How I Learned To Love Insects

I've just posted this on Medium, with a handful of my favorite insect photos. 

Crimson Patch Butterfly (chlosyne janais; Costa Rica).

 

Insects used to frighten me. Now I love them, and I am more concerned about losing them than living with them.

At the end of the article I've offered some tips about how to ensure we have a happy future together with the insects and other arthropods around us. Enjoy.

(Image copyright 2022 David L. O'Hara)

Watching the Fish

 I've been publishing some short pieces on Medium lately. It's a way of doing some quick writing about things I've taught about for years. 

This latest one is about watching fish, and I hope you enjoy it. Here's a sample:

I love fish. And whenever I say that, most people assume I love either eating fish or catching them. But neither of those is what I mean.

What I mean, more than anything, is that I love watching them at home in the places where they live.

You can find the whole article here.

On The Religious Architecture of Water

One of my recent articles on Medium. Here's a sample:

If you want to know what someone believes, don’t ask them what they believe. Ask them where they spend their time, energy, and money.

Because the things that we genuinely believe are things we act on.

The result is that over time our deepest beliefs wind up taking on concrete forms. One pebble at a time, we build mounds and walls. One small decision after another adds on to long history of similar decisions.

And soon the landscape around us becomes the outward form of our inward beliefs.

You can find the rest of the article here.
 

ArcGIS Storymap of Environmental Studies at Augustana

Since all my Environmental Studies students learn GIS, I've been trying to gain some new skills, too. The ArcGIS Storymap tool is a lot of fun to work with, and  I've been playing around with using it to tell stories both with and without maps. Here's one I made for the Environmental Studies program itself. I'd love to hear feedback about what we can do to improve this. 

IBM Developer and Call For Code

It was a delight to work on designing last year's Call For Code challenge with IBM Developer, and then to participate in judging the entries. But I think the best part was joining my team in NYC to watch the university awards!

Our students Onajite Taire and Gedion Alemayehu impressed us--and others, plainly--with their Mile 12 app. 

And of course it was wonderful that my university, my colleagues, and I received some recognition for our contributions as well.

Dr. Matthew Willard gives his time generously to Augustana students and to students around the world. The two of us love seeing students try new things that aim at the common good.

 

 https://developer.ibm.com/blogs/announcing-the-2021-call-for-code-engagement-awards/