Friday April 6, 2007 7:00 am Lethbridge Sunrise 6:58 Sunset 20:09 Hours of daylight: 13:11

A. Morning Musings

7:00 am It is -5 C at the moment with a high of -1 C forecast.There is still a light snow falling.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Climate Change Report Warns Of Increased Hunger, Species Extinction

This is the second of four reports to be produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This report is a 21 page summary of a 1500 page report that involves 29,000 separate data sets collected over the last 5 years. The final wording involved five days of intense negotiations between scientists and governmental representatives as the politicians tried to water down some of the language. There is little doubt that the IPCC will be in the news for the remainder of the year and may well become a genuine force in the future as "doing nothing is not an option".

Canadian Headline: Canada Humbles Germany At Women's Hockey Worlds

The final score was 8 - 0, and Canada outshot the opposition 70 - 5 overall. This being the top Canadian story is an indication of a quiet day both politically and in terms of tragedies. Hopefully we will see a few more such irrelevant stories in the coming days.

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): JI Still Confounding Terror Experts, Despite Arrests

Jemaah Islamiah is a terrorist organization in Indonesia. The statement is based on the uncovering of a large arms cache last month. This is a terrorist threat that rarely makes the news in North America. I was surprised to see the IPCC report to well down the list of headlines on The Australian web site.

My weight is steady at 187. I was concerned that it might rise one as I engaged in some late night snacking, but I guess I got lucky. Now to make sure it doesn't happen again today.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 12:15 PM

B. Plan

Immediate
Mathematics	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade	1 hr
Model Trains	Continue assembly of coaling tower	1 hr
Birds	Update birdwatching Filemaker Pro database	3 hr
	Conduct an online review of spotting scopes	1 hr
Literature	Begin reading "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky	1 hr
Later
Technology	Convert LPs to MP3 format
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
	Begin reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Purchase DCC system
Birds	Create notebook pages birding in Mexico
History	Begin reading "Maya"
	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
	Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer
Literature	New York Times easy crossword puzzles
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals
Learning	Review week's pages each Sunday
	Review all pages for the month at the end of each month
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

C. Actual/Note

7:30 am The coffee should be ready now. Good. Now to sort out some activities for today. The top item will be the updating of my bird watching database.

12:15 PM Here are two more photos showing the beginning of the spring activity of the May tree in our backyard. The last week of snow and below average temperatures have resulted in very little change to the budding leaves.

5:15 PM I have brought my bird watching data base up to date - that is, up until we left for Mexico in early February. The data base gives much more flexibility for special reports such as chronological lists by country as well as keeping track of unique sightings by country and year. For example, I now know that we have identified a total of 260 different birds. Australia leads the list with a total of 152 different birds, Canada next with 104, and the USA with 23. The total is more than 260 because some birds have been seen in more than one country. Now that we know where we stand, we can decide what to try next.

I will wait until I receive the book on Mexican birds before I try to coordinate that information with the photos I took and the list of birds that I compiled (with Larry and Mary Ann's assistance!) at the end of each day.

D. Reflection