One Potato, Two Potato, Sweet Potato, More
That's what I'm talking about, more sweet potatoes. Well I don't mean more in number, just more in size, doubling in size, in fact. The cause is global warming, rising levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere causes sweet potatoes to grow bigger and sweet potatoes are the fifth most important food crop in the developing world. Studies on the effects of higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have also shown that yields of soy, rice, and wheat increase too but the sweet potato produces more edible energy per day. Previous studies on wheat, and other grains also showed the protein content dropping when grown under higher carbon dioxide levels so tests are being run now to determine whether or not the sweet potato loses nutritional value under the same circumstances. I hope not but even if the nutrient level is less I can always find ways to eat one potato, two potatoes, sweet potatoes more! Lately I've been making my own sweet potato chips. I just wash them, slice them thin, and arrange them on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, sprinkle with sea salt, and pop them in the oven turning once as they bake to a sweet scrumptious delicious crunch. That's just how much I like sweet potatoes.

Memory Loss
The dain bramaged place in my brain that keeps me from remembering where I put my keys, I mean cell phone, is not the same place that indicates the onset of Alzheimer's. Yay (I think)! It seems from a recent study that the place in the brain that is responsible for senior moments, my usual types of memory loss, like misplaced keys, is in an entirely different area of the brain than the area identified for Alzheimer's. The normal old age kind of forgetfulness may be treatable in the future (near future I hope, if I ever expect to be able to keep up with my cell phone). Apparently there is a specific gene in the hippocampus that begins to produce less and less of a certain necessary protein and hence that section of the brain's memory center quits working properly in older people. This area called the dentate gyrus has long been suspected of being vulnerable to the effects of aging. But wait a minute, where did I leave my cell phone, or was it my car keys I was looking for?

Insomnia
In other news I read about the millions of people (9 million estimated) who use sleeping pills to fight against insomnia. I actually saw this on line and in my favorite print media, the newspaper. I figured it blog worthy because I have been keeping a journal that includes my sleep habits along with food intake and amount of daily exercise because at my last doctor visit I was asked about whether or not I was getting enough sleep and I really didn't have a good handle on that. Keeping track has helped me considerably and I have found that I am not in the majority of people, white, female, educated, and over 50, that have needed to resort to the use of sleeping pills even though I am white, female, educated, and over 50. I actually sleep pretty well most nights despite being a full on participant in some of the possible factors that researchers think are causing a rise in the prevalence of sleep disorders like, obesity, social media and other late night distractions, and financial worries from the recent recession. The study on sleeping pill usage done by the CDC found that prescription use increases with age and I admit that this has been true for me but not in the area of sleeping pills. Chronic insomnia has also been linked to diabetes, depression, obesity, and heart disease. Some things like obesity and depression can interestingly enough be either the cause or effect in a sleep-lack of sleep vicious circle. Keeping notes about my sleep habits in a journal has helped me identify factors related to my own sleeping pattern. I am just relieved that knocking out caffeine after lunch and getting my exercise routine finished before 8 PM has been helpful enough for me and makes a marked difference in my ability to fall asleep and get the recommended 7 to 9 hours each night. 

Warming Oceans Could Starve Tropical Fish
A possible negative effect of global warming would be the disruption of the delicate balance between ocean temperature and phytoplankton. Scientists have found that many tropical species are living right at or even slightly above their optimal temperature now. As the climate warms over future decades they (phytoplankton and the tropical fish that eat them) may have to head toward the poles in order to survive. This could result in a big drop in diversity in tropical oceans. There are opposing schools of thought on this as you might expect. Some believe that the remaining (warm water tolerant) phytoplankton will flourish leaving plenty of food for tropical fish. Others agree with studies that indicate that ocean warming reduces productivity thus causing crucial ecosystems to deteriorate to the point of causing current fisheries to fail.

Lately though I have been enjoying the warming tropical ocean off Andros and I've seen quite a few tropical fish too. But thinking about the warming of the oceans also makes me realize just how much I'd hate to see the lobsters leave for cooler waters. I'd miss them (especially the ones that are served up at Hank's in Fresh Creek) even more than the fish.

A Snake Slithered Over my Foot!
All the snakes that call the Bahamas their home are harmless and relatively docile since there aren't many predators higher on their food chain than them. They are harmless, that is, unless you are a rat. I felt better after reading this since a snake slithered over my foot last night as we were walking home from the movie. The movie was Scary Movie 5, proof that we are obviously at the nether reaches for current releases and the snake and my reaction to it crawling over my flip flopped foot was about as funny as the movie which was pretty funny actually.
The Bahamas has 5 different kinds of snakes with the Bahamian Boa Constrictor being the largest (up to 8 feet in length and 5 inches thick). The photo I am including with this post is of one that was seeking shelter in the back of a golf cart here during heavy rains. The other four types of snakes native to the Bahamas are much smaller (much more likely to be one of the types that squirmed over my foot in the dark too) and include the brown racer, pygmy boa, thread snake, and blind snake. I figure if it really was a snake that went slipping over my foot it was probably one of the last two because both are very small, no bigger than 30 centimeters (about a foot) long. According to the Bahamas National Trust website there are some other snake possibilities that may have been accidentally introduced and if you come across one (or one crosses over your foot) they should be removed since they pose a threat to the endemic species by competing for the same food supply.

Maybe it was a wet blade of grass that slapped at the top of my foot last night. I hope that's all it was.

Pollution and North Atlantic Hurricanes
There seems to be a connection between pollution and hurricanes. More pollution equals less hurricanes and less pollution equals more. All this is backed up by statistics over time. The pollution measured is aerosols and tighter control over them in the West could indicate that we will have a record number of tropical storms for the next two decades. After the next couple of stormy decades the good news predicted is that eventually global warming should warm the air enough to reduce the temperature difference between air and sea, (the main ingredient for tropical storm action) and make these kinds of storms even less common. This puts a whole new spin (clockwise or counter-clockwise) on the weather events that are happening on our earth.

These thoughts were on my mind as I relaxed floating aimlessly on my back amidst the gentle waves at the beach Sunday afternoon and watched the clouds gather and skirt around the island in a counter-clockwise direction. Upon my return to my trusty computer I looked to Google to confirm that tropical cyclones (hurricanes) in the northern hemisphere spin clockwise (the opposite of my observation)...wait a minute, clockwise when observed from above, via satellite imagery, I figured. And those clouds I mentioned? They provided a nice little shower while we were eating dinner in doors, conveniently providing a brief respite from the humidity for our after dinner walk. And those two decades of tropical storms? We'll see, in the meantime I plan to enjoy each day.

Who Likes to Cuddle in the Dark?
Besides me, that is? Pilot whales, the long finned, social variety that travel together in large pods are also cuddlers especially in the deep dark depths of the oceans. Two long finned pilot whales were tracked (after being fitted with a camera and pressure sensors to provide depth readings) off the Norwegian coast by some Japanese researchers. The whales were recorded making 62 dives together of 30 meters or less and 2 deep dives of over 500 meters nearly to the seabed. The camera revealed that the two whales touched each other frequently, brushing their bodies together (cuddling) and stroking each other with their flippers. The whales also stayed close, with in 3 meters, 75% of the time during these dives. Yep, those long finned pilot whales, that may for all practical purposes not look all that cuddly, are definitely cuddlers. 

Paddling from Chesapeake Bay to St. Marys, GA
It's called the Southeastern Coast Saltwater Paddling Trail and it's 800 miles long. The route has been mapped and features scenic spurs along the way and water access points to food and supplies and lodging or camping. It connects to other paddling trails to the north and the south and has its own interactive website, secoastpaddlingtrail.com. The trail has only a few places where it runs along the oceanfront, the rest of the time it travels between protected bodies of water and the goal of the government groups and paddling enthusiasts that have worked together to create the trail is to have places where folks could get off the trail every ten miles. They are working on that and also on a smart phone app linking paddlers to the website. According to the Outdoor Industry Association there are an estimated 22 million Americans in our country involved in paddle sports, from kayaking to canoeing to paddle boarding. These are all great environmentally nice ways to explore our waterways and the wildlife these areas support. I already enjoy kayaking on the St. Marys River (especially with the tide) so I am looking forward to adding some more parts of the SE Coast Saltwater Paddling Trail to my repertoire.

The Hot 100
I'm not sure what you were thinking when you read the title of this but here goes. The Hot 100 is my name for the temporary gym set up and the number of days it will be there until the old gym is rebuilt and refurbished here on Andros. I paid a visit last evening since I needed to have some exercise to put in my Sleep, Eat, and Exercise log, and I figured why not blog about it today. The gym equipment has found a temporary home in the Marine Department garage down on the water front. No A/C but there was a sea breeze coming into the nicely, nearly open air space. There were 2 stair steppers, 2 stationary bikes, half a dozen spin bikes, 1 elliptical machine and a bunch of weights, benches, bars, and a few mats. Even though I rode my bicycle down there I opted to hop on one of the stationary bikes, a familiar work out like the one I do in St. Marys only this time there was no Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune to entertain as I rode. The bike was easily programmed to give me a cardio workout tailored to my age (I inputted that) and target heart rate (the bike figured that out). My husband smartly remembered his music and popped in his earbuds as soon as he hopped on the elliptical. I had to settle for watching the Hot 9, as I liked to think of them, a group of very hot and sweaty guys, all probably at a minimum 30+ years younger than me, working the free weights.

Two final good things about the Hot 100 (other than eye candy if you like the sweaty kind or you just appreciate a place to workout in now and then).... a nice cold water fountain is also located right in there and the scale that was in the old gym isn't. 

Small Spaces
I spotted an interesting article in the paper (when I was catching up on my newspaper reading) about how in a 325 square foot apartment neatness counted more than furniture. The apartment featured in the article is called a micro-unit apartment and it is inside the Museum of New York City and part of a special exhibit called “Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers.” It comes complete with specially designed appliances and furniture. The kitchen has an under the counter refrigerator, freezer, and dishwasher. The Murphy bed includes a couch that slides under when the bed is folded out from the wall. At the museum 'campers' were allowed to spend 24 hours (6 pm to 6 pm) in order to get a chance to demonstrate the virtues of living in tight places.

Here is why I found the article so interesting, my husband's living space in the Bahamas is 300 square feet. He doesn't have the specially designed furnishings and appliances either and those 300 square feet include the bathroom and closet. Although the place is small it is quite livable (and I like the company I keep there) but tidiness definitely matters and as the New York Museum 'campers' noted you really do have to consider editing your belongings if you plan to live in a small space. A major virtue here in the Bahamas is all the space not included in his personal 300, which includes beautiful beaches, sea breezes, interesting natural habitats, and of course the living spaces of good friends. All things considered though when it comes down to comparing New York City and Andros Island, Bahamas, well.... there really is no comparison. 

The Air, The Air is Everywhere and Some of It is Killing People


The blue moon was particularly beautiful in the night sky yesterday. The sky and its changeable looks never fail to fascinate me. I like high cirrus clouds and puffy ones too. Stormy skies and lightning and clear starry skies also appeal. But the air I breathe, that holds such importance for life on this planet is so easily taken for granted as it surrounds me and I look through it toward the heavens, is in trouble because of air pollution.
Air pollution kills more than 2 million people each year worldwide, just not so many here as in Asia where air pollution has increased markedly in recent years. Death associated with air quality is set to become the world's top environmental challenge. Particulates, or fine particles that penetrate the lungs are behind and estimated 2.1 million deaths from heart and lung disease and ozone and climate change are also linked to respiratory disease and death. These statistics I read about didn't address personal lung pollution from cigarettes either but there it is, another kind of pollution that some willingly choose and in second hand fashion share with others.

Air, one of our most important natural resources, may be free but protecting it comes at a cost. Not protecting it comes at the cost of human lives.

Kid Programmers (in Kindergarten)
This may not seem to have anything to do with kindergarten at this point but just go with it for now. Right click anywhere on the screen and go down to inspect element. Click and a seemingly (to me, anyway) foreign language will appear. When you are ready just click the x to return to where you were. This among other things is just one more small indication of how computers have really changed since the days of Trash 80s and CoCo (Tandy color computers) that you hooked up to your TV. I have very vague memories of writing a few batches of MSDOS that made things appear on my screen but as with microwaves and cell phones, the inner workings didn't matter as much as the convenience and usefulness of the devices and all thoughts of “code writing” was left to others, brackets, semicolons, stuff from the top of the keyboard, and all.
Now I've read that kids as young as 3 and 4 years of age today are learning to program computers using new graphics-based coding languages, like Blocky or Scratch and ScratchJr. The idea behind this is that using these helps kids learn to organize and sequence their thoughts to give the computer commands and develop their own programs. The skills they learn and use programming computers (actually creating their own bits of software) blend over to other thinking areas like math and science and even writing. Additionally, these kids and kids of the future (which seems closer everyday) need to be smarter about how their computers work so they can “assimilate” data more easily and fix routine (and I'm talking subroutines that tell the computer what to do) problems. Maybe, Star Trek's Next Generation Borg were correct and we are all going to be “assimilated” in the future.

Dang! Might be time to beam me up, Skippy!

Secret Lives of Sharks
I was reading the news when this about the secret lives of sharks was revealed. A university research crew captured a whopping 12-foot Greenland shark from 6,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, unusually warm waters for the cold-water shark, and a first for such a catch from such depths. They weren't expecting to find a big black shark with a long dorsal fin in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first deep-swimming Greenland shark to be captured there. These sharks are cold-water swimmers, and usually live in the northern Atlantic, near the Arctic Circle. When they swim south, as they often do, they swim deeper, at depths below 3,000 feet where the water is a bracing 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It's quite a contrast to the Gulf of Mexico's waters, more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit the day the shark was caught.
Mary Lee, a two ton great white shark, has been tracked off 9^th Street in Fernandina Beach, Florida, on more than one occasion, and if her regular vacation plans were known to the average swimmers (including me) human vacation plans might have been reconsidered, at least the swimming part.

Although no human body parts were found inside the Greenland shark and I am ever hopeful that none have passed through Mary Lee's digestive system, I have heard about several shark bite incidents recently in the news. I also read about a fisherman catching a shoe with a foot still inside it, a pretty grizzly catch to be sure that leaves one to wonder about the rest of the fellow. And then there's Shark Week and that movie that's been all the rage, Sharknado. Maybe I'll just never know all there is to know about the secret lives of sharks, and maybe it's better that way.

Return of the Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden, the biblical reference, has long been thought to located be twixt the Tigris and Euphrates in what we now know politically as Iraq. During the Gulf War in 1991 Saddam Hussein drained 93% of the marshes there, obliterating the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East. Despite this disappearance of most of this habitat for many years every species, all 278 recorded bird species, survived by hanging on in small spots waiting for the water to spread again so their populations could rebound. Now Iraq's Council of Ministers have designated this land and are working to restore it as Iraq's first national park. The Garden of Eden hasn't come all the way back yet. There are still patches that have not returned but 76% of the potentially restorable marshland was flooded last year and now the remaining issue is its continued protection. This will require an international agreement on water sharing among neighboring countries. I wonder how the Garden will fare until such an agreement is forged. I know the dispute over water between states in this country is often hotly contested. In the Middle East I hope the Garden of Eden, like the Bible, continues to live on.

Opt Out

Opt Out

Instead of opting in for organ donation (like me on my driver’s license) why not consider an Opt Out system. This plan would presume consent of the deceased to have their organs harvested unless they had opted out and in some European countries, Spain, Austria, and Belgium specifically, this plan has yielded high donor rates. No one would be taking your organs without your consent.  But if you haven’t opted out, your organs, the ones that aren't going to do you much good when you’re dead, would be in and available for some of the people waiting on lists for transplants, many of whom die before a much needed donor match can be found.

The caveat in organ donation is simply that in order for some of your organs to be harvested you cannot be totally dead but instead must only meet the legal definition of dead as in brain dead, the determination of which is made by a physician. I am not including people who donate one kidney or some of their healthy bone marrow here.

Maybe you figure I have been watching too much daytime TV where organ recipients meet and thank the families of the organ donors who through the donation of their loved one’s organs have found a way to allow a part of their loved one to live on and forestall the tragic death of another. Cue music, I have seen some of those programs but more importantly I have known people on life support on both sides of the issue and I think a national opt out program for organ donation is a good idea and it’s something we should consider.

3 Things No One Told Me about Blogging..

Three things no one told me about Blogging…

Usually I would begin this post by defining how I came to learn these three things but here I will just jump straight to the point (or 3 points) as follows:

1.      No one told me blogging is addictive. My day doesn't feel right when I don’t do it. In the beginning blogging was writing practice and though it still is, it’s become more than just that. Blogging helps me organize my thoughts and after 300+ posts it’s become a routine part of my day yet lots more fun than taking a vitamin or doing house cleaning.

2.      No one said I would find myself weighing my day to day experiences by how bloggable they might or might not be. I also find myself reading and weighing things in the news for whether or not my opinion on them is blog worthy. I also have a bunch of items that my inner editor thinks may share too much personal information or might share a too controversial side of an argument (sometimes known as my opinion) so I keep them to myself.

3.      No one told me how much I would like a captive audience even if it’s mostly the computer.  I probably could have guessed this from my former life as a teacher, but the computer doesn't need its pants snapped or nose or other things wiped like kindergarten students. I guess what I am saying is instead of needing to find ways to motivate kids and myself blogging has narrowed my focus to just self-motivation. I like to write (just not lesson plans) and blogging requires a self-commitment and I like feeling validated as I fulfill that commitment by Blogging!   

Squirrel Season

Squirrel Season

In Georgia this runs from now through February. I know if you've been to Wal-Mart or any of the websites that show photos from Wal-Mart (ours is known by some as the cultural center of St. Marys) you might think squirrel season is year round around here but it’s not. Apparently squirrel hunting in Georgia is a time honored tradition and the grey squirrels or fox squirrels you might wish to hunt aren't really at Wal-Mart but can actually be found almost anywhere outdoors throughout the state. I know you can find several fat ones any given day at my bird feeder and shooting them hasn't been much of a deterrent. They aren't fazed by the flash or the fact that I have photographic evidence with which to identify them as repeat offenders.

Oh, and by the way, the daily bag limit is twelve, and yes, you need to bring your own bags.

Walking Under the Influence

Walking Under the Influence

Maybe more people are deciding to walk rather than drive after an evening of imbibing but statistics show that even walking under the influence can be dangerous, almost as dangerous as driving under the influence. A 2008 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study found that a pedestrian is four times more likely to be killed if he had been drinking than if no alcohol were involved and walking under the influence is a major cause of pedestrian versus car crashes. Though these accidents are often enough to scar the automobile driver involved for life they are even more often fatal for the pedestrian. Other factors in these accidents, besides alcohol clouded judgment, include darkness and proximity to nightspots or drinking establishments.

I think my judgment might be questionable sometimes with or without the influence of alcohol but I think the DOT pedestrian and bicycle coordinator for a couple of south Florida counties said it best, "If you're stone drunk, it's probably not a good idea to go walking around."  

Three things no one told me about living in the Bahamas…

Briefly let me explain the Bahamas I am talking about here. It is not your tourist destination, casino, straw market, and Senor Frog Bahamas. Here I am referring to one of the least populous yet landmass-wise largest of the Bahamian Islands, Andros Island, renowned for its quiet natural beauty, gorgeous blue holes, and pristine beaches. It is also the island home of the US Navy’s one square mile AUTEC (Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center) facility and my husband’s current residence. Now for the three things no one told me.

1.      It is really HOT and HUMID in the summer. And being on an island during the dog days of August (in a smallish space with noisy A/C) can give one the same kind of cabin fever as you might experience in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the dead of winter. You’re just trading in the hush of an endless blanket of crystalline white snow for being surrounded by a boundless sparkling aquamarine sea. Plan to make the best of it!

2.      Spanish language TV shows and subtitles that you get with the Caribbean cable companies have not helped me learn Spanish. This girl from Chicago took four years of French in high school and sometimes even the English the young people I know use sounds like a foreign language to me. Netflix also connects to the same Spanish language programs so that isn't a solution either unless you want to watch CSI in Spanish on your computer. TV is highly overrated anyway!

3.      There is no Wal-Mart or big chain grocery store anywhere on the island. Food comes once a week (weather permitting) on a barge and the variety is limited and the prices pretty high. But on the other hand you can have delicious Bahamian rice and peas or baked Bahamian mac and cheese with fresh caught lobster or grouper so who needs Piggly Wiggly!  

Runaway Bamboo

This is not your average lucky bamboo, which really isn't

 bamboo at all. Runaway bamboo, varieties of the genus Phyllostachys, is invasive, can grow 40 feet tall, and has roots that can grow through six inches of asphalt and extend outward 20 feet in a year’s time. That’s taking runaway to the extreme and some extreme measures are being taken to halt this menacing pest. Connecticut’s General Assembly has passed legislation regulating the plant and their new law goes into effect on Oct.1. The law makes people who plant running bamboo on their property liable for damages it causes to a neighbor’s property. The liability includes the cost of removing the bamboo which can run into thousands of dollars. This law interested me because a couple of months ago an 85 foot pine tree fell on my house and although it was growing on our property, and the wind sent it in our home’s direction, if it had fallen on any of our neighbor’s homes (and at 85 ft. it easily could have reached a couple of their homes or vehicles) their insurance would be held responsible for repairs rather than mine. This is definitely contrary to the bamboo law in Connecticut and the runaway bamboo grows much faster than a pine tree.

Cascading Effects

The Gray Wolf is back and is having a positive effect on the grizzly population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by boosting an important food source for them. When the wolves returned after a 70 year absence they began to prey on the elk population which had exploded and over-browsed berry producing shrubs, a favored food for grizzlies to fatten up on for hibernation by eating the berries. I think this information caught my attention because I spent so many years teaching about the food chain and food webs that it was nice to see a real world application. The big idea is that any disruption in the chain negatively affects everyone in the ecosystem and bringing back the gray wolf is helping restore balance once again in Yellowstone. In this case the predator (gray wolf) is helping the producers (berry producing shrubs) while helping himself to the elk and this is in turn a win-win situation for the berry loving grizzlies.

Strangely enough this reminded me of a childhood memory of the time I used a rubber band to hang a glow in the dark skeleton (cereal box prize) on a hanging light fixture (light bulb and chain basically) in my bedroom and a fuse was blown. Somehow I had managed to short the electricity out in our entire house. Instead of fessing up and helping to quickly restore the balance (and electricity) to our home I watched my dad check every outlet and fixture starting from downstairs. Just like when you finally get to stop looking when you find what you were looking for he finally found the problem in the last place he looked, my room. And as, like the fate of some of the elks, the results didn’t seem humane at least to me, yet balance and the electricity was restored.

Three things no one ever told me about keeping a food log…

First of all the reason I am keeping a food log is because my cholesterol (overall and the bad kind) has skyrocketed to unacceptable levels and I have a bunch of other risk factors that in combination have brought me to a place where for my own sake I need to get realistic about what I eat. So if the old adage you are what you eat has any validity I figured it is time to take an honest look at exactly what I eat, hence I am keeping a food log. The other (second) reason I am keeping a food log is because I lied to my doctor when I told her I exercise so I am keeping track of that now too as my own personal mea culpa. One more factor that plays a role in high cholesterol that I was unaware of is sleep, specifically the lack thereof. I have named my log Sleep, Eat, and Exercise-and if this was Face Book I’d say like it when you see it but it’s not so I’ll move on to the 3 things no one ever told me about keeping a food log…

1.     No one told me how hard it would be not to lie to myself because I really want too, but since I already lied to my doctor I’m going to choose to be honest with myself. Besides that I don’t want to defeat my purpose here but the truth is it really isn't easy to be truthful with myself all the time either. I think some people call it rationalizing but I am calling myself out on it.

2.      My husband always says I don’t eat enough protein and he is right as much as it pains me to admit that. I also eat way too many carbs. My favorite food really is garlic bread. The cool thing about keeping a food log on my computer is that I can highlight garlic bread every time I eat it and now I can see a pattern to my bad eating habits. The next step is to change the pattern.

3.      Keeping a log takes daily dedication. It’s easy to forget what I ate if I don’t keep up with it every day (sometimes every meal) and I hope that isn't just an old age short term memory loss kind of thing or a wishful forgetting. I also have to do more in depth label reading including serving sizes (who knew a loaf of garlic bread had that many servings) and beyond transfats I've been looking through the ingredients for hydrogylized anything to avoid. Just standing at my computer isn't enough to be called exercise and I don’t do it often enough either, but on the plus side I have found that I can ride the stationary bike and work up a sweat while I watch TV.

On an end note, I am happy to add that I am at day 24 and continuing.

Birth Control for Bambi

Dear deer, what will they think of next.

Putting Bambi on the pill is an alternative to hunting and killing for controlling the deer population in some places that are too congested or compassionate to kill, like in some suburban areas of New York where Bambi is causing a lot of garden damage and car crashes. This method of deer control is supported by the Humane Society too because the Humane Society’s focus is to encourage people to tolerate and coexist with wild animals. Geese are another group that are sometimes killed when they become a nuisance because of their numbers but there are some people who feel that killing them or the deer that are overpopulating an area is not an acceptable solution. The residents of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY are volunteering to monitor deer numbers and travel patterns and measure landscape damage and the Humane Society and In Defense of Animals are helping to pay for the birth control experiment that is estimated to cost $30,000 for the first 2 years. The does will have to be treated every 2 or 3 years but once they are captured and tagged the additional doses can be delivered by dart making the program less expensive after the initial outlay.

Any one ready to trade in their bullets for birth control darts? 

Do Boat Docks (with holes in them) Harm Marsh Grasses?

In kindergarten I learned that light cannot pass through solid objects. Wooden blocks left shadows so, I figure, would a wooden dock prevent sunlight from reaching marsh grasses when built over the marsh, seems like a pretty simple concept. Does this hold true for docks with holes? After three years of study (most people in kindergarten only get one year to study) a researcher for the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography concluded that it does. During most of the year docks with open grating still block almost as much sunlight as those built of solid wood, hence impacting marsh grasses growing beneath the dock. What took them three years to figure out seems like a no brainer to me but here is the catch. Even though docks with open grating block out almost as much sunlight as wooden docks without the holes some folks in Georgia, living near the state’s 590 square miles of tidal salt marsh are using this study to push for larger docks. Georgia’s salt water marsh makes up a third of the total marsh on the entire east coast and is a habitat and critical part of the food chain for fish, shrimp, and crabs. Along with a system of barrier islands the marsh also provides an important buffer for weather related storm surge. Georgia private waterfront homeowners have built 2,300 single-family docks from 1996 to 2011 and the answer to the question is yes, docks with or without holes negatively impact marsh grass growth in Georgia’s coastal saltwater marshes. 

Microbead Pollution

Apparently it’s not enough to have dead zones in the ocean and trash islands of tsunami debris to deal with but now we must include plastic microbead pollution and it is making things difficult for sea life and fresh water life too. Microbead and plastics pollution has been found floating in mass in the oceans and now in the Great Lakes too. Much of the microbeads found in the lakes, tiny bits of floating plastic, some microscopic, appear to be the beads used in personal care products such as facial and body washes and even toothpastes. These microbeads are so small they flow through waste treatment screens and end up in the lakes. Although it isn't clear how much damage these beads are doing scientists and advocates are calling on the big companies like Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, that use microbeads in their personal care products to phase them out. And some have agreed to do just that because fish and birds sometimes eat them, mistaking the microbeads for fish eggs, and sending them back to us as part of the food chain. PAHs and PCBs have been found in the plastic debris and both are capable of causing cancer and birth defects. All the more reason to keep them out of the food chain and that means keeping microbeads out of our water supply in the first place.

Monogamy

There are two schools of thought on the origin of monogamy. The idea that monogamy provides two parents rather than just one for rearing offspring was considered a side benefit of monogamy rather than a cause and was quickly thrown out. Only a few species of mammals are socially monogamous, only 25% among primates.

One school of thought is that monogamy came about as a means to prevent infanticide among primates. Fathers defended their young against being killed by other males. In the primate world infants are breastfed for greater lengths of time, sometimes years and competing males don’t approve and thus tend to kill the infant to gain the attentions of the female unless there is a father around to protect them.

The other school of thought considers that a greater physical distance between females made it less profitable sex-wise for males to roam. In this case solitary females came before social monogamy. The females spread out to monopolize better food sources that were harder to find. Distances between the females made it too difficult for the male to defend more than one female so the male stuck around and hence a monogamous relationship occurred.

Only primates, excluding humans were considered in this study because some people are monogamous and others are not.

Burka Avenger

It’s a new cartoon series and no I haven’t seen an episode of the Burka Avenger…. yet. The first episodes are due to air this month on Geo TV. The Burka Avenger is a Pakistani female superhero and brainchild of one of Pakistan’s biggest pop stars, Aaron Haroon Rashid. He conceived it as a way to show the importance of girls’ education and teach kids other lessons, such as protecting the environment and not discriminating against others, some important ideas in a country of Islamist militants. The episodes enmeshed in entertainment, laughter, action and adventure are each centered on a moral. I liked the poster I saw online about the show that pictured her with the words Don’t Mess with the Lady in Black, giving the South Asian ninja a Batman like mystique in spite of her weapons of choice, books and pens. Maybe a burka wouldn't be my first fashion choice for a superhero but I like the idea that girl and boys in Islamic cultures have a superhero and an influence for positive change.

Dead Zone

Not the end zone or the end of cell service zone, nor any zone involving the zombie apocalypse (unless there are zombie fish), the dead zone I planned to blog about appears in the Gulf of Mexico each year around this time. The size of the dead zone varies from year to year too. It is caused when nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer washed into the Mississippi basin from farms feed algae blooms at the river’s mouth. Algae and protozoa that eat them die and sink to the bottom where their decomposition uses up oxygen, the oxygen that starfish and eels and other sea creatures need to survive. The Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone is roughly the size of Connecticut but varies a little each year. The Mississippi River Collaborative and the Environmental Protection Agency have been pushing to set standards to reduce the kinds of pollution that causes the dead zone in the gulf.

So I figured I had the dead zone thing pretty much all wrapped up until I found out there is another! A Google research ship, the Falcor, is heading out to study another dead zone, this time in the Pacific Ocean. This dead zone is off Vancouver Island and researchers think the periodic hypoxia (lack of oxygen) might be caused by climate change or caustic runoff like sewage from the land.

If these dead zones keep appearing and multiplying this may be more like a fish zombie apocalypse than I thought!

It’s All About the Ball!

This is on one of the Jaguars’ inspirational posters this season. My grandsons have already figured this out! We have been spending an hour each day at the high school athletic fields while my granddaughter is “conditioning” for the upcoming swim season. Basically the conditioning is all about running and getting back in shape before school starts. For the boys though, it’s all about the ball. It started in the Bahamas with a couple of rackets and balls we checked out. After that gravitating to the high school tennis courts was a no brainer. They found one nice clean yellow tennis ball by the courts and a not so pretty one in the bushes that had been through a couple of afternoon thunderstorms and since we didn’t have rackets you might guess that it really was all about the ball. The old dirty one got tucked into the backpack under the bug spray and water bottles to take home to Fred and the newer ball became the focus of a number of throwing and chasing games, by boys, not the dog. Today we dug out the badminton rackets so the game’s new focus was keeping your eye on the birdie and a tennis ball too. After all, it’s all about the ball!