Back to Winter



Another few feet of snow in the Cascades meant another snowshoe hike was a must. This time the trip was along the Lava Flats trail. The Lava Lake area lies deep in the Willamette National Forest. The most common tree species here are tall Douglas Firs. The new snow was soft and powdery with the snowshoes leaving a trail about a foot deep. The several small creeks running under the snow added excitement and we needed some care to avoid breaking through and soaking our feet. Jack London’s tale ‘To Build A Fire’ came to mind. At this point we realized that we had the dog but no matches.

The snowfall had produced lots of odd and picturesque forms like the two trees converted into snow children in the picture below. Winter or summer the Mackenzie River area is always worth a visit. Although it is home to lots of wildlife, we only spotted one lone deer today, but it is difficult not to make lots of noise huffing and puffing if the powder is fresh and deep.

Once More Into The Breach


Winter has moved back in with a little ephemeral snow on the valley floor but with it inches deep in the hills and Cascades at elevations above a few hundred feet.

 I start my hike in search of a latte with some excitement at our Fire Station. A guy in a fully enclosed, orange hazmat suit, showing a huge hump on his back from his life support system, is slowly plodding towards the sidewalk, leaning forward at an angle of forty-five degrees and hauling 25 yards of heavy fire hose. Clearly struggling and with his visor totally misted over, I see that he could do with a hand. Before my offer is complete, two guys with lots of fancy insignia and clipboards invite me to leave, like instantly.

The river has become a high, dirty brown torrent and the Ponds are in the middle of a flush like a slow motion tide cycle that takes place over days instead of hours. The rising water has reduced the composure of the goose population who have mostly decamped to the local grassland, leaving their waterfront properties to the vagaries of the rising water and the marauding ducks. Even the cormorants have moved off to clearer water where they can see to find breakfast. Some of the newly planted forest are not just getting their feet wet but are striving to keep their growing tips above water.

The car lots continue to pile in new stock in preparation for an epidemic of Spring spending fever. The serried ranks are reminiscent of a nineteenth century battlefield. The bright colors of the Mustangs and Cobras lined up front and center, like the Light Horse, poised to rush the opposing line to break it and capture the guns, while on the right flank, the more somber Crewcabs are in a row, like the heavy horse, ready to lumber down the slope and crush the opposition, leaving the multicolored infantry, in the guise of Focuses, to come in behind to mop up.  The Wallet War is about to commence.

After yesterday’s news of Borders Books seeking Chapter 11, I thought my local store was getting nervous. A sign above a line if shelves announced in large red letters that there was “20% off Dummies”. I took my purchase up to the register and it was slowly and carefully explained that the reduction didn’t apply to people like me but to a line of help manuals. Ah well!

In Their Cups


Deep in deepest Somerset in Southwest England lies Cheddar Gorge slicing through the escarpment of the Mendip Hills. A wild and wooly countryside in days gone by with sheep wandering around, and the people either mining lead or drinking a strong form of cider. Neither occupation was good for brain health in the long term. At the entrance the Gorge, lies the village of Cheddar of cheese fame with a large cave, Gough’s Cave as its main attraction. For the gourmets, the local farmhouse Cheddar Cheese is streets ahead of the processed plastic cubes in most grocery stores.

Mr. Gough opened up his cave to tourists quite a while ago as it had some nice example of stalactites and stalagmites to tempt them inside. Sad to say, but they are now a little past their best. His discovery of a human skeleton in 1903 spawned a Caveman Museum. The bones have been shown to be more than 10,000 years old. I recall, but unfortunately can’t trace the reference, that a DNA profile was compared with that of a sample of the local inhabitants in a study to see, well I’m not sure quite what but the grant money needed spending. There was only one near match and that was with a local schoolmaster. This was about twenty years ago and without a reference, can only be an anecdotal story and my memory may have been colored by talking to his pupils.

A recent study of old bones at this site by Bello et al (1) was published yesterday and described three cups fashioned from human skulls dating back almost 15,000 years. These are the oldest on record and the only ones in the UK. These cups were carefully made and would hold about a pint. There is no record of what thirst quenching libation was available. The other bones examined had been cracked open for the marrow, showing that long pig had been on the menu in addition to wild boar. It would be interesting to know if the development of pottery paralleled the idea that eating your neighbors was not a good method of settling civil disputes. I will be recognizing my bone china teacups as an important aid to civilization from this date. My pink finger is twitching!


1. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017026

The Biter Bit Indeed


There is interesting news this week for those battling the persistent incidence of malaria. The mosquito that spreads the parasite by its micro-vampire act has a cuddly predator in the African Jumping Spider. At this point, the arachnophobes should get a firm grip on the arms of their chairs. The Jumper likes to feast on human blood too but doesn’t have the teeth for it. It has developed a neat solution though – it devours the replete mosquito.

There are two good news parts to this study by Cross and Jackson in the The Royal Society’s Biology Letters (1). Our little athletic gourmet get so wildly enthusiastic at the sight of the menu that, like the kid in the candy store, she grabs more than she can eat. Her frenzied killing spree, engendered by the smell of blood, can result in as many as 20 bodies on the dinner table before she stops to nibble delicately at one or two, and now like a well brought up lady, she leaves the table without gorging herself.

The other interesting discovery is that just as the mosquitoes are attracted by the smell of humans, so are the spiders. What really brings them jumping is the smell of sweaty feet. The study was carried out with sweaty socks, so nobody had to place their toes at risk. We now have a scientifically based excuse for not picking up our dirty, sweaty clothes and putting them tidily away – we are helping to combat mosquitoes. Will the African Jumping Spider be the pet of choice with US teens to help combat the risk of West Nile virus, and having to tidy their rooms?


1. 10.1098/rsbl.2010.1233 Biol. Lett

Fading Away


The paintings of Vincent van Gogh are instantly recognizable from both their strong brush strokes and their vibrant color. The pigment industry had given new exciting colors by the time his canvases were created.  His strong blues and yellows are colors that stand out when we think of his work.

Cornfields and sunflowers were dependent on chrome yellow for their sparkle. Louis Vauquelin first produced this in 1809, from a mineral source. It was a real killer color and was used until late in the nineteenth century to make some candy yellow. It is easily synthesized from solutions of lead nitrate and potassium dichromate, and its high toxicity is due to its Chromium 6 and Lead 2 content.


Chrome Yellow is the US School Bus color, and when mixed with lead sulfate as a white pigment, yields a lemony tint. Unfortunately the pigment combination is a strong oxidizer, and UV light is encouraging the reaction at the pigment varnish interface of the van Goghs. The high energy X-ray beam from Grenoble’s great synchrotron has seen the reaction product Chromium 3 in the thin interfacial layer in experiments carried out by a team from Delft Technological U. Chromium 3 is just dull, dirty brown so soon the sunflowers will look wilted and ready to be tossed – if we keep looking at them that is. Kept in the dark, they would last longer.


On a completely different topic, I see that best way of persuading large crocodiles not to munch you for lunch, is to poke them in the eye. They really don’t like that. They don’t think your playing fair and won’t play with you anymore. A Queenslander, Mr. Eddie Sigai, put this to the test when a 10-foot beastie grabbed his hand for an underwater game. The UK Daily Mail last Saturday reported that he had deep cuts on his hand and scratches on his back after the dust up.

With a Nod to St. Valentine


With due acknowledgement of todays date and for those wild romantics amongst us, I would like to draw attention to Ms. Gill’s report in today’s BBC Earth News on Prairie Dog romance. A very sociable species, they greet each other warmly, showing affection by kissing and nuzzling. The study reported on was carried out at St Louis Zoo, so these black-tailed rodents were denied above ground privacy and were used to numerous human voyeurs.

As good little troopers, the adults kissed and nuzzled for the visitors. The more the visitors crowded in to watch the performance, the more the kissing and nuzzling went on. These kisses weren’t just token pecks on the cheek. No, they were serious about it. Tongues being involved on frequent occasions.

The youngster, though, were not such consummate performers as their more experience elders and tended to tense up and squabble. Stage fright had intruded its ugly head. With continuing public support, and mentoring from their elder colleagues, they will make it through in time.

In their natural habitat, not that there is much natural prairie left, so perhaps it should be ‘in the wild’, they spend much more time watching for predators than kissing and cuddling. Prof. Slobodchikoff and his team have spent over 30 years eavesdropping on Prairie Dog conversation and have managed to decode some of what is one of the more sophisticated of mammalian languages. The barking is nuanced, and there are different ‘words’ for different predators and even have ‘words’ for different features of these predators. I guess ‘Eagle at 4 o’clock high’ would have to be clearly distinguishable from ‘Coyote skulking in the brush’ if they wish to kiss their cousins later that day.

Crowding


The unexpected is always exciting, one-way or another. “Crowd sourcing” was beginning to feel, well, oh so last century until this morning. Firstly, I heard from Wisconsin (www.ttbook.org) about oncological gaming as a teaching tool for high school students and this left me with the vision of the future where we may ask our Doctor for a second diagnostic opinion and get a consensus from the local tenth graders. The equation:
                                             Computers+gaming=education 
has taken on a whole new vision.

Secondly, I realize that social networking has provided an enthusiasm for taking part in surveys. Today’s Sunday Observer, UK, reports on George MacKerron’s iPhone App, Mappiness. This one is a survey of our perceived happiness quotient with the current environmental factors such as sunshine or showers. The GPS location is also recorded. So several times a day our little pocket friends put on their therapist's hats, inquires how happy we all are and fills in the scores on Mappiness. The reward? – A record of your happiness quotient and a warm fuzzy. Plenty good enough, except for a real the dyed-in-the-wool curmudgeon. In six months 32,000 of us have got stuck into happiness mapping with 7,000 stalwarts sticking with it regularly.

Eagerly devouring the results so that I could gain new heights of contentment left me a tad unsatisfied, or maybe I’m just typical. Living among trees and mountains makes us happier than living among skyscrapers, suburbs being just so-s0. That sun is good and being rained on is bad, is also to be expected, if we keep in mind that most large deserts don’t have good iPhone reception. Being stuck in bed sick is a real downer but making love, perks you right up.
It is always comforting to have my prejudices confirmed. 

We will presumably see this type of continuous survey extended to other social and political fields. We could, for example, indicate several times a day, our approval rating of the antics of our lawmakers and the correlated results could be prominently displayed. This would give more rapid feedback than a tweeting campaign to the dovecotes of the mighty. Sadly though, it might be less effective as a cacophony of tweets is more attention grabbing than the tidiness of a single number, except to us geeks, that is.

Horse Sense


In the laboratory, mice and rats are frequently used as test models for humans, but the use of horses is unusual. Dr. Hausberger and her team at the Universite´ de Rennes have used a group of horses to determine if their type of work affects their personality (1). Sharing with us problems such as suppressed emotions and interpersonal conflicts makes them a good model.

This was a paper that I had to read. Expecting to see huge differences between a carthorse’s personality and that of a racehorse, I delved deep. No dawn to dusk heavy work or pampered athletes in this study, though. The work ranged from dressage, through show jumping to voltige. Makes sense of course, as the extremes would be an easy guess.

The results are interesting as they show marked differences in the way they expressed their emotions. The voltige horses were very laid back, and I guess running around a ring all day, while some scantily clad human does gymnastics on your back, would give you a “whatever” approach to life. The dressage beasts were the most tetchy and emotionally uptight. The rationale was that the utterly complete, tight control by the rider of every movement that the horse makes, while having to be sensitive to the slightest indication of the rider's intention and act accordingly, would make anyone anxious and stressed.

The more I read, the more the parallels with life at the office stand out. The question remains though, why do so many of us clamor for the high stress ‘dressage life’ when the ‘voltige life' would only make us laid back and calm?

1. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014659

Mob Rule


Working with flocks of Polish ravens, Dr. Selva has shown that life is stressful for juveniles. The received wisdom was that as the juveniles go around in gangs, sharing food and generally raising hell, their troubles would start once the grew up and settled down with a soulmate for life. Squabbling with neighbors and bringing up the next generation were assumed to be heavy duty with respect to stress. On the other hand, the young had it easy, just hanging out with their friends taking no responsibility. 

Doesn’t this sound familiar? It is a line going back to the start of our written records, that human adults have been complaining about their young as being lazy, not taking responsibility and generally having an easy time.


The Polish study shows that corticosterone is present at a higher level in the juvenile ravens. This hormone is produced in the adrenal gland as is cortisol, (the stress hormone that we hear so much about) and was used as a measure of the higher stress levels experienced by the young members of the raven gang. I seem to remember that growing up was pretty stressful and being encouraged to get married and settle down.  Gang life has never been low stress due to all the squabbling and jockeying for position and general nonsense that goes on as juveniles mature. Poland clearly needs a raven outreach program in the Bialowieza Forest to bring these raving ravens back onto the straight and narrow.

Ants and other social insects have gang life down to a fine art, though. They all do their own thing and don’t squabble over group decisions. They utilize a system of quorum sensing to recruit their fellows to the same occupation. We’ve all experienced the same sort of things at meetings where it’s difficult to be the hold out and not go along with the majority. Dr. Franks of U of Bristol studies this process in ant colonies. When enough ants start doing the same thing, cognition reaches colony level and the decision is made. Then the colony goes with the flow. Very democratic, no partisan squabbling. Of course, we also have things to learn from lemmings.

Reflections


The fogging over of the bathroom mirror by the steam from the morning shower is one of nature’s kindnesses, for which most of us are truly grateful. When wiping a small circle to reflect my chin for its shaving trauma, I now am reminded of the chatty mirror in ‘Snow White’ and I’m waiting for the new generation of speech-enabled and programmable bathroom mirrors that will have the details of our fitness challenges and give us daily advice and encouragement.  The bathroom may then take on the character of the confessional. Our iPhones will naturally come to the rescue here. There is already an app to help the Catholic penitent with a checklist to fill out so saving time when going to confession.

However, our personal fitness regimens are probably taking a hit now that we are several weeks away from our New Year Resolution commitments. But the view in our mirrors should keep us up to the mark and help pushback the ravages of age.

It is a pity that we don’t have the ability to fatten up our telomeres. These protect the ends of our DNA and their lengths are critical in our ageing process. Short is bad, long is good. The activity of the enzyme, telomerase, increases telomere length but we don’t seem to be able to control this yet. A paper published yesterday by Cayuela et al (1) describes the use of zebrafish as a model. If the fins of this fish are cut off, they regrow and during the re-growth, the telomerase activity is high and the fish’s telomeres were elongated, especially if the fins are repeatedly chopped off. This seems a hard way to stay young. Maybe if I keep cutting my hair and finger nails, I will tweak my telomeres and look younger. That’s my best shot as anything else that gets chopped off won’t regenerate.



1. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0016955

Future Tech


As I suffer from a non-ostentatious form technophilia, I read with interest and a modicum of concern about the big new EU project called RoboEarth. Mark Ward of the BBC reports that this grand project will provide domestic robots with their own broadband internet which will enable them to share a veritable Wikipedia of knowledge about…er what?

Dr. Waibel of SFIT, Zurich, suggests that one domestic robot finding an unusual situation could find solutions suggested by other robots elsewhere. A noble intention, I guess. The scene is worth exploring a little further though. For the foreseeable future, domestic robots will be mainly enabled appliances. Refrigerators for example which can monitor inventory, flag up expired items and at least print out a shopping list if not place the order for delivery. Perhaps your web connected 52inch HD TV will be monitoring your heart rate and other vital signs while you are working out with MS Kinect, and tweeting the data to the robot in your Family Doctor’s surgery. Sounds wonderful, or does it?

My mind rapidly moved on to my robotic vacuum cleaner gossiping via Robotwitter with my neighbor’s refrigerator, about what it found under my bed and that silly refrigerator posting the gem on its Robofacebook page so that the snippet goes viral by lunchtime. Of course the robots should come with privacy settings, but they will need to be variable depending on which device they are talking to, but can I rely on my refrigerator keeping the confidences shared with it by my robotic medicine cabinet?

Wild Goose Chase





With waterfront property getting scarce and crowded, an expansion westward is beginning to take place. I met with this pair of pioneer homesteaders staking out a claim to the grass verge by the sidewalk. I attempted to explain the hazardous nature of the environment to the gander, and how this wasn’t an ideal spot to bring up goslings, but all he would do was to hiss me quiet so as not to worry his goosefriend, who had complete faith in his ability to handle any and all situations.

The transformation of the Ponds to a regular river–flood plain habitat has taken a leap forward this winter. The landfill for the riparian benches along the ponds, which reduce the steepness of the banks, are now sporting some sparse grass and the planting of the native species of trees and shrubs is well under way. Clearly, it is well on the way to becoming the nature wonderland envisioned in the original plan of six years ago. I do worry about our goosey friends and their ilk though. They are no match for the hungry predators that rush up and down the road. True, the Western Pond Turtle that I rescued from the road last year is still keeping his head down, but our Canada friends seem pretty determined to push the frontier.

Talking Heads


Today, I would like to commend to you Abraham’s article and give its URL (1). It is celebrating the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Dr. Head who was head of the journal Brain ahead of Dr. Brain who was head of Brain from 1954-67 and who wrote an essay about Head in Brain on the centenary of Head's birth. Never mind that I am a few days late, it is a worthy read. It had quite slipped my mind that Dr. Brain had been honored and was Baron Brain of Eynsham.

Whilst doffing my cap to such scientific worthies, I thought about our gestures in general and how nearly all species indulge in these although they may not be universal, even among a single species. Dr. Laidre, while studying Mandrills (2), observed that one community had developed a gesture that was unique amongst Mandrills. They will raise their arm with their elbow stuck out in the manner of the military and cover their eyes with their hand. This is clearly not a passing acknowledgement as say, in a military march past, as they will hold this eye-covering gesture for up to half an hour. It is a “Do not disturb” indicator. This I thought was strange, until I read that they live in a wildlife park in Colchester, England. I am digging deeper to see if there is a gestural timing coincident with the screening of either “Britain has Talent” or “Prime Minister’s Questions” on TV.

Another interesting gesture that has been studied by Dr. Feldman of Cambridge U, is the rolling about of cats. She concludes that it is either a sexy ‘come on’ or a sign of submission – depending who is there. With the many cats that I have met, this has either been an invitation to play or a request for a tummy-rub. I usually know which afterwards as my hand is either dripping blood or is unscathed.


1.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/24/improbable-research-brain-journal

2. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014610;jsessionid=55B556879D0F7952C7CEB6C2B597FBF2.ambra02

Artful Access


Today I discovered Google’ tour of some of the worlds major art galleries and got lost in the wonder of the masterpieces of world spread over my 27 inch screen. You can zoom in to check out the brushwork and get some brief viewing notes on each painting or sculpture. There is a 3D mode but glasses are needed. Perhaps this is in preparation for future advances in technology.

You can click onto a museum and land in one of its galleries. In what is now classic Google-fashion, you can look around just as you do in G-Earth’s street view. ‘This is great,’ I thought as I proceeed to struggle to get through doors to explore further. Being gaming-impaired it took me some time (I won’t say how long) to understand the difference between a rectangle and an ellipse.  Click with the ellipse and you are dragged through the door into a new gallery with transmigrational visuals rather reminiscent of Star Trek.

My jar of quarters now has a purpose. The hot things at this year’s Consumer Electronics show were web-enabled huge screen HD TVs.  Google’s Art Project is clearly what they have been designed for. Try it: http://www.googleartproject.com/. 

By the time my quarter-jar has enough in it, they will also have 3D without the need for glasses. I will have to start planning now. The first thing to do will be to move my refrigerator next to my recliner and then….

Its a Wrap


This morning, returning from a quick run for my daily caffeine transfusion, I slink past the large glass tanks that are the car showrooms along both sides of the road. Clearly, it is early. The schools of ravenous salesmen are assembling and peering out, looking to snap up the unwary. Stepping into a lot to look at a vehicle would certainly mean instant capture with no escape possible. Further along, I pass two humongous trucks, nose to nose with their hoods agape; clearly kissing cousins, getting revved up by sharing bodily currents.

Further along, the trees on both sides of the road are filled with birds jeering at me. They are not going to let me forget my error. I was reminded in the coffee shop, and am now feeling crushed and deflated by the fact that I missed National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day (1). Last Monday, whilst the rest of the Nation was bursting with excitement, I was staring at my screen, ear buds in place, with ‘Lady Gaga’ drowning out the pop culture surrounding me. I was aware that it was Thyroid Awareness Month, and was doing my bit for National Hot Tea Month, but clearly did not have my daily structure properly in place, mia culpa, indeed. Even the geese sound like they are laughing at my chagrin


My neglect of the important things in life brings the term ‘bird brain’ to mind. Though it cannot be put at the feet of exposure to radiation as has been found with the birds living in the woodland surrounding the Chernobyl site. Dr. Møller and his colleagues have found that the bird’s brains are 5% smaller than their brothers and sisters living elsewhere (2), and the speculation is that their cognitive ability is similarly reduced. Perhaps their nest sites were described as hot properties by their avian realtors.


References
1.    http://www.brownielocks.com/january.htm
2.   http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0016862