Sciencey stuff

First: a NYT article about whale watching and the "friendly" gray whales of Baja. Nothing really revolutionary, and more whale-huggy than absolutely necessary, but interesting nonetheless.

Second: this poll about Americans' attitude towards and knowledge of science in general is somewhat disturbing. While the public apparently thinks science is a good thing, American science and scientists are considered less effective (I suppose that's the appropriate word) than they used to be. Also, according to the poll, scientists' views of the American public are NOT good (and I admit to holding some of those same views myself). And while the poll didn't examine why these differences exist it's good to realize they exist and try to work around them. Better science education is desperately needed across most of the country. Damned if I know how to fix it, though.

In other news, we had an absolutely fantastic thunderstorm here today, followed by my building's highly obnoxious fire alarm going off for an hour. Joy.

Also: my abstract was accepted for a conference in Canada later this year! I had planned on going whether or not they accepted it, but this way I'll have better chances of making contacts and I can stick another publication on my CV and get practice presenting. I am pleased. :)

The next month and a half are going to be horrifically busy -- Advisor has a paper that she wants submitted by the end of August, which I'm supposedly in charge of, and I want my data analysis for the abstract to be done by that same time. Add my statistics class, thesis revisions, and literature review to those projects, and I'm pretty much doomed. I'm anticipating that this weekend includes the last of my "free" time for the rest of the summer. Except for one or two softball games a week... I signed up for a department grad student team, which I'm almost regretting.... but not quite. I have a guaranteed committment at this point in case I desperately need an evening or two off in the coming weeks. Updates as I have time to make them. :)