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Monthly Archive: December coll
Entomystery – why did the beetles go to camp?
Occasionally, I put on my entomological detective hat to investigate insect mysteries. This one was a beetle mystery at my son’s camp in a Toronto elementary school. My son reported a large number (hundreds!) of tiny beetles swarming the windows in his classroom and asked me to look at them.
Kalighat Paintings: Murder in the Collection
A notorious murder case is one of the subjects of the ROM’s collection of mid-nineteenth century Kalighat paintings, an urban folk art style that developed around a popular Kali temple in Kolkata, India. Written by Piali Roy.
The Rules of Taxonomy: How Species Are Named
Why should ROM curators care about a proposal to create an organization that would make rules for how species of living things are named?
When Things Go Wrong for Right Whales
Guest blog written by Environmental Visual Communication student Viridiana Jimenez
The death of seventeen right whales in 2017 represents a loss of over 3% of the population. The significance of this loss has sent the scientific community into a panic. Their deaths were primarily caused by ship collisions or entanglements with fishing gear. As frequent visitors to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we must now work together to save this species from extinction.
Trees for Life in Lakefield
Guest blog written by Environmental Visual Communication student Fenella Hood
When Rebecca Rose left her home in Leslieville and moved her three young children to the quaint village of Lakefield, she felt secure in the belief that she was improving their lot in life. Then one day a notice was slipped through her door from the Township of Selwyn announcing her next-door neighbour's severance application to build a second house and increase his selling power. His small corner lot boasts a stand of seven mature trees that will need to be cut down to make room for the build. “It felt like being kicked in the stomach. I don't want those trees to die, and I don't want to tell my kids.”
Make Plastic Reduction Part of Your 2018 New Year's Resolutions
Guest blog written by 2017 Environmental Visual Communication student Cristina Bergman
Every year, 10,000 tonnes of plastic enters the Great Lakes. Imagine 55 jumbo jets of plastic crash landing in the lakes each year. In this province alone, 3 billion plastic bottles are sold annually, but only half are recycled. The other 1.5 billion bottles end up in landfills or littering the environment. As the only province that borders the Great Lakes, Ontario has an obligation to protect this vast, irreplaceable resource. But is the province stepping up?
The Natural World in South Asian Painting
In Indian painting, nature is a space of possibilities—where spiritual retreats, leisure activities, romantic encounters, and tests of skill take place. Written by Deepali Dewan.
Singing the Blues: The Mystery of B105
Guest blog written by 2017 Environmental Visual Communication student Viridiana Jimenez
The ocean’s largest and most iconic animal, the blue whale, can produce sounds that cross entire oceans and can be heard from one end of the planet to the other. With humans’ increased presence in the oceans, how are these charismatic giants affected by—and adapting to—our noisy activities? In this blog we follow the story of a single whale, B105 “Invasor”, and muse on how it may have changed its ways to contend with our cacophony.
Who sings for blues? How Blue Whales became ingredients in everyday products
Living in Ontario, the Blue Whale in the vast ocean may seem a distant thought from our daily lives. But our history with these animals is more intertwined than we realize - for example, would you ever use fertilizer in your garden made from blue whales? Canadians used to! Read this guest blog post by ROM Biodiversity / Blue Whale team member Katherine Ing to find out a bit more about the other ways whale products became a part of everyday life during the peak of industrial whaling, and what that means for modern global whale conservation.
CANADA 150 - New Brunswick - Deichmann Pottery
It can be pretty common in rural parts of Canada to find a pottery studio. Lots of Ontario cottagers have favorite potters that they visit in their cottage community. Many of the Gulf Islands in BC have at least one resident potter. Quebec has a hugely successful pottery show that draws in artists from across the province, 1001 Pots, which highlights the rural potter’s lifestyle. It is so common that it’s hard to believe that there were, at one time, pioneers of that way of life.
