sign up. We’ve been warned that the rainy season is not the best time of  year to even get to the beach, and it was pointed out that most surfers don’t bother trying to get there this time of year. I see this as an added bonus, the opportunity to get to an area almost devoid of human presence, a stark contrast to today’s “tourist trail”.

Continue reading »

Costa Rican Bug of the Day – Aug 12 2010

 Bug of the Day, Photography, Tongue in Cheek, Travel  2 Responses »
Aug 132010
 

Sorry there wasn’t a bug of the day yesterday, I ran out of steam and couldn’t get an image edited before I fell asleep! Here’s today’s:

ICD7 Logo

What’s this you say? A graphical representation of a fly? Well today I’m looking for one of the families that this fly could be based on the head morphology (I’m giving you a break since the wing veination isn’t really visible). I’ll give 5 points to each correct family name (scientific or common). Have fun, and spelling counts!

When you have seen one ant, one blog, one tree, you have not seen them all

 Blogosphere, Taxonomy, Tongue in Cheek  29 Responses »
Apr 212010
 

Although slightly modified from what E.O. Wilson actually said (birds, blogs, same thing right?), the title is most certainly true! Yesterday I introduced you to my blogosphere project, where I began looking at how insect blogs are related. Today, you’ll see the piece de resistance, and we’ll talk a little about what we see! Hold on tight and get ready for a bloggy family reunion!

Drum roll please…. dadadadadadadadada….

Continue reading »

The Ties that Bind Us

 Blogosphere, Taxonomy, Tongue in Cheek  6 Responses »
Apr 202010
 

After my post about the blogs that I check daily, Alex Wild commented that someone should map out the connections between the bug blog community, and I thought what better way to do so then to apply some phylogenetic systematics to the blogging community! It was also good timing for this project, as Willi Hennig’s birthday is April 20, and I thought it’d be an interesting tribute to the man who revolutionized the field of taxonomy and systematics. So without further ado, I present to you something that I’m sure will be gracing the cover of Nature in the near future and which will set me up for the first Nobel Prize awarded to a blog:

A Phylogenetic Analysis of Entomology Blogs: A Blogosphere tribute to Willi Hennig

Willi Hennig - The Father of Modern Phylogenetic Systematics

Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Continue reading »

 Newer Entries