tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post2836616624149116240..comments2024-02-21T22:09:14.356-05:00Comments on Karstad Biodiversity Paintings: adventures in the colour of Canada: Festival of the Whirligigs (oil on canvas 6 x 8 in.) $310Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-466665159885327352013-11-19T16:12:52.833-05:002013-11-19T16:12:52.833-05:00This has real life and depth as well Aleta. Good f...This has real life and depth as well Aleta. Good for you!The Art of Phil Chadwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07100281940213651166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-22680149345452607922013-11-19T12:01:40.792-05:002013-11-19T12:01:40.792-05:00We suppose that these myriads of Gyrinid Whirligig...We suppose that these myriads of Gyrinid Whirligig Beetles are getting ready to hibernate in the bottom here, though like so many autumnal subjects their hibernation is grossly under-studied. Where do they get oxygen if they "return to water and overwinter in mud and debris"? The reason for this under-studying is the set seasons of the academic year, and the way professors and students are so intensely engaged by their studies in the fall. Even agency employables are now coming indoors, with the loss of summer-student help, and attending to paperwork, so the core facts of distinctively Canadian natural history - how species spend the winter - receives only a tiny fraction of the study it deserves, while the facts of spring, when professors and students feel cooped up,and are keen to get away from their desks, are studied in much greater detail. <br /><br />Another problem is that "Our system of science is objective on certain levels, it genuinely is, but on the funding level it is highly ideologically directed" (Bruce Alexander, <i>the Walrus</i>, 4(10):38, December 2007), and the current emphasis on Species At Risk and applied research also biases study away from Gyrinid hibernation. <a href="http://http-server.carleton.ca/~kbstorey/insects.htm" rel="nofollow"> A lab we work with, </a> which should be inventorying the species and mechanisms of freeze tolerance of all Canadian taxa, is constrained to fake their grant applications towards work that has presumed medical applications, leaving a trail of partially studied freeze-tolerant species that have had to be investigated on the side.<br />Fred Schuelerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02413290982310369659noreply@blogger.com