Blue whales - changing their tune?

"The song of the blue whale, one of the eeriest sounds in the ocean, has mysteriously grown deeper. The calls have been steadily dropping in frequency for seven populations of blue whales around the world over the past 40 years... the songs, which they believe are by males advertising for mates, had lowered by as much as 30 percent in certain populations...

...the drop might signal a rebound in the population of blue whales since commercial whaling bans began to take effect in the 1970s.... Female blue whales choose their mates based on size, a selection process that has fostered the species’ gargantuan proportions. And deeper might signal bigger. When populations were smaller, whales may have had to be louder to make their calls heard. Now, the males might be competing to make their calls deeper...

...there are up to 25,000 blue whales, compared with perhaps 300,000 before whaling. The number may have risen from a low of about 10,000 animals."

From the New York Times, which also has an audio comparison of previous and current songs. The implication that this change is a result of population growth is amazingly good news.

Your tax money at work

(image credit here)

The Agony of the Vegans

“There is no more contentious question in the world of veganism than the one posed by honey. A fierce doctrinal debate over its status has raged for decades… Does honey qualify as a forbidden animal product since it's made by bees?

The hard-liners argue that beekeeping, like dairy farming, is cruel and exploitative. The bees are forced to construct their honeycombs in racks of removable trays, according to a design that standardizes the size of each hexagonal chamber… Queens are imprisoned in certain parts of the hive, while colonies are split to increase production and sprinkled with prophylactic antibiotics. In the meantime, keepers control the animals by pumping their hives full of smoke, which masks the scent of their alarm pheromones and keeps them from defending their honey stores. And some say the bees aren't making the honey for us, so its removal from the hive could be construed as a form of theft…

From a practical perspective, all this back-and-forth doesn't help anyone (or any animal). You either eat honey or you don't; to debate the question in public only makes the vegan movement seem silly and dogmatic…”

(Text extracted from Slate article; image credit to Wiki commons)

The Duggars are now in second place

"A Romanian immigrant has given birth to her 18th child in British Columbia, making her the province's most prolific mother in 20 years."

The Duggars still have only 17, with the 18th not due until January of 2009. Looks like they'll have to settle for second place in the Clown Car competition. (clown car link NSFW)

Do museums "dumb down" science for children?

The Franklin Institute is generally considered to be one of the premier science education centers in the United States. This week there was an interesting column in the Philadelphia Inquirer suggesting that the Franklin "dumbs down" its offerings to children.

The current featured exhibit is "Real Pirates" (for a $23 admission charge):

Come and explore the Whydah and her story. See treasure chests of coins and gold, cannons, pistols, and knives salvaged from the ocean floor and a full size replica of the stern of the actual ship.

It does sound a bit more like a theme park than a science museum, and the Franklin is also offering "pirate-themed parties." Coming next: The Chronicles of Narnia, in collaboration with Disney.

Narnia? In a science museum exhibit? (apparently it's used to teach "climate change-connecting the White Witch's world with the melting polar ice caps; the forest with the destruction of our natural resources.")

I suppose I'm being a bit of a curmudgeon criticizing an exhibit I haven't seen, but for the moment I'll have to agree with the columnist (and the majority of the comments appended to the column) that this does not portend a favorable trend in public science education.

A fantastic resource... if you like menus

... or culinary history or design history. The New York Public Library has done you a great favor; they have uploaded THOUSANDS of menus:

The menu collection originated through the energetic efforts of Miss Frank E. Buttolph (1850-1924), a somewhat mysterious and passionate figure, whose mission in life was to collect menus... Her principal method of acquisition was to write to every restaurant she could think of, soliciting menus. When letters failed, she often marched into a restaurant and pleaded her case in person. She also placed advertisements in trade publications like The Caterer and The Hotel Gazette, but just as often, published news of her collection prompted outright contributions of specimens from around the world. Three times between 1904 and 1909, The New York Times wrote about her and the collection, noting once that "she frankly avers that she does not care two pins for the food lists on her menus, but their historic interest means everything." Miss Buttolph added to the collection of more than 25,000 menus until her death in 1924. The collection has continued to grow through additional gifts of graphic, gastronomic, topical or sociological interest, especially but not exclusively New York-related.

As the embedded image above illustrates, the menus of the nineteenth century were colorful and interesting; most of them appear to have been menus for events, rather than for the general public, probably since "dining out" was still not much in vogue. (Found at Metafilter)

To access the menu database, click HERE.

Is the Lanterne Rouge an honor?

"Wim Vansevenant, a Belgian riding for Silence Lotto (ninth on the nine-man squad) is the favorite to win his third Lanterne Rouge, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since the first official race in 1903. The French phrase, which translates to "red lantern," is used to describe the racer who finishes dead last in the overall standings when the peloton reaches Paris. (The terminology is borrowed from railway jargon for the archaic practice of hanging a red light on the caboose of trains, which assured station operators that no cars had come uncoupled.)

The designation falls somewhere between insult and accolade. Mr. Vansevenant, who after Stage 18 sits in 150th place, some 3 hours and 45 minutes behind Mr. Sastre, is indeed the worst-placed rider in the Tour de France. But, in turn, he has outlasted those who abandoned the Tour through illness, injury or simple exhaustion; those who were eliminated for failing to finish within each day's time limit and are forced to withdraw; and those who were banned or withdrew for doping-related causes. From year to year, about 20% of the riders drop out. In other words, you can't simply coast to last place; you have to work for it.

The curious combination of a stubborn refusal to fail mixed with an inability to rise to victory traditionally transforms a Lanterne Rouge rider into a cult favorite, even though the accomplishment is neither recognized nor encouraged by Tour officials. The race organization, in fact, has at times had a contentious relationship with the Lanterne Rouge. In 1980, Austrian racer Gerhard Schoenbacher was on his way to a second consecutive last-place when, he says, race officials thought he was getting too much attention. "I got daily interviews," Mr. Schoenbacher told journalist Rupert Guinness in an interview that year. "I was very popular with the crowd and I continued to tell everyone that I liked being last. [The organizers] said I made a mockery of the Tour."

Mid-race, officials instituted a temporary rule: After each stage, the last-place racer would be eliminated. Mr. Schoenbacher defied the rule by finishing in second-to-last place until the final stage, when he plummeted down to collect his Lanterne Rouge..."

In winning three in a row, Mr. Vansevenant will not only set a record but also, within the decidedly ambiguous context of the Lanterne Rouge, assume the status of greatest last-place rider ever."

Congressmen are more extreme than the public

An interesting graph depicting the ideological position of members of the U.S. Congress (dashed lines) compared to the U.S. public in general (solid line).

House and Senate positions were estimated based on their voting patterns, and the public one from survey questionnaires. The overall pattern is that congressional representatives are more extreme than the public in general - both to the right and to the left. Further graphs at the link show that in "Republican states" the congressmen are to the right of their consituents, and in "Democratic states" they are to the left of the voters. It is postulated that this outcome ultimately derives from the winner-take-all nature of the election process.

While some may argue over the accuracy of the methodology, it seems to me that the pattern depicted is logical and provides at least a partial explanation of why Congress is frequently so ineffectual.

For visitors who are new to WYWKIWDBI, I have also appended below my own position on the political compass, so you'll know what biases to expect in this blog:

Don't read this blog entry

There's more than a grain of truth in those comments...

TYWKIWDBI will continue its policy of not posting celebrity news; but I'll post this now because it's part of a rant against celebrity news. Which, I guess, promotes the celebrity. Gosh, this is complicated...

(Credit to The New Shelton wet/dry)

Lots of police chase donut thief

TOLEDO — A stolen van loaded down with donuts may not be the best vehicle for eluding police.

Frank Alvarado, 46, of Moline, Ill., found that out the hard way Thursday morning after leading nine officers from four different agencies in a high-speed chase through Benton and Tama counties...

“What strikes me as a bit out of the ordinary in this case is the number of officers who were able to respond,” said Rich Vander Mey, assistant Tama County Attorney. “I don’t know whether the fact that the stolen vehicle contained donuts has anything to do with that.”

... The chase ended around 10:30 a.m. at the Hardee’s restaurant parking lot when Tama County Dep. Chad Hansen rammed the van’s driver side door. Alvarado was taken into custody without incident, the attorney’s office said.

Four additional officers from three other agencies showed up, one of which drove his personal vehicle, the attorney’s office said."

VERY expensive jeans

"This old pair of LEVI'S were found in a mine in the Rand Mining District, on the Mojave Desert,. California. They are covered in candlewax from the candle's the miner was using to light the tunnel he was working in. They were found with and old paper bag with the name of a mercantile store which operated between 1895 and 1898 in the town or Randsburg. Their was also a gunny sack with the initials A.P.K. and Randsburg marked on it. A.P.K. is through to be Adam P. Kuffel who was a partner in the mercantile store.

These pants have the cloth label vice the leather label. The label (pictured) indicates that they are size W34 x L33, They are copper riveted with the rivets marked L.S. & Co. S.F. They are buckle back (pictured) with suspender buttons. Buttons are silver in color and are all marked LEVI STRAUSS & CO. S.F.CAL. Tthe pants were made with just one back pocket on the right hand side..."

From a current listing on eBay. The bid right now is at $17,600 with 14 hours to go...

Update July 31: The winning bid was $36,000. I should think that old miner would be greatly satisfied to know that his jeans sold for more that a pair of Queen Victoria's knickers - which today the BBC reports sold at auction for $9,000.

Christian the lion

“Christian was a lion purchased in 1969 by two Australians living in London… They had discovered him for sale in Harrods' exotic pets department and, concerned for his conditions and fate, decided to buy him."

The rest of the story re the return of the lion to the wilds of Kenya is told at the Wiki link and in the external links listed there. The video above shows the reunion in Africa of the lion and his old "mates."

(Thanks, Susan for finding and forwarding the link)

Row houses, Washington, D.C. - 1923

Another photo from one of today's featured photos at Shorpy. Of additional interest is that respondents at the original site have added current photos and links to satellite imagery, showing that this row of houses is still intact and lived in. The photo above enlarges nicely if you click on it.

Losing - and regaining - brain function

" Cheryl Schiltz feels like she is perpetually falling. And because she feels like she is falling, she falls. When she stands up without support, she looks as if she were on a precipice, about to plummet. First her head wobbles and tilts to one side and her arms reach out to try to stabilise her stance. Soon her whole body is moving chaotically back and forth, like a person walking a tightrope in that frantic see-saw moment before losing his balance - except that both her feet are firmly planted on the ground, wide apart. When she tries to walk she has to hold on to a wall, and still she staggers like a drunk...

Cheryl's problem is that her vestibular apparatus, the sensory organ for the balance system, does not work [damaged by gentamicin]. Soon after her problem began, she lost her job as an international sales representative and now lives on a disability allowance of $1,000 a month. She has a new-found fear of growing old...

By any conventional standard, Cheryl's case is hopeless. The conventional view sees the brain as made up of a group of specialised processing modules, genetically hard-wired to perform specific functions. Once one of them is this damaged, it cannot be replaced. Now that her vestibular system is affected, Cheryl has as much chance of regaining her balance as a person whose retina has been damaged has of seeing again.

But today all that is about to be challenged. She is wearing a construction hat with holes in the side and a device inside called an accelerometer. Cheryl licks a thin plastic strip with small electrodes on it, and places it on her tongue. The accelerometer and the tongue strip are connected to a computer. This machine... will replace Cheryl's vestibular apparatus by sending balance signals to her brain from her tongue...

The first time they tried the hat, Cheryl wore it for only a minute. They noticed that after she took it off, there was a 'residual effect' that lasted about 20 seconds, a third of the time she wore the device. Then Cheryl wore the hat for two minutes and the residual effect lasted about 40 seconds. Then they went up to about 20 minutes, expecting a residual effect of just under seven minutes. But instead it lasted triple the time, a full hour...

It did keep up. Over the next year Cheryl wore the device more frequently to get relief and build up her residual effect, which progressed to multiple hours, to days, and then to four months. Now she does not use the device at all and no longer considers herself a Wobbler..."


The above is an extended abstract from a fascinating article at the Telegraph (via The New Shelton wet/dry) describing new insights into the plasticity of the human brain, and how essential functions can be recovered despite permanent structural damage. Even more impressive than the regained vestibular function is the subsequent one about regaining intellectual and motor function after a massive brainstem stroke. The Telegraph article is in turn extracted from a book entitled 'The Brain That Changes Itself', by Norman Doidge (Penguin).

Jurassic amber soap

I just blogged about amber fishermen yesterday, and today I find a bar of glycerine soap with "cracks, bubbles, and inclusions like real amber. It also features a (fake, of course) insect trapped inside." (Credit HERE, via Uncertain Times.)