Humpbacks
Joel Olson
Early Landlubbers Inched Before Crawling
The first four-legged vertebrates to leave the seas may have inched like worms
instead of crawling like lizards. The discovery was a big surprise for
scientists, who had assumed these early terrestrial vertebrates shimmied like
fish. Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University, Sweden, and colleagues studied fossils
of Ichthyostega, a creature resembling a meter-long crocodile that lived about
410 to 360 million years ago. They found that the shape of the animal’s
backbones varied with their location. Vertebrae near the head were canted toward
the tail. Those near the tail were canted toward the head. Those in the center
showed no tilt at all. The arrangement allowed Ichthyostega to arch its back
like a bridge, but permitted almost no side-to-side fishtailing movements,
according to a report in the journal Nature. Once propped up on sturdy
forelimbs, the animal would have dragged its hindquarters along for the ride.
Differentiated vertebrae are common today among land-dwelling vertebrates, but
Ichthyostega’s must have been some of the first.
>
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_animal_inchworm.html
tim
"Joel Olson" <jeo...@webzone.net> wrote in message
news:rufUe.27$LS...@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
Regionalized Backbone - backbone found in Florida but not in Louisiana
A picture would have been nice. What did this alligator/fish hunt? What
did it taste like?
The Muskmelon we had for supper last night attracted a million fruit flies
to the house. I had to take the rind and innards far into the woods to get
rid of it. I felt like the Pied Piper. This morning I've been watching the
fruit flies humpback on the screen. Some are inside, a few, but many more
are outside, trying to get in. All fruit is in the fridge, and all
muskmelon dishes and cutlery have been washed. All waste baskets have been
emptied and washed out. The house is clean. All it took for this gathering
of flies is the banana I ate this morning, and its peel, and that glass of
orange juice I drank.
Anyway, the males are smaller than females. The smell of acetic acid from
ripe fruit lures them, and instantly puts them into a mating frenzy.
Perhaps, to be fair, we should call it a mating waltz. Males approach
females, and display by raising their wings, kind of a trembing approach
saying "look at my moustache" or something. He is either accepted or
rejected. I've seen one acceptance, and fifty rejections, so humans and
fruit flies seem about equal in that way. Mating is quick. Those trying to
mate with those on the other side of the screen aren't having any luck at
all.
All this because of a whiff of fresh fruit in fall. Lifespan of a few days.
Big red eyes.
Ingenuous
"tim" <uchku...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:skgUe.9313$_84....@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> All this because of a whiff of fresh fruit in fall. Lifespan of a few
> days. Big red eyes.
current trend, making the stuff smell like flowers or fruit is especially
troublesome when you live in or near the woods.
Blues Ma
Even the bugs won't find you appealing.
tim
"Blues Ma" <2blue...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:jIGdnawwQKa...@comcast.com...
There is no accounting for taste but certain accounting for smell.
I've found the single most effective thing you can do to avoid encounters
with insects is to wear cotton that is white or light gray in color. Wear
no animal fibers in the woods, and wear no dark clothing. Beekeepers know
this. Always wear light colors, never walk too close in front of the hive,
and never, never wear felt or leather, but wear cotton. They think you're a
plant if you wear cotton, but a horse if you wear a felt hat. :-)
I've read that different pests are attracted to different gasses we exhale.
Like vultures follow scent from miles away, insects that fly to their prey
follow chemical trails. Mosquitoes are attracted to the CO2 in our breath.
Other genus track ammonia, others acetic acid, and the like.
It's not your fonk that lacks appeal, it's your banana.
They smell you through their antenni. They contain minute detectors that
instantly react when they "smell" the smallest possible concentrations of
the appropriate species-specific attracting chemical.
Male dogs and male humans use the same technique to find mates, but don't
realize it.
Ingenuous
Lice or fruit flies? Choices, choices.
Blues Ma
> "Blues Ma" <2blue...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:jIGdnawwQKa...@comcast.com...
>
>>Ingenuous wrote:
>>
>>>"tim" <uchku...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>news:skgUe.9313$_84....@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>>>
>>>
>>>>All this because of a whiff of fresh fruit in fall. Lifespan of a few
>>>>days. Big red eyes.
>>>
>>>I have a hard time finding shampoo and rinse that don't attract bugs.
>>>The current trend, making the stuff smell like flowers or fruit is
>>>especially troublesome when you live in or near the woods.
>>
>>Stay funky.
>>Even the bugs won't find you appealing.
>
>
> There is no accounting for taste but certain accounting for smell.
>
> I've found the single most effective thing you can do to avoid encounters
> with insects is to wear cotton that is white or light gray in color.
Wasps and bees here find white and yellow particularly appealing.
They don't seem to notice dark colors at all.
I often wear an old suede jacket on cool mornings, and have never
noticed that it attracted insects of any sort.
I believe you've been misinformed.
Blues Ma
is a swell deterrent for them.
A swarm of flies will tend to keep others at a happy distance.
You could tell 'em that you're nearly dead and the flies are just lining
up for choice parts.
tim
> tim wrote:
>> "Blues Ma" <2blue...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:jIGdnawwQKa...@comcast.com...
>>
>>>Ingenuous wrote:
>>>
>>>>"tim" <uchku...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>>news:skgUe.9313$_84....@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>All this because of a whiff of fresh fruit in fall. Lifespan of a few
>>>>>days. Big red eyes.
>>>>
>>>>I have a hard time finding shampoo and rinse that don't attract bugs.
>>>>The current trend, making the stuff smell like flowers or fruit is
>>>>especially troublesome when you live in or near the woods.
>>>
>>>Stay funky.
>>>Even the bugs won't find you appealing.
>>
>>
>> There is no accounting for taste but certain accounting for smell.
>>
>> I've found the single most effective thing you can do to avoid encounters
>> with insects is to wear cotton that is white or light gray in color.
>
> Wasps and bees here find white and yellow particularly appealing.
> They don't seem to notice dark colors at all.
> I often wear an old suede jacket on cool mornings, and have never
> noticed that it attracted insects of any sort.
> I believe you've been misinformed.
I don't think so, Ma. It's in all the beekeeping manuals. I've read the
same in many books on insects. You may be correct about yellow, but not
white, and you have been very lucky with your suede, but, then, you only
wear it on cool days, when the insects aren't active. Trying wearing it on
a 100F day, and run past the hive's opening as fast as you can. I promise
you'll be stung to death.
And, oh, the last rule, is never move quickly when near the hive. I kept
bees for a decade, and I loved to go down to the meadow and sit beside the
hives and watch them come and go. I never got stung once in a decade, and I
sat many times in the swirl of hundreds of thousands of bees never once
getting stung. In fact, they would rarely land on me. I was no threat.
Didn't smell like horse, seemed like a plant when they checked me out, and
never ran across the front of the hive.
tim
Blues Ma
I'm very lucky whatever i wear,
but.................................................................
As i was out watering my container plants, there were happy bees nosing into
the yellow tomato blossoms and more of them nestling in the white flowers
overflowing the containers that surround my east door.
Yes TIm - yellow and WHITE.
And my old time gardening manual warned against any light, pastel, flower
colored clothing when working outdoors in the summer.
They seemed to think that grey and tan would not interest the stingers.
tim
>>>>I've found the single most effective thing you can do to avoid
>>>>encounters with insects is to wear cotton that is white or light gray in
>>>>color.
>>>Wasps and bees here find white and yellow particularly appealing.
>>>They don't seem to notice dark colors at all.
>>>I often wear an old suede jacket on cool mornings, and have never
>>>noticed that it attracted insects of any sort.
>>>I believe you've been misinformed.
>> I don't think so, Ma. It's in all the beekeeping manuals. I've read the
>> same in many books on insects. You may be correct about yellow, but not
>> white, and you have been very lucky with your suede
> I'm very lucky whatever i wear,
> but.................................................................
I'm luckier when I wear shorts, and luckiest when I wear steel-toed work
boots, usually. The dead basswood I dropped today to the south of the house
resisted a little, and I had to use my pry bar to get it to finally roll off
the small branch it rested upon, and, of course, in the process the top
third of the trunk snapped off and fell back towards me. Wearing my hard
hat, as I always do, I thought, "Why, that thing, if it fell three feet
closer to me than it is going to fall, would probably crush my head like
that muskmelon I ate last night, hard hat or no hard hat." I watched it
fall kerthump exactly three feet from my steel-toed work boots. 8" in
diameter, 25 feet long, dry, hard, fell from 50 up or more. I was very
lucky today.
I have one or two of these close calls every year. Probably had 50 of them
in my life. Only been struck twice, by smaller limbs, saved by the hard
hat. One drove me to my knees, and rang my bell. Hello?
> As i was out watering my container plants, there were happy bees nosing
> into
> the yellow tomato blossoms and more of them nestling in the white flowers
> overflowing the containers that surround my east door.
> Yes TIm - yellow and WHITE.
They are attracted by more than "yellow and WHITE". They are attracted by
the perfume of the nectar and flower petals, and mainly by what they see
with their sohpisticated UV vision, NOT what WE perceive to be "yellow and
WHITE".
> And my old time gardening manual warned against any light, pastel, flower
> colored clothing when working outdoors in the summer.
You confuse bees' attraction to flowers with their defensive behavior when
around the hive. Bees will protect the hive from any fast-moving dark
creature that approaches the hive, such as black bears, badgers, wolverines
(the largest of the weasels), pandas, pooh bears, and eccentric scientists
wearing dark suede coats. When you wear white or gray, they don't even see
you, if you wear cotton, and if you don't move too fast in front of the
hive. Always approach the hive from the rear or the side.
> They seemed to think that grey and tan would not interest the stingers.
The lighter in HUE the better, best is white and gray.
Try to remember, they don't see color as we do. They are attracted to
intensity of color, saturation, more than wavelength so much.
Neither you nor I know what we are talking about, Ma. Admit it. :-)
Blues Ma
the bees and having been informed of their preferences.
How does anyone "know" what they see ?
Don't you mean.............................scientists are making
educated guesses ?
If you studied philosophy, you will recall that we can't really KNOW
anything.
We can assume, or believe, but we can't know.
tim
I know that, silly.
Blues Ma
You're just at home here with us - not making pronouncements on anus.
tim
OK. Neither you nor I knew what we were talking about, Ma. You should have
admitted it. :-)
Gewesen geworden sein.
Blues Ma
But don't be sad, tomorrow IS another day.
tim
Why is everything a contest to you? What an uncomfortable way to live. I
don't get it.
Ingenuous
Does goo-be-gone work?
Ingenuous
> don't get it.
tim
Blues Ma
Blues Ma
Blues Ma
Ingenuous
Ingenuous
tim
Too soon old, too late smart.
Blues Ma
Joel Olson
http://cvs.anu.edu.au/andy/beye/gallery.html
------------
Peeping through my keyhole I see within the range of only about 30 percent of
the light that comes from the sun; the rest is infrared and some little
ultraviolet, perfectly apparent to many animals, but invisible to me. A
nightmare network of ganglia, charged and firing without my knowledge, cuts and
splices what I see, editing it for my brain. Donald E. Carr points out that the
sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain: 'This is
philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means that only
the simplest animals perceive the universe as it is.' - Anne Dillard
------------
tim
"Joel Olson" <jeo...@webzone.net> wrote in message
news:XUDVe.9525$4P5....@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
Oooohhhh, cool!
Thanks, Joel.