Reconciliation Ecology

So long, blogger... hello, wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 07:58:00 +0000

I'm moving on to Wordpress, folks, so please update your bookmarks / RSS readers / email subscriptions to point to: Reconciliation Ecology: a leaf warbler's gleanings Wondering what prompted...

The trees that are gone at Fresno State

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:25:00 +0000

The trees that are gone at Fresno State, a set on Flickr. I walked under these trees every single day i was on campus. I studied some of the creatures that made their home there, and enjoyed watching...

Deforestation of an urban ecosystem DRAFT RESPONSE (from President Welty)

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sat, 26 May 2012 16:59:00 +0000

I woke up this morning to find the following DRAFT response in my campus email inbox, and thought it worth sharing given the interest my original letter has generated. Do share your thoughts on this...

How do we unbrand our university? A call for creative submissions

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sat, 26 May 2012 09:49:00 +0000

Last month our university - California State University - decided to stop calling itself a university, and transform itself into the brand Fresno State instead. This makeover came with...

Administration responds to protests against deforestation for parking lot expansion at Fresno State

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:55:00 +0000

This morning, we got the following email distributed on the campus Bulletinboard system, in response to faculty concerns about the removal of trees for parking lot expansion, which included my...

Deforestation of an urban ecosystem and failure of campus governance: an open letter to President Welty

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:48:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I drove into campus to my customary parking spot under the dense canopy of trees that have shaded our parking lots for years - only to find a scene of carnage: the entire urban...

Chimpanzee: a nature film where story matters. For our cousins. For ourselves.

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 08:25:00 +0000

It is something else to look into the eyes of a Chimpanzee staring out of a giant movie screen, the rainforest canopy reflected in those intent pellucid mirrors so like our own. I don't know if I...

Dang... I better update my lab website...

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:45:00 +0000

via phdcomics.com ... but I have this meeting to prepare for first... Posted via email from a leaf warbler's gleanings

How the athletic tail wags the academic dog at the new "Fresno State"

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:28:00 +0000

As of yesterday, I no longer work for California State University, Fresno. I got my tenure at that institution almost two years ago and have been an Associate Professor in the Biology Department ever...

ScienceOnline2012 in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:32:00 +0000

via vimeo.com Nice short video overview of the aaaaScienceOnline2012 unconference I attended last january, just days before my life went into a turbulent period from which I am still recovering. I...

Hoodies and the beasts within our multicolored skins

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:18:00 +0000

In his very second outing, the newest Doctor Who (a white guy… ever wonder why the last remaining Time Lord in the universe keeps choosing to be reincarnated as a parade of white guys?)...

Yosemite: a mind-blowing high-definition visual journey through an incredible place

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:36:00 +0000

A spectacular view of the freshly rain-and-snow-washed Sierra Nevada range had me in its thrall during my morning commute this morning! Just the kind of view that all-too-rarely these days reminds...

Welcome to the Anthropocene (a video)

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:21:00 +0000

via vimeo.com A 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global...

PIRATES!! Yes!!! (But hush... don't mention scientists or Charles Darwin - we're Americans!)

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:32:00 +0000

via youtube.com Now that sure looks like a fun movie, doesn't it? Pirates! Aardman's brilliant digital claymation wackiness! and Pirates! What's not to like? Well, a rather big chunk of the premise...

Muhammad Yunus on how economists went wrong and misinterpreted human beings

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:00:00 +0000

via guardian.co.uk I particularly like what he says at the end about the problem of unemployment, and the sheer waste of human potential when we allow people to be unemployed. Posted via email ...

Archaeologist Brian Fagan to visit Fresno State this week (and a repost)

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:29:00 +0000

I just learnt that archaeologist and writer Brian Fagan is visiting my campus this week - tomorrow (Mar 6) in fact - but I will miss his visit! I've been wanting to bring him to Fresno for some time...

"Forest Fires" - in which Sarah Kay cuts deep

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Another astonishing poem, spoken word, from the young-but-seemingly-wise-beyond-her-years Sarah Kay. This one cuts deeper into me, given my own recent brush with fire... via youtube.com Posted...

Why, oh why, does it rain so much in a rainforest?

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:03:00 +0000

Posted via email from a leaf warbler's gleanings

Darwin was a Geologist too!

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:29:00 +0000

In an autobiographic note Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 – 1882) remembered a childhood wish: “It was soon after I began collecting stones, i.e., when 9 or 10, that I distinctly recollect...

Ficus, Focus, Poet, Cop.

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:56:00 +0000

"What are you photographing here?", the policeman asked somewhat sternly, as he approached me. The young policewoman, eyebrows deeply furrowed, hovered behind her superior. She had been eyeing me...

It is time again, for another round of the Great Backyard Bird Count!

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:05:00 +0000

The 2012 GBBC will take place Friday, February 17, through Monday, February 20. Please join us for the 15th annual count! The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird...

Homegrown subversive plots to feed the hungry and save the world!

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:07:00 +0000

It is passing strange to think that growing your own food in your own garden can be considered a subversive act! How did we come to this state, especially in the developed world, but also many cities...

Hamsadhwani: an inner dialogue contemplating humanity's swansong on earth

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:24:00 +0000

Anirban Mahapatra (aka Bhalomanush, a good man I have come to know on Twitter) recently (well, a month ago) shared with me a thought-provoking essay he had written contemplating some of the...

To a new year full of life and colour!

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:47:00 +0000

via flickr.com Posted via email from a leaf warbler's gleanings

Exploring the world of birds and biodiversity with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

noreply@blogger.com (Madhusudan Katti) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:22:00 +0000

As a thank you to its supports, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology shares this video montage filled with wonderful sequences of birds from their archives. Enjoy: via m.youtube.com Posted via email ...