American Oystercatchers on the beach at Jekyll Island, Georgia From Jekyll Island, Georgia, Kenn and Kim write: Okay, we admit, we stole that title from an old Calvin and Hobbes collection. But it totally applies to our current situation. Ever since we arrived at the Bird Education Network conference on Sunday -- or, actually, ever since we left home to go judge the Ohio Wetlands Conservation Stamp contest early Saturday morning -- we’ve hardly had time to blink, let alone attend to luxuries like blogging or sleeping.
By a most amazing coincidence, on our early morning flight out of Columbus on Sunday, we wound up sitting right next to our dear friend (and wonderful artist / author / blogger) Julie Zickefoose. She was headed to Honduras, we to Georgia, and fortunate fate put us not only on the same flight but even in the same seat row. We talked about birds and families and writing and music, and never has a three-hour plane flight passed so quickly. Here at the conference we managed to sit down and have dinner with another respected leader of the bird blog community, John Riutta of Born Again Bird Watcher. But most of our time here has been a whirlwind of activity.
We gave a keynote talk together at the opening of the conference ("Working Toward a Bird-Literate Society"), we co-led two lengthy field sessions and a short morning field trip together, and each of us spoke independently at other indoor sessions (Kim on promoting birding activities for teenagers, Kenn on birders and the National Wildlife Refuge System). But there have been many other speakers and we’ve had conversations with dozens of dynamic leaders in the whole field of educating students, and the public, about birds and bird conservation. The amount of energy here is amazing, the networking that’s going on here is phenomenal, and the results of this conference should have wide-ranging positive effects all over North America and beyond. After we get all our notes sorted out, we'll have a huge selection of new ideas to try out in our own work.
And eventually, maybe, we’ll get caught up on sleep!
HONG KONG - FORMER TVB star Gigi Lai has confirmed her marriage to Hong Kong businessman Patrick Ma.
Gigi Lai, 38, and disabled millionaire Patrick Ma, 52, were reportedly planning a wedding scheduled for February 22 in Sydney, Australia. But the low-key couple canceled the ceremony after paparazzi discovered their plan. They registered their marriage and had a simple celebration before the Chinese New Year.
Lai Chi's father did not deny the information, but hinted people will soon hear details.
Of course we shouldn’t assign human expressions to animals, but with the Rockhoppers it was almost impossible to resist the temptation. For example, we couldn't help wondering what this adult might be telling its fuzzy half-grown chick. 
Everyone on these Antarctic cruises is instructed not to approach the wildlife - - to stay back at least 15 feet from the birds (or farther for some species). But if you stand still, some of the birds will walk up to you. The Rockhoppers seemed curious, in a grouchy way, waddling up to members of our group and staring at them as if to say, "what the hell ... ?" 
("Hey, human chick, you wanna step outside and repeat that?")
Of course, once we were into this mode of anthropomorphizing (that is, applying human characteristics to animals), it was hard to get out of it. Nesting on the same hillsides as the Rockhoppers were colonies of Black-browed Albatrosses. We had seen many of these at sea the day before (along with lesser numbers of the much larger Wandering Albatrosses). But here we were able to watch them up close, tending their young, and we were struck by how they seemed gentle, benign, even wise.
Admittedly, the young were cute enough that they seemed worth guarding with care! 
Maybe we can’t really tell what the adult albatrosses are thinking, but they do have beautiful faces. Can you deny the sense that these look like gentle giants?
The circulations of the photographs are really an act of coward, similar to pimps who force women into prostitution. The person who started all this is immoral and not even fit to be an animal or a prostitute even. How much was paid for these photos and clips? 
In my opinion, this ‘person’ is willing to sell his own mother for the right price. He deserves to be hanged in public view for killing a woman “publicly” and Khir Toyol deserve to be parade naked in a Glass wall all over Malaysia.
