I just love Jenny Ritter’s album Raised by Wolves, which you can listen to for free via BandCamp.
“A History of Happiness” is my favourite track.
Month: October 2015
Second divestment march photos
I have a big set of photos up from the second fossil fuel divestment march at the University of Toronto.
My very rough estimate is that 150-200 people took part. If someone has time, they can go through the group shot and count.
Subway at Keele
Marching again for fossil fuel divestment at U of T
Tomorrow, Toronto350.org and UofT350.org are holding our second march in support of fossil fuel divestment. The one we held back in November 2014 involved about 200 people.
Right now, Toronto’s weather is pretty miserable. After today’s dentist appointment I swung by MEC to get a waterproof silicone cover to protect my backpack (better than my crude black garbage bag cover) and some ‘Darn Tough Vermont’ merino wool socks.
Hopefully, tomorrow’s evening weather will be OK and we will see a strong turnout. The march is timed to coincide with a meeting of the Governing Council, who will hopefully be walking out of Simcoe Hall at the same time as we have people giving speeches there.
High Park in autumn
Operant conditioning
When I see people out walking dogs, I like reaching a hand out to the creatures and seeing their reactions. Usually the humans are happy about this and volunteer information about the dog’s name and breed. Occasionally, there are people who pointedly ignore me and yank hard on the leash to punish the dog for noticing me.
These people are bad animal trainers.
On the amazing AnimalWonders Montana YouTube channel, Jessi Knudson has done an amazing job of building relationships with a wide variety of animals. She is easily able to encourage a Brazilian prehensile-tailed porcupine to get into his crate for a veterinary appointment, and has taught a dog how to painlessly have its nails cut.
She has a video about clicker training: a form of operant conditioning where the sound of a click is used to teach an animal about the precise behaviour which you are tying to encourage or discourage.
She has two videos specifically about operant conditioning: Law of Effect and Operant Conditioning.
Learning more about operant conditioning seems potentially helpful when it comes to motivating climate volunteers, working with photographic subjects, and teaching students. When things are a bit less hectic, I will need to make a preliminary foray into the literature.
Open thread: Trudeau on climate
Now that he has been elected Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau is going to have to make some crucial decisions on climate: how much fossil fuel infrastructure he will allow (including for export); the degree to which he will promote zero-carbon energy; whether he will establish a price on carbon; how he will engage internationally; etc.
MasseyNews 2014/15
The 2014-2015 issue of MasseyNews has been released. It features a great many of my photos, including the front cover and the collage on the back.
Post-election foreign policy panel
Today the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect convened a panel discussion on Canada’s foreign policy. The panel included Hugh Segal, Stephen Toope, and Marius Grinius. Jennifer Welsh provided a video submission.
Koffler Scientific Reserve
Rosie Martin, a Massey Junior Fellow, organized a trip on Saturday to the Koffler Scientific Reserve.
Getting out into the woods was a great pleasure, and it was fascinating to see some tiny pond-collected larvae and insects under optical stereo microscopes, including damselfly and dragonfly larvae.