Great twitter quote
"If I'd known my thesis might later appear on the web, I would have worked a lot harder."
June 27, 2008
March 14, 2008
Buzz Out Loud
During our recent research expedition to Gabon I decided to name one of the leatherback turtles that we satellite tagged in honor of Buzz Out Loud. Buzz Out Loud is one of a handful of technology podcosts that I listen to on a regular basis (hey, I'm not just a "turtle" geek). I let the hosts of the show, Jason, Molly and Tom, pick the name and JaMoTo was born!
Jason, Molly and Tom were kind enough to adopt JaMoTo, and when they received their adoption packet they wore the hats I included in the packet during the show. As seen in the recorded video streams below. Watch to the end and you will get to see them try on the silly hat.
Click play on each of the streams to watch them in sync, but turn the volume down on all but one (otherwise you will get a wicked echo). Thanks to the folks at watchBOL for posting these online.
JaMoTo has been mentioned in a number of BOL episodes and even has her own Twitter feed.
October 16, 2007
Registration distribution
Current listing of number of attendees from each country of origin for next (Baja) sea turtle symposium:
ARGENTINA 4
ARUBA 1
AUSTRALIA 19
BANGLADESH 1
BARBADOS 2
BELIZE 2
BENIN 1
BERMUDA 1
BRAZIL 6
CAMEROON 1
CANADA 11
CAPE VERDE 4
CAYMAN ISLANDS 2
CHILE 1
CHINA 3
COLOMBIA 5
COSTA RICA 13
CROATIA 3
CUBA 9
DOMINICA 2
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 3
ECUADOR 3
EL SALVADOR 1
FIJI 1
FRANCE 5
GABON 2
GAMBIA 2
GERMANY 1
GHANA 3
GREECE 5
GUADELOUPE 1
GUATEMALA 3
GUYANA 2
INDIA 6
INDONESIA 2
IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF 1
ITALY 12
JAPAN 6
MALAYSIA 1
MARTINIQUE 1
MEXICO 67
MOZAMBIQUE 1
NETHERLANDS ANTILLES 3
NEW ZEALAND 3
NICARAGUA 6
NIGERIA 2
OMAN 4
PAKISTAN 1
PALAU 3
PANAMA 1
PERU 10
PHILIPPINES 1
PORTUGAL 4
PUERTO RICO 4
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 1
SAINT LUCIA 2
SENEGAL 4
SIERRA LEONE 1
SPAIN 18
SRI LANKA 3
SWITZERLAND 2
TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF 2
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 2
TURKEY 1
TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS 1
UNITED KINGDOM 10
UNITED STATES 349
URUGUAY 7
VENEZUELA 17
VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH 1
VIRGIN ISLANDS, U.S. 2
September 20, 2007
Argh!
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Missed it by one day...
August 30, 2007
This week's sign of the apocalype
There is no denying the economic importance of the shrimp and petroleum industries, but it's hard to comprehend people celebrating two of the most destructive influences on earth.
72nd Annual Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival
http://www.shrimp-petrofest.org/
It's this weekend. Head to Louisiana and enjoy!
July 25, 2007
Chocolate Turtles
My parents visited last week after driving around the country for a couple of months. Their last stop before arriving was Muncie, Indiana, where they grew up and I spent some time as a yute. In any case...
July 04, 2007
Light Pollution Question
An interesting question posted to the seaturtle.org forums. I wonder if any readers would like to respond to Zack.
May 08, 2007
Code Monkey
April 25, 2007
An Experiment in Social Networking
The internet is abuzz with lots of new social networking and user-generated content sites and tools. Think wikipedia, digg.com, twitter, MySpace, YouTube and a multitude of similar sites. While user-generated content sites like wikipedia have obvious benefits (for example, a wikipedia page usually comes out at the top of almost every web search I run now and it's scary how often the articles contain exactly the information I am looking for), the same is not necessarily apparent of social-networking sites. However, just as with press releases, participation in social networking sites can be an effective means to reach new audiences with your message. In this case, the conservation of sea turtles and their habitats. In the end, the most effective thing we can do to conserve sea turtles is to educate the public. Currently most sea turtle information goes in to niche publications. Imagine the impact you could have getting the "sea turtle message" in front of a million eyeballs at a popular social networking site loaded with people that would otherwise never hear about sea turtles.
So, let's try a little experiment. A story came out yesterday in reference to a new publication by Annette Broderick et al. This story was dugg by a user at digg.com.
Visit the digg post and add your vote.
If we can push the number of diggs up high enough the story will show up on the digg home page and may be featured in their weekly podcast (not for the faint of heart, but with a whole other untapped audience).
Let's put the digg effect in play for sea turtles.
April 19, 2007
Freeloading
Hilarious story from the Motley Fool poking fun at Comedy Central and the Colbert Report for not financially supporting "Stephanie Colburtle" in the Great Turtle Race, the only turtle out of twelve that does not have a financial sponsor.
:)
To be fair, they are giving a ton of free publicity to the Great Turtle Race.
March 28, 2007
Journey to Planet Earth - ON TONIGHT!
On PBS in the US...
Journey to Planet Earth
Wed 3/28/2007 8-9pm
"The State of the Ocean's Animals" (2007) Global warming and illegal fishing methods cause the extinction of certain fish species and raise sea levels around the world; host Matt Damon.
Ocean Drifters - (UPDATE)
On the National Geographic Channel on 4/6/07 at 2pm.
The oceanic odyssey off the loggerhead turtle.
I am guessing based on the story of Adelita.
UPDATE
Here is a link to the PBS press release on the documentary:
http://www.thirteen.org/pressroom/pdf/nature/turtle/NatureTurtleRelease.pdf
March 07, 2007
Ruby
Not that I have embarrassed myself... it's time to share what was probably the highlight of the entire symposium.
February 11, 2007
Backyard Habitat
Another upcoming TV show.
Backyard Habitat - Cardinal, Broadhead Skink and Loggerhead Turtle
Animal Planet, 16 Feb 2007, 9:00 am (2006)
February 02, 2007
Really Wild Show
Here's a show that I missed. It recorded on January 10th, but I forgot about it.
Really Wild Show - Toadstools and Tarantulas
Animal Planet, 10 Jan 2007, 8:00 am (2005)
This episode isn't listed on the Animal Planet website anymore, but here is what TiVo said:
January 31, 2007
Turtles on TV
I recently noticed that there are a number of children's television shows that feature sea turtles. The most noticeable is an episode of Go, Diego, Go! called "Save the Sea Turtles" that focuses on the leatherback sea turtle. I was able to TiVo it and get a copy. It's not too bad beyond the obvious short-coming that Diego rides the turtle, which seems to be a common theme in kids shows. I've also seen turtles on an episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog, and sea turtle like creatures on Dragon Tales (Can you tell I have young children?).
Anyway, this got me to wondering how many shows are out there that feature sea turtles...
December 27, 2006
Farting Turtles
Sorry, couldn't resist :)
October 11, 2006
More YouTube
I decided to give it a try myself and uploaded the Sea Turtle Release Music Video I created last year. See what you think...
April 12, 2006
The Dance
I thought I'd go ahead and embarrass myself to pre-empt anyone else doing it for me.
For those that haven't heard yet, I am currently president-elect of the International Sea Turtle Society (ISTS). I officially become president on May 1st, the primary upshot being that I am responsible for organizing the next (2007) sea turtle symposium.
There is a small amount of pomp and circumstance associated with passing the mantle from one president to the next. One is the jacket, which I will get in to later. Another is the presidential trowel which is typically passed from the outgoing president (Dimitris) to the incoming president (me) at the banquet at the annual symposium. I don't recall at which symposium the trowel came in to being, but the intent was to help the responsible president shovel their themselves out of "trouble". There may have been a pair of boots at one time as well :)
In any case, I digress. I'll see if I can find the full history of the trowel.
This is about the dance. When Dimitris brought me up to pass the trowel he invited me to take part in a traditional Greek dance with him, along to a video clip from Zorba the Greek.
Having never attempted this particular dance before I insisted the Dimitris help me get started.
Somewhere along the line Dimitris disappeared and I was left to carry on alone (eek).
Hopefully I didn't embarrass myself too badly. I understand that there is also some video of the event floating around out there, which I am sure will appear here eventually!
April 10, 2006
proCAGUAMA swag
In addition to the great meeting and good times at the sea turtle symposium in Greece I scored some great swag. Hoyt Peckham gave me a great proCaguama shirt.
Thanks Hoyt!
I heard raves about the ladies version, but did not get to see one (Hoyt, my wife wants one too!).
November 25, 2005
Land shark!
Not really. This is about a whale shark, but land shark is funnier :)
Came across the following site the chronicles that tagging and tracking of a whale shark from the Seychelles. I believe these are animals being tracked by David Rowat in the Seychelles (wish they were online here David, hint, hint :), but the articles don't seem to mention him.
They are making cool use of the new Google Earth (not Google Maps) tool. If you haven't downloaded and tried Google Earth yet you should. You can zoom around the world looking at things in 3-D perspective view. It even has topographic models of major cities in the US.
Also interesting is where I found the post. SlashGIS, a daily GIS e-newsletter that I started following a few weeks ago.
November 03, 2005
Testing
It doesn't break, just reverts to Convert Line Breaks (I hope). Seems to work ok in October 24, 2005
Zeitgeist
Google maintains a Zeitgeist page where they track search patterns and trends.
The number one gaining search on google last week was "sea turtle".
Also, google has let slip the technology behind their success.
August 30, 2005
I need swag!
Matthew mentioned in one of his last posts that we recently spent some time in the field together. One thing I noticed was Matthew's abundance of swag. It seemed like he wore a t-shirt from a different sea turtle project every day we were in the field. Sometimes TWO in one day!
All I have are a couple dozen symposium t-shirts and seaturtle.org hats and shirts.
The experience left me feeling... inadequate. I need more swag. Send a t-shirt (sized XL, or L if your sizes run large), or other favorite item, from your sea turtle project or organization. Bonus points for items that can't normally be purchased. I promise I'll wear your swag to all the best meetings :)
Send your swag to:
Michael Coyne
1 Southampton Place
Durham, NC 27705
I am happy to make a trade. If you would like some seaturtle.org swag in return, drop a note in your package and let me know if you'd prefer a baseball cap, bucket cap or t-shirt. If you'd like a t-shirt let me know what size. If you don't have anything to trade, consider making a donation to seaturtle.org and select the swag you would like.
August 29, 2005
Crayola Daze
What does it say about you when you start editing manuscripts with a crayon?
Actually, it was a Crayola™ pencil, so maybe not as bad. In any case, I found myself trying to squeeze in the final review of a manuscript at the kitchen table yesterday morning before taking the kids to the museum of life science. Everybody was distracted having fun and I knew that I ran the risk of disturbing the moment if I actually stood up. The only writing implement I had close at hand was a Crayola™ pencil.
sigh
August 02, 2005
Smoking balloons
An interesting article here:
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050802/OPINION01/508020352
equating a ban on balloons (protecting marine animals) to a ban on smoking (protecting humans). The author essentially lambasts the city council of Louisville, Kentucky because they failed to pass a smoking ban in the city after previously banning balloons.
Interesting argument, but I am guessing that there a lot fewer balloon advocates in Louisville, Kentucky than there are smoking "rights" advocates.
April 02, 2005
April Fool's
Did you pick up on this apparent April Fool's story that went out yesterday? It popped up a couple of places on the web yesterday, but not sure where it started:
Title: Turtle Slaying Pinned on Nintendo
URL: http://www.gamesmainframe.com/?view=article&article=125
Description: A massacre of sea turtles in a reserve in Mexico is being blamed on gaming industry ... again by watchful parents, after a tragic night in a sea turtle reserve in ...
Source: gamesmainframe.com, UK
Also at:
http://www.gamespot.com/nes/action/supermariobros/news_6121449.html
March 24, 2005
At a loss for words?
This pretty much speaks for itself...
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/index.html
This is almost as good...
February 25, 2005
This week's sign of the apocalypse
Kraft foods has started making Road Kill Gummi Candy. Gummi candy in the shape of animals that have been run over by cars, with tire treads and all!
Apparently the product was advertised here, but they appear to have removed it.
You have to wonder how many people such a huge marketing blunder had to go through before it was approved.
February 18, 2005
Another "Not a Turtle Stranding"
Saw the post from Matthew yesterday and it reminded me that a group of us also encountered a dead pelican while at the sea turtle symposium in Savannah. We were walking along the river front and there it was. So we called it in and a nice certificate came in the mail a few days ago.
December 31, 2004
Turtle soup?
http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/09/gustavos-arellano.php
Seriously, that's what it says. Scroll down to the "Mariscos La Sirena" heading. If anyone lives in the neighborhood please go check it out. They obviously shouldn't be serving turtle soup.
December 16, 2004
Big Words
The program is being finalized for the 25th Sea Turtle Symposium, which is always an interesting exercise. One of the things I do is generate a list of "big words" from the submitted abstracts that can be supplied to the translators to help them prepare.
The list is included below for your reading pleasure...
(parentheses indicate the number of times each word appears)
December 13, 2004
Tortugas, ahora
I actually discovered this site a couple of years ago when checking the server logs for sites that link to SEATURTLE.ORG. For some reason Visa Latin America has a "Tortugas, ahora" page, complete with links to tracking maps from the Cayman Islands satellite tracking project, and a cool sea turtle info browser. I also just noticed that is has an online commercial with nice sea turtle shots which I have included below.
December 11, 2004
Family Time
Lately, whenever my son sees me working on my laptop he asks, "See turtles Daddy?" Which is his way of asking if we can browse through the image library and look at all the turtles. He's only two but already asks me a ton of questions about all of the turtles.
December 07, 2004
Strange ducks
There are some very strange ducks out there. I haven't looked at it in detail, but this site seems to believe that the environmental movement is out to destroy society:
Which is a project of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.
Scary. It's hard enough trying to "do the right thing" without having to compete with misguided notions like these.
sigh...
October 22, 2004
This week's sign of the apocalypse...
Matthew Godfrey's blog, "The World According To Me..." was the second most popular resource on seaturtle.org last month, eclipsing the Marine Turtle Newsletter, the Image Library, and the 25th Sea Turtle Symposium site. The only resource that was more popular was the satellite tracking section which has been at the top almost since it's inception.
(the satellite tracking section received twice as many hits as Matthew did for those keeping track at home)
October 21, 2004
Please hit "any" key
October 05, 2004
This week's sign of the apocalypse...
Making an argument equating sea turtle nest poaching to abortion...
Since sea turtles are a protected species, one can be imprisoned for destroying sea turtle eggs. What does it say about our society when an unborn sea turtle has more legal protection than an unborn child?
Opinion letter from Larry Stone
From the Times Record, Fort Smith, Arkansas:
http://www.swtimes.com/archive/2004/October/05/opinion/letters.html
July 23, 2004
Red Shift
Seen on a red bumper sticker on a car parked outside the physics department...
"If you see blue you are traveling too fast"
hehe
Sorry, I was a physics major before I turned to biology.
Caguama
So I move to central North Carolina. Except for the fact that there are a few biggish universities here, it's the middle of nowhere USA. And what do I find the first time I walk in to my local grocery store to stock the larder of our new home?
Why, Caguama beer of course!!!
For those of you that have not come across it before, caguama is a Spanish (Central American?) reference to the loggerhead sea turtle. The beer is bottled in El Salvador, if I remember correctly (I already drank it all so I can't look it up :)
June 29, 2004
More about Ormanda
May 21, 2004
HAHA
May 13, 2004
Odds and Ends
March 04, 2004
Urinal Ice
One night during the symposium in Costa Rica a bunch of us went out for dinner in San Jose. When we got there I needed to go to the little turtler's room and discovered that the urinals (troughs actually) were packed with crushed ice.
November 21, 2003
Man Accused of Killing Sea Turtle
Interesting story came across my desk(top) this morning from The Olympian, a Washington state newspaper.
Not interesting so much because the guy killed a turtle and kept the shell, but because of the location. Apparently he found a green turtle on a beach in Ocean Park, Washington. Pretty amazing when you consider how cold the water is in that area. I would expect Leatherbacks to be about, but not the typically more tropical green turtle.
I wonder how often they turn up in that part of the US?
July 11, 2003
San Fran
Can you tell I'm bored yet?
July 02, 2003
Bad Dreams
A three-year old's retelling of a bad dream...
June 29, 2003
This says it all...
More or less how I spend my day(s).
Damn!
I was going to code some new features into the super-secret ARGOS data manager that I am working on, but that last post took too long. And now the kids are waking up. Maybe tonight...
Sorry B&A!
June 26, 2003
Office Retreat
I'm at an office retreat at the moment, one of those touchy-feeling events where an organization learns to work as a team and they craft their mission statement and core values. Woo-hoo! What fun...
(This is related to my "real" job, not seaturtle.org.)
June 16, 2003
blogging
Intereting article in the current (July 2003) MacWorld about blogging: Macworld: Macworld Magazine. The current issue isn't on their website yet, but should show up soon.
June 04, 2003
Consultants
Working for the government this is particularly funny (we run into a LOT of consultants)...
Passive vs Active
May 30, 2003
T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S.
One of the all time classic web sites. I discovered it a long time ago but just came across it again...
May 26, 2003
Fine Art
Finding a bit of humor in the paper on this holiday morning...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/5883113.htm
May 20, 2003
pure hilarity
"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison
Anyone for turtle soup?
Just checking to see if anyone but Matthew is listening...
Hello... hello... hello
A friend's e-mail signature (in part)
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.--Theodore Roosevelt
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