July 14-18th I was in Phoenix, Arizona attending the 2012 ADSA-AMPA-ASAS-CSAS-WSASAS Joint Annual Meeting (http://www.jtmtg.org/2012/). It’s where all the animal scientists meet up to discuss the latest research findings. This was also my first sighting of palm trees. It turns out these particular trees (Phoenix dactylifera) can be cultivated for date production.