The Cracked Marble

2012: Interstellar Endings

2011-11-21T18:30:00.000-08:00

There have been a lot of articles in some of the news feeds that I frequent discussing how ludicrous an idea it is that the world will end in 2012. NASA has already debunked most of the theories regarding the role objects in space will play in our hypothesised short-lived existence. Despite what some people would like you to believe, a giant asteroid is not going to crack the earth in two, a solar storm will not "crisp" us, and a mysterious planet X or brown dwarf named Nibiru or Eris is not going to play interstellar bumper cars with us. At least not any time soon. Many of these theories are plausible and scientifically grounded: giant objects have peppered the Earth in the past, we were recently showered with a massive solar flare (few people noticed), and Earth has supposedly been struck by a large planetary object which is one hypothesis as to how the moon formed. That being said, with all of the technology we find ourselves in possession of these days, we can accurately predict where, when and if any of these events will actually befall Earth. For the first time in history, Earth actually has an early warning system for interstellar catastrophes. So far the radar looks clear for 2012, 2013, 2014 and beyond. Of course all this doesn't rule out the possibility of something Earth-based going completely awry. Theories include a super volcano located under what is now Yellowstone National Park exploding, lethal pandemics like the bird flu, a world-wide food shortage, and a nuclear Armageddon brought on by our own devices. In regards to the latter, I dug up one brilliant movie from my adolescence that describes how these weapons could end it all. I honestly think it is one of the most plausible scenarios for the apocalypse. Enjoy.

Soup for the Shark's Soul

2011-10-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

Soup is probably one of my favorite foods in the world. There are nearly limitless possibilities of flavours and ingredients just so long as it is in a semi-liquid form. I fell in love with soup from an early age. Many a cold winter's afternoons were warmed with a bowl of my Grandfather's chicken buckwheat soup after a morning spent waist deep in snow. The aroma of bay leaves and chicken stock would permeate the house as he ladled a bowlful out of his characteristic thick canning jars. The metal spoon would ring off the glass sides chiming my young sister and I to the table. I'm not one for holistic remedies but I swear this soup could cure the common cold. I always have a jar on hand for just such an occasion. Throughout my life I've always been one to try new soups. One of my all time favorites is a big bowl of Pho with all the fixings. Tender rice noodles covered to the brim with steaming beef broth; hand ripped basil leaves and bean sprouts, all quenched with crushed limes, hoisin sauce and chili paste... I am now hungry.

Shark fin soup
(image credit: http://www.thescuttlefish.com/)

As much as I love soups, there is one that I never dare touch: shark fin soup. It is a traditional staple in Chinese cuisine but gained world wide fame for the murderous brutality in which the shark fins were harvested. The practice of "finning" has been implicated as a major contributor to the massive population declines (as much as 90%) in many species of sharks. The sharks are caught, their fins hacked off, and then dumped back into the ocean. For the most part the sharks are still alive as they slowly sink to the ocean bottom to die, unable to swim or right themselves in the water. All this for a soup in which the fin lends no taste, only texture, and is simply a status symbol in Asian countries. It was prized amongst the upper class as an expensive delicacy but as the Chinese middle class grew so did the demand for their own shark fin soup. This demand is what has caused the dramatic population decrease in such a top predator in the worlds oceans.

Finned Hammerhead Shark
(Image credit: http://www.madmermaids.com/)

As an apex predator in many marine ecosystems, the widespread population declines can spell disaster for the balance of life in these regions. Species are all interconnected in a vast food web that sees everything from the smallest bacteria influencing something as massive as a great white shark. When members of this web are removed it throws off the balance causing wide spread consequences. Examples of this have been seen all over the world. In Yellowstone National Park the culling of grey wolves caused population explosions of coyotes and elk. The increased coyote populations caused a decline in pronghorn antelope populations, threatening to extirpate them. The greater number of elk started killing off the aspen saplings, shrinking the forests and reducing large portions of the park to grasslands. However, once the grey wolf was reintroduced, the coyote and pronghorn populations stabilized and the aspen stands began expanding again. In a more shark relevant case, the collapse of the eastern Atlantic scallop fisheries were brought on by the reduction in shark populations. As great shark numbers were reduced in part by finning and sport fishing, the cownose ray populations began to steadily increase. These rays primarily feed on shellfish and with an ever growing and unstressed population they drastically reduced the scallop fishery to the point of collapse. It's just like jenga, if you pull out a major structural brick, everything falls.

However, some good news has popped up in Toronto, Ontario. Yesterday the city council voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of shark fins thus imposing massive fines on anyone who does so. It is a good first step towards a nationwide ban but many more Canadian cities have to jump on board. Vancouver seems to be the next logical step with such a strong Asian community but as of now there is still no ban in the works. All this being said the solution lies not only in the banning of shark fin around the world, but also in the dispelling of the myths and stigmas associated with sharks and educating people about them. Things like tiger penis and rhino horns have been banned for decades yet the illegal poaching and trading still occurs to this day because there is a demand for them for medicinal purposes. Like these other rare and endangered animal parts, shark fin is said to increase ones sexual potency, reduce cholesterol, and prevent heart disease. These medicinal claims and the fact they are used as status symbols are the reason such poaching and harvesting still occurs. By dispelling the social status and false traditional claims in tandem with bans we may yet be able to halt the declines of such species and rehabilitate them. After all we have much more to lose through the extinction of such ancient and key species than we could ever possibly hope to gain through a bowl of soup.

iphonetography Two: Spirit Magpies

2011-10-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

Many people have heard of Spirit Bears, a subspecies of the common American Black Bear (Ursus americanus kermodei), that inhabits mainly parts of Alaska and coastal B.C. It's ghostly white fur is the result of a recessive allele that is quite abundant in the individuals found in these regions. Thanks largely to the local aboriginal peoples reverence for it, it has survived with a population numbering into several hundred. Here in Edmonton we have our own spirit animals, ghostly white and grey magpies. Due to a genetic defect that affects melanin distribution in their feathers they have a sombre grey colouring rather than the usual black and blue iridescence. Although they appear to be albinos, they lack characteristics that would make that completely true. The magpie's genetic defect only partially restricts the distribution of black pigments still allowing some to be deposited. However, a true albino has no pigment deposition and would be completely white. The defect also seems to allow for the deposition of melanin in the eyes allowing for the usual black colouration instead of an albino's characteristic red. Without any colouration or sheen these monochromatic birds almost look out of place in our vibrant world. During the summer I was lucky enough to photograph two of these rare birds on two separate occasions with my iphone. We used to only be able to relegate rare and unexpected sightings to the depths of our memories, now I can just put them in a "my photos" folder.

I was riding my bike at a rather quick pace when I noticed this bird scouring the field next to me. At first my peripherals betrayed me and I thought it was just another magpie but then I noticed its colouring. I slammed on my breaks and managed to get back to it in time to snap a couple of quick photos before it noticed me and quickly lifted off.

This is actually the second ghost magpie I have seen in the city. The first one is shown below and was much lighter in colour than the one pictured above. I saw them several kilometres apart in different parts of the city.

I was walking to a Second Cup one morning when I spotted this individual. I would have never noticed it had it not been for its colour. It was so silent you could have sworn it was actually a ghost slowly pacing paving stones of this courtyard. It was foraging right at my feet but every time I took its photo the pale feather's reflected the sun, making it look more pale and spectral than ever.

Of course after all these poetic notions of ghosts and spirits had crossed my mind it turned to me, gazed up, and screeched in usual magpie fashion before silently lifting off into the trees.

According to the Royal Alberta Museum, these are two of six individuals that live in the Edmonton area. Magpies like this have reportedly been seen here since the 1940's suggesting that these individuals that we see today are all descended from one individual who first displayed the defect over 60 years ago! Who knows, maybe one day we could have a new subspecies here in Edmonton, Pica hudsonia edmontonei.

iphonetography One: The Farm

2011-10-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

These were some photos that I dug out of my iphone of my Grandfather's farm outside of Tomahawk, Alberta which is about 100 km southwest of Edmonton. I took them while I was out there over a particularly rainy weekend in July. This is the area that him and his family grew up on almost 80 years ago. They used to own 6 quarter sections of land (about 960 acres) and grew a variety of crops and raised many different species of livestock. A lot has changed but you would hardly know by looking at these photos.

My Great Grandparent's property was divided into two by this road. It was just a muddy path when he was growing up. The 3 quarter sections on the right were sold off but the 3 quarter sections on the left still belong to my grandfather and his siblings. The original house my grandfather grew up in still stands amidst a swath of trees way off in the distance.

This is the shack where my grandparents stay when they come to work on the gardens. It used to be the old milk pasteurizing shack before it got carted over to this part of the property. It's a little longer than the truck and about twice as wide. Cozy.

This is the scariest building on the property. Any fear of spiders I have retained into my adulthood are thanks to the summer months spent out here having to use that outhouse.

I once found a jar of what I can only assume was once some sort of canned vegetable underneath that tool shed. I now know what well preserved 50 year old botulism looks like. This is also the den of the ancient lawnmower I will show you later on.

One of the two old grain silos that dot the property. I think it would make a great brewery.

My Grandfather collects rainwater and stores it in this machine shed. There used to be a tractor in there but now there are just dozens of buckets of water waiting to be used in the dry weeks. Along side those buckets are also the dead husks of lawnmowers that just didn't make the cut. (Ooooo bad pun)

The view past the machine shed. I could get lost in the long grass when I was young.

The view past the tool shed. The trees on the left mark the path of a long dried up creek bed.

As always with the farm, there is much work to be done. That day was no exception. My old red nemesis emerged from its den in the tool shed and knew that it would once again be used to mow the entirety of the farm clearing. Wondering about the piece of plywood it's resting on? Its the only way to start the damn thing. The blades can't get going fast enough to start it if its started on grass.

Now Woodward's was bought out by the Hudson's bay company in 1993. So at the very least this lawnmower is nearly 20 years old. However, my grandfather has assured me it was bought when my mom's mom still worked there, being in the 1960s. As old as it is, it has obviously outlasted the 5 (less than 20 year old) models of Toro that are now entombed in the machine shed.

This is what a weed whacker looks like at the farm. And I thought the mowing took a long time.

The second garden is tucked behind a stand of forest. My grandfather has randomly planted a variety of different trees in here, everything from cherry and plum trees to spruce. In the lower right of the picture a small brook has sprung up because of heavy rains. A lot of the garden was washed away by torrential rains or crushed by falling trees.

Mushrooms sprung up in abundance all along the overgrown path to the second garden. As my Grandfather took this fine specimen from me and put it in his pocket he shook his head and said, "your Baba will enjoy this". It is well known in the family that I don't like mushrooms.

This is the door into the shack where my grandparents live when they come out here. If there really was a doorway to the past, this would be it.

Once that door is open, this is what lies inside. It hasn't changed since I was just a few years old and I don't think it even changed much before that. No electricity, no water, just a kerosene lamp on the shelf and whatever water is in that milk jug on the table. Many a meal of hearty soup, eggs, and home-made bread have been spent around that table with the only sounds being rich conversation and the creaking of the old floorboards.

Sometimes I swear the entire farm was built for this wood stove. I have memories of my Grandmother working tirelessly in front of it for hours during the hot summer days. She would fry up thick cut, farm-grown potatoes with rich cream and freshly picked dill that would permeate the shack with a hint of the ever present smell of wood smoke. During the winters my Grandfather and I would warm water and ourselves while using the shack as a home base for our Christmas tree expeditions. The last (and only time) my sister came along on one of these treks she spent the majority of the time warming her feet in the oven.

A lot has changed over 80 years. There is no more 5 mile walk to the school house through farm and woodland. The trees and original forest have been reduced to a fraction of their original size giving way to the fields that gave my great grandparents their livelihood. The creeks that once ran across the property have been dried up for decades; the hydrogeology of the entire area changed by overzealous oil well drilling. There is a coal gasification project starting up on one of the quarter sections nearby and an oil well is in desperate need of reclamation on one of of the quarter sections my great uncles and aunts own. Despite all of this little has changed on my Grandfather's farm. He has always been slow to change and never one to keep up with the technological rat race. He has preserved a way of living out on this farm that isn't that much different from when his parents settled it in the 1930's. He doesn't use pesticides or fertilizers, all seeds are sown and harvested by hand, there is no electricity, and any machinery (if it ever is used) is used until it absolutely cannot go any further (hence the 50 year old lawnmower). And yet every year he grows enough local "organic" produce to last himself and my grandmother throughout the entire year. He even has a good amount extra to spare for the rest of us. Some of the best memories that I have from my childhood will always be spent back in the 1930's and 40's. The only tell that times have actually changed when I'm on that farm are a couple of old lawnmowers and the clothes I'm wearing.

iphonetography

2011-10-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

So I was looking through some of the photos that I had stored on my iphone and decided to post some of the ones that I thought were either interesting, curious, or just plain strange. I've gradually accumulated about 200 or so throughout the course of the past 8 months that I have owned my iphone. A lot of them have to do with nature, some with cooking, others with places that I've been and others that are just completely random. It's just completely amazing that I had taken all these photos and then promptly forgot about them. These were obviously instances that I found a picture was justified but then not enough to do anything with it afterwards. It makes me wonder how many other people's cellphones and cameras have a plethora of un-viewed and forgotten pictures that are snapshots of a very temporarily important time.

John Lee Pettimore (Sr.) Would Be Proud

2011-09-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

Autumn has arrived in Edmonton. The winds have picked up and golden yellow leaves are being shed at an alarming rate. Any attempt at stealth is being ruined by the constant crunching of the fallen and my daily bike rides through the streets have gained an amazing amount of percussion. Soon enough this honeymoon period of fall will be over and the warmish days will fade into cold. Snow will blanket the once green and now gold ground and the view from my window will be reduced to a crude Jackson Pollock painting of dark branches criss-crossing a dull grey sky. Sigh... but I should hold my head high. Winter isn't here yet and the fall has brought some joys. One of those is a not so long standing tradition started up by the falling of apples rather than leaves.

Each September (at least since last September) a couple of friends and myself have been picking apples, juicing them and then fermenting them to make hard cider. Its a great excuse to use up a massive amount of fruit that would otherwise be wasted from a variety of trees in our close vicinity. There's nothing quite like the taste of a crisp, carbonated cider on a cold fall evening with which you had a hand in making. Although, for some reason, I always think of the end product of that process as looking a little something like this:

[A tip for the wise; when searching for a picture of what is now apparently referred to as a "growler", never type any combination of "x's" or "jugs" into your search engine.]

Unfortunately, as much as I can imagine myself sitting in the middle of the woods in blue overalls and a straw hat with my only companions being a banjo and a still, the cider we make probably won't be more than 7% alcohol volume. If we wanted to make some moonshine we would need the aforementioned still... I think I have found a project for over the winter...

The reason I enjoy making cider so much is because it's made from scratch. Since February I've been doing a lot of brewing of beer but I've done it all from a kits. I mean our beer has always been good (knock on wood... I've got a couple of batches going right now) but that's mostly because the entirety of the hard part is done for us. The wort is already premade which is one of the hardest ingredients to perfect. It is quite a long and arduous process that involves the steeping of grains, sparging, separation of all the particulates, boiling, and chilling. All WE basically do is mix the kit and add yeast, switching it from container to container from time to time. I mean don't get me wrong, it's not without its challenges and opportunities for creative nuances but there is something to be said about holding the apple in your left hand then 6 weeks later holding a mug of chilled cider in your right. Knowing that the apples came from our trees out back and that we cut and juiced them adds not only a large supply of tasty cider to our fridges but also a great amount of satisfaction of a job well done from the very start to finish.

I think my next "start from scratch" tradition will be the making of dandelion wine every summer "same as my daddy and his daddy before..."

(Extra props if you know where John Lee Pettimore and that last quotation are from! Cheers!)

Stumbling Upon Stellar Nucleosynthesis

2011-09-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

"Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life - weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today."

-Lawrence Krauss

Thanks to a friend of mine, I've recently been using this website called "stumbleupon" to browse the Internet. The premise is so simple. You sign up for it, click off topics you deem interesting and click a button. Instantly it brings up a morsel of intrigue. It's completely random. In my case it could be a photo from the Hubble Space Telescope, a playlist of "chilling out" music, or a video on how to open a beer bottle with a twenty dollar bill. Unfortunately it's addictive. Extremely addictive. Like taking one bite out of a bowl full of pho or eating a sole piece of sushi. One just doesn't cut it. I don't sleep much these days. Especially since, as always, there is an app for that.

I stumbled upon this quote the other day and I don't know if I have ever heard a better or more mesmerizing description of stellar nucleosynthesis. I should have written that on my Geochemistry final.

Here's a link to stumble upon if you don't have it yet:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Quoth The Crow: Soak Up The Sun

2011-07-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

I am being taunted. For the 5th time in two days I have had to endure "Soak Up The Sun" by Sheryl Crow playing over the office radio. Today the sky was an uninterrupted ocean of blue with the sun ever so gently caressing my face, evaporating the coffee stained drool from the sides of my lips. Sadly Sheryl, despite the magnificent day thrust before me, I had payroll to do so I can not soak up the sun as much as I would have liked to. Luckily, my Swedish Ivy, Templeton, is doing that for me. (I also have a bird's nest sansevieria named Roland Tembo but he prefers the shade)

Templeton

For those of you who don't listen to Joe FM 8 hours a day, 5 days a week allow me to enlighten you on the length of their playlist; it is about 50 songs long, give or take. I know the entire melodical and lyrical content of several of these songs without knowing their title or even who wrote them. These songs, long ago lost and forgotten under the shroud of horrible 80's music, have been given new life to claw and eat my brain out from the inside. Thanks Joe.

Well at least they seemed to have exhausted "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". For now.

Speaking of soaking up the sun, all the illusive autotrophs around Edmonton have fully sprung into life thanks to the recent massive bout of rain. Everything from the lowliest yellow dandilion stalk to the great bows of the elm, all are adorned with lush green leaves furiously photosynthesising before this short season is done. For the first time in the six months since I started my job I can look out the window and see green leaves mapped out on a blue sky. This is an extreme contrast to the previous eight months of Edmonton winter in which naked branches criss-crossed a grey sky in similar fashion to a Jackson Pollock painting. With all these branches encrusted in leaves so green and bright, this is the perfect time to try out a new app that I downloaded for my iphone. The app is called "Leafsnap" and basically identifies trees based on photographs of leaves that you take. It is a fun app to play around with and, once a leaf is identified, it can even show you the bark, fruits, flowers and other distinguishing characteristics of the tree you might not normally notice. This last part is especially crucial because when the app identifies a leaf, it usually gives you about 10-25 different results because, lets face it, some leaves look extremely similar. Using all of the characteristics and evidence before you, you can usually get the tree down to one specific species. The only other downside is that you'll need to put the leaf on a white background in order for it to identify. Unless you always have a piece of white paper with you it might just be better to grab one leaf and wait till you get home to identify it.

Today I leave you with a photo of Roland Tembo, the bird's nest sansevieria that inhabits my desk. If you actually know who it's named after without typing it into google I'm impressed; you might be just as nerdy as me.

Roland Tembo

"Remember that chap about twenty years ago? I forget his name. Climbed Everest without any oxygen, came down nearly dead. When they asked him, they said why did you go up there to die? He said I didn't, I went up there to live."

-Roland Tembo

The Basment Sparrow

2011-06-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Solstice!

The whirlwind of summer has quickly taken hold here and has caught me by surprise. I have become restless and anxious to feel the touch of the suns rays upon my pale skin. Years of landscaping and other outdoor work have conditioned my body to expect a farmers tan by around mid-June. As a result I have been working furiously in an attempt to get outside and stockpile as much vitamin D as possible for our next 7 months of winter. I have also been really distracted as of late. It was a lot easier to sit around and read various articles and books when it was cold and wet outside. Now I just pine to be doing something beyond the walls of my basement. That being said with all the rain in Edmonton this past week I am surprised I wasn't forced from my basement by rising water levels. Although my place of residence remains dry (knock on wood), my place of work has become inundated with the rainwater that has saturated the soil. My wish to once again take up the mantle of a general labourer in favor of sunshine and nature has been temporarily granted (albeit without sunshine and the only nature to speak of are the drowned husks of basement spiders and one frantic basement sparrow*). I spent all day Monday removing soggy cardboard boxes, bailing water, and being constantly paranoid of another dive bombing sparrow. As strong as the sense of nostalgia was there is nothing quite like bloated spiders and mildew to remind me of why I should appreciate what I do now.

*SIDE NOTE [The basement sparrow is a new and fascinating species that I will call Passer cella; common name "Basement sparrow". It is a close relative of Passer domesticus or the "House Sparrow". It shares most behavioral and physical characteristics with its close cousin the House sparrow other than the truly unique behavioral trait: "scaring the living shit out of Sean".] Seriously though, a sparrow got trapped in the basement of my office and when we attempted to start vacuuming up the water we spooked it and it inadvertently began fluttering above our heads in a rather frantic fashion. Screams reminiscent of a little girl filled the house until I finally regained control of my bladder and let the less terrified of the two of us outside.

Upon cleaning up further I found a large container of insecticide that had been spared from the water. This coupled with my unexpected bird sighting reminded me of a book that I am currently reading entitled "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. At almost 50 years old it discusses the dangers of pesticide use and the reverberating consequences they have on the organisms and the ecosystems they live in. This book was instrumental in the banning of pesticides such as DDT, bringing to light the evidence that they kill and punish indiscriminately regardless of trophic level or target organism. Through a process called biomagnification it is possible for a pesticide not only to destroy a target insect or plant but to effect everything within the immediate (and sometimes non-immediate) vicinity. In the case of DDT it was sprayed on elm trees in the 1950s to control the spread of Dutch Elm Disease by killing off the beetles that spread the fungus from tree to tree. Once the tree shed its leaves in the fall, the DDT would concentrate in the decaying leaf litter and would be eaten and decomposed by organisms such as earthworms. The DDT would not immediately kill the earthworms but rather would be stored within the worm's tissues steadily building up to greater and greater concentrations. Upon the arrival of spring, robins descend upon the dew-covered early morning lawns to feed on the worms close to the surface. For each worm the robin ate they would get a dose of DDT that would be stored in their tissues. A robin probably eats several dozen worms a day, every day, while also feeding much of it to their young chicks. This slowly entrenches more toxins within their systems as well as within the systems of their young or even within their unborn eggs. Eventually the concentration in their bodies reaches a tipping point where their normal processes cease to function properly. The results can range from reproductive defects and infertility, to the inability to fly, to seizures and eventually even death. As populations of not only robins but various other species of song birds began to sharply decline the trees were no longer accompanied by the their graceful harmonies; hence, a silent spring.

Rachel Carson's book inspired an environmental movement that rallied against the indiscriminate spraying of toxins without knowing their full effects. To this day we don't know what repercussions the chemicals we have blanked our fields and cities in will have on us down the road. A mosquito may feel the consequences of DDT nearly instantaneously, a robin maybe several years, and for a human it could take a lifetime. It is now known that these things do have ill effects on not only human health but also on bystander species who are just in what WE consider the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like asbestos proved to be a health concern decades after it was first implemented, pesticides have and will again rear their ugly heads further along our species' life histories. After all, if we can't live and learn, learning from the death of something else seems to work just as well.

And Chattering Pies in Discord Sung [Part 2]

2011-04-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I meant to post this yesterday (April 26th) but was temporarily distracted by game seven between Vancouver and Chicago. I'm pretty sure I could hear the massive sigh of relief all the way out here in Edmonton when they scored that overtime goal. Congratulations Vancouver! Hopefully the next series goes a little bit better. On to magpies!

Happy (belated) 226 Birthday John James Audubon! What an excellent day to reveal some characteristics and facts about magpies that make them truly unique among birds in Canada! For anyone who doesn't know, Audubon was a French-American naturalist, ornithologist, and painter who captured many birds behaviour and physiology in realistic and scientifically accurate paintings. His paintings of many birds, both rare and some now extinct have inspired many conservation efforts. So in honour of his contributions to biology and fine art I offer up a few reasons why magpies should be respected or at least not shot on sight.

1. High Intelligence

Magpies and their Corvid relatives are the most intelligent of all the birds. They have cognitive abilities that rival those of the elephants, dolphins and even the great apes making them among the most intelligent animals on the planet. They display great prowess in problem solving, tool-making, social structuring, and even self awareness. This is partly due to their large brains as well as their disposition towards forming hierarchal social groups. Social organisms are often more intelligent than solitary ones. In order to be a member of a social group, the individual must possess the mental capacity to realize their own standing within a group as well as those around them. Not only that they must be able to understand their roles and privileges that go along with their social standing in order to be a productive member of the group. These groups also offer the opportunity to learn from one another. Certain behaviours such as tool making (apparent in New Caledonian Crows) or the creation of food caches can be shared amongst individuals in a group through observation rather than simply from parent to young. This horizontal transfer of behaviours allows a group of individuals to become as a whole more adapted to their surrounds and thus more successful and able to propagate more readily. Another social interaction that is extremely valuable especially in young of a group is play. The ability to learn new skills in play between several individuals allows for trial and error without devastating consequences. Ravens, magpies and crows can often be seen jousting with one another mid flight or chasing each other on the ground playing various games. Games like "king of the hill" and "keep away" have been observed in many species of corvids. This play allows them to learn and to adapt quickly to situations and are what separate magpies and corvids from many other birds and many other organisms.

Self awareness is a tricky thing; though not thoroughly understood it is thought by many to be a precursor to consciousness and sentience. In order to test for this, scientists place red and yellow dots on a specimen in areas that cannot readily be seen if they were to scan their own body. They then take the animal and place it in front of a mirror. If the animal acts hostile towards its reflection then it not self aware and cannot determine that the reflection in the mirror is themselves. If the animal instead notices the dot through the use of its own reflection then it is said to be self aware and able to determine that the reflection is themselves. The video below shows the response of a European magpie to the mirror test.

This test has a very high percentage of failure and the only ones known to have passed this test are the great apes, rhesus monkeys, orcas, dolphins, and elephants, and the European Magpie.

2. The Magpie Funeral

Mindless cacophonic tormenter + implied burial ritual = shock and awe? (And maybe a dash of intrigue and splash of creepy adoration?)

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it myself, but people have reported seeing magpies gathering in large groups around the bodies of fallen comrades. My own experience with a magpie funeral was during a vertebrate zoology course about a year and a half ago. Our teaching assistant, with boom box on shoulder and stuffed magpie under arm, led a small group of us out into a moderately wooded section of the university campus. The stuffed bird was delicately placed in the centre of a small clearing and the boom box was cued up. The entire forest began to ring with the shrill cries of a magpie in distress. We waited intently and watched as the trees surrounding the clearing began to fill with magpies. One by one they would swoop from tree to tree until about a half dozen solemnly perched themselves in the pine and elm trees surrounding the clearing. For a moment they all paused as if observing a moment of silence before one descended down from a large pine and began hopping around the stuffed corpse. It did this several times, pausing on occasion to look and poke the feathers gingerly before quickly darting back up into a tree. No sooner had its feet left the ground before a second magpie dove down and continued the apparent ritual. Once all of the magpies had paid their last respects they dispersed, leaving the body where it lay. Other people have reported that they have observed the magpies leaving grass or twigs near the body and that crows and ravens (other corvid species) also seem to have these rudimentary funeral rites. While I never observed these apparent "gifts" to the departed nor other corvids performing rites, what I did observe was like nothing I have ever seen.

*Aside - I realised that while writing this I was guilty of anthropomorphism; I am giving these magpies definite human characteristics. No one actually knows what they are thinking, or why they exhibit these behaviours. These "funerals" could be some form of autopsy, some social behaviour not yet understood, or just simple curiosity. But we do know that magpies can have a hierarchal social structure, and that they, along with their corvid relatives, are highly intelligent. Is it so hard to believe that emotions could be responsible for this behaviour and that emotions have evolved in magpies just like us? Feelings of joy and misery obviously have some sort of evolutionary significance since we perceive and convey them in our day to day lives. Either way the behaviours display a high degree of intelligence and that should be something that is respected regardless of the true motivation behind it.

3. It's not their fault

Seriously, it isn't. People think that killing them will solve all of their problems and chase them away. The truth is that people have tried that with a lot of different "pest" species and it doesn't work. Think about how many people nearly destroy their lawns trying to kill ants and dandelions every year, or how many people tear apart their houses to get at mice and cockroaches. It just doesn't work. They always seem to come back unless we use some sort of chemical that makes our own homes and yards toxic and dangerous. These animals are attracted to our houses and the areas around them because they are a suitable habitat. And this is our fault. Magpies don't inhabit the trees in our yards out of spite, they do so because the tree is sheltered, or because a person leaves garbage or compost or even pet food outside (this is the reason why they bully pets!). If you really don't want magpies in your yard, don't feed your pets outside, clean up food scraps, and cover garbage and compost bins. They are not going to set up shop in your yard if it isn't lucrative for them. They are scavengers and we create a lot of refuse that they take advantage of. A torn bag of kitchen garbage in the city is always going to be preferable to magpie over being out in the woods eluding predators and scavenging. By constructing our urban centres we have created a new ecological niche that something has come to fill. We create huge volumes of waste and, like many pest species, they are just cleaning up after us so like it or not magpies are here to stay.

UPDATE: Wrapped in Mother's Loving Arms...

2011-04-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

A miracle of nature occurred about two weeks ago, shortly after I got home from work. Conception took place under the careful instruction and watchful eyes of my partner's uncle. Soon after we celebrated and gleefully anticipated our first trimester. I, of course, am talking about the primary fermentation of our "Canadian Lager" and, for those of you skimming this, the home brewing of beer.

I dove into the science and methods of brewing for one of my previous posts and this resulted in the logical progression of brewing my own beer. So far it has been quite the challenge finding the right temperatures and the right timing in order to produce something that won't give me botulism poisoning (and hopefully will taste palatable enough to drink). The first born is due sometime in the next month while its slightly younger brother was conceived just a week ago. The newest addition to the family will be a red ale just to add a bit of variety.

The process begins with a primary fermentation period (or first trimester) wherein the yeast vigorously ferments the wort (the malt-sugar mixture). Just prior to this stage an initial specific gravity is taken to determine the starting sugar content. This first trimester lasts for about 4-7 days depending on the temperature of the mixture (between about 19 and 24 degrees Celsius). The second trimester or secondary fermentation occurs inside of a glass carboy for about 2 weeks where it continues to ferment although much less violently. Just before transferring the beer to bottles or a keg a final specific gravity measurement is taken. The difference between the initial and the final specific gravities is what determines the alcohol percentage. Basically the specific gravity measurements determine how much sugar there was in the mixture originally and how much remains once the majority of fermentation is complete. The greater the difference between starting amount of sugar and remaining sugar means a higher alcohol content whereas a smaller difference means lower alcohol content. Just before the beer is bottled, more sugar is added to start up the carbonation process. Too much and the bottles explode, too little and the beer is flat. After about 4 to 6 weeks cooped up in the bottle, your beer is born ready to delight and entice you!

Brewing my own beer has also brought some unexpected side benefits. Not only will I have ice cold beer by the time patio season rolls around (I will delight in toasting the death of winter) but the spent yeast can be used to bake fantastic bread. The dough rises at an alarming rate; so much so that we had to split it into two baking pans where even then it continued to rise. When it came out of the oven it was fluffy and warm with just the right amount of crust on the edges. It had a slight bitterness to it, much like beer, and was fantastic served with butter, jam, meats, cheeses, and just about everything else!

I guess the moral of the story is that brewing your own beer is a very good alternative to simply buying it at your local liquor store. It takes a bit of work, a dash of time, and a bit of a cost up front, but the more you brew the better you get at it and the more money you save. The whole set-up cost us about 250 dollars. This includes a primary fermenter, 2 carboys, 95 re-sealable bottles, and all of the measuring and transferring equipment. I realize it is a bit expensive at first but after that it is only a matter of purchasing the beer kits which cost about 30 dollars apiece. All of the equipment is reusable once it is cleaned and sterilized so make sure your friends don't throw out those bottles. Oh and I forgot to mention that each kit brews about 23 litres of beer. That equals about 66 regular sized bottles or about 5 twelve packs and a six pack. Depending on the beer you buy that can cost anywhere from 100 to 150 dollars. That means that each batch you brew saves you between 70 and 120 dollars which goes towards paying off that initial start-up cost. You'll break even really quickly and if you get a good rhythm going you will have a constant supply of beer to drink throughout the year! It's cheap, easy, and is a sustainable method of producing a cold brew to enjoy in any season!

Cheers!

And Chattering Pies in Dismal Cords Sung [Part 1]

2011-03-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

I had a feeling that "loathe" might have been a strong word, but after talking to several people it seems to be a rather mild summation of their feelings.

Now here is another one for everyone who really hates magpies:

I will let these polls sit for a little while and hopefully get a bit of response. I realize I probably don't have the readership for a survey but even if my 5 followers would cast their votes, that would be excellent! In a week or so I will post another article that will hopefully teach you something about these birds and maybe even dispel some of the negativity that surrounds them and their other relatives in the Corvid family.

The Eyes of the Beer Holder

2011-03-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Picture a desert, the sun baked earth with polygonal cracks rupturing around a stereotypical pure white skeleton of an ungulate. Heat rises off of the scorched sand creating mirages that turn the near lifeless landscape into a house of mirrors. Let’s throw in a couple of cacti just to round out the mental image. Actually, maybe not; I want to convey the complete and total lack of water in this desiccated environment. Now imagine, like many animated characters before you, that this wasteland is on your tongue. This was the problem faced by a friend of mine a couple of days ago when he was returning home from work. Upon opening the fridge he was faced with a dilemma: an ice cold root beer or one of the alcoholic variety. Now as thirsty as he was, the decision inspired a question: which one of these is technically “better” for you?

Reading into his query he discovered the usual array of facts about the health concerns of pop and beer. Soda pop is heralded as a harbinger of disease to many children and youth, causing spiking diabetes rates and obesity in many countries. In a single can of root beer there are usually about 140 calories and 40 grams of sugar. If you compare this to the actual weight of a full can (about 240 grams) this equates to about 1/6 of the can being pure sugar. Considering that many kids preferentially drink more soda pop than milk or even water, you can see why this is an ever growing epidemic. Replacing nutrient rich or essential fluids with ones laden in glycemic loading carbohydrates not only deprives children of nutrients needed to grow, but can disease them in the process. My interest was again peaked when my friend moved on to discuss his findings on beer. It seems once you wade past all of the hundreds of articles strictly focused on the beer gut shaping calories or the dangers of alcohol consumption in general, you are left with another shocking issue: the retention of pesticides in the finished product.

Now, whether you want to produce the sharp bitterness of an India Pale Ale, the crisp, clean taste of a Pale Lager or the rich, potent flavour of a Stout, you need barley (or some grain) and hops. Out of all of the major cereal grains barley is the most commonly used due to its high enzyme content and the ability to retain its seed husk. This outer shell protects the sprouting embryo during the malting process and also inhibits the growth of fungi. Hops are another integral part of the brewing process giving beer its distinct tang. They also act as a natural preservative, having a moderate antibacterial effect and facilitating the growth of yeast. As with many highly commercialized crops, companies deem it important to ensure both a high yield and purity therefore using large amounts of fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides. Many of these pesticides can be harmful to people and some have even been shown to survive the brewing process, being retained in the husks of the barley and the flesh of the hops and passed into the final product. These massive commercial fields are sprayed with massive amounts of these chemicals which impact not only the target species but many incidental species as well. 15 million birds alone are thought to die every year from poisoning due to the application of agrochemicals. Imagine the sheer number of native species of plants, insects, and other organisms in and around these fields suffering similar fates. A second major issue of the rampant use of pesticides is the evolutionary arms race that it feeds. This is the fool’s errand of agrochemical companies. An agrochemical company can develop a pesticide that can wipe out 99.99% of specific individuals in a certain area for 15 years but eventually that 0.01% proliferates. They pass on that one gene that allowed them to survive and they come back in even greater numbers, reaping the entirety of a crop until the company produces another more potent concoction. This cycle continually repeats itself as more dangerous chemicals and compounds have to be resorted to in order to keep the pest populations down. The problem is that the ability for individuals to evolve and adapt to their surrounding is nearly infinite, however our ability to produce chemical after chemical that will not have serious and adverse consequences has already repeatedly been shown to be limited. The uncontrolled use of pesticides is already having a drastic impact on the environment around us and it is only a matter of time before we are affected more substantially. That beer in your hand might be safe for now but who knows what will be in it in 35 years.

If you love beer (like I do) there are many options to be a bit more environmentally conscious when choosing a beer. First it always helps to buy from a local microbrewery. Not only does it support innovation and local business but also cuts down the distance that that beer has to travel from the field to your fridge. Second, organic beers are always a good choice if you want to cut down on your intake of agrochemical compounds. Luckily they are starting to become more prevalent in the beer drinker’s world. A few questions at your local liquor store can easily land you a tasty organic beer. If you live in the Edmonton area, Alley Kat brewing Company has the Charlie Flint Lager which is excellent and brewed with organically grown barley and hops. I personally like India Pale Ales and am a huge fan of their Full Moon Pale Ale. I would strongly recommend anyone to go down to their brewery on 99 street and 60 avenue and have a few tasters at their bar set up. Here are also a few other beers to look into, all Canadian microbreweries and all amazing. I can find most of them here in Edmonton, so chances are you can find them where ever you are.

Cheers!

Alley Kat
Mill Street
Steam Whistle

Polyethylene Dreams

2011-03-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

So I was sitting at my desk today, drooling ever so slightly out of the corner of my mouth, staring into my calendar's January image of a pristine tropical resort. As I snapped out of my self-induced coma I scanned over the vast array of things strewn upon my desk. To all of you who know me well this personalized mayhem comes as no surprise (Note: I also realize that it is now March and have adjusted my calendar accordingly. Sadly, the weather did not change as easily as Thailand to Tanzania). What amazed me was the one thing that almost every item within my immediate fallout zone had in common. Before I tell you, first allow me to list the variety of things on my desk: 8 pens, a calculator, two computer monitors, a keyboard, two plants (one bamboo and one Swedish ivy), a telephone, a stapler, my car keys, a pair of scissors, two paper coffee cups (one from Tim Horton's and one from Second Cup) and a creepy gift bag (beautifully adorned with several "big bucks" and trimmed with hunting camouflage). Better yet, just have a look at this picture:

Now let's play "One of these things is not like the other" but I'll give you a hint; this item could be gifted to someone who knows what a "mulie" is. Any takers?

.....and it's the red-neck gift bag. Normally it resides shamefully behind the monitors but for the sake of the picture I temporarily released it from its exile. Other than the plethora of post-it notes, it is the only thing that is not made out of or contains plastic. All of the other things listed share this quality. I mean even my black desk top is a matte, textured plastic slab. There is so much plastic in this single picture and most of it is technically disposable. Those coffee cups and their lids, that plastic pot for the plant, all of those pens, even the calculator, phone and computers. All of these items are thrown away into landfills on a regular basis. I mean for such an incredibly durable and useful substance we sure waste a lot of it. Petroleum based plastic and all of its various "species" can last hundreds if not thousands of years, almost indestructible by nature, only being broken down by a generous amount of heat or light. Even then most of the plastic in landfills and the ocean are hidden well beyond the reach of their Achilles Heals. I'll bet you the first plastic cup ever thrown out is still down there somewhere, a lonely relic preserved underneath some park land or golf course. Unfortunately, even if it survived for millions of years, it won't just biodegrade into a fresh new well of oil. Once its constituent component, petroleum, is dug up and refined it cannot be utilized in the same way, making it the non-renewable resource that it is.

My point is that it takes a lot of oil and gas not only to manufacture all of these disposable plastics, but a lot to transport it from various manufacturing facilities to distribution centres to our homes. We suffer high gas prices just to fill up our cars, we risk environmental degradation just to locate more, and arguably, we even fight wars to secure it. All this and yet it is such a disposable aspect of our lives. We buy plastic products protected by Styrofoam and wrapped in plastic. When we're done we throw it all away banishing it to the bottom of a landfill or relegating it to swirl around in an oceanic plastic maelstrom for thousands of years. We created this material 150 years ago and only mass produced it for the past 60 years and the natural world has no idea what to do with it. Plastic will not simply biodegrade, it cannot be digested, and like the albatross chicks in Midway Atoll, it will keep on building up within the delicate systems of the world and eventually cause them to choke. I'm not waging a war on plastics and I don't think they should be completely phased out, but they need to be controlled, managed, recycled, and alternatives must be found and implemented.

I'm going to leave you with "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" originally done sometime between 1829 and 1832 by Katsushika Hokusai. This version with a twist, entitled "Gyre", was done by Chris Jordan in 2009 in his "Running the Numbers" series. It illustrates the 2.4 million pounds of plastic that enter the world's oceans every hour using that many shards of plastic as the medium.

If you ever have some time to kill, I would strongly recommend checking out Chris Jordan's website. His artwork is unique; the use of statistics coupled with the very culprits of the problems he illustrates is both fascinating and disturbing. Remember to zoom in on the pictures!

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

2011-02-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

“And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow”

~Excerpt from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(Photo from Chris Jordan’s “Midway: Message from the Gyre”)

This image, one of many taken by photographer/artist Chris Jordan, shows a baby albatross skeleton, picked clean of all palatable substance, lying on the ground in Midway Atoll. At over 2000 miles from the nearest continent, Midway Atoll is a collection of small islands that serve as a primary breeding and nesting ground for a variety of sea birds. This includes almost 70% of the Layson Albatross and 35% of the Black-footed Albatross populations. With next to no human habitation and such isolation it is difficult to believe that bottle caps, disposable lighters and a plethora of other plastic fragments could find their way into the stomachs of these chicks. The albatross, among many other seabirds, are the victims of a human made phenomenon known as the Pacific Garbage Patch. Imagine a slurry of plastic fragments, everything from bottles to toilet seats to children’s toys, broken down into millimeter sized pieces comprising a flotsam the size of Texas. All these plastic items are nearly chemically invulnerable to natural processes, only fracturing into smaller and smaller pieces. Despite efforts to recycle and control the use of disposable plastics, it is estimated that over 2.4 million pounds enter the World’s oceans every hour. This plastic pollution floats around for several years before currents move it towards shores or trap it in one of the major gyres in the oceans. Sea birds, like the Layson Albatross, mistaken the floating detritus for something edible. The adults ingest a large quantity themselves before regurgitating some to feed their young. One third of these albatross chicks die due to the physical strain of large quantities of indigestible materials within their stomachs. However, It is not just the young albatross that are charged to carry this burden. Nearly every Layson Albatross carries with it at least one plastic relic from a landmass few of them will ever see. The shear breadth of our actions and consequences are demonstrated by how even a single plastic bottle cap can touch the most remote corners of the globe.

An Equidistant Point

2011-02-16T10:27:00.000-08:00

Imagine standing waist deep in a river. As you walk out into the current you can feel the weight of the water build against the small of your back, gently pushing you downstream. For now the movement is calm and pleasant, but each bend could hold a jagged rock or conceal vicious rapids. It is easier for us to go with the flow when there is no immediate danger, when we cannot be assured of significant threat. We can see only as far as that first bend which looks peaceful and safe. We carry on; blissfully ignorant of harm, only living in that single comfortable moment, floating on our backs in the emerald waters, basking in the warm glow of the sun. Most of us are born right into this river; there are no options as to whether or not we want to jump in. However, we have the choice of whether to go with the flow or to fight the current. It is much easier to lackadaisically float on but we risk significant harm downstream and the possibility that we will be too damaged to pull ourselves out. If we choose to resist, it takes much more effort but we can avoid the impending dangers and get out while the water is still calm. This river represents the environmental and societal dilemmas that many of us face on a daily basis. We are all in this river, and eventually we are all going to end up somewhere. Where that is and in what shape the shore looks like when we pull ourselves out depends on whether we choose to fight the current or go with it.

The Blue Marble

2011-02-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

The Blue Marble is a famous photograph taken by NASA astronauts in 1972 while on the last manned lunar mission. It was taken with human hands 45,000 km away from our home, a distance that has not been achieved by humans since. From this extraordinary vantage point, the photo shows a half of the Earth illuminated by the sun directly behind the camera. In that instance the Earth looks almost flawless; the rich brown of Africa floating lazily upon the blue ocean erupting from behind clouded seams. The simplicity of the image masks the true complexity of our biosphere and the near infinite interactions that occurred in the single millisecond that the photograph was taken. Beneath the glassy exterior there is a web of processes that engulf the entirety of the planet. Actions and reactions, beginnings and ends, consequences for every second played out pour over the surface. And we have a massive hand in this. Long before we took this picture, human hands have fundamentally changed the processes interwoven over the Earth. In this blog I want to explore those various actions, consequences, beginnings and ends within this dense fabric and how they all tie into one another. I aim to serve as a bit of a conduit but admittedly more so to satisfy my own selfish curiosities. If I can interest just one person with one post, I’ll be happy.