Blog Archives

Bundle of Joy

10/16/2015

On Tuesday, the 94th southern white rhino was born at the San Diego Safari Park. Her name is Kianga and she is just too cute!

Here are some quick facts about the southern white rhino:

● White rhinos are the largest of the five sub-species of rhino.
● The southern white rhino is a genetically distinct sub-species from the northern white rhino.
● Southern white rhinos are the most abundant of the rhino sub-species with about 17,000 left in the wild (IUCN 2008).
● The population of southern white rhinos was only about 100 individuals in the late 1890's. Management and conservation helped to take the population from Endangered to Near Threatened.
● The San Diego Wild Animal Park started breeding southern white rhinos in captivity in 1972.

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Lab-mate David and I are currently in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at the Wildlife Society Conference. Today was day one of a 2-day Bayesian Inference workshop and the official start of the 4-day conference is Sunday! We are so excited to learn all about what's going on in the wildlife community as well as show them the research we have been working on. Both David and I will be presenting posters of our ongoing research on Monday. We've also already been having fun exploring the city. It's a nice change being somewhere cold!

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Throwback Third Thursday - October 2015

10/15/2015

Over the past few years, I am sure you have come to notice that Halloween is my jam! Halloween has always been my jam. And in 1995 (#tbtt) it was no different. My best friends Markie, Kalista and I as the oldest (and therefore) coolest girls in school (at a school of approx. 70 kids grades 1-6, and the only three girls in the 6th grade, that wasn't a very taxing accomplishment) decided to attend the school Halloween parade dressed as Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. Oh, but not just ANY standard version of little Disney friends, no, no, NO we went as Mickey, Minnie and Pluto from Rock Around the Mouse, an ever so bitchin’ cassette tape I had growing up and you better believe I had that song blasting in my bright yellow boombox all day.

We're in the middle. Markie is Minnie, I'm Mickey and Kalista has the dog nose as Pluto rocking the Seau jersey. Aren't we cute!
(And, yes, she's Pluto, not Goofy... I don't exactly remember why but that was a conscious decision.)

Bad Comparison

10/8/2015

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I apologize in advance; this post is a little morbid.

I have seen this political cartoon on Facebook enough times in the past few days now, and it frustrates me enough that I felt like I needed to say something. The comparison made in this cartoon is ridiculous. It’s like comparing apples to batteries. Sure, both provide energy, but to do a side by side comparison of the two doesn’t make too much sense when explaining what energy is.

For the argument being made in this political cartoon, the first two panels are a valid comparison; the car and the medication were recalled when a manufacturing error caused the product to be dangerous inevitably causing the deaths of some of its consumers. The third panel is referring to deaths caused by the misuse of a product, something completely different. A more accurate comparison to the third panel might be:

Vehicles cause nearly 1.3 million deaths each year but we still drive cars. That is an average of 3,287 deaths a day.

I found a lot of numbers thrown around on the internet on various websites citing the CDC and the AAPCC for overdosing and poisoning by acetaminophen (that would be the Tylenol from the middle panel). It is the deadliest over-the-counter medication and hundreds of people misuse and die from acetaminophen annually and it’s still available on shelves everywhere.

And, not to mention, if a gun were to have a manufacturing error like the car and medication in the first two panels, it would probably be recalled as well.

DISCLAIMER: I am not against better gun regulation. In fact, I am for it. My issue with this political cartoon is not the message it is trying to get across, it is the way in which it is accomplishing it. It is the combination of the panels for which I have issue and for which, I believe, makes for a nonsensical agenda.

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Update: Someone on Facebook made an interesting comment trying to stir the pot, “what is the intended use of a gun…?” I don’t know where the artist got the 32,000 deaths statistic so I don’t know if it includes both lawful and unlawful deaths, but whatever your personal definition of the intended use of a gun, the LEGAL use of a gun is NOT mass killings and murder. Either way, that argument was not the intended use of this post. The intended use of this post is to point out the misuse of statistics in making an argument. Yes, 'deaths caused by guns' is a big number and that number should be smaller but it shouldn’t be compared to the number of deaths in a Ford recall.

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