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#1
Research & Scholarship / Re: April Research Thread
Last post by Parasaurolophus - Today at 05:47:11 PMQuote from: Parasaurolophus on Today at 04:08:46 PMT1 or referee reading today. Time is short.
Managed a bit of both.
#2
General Discussion / Re: Movie Thread
Last post by Hegemony - Today at 05:20:45 PMQuote from: ab_grp on Today at 03:47:57 PMSo true! They nailed it. Have you seen either of the remakes?
No — one version is enough for me.
#3
General Discussion / Re: What's your weather?
Last post by hmaria1609 - Today at 04:48:36 PMWe had a hot day here in the metro Baltimore/DC area:
https://wtop.com/weather/2024/04/into-the-90s-monday-is-dc-areas-first-preview-of-summer/
I stayed inside the library most of the day.
https://wtop.com/weather/2024/04/into-the-90s-monday-is-dc-areas-first-preview-of-summer/
I stayed inside the library most of the day.
#4
General Discussion / Re: Fauna and other natural th...
Last post by Langue_doc - Today at 04:30:23 PMOn the bird walk where we saw ospreys aplenty, we also saw several dolphins merrily splashing in the ocean, with one of them quite close to the shore.
#5
Research & Scholarship / Re: April Research Thread
Last post by Parasaurolophus - Today at 04:08:46 PMT1 or referee reading today. Time is short.
#6
The State of Higher Ed / Re: Protests and police on cam...
Last post by Langue_doc - Today at 04:01:43 PMQuoteColumbia Begins to Suspend Student Protesters
University officials gave the pro-Palestinian demonstrators a 2 p.m. deadline and threatened to suspend them if they did not leave.
QuoteUniversities Face an Urgent Question: What Makes a Protest Antisemitic?
Pro-Palestinian student activists say their movement is anti-Zionist but not antisemitic. It is not a distinction that everyone accepts.
#7
General Discussion / Re: Look! A bird!
Last post by Langue_doc - Today at 03:57:47 PMSaturday's post seems to have disappeared, so am reposting a list of the birds I saw. Plenty of purple martins on the birdhouses built for them in the refuge--they were noisy!. One osprey carrying a fish, another sitting on a short pole along the shore munching on a rather large fish. Several more ospreys flying overhead, a turkey vulture, several foster's terns and swans, at least five swans sitting on nests. This was Saturday's count--left out the usual birds.
On Sunday I stopped at the birding hotspot to take another look at the birds. This refuge is on a fairly small strip of land between the ocean and an inlet, and the access to it on an overlook on a rather long bridge, so that the trees are at eye-level or lower. If you go down the steps you're just a path away from the refuge, which gives you a street-level view of the birds and their habitat. There were the usual snowy egrets, glossy ibises, on trees and also flying over in typical goose formation of more than 200 (probably more than 400 individuals in the same area), white ibises, a few yellow-crowned night herons, several black-crowned night herons, and what appeared to be a little blue heron. I stood at the overlook for quite some time, seeing the fights, the birds carrying nesting materials, mostly twigs, and the reason for some of the fights, birds alighting and taking off from their perches and nests, birds just milling around, and all of them just co-existing peacefully--I thought that this was DEI in actions. The highlight was seeing a glossy ibis alterate between standing and sitting on her nest, which contained two large eggs in a lovely Easter egg-green color.
On Sunday I stopped at the birding hotspot to take another look at the birds. This refuge is on a fairly small strip of land between the ocean and an inlet, and the access to it on an overlook on a rather long bridge, so that the trees are at eye-level or lower. If you go down the steps you're just a path away from the refuge, which gives you a street-level view of the birds and their habitat. There were the usual snowy egrets, glossy ibises, on trees and also flying over in typical goose formation of more than 200 (probably more than 400 individuals in the same area), white ibises, a few yellow-crowned night herons, several black-crowned night herons, and what appeared to be a little blue heron. I stood at the overlook for quite some time, seeing the fights, the birds carrying nesting materials, mostly twigs, and the reason for some of the fights, birds alighting and taking off from their perches and nests, birds just milling around, and all of them just co-existing peacefully--I thought that this was DEI in actions. The highlight was seeing a glossy ibis alterate between standing and sitting on her nest, which contained two large eggs in a lovely Easter egg-green color.
#8
General Discussion / Re: Movie Thread
Last post by ab_grp - Today at 03:47:57 PMQuote from: Hegemony on Today at 01:03:17 PMThat last moment of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a classic.
So true! They nailed it. Have you seen either of the remakes?
#9
General Discussion / Re: NYT Spelling Bee
Last post by Langue_doc - Today at 03:44:23 PMAfternoon!
Pangram and above genius.
It was a good trip, but exhausting as I was trying to get plenty of birding done in addition to the main reason for leaving town for the weekend.
Happy solving!
Pangram and above genius.
It was a good trip, but exhausting as I was trying to get plenty of birding done in addition to the main reason for leaving town for the weekend.
Happy solving!
#10
General Discussion / Re: Still Other Problems at Li...
Last post by apl68 - Today at 03:00:28 PMIn recent months we've had a staff member semi-retire. She has gone to part-time. This means we're paying for fewer hours of staff time, and this staff member has been dropped from our staff employee benefits. By not hiring another part-timer to cover the hours she's no longer here for, we have saved some money. That will help our budget situation without any lay-offs.
The fact remains that we now have fewer staff hours with which to serve the public. This is putting us in an awkward position at times. We're now trying to put together a plan for the next Board of Trustees meeting to reduce our evening hours during the week slightly. Most evenings there's nobody here at closing time, so we could amputate an hour from most evenings during the week without inconveniencing too many patrons. By adjusting work schedules, we should be able to cover our hours pretty well.
But it's going to require quite a few adjustments in schedules. Some lunch breaks may have to be reduced. We need to put a good deal of thought into the best schedule. I hope we can come up with something that won't antagonize anybody too badly.
I thought we could shorten Saturday schedules by an hour as well, but in studying patron activity on Saturdays I don't find any reliably slow hours at either the beginning or the end of the day that would be an obvious hour to sacrifice. So it looks like we won't be shortening our opening hours on that day.
The fact remains that we now have fewer staff hours with which to serve the public. This is putting us in an awkward position at times. We're now trying to put together a plan for the next Board of Trustees meeting to reduce our evening hours during the week slightly. Most evenings there's nobody here at closing time, so we could amputate an hour from most evenings during the week without inconveniencing too many patrons. By adjusting work schedules, we should be able to cover our hours pretty well.
But it's going to require quite a few adjustments in schedules. Some lunch breaks may have to be reduced. We need to put a good deal of thought into the best schedule. I hope we can come up with something that won't antagonize anybody too badly.
I thought we could shorten Saturday schedules by an hour as well, but in studying patron activity on Saturdays I don't find any reliably slow hours at either the beginning or the end of the day that would be an obvious hour to sacrifice. So it looks like we won't be shortening our opening hours on that day.