Impatient of Drudgery

I think it more befitting to my present position however, that I should address myself especially to younger students of natural science, with a view to pointing out some of the mistakes which they perhaps are particularly liable to fall into, mistakes which no doubt further study would enable them to correct for themselves, but which often remain uncorrected very much because the studies are so fitfully pursued that it is only when some circumstance arouses a public interest in scientific subjects that their attention is drawn to them again. It may appear but a commonplace observation when I say that one of the first things to be guarded against is impatience of the drudgery needful to master even the alphabet of almost any branch of science.

I mean more by this than that there is no royal road to learning, and my meaning extends to this, namely, that there is a great temptation to forsake the steady pursuit of knowledge along the more tedious pathways of careful observation and well-considered induction for the more attractive highways of fashionable theory. I am not alluding now to those whose chief object is to get a reputation for the possession of scientific knowledge careless as to the basis upon which that reputation may rest.

It may suffice for such to read a review of them, to plunge hotly into a discussion probably with far more rashness of assertion than they dare to whom the subject had been long familiar. But I speak rather of this danger as besetting those who are sincere in their desire to get to the root of matters. It is a seductive error. It seems so much easier to discuss the merits of a theory than to plod along with the accumulation of facts, forgetting that we are not qualified to judge of the merits of a theory until we have a wide knowledge of the facts upon which it is based.

Presidential Address, by Right Reverend Bishop Samuel Tarratt Nevill, to the Otago Institute, 17 January 1878. Transactions and Proceeding of the New Zealand Institute. Volume 10, pp562-566

By-the-left, Stand!

Standing on the rails of the round bit of the railing, gives these gulls a bit more space from passers-by.

It even allowed a couple of them to tuck their beaks under their wings for a bit of shut-eye.

But there's nontheless a kind of uniformity about these smart looking gulls - they are standing in formation with their best foot forward!

Lichen Landscape

I have tried before to identify New Zealand lichens, but there is no handy identification guide. David Galloway's Lichen Flora of New Zealand, is way too technical for limited understanding, so I guess we'll just have to admire these as lichen-landscapes!

However, I am reasonably confident that this is Teloschistea chrysophthalmus. Comparing another photograph on the Forest lichens website. Of course, matching photos is probably a silly way to identify things, but never mind. And of course, Chryso- means golden coloured.

The grey 'spread-out' foliose form is what I habitually call Parmelia, which in a NZ context probably means its in the Parmeliaceae family, rather than the genus per se.

The brown bumps - are tree trunk scars - typical of most Prunus species, but particularly noticeable on this ornamental flowering cherry-tree. It was here when we moved into the house, so we have no idea what variety it is. Dunedin has plenty of these pink cherry trees, in public spaces as well as private gardens. Spring is early this year, and already there are three or four blooms. Elsewhere in town some of the early flowering pink rhododendrons are in flower, leastways those that are sited in choice sunny positions.

Progress

In throwing together my remarks on the Natural History of Creation, I shall propose to myself two or three objectives, to which I shall endeavour as much as possible to limit your attention.

In the first place, one object I have in view will be to show that in the History of Creation, the history of all that has been created, whether of the mineral, the vegetable, or the animal kingdom, there has been PROGRESS; - that all creation has commenced in comparatively simple forms, and that these have gradually become more complicated. In the second place, I wish to point out that this progress of creation in the three kingdoms of nature has had prospectively in view the welfare and the happiness of ma. In the third place, I shall endeavour to point out to you that man’s spiritual nature or reason is obedient to the same law of progress, or may be brought under and viewed from the idea of progress.

What we mean by progress, as applied to Natural History, is something different from the ordinary use of the term. It involves two ideas: the idea first of time – of a series of events, taking place in time; and secondly, the idea of the relation of certain imperfect creations, organisms, beings, to some more perfect – ideal type.

Quotation from: The Natural History of Creation By Edwin Lankester, 1848

Lunctime

One lunch-time we went to have our sandwiches in a handy carpark with a view! The local red-billed gulls clearly know the spot well. The leader of the pack calls in others ...

one of whom dances on our car bonnet. In the background can be seen part of the latest of Dunedin's public sculptures - a row of over-sized molars.

And a second perches on the roof of another car, whose occupant was also having their lunch.

It didn't take long for the canny gulls to realise sandwiches were for human consumption only, so they flew off in disgust.

Preening Pigeon

One grey misty misly morning I spotted this pigeon preening in a kowhai tree.

It was, I thought, a bit of a pointless task as it was raining and likely to keep on raining for some time to come. But this set me thinking, how would a pigeon know that? Aside from the weather forecast, we can have a look at the sky and based on previous experience assess whether the rain is likely to clear up. BUt do pigeon instincts cover weather?

Most pigeons, well feral rock pigeons, at least have incredibly homing instincts; which fact is exploited by those people who race pigeons. But do our native, big lumbering native New Zealand wood pigeons have a homing instinct?

My impression is that they are content to keep to local favourite locales. I'm not sure if they are territorial per se. It's hard to tell with the casual bird-watching that we indulge in from the windows of our house.

Mickey-Mouse Post-Colonial Writer

Realism has never been comfortable with ideas. It could not be otherwise: realism is premised on the idea that ideas have no autonomous existence, can exist only in things. So when it needs to debate ideas, as here, realism is driven to invent situations – walks in the countryside, conversations – in which characters give voice to contending ideas and thereby in a certain sense embody them. The notion of embodying turns out to be pivotal. In such debates ideas do not and indeed cannot float free: they are tied to the speakers by whom they are enounced, and generated from the matrix of individual interests out of which their speakers act in the world – for instance, the son’s concern that his mother not be treated as a Mickey Mouse post-colonial writer, or Wheatley’s concern not to seem an old-fashioned absolutist.

Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee