Berry's Drawing

Lovely sketch that Berry Brosi (now Dr. Berry Brosi) drew for a workshop that I gave in 1999 at the Instituto de Ecología in Xalapa, Veracruz, MEXICO. Shows clearly, step by step, how to make a dendrometer band (see How to Make Dendrometer Bands). Beautiful illustration (thx, Silvia, for digging this up). [NOTE: Wonder if Dr. Brosi is still drawing?] 

First Thoughts on a Nam Sabi VMA

A glimpse at Myint Myint Oo's (see Collaboration) fieldbook showing the potential layout of a Village Management Area and a basecamp outside of Nam Sabi (see Nam Sa Bi VMA, Tiger Tracks, and Stake 14). Fun to see this, because I remember the initial conversations, and the questions, and the doubts, and now the whole thing has been laid out and inventoried and has become an interesting (and hopefiully auspicious) piece of recent history for the village. [NOTE: More than you would ever want to know about the establishment of the Village Management Area at Na Sabi is contained here (CBNRM5.pdf), in the report of field activities submitted to the Myanmar Department of Forestry]. 

Minions in Oaxaca

Nice collection of minions for sale in the Plaza de la Constitución, or Zócalo, in Oaxaca. Probably about time to do some more work with Drs. Purata and Gerez on the tree-growth study (see Growth Bands in Comaltepec). Would love to visit Oaxaca again.

Work In Progress

Doing some renovations in Elysa's office. Have ripped out the drop ceiling and replaced it with embossed tin panels. Just finished pulling up the yucky old linoleum and am looking forward to laying down the Canadian red oak flooring that we got. Can't wait to try the pneumatic nail gun. [NOTE: I realize that the image above shows none of my work. Thought the line of tools made a nice still life.  I'll post a picture after I finish the floor].

Wu Kang and the Katsura Trees

This, from the Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Entitled "Wu Kang on His Way to Fell the Katsura Trees on the Moon", a beautiful color woodcut by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, (1839 - 1892) from the Meiji Period in Japan. [NOTE: Just a thought, but this woodcut would make a terrific t-shirt. I mean, really, what forester wouldn't love this].   

Head Over Heels

Beautifully realized stop-motion animation from Timothy Reckart. A student project that went on to be nominated for an Academy Award. For those days when you and your partner seem to be occupying completely different gravitational spaces. It happens. And can be resolved. Love this little movie. Level of detail is amazing.     

Nataya Walkway

Walkway extending out into the Gulf of Thailand at the Nataya Resort in Kampot, Cambodia. What I was doing at this lovely – and incredibly expensive – venue is explained here.  [NOTE: Predictions of snow in NY tomorrow had me thinking of balmy days in the Lower Mekong]. 

Three Years Ago Today

Three years ago today I was standing in front of this exquisite pagoda-like structure at the Royal Palace complex in Phnom Penh. [NOTE: I remember that there was a delicious, cool breeze in the shade where I took the picture]. 

Thoughts on Science and Nature (From the Archive)

This from C.S. Lewis in English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Oxford, 1954, pp.3-4:

What was fruitful in the thought of the new scientists was the bold use of mathematics in the construction of hypotheses, tested not by observation simply but by controlled observation of phenomena that could be precisely measured. On the practical side, it was this that delivered Nature into our hands (emphasis mine). By reducing Nature to her mathematical elements it substituted a mechanical for a genial or animistic conception of the universe. The world was emptied, first of her indwelling spirits, then of her occult sympathies and antipathies, finally of her colors, smells, and tastes. 

Man with his new powers became rich like Midas but all that he touched had gone dead and cold. This process, slowly working, ensured during the next century the loss of the old mythical imagination: the conceit, and later the personified abstraction, takes its place.

This passage rewards re-reading slowly. In spite of what I do for a living (see What I Do), there is much, very much, that I agree with here.

[NOTE: These thoughts go well with several of my recent post, e.g. A Song of the Rolling Earth, Planetary, Zen and the Art of Planetary Crisis]. 

Office Bulletin Board

A small section of the bulletin board behind the computer in my office. Selected items:

1. The Indonesian license plate from our Land Rover in West Kalimantan

2. Arrival card from my first trip to Myanmar in 2005

3. Trading card of Son Goku in his Super Saiyan form 

4. Ticket to 2007 Farm Aid concert on Randall's Island. Row B (second row), Seat 5.

5. Mr. Yu's handwritten list of plant species from our transects in Guizhou

6. Pamphlet from the USDA Plant Pathogen and Quarantine Program about how to set up an appointment to have your shipments from overseas inspected. We had just moved back from Indonesia and had lots of boxes. 

[NOTE: It's amazing that I get anything done with all of this to look at].