Monthly Archives: March 2017

Monarch Butterflies and Milkweed: An amazing new book

monarch_milkweedMonarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution by Anurag Agrawal is a fantastic, readable, scientifically rich, detailed monograph about – you guessed it – the monarch butterfly and the milkweed plant.

The monarch butterfly begins a springtime northward migration by flying a good ways north, where females lay eggs and die. Then the eggs hatch, the caterpillars feed and metamorphose, and the newly minted butterflies then fly further north, and this cycle happens again. This happens a few times. The southward migration is different. The butterflies, which are across large areas of temperate North America, fly all the way south to their Mexican wintering grounds.

Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 8.42.14 PMIt is a widespread belief in America that monarchs rely on milkweed plants, and that the decline of milkweed explains an alarming decrease in monarch butterfly numbers over recent decades. That first belief is true: The monarchs lay their eggs on the milkweed, and the caterpillars feed on that plant. But it may not be true that a decline in milkweed is a problem for the monarchs. Agrawal makes a very good case that milkweed is not connected to monarch decline, and suggests but does not pin down other explanations.

Monarchs are bitter tasting and, actually, toxic. They are toxic because the caterpillars take in and sequester, and pass on to subsequent morphs, a specific toxin in milkweed. You probably knew that. But, did you know that there was a very clever and rather complicated experiment conducted in the 1960s that established this fact?

We often hear that there are two kinds of milkweed. There is the kind that monarchs lay their eggs on, and the kind that they don’t. We know this because, according to the Internet, some people, in an effort to save the monarch, planted the incorrect species instead of the correct species.

Screen Shot 2017-03-19 at 8.42.43 PMBut did you know that there are 37 species of milkweed? Monarchs uses several species, but may prefer some. There are other butterflies that also rely on the milkweed (they are known as the “milkweed butterflies”).

The milkweed and the monarch have a tight and long term evolutionary relationship, both having adapted to the other’s adaptations, in a co-evolutionary story of epic proportions. But, this is not one of those stories of mutual benefit or cooperation. The monarchs exploit the milkweed, and the milkweed tries to defend itself, with only limited success. It is not a pretty picture, but it is a very interesting one.

Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution is to date the coolest nature or science book I’ve seen so far this year. The year is young, but this book is fantastic, so I expect to see it finish in the top two or three, at least. Increasingly, I’m enjoying books written simultaneously for the general public as well as scientists, by scientists who know the material because they are among the contributors to the base of knowledge being expounded upon. This is an example; Anurag Agrawal is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Entomology at Cornell University. He lives in Ithaca, New York.

I highly recommend this book.

(By the way, if you’ve not read Flight Behavior: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver, about monarchs, climate change, an interesting family living in Appalachia and an interesting monarch butterfly research, you should!)

Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations vii
1 Welcome to the Monarchy 1
2 The Arms Race 22
3 The Chemistry of Medicine and Poison 43
4 Waiting, Mating, and Migrating 63
5 Hatching and Defending 90
6 Saving Up to Raise a Family 119
7 The Milkweed Village 148
8 The Autumn Migration 178
9 Long Live the Monarchy! 210
Acknowledgments 243
Notes 249
Image Credits 271
Index 275

Go Fund David Weinlick

Some of you may know David Weinlick, especially if you are active in politics in the Twin Cities, or associated with the University of Minnesota. He is well known around these parts for his political activism and important role in the DFL (that’s how Minnesotans spell “Democratic Party”). He was the Party Affairs Director for the Minnesota DFL until 2014, and until recently the Vice Chair of the Fourth Congressional District for the Minnesota DFL.

If that does not ring a bell, this might: David Weinlick essentially invented a new kind of TV (now known as reality TV) when he asked his friends to choose a marriage parter for him. That project developed into a major contest culminating with their marriage at the Mall of America.

Most people, when they hear that story, have a negative, sometimes even angry reaction or at least, are dismissive of it. That is, however, an ignorant reaction since most people don’t know the people involved, why any of this happened, or how it happened.

Dave was a graduate student in my department at the time. He was a cultural anthropology student, and I was a professor in paleoanthropology at a department with inexplicably deep divisions between the disciplines, so naturally we didn’t know each other particularly well. The experiment that David carried out was a bold one, and an interesting one, and was, as I understand it, predicated on the premise that people are not necessarily that good at finding long term mates in the usual ways open to them in American society. The hope was that a more thoughtful process (carried out by friends, many of whom were anthropologists, who should know a thing or two) could produce better results than, say, the bar scene, or the then nascent online dating systems, etc.

And it worked. Elizabeth and David Weinlick had a happy and long lasting marriage, children, all of that.

That is all the good news. The bad news is that David has of late been struggling with illness, and currently has Stage 4 colon, liver, and abdomen cancer. He is nearing the end of his life, but his life can be extended meaningfully with further treatment. I observed my mother-in-law die of this disease recently. She had health problems aside from the cancer, so when that last possible round of chemotherapy was considered, she was told that the treatment would be more deadly for her than the cancer, and she was sent home. She died weeks later. My understanding is that David is in that stage of his disease, but he is much younger and much stronger, not plagued by other complicating diseases, so his life can be extended from a few months without treatment to three to four years with treatment, based on current estimates from his doctors.

There is a Go Fund Me page set up for David, here.

Even with relatively good health insurance, Dave, his wife Bethy, and their four children are going to face some real hardships in the coming months. We don’t want finances to add pressure to their decisions about his treatment or about how they spend their time together.

Dave’s given a lot of himself, sharing his time and energy and relentless optimism, and it’s time for us to give back. Please contribute what you can to ease the Weinlick family’s burden during this difficult time.

Please drop by his page and fork over a few bucks!

How to get a free dinner with President Donald Trump!

The fun raising letter that’s gone around asks for 10 bucks to “enter to win.” But, of course, it is legally required that any such contest not require a payment, so you can enter for free!

But hurry, the contest ends in just a matter of hours! SPREAD THE WORD!

Here’s how:

…you may enter without contributing here. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN A PRIZE. No contribution or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win this Promotion. Making a contribution does not increase your chances of winning. …Void where prohibited. The Promotion begins on Monday, February 27, 2017 at 12:00 am Eastern Daylight Time and ends on Friday, March 17, 2017 at 11:59pm Eastern Daylight Time. All entries must be received by 11:59pm Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, March 17, 2017. One winner will receive the following Prize: two (2) round-trip coach class plane tickets within the continental United States on a date and to and from Destinations to be determined by Sponsor or similar transportation, with an approximate retail value of $750; one (1) one-night hotel stay at one of the District of Columbia hotels, with an approximate retail value of $275; two (2) tickets to the 22nd Annual March Dinner, with an approximate retail value of $2,000; and ground transportation at the discretion of Sponsor, with an approximate retail value of $50. Approximate total retail value is $3,075. The total approximate retail value of the prize is $3,075. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received. The Promotion is open to citizens and permanent residents (green card holders) of the United States who are legal residents of one of the fifty states, Puerto Rico, or the District of Columbia and are at least 18 years of age or the age of majority as determined by state law.

Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony

Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind is a new book on cultural evolution in humans from a biological perspective.

This is an interesting book and a good book, and I recommend it, but I need to add a strong caveat. The author could have made a more compelling argument had he more carefully studied and used some of the prior work that makes a similar argument. He strangely cites Terry Deacon in two places (once as a psychologist, incorrectly) for work Deacon has done, but seems to ignore Deacon’s key thesis, which is pretty much the same as Laland’s key thesis. (See: Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter.) There are other examples of prior work not known about, apparently, or incorporated. But, nonetheless, Laland does present a reasonable stab at how to think about human culture in relationship to evolution and an interesting “theory” of how it all came to be, even if it is presented as more original than it actually is.

From the publisher’s description:

Humans possess an extraordinary capacity for cultural production, from the arts and language to science and technology. How did the human mind–and the uniquely human ability to devise and transmit culture–evolve from its roots in animal behavior? Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony presents a captivating new theory of human cognitive evolution. This compelling and accessible book reveals how culture is not just the magnificent end product of an evolutionary process that produced a species unlike all others–it is also the key driving force behind that process.

Kevin Laland shows how the learned and socially transmitted activities of our ancestors shaped our intellects through accelerating cycles of evolutionary feedback. The truly unique characteristics of our species–such as our intelligence, language, teaching, and cooperation–are not adaptive responses to predators, disease, or other external conditions. Rather, humans are creatures of their own making. Drawing on his own groundbreaking research, and bringing it to life with vivid natural history, Laland explains how animals imitate, innovate, and have remarkable traditions of their own. He traces our rise from scavenger apes in prehistory to modern humans able to design iPhones, dance the tango, and send astronauts into space.

This book tells the story of the painstaking fieldwork, the key experiments, the false leads, and the stunning scientific breakthroughs that led to this new understanding of how culture transformed human evolution. It is the story of how Darwin’s intellectual descendants picked up where he left off and took up the challenge of providing a scientific account of the evolution of the human mind.

Earliest, or nearly earliest, fossils found in Quebec?

The earliest life must have been something like a small single celled organism, like a bacterium. Or at least, the earliest life that we can usefully conceive of, and potentially connect with living life. It has been suggested that life could have initially evolved at the site of submarine hydrothermal vents, which is a place these days teeming with life. So, it make sense to look for fossils of these early life forms in rocks formed at hydrothermal vents, but a long time ago.

The Nuvvuagittuq belt in Quebec is a geological formation that includes such rock.

There are two basic ways to identify a tiny bacteria like life form. Well, sort of three. Method 1 is to find a physical structure that looks like the life form. So, little bacteria shaped do-dads might be bacteria fossils. Method 1a would be to find that, method 1b would be to find something slightly less direct, such as stramotlites, which is a kind of rock formed from the accumulation of bacteria byproducts. Method 2 is to look at the isotopes of key elements, usually carbon. There are a lot of ways for carbon to get mixed up in a rock. But, the non-life connected sequence of events that put carbon in a rock would sample the ambient carbon in a characteristic way. Since carbon comes in more than one stable isotope, the stable isotope ratio of the carbon in the abiogenic rock would reflect this pattern. But living systems tend to use carbon in a different way. The carbon atoms that get used by the tiny molecular processes involved in assembling molecules are biased in which carbon isotope they end up using. This results in a carbon isotope profile different than the expected ambient one, and suggests life.

Today in Nature, a paper by Matthew S. Dodd, Dominic Papineau, Tor Grenne, John F. Slack, Martin Rittner, Franco Pirajno, Jonathan O’Neil, and Crispin T. S. Little entitled “Evidence for early life in Earth’s oldest hydrothermal vent precipitates” (Nature 543, 60-64) reports, from the abstract:

… we describe putative fossilized microorganisms that are at least 3,770 million and possibly 4,280 million years old in ferruginous sedimentary rocks, interpreted as seafloor-hydrothermal vent-related precipitates, from the Nuvvuagittuq belt in Quebec, Canada. These structures occur as micrometre-scale haematite tubes and filaments with morphologies and mineral assemblages similar to those of filamentous microorganisms from modern hydrothermal vent precipitates and analogous microfossils in younger rocks. The Nuvvuagittuq rocks contain isotopically light carbon in carbonate and carbonaceous material, which occurs as graphitic inclusions in diagenetic carbonate rosettes, apatite blades intergrown among carbonate rosettes and magnetite–haematite granules, and is associated with carbonate in direct contact with the putative microfossils. Collectively, these observations are consistent with an oxidized biomass and provide evidence for biological activity in submarine-hydrothermal environments more than 3,770 million years ago.

I used to work down the hall from a guy who was involved in the search for early life. I won’t mention names, but at the time, I remember the fighting among scientists about whether or not this or that piece of evidence was legit was pretty intense. I think things have calmed down a bit. Back then, the battle was between Australia and Greenland. These days, apparently, Canada is in the act.

At present, the oldest evidence of life that is widely accepted is probably close to about 3.0 mya, with several older sites in contention. The newest find, as noted, dates to between 3.77 and 4.28 billion, and I understand the dates are somewhat controversial. If this site ends up as representing early life, it may well be the earliest, assuming the date is anywhere in this range. There are other cases that are close to 3.8 billion but the current study’s argument may be stronger. Over the last few years, the very nature of the study of early life on earth has gained a significant amount of perspective and methodological philosophy which I think will allow future work to be considered more sensibly. By this, I mean, that rather than asserting that this or that evidence is certainly indicative of early life vs. not conclusive (or not evidence of life) we will start seeing a more unified characterization of early environments and conditions, along side a better set of models for how life could originate. In that context we may never have an “earliest life” fossil, but we may have a much better story to tell about how early life could start.

I’ll add this: Consider the number of scientists working on a problem like aging in muscles, or how to attack a certain kind of cancer. Tens of thousands. Now, consider the number of scientists dedicated to working on the origin of life. Not many. Given the magnitude and difficulty of the problem — in the field, in the lab, and in the theories — there is no wonder it is taking science many decades to nail this problem down.

And, no, the origin of life is NOT different from evolution, no matter what the creationists tell you.

See: The Story Of Life in 25 Fossils by Don Prothero: Review

Climate Change Elevator Pitches

Rob Honeycutt is famous for his many contributions, at Skeptical Science, in the comment threats on my blog, and elsewhere, in defense of climate science, where that defense is largely against the deniers of science and damagers of civilization. (He is also the guy who makes these famous messenger bags) He deserves a lot of credit for all the work he has done in this area.

Over the years, Honeycutt has developed a number of dialogs related to most, possibly all, areas of human caused global warming and climate change. Along with these dialogs, he has also developed some very helpful graphics.

And now, he has put them together in a book: 28 Climate Change Elevator Pitches: Short Explanations on the Scientific Basis of Man-made Climate Change.

Full disclosure: As noted in the book, I did help out as a reader of some of the chapters, but I hasten to add that I did very little to contribute to this book; when I first saw it, it was very far along and nearly a done project.

The premise of the book is:

If you stepped into an elevator and had 2 minutes to explain some aspect of climate science to someone, could you do it? Most people lack the time to become fully informed on this critical issue. The science is complex and varied. Here are 28 quick pitches to help you better understand this issue which we should all be concerned about.

Personally, I’m not sure if these, or most of these, 28 arguments are truly elevator speeches. For one thing, where graphics are used, you’d have to carry the graphics around with you! For another thing, as brief and concise as they are, a true elevator speech has to be one paragraph long and that’s it.

But, the arguments are carefully thought out, scientifically valid, and clear. Indeed, a true elevators speech is not supposed to be the convincing story, the discourse that causes someone to accept an argument. Rather, the elevator speech is designed to get the person with whom you are speaking to step off the elevator with you, walk slowly down the hallway towards their destination, and even be willing to stop for an extra minute to hear you out. That speech, that somewhat longer and full argument about a very specific topic, is what Rob Honeycutt’s book does at such a high level of excellence. This book, available in various formats including the Kindle, is an essential add on to your library (and the Kindle version is only 4 bucks!).

You may want the afore linked to Kindle version (or get an eVersion on iTunes, or wherever) because it will be searchable, which may be handy. But, because of the graphics, I’m thinking you will much prefer a print version. The print version, (CLICK HERE FOR THAT) because it has high quality graphics, is not quite as inexpensive, but I know from the author that this is about as cheap as he could make it. Honeycutt is so committed to making this widely available that he went ahead and made a cheaper lower res version, and a higher res version.

Warming Oceans, Trump, Cat Litter

A potpourri of miscellany:

Human Caused Climate Change and the Oceans

It is great to see our local political non-print non-TV news agency, MNPost, covering an important climate change story with local connections. I’ll be writing John Abraham’s research up myself shortly.

An intriguing and important-sounding new research paper caught my eye on Sunday, with its finding that the world’s oceans have been warming at a much faster pace than is generally recognized.

Because seawater holds more than 90 percent of the excess heat that arrives from the sun but, thanks to greenhouse gases, isn’t promptly returned to space, that conclusion seemed to fall somewhere between stunning and alarming. Because it had been published in Science Advances, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, its credibility was clear.

Also, I can’t tell you what it is, but some very important new research is about to come out, also on climate change, that I’m chomping at the bit to write up. Probably within the next week or so.

Donald Trump

Did the Fed do something The Donald did not want it to do? If so, how will The Donald react? Oddly, there are no tweets about this to date. Perhaps Trump, Putin and Bannon are working out an executive order.

Some good news, maybe: Increasingly, Congressional Republicans are pushing back on the crazy, not letting Trump get away with being himself.

This too, wherein John McCain tears Rand “The Freedom” Paul a new one on the ground that Paul is in Putin’s pocket:

Speaking of Trump, I had a bad experience with cat litter today. For the fourth time in a row, I went to our local Target to get “The World’s Best Cat Litter,” only to find they are out. While standing there, forelorn, in the Mother Ship, I checked on Amazon, and low and behold it is possible to get cat litter delivered to your door on a periodic basis, at a pretty good discount. (might need to have Amazon Prime)

Children interrupting or otherwise annoying very serious adults

Crew: Mark Steyn Was Abusive and Obnoxious

Mark Steyn is well known to readers of this blog as the intentionally obnoxious Canadian version of Rush Limbaugh who is being sued by our friend and colleague Michael Mann, author of the recent “The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy,” for defamation. Steyn is also the author of a terrible book attacking all the climate scientists. Steyn has gone after a lot of pro-science people, including me, and I heard a rumor that he likes to crush kittens. OK, maybe he doesn’t crush kittens, but he is explicitly and intentionally (I assume), as part of his act, an unmitigated ass.

Recently, he started a show on CRTV, which is a right wing on line radio show of some kind. Then, they canned him. Then, he sued to keep the show on while a breach of contract suit was proposed, giving as the reason for the stay that he felt obligated to protect the show’s employees, who would be hurt but ending it.

Then, the show’s employees came out and said what they think about Steyn.

Of Steyn’s implied relationship to his employees, “It’s bullshit, frankly. They all hate him,” says one perso in the know.

These employees claim that Steyn ruined the show by being a jerk to everyone, verbally abusing them, calling them names, etc. He had them run personal errands, and misappropriated CRTV funds on personal purchases.

The Daily Beast has the story, well documented and clearly laid out, here.

Steyn has been the subject of discussion on this blog numerous times:

  • Mark Steyn’s Latest Trick
  • <li><strong><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2015/12/22/mark-steyn-the-dc-appeals-court-and-congress/">Mark Steyn, The DC Appeals Court, and Congress</a></strong></li>
    
    <li><strong><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2015/06/22/mark-steyns-newest-attack-on-michael-mann-and-the-hockey-stick/">Mark Steyn’s Newest Attack On Michael Mann And The Hockey Stick</a></strong></li>
    
    <li><strong><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2014/10/17/mark-steyn-and-judith-curry/">Mark Steyn and Judith Curry</a></strong></li>
    

    The Great March Storm of 2017 (updated)

    The Key for the above graphic:

    pauldouglas_1489448217_wssi4

    Donald Trump’s FEMA is not ready for this storm. The entire federal government is understaffed, and there are funding problems, and this applies to FEMA as well.

    So, if you are anywhere in the area to be affected by this storm (the weather channel calls it Stella, I call it Trump’s Storm One because it is the first big storm on his watch) you need to know that the usual help is not necessarily going to be available.

    Maybe we should call it the Ides of March Storm.

    A very large area will probably get a very large amount of snow. Keep up with your local NWS forecasts, which are still available and still useful. (Don’t expect that to be the case this time next year. Those reports and forecasts require funding that is being cut by the Trump Regime as we speak.)

    Where will the storm hit hardest? Don’t assume anything, but Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England are in the main target zone. There will likely be some snow in Maryland, DC, and that area.

    How much snow will fall? Anywhere from zero to about two feet, depending on where you are.

    What is the most accurate forecast for this storm? This:

    Screen Shot 2017-03-13 at 8.40.01 PM

    I give you this highly accurate but not at all precise forecast with a bit of snark because I’m actually a bit tired of the bullshit that accompanies storms like this.

    Remember, a couple of years ago, a big storm was predicted to hit much of New York and New England, with the possibility of significant snow in New York City? Hardly any snow fell in New York City. This caused the weather deniers (not just the climate change deniers, but the larger group of people who practice studied ignorance when it comes to weather) to insist that the blizzard had never happened.

    This is what happened:

    BlizzardOf2015

    Yeah. This big giant storm came along, with the possibility that it could extend across The City, but it didn’t. So, that one little thing was different about the storm, and this caused all these people to go full apoplectic. Having had enough of that, see my forecast above. There is a whopping big storm coming, we really don’t know how big it will be or where it will drop the most snow or do the most damage. But …

  • there will be snow, some deep
  • there will be flooding somewhere on the coast
  • <li>there will be big ass winds</li>
    
    <li>there will be loss of visibility in blizzard zones, wherever they happen</li>
    
    <li>power lines will go down</li>
    
    <li>roads will close</li>
    
    <li>various services and schools and such will close</li>
    

    If you are a long term denizen of the region from just outside of New York City all the way down east, you know what to do. If you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, you may have to search your memory for a bad storm experience, but I’m sure you can think back to one. If you live along the coast down towards Washington, prepare yourself for one of those annoying snow storms that no one believes can happen but that in fact happen every year, under the currently changed climate. Might be time to start getting used to that!

    And yes, there is a climate change connection. More than one, actually. This is a Global Warming Enhanced Storm (GWES).

    Good luck everybody. Report in if you have an interesting story to tell! Also, drop the White House a line and ask them how they are doing staffing up FEMA.

    It finally happened to me

    I had a bunch of quarters in my pocket. About six dollars worth, along with a couple of one dollar coins.

    I pulled all the change out of my pocket and placed it on a desktop. I walked away.

    A few minutes later, I went to grab the coins so I could bring them to my office and toss them in the coin jar.

    One of the coins, quarter or dollar I can not say, was standing on its edge.

    My hand was faster than my brain, so I grabbed all the quarters up, thus knocking down the standing coin. I was therefore unable to test the hypothesis that if you drop some coins somewhere and one stands on edge, you can hear people’s thoughts until the coin falls over.

    I do remember hearing a static like sound that meant nothing. The only other creature in the house was the cat. So, that makes sense.

    Should you buy an electric car if you live in a coal state?

    If most of the electricity used to charge your electric car is made by burning coal, is it still worth it, in terms of CO2 release, to buy an electric car?

    Yes. And you will also save money on fuel.

    Don’t believe me? Want me to show you? What, are you from Missouri or something? Fine. I’ll show you.

    A few years ago, when there were no affordable electric cars that were real cars, we decided to look into buying the next best thing, a hybrid. We wanted to get the Toyota Prius because it looked like a good car, had long proven technology, and all the people we knew who had one were happy with theirs.

    I mentioned this to an acquaintance, also noting that I expected that we would save money on fuel. His response was that we would never save as much money on reduced fuel use to justify the extra cost of this expensive car. Just look in any car magazine, he said. They all make this comparison in one issue or another, he said. You are crazy to do this, he said.

    I disagreed with him about the crazy part. Failing to do something that you can afford to do that would decrease fossil CO2 emissions was the crazy decision. You know, given the end of civilization because of climate change, and all. But, I was concerned that we would simply not be able to afford to do it, so I resolved to look more closely into the costs and benefits.

    Sure enough, it was easy to find an article in a car magazine that analyzed the difference between buying a new internal combustion engine car vs. a Prius, and that analysis clearly showed that there wouldn’t be much of a savings, and that we could lose as much as $500 a year. Yes, each year, the Prius would save gas money, but over a period of several years, the number would never add up to the thousands of dollars extra one had to spend to get the more expensive car. Buy the internal combustion care, they said.

    But the article said something else about “green energy” cars that set off an alarm. It said that cars like electric cars would never catch on because they were quiet. Everybody likes the sound of the engine, especially when accelerating past some jerk on the highway, even in a relatively quiet and sedate car like a Camry.

    Aha, I thought. This article is not about making rational decisions, or decisions that might be good for the environment. It is about something else entirely.

    Hippie punching.

    Then I thought about my acquaintance who had suggested that the Prius was a bad idea. And the hippie punching theory fell neatly into place.

    So, I continued my quest for information and wisdom. I learned years ago that when you want to buy something expensive, contact a seller that you are unlikely to buy from to ask a few questions. Don’t take up too much of their time, but start your inquiry with a business that sells the product you want, but that you will walk away from in a few minutes. That lets you discover what the patter in that industry is like, what the game is, how they talk to you and what you don’t necessarily know, without it costing you dumb-points along the way. This way, when you talk to the more likely seller (in this case, the Toyota dealership on my side of town, instead of the other side of town) you are one up on the other noobs making a similar inquiry.

    So I made the call, and said, “I’m really just interested in trying to decide if the Prius is worth it, given the extra cost, in terms of money saved on fuel.”

    “OK, well, it often isn’t, to be honest. And I won’t lie to you. I sell the Prius and I sell non-hybrids, and I’ll be happy to sell you either one.”

    Good point, I thought. He doesn’t care. Or, maybe, he just tricked me into thinking he doesn’t care! No matter, though, because I’ve already out smarted this car dealer with my “call across town first” strategy.

    As these thoughts were percolating in my head, he said, “So, it really depends on the numbers. So let’s make a comparison. What car would you be buying if you didn’t get the Prius?”

    “Um… actually, it would definitely be a Subaru Forester. That’s the car we are replacing, and we love the Forester. No offense to Toyota, of course…”

    “Well,” he interrupted. “Everybody loves the Forester. But, it does cost several thousand dollars more than the Prius. So, I’d say, you’d save money with the Prius.”

    Huh.

    We bought the Prius. From him.

    And now the Prius is getting older. It is still like totally new, and it will be Car # 1 for a couple of more years, I’m sure. But as the driver of Car #2 (an aging Forester) I am looking forward to my wife getting a new car at some point so we can further reduce CO2 emissions, and I don’t have to have a car, for my rare jaunt, that is likely to need a towing.

    And, when I look around me, and ask around, and predict the future a little, I realize that by the time we are in the market for a new car, there will be electric cars in the same price range of that Prius, if not cheaper. So, suddenly, buying an electric car is a possibility.

    And, of course, the hippie-punching argument that we will have to deal with is this: Coal is worse than gasoline, and all your electricity for your hippie-car is made by burning coal, so you are actually destroying the environment, not saving it, you dirty dumb hippie!

    There are several reasons that this argument is wrong. They are listed below, and do read them all, but the last one is the one I want you to pay attention to because it is the coolest, and I’ve got a link to where you can go to find the details that prove it.

    1) Even if we live in a state that uses a lot of coal to make electricity, eventually that will change. Of course, my car might be old and in the junk yard by then, so maybe it is still better to wait to by the electric car. But in a state like Minnesota, we are quickly transitioning away from coal, and in fact, the big coal plant up Route 10 a ways, that makes the electricity for my car (if I had an electric car), is being shut down as we speak.

    2) Even if the electric car is a break even, or a small net negative on carbon release, it is still good, all else being nearly equal, to support the energy transition by buying an electric car and supporting that segment of the industry.

    3) It is more efficient, measured in terms of fossil CO2 release, to burn a little coal to transmit electricity to an electric car than it is to ship the gasoline to the car and burn the gasoline in the car. This sound opposite from reality, and many make the argument that making the burning happen in your car is more efficient than in a distant plant, but that is not ture. While this will depend on various factors, and burning gas may be better sometimes, it often is not because the basic technology of using electricity driven magnetic energy is so vastly more efficient than the technology of using countless small controlled explosions to mechanically drive the wheels. Electric motors are so much more efficient than exploding liquid motors that trains, which are super efficient, actually use their diesel fuel to generate electricity to run their electric motors, rather than to run the wheels of the train.

    4) Reason 3 assumes an efficiency difference between internal combustion and magnetics that overwhelms all the other factors, but it is hard to believe this would work in a mostly coal-to-electricity setting. But there is empirical evidence, which probably reveals the logic of reason number 3, but that I list as reason number 4 because it is based on observation rather than assumption. If you measure the difference between an internal combustion engine and an electric engine in a coal-heavy state, you a) save money and b) release less CO2.

    And to get that argument, the details, the proof, GO HERE to see How Green is My EV?, a tour de force of logic and math, and empirical measurement, by David Kirtley, in which David measures the cost and CO2 savings of his Nissan Leaf, in the coal-happy state of Missouri.

    I’ll put this another way. The best way to be convinced that an electric car is a good idea in a state where most electricity is generated by burning coal is if someone shows you the evidence. Where better to examine this evidence than in the Shoe Me State of Missouri???

    So go and look.

    The Original Donald Trump

    From the early days of Trump:

    Trump: The response to my candidacy out here [in Los Angeles] has been incredible! Off the charts! The polls are unbelievable! Everybody loves me here — loves me! My hotel phone is ringing off the hoo from major actresses! Major!

    Question shouted from the audience: Any of them voters?

    Trump: Who cares? They’re huge! Not Pamela Lee, but that ballpark. A lot of people have been asking what this election is really about. Well, it’s not about the economy, stupid! And it’s not character, stupid! And it’s not authenticity, Stupid! It’s not even about the issues, stupid! You want to know what this election is about?

    Question: You?

    Trump: Exactly! People are begging me to run. Begging me! And when I’m elected, I’ll restore dignity to the tax act.

    Sometimes I feel like Americans have just discovered Donald Trump. I grew up in New York (not The City, but not too far away) and Trump has been there all along. He was a widely known regional-level buffoon, famous for screwing up deals, stepping on people, treating people unfairly, and self aggrandizement. There was alway this ironic belief that he is always running for President, but no one ever took that seriously.

    The disconnect between the then and the now with respect to the Donald is a gaping maw filled with the very term, “The Donald.” Did you know that he was known as “The Donald” by everybody for, like, 20 years? He was not “Donald,” “Donald Trump,” or “Trum.” He was “The Donald.”

    Nobody calls him that any more. Indeed, the Washington Post had to run an item during the campaign explaining where “The Donald” came from, the term has become so obscure. It was, of course, his wife Ivana, who referred to him this way, as a matter of translation from the style of Czech to the style of English. (Ivana was an immigrant. Donald has a thing about immigrants.)

    In so many way, for decades, Trump was easy material for the comedians and cartoonists. The dialog above is, in fact, from a couple of adjoining Doonesbury cartoons by Gary Trudeau. I know, right? Couldn’t tell the cartoon from the real thing!

    Julia gave me, for Christmas, Yuge!: 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump

    “Doonesbury is one of the most overrated strips out there. Mediocre at best.”

    –Donald Trump, 1989
    (not a fake quote)

    From the publisher:

    He tried to warn us. Ever since the release of the first Trump-for-President trial balloon in 1987, Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau has tirelessly tracked and highlighted the unsavory career of the most unqualified candidate to ever aspire to the White House. It’s all there–the hilarious narcissism, the schoolyard bullying, the loathsome misogyny, the breathtaking ignorance; and a good portion of the Doonesbury cast has been tangled up in it. Join Duke, Honey, Earl, J.J., Mike, Mark, Roland, Boopsie, B.D., Sal, Alice, Elmont, Sid, Zonker, Sam, Bernie, Rev. Sloan, and even the Red Rascal as they cross storylines with the big, orange airhorn who’s giving the GOP such fits.

    Garry Trudeau is the “sleazeball” “third-rate talent” who draws the “overrated” comic strip Doonesbury, which “very few people read.” He lives in New York City with his wife Jane Pauley, who “has far more talent than he has.”

    Get this book, it will make you laugh and cry.

    Birds of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: New Field Guide

    Just got my copy of Birds of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: A Photographic Guide by Frédéric Jiguet and Aurélien Audevard.

    This is the first and only field-ready photographic bird guide that covers every species in Europe. There are 2,200 photos covering 860 species. The West Asian and North African coverage is of all of the species there that have occurred in Europe, so think of this primarily as a European guide.

    The entry for the Mute Swan.
    The entry for the Mute Swan.
    I hasten to add and emphasize. These are not your grandaddy’s photographs. Many photographic guides have pretty nice looking photographs that show a bird, but then, when you go look up the bird you saw, you quickly discover that many of the best guides (such as this one) are not photographic, but rather, follow the Peterson/Pedrides tradition of drawings designed to help in identification. Jiguet and Aedevard use photographs that are then enhanced and set in a non-photographic background or matrix, so they end up looking, and acting, a lot more like the drawings. This means that key features are indicated and notated.

    Critically important in this guide is the ratio between the above mentioned numbers. For every species, there are potentially several photographs. Sometimes, it is male and female. Some other morphological categories are illustrated. For some birds, especially raptors, there may be numerous views in flight.

    The amount of information give per bird is minimal (this is a field guid) and the range maps are classic style and well done. Some books have dozens of pages of front matter, but this book has almost none. Other than the index and credits, there is no back matter. Yet, the book is well over 400 pages long. That’s a lot of birds in one book. If you want a European bird guide for the field, this is the one.

    About the authors:

    Frédéric Jiguet is one of France’s leading ornithologists and a conservation biologist at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He is director of the Centre de Recherches sur la Biologie des Populations d’Oiseaux (CRBPO), and serves on the editorial board of France’s premier bird-study journal, Ornithos. Aurélien Audevard has been studying birds for much of his life and has conducted several high-profile conservation studies for the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (LPO PACA). His photographs have appeared in many of Europe’s leading birding magazines, including Ornithos, L’Oiseaux, Birding World, and Dutch Birding.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS:

    Introduction 6
    Species descriptions 12
    Swans 12
    Geese 14
    Shelducks 21
    Dabbling ducks 22
    Whistling ducks 28
    Diving ducks 28
    Sea ducks 34
    Stifftails 41
    Vagrant and exotic ducks 42
    Gamebirds 45
    Divers (Loons) 55
    Grebes 58
    Shearwaters and petrels 61
    Storm-petrels 66
    Rare petrels and albatrosses 67
    Frigatebirds 75
    Tropicbirds 76
    Gannets and boobies 77
    Pelicans 80
    Cormorants 81
    Herons, bitterns and egrets 83
    Storks 93
    Spoonbills and ibises 94
    Spoonbills and storks 96
    Flamingos 97
    Honey-buzzards 99
    Buzzards 101
    Snake eagles 105
    Kites 106
    Vultures 108
    Harriers 113
    Eagles 117
    Osprey and Black-shouldered Kite 126
    Accipiters 127
    Falcons 129
    Rails, crakes and gallinules 137
    Cranes 143
    Bustards 145
    Oystercatcher and Turnstone 148
    Stilts and avocets 149
    Stone-curlews and coursers 150
    Pratincoles 151
    Plovers and lapwings 153
    Sandpipers 162
    Woodcocks and snipes 173
    Dowitchers and Upland Sandpiper 176
    Godwits 177
    Curlews 178
    Larger sandpipers 180
    Phalaropes 185
    Skuas (Jaegers) 187
    Gulls 190
    Terns 211
    Auks 222
    Sandgrouse 227
    Pigeons and doves 229
    Parakeets 234
    Cuckoos 235
    Owls 238
    Nightjars 246
    Swifts 248
    Contents
    Kingfishers 251
    Rollers 253
    Bee-eaters 254
    Hoopoe 255
    Woodpeckers 256
    Larks 262
    Swallows and martins 269
    Pipits 274
    Wagtails 279
    Accentors 284
    Wren and Dipper 286
    Robins and chats 287
    Redstarts 291
    Stonechats 295
    Wheatears 298
    Rock thrushes 303
    Thrushes 304
    Bush warblers and cisticolas 311
    Grasshopper warblers 312
    Reed warblers 315
    Tree warblers 320
    Sylvia warblers 324
    Leaf warblers 333
    Crests 341
    Old World flycatchers 343
    Tyrant flycatchers 348
    Penduline tit and leiothrix 350
    Reedling and parrotbill 351
    Long-tailed tit 352
    Tits 353
    Nuthatches 358
    Treecreepers 360
    Wallcreeper and Golden Oriole 361
    Shrikes 362
    Crows and jays 370
    Starlings 377
    Waxwings 379
    Bulbuls and mynas 381
    Sparrows 382
    Introduced exotic finches 386
    Finches 389
    Buntings 404
    Vagrant Nearctic passerines 417
    New World warblers 433
    Index 434
    Photographic credits 444

    Ubuntu and Linux Books

    Ubuntu is a form of Linux. Most references on Linux will be applicable to Ubuntu, but each distribution of Linus has its own features, so if you are going to use a specific operating system (Ubuntu vs. Fedora, for example) you will be happier with a book about that distribution.

    This is a selection of what I regard as the best books for the purpose, but if you are reading this post in late 2017 or later, and you click through to a particular book, do look around for more recent editions. Also, check out the book reviews on my other blog, which will include all sorts of science books, some politics, and a good number of computer related books.

    For books on programming (in various languages, for kids and adults) check out this post.

    Linux: General books

    Recently updated:

    How Linux Works, 2nd Edition: What Every Superuser Should Know

    Unlike some operating systems, Linux doesn’t try to hide the important bits from you—it gives you full control of your computer. But to truly master Linux, you need to understand its internals, like how the system boots, how networking works, and what the kernel actually does.

    In this completely revised second edition of the perennial best seller How Linux Works, author Brian Ward makes the concepts behind Linux internals accessible to anyone curious about the inner workings of the operating system. Inside, you’ll find the kind of knowledge that normally comes from years of experience doing things the hard way. You’ll learn:

  • How Linux boots, from boot loaders to init implementations (systemd, Upstart, and System V)
  • How the kernel manages devices, device drivers, and processes
  • How networking, interfaces, firewalls, and servers work
  • How development tools work and relate to shared libraries
  • How to write effective shell scripts
  • You’ll also explore the kernel and examine key system tasks inside user space, including system calls, input and output, and filesystems. With its combination of background, theory, real-world examples, and patient explanations, How Linux Works will teach you what you need to know to solve pesky problems and take control of your operating system.

    Yes, this is good: Linux For Dummies, 9th Edition

    Eight previous top-selling editions of Linux For Dummies can’t be wrong. If you’ve been wanting to migrate to Linux, this book is the best way to get there. Written in easy-to-follow, everyday terms, Linux For Dummies 9th Edition gets you started by concentrating on two distributions of Linux that beginners love: the Ubuntu LiveCD distribution and the gOS Linux distribution, which comes pre-installed on Everex computers. The book also covers the full Fedora distribution.

    Ubuntu Linux

    Ubuntu Unleashed 2019 Edition: Covering 18.04, 18.10, 19.04 (13th Edition)

    … unique and advanced information for everyone who wants to make the most of the Ubuntu Linux operating system. This new edition has been thoroughly updated by a long-time Ubuntu community leader to reflect the exciting new Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release with forthcoming online updates for 16.10, 17.04, and 17.10 when they are released.

    Former Ubuntu Forum administrator Matthew Helmke covers all you need to know about Ubuntu 16.04 installation, configuration, productivity, multimedia, development, system administration, server operations, networking, virtualization, security, DevOps, and more—including intermediate-to-advanced techniques you won’t find in any other book.

    Helmke presents up-to-the-minute introductions to Ubuntu’s key productivity and Web development tools, programming languages, hardware support, and more. You’ll find new or improved coverage of navigation via Unity Dash, wireless networking, VPNs, software repositories, new NoSQL database options, virtualization and cloud services, new programming languages and development tools, monitoring, troubleshooting, and more.

    Other Linux Distributions

    Not at all current, but of historical interest and probably available used: The Debian System: Concepts and Techniques and A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (7th Edition).


    Using the Linux Command Line and bash shell

    The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction

    You’ve experienced the shiny, point-and-click surface of your Linux computer—now dive below and explore its depths with the power of the command line. The Linux Command Line takes you from your very first terminal keystrokes to writing full programs in Bash, the most popular Linux shell. Along the way you’ll learn the timeless skills handed down by generations of gray-bearded, mouse-shunning gurus: file navigation, environment configuration, command chaining, pattern matching with regular expressions, and more. In addition to that practical knowledge, author William Shotts reveals the philosophy behind these tools and the rich heritage that your desktop Linux machine has inherited from Unix supercomputers of yore. As you make your way through the book’s short, easily-digestible chapters, you’ll learn how to: Create and delete files, directories, and symlinks Administer your system, including networking, package installation, and process management Use standard input and output, redirection, and pipelines Edit files with Vi, the world’s most popular text editor Write shell scripts to automate common or boring tasks Slice and dice text files with cut, paste, grep, patch, and sed Once you overcome your initial “shell shock,” you’ll find that the command line is a natural and expressive way to communicate with your computer. Just don’t be surprised if your mouse starts to gather dust.

    Linux Pocket Guide: Essential Commands

    If you use Linux in your day-to-day work, this popular pocket guide is the perfect on-the-job reference. The third edition features new commands for processing image files and audio files, running and killing programs, reading and modifying the system clipboard, and manipulating PDF files, as well as other commands requested by readers. You’ll also find powerful command-line idioms you might not be familiar with, such as process substitution and piping into bash.

    Linux Pocket Guide provides an organized learning path to help you gain mastery of the most useful and important commands. Whether you’re a novice who needs to get up to speed on Linux or an experienced user who wants a concise and functional reference, this guide provides quick answers.

    Wicked Cool Shell Scripts, 2nd Edition: 101 Scripts for Linux, OS X, and UNIX Systems>

    Shell scripts are an efficient way to interact with your machine and manage your files and system operations. With just a few lines of code, your computer will do exactly what you want it to do. But you can also use shell scripts for many other essential (and not-so-essential) tasks.

    This second edition of Wicked Cool Shell Scripts offers a collection of useful, customizable, and fun shell scripts for solving common problems and personalizing your computing environment. Each chapter contains ready-to-use scripts and explanations of how they work, why you’d want to use them, and suggestions for changing and expanding them. You’ll find a mix of classic favorites, like a disk backup utility that keeps your files safe when your system crashes, a password manager, a weather tracker, and several games, as well as 23 brand-new scripts…