The maintenance team runs this red flag up when they don’t want folks using the athletic fields at the park. No cleats, too, the sign says. So the flag was whipping in the breeze and this Id-jit was walking around on the mushy-wet sod wearing roller blades.

Thanks, bud.

We had enough of a cold snap the other week to burn the camillia buds. Such a tiny trace of wintery weather, though….

The giant cactus has eaten more candidates….

Today’s news is no snooze. We now have two two-candidate races. For all intents and purposes*. That’s not much of a selection for the rest of us, because of course few voters and fewer states have had formal input to this national election process….

I will be extremely sad if I hear that Edwards is out in part because Elizabeth’s cancer situation has worsened….

I’m not a journalist, so I can post this based on rumors and unofficial reports, rather than waiting for the candidate-withdrawal speeches….

* Sorry, Huckabee, but your name seems to be the most interesting thing about you….

The WashPost reports an amazing level of efficiency by some government agencies—using a secure wiki—that allows officials to swap information and ideas—amazing because such avenues are so often closed and unavailable, sadly—and expensively!

On Sunday, the Post also had an interesting editorial evaluating positions and experience of the major presidential candidates, making a series of excellent points. The editors note:

On some issues, the three leading Democrats are almost equally disappointing.

And, regarding the Republicans:

All three have stained themselves with their expedient transformations from immigration pragmatists to vengeful hard-liners.

Yet, they add:

The first year of campaigning has been clarifying, and not all the candidates have survived with stature intact. But this isn’t a year of seven dwarfs; there are capable people on both sides.

Note: Georgia votes with so many other states on Feb Five, and advance voting began yesterday….

Mershon Hall presides over construction of the long-debated parking facility….

Construction continues on many non-residential projects here in ATL, including the parking garage at the Atlanta Botanical Garden (watch out for cutesy noises)—and for use by Piedmont Park-goers….

Yet, where I started was another entry….

The other entry…

Professors Rosvall and Bergstrom have examined citation patterns in >6K journals to illustrate information flows in a real system in an article in the 29 Jan issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (article free for download via the link). Sadly, no node developed for the field of anthropology. I say sadly because I’m sure that anthropological topics and theory were touched on (or perhaps even central) in articles published in many other fields (e.g., economics, political science, geography, marketing, some medical issues, and of course agriculture, ecology, and (duh!) evolution.

Maybe it’s a misperception on my part, but academic and professional pushiness tend not to be central to the personalities of most anthropologists. The fallout is not insignificant, yet I suppose rather predictable.

Kite weather!

Sunny. A bit breezy. A bit cool. Nice day for a walk—as opposed to the rain—or a least sprinkles—reported by RMJ for northwest of Yuma.

Indeed, we strolled over five miles, over to Piedmont Park and back!

Remains of snow-dude or dudette, yesterday afternoon.

Today I realized that I don’t know what elevation the monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) soar when they migrate. Not even Wikipedia says, although another site notes some are hit by cars and they may cover 50 miles/day…. So, they’re low-fliers?

Big excitement in the neighborhood this afternoon: car fire. Looked like the battery went wonky.

…and we thought we smelled tires burning or tar being laid down…. Then, oops, the fire truck arrived!

But, I guess it’s not much compared to the hotel fire in Vegas….

Guest picture from the West Coast—superlative pumpkin humor….

A lotta books sure are getting promoted on the shows of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert these days. Are Amazon and Powell’s—and myriad publishers—pleased that the (television) writers are on strike?

Right after I complained to JCB about not having the “big” camera and the lower quality of the iPhone pictures, we saw these balloons, tethered to a sign promoting rental rates in an apartment complex. And the iPhone looped through!

Meanwhile, for mysterious reasons, the US stock markets aren’t continuing to drop….

And, I gotta say, regarding the “Indecision 2008” issues, remember that despite all the talk about “momentum,” ya gotta pay attention to the delegate count. But that’s tricky. For instance, the WashPost and NYTimes figures sure don’t match!