Monday, December 04, 2006

Fitz"patrick" to resurface

He'll be speaking next week at a Houston Audubon meeting on (I kid you not) "How Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and Other Birds are Helping to Save the World".

Details here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Recent rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker provides an outstanding case in point. He will explore this rediscovery, examine the controversies it has sparked, ...

I'd be interested in hearing his view on the "controversies", and particularly if he acknowledges that the best birders in the country all seem to say that the video is a normal Pileated.

Anonymous said...

Our dearest Carpinterio would surely point out that the Fitzcrow has morphed from defending his "rediscovery" to now "saving the world".

(Where are you El Carpenterio Real? You can do this much more justice than any of us can.)

Anonymous said...

Dr. Fitzpatrick will describe the vital roles that birds play in fostering conservation of biological diversity throughout the world.

And how will he say the "IBWO rediscovery" and its emphasis on a single species has helped those really working for conservation of biological diversity?

He poses a badly worded question about how humans will "self-correct" and apparently is asking "will increasing information about species at risk cause humans to conserve species at risk?"
He ignores the issue of whether increasing information about the poor quality of some observations will cause researchers to "self-correct" by admitting their errors in interpretation to allow the advancement of real conservation and research - or if the same hubris and ego that allows humans to ignore their negative impacts on the environment will allow other humans to ignore their negative impacts on research and conservation.

Anonymous said...

Until El Carpinterio Real returns, I shall paraphrase him

My prep school was a feeder
To my rightful place as leader
Now an Ivy is my home
But I'll throw you a bone
We don't work the hardest
But we are considered the smartest
When we commit a boner
Like some southern Homer
We don't cry and fret
We let Auburn take the debt

Anonymous said...

I think it is interesting that Houston Audubon has booked a special larger venue for this talk--normally they meet at the smaller children's museum auditorium, which can still hold a couple hundred people.

Also, heard from someone in Houston that Fitzpatrick was being difficult to work with in setting up the program--wanted to get his own hands on the Houston Audubon mailing list, etc.

Look forward to hearing a report of his talk, and hope someone here will be able to attend and report.

Anonymous said...

Fitz"patrick" to resurface

Great use of quotes, Tom.

It only remains to be seen whether Fitz"patrick" stays for the entire talk or whether Fitz"crow" shows up before the end.