Bubbles in the Bathtub

Have you been wondering what the deal is with Twitter? Not sure where to start? Well, SEATURTLE.ORG has come to your rescue with a list dedicated to turtle tweets. Everybody that I can find that is talking about sea turtles on Twitter.

Do you tweet about sea turtles? Drop me a line on twitter and I will add you to the list.

And, as always, get all of the latest news and updates from the sea turtle world by following SEATURTLE.ORG on Twitter.

Posted by mcoyne at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Save This Page |

As told in Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", recently overheard on TWiT, and captured on Wikipedia...

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever", said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

Posted by mcoyne at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Save This Page |

I have updated the Image Library widget once again and added some additional options. You can use these widgets to easily add dynamic content from the Image Library on seaturtle.org in to your own web pages.

Last 10 photos

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"> var slidewidth=110 //set to desired width of photo widget in pixels var slideheight=120 //set to desired height of photo widget in pixels var slidebgcolor='#FFC' //set to desired background color of photo widget var slidedelay=6000 //set to desired delay between image rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.seaturtle.org/jslib/imagelib.js"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

Last 10 photos in plastic category

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"> var slidewidth=120 //set to desired width of photo widget in pixels var slideheight=120 //set to desired height of photo widget in pixels var slidebgcolor='#FFC' //set to desired background color of photo widget var slidedelay=6000 //set to desired delay between image rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.seaturtle.org/jslib/plastic.js"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

Last 10 photos in hawksbill category

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"> var slidewidth=110 //set to desired width of photo widget in pixels var slideheight=120 //set to desired height of photo widget in pixels var slidebgcolor='#FFC' //set to desired background color of photo widget var slidedelay=6000 //set to desired delay between image rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.seaturtle.org/jslib/hawksbill.js"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

Note that you cannot put more than one photo widget on a page or they will conflict with each other.

If you are interested in including other categories from the Image Library in your website just let me know.

Similarly you can include a news widget that includes the latest sea turtle related headlines from seaturtle.org's news section.

Last 10 news headlines

<script language="JavaScript"> var newswidth=460; //set to desired width of news widget in pixels var newsheight=32; //set to desired height of news widget in pixels var newsbgcolor='#CFC'; //set to desired background color of news widget var newscolor='#000'; //set to desired text color of news widget var newsborder='#090'; //set to desired border color of news widget var newsdelay=5000; //set to desired delay between news rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script src="/jslib/headlines.js" language="JavaScript"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

You can also get nesting widgets by following these instructions from the Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System.

Posted by mcoyne at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Save This Page |

Calling all Turtlers!

I am looking for help in describing more specifically how seaturtle.org helps individuals and organizations around the world involved in sea turtle research and conservation.

If you use seaturtle.org, I would greatly appreciate if you could send along a short description of how one or more of the resources has helped to improve your sea turtle work. If English is not your first language, it would be great to receive a version in your first language as well!

Please note that I may use your contribution as an endorsement in seeking public support for seaturtle.org in the Giving Challenge (http://www.causes.com/seaturtle) or on the seaturtle.org website, so please let me know how you would like to be recognized (name and organization).

Please send feedback to mcoyne@seaturtle.org.

Thanks very much for your help!

Posted by mcoyne at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Save This Page |

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is going mainstream, with a prominent mention in a mainstream television program (sort of), not to mention new entries in Wikipedia and How Stuff Works. A recent episode of a new program called Life After People on the History Channel featured the GPGP. The premise of the program is speculation about what would happen to all of our man-made constructs if people were to suddenly disappear from the face of the earth one day. Last night's episode (The Capital Threat) focused on Washington DC and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles segments followed the GPGP and noted that the patch would continue to grow for many years after people because of all of the plastic currently floating in the ocean that has not yet reached the GPGP.

The show ends with the sobering note that our plastic garbage will likely be our longest lasting legacy, outlasting our steel megastructures and monuments of solid stone. After 600 hundred years the plastic trash will have photo-degraded into smaller and more toxic elements and continue to impact wildlife long after we are gone (they even have a video vignette of a hawksbill sea turtle).

While our sudden disappearance from the Earth is unlikely, the take home message is that even if we were to completely stop using plastics today they will continue to accumulate in the environment for many years. Some significant steps are needed to gain control of plastic and mitigate the long-term price we are going to pay for our current irresponsible practices.

Photo gallery from the episode

This episode of Life After People will be airing again (all times are US eastern)...
Tonight (11 May) at 11pm
Tomorrow (12 May) at 3am
17 May at 5pm

Posted by mcoyne at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Save This Page |