ABLE Bioblog

Creepy Google Street View has come to Canada! Check out some of the 2010 meeting venues and other points of interest:

The Life Sciences Centre (major workshops)

The McCain Building (mini workshops and AGM)

Pier 21 (the closing banquet)

Howe Hall (on-campus accommodations)

The Garden South Park Inn (off-campus accommodations)

Historic Properties (downtown Halifax)

The Northwest Arm

The Angus L. MacDonald Bridge

Enjoy your virtual stroll around an early-spring Halifax!

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving,
Jen

Would you believe I actually started drafting this post over a month ago?  I thought it would be the perfect little task to accomplish while the students in one of my classes were diligently writing their final exam (a couple of them found an error in one of the questions -oops)…but then there was an Incident, and then a Thing, plus quite a lot of Stuff.  You know how it is – between the Incident, the Thing, and the Stuff (not to mention the “Vacation”)…well,  there goes the month.

But that’s all behind me now and I’m sincerely looking forward to the academic year ahead, which for many of us (I believe) starts right about now.  September is one of my favourite months of the year; I find the warm sun, cool air, and that unmistakable morning light very energizing, even as the days get shorter.  So it’s in that spirit that I make this, my first “Countdown to ABLE 2010″ post (or, what  would have been my first post, if the the actual first two posts hadn’t been so particularly time-sensitive).

I hope that this blog will be a convenient and interesting way to (1) keep you up to date on our conference planning progress (without giving away too many secrets – we want to overpromise and underdeliver, right? Er, wait a sec…) , (2) pique your interest in visiting Halifax, and (3) deliver (hopefully) useful travel information about the region . I’ve already compiled a list of potential blog topics, and I’ve started to look at my city through visitors’ eyes.  ( It’s kinda fun, actually.)  So if you have any questions or suggestions about the next meeting, or if you have any questions about Halifax or Nova Scotia, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  Mindy and I are both born and brewed Atlantic Canadians (Mindy’s from The Island, I was born on The Rock, and now we’re Bluenosers – huh?!?!); anything we can’t answer off the tops of our heads we can surely find out for you in short order.

Slainte,

Jen

OK, I just have one final (I think this is my last…) post from the 2009 Delaware conference. It is a good one!!

–The conference pictures are now online (http://www.ableweb.org/conf/able2009/images/index.html)!  Thanks for all your contributions. (Sorry, the captions didn’t post with the images; I’ll fix it if I have time).

–Have a listen to this PODCAST — interviews of first-timers’ impressions of the ABLE 2009 conference. (a production of Marielle Hoefnagels and Mark Walvoord prompted by Paul Hyde’s major workshop)

We promise there won't be snow.

Mindy and I (Jendy) discussed whether it would be bad PR to post this story or not, and agreed that since we were going to warn you about this sort of thing anyway, the warning would carry more weight if it were backed up by an actual reference:

Woman rescued from water at Peggy’s Cove

You may recall from our presentation in Delaware that Peggys Cove and surrounds is on the itinerary for one of the Saturday field trips. The area is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nova Scotia (and deservedly so), but due caution is required – the landscape consists of little else but giant granite boulders and crashing waves.

Now it’s also true that thousands of people visit Peggys Cove every year without getting swept out to sea, but it happens, and when it does it happens fast. The happy outcome reported in this story is unfortunately not the usual one.

So in addition to your layers, pack some sturdy shoes with good treads…

Yours in due diligence,
Jen

Aren'tchya glad you're not here this year?

Thanks again to Mark for sharing a little bit of his blogosphere; this first post will be quick and timely.

My first ABLE meeting was at Virginia Tech in 2005.  I’ll  never forget arriving at my first workshop, feeling ever so pretty with the sweat rolling down my back, and overhearing Ann Lumsden cheerfully remark about how “refreshing” the weather was.

Well  if you find Virginia refreshing, you’ll probably find Halifax downright bracing…

I’ve posted a screencap of the forecast for this week (highs in red, lows in blue, POP in black if less than 100%), the same week that we’ll reunite next year.  To be fair, the rain hasn’t been continuous, and the local weatherfolks report that we’re about 5 degrees (Celcius) below seasonal temperatures.  Plus,  we’re  enjoying 90-100% humidity even on days that it’s not raining, so it really feels much milder .

Our other saving grace is that our local forecasts are notoriously dynamic, and not to be taken at face value for more than 24 hours out.  So, in a follow-up post I’ll let you know what the weather was really like this week.

The take-home message is that most of you will probably find Halifax to be a little on the cool (and quite possibly wet) side, so we recommend that you pack accordingly – bring layers!

Nice if you’re a duck,

Jen

UPDATE (29 June 09):  Well, that wasn’t so bad after all.  Contrary to the forecast for last week, we only got rain on two days (Monday and Tuesday), for short periods each day.  Wednesday was overcast and foggy, Thursday and Friday were foggy in the mornings and evenings and sunny in the afternoon, and Saturday was sunny (out at the Tidal Bore Rafting Park anyway, if not in the city…).  Temperatures were probably about as forecast, although I didn’t note them.  I usually grumble if it’s cold, though, and last week I only grumbled about the fog…

Nice if you’re fog-philic,

Jen