Making Baby Robins

I'm no Biologist-- haven't played one for years-- but I think this is how  ♂ and ♀ robins make F1 robins.

Seen across the street from the Starkvegas library on the 1st Monday of the month... the book sale day!

I thought I had recorded more than I had-- I'm not familiar with recording on my iThingy. This behavior went on for several minutes before I realized I wasn't capturing it on "film." They were not at all unlike Rocky & Missy's behaviors when the Rockster is feeling ... frisky.

Mate Choice

"When I think of some of the men I might be married to now if it hadn't been for you and that damn ukulele!"

from George Price's Characters: More Than 200 of His Best Cartoons (Simon and Schuster, New York. 1955.) 

I stumbled upon this while doing "research."

I'm working on something on which I should have had the good sense to decline working (on). Months ago the idea of giving a talk which made the connection between responsible gun ownership and some of the notions involved in parental investment seemed so easy. And so obvious. Today? Not so much.

Fortunately, I work well under pressure, so long as I am well-fed. 

Salad & baked potato bar for supper tonight. Good start. 

A Remarkably Sucessful Day

I hummed a tune in my head in great detail for about 30 minutes and then asked myself, "What is this tune?" Turns out it was something from Carmen, and try as I might, I cannot recreate it now in my head. But it led me to remember what I'd asked for, and forgotten that I'd asked for, for Mothers' Day-- not that I need anything more, but I'd asked for and forgotten I'd asked for this before Kat's great gift arrived. The New World Symphony. 

I challenged someone's assertion that E.O. Wilson was the greatest biologist of the 20th Century. What foolishness. Mr. Big Food and I amused ourselves thinking about ... . Watson & Crick.

I entered 25 titles into my Library data base. Good for me. 

And I picked up 17 more books at Palmer Home. Someone with an interest in mathematics must have died recently. I scored texts on plane geometry, trig, calc-- all from the very early 20th Century. They all have Tables. They are all marked up. 

It's sad that the people cleaning out their dead relatives homes have no respect for their dead relatives lives.  

TO BE CLEAR

When I cease to exist, my books will still exist. As will my garden. But neither my books nor my garden are to be thrown away.

Mr. Big Food's Version of a Country Mouse Brunch Buffet

We-- Mr. Big Food, Daughter C., Miss M. and I-- invited some friends and colleagues out to Farther Along Farm for Sunday Brunch to mark the occasion of another successful event at State. Kudos to The Bart Man who orchestrated the event's Main Events. 

Mr. Big Food thought it would be fun to treat our out-of town guests, i.e., the City Mice, to some Good Ol' Country Food. He and Miss M. teamed up to be sure there were tasty Vegan selections.

A Country Mouse Brunch Buffet Menu

Beverages

Coffee
Tea (choose from several)
Green-Tea Sun-Tea
Orange juice
Water
Bloody Marys from scratch

First Course (out, as folks arrive)

Great BIG fruit salad (soaked over night in dry white wine and cognac)
Shrimp in (New Orleans' style) remoulade
Hummus
Assorted cheeses
Assorted crackers

Homemade muffins: bran blueberry, chocolate (vegan), cranberry (vegan) served with whipped butter/vegan "butter"

 Main Course (below)

For 90 minutes

she sat in the front row, took notes, paid attention...

and for all that, she didn't even get her own wrist band.

If you're in the neighborhood

you may want to check this out:

Mississippi Philosophical Association Meeting Program 2013
Hosted by Mississippi State University

Theme: Philosophy of Biology

Schedule below the fold

A Force of Character

While on a break from garden work, I came across this:

One of the many great things about Paul Johnson’s magisterial A History of the American People is that he begins that history in the Sixteenth Century. There was an identifiable, culturally distinguishable American People long before there was a Revolutionary War, a Constitution, or a central government. The American People, by their industry and ingenuity, didn’t just build successful businesses… they built the most successful nation in history — and all, somehow, without HUD, Fannie, Freddie, the EPA, OSHA…

[my emphasis]

From Andrew McCarthy's article up at PJMedia today. I don't know the book to which he refers (which was copyright 1985) but that second sentence reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from The Beards' Basic History of the United States (1944):

Years marked by wars, religious controversies and persecutions, political disputes, and royal despotism lay behind the decision to leave Europe and migrate to the English colonies. But there was something in the spirit of those who made the break-- a force of character not simply determined by economic, political, or religious conditions-- that made them different from their neighbors who remained in the turmoil and poverty of the Old World.

[my emphasis]

If I recall my basic population genetics correctly, we'd call this a 'founder effect.' Those with a force of character put an ocean between themselves and their weaker neighbors.

~~

By the way, you can purchase a used copy of The Beards' book for one red cent at Amazon. But don't get the one their son edited that came out in 1960 unless you want to see how easy it is to re-write history.

Strangle Weed

Having put up (don't you just love that?) over 20 pounds of summer squash the other day, and having shelled four pounds of blackeyed peas (that's four pounds of shelled peas) yesterday, we were going to pickle some jalapenos and make some pesto today. We'll still do the pickling, but there will be no pesto today.

The basil I picked yesterday. And yes, I put it in the guest bath. Where else would I put so much basil?

I thought about it, and then thought better of it.

Cuscuta sp.

This, fellow gardeners, is Dodder also known as Strangle Weed for obvious reasons. Dodder is a true parasitic plant. Why God designed this obnoxious life form and Evolution hasn't culled it from The Face of The Earth is beyond me.*

I kept up with it for several weeks by pulling the strands out one at a time. But what with Independence Day and so on, it got away from me. The only way to get rid of it when there's this much is to pull or cut the host out completely. Silly me, I thought I could salvage enough basil for pesto but decided against it. 

From a physiological standpoint, Strangle Weed is quite interesting. 

"Why are store bought tomatoes so bad?"

Althouse has the answer.

Ethogram

An ethogram is a catalogue or inventory of all behaviours or actions exhibited by an animal used in ethology. The behaviours in an ethogram are usually defined to be mutually exclusive and objective, avoiding subjectivity and functional inference as to their possible purpose.[1][2][3][4]

For example, a species may use a putative threat display, which in the ethogram is given a descriptive name such as "head forward" or "bracing display", and not "head forward threat" or "bracing threat". This degree of objectivity is required because what looks like "courtship" might have a completely different function, and in addition, the same motor patterns in different species can have very different functions. Often, ethograms are hierarchical in presentation. The defined behaviours are recorded under broader categories of behaviour which may allow functional inference such that "head forward" is recorded under "Aggression".

Sometimes, the definition of a behaviour in an ethogram may have arbitrary components. For example, "Stereotyped licking" might be defined as "licking the bars of the cage more than 5 times in 30 seconds". The definition may be arguable, but if it is stated clearly, it fulfils the requirements of scientific repeatability and clarity of reporting and data recording.

Some ethograms are given in pictorial form and not only catalogue the behaviours but indicate the frequency of their occurrence and the probability that one behaviour follows another.

Rocky's doing well leashless. But I want him to be comfortable on a tie-out. And so, I've taken to tying them both out first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Please keep in mind that they are dogs whose lives were made much better by coming out to the Farm. And that they do run Free when we say it's okay.

I want them to become very very comfortable just hanging out around the house. 

This is a poor photo but it still conveys what Rocky is up against, as the guard dog and all. 

Already??

Yes. Mr. Big Food has already started cuttin'. (And he's not the only one!) "Cuttin'" refers to cutting grass-- what Mr. Big Food started today, March 5th. Last year he started cuttin' on April 3rd. 

{"Holy Toledo! The keyboard isn't illuminated?" she asked as she began to type after dark. Wow. Just wow. This explains so many things. How can you be satisfied with an inferior product?)

Those in the know know that this is not good. 

Rocky was digging in the garden today, and so was I. 

I didn't have ... that's a lie. I did have my biologist's hat on long enough to remember that the experts have determined and proclaimed that there's some # of "grubs" per square unit that's acceptable. And I wondered if there were some # of rolly pollies (eat your bread & jam*) that's acceptable, b/c I think we are approaching the limit.

There were a lot of slugs, too. But this is an easy question. The limit is as close to zero as you can get it. I hate slugs. Snails are only trivially more interesting. 

Proper conditions

Petri dishes, rack, and canister

I have about 10 packets of bean and pea seed that are two-four years old. Under proper conditions, bean seeds remain viable for about three years. I am clearly pushing the envelope especially since my seeds were not always stored under proper conditions.

I have also just received the first of this season's seed orders-- 27 packets. There's another order outstanding. I will plant some seeds (not all!) from each of these new packets, plus some seeds from my pile of old but not too old packets. And maybe some bean seeds from these 10 packets-- we shall see.

What I will not do is plant seeds that will not germinate. And so, I am conducting a test. 

Oh! Em! Gee!

At Daughter C's suggestion, I am perusing the World Wide Web seeking information on training a German Shepherd Dog - Labrador Retriever Dog mutt, otherwise known as a "Labrashepherd" or "Sheprador." (OMG, r u kidding me?) The first three pages of search results contained a great number of Qs and As at dog forums, and general websites devoted to answering questions disseminating misinformation.

I have a few questions, myself. 

1. How hard is it to put your pinky finger on the shift key (or hit that little ↑ button on your iPhone) so as to type "I" rather than "i," as in "I have a question"? 

i will be getting a 3/4 lab 1/4 shepherd mix in a month, it will be 2 months old when i get it. i wanted to read up on books on them, but wanted to no if it was ok to read books bout a labrador. will it be the same or not?

there r things i want to no, to.

Me & my science

The popular science publication, New Scientist, has just published a series of articles and editorials addressing "The decline and fall of science in America." What is being called into question is the rejection-- by knuckle dragging, God fearing, gun-tottin' morons, imbeciles, and idiots-- of settled science. 

I love science-- which I will loosely define as the objective systematic activities associated with learning about the world. (I did not consult a dictionary on this.) But as with any other activity, science can be bastardized by the individuals engaged in doing science. Thus, it is right to be skeptical of all science. Skepticism is not rejection. A healthy dose of commonsense skepticism should be-- but often isn't-- welcome among scientists. Here's why:

From General Zoology by Tracy I. Storer, published in 1943 by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. New York and London.

From the Preface

This text is a general introduction to zoology, primarily for students in colleges and universities. It comprises a general account of animal biology and a systematic survey of the animal kingdom from protozoans to man...

In other words, this text presents settled science. Please click on the photos to enlarge and read that, for example,

... the most serious of these [heritable defects] are mental ones such as feeble-mindedness and insanity.

In the United States there are seven million persons with an intelligence quotient of 70 or lower, from high grade morons to imbeciles and idiots.

The feeble-minded become juvenile delinquents, problem children, and cases for public relief and charity. They breed early and often and so tend to increase their kind.

Although 29 states have laws that permit insane and feeble-minded persons to be sterilized, only about 35,000 have been so dealt with up to 1941.

And what's to be done about all this?

Eugenics.

Call me a moron, imbecile or idiot-- or all three-- but me & my science are skeptical that "legislation to prevent matings between obviously defective persons" is a good idea.