The first time I ever caught a bowfin (Amia calva)I was shocked and amazed at this fish. It was green …. really green like beyond fresh water fish green …. with a fancy spot on the upper part of the back of its dorsal fin. And it had one impressive dorsal fin. It was whopping big and took a while to land.
Continue reading Notes from Up North
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Which is funnier, Dogs? or Cats?
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
“Towing Jehovah:” James Morrow on Atheists Talk Sunday
First, let’s suppose that Jehovah God is real. Good News for the religious, right? Then, let’s twist it a bit and see what happens should Jehovah die. This would cause a major problem for at least the Abrahamic religions. After all, how could we hope for eternal life if the Provider Himself is subject to mortality? The guarantee of eternal life in His Presence would at that time become null and void. Steps must be taken and a coverup must be carried out. Hiding bodies is difficult enough, but when the body of Jehovah falls from Heaven and turns out to be two miles long, complications multiply. The beauty of novels is that they allow absurdities to shed light on reality, and James Morrow uses the device of the dead god to illuminate our notions on religion and philosophy. Scott Lohman, President of the Humanists of Minnesota, will interview Morrow on our show.
“Atheists Talk” is produced by The Minnesota Atheists Mike Haubrich is the host and director for today’s show.
Cronkite Less Ill …
… than previously reported. The word from his assistant, interviewed earlier today with the report coming out in the last ten minutes or so, indicate that Cronkite is going to be fine. Really old and stuff, but fine.
“he is aging. He’s suffering the challenges of age, but he’s not gravely ill. Only God knows when life will end and for Walter, it’s not imminent.” said Marlene Adler, Cronkite’s assistant.
Pansy Warrior Princess buys a lottery ticket
Look out baby seal, Look out!
Through the filter of time … a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago.
This is brilliant. A bunch of Orca, incorrectly known as Killer Whales because, well, they would never kill anything, right? Anyway, a bunch of Orca either trying to eat a baby seal or playing with a baby seal. Or is the baby seal playing with them?
Thanks to Richard Conner.
Important and cool nature and conservation news.
You really must give up seafood from the ocean. Or at least, there is an argument that says this, and you can read it here.
Wolverines. I once saw a wolverine in a state that was known to not have wolverines anymore. That was a long time ago and I think they are recognized as having returned to those forests. Now, we have wolverines in Colorado for the first time since 1919. I am shocked and amazed that wolverines had been extirpated from Colorado.
All ivory is bad. Antique, modern, you name it. If you buy ivory, you are poaching an African Elephant. I assume you knew this already, but here is a recent story on a related issue.
How do I loathe thee … let me count the ways.
Through the filter of time … a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago.
In an essentially Christian society, we expect governmental or other social organizations to disrespect non-Christian belief systems. An example of this is the widespread positioning of official holidays on Christian holidays, but never unless by coincidence on, say, Jewish or Muslim holidays. The birth of Christ day is usually a day off. Spring break is often positioned along side Easter Sunday. and so on. A non-Christian religious person could get annoyed.
It is also the case that an atheist might be annoyed by any kind of deference to any kind of religious observance. An atheist might well say something like “We all deal with personal conflicts in life … one has to pick between observing whatever your religion happens to require and other aspects of secular society. If you need a day off, take a personal day.”
I find it interesting when these two perspectives come together into one obscure and difficult to interpret conflict. My old friend Laurie sends along this story from Alaska:
Jewish holiday request deniedThe state organization that oversees school sports has refused the Anchorage School District’s request to move a … cross-country meet to the Sunday after Yom Kippur to avoid clashing with that Jewish high holy day.
…
At the time, Superintendent Carol Comeau voiced displeasure with Anchorage coaches’ joint decision to hold the tournament that day, saying the city is now a multi-ethnic community and cultural values should be respected. A spokesman for the coaches replied that kids have to learn how to make tough choices in life, including between their religion and their sport.
The article goes into great detail about moving this meet to Sunday, or to Friday, what to do in general about this sort of policy, and so on.
What is not mentioned in the article is that the meet cannot be held on Sunday unless everyone who goes to the meet is put to death for violating the Sabboth. Unless, of course, the Sabbath actually starts on Friday evening, in which case if the meet is moved to Friday, anyone who stays late on that Friday will have to be put to death for violating the Sabbath.
But what the heck, there will probably be a certain number of menstruating women at the event, going around and touching stuff, making everyone and everything unclean. No one will have to be put to death for that, but a lot … and I mean a lot … of bulls will have to be sacrificed. It could get messy.
Unless,of course, the rodeo is in town, then maybe they can work something out…
Walter Cronkite
Sadly, we hear the news that Walter Cronkite is gravely ill. Well, not so sadly really, since he appears to have had a great life and in living that life, managed to get quite old. So good for him.
I have one Cronkite story (below the fold) and only one, and I’ll tell it to you below. I also just want to mention that my generation grew up with Cronkite as the guy who told us the news, truthfully, and in a straight forward manner. Cronkite told my family (and I only barely remember this) that Jack Kennedy was dead, and (this I remember) Jack’s brother, and MLK. He told us about what was going on in Viet Nam every night, and where my memory and love for the guy is strongest, he kept us apprises, as top news story, about every detail of the space program. Astronaut Lovell once made the famous statement “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Well, it was Cronkite telling the world “Apollo has a problem” that I remember.
Cat Origins
Through the filter of time … a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago.
The NYT is running a piece discussing the domestication of the cat.
I love watching wild cats. It is fairly easy to see them in the Kalahari, where the population of cats is almost certainly untouched by genetics of any domesticated form. Despite the kitty-osity shown in the photograph provided with the NYT article, the actual wild cats show themselves to be very different than the domesticated ones. They don’t look the same, they don’t act the same, they don’t have the same overall pattern of affect we see in domestic cats.
You look at them, they look at you, and you think “holy crap, if that cat was the size of a large dog, I’d be dead right now…”
Continue reading Cat Origins
Advanced Firefox Configuration
Sean really needs to start using a script, but I’m showing this to you because it does include a couple of nice tips.
Firefox add on for text editing
This could change your life. A little.
NASA researching California fault system
I just got this massive continental plate sized press release from JPL. Below the fold.
Continue reading NASA researching California fault system
Rape Study Shocks … people who have not been paying attention.
One in four South African men … said they had raped someone … three out of four who admitted rape attacked for the first time while in their teens.
… practices such as gang rape were common because they were considered a form of male bonding.
…The research was conducted in both rural and urban areas and included all racial groups.
… the study found that 73% of respondents said they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.
Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once.
One in 20 men surveyed said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
Hat Tip, Analiese.
Bad Advice for Pregnant Women
People like to help pregnant women.
On buses it is routine to give up one’s seat for a pregnant woman. In Boston, drivers try less hard to run over pregnant women in crosswalks. And so on. But sometimes good intentions can lead to bad advice.
First, I’d like to point out that there is reasonably good evidence that obesity has negative health effects, and obesity in relationship to pregnancy is probably worse. So women who are planning on getting pregnant should probably trim down a bit if they need to. Also, exercise is good for many many reasons, so women who are planning on getting pregnant should look at their own exercise and activity routines and see if some adjustment can be made in those areas. And certainly, activity levels and patterns of diet and fat storage are all related, so in making these considerations do remember that this is all an interconnected complex whole.
And then, if you do actually get pregnant, don’t listen to anyone.
Or at least, think about the advice you are getting when people are yammering at you.
In particular, cast off and ignore the following pieces of advice that you will receive again and again and again:
1) Forget about healthy eating, just shove whatever food is in front of you into your mouth, preferably focusing on saturated fats; and
2) Stop all forms of exercise for the next several months as your brood develops inside you.
Now, you might be thinking “I’ve never heard anyone say those things to a pregnant woman” but if you are thinking that, then you are just not listening. You hear it all the time. Maybe not in exactly those words, but this is what people are telling the pregnant women.
You, the pregnant woman, are NOT eating for two. You are one person, you weigh somehwere between 90 and 160 pounds (leaving lots of room for variation) and for the first third of your pregnancy, the unit of additional biomass that you are also eating for will reach a whopping two pounds or so. So for your first trimester you need to increase your intake by about one percent to make up the difference. In the last trimester, you’ll have a lot more extra tissue that you are feeding via your blood supply, but still, imagine a 7 pound baby and add 7 pounds overhead (because for some reason we never weigh the placenta as part of the baby, even though it is, and there’s the expanded uterus) and you get 14 pounds. Maybe, maybe, the additional tissue that you are feeding will be about 8-15 percent.
If you were eating for two you’d be eating 200% of your normal diet, and to do that in terms of calories, you are going to have to eat a LOT of fatty foods because there is just not enough time in the day to double your caloric intake by eating leaves and other low-quality “diet” food.
In terms of activity levels, I would say that a pregnant woman should start, by the end of the first trimester, to avoid activities in which you have an elevated risk of injury. Motorcycle racing, water skiing, that sort of thing. This is because of the significant added medical complications of combining trauma with pregnancy. Later, activity levels will also have to be modulated in certain ways because of balance issues, and the simple fact that certain activities could damage the offspring directly. So no fencing or boxing.
But activity levels need to be maintained just to keep healthy for a reasonable amount of time, adjusting as needed for all those common issues that happen late in pregnancy.
In other words, when it comes to activity levels and types, as well as diet, follow the advice of:
- Mainstream books and possibly web sites
- Your doctor and/or
- Your certified midwife
Ignore the advice of
- Everybody else that you know, especially
- Anyone who has had a baby but not in the last five years or more; and especially especially
- Anyone who has not had a baby
…. when they tell you to sit quietly on the couch and eat ice cream for six months. As much as that sounds like it might be fun.
And take your prenatal/pregnancy vitamins, of course.