Sorry ... so sorry

To all like 4 readers out there ... sorry we haven't posted in a while. Um, I guess I have been busy, but really I should be able to find the time to slack from one of my three jobs and throw a post up here and there.

Will a pic of blue tree monitor suffice?




or how about a newly hatched cat gecko ...


More global climate change and herp news to follow.

Remembering Mark Bayless

This was a nice remembrance of our good friend Mark Bayless who passed away a few months ago, written by friends of the store Ben Adler and Michaela Manago. It was published in Reptile Magazine and is currently on their front page. I cannot find a direct link to it so I will reprint it here.

Mark Bayless Remembered
Mark Bayless, a renowned varanid researcher and author, died Nov. 1, 2006, due to complications from diabetes.

Mark was a long-time and dedicated contributor to the reptile community. He collected every known account of monitor lizards and maintained the largest known compilation of articles, photographs and history of the Varanus genus. He generously shared his collection with anyone who showed the slightest bit of interest. Mark had a unique ability to make people feel they could do anything.

Mark was captivated by practically all subject matter, which led to impressive collections of B-movies, books and articles on cryptozoology, the giant octopus and many other oddities. His fascination with folklore and the unknown came out in the humorous fictional tales he told as if they were true.

Mark will be remembered as a brother and uncle, an amazing teacher and researcher, an obsessed collector, a prankster, and most of all, a dear friend to all those who crossed his path.

Thank you, Mark, for all your hard work and enthusiasm. We'll never forget the 150-foot snake that ate the whole village!
- Ben Aller and Michaela Manago

Gas Prices

Gas prices effect shipping prices because UPS and FedEx have to use gas to fly airplanes and drive trucks and they pass that cost onto their customers. I noticed gas prices climbing above $3.00/gallon again. This is a graph of the last 365 days of gas prices in San Francisco.

And yes that major dip was in the beginning of November. Then prices began climbing back up. Wonder what made them drop in November and then climb back up. Could it have been this? And some wonder why are so skeptical of the Administration here on the left coast. We are on pace to have higher gas prices this summer than we did last summer. Hope no one is planning a road-trip vacation.

Click on the graph to see a larger view.

Gloabl Warming Tips

Heat pads! Yeah! So heat pads can reduce the amount of energy you use by decreasing the wattage necessary to heat your herp. Now heat pads cannot be the sole source of heat for basking animals but for most snakes and geckos, especially during the non-winter months a heat pad is all you need.

Heat pads work much like the defroster on your rear car window, using electrical resistance to produce heat. Instead of using 100 watts you may be able to use as little as 24 watts and get your reptile the same temperature hot spot it needs.

Evolution of Hunting

This is a crazy study reported by the BBC. Chimps in Senegal have been found to make and use spears into order to hunt smaller primates. This is an organized effort by multiple animals.

Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.

The report's authors, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani, said the finding could have implications for human evolution.

Chimps had not been previously observed hunting other animals with tools.

...

Chimpanzees were observed jabbing the spears into hollow trunks or branches, over and over again. After the chimp removed the tool, it would frequently smell or lick it.

In the vast majority of cases, the chimps used the tools in the manner of a spear, not as probes. The researchers say they were using enough force to injure an animal that may have been hiding inside.

h/t rgarrett
creative commons photo credit: deadeyebart...

Global Warming Tips

I post a lot on here about global warming and the issue of global climate change. I assume that a reader of this blog and most herp keepers care about nature, and the environment let alone their own well being. Being a herp keeper and trying to reduce one's carbon footprint can be a tricky situation. Most herp keepers have electricity bills larger than the average person due to heating all of our ectothermic friends.

So here at the East Bay Vivarium Blog we will be giving you a few tips over the next month to help keep your herps healthy and happy, and reduce your energy use.


This is a ceramic heat emitter. They are perfect for herps that require overhead heating and who can still find their basking spot without the visible light shining down on them. They also make great supplemental heaters during winter for tanks that usually only require a heat pad. These are more energy efficient than an incandescent light bulb because all of the energy used is converted to heat via infra-red light. No energy is wasted on non-heating visible light. If you use a 100 watt incandescent bulb for example, then you probably only need a 60 watt ceramic heat emitter, thus using less energy. Plus ceramic heat emitters can be left on 24 hours a day or used only at night and will not bother your nocturnal critter. If you are using a ceramic heat emitter in a wooden cage make sure you use a bulb guard as they do get hot to the touch.

More tips down the road!

RIP Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson: July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005

New T-shirts

We have two new t-shirt designs. The first is the Jungle Carpet Python on a bright yellow shirt. Like real bright. The second is the jungle carpet python on a black long-sleeve shirt. Just in time for the rainy season. Both are available in all the adult sizes.

Beaded Lizard eating a mouse

Here is a short video of a Mexican Beaded Lizard eating a mouse. It doesn't even wait for the venom to kick in before it swallows the thing.

Orcas in SF

There is a pod of Orcas off of the San Francisco Coast. They have been seen for the later half of January presumably hunting salmon. It is believed that these are not wandering strays, but a migration of a Puget Sound pod in search of food.

Photos were taken Jan. 24 of from nine to 15 orcas swimming in the open water between the Farallon Islands and San Francisco.

Although killer whales have been seen off the coast before, researchers believe some five dozen or more individuals are now regularly leaving their historic habitat in the Puget Sound area for the abundant waters near the Golden Gate.

"It's exciting for us because they traveled so far to get to California, which means they can travel farther than people thought to find food," said Nancy Black, a marine biologist and whale expert for Monterey Bay Whale Watch. "Before, it was just transient (orcas) that have been seen in Bay Area. This is something unusual."

Ken Balcomb, senior scientist and founder of the Center for Whale Research, which has tracked the pod in Washington for 30 years, said the whales, including a mother and calf, were positively identified through the photos as members of a family group called "K-pod."

Based on observations made a little over a week earlier off Half Moon Bay, Balcomb believes that members of "L-pod" are also in the vicinity. If they are, it would mean that as many as 63 whales could be spread out over 30 miles around the Farallones.

The animals make up two of the three pods of the southern resident killer whale population, which provide thrills every summer for whale watchers in the Pacific Northwest as they follow salmon toward the rivers where the fish spawn.

The whole article is really interesting so be sure to read the entire thing.

Photos credit: dejahthoris used with Creative Commons license

Update: I couldn't resist one more passage

The killer whale, or Orcinus orca, is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family and is found in all the world's oceans. Males can reach up to 31 feet long and weigh 8 tons. They are one of the fastest marine mammals, reaching speeds of up to 35 mph. Individuals can be identified by the shape and coloration of a saddle behind the dorsal fin that is as unique on each whale as a fingerprint is on a human.

Highly intelligent and social, orcas generally travel in matrilineal family groups, but within those groups there are vast differences. Some orcas feed on seals and sea lions and others feed on other whale species. There are also transient orcas that feed mostly on sharks. None of them are considered a threat to humans.

I had no idea orcas were in all the world's oceans. Even the Indian! Bizzare.

World's Largest Cylindrical Aquarium

In the Lobby of a Radisson Hotel in Berlin, Germany is a 900,000 gallon salt water aquarium. It is pretty damn cool. Follow the link for more pictures including those of the construction. Imagine the view out of your room window at this hotel.

ht Christian Naventi

Iguana Fancy

Herp mag gets the love on the Colbert Report last night. "Iguanas and The Elderly: An Uneasy Peace." Plus 2007 Crickets are here! We've had 2007 crickets for like 25 days now. We're so ahead of you fake Iguana Fancy Magazine. But seriously Iguanas and the Elderly ... or children for that matter would be an informative article that might keep so many people from buying the wrong pet.

Giant Octopus

Speaking of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I was there a few weeks ago and the giant octopuses (octopi?) were both out and cruising around for 15-20 minutes or so. In the five or so other times I have been at the aquarium when they were on display, you could only see a huddled shadow in the corner. This time they were swimming back and forth around their tanks. Back to the rock wall and then up to the glass and back again. When they made it to the glass they would flare up, turn red/pink and look you right in the eye. Then back to the wall where they instantly turned grey and blended in with the background. It was really a neat thing to see and had us mesmerized for quite some time.

Here are some pics ....

Photo credit Ryan Garrett
















Photo credit Mike Disharoon

Good-Bye

I forgot to post this earlier but the Monterey Bay Aquarium released their white shark last week after 137 days in captivity, the second longest period of time a white shark has been kept in captivity. The record 198 days was the female previously put on display by the aquarium.

The young great white shark that had enthralled visitors to Monterey Bay Aquarium since September returned to the wild early Tuesday.

The fish swam away from the research vessel Sheila B shortly after sunrise, its dorsal fin slicing the water of Monterey Bay as the fearsome predator circled the boat several times before vanishing beneath the rolling waves.

"It's bittersweet," said aquarium curator Christina Slager, one of the people aboard the Sheila B. "We all really enjoyed observing the animal and working with it, but it was also good to see it return to the wild."

The aquarium is already making plans to keep another shark in captivity and hopes to capture one late next spring, officials said.

The animal released Tuesday grew 9 inches and gained 68 pounds in captivity, and although its nose was scuffed -- an injury occasionally seen among captive sharks when they bump tank walls -- aquarium officials are confident the fish is none the worse for wear after 137 days in captivity. They expect the shark, like the aquarium's previous great white, to thrive. An electronic tag will track the fish for 90 days.

Photo credit: Ryan Garrett

Parthenogenic Komodo Dragon's hatch

The Parthenogenic eggs layed by a Komodo Dragon in London we wrote about in December have hatched.

The shells began cracking last week, after an eight-month gestation period, which culminated with the arrival on Tuesday of the fifth black and yellow colored dragon.

The dragons are between 15.5 and 17.5 inches and weigh between 3.5 and 5.3 ounces, said Buley, who leads the zoo's expert care team.

He said the reptiles are in good health and enjoying a diet of crickets and locusts.

Other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora's virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first time it has been documented in a Komodo dragon.

Mandarin Newt

Tylototriton shanjing
CBB Juvenile

Polar Bears to Be Added to ESL?

The United States government has proposed listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species List, due to the bears' declining numbers. Many have blamed the bears' trouble on global warming. If polar bears are listed on the ESL, it could have far reaching effects on regulation of green house gases.

"They are able to live and thrive in one of the world's harshest environments. But there's concern that their habitat may literally be melting."

The Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies to ensure that all activities the government approves will not harm listed species or their habitats.

Environmental groups quickly connected the announcement with scientific evidence that climate change is melting the iconic bear's Arctic habitat, causing the animals to go hungry and give birth less often.

"This is a watershed decision," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity in Joshua Tree, California. "Even the Bush Administration can no longer deny the science of global warming.

Picture from DarrylW4

Praying Mantis Eats Hummingbird

Follow the link for pictures of a praying mantis eating a hummingbird.

Giant Squid

A large giant squid has been filmed and captured for the first time off the coast of Japan. Earlier this year a squid was captured in still photos underwater at a bait-trap, but this is the first known live video of these whale killers.

Tsunemi Kubodera, a scientist with Japan's National Science Museum, caught the 24-foot (7-meter) animal earlier this month near the island of Chichijima, some 600 miles (960 kilometers) southeast of Tokyo (see Japan map).

His team snared the animal using a line baited with small squid and shot video of the russet-colored giant as it was hauled to the surface.

The squid, a young female, "put up quite a fight" as the team attempted to bring it aboard, Kudobera told the Associated Press, and the animal died from injuries sustained during the capture.

Giant squid, the world's largest invertebrates, are thought to reach sizes up to 60 feet (18 meters), but because they live at such great ocean depths they have never been studied in the wild.

I haven't seen the video yet, but when it pops up I will link to it.

Global Warming Drowns an Island

Can we start to take global warming serious now?

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.

Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.

It is already too late for these people.

Photo credit: shunya.net

"Baby Jesus" Liazrds

Virgin birth baby lizards? Two Komodo dragons in England have laid self-fertilized eggs.

That's because the virgin in question is Flora the Komodo dragon, a giant lizard at Chester Zoo in England that has laid fertile eggs despite never having had a mate.

DNA tests confirmed Flora was the sole parent, says Chester Zoo curator of lower vertebrates Kevin Buley.

...

Flora, along with another female Komodo dragon from the London Zoo, represent the first known cases of virgin birth in the world's largest lizard, according to researchers.

The two reptiles are examples of a process called parthenogenesis, in which offspring are produced without fertilization by a male, according to a report in the current issue of the journal Nature.

Others have said that this may help explain how monitors populate islands. It is now believed that it only takes a lone female to reach and island and not a pair of monitors like previously thought. And due to lizard genetics all offspring will be males! I find this very bizzare considering monitor sex is thought to be temperature dependant.

A Komodo dragon at London Zoo gave birth earlier this year after being separated from males for more than two years.

Scientists thought she had been able to store sperm from her earlier encounter with a male, but after hearing about Flora's eggs researchers conducted tests which showed her eggs were also produced without male help.

"You have two institutions within a few short months of each other having a previously unheard of event. It is really quite unprecedented," said Buley.

The scientists, reporting the discovery in the science journal Nature, said it could help them understand how reptiles colonize new areas.

A female dragon could, for instance, swim to another island and establish a new colony on her own.

"The genetics of self-fertilization in lizards means that all her hatchlings would have to be male. These would grow up to mate with their own mother and therefore, within one generation, there would potentially be a population able to reproduce normally on the new island," Buley said.

If anyone can shed some light on why parthenogenesis always results in all male clutches please do share as I do not understand why this is neccessarily true. If parthenogenesis were to happen in humans, the offspring would have to be female. I know that varanids lack a X-chromosome like most mammals, but why all males? It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint, but the cell biology is confusing.

Here's hoping at least one of them gets named Jesus.

Word of the week

opisthoglyphous ... meaning rear-fanged colubrid

In the opisthoglyphous colubrids, with grooved teeth situated at the posterior extremity of the maxilla, a small posterior portion of the upper labial or salivary gland is converted into a venom-secreting organ, distinguished by a light yellow colour, provided with a duct larger than any of those of the labial gland, and proceeding inward and downward to the base of the grooved fang; the duct is not in direct connection with the groove, but the two communicate through the mediation of the cavity enclosed by the folds of mucous membrane surrounding the tooth, and united in front.

We have a few of these snakes but the coolest by far right now is the Paradise Flying Snake.

Back

It's been awhile since the last post. I have been trying to apply to graduate programs. Applications are almost done though. So more regular posting next week. Check back.

What a night!

Wow! Congratulations to the new Madam Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and apparent Senate Majority Leader Reid.

In our backyard Jerry McNerney, beat the corrupt, pro environment destroying Richard Pombo. Pombo regularly recieved some of the worst pro-environmental grades in Congress and was heavily tied to Jack Abramoff.

And here is to hoping Arnold stays centrist and doesn't immediatly move back to the right like he did after his first election.

Election Day

Please all go take advantage of your civil right and go vote today. Tell the country we want our democracy back.

There is a lot of voter intimidation going on around the country, as if those in power don't want us to vote. Tell your representative how you feel about their performance in Congress with your vote.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium and many other pro-science and pro-conservation groups urge you to vote yes on CA-84

Proposition 84 - the Clean Water, Parks and Coastal Protection Act makes the investments needed to ensure that all Californians will have:
Access to safe drinking water
Better protection from floods
Opportunities to enjoy parks, natural landscapes and our rivers, lakes, beaches, bays and coastline.

Update: And surprise there are major problems with the electronic voting machines. And this time both sides are complaining, so maybe something will finally be done about it.

Flag photo credit

6 more days until the Election

cartoon link here.

Via TPM

Bigfoot

Apparently there was a bigfoot sighting in El Dorado County in September caught on photo film ... well kinda. They claim that the Bigfoot is breaking into a car and you can see some "underwear" and "male organ" I can barely see a damn thing but there you go. I cannot tell if Bigfoot just doesn't know how to wear underwear so that his "organ" doesn't show or if the underwear is supposed to be hanging on a close line that just happens to be at bigfoot crotch level.

But breaking into a car. Hard times for Bigfoot.

Click the link for the grainy photos.

Happy Halloween

Enjoy the one time a year where it's okay to take candy from strangers in masks.

Friday Gecko Blogging Tuesday Addition

Rhacodactylus chahoua

Oedura castlenaui

Ancient Reptile Sea Monsters

The fossilized remains of a 33-foot sea reptile dubbed "The Monster" have been found on an Artic island.

The ancient graveyard once lay deep underwater during the Jurassic period, about 200 million to 145 million years ago (take a virtual swim with Jurassic sea monsters).he site now sits on the island of Spitsbergen, part of the Norwegian-owned Svalbard archipelago, which lies about 600 miles (966 kilometers) from the North Pole (map of Norway).

In total, 28 well-preserved skeletons of marine reptiles that lived some 150 million years ago have been identified at the site, reports a team from the University of Oslo Natural History Museum in Norway.

The fossil haul includes the Monster, an estimated 33-foot-long (10-meter-long) pliosaur that has not yet been fully excavated. (See images of the newly found sea monster.)

Pliosaurs were the top marine predators during a time when the oceans were teeming with large, meat-eating reptiles.

"It was the T. rex of the ocean," said Jørn Hurum, co-leader of the research team. "It would have eaten everything."

So far the team has found the Monster's skull, which measures 6.9 feet (2.1 meters) in length, along with dinner plate-size neck vertebrae and portions of the lower jaw containing teeth as thick as cucumbers.

Nobel Prize in Econ

As you can see by the Colbert Nobel Prize Excel photo from below an American was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics this week. Colombia University professor, Edmund S. Phelps won for his theories on the relationship between inflation and unemployment.

The 73-year-old Columbia University professor challenged prevailing views in the 1960s by developing a new economic model that has helped corporate and government leaders balance inflation and unemployment in decision-making.

He is the sixth US citizen to win a Nobel Prize this year, meaning every prize save for the literature and peace prizes, which have not yet been announced, have gone to Americans.

Phelps said in New York that he learned of the prize in a telephone call from Sweden shortly after 6 am.

...

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Phelps' work, done in the late 1960s, had "deepened our understanding of the relation between short-run and long-run effects of economic policy."

Colbert notices the US Nobel Dominance

For your Colbert Nobel Prize watch.

Plus a great video on last wednesday segment concerning the Nobel Prizes can be found at comedy central (as of now the second row of videos). No video yet on youtube.

Friday Gecko Blogging

Tortoise Addition

Geochelone radiata

And Another!

With the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Stanford University professor Roger Kornberg, the Americans have swept the Nobel science prizes for the first time since 1983 and just as importantly the Bay Area represented winners for all three prizes.

Stanford University professor Roger Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry today for his research into how information stored in genes is copied and used to construct an organism.

Kornberg's Nobel Prize comes 47 years after his father received the coveted award for his work in medicine. Kornberg is the third Bay Area scientist to win a Nobel Prize this week, and will receive about $1.3 million for the honor.

Kornberg, 59, was honored for his work studying transcription, the process of copying information stored in genes and transferring them outside the cells, where proteins use the copy to actually create the organism. His work could help scientists understand fatal illnesses including cancer and heart disease and move stem cell research forward, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

It has been a great week to be a Bay Area science junkie.

Photo via Creative Commons Search, credit ereneta

Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics was announced yesterday morning and once again some Bay Area scientists won.

George F. Smoot of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and John C. Mather of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for their research that found the first overwhelming evidence for the Big Bang as the origin of the universe.

Prof. Smoot is a physics professor at UC Berkeley. He actually teaches Physics 7B, the second semester of introductory physics class. Can you imagine being a freshman or sophmore, coming to class to find out that your professor just won a Nobel Prize? The Award ceremony in Sweeden is the day of the class final.

Dr. Mather was a UCB doctoral grad, studying under another Nobel prize winner, Charles H. Townes.

More seriously, Smoot explained how he, Mather and their teams of colleagues had successfully united the science of quantum mechanics, which deals with the smallest things in the universe, and the science of cosmology, which concerns itself with the largest.

Humble congrats to both and enjoy the parking spot.

Photo via Creative Commons Search, credit ereneta

College Radio

My friend Evan, a law student at UCLA, does a radio show on the UCLA college radio station on Mondays from 2-4 PM called Pocket Full of Rock. If college style radio is your thing, and if you consider yourself the least bit hip it should be, then check out http://uclaradio.com/

Its on now.

Nobel Prize time

So its that time of year, when the Nobel Prizes are announced. Although there is no Nobel for the field sciences, we will still post a bit about them, because well it is interesting. That simple.

First up is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine which went to two US scientists, Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for their work looking at how some genes are regulated in the body. They discovered RNA interference which is responsible for down-regulation of certain genes. It has also become a very important tool for scientists studying certain proteins. The technique pioneered by the Nobel laureates allows one to artificially "knock-down" a gene and study how the protein of interest effects the cell or animal model by making observations in its absence.

We use this very new technique in my lab and it is instrumental in understanding the effects of proteins in cell and tissue physiology.

DNA holds the information needed to build all the proteins that make life possible. The information in a gene is first copied into a molecule known as mRNA (messenger RNA), which is then used as a template for making a protein (get a genetics overview.)

But unlike DNA, which generally exists only as a double-stranded molecule with two matching sides, mRNA is single-stranded.

Fire and Mello found that injecting a cell with the matching strand for a certain mRNA silences all expression of the associated gene—the protein is simply not made. The scientists reported their discoveries in a 1998 issue of the journal Nature.

The matching strand binds to the target RNA to create a double-stranded RNA molecule, similar to DNA.

This double-stranded RNA, scientists later discovered, is destroyed by a set of proteins as a natural defense mechanism against viruses, as well as a tool to regulate the expression of certain genes.

Photo via Creative Commons Search, credit ereneta

Study Finds Tarantulas Spin Silk From Their Feet,

What does a tarantula do when it comes across a slippery surface in its travels ... It spins silk out of its feet to aid in locomotion. It is believed that tarantulas are the only animal to use silk in locomotion. The study was written by Stanislav Gorb, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany.

Gorb and colleagues found that zebra tarantulas secrete tiny bits of silk from nozzlelike structures in their feet. These tethers allow the arachnids to scale vertical surfaces.

The discovery supports a hypothesis that ancient spiders first evolved to produce silk from their feet before changing to the modern configuration of producing it in their abdomens.

"It makes sense actually," Gorb said. "We know that all the extremities of ancestor arachnids probably had this possibility to adhere during locomotion, for example, or during prey capture."

Alternatively, the foot secretions may have evolved independently in tarantulas to help the relatively large spiders move around safely, he adds.

The study can be found in the current issue of Nature, which if you don't have a university paying for it, costs a fortune.

Bush Administration Blocks Hurricane Report

The Bush Administration has blocked a report that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has compiled which suggests that Global Warming may be a cause of stronger and or more frequent hurricanes.

The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday.

The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ? part of the Commerce Department in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.

According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect.

In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.

Is anyone surprised that this administration blocks science that does not agree with their world paradigm.

Cactus Bloom Photo Blogging

Ariocarpus fissuratus

If you aren't checking in with the guys over at the Cactus Jungle blog a few times a week you are really missing out. They have been posting a ton of beautiful bloom pictures. If you see something you like head on over there because they tend to have cactus for sale that are a few weeks away from blooming, so you will get to enjoy the flower at home for the entire length of it's bloom. And as far as I know, unlike a lot of other nurseries, blooming or pre-bloom plants won't cost you a dime more.

More Andes Pics

The Andes Mountain range outside of Mendoza, Argentina. (See map below)

Friday Gecko Blogging

Rhachodactylus ciliatus

Photo from good friend of the store Ryan Garrett. Go tell him to update his photo blog, Observing the Process Will Change It, more than once a month.

Big Reptile Show Weekend

For the first time in recent memory we will be doing two reptile shows in the same weekend. The bigger show is the NARBC in Anaheim, Ca. Stop by the booth and say hello to Sean and John.

The second show is the North Bay Herpetological Society's Tenth Annual Reptile Bazaar in Petaluma, Ca on Saturday only. Myself and Carlos will be manning the booth.

Feel free to drop off beer at either show.

Electoral College

I read about this a few months ago, but had no idea that the bill was sitting on Ahnold's desk. A Stanford University professor has devised a way around the electoral college with out needing the 2/3 vote to ratify the constitution. Basically if enough states (an electoral college majority) create state laws that their electoral college votes will all be awarded to the winner of the popular vote in the presidential election, it will guarentee that the winner of the popular vote wins the election. It will take 11+ of the most populus states for this plan to work, but it behooves the larger states to pass laws like this in order to weild more power on the national landscape. Our last two presidential elections were basically decided by Floridians (with the aid of the Supreme Court) and Ohioans. the most populus states all tend to be blue, with the exceptions of Texas and Florida, so this idea will require bipartisan support. But it would transform our Republic (or is it a Federation) into a more of a true Representitive Democracy. Everyone's vote would actually be equal under a true Representitive Democracy.

The first fruit of his effort, a bill approved by the California legislature that would allocate the state’s 55 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, sits on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk. The governor has to decide by Sept. 30 whether to sign it, a decision that may well determine whether Dr. Koza’s scheme takes flight or becomes another relic in the history of efforts to kill the Electoral College.

“It would be a major development if California enacts this thing,” said Tim Storey, an analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. “It will definitely transform it from a smoldering thing into a fire.’’

There have been many efforts over the decades to kill the Electoral College, the little-known and widely misunderstood body that actually elects the president based on the individual states that a candidate wins. Most recently, former Representative John B. Anderson of Illinois and former Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana spearheaded a drive, Fair Vote, for a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College.

Concert Review

So a bunch of us went to a show at the Stork Club in Oakland last Saturday night.

The opening band, Harold Ray Live, was pretty good. Six guys or so in suits playing James Brown-esque toons. They were very high energy and the organ player hit the keys so hard the entire organ bounced around the stage.

Up second was Bob Log III who was amazing. From the Kansas City Star ...

"He keeps time with two busy feet, kicking a cymbal and a bass drum and tow-tapping two drum machines. The first thing you'll notice about him, though, is the bubble-mask motorcycle helmet he wears, which is wired with a microphone - a masquerade that hides his face and warps his voice.

And as for the swizzle stick - the frank truth is he'd rather his drink be stirred by a bare female breast, and these days Bob Log is so popular (or persuasive) he's been getting his way. He is a one man band playing a bass drum with one foot, a snare drum with the other and slide guitar."

If you are familiar with his Fat Possum label mates The Black Keys, the sound is similar. Throw in a little Squidbillies, and some Howard Stern humor and you have Bob Log III. He definitely stole the show.

The closer was BlowFly, the self-proclaimed "original dirty rapper." And uh yeah ... he was quite dirty. Imagine a ~70 year old man, with an abnormally long, boney middle finger aggressively pointing to and fro while some of the funniest, dirties lines you have ever heard come out of his mouth. It was quite interesting indeed. I won't reprint any of his lyrics as this blog may be read by 12-year olds looking for leopard gecko pictures, but don't let your mom read them over your shoulder. Blowfly is a very charismatic, very entertaining man.

During one of the set changes herp student walks up to us and says "figures I would see a bunch of herpers at BlowFly." We were all wearing our EBV shirts, but yes BlowFly definitley fits in with the herping crowd.

The above photo is called "The freakish, funky finger of Blowfly points out a Hole Man in the crowd" and was taken at the April 12th, 2006 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 by Michael Pilmer © 2006

Local Music

So I am going to expand the blog a bit to include some local music adventures since the fine employees of EBV tend to do the whole afterwork fieldtrip to a local music show about once a month or so. So if indie music is your thing look out for some concert and band reviews. Not all of it will be wimpy indie-rock; we'll have some indie-hip-hop and indie-punk and indie-fill in the blank, but a lot of it will be sensitive, ephemeral indie-rock.

Fish in the coal mine

A cnn.com story discusses municipalities using sunfish as a "canary in the coal mine" against terrorist attacks agianst drinking water. Glad to hear we are actually doing something besides "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here."

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A type of fish so common that practically every American kid who ever dropped a fishing line and a bobber into a pond has probably caught one is being enlisted in the fight against terrorism.

San Francisco, New York, Washington and other big cities are using bluegills -- also known as sunfish or bream -- as a sort of canary in a coal mine to safeguard their drinking water.

Small numbers of the fish are kept in tanks constantly replenished with water from the municipal supply, and sensors in each tank work around the clock to register changes in the breathing, heartbeat and swimming patterns of the bluegills that occur in the presence of toxins.

Will Ferrell as Dubya on Global Warming

Andean Condor

All the tegus were still in their winter holes ... so an Andean Condor picture instead. I'll post a few more Argentina pics this week.

Great White Shark

Monterey Bay Aquarium has a new White Shark on display in their Outer Bay exhibit. These are the most amazing creatures to see in person. Jaw-dropping is not an exaggeration.

For only the second time, there's a healthy young white shark in our Outer Bay exhibit. 5 feet 8 inches long and 104 pounds, he arrived on August 31 and is making himself right at home in the million-gallon exhibit. Each day he's here, he'll teach us more about white sharks and how we can protect these thrilling—and threatened—animals in the wild.

A little more than it could handle

A reticulated python in Indonesia needed to be removed from a roadway after eating a pregnant sheep. Apparently it was so bloated it couldn't slither off of the road. That's gonna leave some stretch marks.

Sacramento Show Pictures

The Sacramento Show was a big success. It was very crowded, especially on Saturday. Here are a few pictures from Sunday.

Super heros like beaded lizards

Sean explains animal husbandry

Emo kids like snakes

All the way from Japan

Smiling for the camera

Tashara, our ZooMed Rep, hurting Sunday morning

Best of the East Bay

This is a few months old but I never managed to blog it. East Bay Vivarium was named the Best Specialty Store in the "The Deadly Sins: Best of the East Bay 2006" category by the East Bay Express, a great weekly newspaper.

Ophidiophobes, arachnophobes, herpetophobes, and general zoophobes should steer clear. But if you adore snakes, spiders, reptiles, and amphibians, you've hit pay dirt at this West Berkeley institution. The specialty pet store and de facto zoo peddles a menagerie of nature's most curious and/or intimidating creatures.

...

Vivarium co-owner John Emberton estimates that half of his visitors stop in just to look around. Store regulars bring their newbie friends, and parents come looking for free kiddie entertainment. The staff is cool with all that. "We have school groups and birthday parties coming through, Cub Scout and Girl Scout groups, and they don't buy a thing," Emberton says. "It's free advertising. It's trickle-down. They're not all gonna come back and buy something down the road, but if one in twenty does, then it's worth it." So after your Sunday brunch on yupscale Fourth Street, walk over and view some stuff that would give those soccer moms the creepy-crawlies.

Resturant Review

Our friends at Cafe Rouge on 4th Street got a brief write-up in the East Bay Express this week.

Fur Seals Return to the Farallons

The SF Chronicle reports that for the first time since 1834 Northern Fur Seals have returned to the Farallon Islands off of the San Francisco coast.

A few started returning in the early 1970s, but this year their numbers surged -- an indication of the islands' enduring vitality and proof that a sensitive species can revive under favorable circumstances.

"We're ecstatic to see any marine mammal recovery, but it's especially gratifying when you're talking about a sensitive species like northern fur seals," said Clyde Morris, manager of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. "Their comeback is probably due to the high protection from human intrusion the Farallones receive."

The Farallons are really a special place so its great to see it as a home to another species.

RIP Steve Irwin

RIP Croc Hunter

A DOCTOR and witnesses have told of the desperate efforts to save Australian icon Steve Irwin after the Crocodile Hunter was struck in the chest by a stingray barb today.

Irwin, 44, died this morning after being fatally injured while filming a nature documentary off Queensland.

The news has shocked the nation and prompted a rush of tributes from politicians and the public alike.

Irwin's wife Terri was in Tasmania at the time of the tragedy and had to be contacted by police with the terrible news.