Who is Gordon Ramel?
You may well ask. Gordon Ramel is a flesh and blood accident of fate who occupies considerably more physical space than a web page.
When I haven’t got anything else to do I play at All Poetry behind the avatar Distant Mind – Here it says a few things about me.
What else can I tell you. I’m single, I like reading, writing, running, walking, bird watching, bugs & photography as well as cooking and eating. I have been stuck on planet earth for some decades now, as the technology here is not sufficient to fix my space yacht, I might well die here.
I created and worked on The Earthlife Web between 1995 and 2009, then left. In July 2020 I returned to working for the site.
Education
Studied at Exeter University.
- Master of Philisophy (M.Phil.), Soil Ecology – 1995-1997
- B.Sc. 1st class, Biology/Biological Sciences, General, 1st class
You can also check out what else I’ve been upto on my LinkedIn profile or my website.
Other Projects
On Kindle
Check out my Kindle Books on Amazon.
Shopping
I have a nice shop at CafePress (there is nothing about me here, just things I have made) called “The Thinking Man Shop”. Here you can find things like mugs, t-shirts, caps etc that promote the beauty of Nature as well as a paperback copy of The Whispering of the Leaves, a miscellaneous collection of my poetry, mostly about Nature and Us, her errant child.
Poetry.
You can find some of my poetry online at the Ecology Info site. Look under ‘Poems‘ and ‘Children’s Poems‘. All three of the Children’s Poems are included in Tall Tales, Beautiful Beasts & Peculiar People
Two more poems Darkness and One Poet Against The Genocide in Dafur from The Human Disease are featured on Michael Burch’s The HyperTexts.
A separate selection of my poetry (that which has been published in NeoVictorian/Cochlea and The Deronda Review) is available at The Hexagon as part of the Point and Circumference web site of Esther Cameron. This collection might be considered a good preview of the adult volumes above, particularly Strangely Human.
The fantasy ballad, The Tears of Kharnoon has been published online in the April 2012 issue of Aphelion Webzine and on the Dragon’sInn web site. It is part of the fantasy creation “The Dragons of Bhargat” which will be a Chapbook when it is finished.
Finally 3 of my dipterological sonnets (A Fly, Chloropidae and Sciomyzidae) have been published in the online journal Fly Times, issue 48 April 2012. Two more fly poems will be published in issue 49. All of these are included in Naturally Beautiful
I have MS and luckily not the type where I can’t walk. It’s more like my immune system ate the CEO of my brain so trying to think of things “logically” is pretty much impossible for me and my short-term memory is not there at all. So; I already don’t remember why I came to your page, but I wanted to say that I read everything and was fascinated. I live in WA and was thinking I should do more outdoorsy stuff like you. *smiles*
Thank you for sharing your knowledge,
Leila
I have 5 small parrots. I was watching a documentary about sharks and pilot whales with my yellow-sided green cheek conure. When the whale started vocalizing she became very interested and answered back. She watched him carefully and continued this behavior as long as the whale vocalized. Her sounds were louder than when she talks to me. She usually squeaky talks or whispers to me and only makes the big sound when she is excited(bath time). I was wondering if the whale vocalizations hurt her ears because her responses were very animated. She does sing and dance to classical violin music.
Thank you,
Jeanny.
Dear Gordon Ramel,
I believe if you read Sivack and Allen. Vision Research. 15:353. 1975; Bartos et al. Equine Vet J. 1999. 31:384 ; Timney and Macuda. JAVMA. 2001.. 218:, 1567; Harman et al. Equine Vet J. 2010; and publications since that time, you will discover that the idea of the ramped retina in the horse as put forward in 1942 has been proved untrue.
Thanks for the update, the erroneous data has been removed.
Hey Gordon, I dont know if you are going to read it, but I am at my first year at college (God bless biology) at São Paulo University-or Unesp- and your whole blog is actually helping me! I needed an article about the Cycliphoras and its amazing, it really helped me!
I wish i can, someday, be as good as you are
(My apologizes for my english)
I came across your website while checking on the orders and families of birds. My goodness: informative, beautiful, true to the heart. I am writing a novel about Billy the Kid, and it is not well known that during his childhood in the Irish slums of New York City, he taught himself to read using a book about birds, and thereafter, he kept a list of birds during his brief life. Anyway, your site is amazing. Regards, Pam Ryder
Morning – am enjoying looking through your website and what you write about birdsong. Am currently trying to work out why Robins sing two notes at the same time – as all our song birds have the syrinx but I have only observed (when slowed down of course) the robin singing in chords on some of the notes so the presence of the syrinx is not the only answer.
I am a composer currently working with birdsong and just off for a coffee break from writing my final words into a chapter called Voicing the Dawn for a forthcoming book called Dawn Chorus with lots of wornderful bird folk.
Good to know your out there and thanks for sharing your EarthLife Web
Stevie
I was seeking more info on the beautiful orb-weaver spiders in my yard and came upon your website. Definitely a delight! Thank you for all your good works so full of beauty and wonderful knowledge about our world’s inhabitants, Mr. Ramel. I spent a better part of my day reading up on spiders and their elegant ways and intelligence. You made my day! . . . 10/09/2020
wow