Thursday, March 29, 2007

Darrell Wright

Following message arrived from Bill Hill this morning.

"I am sad to announce that Darrell Wright, one of the founders of the California Lichen Society and its first Editor of the Bulletin, passed away at his home in Greytown, New Zealand in the afternoon of Saturday, March 24, 2007, after suffering a relapse of cancer which was thought to be in remission in January of this year. This news was conveyed to me by his wife Janet Collinson, whom he had met online when he was living in Arcata CA, and who has been his life companion ever since. Darrell grew up in San Anselmo in Marin County and for years, once he was excited by lichens, scoured the County on weekend lichen jaunts and had probably the most thorough collection and survey of Marin County lichens as anyone. Besides the excitement of discovery and study of lichens in his newfound home in New Zealand with Janet, he was in the process of writing a Lichen Flora of Marin County, a work which will have to be completed by others now. He was also fascinated by the genus Usnea, he had written a synoptic key in FoxPro for Bryoria, and was an advocate of "fingerprinting" lichen species by their chromatograms.
He was a dedicated and enthusiastic lichenologist, first in California, and later in larger circles. We will all miss him greatly."

I never met him, but I know him, because we described a new lichen species together. It was initially called The Mystery Lichen by the people in the Californian Lichen Society, who first discovered it. Darrell and me described it in 2004 and named it Xanthoria pollinarioides in the second volume of the Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. The name was suggested by him, and it fits the lichen perfectly, I think.

I will remember him as a very friendly person who cared for details. Here is something he wrote in one of the emails during that period:
“Xanthoria parietina is certainly weedy here in NZ. I suppose if it was not reported by the early explorers that that would argue for its having been introduced since their time, although, if they do report it, that would not say much about its origin. It might then have been introduced by Captain Cook!”

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Wilmer

The Scanian (Malmoe) rock band Wilmer X started in 1978, and was originally called Wilmer Pitt. The name was changed in 1980, when the slightly disturbing word Pitt was replaced with a more versatile X. I would say that the peak of the band's career was in the eighties. Some of my favorite songs are: Vild, Vem är den flickan, Säj din mamma & din pappa, Kör dej död, Om en hund mådde såhär, and so on.
The band has connections with legendary Scanian music profiles, Torsson and Peps. Nowadays, I guess that their history is over. And, presumably, noone in Norway has ever heard about Nisse, Jalle and the other boys in Wilmer...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Assymetry and chaos

OK, so I'll go on with just this blog: "kaos och asymmetri", as it was commented.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

A first

Yesterday, for the first time, I reviewed for a scientific journal with a journal impact factor above 4! I was relieved when I received (confidentially) the other two reviewers' comments today, and found that we all pretty much agreed! Wow!

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Academic life

"Vad i detta kan du påverka till 100%?”

appr. "What about it can you influence a 100%?"

In this process of writing applications, reviews, papers and things:
I guess, that the only thing I really can influence is my own performance...

... and my performance, is, I guess, adequate and "good enough" from a coaching perspective.