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October 31, 2006
Misdirected Manatee Meets Memphis
It's interesting what newsworthy events you remember from your childhood. I was in third grade in 1986 and two memories stick out in my mind - one that rocked the nation and the other was barely a blip on the radar.
In January of 1986, our whole classroom gathered especially to watch the televised Challenger liftoff. The mission was especially exciting to us kids because one of the astronauts, Christa McAuliffe, had been selected to be the first school teacher ever to go into space. When the shuttle broke up, the TV was quickly shut off and we were hustled out to recess instead.
Still, when I hear about manned space missions nowadays, I don't automatically think of the Challenger. I don't think that's a testiment of how minimal its impact was on me, but how far the space program has come since then. Still, when I hear about marine mammals venturing too close to people, I am reminded of the other news story I remember from that year. One that barely made the paper.
For 14 months, a young female beluga whale disported herself along the coast of Connecticut, making friends with fascinated humans. ''It would follow boats, it would swim with swimmers, it would allow itself to be patted by people from boats,'' recalled Laura Kezer of the Mystic Marinelife Aquarium.
Last week, the whale, nicknamed B. W., was shot to death by someone who had a .22-caliber gun and none of the sense of mystery and wonder that B. W. had awakened in so many people. Her body, found floating belly-up in New Haven Harbor, was towed to the Mystic aquarium, where scientists performed an autopsy.
Most people would argue that the loss of human life in the Challenger accident should have resounded more powerfully than the death of one beluga whale, but in my mind, they stand equal. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I was willing to accept that the Challenger disaster had a logical explanation - it was an accident - while nothing could make me understand how a young female beluga whale could have ended up shot to death.
According to Wikipedia, there are about 100,000 beluga whales alive today, whereas all three species of manatee are vulnerable to extinction with only about 3000 left in the Florida region, with populations decreasing steadily.
MEMPHIS - A misdirected manatee that swam 700 miles up the Mississippi River will be taken back to warmer waters by truck, a wildlife biologist said Wednesday.
The docile marine mammal, about 8 feet long, has been hanging around for several days near the downtown Memphis riverfront in the chilly waters of the Wolf River Harbor.
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Authorities said they had no idea what led the manatee to enter the Mississippi and head north.
Manatees are an endangered species found mostly from the coasts of Alabama to South Carolina, although they sometimes stray farther north in the summer. In August, a manatee was tracked as it swam up the coasts of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey before finally appearing in the Hudson River at Manhattan.
But this time of year, manatees normally would be moving into Florida rivers, not the Mississippi, said Pat Rose, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club in Maitland, Fla.
When manatees get too cold they stop eating and their digestive systems shut down.
More at: Manatee detours up Mississippi to Memphis
Photo Credit: USGS
Posted by sorsha at 4:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 30, 2006
The Mirror Has Two Tusks
It appears that elephants have now joined the short list of animal species that are considered "self-aware". Until now, this behavior has been limited to chimps and, of course, most humans.
While it doesn't surprise me in the least that elephants have the kind of smarts needed to be classified as animals of a higher order of intelligence, I have to wonder how many other species out there are truly self-aware, but we humans have just not figured out how to properly test for it. Most mammals walk on four legs, so touching their faces while gazing at themselves in the mirror isn't likely behavior. I know our rabbits react to the mirror, but there's no way to tell what they're thinking.
...a 34-year-old female Asian elephant in the Bronx Zoo showed researchers that pachyderms can recognize themselves in a mirror — complex behavior observed in only a few other species.
The test results suggest elephants — or at least Happy — are self-aware.
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In a 2005 experiment, Happy faced her reflection in an 8-by-8-foot mirror and repeatedly used her trunk to touch an "X" painted above her eye. The elephant could not have seen the mark except in her reflection. Furthermore, Happy ignored a similar mark, made on the opposite side of her head in paint of an identical smell and texture, that was invisible unless seen under black light.
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Still, two other zoo elephants, Maxine and Patty, failed to touch either the visible or invisible "X" marks on their heads in two runs of the experiment. But all three adult female elephants at the zoo behaved while in front of the jumbo mirror in ways that suggested they recognized themselves,
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Maxine, for instance, used the tip of her trunk to probe the inside of her mouth while facing the mirror. She also used her trunk to slowly pull one ear toward the mirror, as if she were using the reflection to investigate herself. The researchers reported not seeing that type of behavior at any other time.
More At: MSNBC: Mirror test suggests elephants are self-aware
Posted by sorsha at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 26, 2006
Cat Cloner Closed & Dog Duplicating Discontinued
Following their cat cloning going-out-of-business sale where they discounted cat clones from 50k to 32k, the pet cloning biotech firm Genetic Savings & Clone announced that they would be closing their doors at the end of the year.
People love their pets, but not enough to clone them. Perhaps the daunting price tag convinced them to go adopt a homeless animal in need instead. Long story short, the company has determined that pet cloning is just not commercially viable just yet. Over the past seven years, they've cloned 5 cats, but only sold two of those.
Just who considers cloning their pets? According to Genetic Savings & Clone's Client Overview, "In general, our clients are intelligent, articulate, and well-informed." That's an innocuous statement if I ever heard one. Imagine this was a bank, and they said that in general, their clients were law-abiding citizens. Sorry, but I had a good chuckle there.
Checking out their website and specifically the cats they cloned, I was surprised that CC, the calico they cloned from Rainbow, did not resemble her genetic donor very much.
CC's genetic donor, Rainbow, is a calico domestic shorthair, while CC is a white and tiger-tabby domestic shorthair. What gives? Shouldn't CC be a calico too? The answer to this question sheds light on a fascinating and less-than-fully-understood issue called "X-linked inactivation."
First of all, calicos are almost always female, which means they have two X-chromosomes (versus the male's XY). One of these X chromosomes contains a gene for orange coat color and the other contains a gene for black coat color (white patches are specified by a different set of genes which are not relevant here).
For reasons which are not fully understood, as the embryo develops, a phenomenon called "X-linked inactivation" occurs, in which one or the other X-chromosome in every cell in the Calico embryo becomes randomly inactivated. If the specific X-chromosome containing the gene for orange coat color becomes inactivated, that cell will go on to produce black coat color (assuming it becomes a coat follicle cell). The inverse is true if the X-chromosome containing the gene for black coat color becomes inactivated.
Given that the inactivation is random, one would expect a very fine distribution of orange and black hairs within the coat, but for reasons which are not germane here, the inactivation occurs in larger patches of orange and black.
"Mosaicism" is the term for distribution of different cell types within a single organism. Mosaicism is three-dimensional, meaning that the inactivation of orange or black-producing genes occurs within cells throughout the calico's body regardless of whether the cells have anything to do with production of the animal's coat. Thus, even the specific cumulus cell used to clone CC would have been inactivated for either orange or black coat color.
If the nuclear transfer process were to reset the inactivated X-chromosome the way it resets the nuclear differentiation, then one might expect to see a calico clone with a calico coat. On the other hand, if nuclear transfer does not reset X-activation then one would expect to see a clone with a black coat if the donor cell used had an orange coat gene on the inactivated X-chromosome, and conversely one would expect a clone with an orange coat if the donor cell used had an black coat gene on the inactivated X-chromosome.
The fact that CC has no orange in her coat is consistent both with the theory that nuclear transfer does not reset X-activation, and also that the cumulus cell used had an orange coat gene on the inactivated X-chromosome.
More at: X-linked Inactivation
While this may explain the scientifics behind this occurence, it probably did not help with the company's business plans and customer satisfaction.
Posted by sorsha at 10:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2006
Stellenbosch Wine Route - Tasting Notes
The Stellenbosch region of the southern cape of South Africa is a great place to visit and go wine tasting. The wines are a nice mix of reds, whites and dessert wines. Surrounded by mountain ranges, you can travel from winery to winery very quickly compared to larger areas like Napa in California.
The wines are complex, but we found the quality varied more than we've found in California. By this I mean that there were some fantastic wines, and some exceptionally not-so-good ones. But one thing is for certain, the prices cannot be beat. The price of a good bottle of wine, even a flagship bottle, is often exceptionally reasonable by US standards. The trick, however, is how to get it home. Shipping is very expensive and not doable to many places, so you're often forced to carry it on yourself. We bought enough wine to carry on the rest of our honeymoon around the world as well as the rest of our time in South Africa.
We used this map of the Stellenbosch wine route to plot our course.
Tasting Notes
Avontuur
Our Notes: Overall one of our most pleasant wine tasting experiences in South Africa. Margaret and Natalie were very good to us. The 2005 Vintners White was nice and sweet and the 2003 Shiraz was quite mellow. The 2001 Baccarat was nice and tart. All the Avontuur wines had character, which made them well-rounded.
We walked off with:
- Avontuur Baccarat 2001
- 2005 Avontuur Vintners White
- 2000 Avontuur Above Royalty
- Avontuur Estate Brandy NV
Visit Avontuur's website.
Spier
Our Notes: Deli was fantastic
We walked off with a lunch of bagettes, grain mustard and brie, olives and dolmades, a lemon tart and Grapetizers.
Visit Spier's website.
Asara
Our Notes: Most reds a disappointment. The 2006 Dry Rose was mediocre, while the 2002 Shiraz, 2001 Cape Fusion, 2001 Merlot, 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1999 Bell Tower Estate Wine were only ok. The 2003 Noble Late Harvest was good, but the 2004 Spirit of Chenin had a very strong alcohol taste, making it feel too young.
We walked off with:
- 2003 Noble Late Harvest
Visit Asara's website.
Waterford
Our Notes: The 2006 Pecan Stream Rose was very tart, fruity but not citrusy. It should be paired with something sweet. the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc was a bit boring, but the 2006 Chenin Blanc was fruity, crisp and had nice body. It was roughly equivalent to a Bonny Doon House White. We've always been partial to Malbec, so we enjoyed the 2004 Shiraz/Cab blend.
Still, it was the chocolate and wine pairings that really made Waterford one of our favorite tasting experiences.
- Masala Chai Dark Chocolate + Shiraz (Excellent!)
- Rock Salt Dark Chocolate + Cab Sauv (Interesting)
- Rose Geranium Milk Chocolate + Heatherleigh Family Reserve (Exceptional)
It's too bad they don't sell the chocolate with the wine...
We walked off with:
- Waterford Family Reserve - Heatherleigh
Visit Waterford's website.
Muratie
Our Notes: Yummy port!
We walked off with:
- Cape Vintage Port 2004
- Cape Ruby Non-Vintage
Visit Muratie's website.
Delheim
Our Notes: Great german style whites and desserts
We walked off with:
- 2004 Rhine Reisling
- 2005 Edelspatz Noble Late Harvest
- 2005 Spatzendreck Late Harvest
- Cape Fortified Red
Visit Delheim's website.
Posted by sorsha at 3:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 24, 2006
Curb Your Carbon Cravings
Slate Magazine and TreeHugger.com are sponsoring an 8-week challenge to reduce your portion of carbon-dioxide emissions by changing some habits. The goal of the program is to reduce your personal carbon by at least 20%. For some, this may just mean recycling a bit more and turning on the heat later, but for others who are already rather eco-conscious, this may turn out to be a real challenge.
Household Baselines
Last year, our energy company, PG&E, offered an incentive program to get people to cut their bill by 20%. If they did so over 3 consecutive months, then you got a 20% rebate on your bill. Our household managed this for almost a year before an emergency situation caused us to lose it. Long story short, water damage caused need for special dehumidifying machines that sucked more energy in 10 days than we normally spend in a month. But now we're back on it.
Over the past few years, we've made lots of changes for the better. Here are a few:
- Switched from desktops to powerful laptops
- Switched to fluorescent lighting, and turn it off when not in use.
- Started using our fireplaces occasionally in winter
- Hardly ever turn the heat on (just wear sweaters)
- Don't have air conditioning, just ceiling fans and windows
- Bought a hybrid automobile
- Keep up with what can be recycled. We recycle 2-3x as much as we have trash.
We are rabid recyclers. Lucky for us, our county has an excellent recycling program. Not everyone is so lucky. In fact, I get very frustrated when I visit friends and they do not have programs that encourage them to recycle. I really hate throwing a can or a bag in the trash. Even around here, it's still near impossible to find recycle bins in the malls or airports. When I walked around the Super Safeway that just opened up down the road, I couldn't find a recycle bin anywhere. When I asked, I got offers to make sure my can got to a bin, but I was more concerned with the fact that it wasnt obvious. When I asked the manager, they told me that they just pick the recyclables out of the trash. It's how they pay for the employee coffee fund. When new businesses and buildings go up, the county or city will often put its own conditions on it. Why isn't one of these requirements obvious recycling when there's a waste bin every 5 feet and public restrooms?
I hate being reminded how far we need to go just to be moderately earth-conscious.
Human carbon-dioxide emissions come mainly from two sources: burning fossil fuels and changes in land use, such as deforestation. Americans are the climate's worst enemy. On average, each of us is responsible for about 22 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions every year, according to the United Nations, compared with an average of six tons per person throughout the rest of the world. That means the typical U.S citizen emits the equivalent of four cars.
...
Average carbon emissions per year, per person:
United States: 44,312
Qatar: 117,064
France: 13,668
India: 2,645
Kenya: 440
More at: Slate's Green Challenge
But anyway, here's our baseline for carbon emissions:
Perlgurl's annual carbon emissions are 27,836 lbs. That's equivalent to the emissions from 2.73 passenger cars.
Posted by sorsha at 4:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
