She wanted a giant dick on her grave

Before her death, 99-year-old Catarina Orduña Pérez had one final wish: a giant statue of a dick on top of her grave.

Her family unveiled the completed monument — a 5-and-a-half-foot-tall cock and balls weighing nearly 600 pounds — mounted on her tomb at a cemetery in Mexico this past weekend as a “recognition of her love and joy for life.”..

“She always said, in the Mexican sense, that we were vergas,” said Mota Limón.

There are few words in Mexican slang as dynamic as “verga,” which is perhaps best translated in English as “cock” due to its general use as a profanity. Depending on how it’s phrased, “verga” can be a brutal insult, telling someone to go fuck themselves (vete a la verga) or that they’re not worth shit (vales verga). Or it can be a compliment, a badge of honor, that if something is “verga,” it’s cool or badass.

Doña Cata often used it with that sort of colloquial pride when referring to the members of her family as vergas, according to her grandson; that they were people of moral fortitude, with “integrity, courage, passion, and at the same time, love and joy,” said Mota Limón.

The story continues at Vice.

The earth as "one large living organism"

"Soon after he graduated in 1909, Aldo Leopold headed to the Southwest to take a job with the U.S. Forest Service—the new federal agency charged with the equally new task of “wildlife management.” For Leopold and his colleagues, managing wildlife meant, among other things, killing creatures deemed undesirable by ranchers, farmers, and hunters. Few were deemed more undesirable—or made for more exciting targets for young men with guns—than wolves. “In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf,” Leopold remembered some decades later in his book A Sand County Almanac.

So when Leopold and a companion spotted an old she-wolf and her half-dozen pups tangling playfully on a steep hillside, the men started “pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy. . . . When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable slide-rocks.” As the men moved closer to size up what they had done, something unexpected and arresting happened. As Leopold recalled:

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

This gaze into the eyes of the other, this glimpse of an animal’s spirit, became a foundational moment in the history of ecological consciousness. Leopold’s account of the dying wolf went on to describe the calamitous consequences of exterminating the entire species: mountains denuded of every edible tree and bush by proliferating deer, rangeland turned into dust bowls by overgrazing cattle. The eradication of the wolf would upset the balance of nature...

From a biologist, he learns about holobionts—“collaborative compound organisms, ecological units ‘consisting of trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi that coordinate the task of living together and sharing a common life.’ ” None of this would be news, Macfarlane notes, to indigenous peoples, whose animistic traditions postulate a symbiotic relationship with their jungle or woodland environs.

Consider a common origin tale throughout the world: In the beginning, everything was mixed up with everything else. All living things inhabited a world without boundaries. Identities were fluid, species and sexes interchangeable. All was in constant flux, until a trail of cosmic accidents led to tension and eventual separation between women and men, humans and animals, gods and mortals. After this fragmentation, earthly creatures continued to inhabit an animated universe, where rocks, trees, plants, and animals were all ensouled with a mysterious force or spirit—what anthropologists would call manitou, or mana—a force that kept the fragments from flying apart...

One reason many scientists have disdained the animist view in the past was that it acknowledges that organisms help make their environments, as opposed to merely adapting to them. The idea that organisms can participate in their own evolution has come to be known as “niche construction”...

In recent decades, epigenetics have made more ambitious claims than niche construction theory, suggesting that changes in an organism’s environment may actually have effects on its DNA... Nearly all cells possess the biochemical tools for changing their DNA, and they use them “responsively, not purely randomly,” as the historian Jessica Riskin has put it. No gene, it has begun to appear, is an island...

And a clearer understanding of our relationship to nature demands a sensitivity to the ways that organisms engage with the contingent circumstances of their environment on historical scales. For humans, that environment includes religions and ideologies and economic systems as well as air and soil and water...

Excerpts from The Power of the Dog in Harper's, which is in turn an excerpt from Animal Spirits by Jackson Lears, to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Autumn foliage in farm country

I snapped this photo from my car while running an errand today.  Those who live in the upper Midwest will recognize that this is a field of soybeans.  The scene reflects a pragmatic reality rather than a bliss-ful one.

In which arm should you get your COVID booster ?

When I saw that title on an article, I thought how silly... then I read the text in the journal eBioMedicine [part of The Lancet].

Both ipsilateral and contralateral vaccination induce a strong immune response, but secondary boosting is more pronounced when choosing vaccine administration-routes that allows for drainage by the same lymph nodes used for priming. Higher neutralizing antibody activity and higher levels of spike-specific CD8 T-cells may have implications for protection from infection and severe disease and support general preference for ipsilateral vaccination... The observed differences in immunogenicity may result from the fact that priming and secondary boosting of the immune response after ipsilateral vaccination occurs in the same draining axillary lymph nodes with limited involvement of the contralateral side. Conceptually, this is supported by 18F-FDG PET/CT studies among BNT162b2-vaccine recipients demonstrating that the ipsilateral lymph nodes on the side where the vaccine had been applied were significantly larger in size and showed higher metabolic activity compared to the contralateral lymph nodes...

Makes sense.  Now if I can only remember in which arm I got my primary vaccines.

Grace

This is the "state photograph" for the state of Minnesota.  I've seen it in so many places, including a home I visited a couple weeks ago, so I decided to look it up.  The photo has an interesting story in Wikipedia:

The original photograph was taken at [Eric] Enstrom's photography studio in Bovey, Minnesota. Most sources indicate 1918 as the year... The man depicted in the photograph is Charles Wilden, who earned a meager living as a peddler and lived in a sod house. While the photograph conveys a sense of piety to many viewers, according to the Enstrom family's story, the book seen in the photo is actually a dictionary. However Wilden wrote "Bible" on the waiver of rights to the photo which he signed in exchange for payment, giving credence to the idea that, even if the actual prop used was a dictionary, it was a proxy representing a bible in the photograph. Likewise, local stories about Wilden "centered more around drinking and not accomplishing very much", than religious observation.

The concept of saying a brief prayer before a meal spans many religions; the term "grace" comes from the Ecclesiastical Latin phrase gratiarum actio, "act of thanks."   Wikipedia offers examples of table grace prayers from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Bahai, Hinduism, and Buddhism.  Here is a depiction of grace in a seventeenth-century Dutch painting:

Addendum:  A tip of the blogging cap to reader Jeffo, who found this explanatory video about the photograph embedded above:

Addendum:  I'll add one anecdote about a grace-related event that occurred in my extended family.  One of my cousins adopted a Russian orphan, who arrived in this country as a toddler needing to learn both the language and the customs of her new home.  One evening the family turned to her at the dinner table and asked "Vika, would you please say grace before dinner tonight?"  The little girl thought a moment, folded her hands and said "Dear God, thank you for... soup.  Thank you for... grandfather... Bon appetit!"  The response around the dinner table was one of merriment, followed by a quick reassurance to Vika that there was nothing "wrong" with that grace - it was just one they hadn't heard before.  And to this day (30 years later) when you have dinner with the now widely dispersed members of that family, some table graces may be appended with "Bon appetit" and a retelling of that treasured tale.

"Loon Lessons"

So much to learn.  So little time.  Herewith some gleanings from what I thought was a very interesting book.

"Their legs are so specialized for diving and positioned so far aft that standing, let along walking, is nearly impossible; hence, the adoption of the Scandinavian word for "clumsy," lom or lumme, which stuck as their common name."

"Loons differ from other similar diving birds... they are unique, or monophyletic, in that they have been on their own evolutionary trajectory for more than 50 million years..."

"Have you ever noticed that the great majority of white birds have black wing tips?... Now, have you pondered that essentially all diving birds are black?.. What is the connection between the two?  Melanin does more than color the feather; it makes the feather stronger and more resistant to wear..."

"The skull of a loon is unusually thick and heavy for a bird; this allows it to descend with less effort.  Also, many of a loon's bones are solid rather than mostly hollow, or pneumatic, as found in most birds... a Bald Eagle is 20-25% larger than a loon yet weighs about the same (8 to 11 pounds)."

Marine birds (puffins, albatrosses) have a salt-excreting gland above each eye that produces a solution 1.5x as salty as seawater (to aid the kidneys).  Loons share this adaptation (because they winter in the oceans).  These glands are deactivated by ocean oil spills, which thus devastate marine birds.  Here is a map of the summer (dark) and winter coastal (cross-hatched) ranges for loons:

It was a sobering realization for me, after seven decades summering with loons, to learn at my age for the first time that these birds overwinter swimming in the ocean.  

"Loons are very comfortable in the open ocean... researchers have reported them 50-60 miles from shore." (depends on how far out the continental shelf extends - typically a couple hundred feet below the surface)

"There have been reports of loons caught in commercial fish nets set at 180-230 feet, which would take just over two minutes of dive time... their upper limit is likely closer to 5-6 minutes, with a maximum dive depth of 300 feet or more."

"Some chicks are born naked and helpless, a condition known as altricial, while others are born fully feathered and capable of feeding themselves, precocial (or superprecocial).  Loon chicks fall somewhere near or just above the middle of this range (subprecocial)... Loon parents have to be attentive to their young, especially during the first two weeks of their life..."

Loons lay two eggs  "A one-egg clutch is rare in the bird world, observed in only one group of birds, the tubenosed seabirds such as albatrosses and petrels."

"Botulism type E has caused periodic outbreaks of fish-eating bird mortality in the Great Lakes since the 1960s, but since the turn of the century, outbreaks have occurred more frequently... In a span of ten years, from 2000 to 2009, more than 20,000 loons died from type E botulism."

During migration, loons fly between 2,700 and 6,200 feet above ground level. Rapidly beating wings generate lots of heat, so it is advantageous to fly where the air is several degrees cooler.  With their narrow wings and heavy bodies, they lose elevation on the recovery stroke if they fly too slowly.  "To prevent this, loons beat their wings rapidly (more than 200 beats/minute), which increases flight speed.  Consequently, the optimal flight speed for loons is a fast 70-75 miles per hour, compares to 40-45 for smaller, aerodynamic ducks."

"If loons, like pigeons, can detect air pressure changes, then they may be able to move before a major storm hits, but they cannot fly during winter.  Loons undergo a winter wing molt that renders them flightless.  In all my work, I have never seen an adult Common Loon in flight during the months of December through February."

The author spent his entire professional life researching loons, so this book reads a bit like a graduate-level textbook, with lots of data and detail.  In addition to the excerpted topics above, there are chapters on anatomy, diet, social behavior, migration techniques, and of course the wails/yodels/tremolos.  It is effectively a "bible" of all one would want to know about loons, and thus perhaps TMI for the casual reader.  Conversely, it will be a treasured resource for serious "birders," and also for people who spend their summer afternoons relaxing at a lake "up north."

So, thank you Noel and Gregg for inviting me to your lake home this summer, and for the dinners of freshly-caught bass, sunnies, and walleye...

Baby hadrosaur

This digital illustration is based on a pair of hadrosauroid dinosaur eggs and embryos from China’s Upper Cretaceous red beds, dating back approximately 72 to 66 million years ago. It depicts an example of a “primitive” hadrosaur developing within the safety of its small egg. Submitted by Jordan Mallon. Restoration by Wenyu Ren.

From a gallery at the BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition.

Matching t-shirts

Via the MadeMeSmile subreddit.

"Meddling in Latin America"

An aspect of American foreign policy that is seldom publicly discussed (or even acknowledged):

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent member of Congress and leading voice of the American left, has called on the US government to issue an apology to Latin American countries for decades of meddling in their affairs and causing instability in the region...

In the 1950s and 1960s, the US helped overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz and Brazilian president João Goulart and made various attempts to assassinate Soviet-backed Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In the 1970s, Argentina and Chile launched brutal crackdowns against perceived socialist threats, often with US support.

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan’s administration supported anti-communist Contra forces against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, backed the Salvadoran government against leftist rebels, invaded Grenada after accusing the government of aligning with Cuba and invaded Panama to oust dictator Manuel Noriega.

And in what became known as Operation Condor, eight US-backed military dictatorships – Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador – jointly plotted the cross-border kidnap, torture and murder of hundreds of their political opponents...

“I believe that we owe Chile, and not just Chile but many aspects of that region, an apology,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Guardian in an interview at her campaign headquarters in the Bronx. “I don’t think that apology indicates weakness; I think it indicates a desire to meet our hemispheric partners with respect...

More at The Guardian.

Word for the day: pappus

1. (botany) The markedly reduced sepals of an Asteraceae floret that take the form of trichomes or scale attached to the ovary or seed. 

2. The first hair on the chin.

Via Latin pappus from Ancient Greek πάππος (páppos), an affectionate term for elderly men (referencing beards). 

In Asteraceae, the pappus is the modified calyx,[citation needed] the part of an individual floret, that surrounds the base of the corolla tube in flower. It functions as a wind-dispersal mechanism for the seeds... The pappus of the dandelion has been studied and reproduced for a variety of applications. It has the ability to retain about 100 times its weight in water and pappus-inspired mechanisms have been proposed and fabricated which would allow highly efficient and specialized liquid transport. Another application of the pappus is in the use of minute airflow detection around walls which is important for measuring small fluctuations in airflow in neonatal incubators or to measure low velocity airflow in heating and ventilation systems.

Which leads to an even-more-obscure "two-dollar-word": anemochory :

From anemo- (“wind”) +‎ -chory (“seed dispersal”). [cf anemometer]

Continuing down the rabbit hole, Wiktionary has fifteen different words ending in -chory. (anthropochory, chiropterochory, gastropodochory, hydrochory, ornithochory, myrmecochory, thalassochory...).  You learn something every day.

World championship 4x400 relay

I enjoy watching world-class championships in all sports.  One difference that has occurred in my lifetime is the utilization of mobile tracking cameras that allow viewing the athletes close-up to show, in this case, the remarkable running machine that is the human body.

Stella's best leaf jumps

My most recent linkdump included one of happy dogs in the "cheerful" section.  A tip of my blogging cap to reader Marc B, who spotted one happy dog in that compilation who has his own videos, one of which I've embedded above.  I'm impressed that this is a "best of" and a "volume 1."  And the monarch wings are a cute touch.  Go fullscreen, and turn the volume up to enjoy that classic sound.

A very unusual postage stamp design

It depicts concrete.  Furthermore, "to give the concrete wall depicted in the design a tactile dimension, cement pigments were added to the ultra-matte finish."  This stamp is part of a series that began with a depiction of canvas:

More information at Swiss Post, via Kottke.

The decline of China

Excerpts from an op-ed piece.  I have no idea whether the assertions are true or the predictions logical, but the implications are broad and serious.

The main challenge we will face from the People's Republic in the coming decade stems not from its rise but from its decline — something that has been obvious for years and has become undeniable in the past year with the country's real estate market crash...

A China that can buy less from the world — whether in the form of handbags from Italy, copper from Zambia or grain from the United States — will inevitably constrain global growth. For U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm, 64% of its sales last year came from China; for German automaker Mercedes-Benz, 37% of its retail car sales were made there...

Last month, Donald Trump described the rule of China's president, Xi Jinping, as "smart, brilliant, everything perfect." The truth is closer to the opposite. As a young man, according to a peer from his youth, Xi was "considered of only average intelligence," earned a three-year degree in "applied Marxism" and rode out the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath by becoming "redder than red." His tenure as supreme leader has been marked by a shift to greater state control of the economy, the intensified harassment of foreign businesses and a campaign of terror against independent-minded business leaders. One result has been ever-increasing capital flight, despite heavy-handed capital controls. China's richest people have also left the country in increasing numbers during Xi's tenure — a good indication of where they think their opportunities do and do not lie...

Xi's government's recent decision to suppress data on youth unemployment — just north of 21% in June, double what it was four years ago — is part of a pattern of crude obfuscation that mainly diminishes investor confidence... the real China story may lie in a version of what's sometimes called Tocqueville's paradox: the idea that revolutions happen when rising expectations are frustrated by abruptly worsening social and economic conditions...

More at the link. 

Tonsillectomy without anesthesia in Belarus

I've been debating whether to post this, because it will distress many viewers, so as I did with the last potentially offensive video, I'll embed it at the bottom of the post after these cautionary statements.

The video shows the tonsils being removed from a child, apparently in Belarus.  No anesthesia is used.  The child is restrained and under considerable emotional stress.  The medical staff are not speaking harshly or being intentionally cruel.  The procedure itself takes about one minute.  It is bloody.

This will be disturbing to some viewers.  On the other hand, this is real life.  This is how things are done in some parts of the world.  This is how this (and similar or worse) procedures were done in antiquity.

Remember the old adage: "what has been seen cannot be unseen" - then make your decision.

Addendum: Ninabi notes "...from airing this sad, scary video in Ireland, funds were raised for an anesthetic machine for this hospital."

Originally posted in 2010.  Reposted now because the post is continues to acquire interesting comments.

YouTube link.