
the museum was hosting a few activities in celebration of chinese new year: mandarin-speaking tours of the glass flowers, a screening of a new NOVA special on fossilized flowers discovered in china. however, the program that most interested me was a lecture title "shangri-la: at the heart of a biodiversity hotspot" given by susan kelley, one of harvard herbaria's managers. i arrived just in time and paid the admission ($9) even though i had no interest in visiting the museum. kelley presented a slideshow of the different flowers from the hengduan mountains, an area i have some personal knowledge of having visited there recently. i remember seeing all sorts of high-elevation wildflowers i'd never seen before and was curious to put some names to the plants. hopefully i can post some photos within the coming days.
since there was still a hour before the museum closed and not wanting my admission to go to waste, i did a quick walkthrough. it looked like they did a new paint job inside some of their display cases since my last visit. there was a new permanent insect exhibit, and one about bird eggs. and no tour of the museum can be complete without a glance at the coelacanth and the kronosaur.
it started flurrying by the time i walked home. i spent the rest of the day logging hours on hellgate: london while watching the political coverage on MSNBC and CNN. obama ended up sweeping the night, with resounding wins in nebraska, louisiana, washington, and even the virgin islands. later, in an appearance at the democratic party jefferson jackson fundraising dinner (in which hillary clinton attended as well), he gave another inspiring speech. obama was greeted like a rockstar when he arrived, and the virginian crowd chanted his name and his catchphrases as he talked.
sticky trap fungus gnat tally | ||||
trap location | fungus gnats | trap location | fungus gnats | |
top left | 42 | bottom left | 11 | |
top right | 42 | bottom right | 14 | |
top center | 15 |