Groupers, a family of fishes often found in coral reefs and prized for their quality of flesh, are facing critical threats to their survival. As part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission, a team of scientists has spent the past ten years assessing the status of 163 grouper species worldwide. They report that 20 species (12%) are at risk of extinction if current overfishing trends continue, and an additional 22 species (13%) are Near Threatened. These findings were published online on April 28 in the journal Fish and Fisheries.

“Fish are one of the last animal resources commercially harvested from the wild by humans, and groupers are among the most desirable fishes,” said Dr. Luiz Rocha, Curator of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, and one of the paper’s authors. “Unfortunately, the false perception that marine resources are infinite is still common in our society, and in order to preserve groupers and other marine resources we need to reverse this old mentality.”

The team estimates that at least 90,000,000 groupers were captured in 2009. This represents more than 275,000 metric tonnes of fish, an increase of 25% from 1999, and 1600% greater than 1950 figures. The Caribbean Sea, coastal Brazil, and Southeast Asiaare home to a disproportionately high number of the 20 Threatened grouper species. (A species is considered “Threatened” if it is Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable under IUCN criteria.)

Groupers are among the highest priced market reef species (estimated to be a multi-billion dollar per year industry), are highly regarded for the quality of their flesh, and are often among the first reef fishes to be overexploited. Their disappearance from coral reefs could upset the ecological balance of these threatened ecosystems, since they are ubiquitous predators and may play a large role in controlling the abundance of animals farther down the food chain.

Unfortunately, groupers take many years (typically 5-10) to become sexually mature, making them vulnerable for a relatively long time before they can reproduce and replenish their populations. In addition, fisheries have exploited their natural behavior of gathering in great numbers during the breeding season. The scientists also conclude that grouper farming (mariculture) has not mitigated overfishing in the wild.

Although the prognosis is poor for the restoration and successful conservation of Threatened grouper species, the authors do recommend some courses of action, including optimizing the size and location of Marine Protected Areas, minimum size limits for individual fish, quotas on the amount of catch, limits on the number of fishers, and seasonal protection during the breeding season. However, the scientists stress that “community awareness and acceptance, and effective enforcement are paramount” for successful implementation, as well as “action at the consumer end of the supply chain by empowering customers to make better seafood choices.”

More information: http://dx.doi.org/ … 2011.00455.x

Provided by California Academy of Sciences (news : web)

A cute otter hanging out at Moss Landing State beach. I’d recommend going over here if you are visiting Santa Cruz or Monterey, It’s just a little turn off (you may want to get directions so you don’t miss it) But these otters are over here pretty much all the time, and there are seals too. It’s pretty awesome

Learning:

Learning activities are meant to introduce the concepts to your children and explain how things happen.  You can narrate after the activities (as our family does), or choose to use quizzes or assign writing projects.  Be flexible within your children’s abilities and age levels.

This is a very informative page on arthropods.  It breaks them down in to types and explains arthropods that are beneficial to humans and those to avoid!  Globio’s Arthropods

Berkeley has a wonderful page on arthropods!  It takes you through many different aspects and it’s very interactive.  Be sure to page through all of the activities.  The Arthropod Story (Interactive)

Suggested Reading:

What is an Arthropod?  (Science of Living Things)

Dirty Rotten Bugs: Arthropods Unite to Tell Their Side of the Story

Smithsonian.com Arthropods (a multitude of fascinating articles of arthropods found on planet earth)

Reinforcement Activities:

These activities are meant to be fun and reinforce some of the concepts from the learning section.  Sometimes they introduce new concepts.  Have fun!

Arthropod Information and Coloring Sheet

Which is an Arthropod? Game

Vocab:

For vocab, you have can children learn the definitions and spellings by heart, or shoot for familiarity.  The choice is yours!

1. arachnid
2. thorax
3. cephalothorax
4. crustacean
5. exoskeleton
6. tagmata
7. segmentation
8. insect (definition)
9. bilateral symmetry
10. myriapod

Add or substitute other vocab as your studies dictate.

Experiment/Hands-on:

Kids are going to naturally choose arthropods that interest them and this will lead to many interesting activities and side studies. This lesson plan is just to create a broad overview.  Choose a hands-on-project that suits your child’s interests and abilities.

1. Consider starting an insect collection.  This is an enjoyable hobby for children of all ages.  Adults too!

2. Create an original arthropod species with Legos, K’Nex, or other building materials.  Be sure to describe the characteristic of your new arthropod, it’s natural habitat, food, and to which class it would belong (insecta, crustacea, arachnida, diploda, or chilopoda).

Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.

Zoology Department, Faculty of Sciences, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Egypt.

Figure 1: The wet store for large fish at the NHM (Photographed with the permission of the Natural History Museum).

Today was my first day of a week long placement at the Natural History Musuem in London.  Over the next week, myself and Kirsty (HLF biology curatorial trainee: Leeds) will be experiencing life as a curator in palaeontology, botany, entomology and mineralogy.  Today was the turn of Zoology; and we were given tours of the vertebrate stores (including fish and mammals) by Clare Valentine (Head of Collections for Zoology), Richard Sabin (Senior curator: vertebrates), and James Maclaine (Curator of fish).

Figure 2: The NHM’s Giant Squid! (Photographed with the permission of the Natural History Musuem).

It’s been great to here such prominent members of the curatorial community taking on the current issues affecting the sector to do with funding, aquistions and accessibility to research.  Clare showed us round the new ‘isolation zone’ attached to the museum with freezers ensuring that whatever comes into the museum is pest free and ready to go into the collection.  It was also great to get a look around the mammoth (no pun intended!) stores at the NHM which blow every store I’ve been to thus far out of the water!  They certainly do things on a different scale altogether here; but hopefully I’ll pick up plenty of ideas to take with me back to Manchester.  Next up; palaeontology!

Figure 4: A living (but dead) fossil (the Coelocanth!) (Photographed with the permission of the Natural History Musuem).

Figure 4: James shows us some of his charges (Photographed with the permission of the Natural History Musuem).

Figure 5: A well-ordered shelf of study skins (South American rodents) (Photographed with the permission of the Natural History Musuem).

Figure 6: The Earth Lab (like the Darwin centre) offers visitors a chance to ‘spy’ on the scientists as they go about their work. (Photographed with the permission of the Natural History Musuem).

The first day of exam season was started this morning with my ” Advanced Vertebrate Zoology” exam. I had the usual sense of dread when walking into the exam hall, and the usual stopping of the heart when you first see the exam questions. Luckily, I had revised just about the right topics. I would even go as far as to say that one of the essays I had written was probably the best thing I’ve ever put to paper in an exam. I wrote four essays along the lines of…

•  Compare and contrast how vertebrates are adapted for locomotion, gas exchange and feeding in terrestrial, marine & aquatic environments
• Describe how vertebrates have adapted to life on land by comparing the circulatory system of birds or mammals to that of sharks
• Explain the morphological and behavioural adaptations of post-copulatory selection
• What environmental factors cause and animal to go into torpor? Describe the physiological changes upon entry into and maintenance of torpor.

The second question I barely wrote half a page for but the rest I feel I answered very well, even managed to get some references in there.

In other news…I have a statistics exam in the morning that I should be revising for!

Photo: digitalart

RK Finn Ryan Road Elementary School:

Classes at RK Finn Ryan Road Elementary School have been actively incorporating outdoor field study explorations into many subject areas in recent weeks.  Students have been visiting the nearby vernal pool to gather and observe pond creatures including wood frog tadpoles, which are being raised in 4^th grade classrooms.  Fifth grade students have investigated adaptation through a number of different organisms including ones they invented themselves.  Second grade classes are collecting and “dissecting” soil.  These field studies also motivate students in their reading, writing, and art work.

LeedsElementary School:

On May 4th, the Science Collaboration between Smith College and Leeds will continue its second round of hands-on experiments. Chemistry students from Smith College will expand the scientific knowledge of students in the primary grades.

Kindergarteners will enjoy a field trip to Smith-Vocational School on May 9^th.   The purpose of the trip is for students to experience a hands-on approach to Zoology. Kindergarten teachers will create lessons that integrate Social Studies, Language Arts, and Science based on this fun-filled field trip.

First Graders are in the process of constructing habitats in their classrooms, which are part of their science unit on Organisms. First graders are also engaged with Sarah Pirtle on the second half of a two year, Better Together Grant that is funded through NEF. Second graders are working with the Hitchcock Center’s Science Guru, Ted Watt on their outdoor science projects. These young scientists are studying pond habitats in the Mill River as well as vernal pools on the Leeds bike path.

Fourth graders are gearing up for the trip to the Boston Science Museum. More information on this trip will be available in the next edition of the Leeds Newsletter.

English Language Arts:

Switching gears to English Language Arts, Leeds teachers are in the process of completing another cycle of Professional Development with Literacy Specialist, Jenny Bender. The Third graders attended the second half of the See Hear Feel Film workshop at Amherst Cinema. Students watched documentaries and worked in teams to write and perform sequels to the films. The collaborations developed an understanding of the tools filmmakers use to move their ideas from their imaginations on to the page. Students have been continuing this excitement with their writing in their class assignments and creating extended stories, developing details and adding drama.

Music room news:

Kindergarten has just learned about the woodwind, brass and string instruments. We learned how they sound and had a chance to hear them play. The bassoon is taller than most of us!

First grades have been playing rhythm band selections in percussion instruments and echo patterns on xylophones.

Second grades are writing original melodic and rhythmic patterns in a project called “Our Sound Gardens.” We will be playing them on xylophones.

Third grades are playing four-note songs on the recorders and learning to read the treble clef staff notation.

Fourth grades have been comparing the music and lives of Beethoven and Mozart. We listened to the Magic Flute!

Fifth graders are busy rehearsing for their musical, The American Revolution, acting and singing their way through history!

Art Room Highlights:
All grades worked on the Original Works PTO fundraiser where the kids created their own pictures which they took home with the option of parents purchasing the art work on different items such as mousepad, t-shirts, cups, to name a few.

The Big Y windows will shortly be adorned with 5th grade art work with the theme of “Dreams.” If you remember, last year we did the theme of “Food” through Community Arts Partners.  The 5th grade classes are working on canvas with acrylic paints to create their art work.

Art is being integrated into the science units and the Hitchcock Center Grant with Ted Watt.   Within the Art room and in conjunction with Mr. Ted Watt all classes will be creating Art related to their science units.  Grade 1 has been working on animal adaptation boxes; Grade 2 is doing scientific drawings of pond life creatures; Grade 3 has been working on a mural depicting changes of the Mill River in two seasons which will be hung in the 3rd grade hallway; Grade 4 is starting to work on watercolor landscapes of the vernal pool; and 5th grade is going to be starting botanical drawings of the plants that they will be studying.  Kindergarten will be doing an art project related to Andy Goldsworthy, an installation artist who works with nature.

JFKMiddle School:

The JFK Literacy Across the Curriculum Committee has been meeting monthly since the beginning of the year to develop a program that will address the new literacy standards across the curriculum.  The committee is comprised of faculty members committed to supporting the literacy and general communication skills of all students across grades and subjects. Members include: Diana Ajjan,Will Bangs, John Henry, Michele Emanatian, Michelle Eastman, and Mike Soucy. The formal mission statement of the committee reads as follows:

To implement common language, procedures, strategies and tools to align teaching practices across the curriculum with the Common Core Literacy Standards.

The theoretical statements driving the strategy choices are:

Proficient readers are active before, during, and after the reading process.

Proficient writers connect thinking and writing throughout the writing process.

As a result of the meetings and most recent release day during which the whole committee met, strategies were chosen to address the standards. For example, the Committee has chosen Cornell Notes as a reading, writing, and thinking tool to be used in all classes at JFK. This tool will address several literacy standards in ELA, math, science, technology, and social studies at JFK. Additionally, the Committee is working on a standard approach to reading texts that includes addressing text features, activating student background knowledge, monitoring for comprehension, and synthesizing information. The Committee expects to spend more time discussing writing during the next release day at the end of the month. The Committee’s final product will consist of an online resource for JFK teachers, a hardcopy notebook of reproducible resources, and a chart detailing how the literacy standards align with cross curricular tools. The Committee is considering a grant to assist in funding the project.

Wright Flight:

Wright Flight collaboration between JFK Middle School, the Northampton Airport, and the Western Massachusetts Wright Flight organization came to a grand conclusion on Wednesday April 25^th and Wednesday May 2^nd when eighteen eighth graders took to the skies!

Made possible with a grant from the Northampton Education Foundation, the students enrolled in and successfully met the rigors of this ten week course focused on aviation history, science, math, and engineering.  The program also included two field trips, flight simulator training and a final exam.  Students flew over Northampton and were able to see the Connecticut River, Quabbin Reservoir, UMASS, JFK (where students and faculty eagerly watched from the ground), and for some their own homes.  Upon conclusion of the flights the students were able to enjoy lunch with their pilots, receive certificates of completion, flight books, and wings which they can wear proudly on their clothing. Student Miriam Gorra captured the feelings of all eighteen students when she got out of the plane and simply said, “that was the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Jackson Street Elementary:

Fertile Ground with the Jackson St. School Garden Committees invite you to attend A School Food Forum: Healthy Eating, Healthy Communities on THURSDAY, MAY 31 from 3:30-6PM. Workshops are FREE and designed for elementary school teachers and parents. There will be healthy snacks, PDPs, childcare, and Spanish interpretation. Please contact Maggie Shar for registration information: maggieshar@gmail.com.

Workshop Topics:
Promoting healthy food choices at school and at home
Integrating the school garden with curriculum
Engaging parents and communities

The forum is part of our school’s spring garden/integrated science activities.  The students and teachers have been planting their raised beds (each grade has a bed) with the seedlings they started in the classrooms in early spring.  All leftover plants will be sold at the JSS Farmer’s Market on FRIDAY, MAY 25 at 8:15AM and at 2:15PM.

Jackson St. School’s mindfulness practices were featured in an article and photographs by the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s reporter, Barbara Solow and photographer, Kevin Gutting. The report included our school’s NEF-sponsored Mindfulness Practices course that 30 staff/faculty have taken, our weekly “Monday Meditation” as well as our monthly “Movement Meditation.

NHS:

The Rotary Inter-Act club is about community service on an international level as well as a local level.  Seniors Savannah Holden and Emma Martin are the co-leaders. Internationally, the students are fundraising for a school in Africa.  They have created pen-pal relationships between the club members and students in Africa, as well as initiated fundraising to support a new water filtration system to help bring clean water to the African school.  Locally, the members of the club are teaching fourth grade students at Leeds Elementary school the basics of fundraising and community service.  NHS teacher, Scott Mahar, is the advisor.

Joel Bierwert, senior, has won two WMass diving championships and has recently been named the Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys Swimming and Diving Player of the Year.  He placed second in the Division II State Championships this year.  Joel will be attending Auburn University in Alabama next year.  Although he did not receive a scholarship, he plans to try his luck as a walk-on because the school has a strong aviation program (he wants to be a pilot) and a very competitive diving team.

2012 MMSI Teachers of the Year:

Sue Biggs received her Bachelors in Chemistry from the College of the Holy Cross in MA and her Masters from Saint Joseph College in Connecticut.  She was hired at Northampton High School in August of 2000.  Ms. Biggs is a science teacher as well as the Department Chair.  She coaches girl’s lacrosse and girl’s soccer at the school.  Ms. Biggs was nominated as follows:  “Sue has the love of her subject and the respect for her students that are hallmarks of excellent teachers.  She is not only extremely competent in her subject area, but she is also enthusiastic about deepening her knowledge in Chemistry as well as in related fields.  She continually analyzes her own practice and collaborates in order to conduct classes at the highest level.  She has been teaching for 28 years and continues to have the enthusiasm of a first year teacher, with the knowledge and experience to back it up.  She has a talent for teaching that is so much more than practice and tenure.”

Sue Crago received her Bachelors in English from Duquesne Universityand her Masters from Smith College in Northampton.  She was hired at Northampton High School in February, 2004.  From the nomination:  “Ms. Crago has been in the educational field for 28 years and teaches English with experience in AP as well as with students at risk in alternative settings.  Because of these varied opportunities, she has developed a wide range of techniques which help students in her advanced placement classes.  Currently, she is an Advanced Placement English and Humanities teacher at Northampton High School responsible for over one hundred students during the course of one school year.  Last year eighty percent of these students had qualifying scores on their AP tests.  She is acutely aware that students have different needs and learning styles.  Sue is legally blind and always pushes her students to do their very best.  Her motto is, “If I can do it you can do it.  We might need a little help or do it a different way but it certainly does not stop us from achieving our very best.”  Sue participates in professional development opportunities that are available through the Math and Science Initiative grant and leads Saturday AP sessions that prepare students to take the exams.  She is “always there for her students” and is a respected member of the English department willing to work collegially with the staff.”

Honorees will receive a $2,000 cash award and expenses-paid trip to Washington,D.C.for an awards dinner and visit to Capitol Hill.  Congratulations!

So these scientists go to Antarctica and they’re like, studying these penguins. Observing their behavior and shit, and they see this one penguin flop out of the water and start waddling toward the mountains. They know this isn’t normal because that isn’t where the fish is. They know the penguin is going to starve and die, so they turn this penguin around, back around so he’s facing the ocean and the fish and his awkward penguin friends but you know what this guy does? This penguin turns around and starts waddling toward the mountains. Like he already knows where the fish and his friends are but he doesn’t care. He’s gotta get to those mountains even though he’s the only penguin doing it, even though his friends all think he’s crazy, even though he’ll probably starve and fucking die.

Pretty fucked up shit if you ask me.

Direction de la prévention, Ministère de la santé, de la population et de la réforme hospitalière El Mouradia, Alger, Algérie, hhellaldz@yahoo.fr.

UMR MIVEGEC (IRD 224-CNRS 5290-Universités Montpellier 1 et 2), Montpellier, F-34394, France Hacettepe University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Ecology Section, ESRL Laboratories, 06800 Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey, kaynas@hacettepe.edu.tr Université Cadi Ayyad, Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Equipe Ecologie Animale et Environnement-LabL2E (URAC 32), BP 2390-40080 Marrakech-Maroc.

A long-running question about how the largest species of birds achieve erect penises seems to have been settled. In a study published this week in the Journal of Zoology, researchers report that male ostriches and emus enlarge their penises using a burst of lymphatic fluid rather than a blood vascular system like that found in reptiles and mammals.

The finding, based on dissections, matches what is known about other species of birds — only 3% of which have penises — and could have important implications for the understanding of the shared, and divergent, evolutionary heritage of birds and reptiles.

“Our findings reveal that the evolution of a lymphatic erection mechanism likely occurred in the ancestor of all birds rather than within birds,” says Patricia Brennan, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and one of the authors of the study.

Reproductive rarity

Ostriches and emus are members of the ratites, a group of flightless birds that also includes rheas and kiwis. All male ratites sport penises — as do ducks and some other species — but most birds mate instead with a brief ‘cloacal kiss’, during which the male passes sperm to the female through the cloaca, the same port used for excreting waste.

The existence of a lymphatic penis in some birds presents an evolutionary puzzle, says Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and co-author of the paper. “What is weird about birds is that they evolved not just a new structure, but a novel way to do something that was already being done,” he says.

It is a poorly explored area of avian anatomy, but speculation about the ratite penis dates back to at least 1836, when a German study suggested that it relied on blood for erection². Only a handful of scientists attempted to follow up on that finding, but a 1923 study claimed that the mechanism was lymphatic³.

To settle the question, Prum and Brennan dissected the genitals of one adult ostrich (Struthio camelus) and three adult emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae). Both species turned out to have spongy, lymph-producing tissue, called paralymphatic bodies, just beneath the muscles that control the phallus. That is convincing evidence that the birds’ erections are controlled by the lymph system, the researchers say.

The origin of lymph-driven erections has yet to be uncovered. In ducks, says Brennan, it may reflect an “evolutionary arms race”. Male ducks often force sex on females to scatter their genes. Females have evolved complex anatomical defences against these unwanted attentions, but the lymphatic erection offers a way around these, because it allows a rapid on/off means of extending the penis and enabling deep insemination.

In ostriches and emus, the authors suggest, the system has a different role. Rather than elongating the penis, the lymph fluid may stiffen the organ while pushing semen towards the tip. The difference might reflect a different style of mating between the two, she says.

Divergent systems

The ratites may have a different erection mechanism from reptiles, but their phalluses aren’t so dissimilar, anatomically speaking. “It was thought that the avian penis was an evolutionary novelty, rather than a shared trait with reptiles, partly because of the avian lymphatic erection,” explains Brennan. “Although our findings might be considered to support this view, we actually find that there are a lot of similarities between the reptile and ratite penis — for example, in the density and configuration of the tissue that makes up the penis in ostriches and emus, and that they likely evolved from the same tissues.”

Robert Montgomerie, an evolutionary biologist at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, says it is remarkable that nobody has looked at this until now. Because ducks, ratites and other species all use a lymphatic system, the study shows that it must have been present in the common ancestor of all birds. But that system probably evolved more recently than the blood vascular arrangement in other vertebrates, says Montgomerie. “I think the evidence is that the lymph system is divergent,” he says.

Brennan is now conducting a survey of penis morphology in all birds that have the organ, to learn what differences and changes over time might say about their function and evolution. She says that there seems to be a strong correlation between genital size and bird mating habits. Emus, for example, pair bond, and the males have small penises. Rheas, on the other hand, have much larger phalluses and are promiscuous. “I’m hoping that as I add more data, I’ll get at why that is,” she says.

Montgomerie adds that the most provocative thing about the research is not what it says about bird penises, but rather what it implies about the lack of them for the vast majority of birds.

“Darwin and others said that penises were primary sexual traits, meaning they’re essential for reproduction. But the birds say they’re not,” notes Montgomerie. Instead, he says, the penis may be a secondary sexual trait, helpful for stimulating the female, signalling reproductive fitness and even an aspect of competition among males — but not indispensable.

Article by nature.com

One of the four new species of freshwater crab is pictured.
Picture by Hendrik Freitag

Four new species of freshwater crab, bright purple in colour, have been discovered in the Philippines.

Found only in small, lowland-forest ecosystems in the Palawan island group, most have purple shells, with claws and legs tipped red. The tiny crustaceans burrow under boulders and roots in streams, feeding on dead plants, fruits, carrion and small animals in the water at night, said Hendrik Freitag of Germany’s Senckenberg Museum of Zoology.

Read the full story here

More information on freshwater crabs

Jadzia Dax/Kira Nerys

Jadzia Dax is a major character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, played by Terry Farrell. A joined Trill, she is simultaneously a beautiful young humanoid woman “Jadzia”, with a strange leopard-effect spot pattern, and a 300-hundred-and-change-year-old slug “Dax”, with the memories of seven dead people. The Science Officer on Deep Space Nine, she’s qualifed in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology & zoology, is a mean tongo player and has wicked fighting skills with a batleth. Shades of canonical Mary-Sue, methinks.

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Jadzia_Dax

Her closest friend in canon is station commander Benjamin Sisko, who calls her “old man”, a reference to his friendship with the slug’s previous host, a lecherous heavy drinking old man by the name of Curzon Dax — the source of Jadzia’s love for all things Ferengi & Klingon. She is also particularly close to Kira Nerys, Quark and Julian Bashir. Both the two men harbour an unrequited pash for her, which she tramples on when she falls for and marries the Klingon security officer, Worf, much to the dismay of the many fans of Julian/Jadzia. Oh, and she also has a brief fling with another joined Trill woman, leading to the first f/f kiss in Trek history. Aside from technobabble, her interests include sex, gossip, rowdy parties and tongo.

Just as she starts getting broody, she is murdered by Gul Dukat, saving fans from the horror of a Klingon with Trill spots. Dax returns to the series as Ezri Dax, who later hooks up with Julian, which a lot of fans thought was just plain icky.

Fan Perspectives

Wendy A.F.G. Stengel writes: Jadzia is an intensely sexual character, and we learn from her recollections that in many, if not all, of Dax’s past lives, Dax has been just as sexually charged.

Stengel again: gender becomes a very murky subject when discussing Trills.

Fanfiction

Jadzia is a fairly popular character with fanwriters. Many fans felt her death was untimely and objected to her replacement with Ezri. Not surprisingly, resurrecting the character is a trope in some fanfiction, particularly in het stories. She’s most commonly paired with Bashir, known as Julian/Jadzia. This used to be amongst the most common het pairings in the DS9 fandom, though its popularity seems to be on the wane. The canonical Jadzia/Worf – one of the most interesting, complex relationships in Star Trek history, according to Wendy Stengel — is also very common. Jadzia also features prominently in Julian/Ezri stories, even though she’s dead. Often Julian hooks up with Ezri only because of his love for Jadzia, causing the relationship to fail, or he at least has to work through his feelings for Jadzia for the relationship with Ezri to succeed.

Her canonical flirt with bisexuality & general air of being up for anything means that Jadzia also turns up a fair amount in femslash. This often riffs on the idea that her gender identity is fluid because of all those memories of being a man in previous lives. The predominant pairing is probably Jadzia/Kira, though she’s also paired with Lenara Kahn (the other half of that same-sex kiss), as well as pretty much anyone with girl parts. Gen fanfiction frequently explores the otherness of the joined Trill experience.

Jadzia Dax & Lenara Khan by Spockish

We’re Focusing on Jadzia/Kira Slash in This Post

Jadzia (with Kira) on the Haven 3 cover by Christine Myers

Kira/Dax Slash and DS9 Gab

Title: So It Is

Genres/Plot summary: Femmeslash/Fluff/PWP. A series of loosely connected drabbles detailing Jadzia’s pursuit of Nerys.

http://bt.submystic.com/daxkira/

Off Duty: The Humorous Adventures of Kira and Dax

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2401969/1/Off_Duty_The_Humorous_Adventures_of_Kira_and_Dax

“Choices”

“Minister of Lies”

[DS9] Rebuilding (Kira/Dax | G)

Summary: Jadzia has a new holosuite program. Kira is out of excuses.

List of media portrayals of bisexuality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_media_portrayals_of_bisexuality

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Jadzia Dax, Kira Nerys in alternate universe, Ezri Dax and Elim Garak.

Dax’s relationships with females portrayed as related to previous existence as a male, alternate-universe Kira portrayed as a hedonistic tyrant. Garak was originally intended as omnisexual by the actor, and many fans still consider him as such, although he never engages in an ‘official’ relationship throughout the seasons.

…

Kira and Dax Wallpaper by Twisted Illusion

The gray wolf, at that time much larger than even the stout Siberian husky, with thick, matted fur, is believed to be the first domesticated animal, appearing to humans around fifteen-thousand years ago. The first “tribal” or “camp” wolves had a significant advantage over their wild counterparts. Not only sharing with their wild siblings the thick fur, the long, stout muzzle and the savage looking fangs and talons; these beasts had curiosity, curiosity towards an upright, ape-like being-homo erectus- which gave them the advantage of safety, steady food and much larger mating opportunities by occasionally roaming around the human camps. This led to the sudden burst in population, making them ubiquitous among human culture. The very first domesticated dogs were probably used as a food source, given their availability, however, after their potential for hunting, herding, and protection was discovered, it was far more beneficial for both species to hunt together, forming a pseudo-pack, a mutual connection between both species.  These first humans would also have derived enormous benefit from the dogs associated within their camps. For instance, dogs would have improved sanitation by cleaning up food left behind. Dogs may have provided warmth, as referred to in the Australian Aboriginal expression “three dog night” (an exceptionally cold night), and they would have alerted the camp to the presence of predators or outsiders, using their already well evolved hearing to provide an early warning. Anthropologists believe the most significant benefit would have been the use of dogs’ keen sense of smell to assist in hunting. The relationship between the presence of a dog and success in hunting is often mentioned as a primary reason for the domestication of the wolf.

As these humans and their companions spread across the planet, this allowed an opportunity for variety among the species of canine. It is believed that as different needs arose in dire times, the outstanding dogs in those fields were the ones more likely to mate, thus the first artificial selection of the dogs began, which led to the enormous number of breeds we have today. Modern work breeds, such as the Siberian Husky-The closest relative to the first domesticated canine-, Alaskan Malamute, German Shepherd, and the Akita, for example, would have the same common ancestor, a hard working camp wolf that most likely excelled in hunting and tracking and was bred for those specific traits. It was not until after the Elizabethan era when dogs were bred for their beauty, and when most modern breeds arose. Queen Victoria, after the death of her husband Prince Albert, tended to her toy breeds and was ultimately unsatisfied with their sizes. She began to breed these dogs down by mating only the smallest of the litter, giving birth to the modern Pomeranian, a sheepish little dog comprised mainly of fur and bark. Breeds such as the Whippets, Coonhounds and the various Retrievers, Terriers and Feists were bred specifically for their speed and keen senses to aid in sport or game hunting. It is no coincidence the Retrievers and Terriers love water; they were used in an aid to early fishermen fishing off the bank.

Just as dogs are bred for basic survival skills such as hunting and tracking, there is also a special field of selective breeding that breeds specifically for a very acute sense of smell. These dogs are most commonly used in the law enforcement field to sniff out bombs, narcotics, and other illegal paraphernalia and usually include breeds such as the German shepherd and Labrador retriever. This practice began in 1859, when Belgian police patrols began using dogs to patrol at night to aid in searching, where their masters lacked in sight. However, recently dogs are being bred with even stronger and well evolved senses and are being used in the medical field. Medical Response Dogs, for instance, are trained with their partners who have a medical disability, most commonly diabetes, to recognize a problem before it happens, as in when their diabetic partners blood sugar gets too high or too low. Even more recently dogs are being bred to sniff out early cases of cancer. Japanese scientists trained a black Labrador retriever, named Marine, which they say can sniff out colorectal (colon) cancer with up to 98 percent accuracy. Her abilities are believed to be more accurate than some tests currently used to diagnose the cancer, namely the fecal occult blood test, which successfully predicts the cancer only ten percent of the time.

It is hard to imagine how even in Charles Darwin’s time, when he wrote on the canis lupus familiaris in “On the Origin of Species”, he never could have envisioned just how amazing and articulate the domesticated dog would become in less than two centuries. From the very first curious wolf to the cancer sniffing dogs of today, there is not a single more beautiful example of evolution at work than in the history of the domesticated dog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz47ZFCat1g

I only ask if it was a cat as it didn’t half shift when it saw the dog

Not only that, it might explain why no-one has ever has ever filmed a big cat in Kent (or anywhere else in the UK); they are all in disguise as other exotic creatures

On a more scientific note, this footage demonstrates how suprised people CAN have the presence of mind to get their camera phones out and clearly film fast moving animals, even if only for a few seconds, without contracting a sudden case of St Vitus dance.

I have visited Cooper Marsh on many occasions, but never during a drawdown.  The fact of the matter is, that I had no idea what a drawdown was until I saw the notice explaining what the drawdown was and what were the benefits of a successful drawdown.  It also explained about the temporary drawdowns that happen in nature such as a beaver dam breaking.  As I tried to understand what the notice was explaining, I thought to myself a lot of animals that were not easy to see before might be a little more accessible during a drawdown. A drawdown is when the water is drained almost totally from the marsh.

They say that it is good for seed beds to root for floating sediment with seeds to get a chance to mix in with the mud, it is a good time for the marsh to rejuvenate itself.  There will be less fish, water birds at this time, but walkways and bridges will get repaired.   I considered all of this information, the pros and the cons, as I ran into the first casualty of the drawdown, some dead fish.  I also heard the slapping of what was unmistakably beaver tails hitting the water, as I approached, but with the water levels down they hurried for their lodges and I was barely able to get a shot of one peeking out of it one to see if I, the danger had passed.

Now I have seen dead fish before and know that sometimes fish die at the end of breeding, but I have seen these fish dying in the same spot for a while and this got my mind to wondering were the dying fish the reason for the drawdown or were they the result of it, but alas there was no one to ask and I have never seen a worker any of the times I have been there so off  it was for me to see what was out and about in Cooper Marsh.  There are a few paths that lead around the marsh, but I prefer taking the boardwalk right into the center of the marsh and so it was in this direction I went and boy was I glad that I did.

Now I always seem to post pictures of the big birds and the popular birds, but there are a whole variety of small to medium birds that populate marsh and wetland areas that never seem to make the blog page, like warblers, wrens, thornbills and robins.  They are very pretty, aggressive in the defense of their nests and territory and so provide never-ending moments of excitement.  It was one such little fellow that landed in front of me just before I turned off of the trail and headed for the boardwalk.  Let there be no mistake these little birds play a great role in keeping the balance of the marsh. They help in the spreading of seed as well.  I will try not to forget these important creatures from now on.

When I was not watching beaver or trying to out wit them I spent a lot of time watching a pair of osprey.   She was in the nest and did not leave it for as long as I was there.  The male guarded her from a post not faraway and brought her food to eat which she ate right in the nest. Once a heron flew a little too close to the nest and the male osprey went after it, driving the heron away and down to the reeds.  After the danger was considered no more the osprey went back to its perch and the heron rose again and flew off.  I was having the time of my life now and could not tear myself away from watching the mated osprey pair, but I did and moved deeper into the marsh.

Frogs and turtles were sunning themselves on logs and although they seemed to be a little more alert they were going about their business as though the water never dropped.  So about halfway into the marsh I was enjoying a more open view of the animals that live in this wetland and they did not seem to be adversely affected by the drawdown and so as I headed towards the wooden enclosed blinds set at the edge of the marsh, hearing the slaps of beaver tails hitting the waters, seeing the male osprey go off to hunt, see the heron return to the marsh and in short all seemed okay and so it was into the blind to see what I could see once out of sight of the birds and animals.

Now the drawdown in the marsh is also a time to fix the wooden walkways that are used to take one into the marsh, the observation tower and the blinds from which many people use to get pictures osprey simply observe the wildlife of the marsh which would be impossible if there was no blind.  I have put up this picture to show this structure because without it I would not have been able to spot and get a picture of  this giant of the marsh.

As I looked out of a little hole in the wall of the blind I thought I saw movement, a trail of white bubbles and I began to ready my camera.  I followed those bubbles and waited and was rewarded when what looked like a mountain of mud separated and rose out of the water to expose a giant snapping turtle swimming slowly through the marsh maybe 30 feet in front of me. That turtle went under water and surfaced, turned and swam some more.  I videoed it and snapped stills of it and wondered if this would have been possible if the marsh was not it a drawdown.

I think that the marsh is an important eco system that is the first to feel the heat when a city or town wants to expand.  We have seen these types of wetlands be reduced to nothing, turned into golf courses, or made dumps for waste by products of companies.  Cooper Marsh rates in my opinion as one that never disappoints and always offers up a little something extra and a wonderful time for the whole family to send a few hours together in then out-door.  There is no cover charge, it is free and there are picnic tales where the family can eat lunch and rest.  There is no charge and parking is free.  As this is a free park they do look for donations and I would encourage everyone to zoom in on the picture I have posted and to do so.  As our government moves to make the economy a priority and the environment and environmental issues how many of these marshes will survive if we as Canadian citizens do not fight for them?

Click to view slideshow.

Related articles

• Osprey in Flight (niftybaba.wordpress.com)
• Annual Drawdown at Catahoula Lake Scheduled to Begin May 1 (louisianalagniappe.wordpress.com)

Today we’re heading to the Zoo! 

The weather was kind of gloomy but I decided to take the day out and explore the Bronx Zoo. Basically because on Wednesdays I learned that the zoo does suggested donations.  Which simply means you can decide how much you want to donate to get admission. (yes cheapskates, you can pay a dollar if that’s what you can afford).  I took the uptown red line no. 2 from the Times Square Subway station to get to my the zoo getting off at W Farms Sq. East Tremont Ave station.  From this point its basically a 4 block walk to get to the Asia Gate of the Bronx Zoo.

Since I came solely to the Bronx Zoo for sightseeing… I hardly paid attention to the history of the place.  But thanks to Wikipedia I can give you guys a backgrounder.

“The Bronx Zoo is located in the Bronx borough of New York City, within Bronx Park. It is one of the world’s largest metropolitan zoos, with over 600 species from around the world.^[4] The zoo comprises 265 acres (107 ha) of park lands and naturalistic habitats, through which the Bronx Riverflows.

The Bronx Zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronx_Zoo - If you want to read more about it.)

I went around taking pictures with whatever amateur skills I have with a camera and at least I got a few good shots in. You tell me what animals I took pictures of.

Whachu lookin at?

“I can walk in a straight line officer!”

The Original TIGER LOOK. )

Rafael, Donatello, Leonardo

“Pucker up and Gimme some Camel Love”

“Mufasa! People are trying to take pictures” Get it? Move faster? errr…

Don’t worry bro, you’re not looking into a mirror…

It’s ok bro, “They said if you love her you gotta set her free, if she comes back then she’s yours. But if she don’t fly and spread your wings, someone better is flying your way soon.”

Pardon my captions! I’m just having some fun with all the stuff I took at the Zoo.  It was fun walking around  and enjoying God’s creations. You should definitely take time to visit it when you get to New York.  It’ll take you more than half a day if you’re the type that enjoys taking in every single exhibit, it’s a big place with a lot of different kinds of animals to see.

I’m leaving you with a short video clip I took with my iPhone. Hope you enjoyed this week’s Travel Thursday!

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A freshwater scientist warns that native eels are heading for extinction because councils, power companies and farmers are flouting laws designed to protect them.

Maori in Northland are worried about dwindling numbers of long-fin eels and Dr Mike Joy of Massey University says they have reason to be.

Dr Joy says it is bizarre that New Zealand’s only native eel, the long-fin, is on the endangered list – yet it is still fished commercially.

He says eels migrating downstream to breed are being killed in hydro and irrigation schemes or chopped to pieces in flood pumps.

Dr Joy says pollution and loss of habitat are also factors in the drop in numbers, but laws that say fish must have safe passage in waterways are never enforced.

He says animals that breed just once in mass spawning events can become extinct without apparent warning – and that may be very close for the native long-fin.

Baboons form close knit societies with well defined social hierarchies.

Animals live in groups for a number of reasons, such as reducing their risk of predation and improved foraging efficiency (either by working as a group or by the social transmission of information). However, group living also has costs, mainly in the form of competition. In the same way that networking and knowing the right people can help us to be more successful, forming alliances with specific individuals, as well as knowing who to avoid, can also improve the fitness of animals and reduce the costs of competition (Silk 2007).

Being able to recognize other individuals is the first step of successful socializing, as all of us will have experienced when starting a new school or job. Whilst this may seem fairly basic, it is actually quite a complex feat involving the combination of multiple sensory signals to form a mental representation of another individual. In animals, it can be difficult to distinguish between discrimination and true recognition for example, ‘that’s a large male, I’d better avoid him’ vs. ‘Bob is the dominant male, I’d better avoid him’. To overcome this, expectation violation experiments are commonly used.

Horses are able to recognize other individuals in the herd using their signature calls.

For example, Proops et al. (2009) used an expectation violation experiment to test for true recognition in horses. He lead one member of a herd over the brow of a hill so that it was out of sight. He then played back the call of either the removed horse or another individual to the remaining herd members. When the call of another horse was played back, the rest of the group responded more strongly, showing that they realized that the call being played was not that of the removed individual.

Once individual recognition is possible, it is beneficial to be able to work out existing relationships and any social hierarchies present. Whilst this can be achieved using personal experience alone, it is both time consuming and potentially dangerous. It is therefore better to be able to infer hierarchies by watching the interactions and behaviors of others.

The film ‘Mean Girls’ perfectly illustrates the importance of being able to correctly navigate the social landscape.

The film ‘Mean Girls’ illustrates this point rather well, with naive new girl ‘Cady’ being quickly enlightened by her new friends to as who she should and shouldn’t talk to, thus avoiding potential social embarrassment. In animals, this has been demonstrated by Paz y Mino et al. (2007) in their work with pinyon jays, a highly social member of the crow family. Observer birds were allowed to watch the dominance displays of other birds, some of which were familiar (to the observer) and some of which were strangers. When placed with unfamiliar birds, the observer used the behavior of the familiar bird (and their own relationship to this bird) to work out whether they should behave dominantly or submissively to the stranger.

Once relationships have been formed within a group it is important to both maintain them and to use them to their maximum benefit. This may involve cooperation, deception, reconciliation and manipulation. Following aggressive behavior between two individuals or groups, reconciliation will often occur, helping to restore previous alliances and to reduce stress levels. Whilst in most species reconciliation tends to occur between the primary individuals involved in the fight, in social birds, such as rooks, individuals will seek reconciliation with their long term mate. Some of the most intelligent birds, for example corvids and parrots, form lifelong pair bonds and this would perhaps suggest that the intensity of a relationship, as well as the number, is important in the social intelligence hypothesis.

Cooperation between individuals to allow the completion of tasks that would otherwise be impossible is another benefit of group living. Cooperation was demonstrated in young chimpanzees by Crawford in 1937. The chimps were given a task whereby they had to pull two ends of a rope to remove a food item from a shelf. They had the option of either attempting it alone or releasing a companion to help. When the chimps could reach both ends of the rope themselves they did not enlist help. However, when the two ends were too far apart, they first released their companion and then completed the task as a team, sharing the reward. This demonstrates that the chimps knew when cooperation was necessary but also that they act selfishly, only sharing food with their companion when their help was needed.

A core component of the social intelligence hypothesis, and perhaps also the most controversial, is that of Theory of Mind. This is the ability to recognize the fact that other individuals have a mind that controls their behavior and to imagine what they might be thinking. Whilst evidence suggests that most monkeys only have 1 intentionality level i.e. ‘I want this food’, in more intelligent animals such as chimps, this may extend to level 2 i.e. ‘I think Jenny knows where the food is’. Children acquire this ability at age 4-5 and as adults, most of us have at least 4 levels of intentionality. This allows the potential for deception, perfectly demonstrated by the game of poker where the most successful players are the ones that can best read the intentions of others and subsequently lie and bluff about their own hand. This has also been observed in several animal species. For example, subordinate male baboons have been observed leading females out of sight of the dominant male in order to groom them, whilst subordinate chimps are more likely to retrieve hidden food when they know the dominant is unaware of its presence (Hare et al. 2001).

Western scrub jays will re-cache a food item if they suspect a thief has watched them hide it.

Scrub jays cache food and pilfering of caches by others can be a major problem. When forced to cache in the presence of others, the jays will often go back alone and move their hoard to a new location in order to prevent theft. Interestingly, it is only birds that have experience of pilfering themselves that perform this behavior, suggesting that it takes a thief to know a thief (Emery and Clayton 2001).

As mentioned previously, the maintenance of social bonds is a vital part of group living and in many social animals, this takes the form of grooming. However, grooming is time consuming and demanding. In his work, Dunbar (2003) calculated that a maximum of 20% of waking hours could be allocated to grooming before detrimental costs occurred, thus limiting the number of social bonds that an individual could maintain. This percentage accurately predicts the sizes of social groups observed in primates. However, when this was extrapolated to modern humans, the group sizes predicted were far smaller than those observed. What then, allowed our ancestors to form and maintain such large social groups, arguable a key factor in our evolution?

Grooming is important in the maintenance of social bonds in many species, including baboons.

A feasible suggestion is that of language. The use of verbal communication allows us to socialize with several individuals at once, as well as to multitask i.e. we can walk and talk at the same time. Additionally, it makes it possible for us to catch up on events we’ve missed so that we can better keep track of social changes. Looking at the fossil record, the dates predicted for the evolution of language coincide with increases in group sizes and conveniently, the average amount of time we spend per day in conversation with others is 20% (Dunbar 2003). Taking this into account, the feasible number of personal relationships that one individual could maintain is 150. This also just happens to be the number of friends the average person has on Facebook. This therefore suggests that the maintenance of social bonds was (and is) a key factor in the sizes of the communities we form and that selection for increased group sizes could have lead to the evolution of language.

Once language evolved, the potential for more complex social behavior increased, perhaps resulting in the formation of religions as well as art and music. Another potential consequence is that of increased pro-sociality or altruism i.e. a willingness to help others, even when they are unrelated, due to the enforcement of social rules and the punishment of rule breakers. Therefore, although it is likely that ecological conditions were initially responsible for the formation of close social groups, it was probably selection for increased social intelligence that lead to our large brain size and the complex societies and cultures seen today.

References

Dunbar, R. (2003). The Social Brain: Mind, Language, and Society in Evolutionary Perspective
Annual Review of Anthropology, 32 (1), 163-181 DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093158

Jolly, A. (1966). Lemur Social Behavior and Primate Intelligence Science, 153 (3735), 501-506 DOI: 10.1126/science.153.3735.501

Silk, J. (2007). The adaptive value of sociality in mammalian groups Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362 (1480), 539-559 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1994

Proops, L., McComb, K., & Reby, D. (2008). From the Cover: Cross-modal individual recognition in domestic horses (Equus caballus) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (3), 947-951 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0809127105

Hare, B., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2001). Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know? Animal Behaviour, 61 (1), 139-151 DOI: 10.1006/anbe.2000.1518

Emery, N., & Clayton, N. (2001). Effects of experience and social context on prospective caching strategies by scrub jays Nature, 414 (6862), 443-446 DOI: 10.1038/35106560

P Crawford, M. (1937). The cooperative solving of problems by young chimpanzees. Comparative psychology monographs, 14(2), 1-88. The Johns Hopkins Press.

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As i sat atop Lelly I decided that this provided the perfect chance to learn a little more about elephants to extend my knowledge beyond the myth that they never forget! It turns out that they are more amazing than they even look.

There are 3 types of elephants: the Asian elephant, the African bush elephant and the African forest elephant. The main differentiation between African and Asian elephants is that the African species tend to have larger ears. Regardless of type they are the largest land mammal living today and at birth they typically weight over 100kgs – that’s almost 10 more than me!! They have no natural predators and tend to live between 50-70 years. The largest recorded elephant weighed 10,900kgs, a quite phenomenal weight. Now all of that is very interesting, but what I really care about are some unusual facts that make elephants so incredible.

- Like humans, elephants tend to hit puberty around 13-14

- The can have offspring until around 50

- An elephant’s trunk is made up of nose and upper lip and is highly sensitive with over 100,000 muscles.

- Elephants do not, as commonly thought, drink with their trunks. Instead they fill their trunks with water and then distribute it into their mouths. In a day they can consume 80 gallons.

- It is the only mammal that can’t jump.

- In America in 1916 an elephant was tried and hung for murder.

- An African adult elephant can eat 600lbs of food a day.

Last but not least, the elephant is the national animal of Thailand which roundly accents and summarises today’s learnings. I’m sure you’ll agree the elephant is a quite amazing animal and Lelly provided an experience I won’t soon forget.

DC