Virtual Neighborhood Tour

If you have never been to our store but wondered what the outside of it looked like or what our neighborhood was like try google maps. Addresses are approximate and our is off a bit but here we are. Plus some 4th Street goodness.

Pulpos: suave inteligencia

This video will make you want a pet octopus. I promise. It is in Spanish, but you will get the general idea of it. Intelligent, beautiful and surprisingly flexible. What more could you ask for?

Michael Vick

Let's hope Michael Vick goes to jail for a very long time if he is convicted of these horrendous crimes. It hurts to even read the indictment. The cruelty is more than I imagined. Some of the gross details of the indictment are paraphrased by the smoking gun.

The 27-year-old Vick, whose nickname is listed as "Ookie" in the indictment, allegedly established the Bad Newz Kennels in early-2001 in Smithfield, Virginia. It was this property, for which Vick paid $34,000, that the star athlete and his codefendants used as the "main staging area for housing and training the pit bulls involved in the dog fighting venture and hosting dog fights." According to prosecutors, Vick and his cohorts began purchasing pit bull puppies in late-2001 and would eventually "sponsor" individual dog fights with purses as high as $26,000. In the indictment's most harrowing parts, federal investigators describe what happened to some Bad Newz Kennels dogs that either lost matches or did not perform well in test fights. After a March 2003 loss by a female pit bull, codefendant Purnell Peace, "after consulting with Vick," electrocuted the animal. In April, prosecutors allege, Vick, Peace, and Quanis Phillips, "executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in 'testing' sessions." These animals, the indictment claims, were killed "by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

Hopefully his sponsors will start dropping him soon. There is such thing as innocent until proven guilty in this country, but the Fed's don't bring an indictment they aren't very confident in. Maybe this case will bring dog fighting to the attention of the masses and more people will realize that it is a very real issue. If you feel so obliged send Ron Mexico's sponsors a little note saying you do not appreciate their using a dog fighter as a role model.

Photo by Flickr user littlerottenrobin used under a Creative Commons license

Housekeeping

I finished my regular job this past week and wrapping it up was very time consuming, which did not allow for a lot of blogtime. I will be posting a bunch this week while packing up the apt. and getting ready for a month long trip to Central America, when I imagine there will be no posting. Might try and find a guest blogger for that month.

Photo by Flickr user Rick Takagi used under Creative Commons license.

Whale + Dynamite + Bad Engineering = Funny

I remember watching this video in my high school wildlife biology class and forgotten about its existence until it showed up on the sayhey blog this week. Way too funny.

Great Resource

I just added Livingunderworld.org to our link roll. This is an amazing site with great information on amphibians. The galleries are fantastic, but the species database is really where all the action is. The natural history and care information reads better than most amphibian book I have read. If you are ever looking for care information on dart frogs, or salamanders, or just about any amphibian check this web project out. It is a new (to me) resource I will be using constantly.

Celebrity Dog Fighting

It appears there was another federal raid on a property owned by Falcon's QB Michael Vick in a suspected dog fighting case.

On June 7, federal law enforcement officials descended on a home owned by Vick armed with a search warrant that suggests they're taking over an investigation into the Falcons quarterback's possible involvement in dogfighting.
More than a dozen vehicles went to the home early that day and investigators searched inside before turning their attention to the area where officials found dozens of dogs in late April and evidence that suggested the home was involved in a dogfighting operation.
Surry County officials had secured a search warrant in late May based on an informant's information to look for as many as 30 dog carcasses buried on the property. The warrant never was executed because Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald G. Poindexter said he had issues with the way it was worded.

Photo of fake dog fighting by Flickr user / juL / used under a creative commons license.

Go America

Honor has been restored to America as we brought back the title to our best sport, competitive eating. Good job by the local boy Joey Chestnut. New World Record!

Photo by Flickr user wallyg used under Creative Commons license

Racism in America is Alive and Well

This story via Atrios sounds like it should have been from 1956, and not 2006. We still have a lot of work to do in this country. Very sad and sobering. Brown v. Board of Education did not fix everything, even though our current Supreme Court thinks otherwise. The Bay Area certainly is not perfect, but stories like this make us very thankful we run a business and live here, in a freer society, than many other places in this great country.

Photo by tizzie used under a Creative Commons license.

Dinosaur Fun Facts!

Friend of the store and Berkeley Boozers Book Club member JL points us to this children's menu linked to from a University of Florida webpage.

"Dinosaurs and reptiles never stop growing!
The largest dinosaur egg ever found was smaller than a football
Dinosaur footprints and people footprints were found together in Glenrose, Texas.
The most up to date scientific information shows that dinosaurs lived not millions of years ago, they lived with man. there are still some around today."

Wow! Infect them with the crazy early. Start with something pretty true but a bit misleading and then continue into wingnuttia land.

Senate passes higher CAFE standards

This is great news. The Senate passed a bill raising the minimum fuel economy of all cars, SUVs, and light weight trucks to 35 mpg over the next 10 years. Think Progress reports that the effort was lead by California's own Sen. Feinstein.

Feinstein has released a statement on the vote: "The compromise legislation raises the fleetwide average fuel economy standards for all cars, trucks and SUVs by 10 miles per gallon over 10 years — or from 25 to 35 miles per gallon by Model Year 2020." By 2025, the fuel economy increases for cars and light-duty trucks would:

— Save between 2.0 and 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, nearly the amount of oil imported today from the Persian Gulf.
— Achieve up to 18 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from anticipated levels, or the equivalent of taking 60 million cars off the road in one year.
— Save consumers $79-98 billion at the pump, based on a $3.00 gas price.

Now it just needs to pass in the house. Call your house rep and tell them to support raising fuel economy standards.

Photo of LA smog by Flickr user recursive_1 used under a Creative Commons license

Tiger Attack at SF Zoo

OSHA has determined that the tiger attack that left a keeper with half an arm was the fault of the SF Zoo.

It was obvious that any of the cats could reach through or under the bars and that a potential hazard zone extended approximately 18 inches from the cage face," concluded the report by California's Division of Occupation Safety and Health.
Lori Komejan was mauled by Tatiana, a 350-pound Siberian tiger, on the afternoon of Dec. 22 -- exactly six months ago -- as dozens of horrified visitors watched. The incident occurred inside the Lion House after a routine public feeding of the big cats.
"The flesh was torn from her right arm," said Cal-OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer in a phone interview Thursday. "It was peeled off, similar to peeling off a glove."
The investigation said zoo officials were aware that hazardous conditions existed at the Lion House, closed since Komejan was injured. Cal-OSHA ordered changes -- which already have been made -- in the setup of the cages and wants to impose an $18,000 penalty, which the zoo can appeal.

Photo by Flickr user Graybeard763 used under a Creative Commons license

Swallowed Up

Disappearing Lakes in the Andes ... bizzare.

A five-acre glacial lake in Chile's southern Andes has disappeared -- and scientists want to know why.

Park rangers at Bernardo O'Higgins National Park said they found a 100-feet-deep crater in late May where the lake had been in March. Several large pieces of ice that used to float atop the water also were spotted.

"The lake had simply disappeared," Juan Jose Romero, head of Chile's National Forest Service in the southernmost region of Magallanes, said Wednesday. "No one knows what happened."

Note: photo is of a lake in the Andes, just not the one that disappeared, nor one in Chile for that matter, but on the other side, in Argentina.

Mini Mammals

Giant Panda Addition:

The 2 million year old skull of a pygmy giant panda was found in a limestone cave in southern China.

The animal, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or "pygmy giant panda," would have been about three feet long, compared to the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of five feet (1.52 meters).

Stem Cell Veto Part II

President Bush has used only his third veto, refusing to sign a bill passed by both houses of Congress that would allow Federal Funding for embryonic stem cell research. This is the second time Bush has vetoed the "stem cell bill."

President Bush on Wednesday issued his second veto of a measure lifting his restrictions on human embryonic stem cell experiments. The move effectively pushed the contentious scientific and ethical debate surrounding the research into the 2008 presidential campaign.

“Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical,” Mr. Bush said in a brief ceremony in the East Room of the White House. He called the United States “a nation founded on the principle that all human life is sacred.”

At the same time, Mr. Bush issued an executive order intended to encourage scientists to pursue other forms of stem cell research that he does not deem unethical. But that research is already going on, and the plan provides no new money.

The hypocrisy is stunning. The embryonic stem cells to be studied would come from unused embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics that are already being destroyed. Not sure how the Iraq war protects the "sanctity of human life" or how the death penalty does either (not a pro- or anti- death penalty comment here just pointing out the hypocrisy).

Matt Yglesias brings up another hypocrisy angle here too, pointing out that it is perfectly legal to study embryonic stem cells in the United States, with private funding or in our case State of California funding. If studying stem cells is equated with murder then should he not try and outlaw all stem cell research.

If the cells are sacred human life, then surely it's not okay to kill them in a privately financed manner. The nonsensical nature of Bush's position on this issue is old news, but continues, in my view, to be under-remarked upon in mainstream coverage of the issue. Years ago, he hit upon a goofy split-the-difference compromise and ever since then he's been wandering the country insisting that he's taking a bold stand of principle.

Have to agree here as does most of America as the Christian Post points out.

Brownback's Evolution Op-Ed

A bit late on this but Sen. Sam Brownback wrote an Op-Ed in the NYTimes concerning evolution and his beliefs in it. He suggests that this is not a simple raise your hand if you don't believe question (of all the questions posed in this manner during the presidential debates, this might be the most clear yes or no question though).

He starts his piece with things I can agree with ...

The heart of the issue is that we cannot drive a wedge between faith and reason. I believe wholeheartedly that there cannot be any contradiction between the two. The scientific method, based on reason, seeks to discover truths about the nature of the created order and how it operates, whereas faith deals with spiritual truths. The truths of science and faith are complementary: they deal with very different questions, but they do not contradict each other because the spiritual order and the material order were created by the same God.

People of faith should be rational, using the gift of reason that God has given us. At the same time, reason itself cannot answer every question. Faith seeks to purify reason so that we might be able to see more clearly, not less. Faith supplements the scientific method by providing an understanding of values, meaning and purpose. More than that, faith — not science — can help us understand the breadth of human suffering or the depth of human love. Faith and science should go together, not be driven apart.

Emphasis added for the parts that are most agreeable. Not everything in those paragraphs are quite right in my mind, but the overall gist of it is good. Hints of the late Stephen J. Gould.

Here is where Brownback begins to go wrong.

The question of evolution goes to the heart of this issue. If belief in evolution means simply assenting to microevolution, small changes over time within a species, I am happy to say, as I have in the past, that I believe it to be true. If, on the other hand, it means assenting to an exclusively materialistic, deterministic vision of the world that holds no place for a guiding intelligence, then I reject it.

There is no one single theory of evolution, as proponents of punctuated equilibrium and classical Darwinism continue to feud today. Many questions raised by evolutionary theory — like whether man has a unique place in the world or is merely the chance product of random mutations — go beyond empirical science and are better addressed in the realm of philosophy or theology.

First he misuses the word "materialistic." Brownback's choice of materialistic brings the negative connotation of over-consumption, when in fact evolution is materialistic in the sense of "made of matter." Second evolution is not believed to be deterministic, but as he states later the product of random chance. The view of deterministic evolution, similar to Lamarckian evolution is no longer held. Science does not believe that we are evolving to a predetermined endpoint. Nor does science have anything to say about an "intelligent guiding force" Science only deals with materialistic things. Next Brownback deploys the "intelligent design"/creationist favorite "[t]here is no one single theory of evolution" Only problem is he uses a very poor example. The differences between classical Darwinian evolution and punctuated equilibrium (looks like he didn't read Gould's natural history papers all the carefully) deal with temporal differences. Both assume that evolution is the product of random mutations and selection. Classical Darwinian evolution sees evolution as a slow, steady process with little to no acceleration or deceleration. Punctuated equilibrium, however describes evolution as a process that shows periods of relatively little evolution (not no evolution) followed by periods of rapid evolution in a cyclical fashion. Why evolutionary pressures create periods of rapid evolution is under debate but usually major global climate changes such as warming periods, increases in atmospheric oxygen, meteor and volcanic based atmospheric changes. Many times these periods of rapid evolution immediately follow periods of rapid extinction, where new pressures are found and new niches are available. With global warming and mass extinctions happening right now we may be due very soon (on the geological scale, not in the anyone alive now will see it scale).

Ultimately, on the question of the origins of the universe, I am happy to let the facts speak for themselves. There are aspects of evolutionary biology that reveal a great deal about the nature of the world, like the small changes that take place within a species. Yet I believe, as do many biologists and people of faith, that the process of creation — and indeed life today — is sustained by the hand of God in a manner known fully only to him. It does not strike me as anti-science or anti-reason to question the philosophical presuppositions behind theories offered by scientists who, in excluding the possibility of design or purpose, venture far beyond their realm of empirical science.

Biologists will have their debates about man’s origins, but people of faith can also bring a great deal to the table. For this reason, I oppose the exclusion of either faith or reason from the discussion. An attempt by either to seek a monopoly on these questions would be wrong-headed. As science continues to explore the details of man’s origin, faith can do its part as well. The fundamental question for me is how these theories affect our understanding of the human person.

So bold is agree and italics is disagree in the passage above.

Creation of the universe does have its place in discussion of "human person." And Brownback is right when he states that it is a question of philosophy. He is being deceptive when he states that "I oppose the exclusion of either faith or reason from the discussion" implying that reason and faith go together but reason and science do not, which I think he has almost exactly backwards.

Discussion of the human person is not exclusively a question of science. But if it is going to be discussed it needs to be done in the philosophy and religion NOT in science classes where it does not belong. This goes for our schools and our society at large.

But the worst of it is ...

Man was not an accident and reflects an image and likeness unique in the created order. Those aspects of evolutionary theory compatible with this truth are a welcome addition to human knowledge. Aspects of these theories that undermine this truth, however, should be firmly rejected as an atheistic theology posing as science.

So if the science agrees with his faith then it is good and if it disagrees with his faith then it is the evil work of atheists and needs to be discarded!?! That is the Sen. Brownback I am used to. Way to finish up and kill all credibility. I was getting scared that he made a bit of sense there for a minute.

And that concludes my longest post ever.

UPDATE: Sad, but true. It only took me minutes to find a rebuttal of Brownback way better than mine. Read Prof. Coyne's smackdown of Brownback. Expect more posts from his new-to-me blog in the future.

Panda Blogging

Ygelsias is back on the Panda blogging after missing sad panda news last week discussed below. From Matt, Mei Xiang one of the pandas at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. is experiencing elevated hormone levels and may be pregnant. Matt Ponders why "the zoo can't determine this with greater degree of certainty." As pointed out in his comments it is most likely due to the panda fetus's tiny size in comparison to the mother panda. I am not positive but this would probably require anesthesia which could be dangerous to the mother panda and any possible fetus. I assume they are able to measure hormone levels from the female panda's urine without any sort of invasive procedure.

The sad story is of the first captive born panda released into the wild died most likely after being attacked by other pandas. Ygelsias missed the boat on this one as far as I can tell, but maybe he was just scared of linking to Al Jazeera which is curiously the first item when one googles "wild panda died."

He was trained to live in the wild, but it seems he could not fit in.

Xiang Xiang, the world's first lab-bred panda, lasted less than a year living the wild life.

The five-year-old male was found dead on snow-covered ground on February 19, apparently after falling to his death, reports in Chinese state media said.

His body was found in a mountainous area of China's Sichuan province more than a month after scientists last picked up a trace from the global positioning tracking collar he was wearing, Xinhua news agency said.

Flickr is being blocked where I am right now by an internet filter, so i'll add a cute panda photo later.

Cold drink?

Check out this photo of George Bush in Germany the day before coming down with the "stomach flu". Maybe it is just a foamy iced-tea sans ice, but it kinda looks like a German beer to me. Now we here at EBV are not one's to criticize the alcohol, but I think it is pertinent if our self-proclaimed recovering alcoholic President is drinking again. Maybe this is just irresponsible speculation or maybe it is something more serious. Let's see if any members of our esteemed Washington Press decide to look into this at all. None the less Yahoo's choice of this photo for the stomach flu story is a little curious.

Best Of East Bay

Our good friend Anthony Paone was named by the East Bay Express as the best chef in the East Bay. Anthony is executive chef at Sea Salt and T-Rex. We can highly recommend both, which are under 1 mile from our shop. Go check them out for sure.

Most chefs risk an ulcer from running just one kitchen. Anthony Paone runs two within Haig and Cindy Krikorian's Berkeley restaurant empire: the mod barbecue cafe T-Rex and the sprawling seafood brasserie Sea Salt. Forging fresh, inventive food in radically different genres represents a feat of splits that'd make the most limber cheerleader envious. But the 34-year-old chef keeps both kitchens on a sustained quest for kickass.

DDT and the Tobacco Lobby

Mike D. wrote in to shed a little insight on what might have Rush so gung-ho on that DDT use he'll win a Nobel Prize for. From Crooked Timber.

The piles of documents released as a result of litigation against Phillip Morris and Exxon are gifts that keep on giving for those of us interested in the process by which the Republican parallel universe has been constructed. Previous research has shown that the core proponents of global warming delusionism including Stephen Milloy, Fred Singer and Fred Seitz got their start as shills for PM, denying the risks of passive smoking. A string of rightwing thinktanks including Cato, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute helped to promote these hacks and the lies they were paid to peddle.

Now it’s turned out that one of the hardiest of parallel universe beliefs, the claim that Rachel Carson and the US ban on DDT were responsible for millions of deaths in the third world, arises from the same source.


One of the great puzzles of the DDT myth has been that it appeared to arise from pure ideological animus against Carson and the environmental movement – DDT is not patented so there were no profits to be obtained from pushing it. It turns out that the DDT campaign was pitched to the tobacco industry as a diversionary attack on the World Health Organization which was playing a leading role in campaigns against smoking. The leading figure in the exercise was Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute and its front organization, Africans Fighting Malaria.

I figured it was just a general distain for the environmental movement, but PM and big tobacco using the right-wing shills to take attention away from the dangers of smoking is more than even I could have imagined.

Yes that is nicotine pictured above. Benign looking molecule isn't it?

Rush Limbaugh for a Nobel Prize

We had heard months ago that Rush Limbaugh was "nominated" for a Nobel Peace Prize along with Vice President Al Gore. We did not realize that people were still taking this seriously until it was brought to our attention again today by Brian Beutler.

First of all, Nobel Prize nominees are kept quite secret, and the leak of Al Gore's name from two members of the Norwegian Parliment was very unusual. Thing is though, they did have the right and ability to actually nominate someone, so we can safely assume that Al Gore is in fact being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. Then some idiots from "the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation nominated another American political figure for the prize: syndicated radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh." Thing is, they aren't on the Nobel committee as far as we can tell, so they have no more authority to nominate Limbaugh, than if we wrote a letter nominating our pet lizard Millhouse for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

I seem to remember that there was some other right wing-wanker, who was "nominated" for a Nobel Prize last year, but maybe this is just the second year in a row that Rush thinks he is on the super secret ballot. If you remember hit us up in the comments.

And now for why the think tank, and now others piling on believe Rush should receive the Nobel Prize for Peace ...

Get ready for it ...

This issue I’m speaking of is the epidemic of malaria in third-world countries. As you know (or should know), malaria kills more than one million people a year and infects hundreds of millions every year. There is a scientific consensus that the best -- and in many cases the only -- effective way to control the mosquitoes that spread this deadly disease is with the insecticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, otherwise known as DDT. But DDT unfortunately has been vilified by advocacy groups and the popular press based on junk science.

Over the past decade and a half, Mr. Limbaugh has been at times almost a lone media voice correcting misinformation about DDT and also pointing out its life-saving benefits against diseases like malaria. Mr. Gore, by contrast, has continued to spread DDT myths as well as misleading information about the causes of the malaria epidemic.

Before I go further, let me add this caveat. It would be perfectly understandable to me if neither Mr. Gore nor Mr. Limbaugh became the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. There are many worthy of this honor in America and around the world. But if Mr. Gore is under serious consideration as a Nobel candidate, Mr. Limbaugh should also be considered under the same criteria.

Wow. So they think Rush deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for fighting a war against a straw man! DDT was outlawed for agricultural use because of its enourmously harmful affects on animals high in the foodchain, especially fish eaters, like bald eagles and toher birds of prey. It has also been shown to cause cancer in humans. Thing is, DDT was banned in the US in 1972 and by most countries by the 198o's as an agricultural insecticide, but could still be used for mosquito abatement.

The Stockholm Convention, ratified in 2001 and effective as of May 17, 2004, outlawed several persistent organic pollutants, and restricted the use of DDT to vector control. The Convention was signed by 98 countries and is endorsed by most environmental groups. Recognizing that a total elimination of DDT use in many malaria-prone countries is currently unfeasible because there are few affordable or effective alternatives for controlling malaria, the public health use of DDT was exempted from the ban until such alternatives are developed.

See Rush, "vector control" includes using DDT to fight mosquitos (the vector of malaria)! So much in fact that the Malaria Foundation International had this to say about the agreement: "The outcome of the treaty is arguably better than the status quo going into the negotiations over two years ago. For the first time, there is now an insecticide which is restricted to vector control only, meaning that the selection of resistant mosquitoes will be slower than before"

Plus DDT is already tied to a Nobel Prize when "The Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller of Geigy Pharmaceutical in Switzerland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948 'for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods.'" We know the Nobel committee does not like to double dip.

The real questio is why is Rush Limbaugh, so concerned with increasing the use of DDT. Is it because he genuinly has a huge heart and wants to help Africans and Indonesians and his is ill-informed? Or is he being paid to shill for the pesticide lobby? Or does he just want to piss off "envronmentalists." My guess would be with one of the latter two.

Now is Al Gore deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize ... probably, but I am sure there are others that are even more deserving. Heck, Bill Richardson is probably more deserving. But Rush Limbaugh ... what a joke.

Please people, the Stupid it Burns!

Carbon Emissions Latin America Style

Two Latin American countries take somewhat divergent paths in regards to carbon emission reductions. Interestingly both rely somewhat heavily on eco-tourism to sustain their economies. Costa Rica has announced that they plan on being carbon neutral by 2030. Ecuador on the other hand is hoping to be paid $350 million a year not to open up their massive oil fields (I'll link to Brian Beutler instead of Planet Gore, since Planet Gore did not bother to link to the original article. Wankers). In regards to Costa Rica, Brian comments on the massive amount of carbon emissions the tourism industry uses to arrive in/depart from Costa Rica in order to enjoy the Pura Vida at an expensive eco-lodge.

It should be pointed out that Costa Rica does have a major tourism industry. I wonder if these numbers take into account that, for being so lovely, Costa Rica attracts thousands and thousands of people from other countries who burn through plenty of carbon en route to vacation. Seems like San Jose bears at least some of the responsibility for those small additional emissions, but if I had to guess, I'd say the sinister tourism lobby has squelched that information altogether. I smell conspiracy!

Costa Rica "generates 78 percent of its energy with hydroelectric power and another 18 percent by wind or geothermally." Now we are all for cutting carbon emissions, but 78% hydroelectric power seems very high. Will it be necessary to damn more of Costa Rica's rivers? I am sure that damn and hydroelectric power aren't dirty words in Costa Rica like they are here in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, due to dams' devastating effect salmon and steelhead trout fisheries. Maybe the environmental impact of hydroelectric power in Costa Rica in quite small, I don't know, but something to ponder.

And on the other hand, what is it worth to pay Ecuador not to develop its oil reserves? Maybe this is something the Right and Left can agree on. The forward thinking, environmentally conscience lefties would like to see more alternative energy and less oil development and the Righties might not like to see another "socialist", oil heavy nation in the mold of Venezuela come to power in South America. Maybe a little international diplomacy is in order here.

Parthenogenesis

A shark in a Nebraska aquarium was proven to give birth through parthenogenesis through new DNA studies. I saw this a few days ago and meant to post on it and had forgotten until I saw a post by Brian Beutler which pointed out that it was oddly blogged with little comment by Jonah Goldberg in the Daily Corner, as Beutler postulated on consequences for a literal interpretation of the bible. I cannot say what Goldberg's intention was in bringing this up, but it is the first pop- science related post I have ever seen Goldberg make.

Anyways the whole thing got me reading a bit and I am now able to answer my own question as to why the Komodo Dragon produced a clutch of male lizards as opposed to an entire clutch of females.

I had originally asked ...

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.

I had assumed that the offspring would all be females as they contain only the genetic material of the mother, but was stuck on mammalian biology. New Mexico whiptail lizards which reproduce entirely by parthenogenesis are all female, as would be required if that this is the sole method of reproduction, so I assumed that Varanids would be the same in the reptile world. Turns out the answer is that instead of an XX (female) XY (male) sex determination like whiptails, Varanids have a WZ (female) ZZ (male) WW (non-viable) sex determination. I do not know if temperature plays a role in sex determination in either of these genus like it was shown in Pagona vitticeps.

Image used under creative commons license: sponng

White Shark Update

The latest on the last White Shark from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Member Newsletter.

The electronic tag recovered from the young white shark we returned to the wild in January recorded travels to the southern tip of Baja California - a 90-day journey that covered more than 2,200 miles, took him up to 700 miles offshore and to depths more than 1,000 feet below the surface.
The young shark spent 137 days at the Aquarium prior to his release. During that time he grew considerably from an initial length of 5-foot-8 and 103 pounds when he arrived on August 31, 2006, to 6-foot-5 and 171 pounds at the time of his release. The shark was healthy and feeding when released.

On April 15, the electronic tag popped free on schedule and began transmitting data. It was then radio-tracked and netted out of the water off Mazatlán. Information gathered by the tag revealed that the shark spent his days near the surface making an occasional deep dive to around 660 feet, while at night he swam at an average depth of 250 feet. The white shark's last known position was at the entrance of the Sea of Cortez - the southern end of a known range for juvenile sharks. Visit our web site for more information on the shark's journey. You may also view brief animations of his track at the Tagging of Pacific Predators blog.

A month

Not posting for a whole month ... not the way to get regular blog readership. So I promise to at least post some pretty pictures every once in a while.

Yosemite Falls from the Valley floor.

Nibbles Video

The SF Chronicle just posted some video of Nibbles the angry Elephant Seal killing a harbor seal at the mouth of the Russian River. All because no one will mate with him. Pretty harsh.

Jump on the Bandwagon

There was a lot of excitement in the Bay Area when the Golden State Warrior's made the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, but after the game 1 upset in Dallas, the hype is in full swing. You can feel the energy in the air. Everyone wants to talk about the W's.

Tickets are impossible to get. Even Jessica Alba couldn't get game three tickets in Oakland and will only be coming to game four. Somebody has got to have an extra ticket for the girl. Via GSoM from a Marc Stein Column on ESPN.com

My sources in Hollywood tell me reliably that Jessica Alba has requested a ticket for Sunday's Game 4 in Oakland.

Yes: I'm well aware that Alba and Baron Davis are longtime pals. But I'll go out on a limb and say that it's still a rather momentous occasion when an actress of Alba's hotness, er, stature, wants to fly in for a courtside seat.

Alba, by all accounts, only hits Warriors games when they're in L.A. This will apparently be her maiden trip to Oakland . . . after she undoubtedly realized that even Jessica Alba would have a tough time scoring Friday night tickets for Golden State's first home playoff game in 13 years.

Will she be wearing her City Jersey? Everyone wants to be a Warrior's fan now.

Hyphy!

Tag Recovered

TOPP is reporting that the male GWS's tag has been recovered off of Mexico. They had to do an open ocean recovery when the tag quit floating towards the mainland. Take a look at the tag, when you follow the link. Amazing that they could locate that tiny tag in a huge ocean even with the GPS help.

Photos is of the actual shark that was tagged just like in the previous photos/posts.
Photo used under creative commons license: Jared Kelly

Panda Sex

This time real sex ... not gender. The Pandas at the San Diego Zoo mated today! A is baby expected this summer if all goes as planned. From the LA Times:

Stop the presses! Alert the bloggers! The two adult giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo mated Tuesday, zoo officials announced, raising hopes of an offspring this summer.

So far, Bai Yun and Gao Gao are two for two during their stay at the zoo under a loan from the Chinese government.

The pair mated in 2003 and the male Mei Sheng was born that August. They mated again in 2005 and female Su Lin was born that August.

In San Diego, where zoo animals are celebrities, the sex life of the pandas is followed closely by media and public. Female pandas are in season only two to three days a year, and not at all during years when they have young cubs.

I doubt the times was referring to this humble blog, but since Matt Yglesias, Panda blogger extraordinaire, is in vacation mode, we'll pick up the slack.

Photo used under creative commons license: ginsnob

Sumatran Rhino video

WWF released the first ever video footage of a Sumatran rhino, one the "world's most elusive animals." The video is from a camera trap and the rhino does not seem to like the camera.

Photo used under creative commons license: Nick Lawes

Amur Leopard

I was going to post on this study that came out a few days ago but was a bit behind. A new census estimates that there are only 25-34 Amur leopards left in the wild. A number well below what scientists feel is necessary to stay off extinction.

Also known as the Far Eastern leopard, the Amur has been painted into a deadly corner by habitat-slashing, conservationists said this week.

Weighing in at about 55 to 130 pounds (25 to 59 kilograms), the large cat once flourished along the Korean Peninsula, in the Russian Far East, and in northeastern China. But habitat fragmentation and the hunting of the leopard and its prey have eviscerated wild populations, conservationists say.

The Amur's long legs and long fur set it apart from other leopards, allowing it to prowl in deep snow and withstand Siberian cold.

The leopard's snow tracks were the basis of the census, which covered some 1,930 square miles (5,000 square kilometers) of Amur territory near Vladivostok

The researchers found at least 4 litters of cubs that left the researchers with some hope for the leopard.

And then the bad news today, where a female Amur leopard was found last Friday, shot and "beaten with a heavy object." She was left for dead, making it seem unlikely that she was killed by poachers for her pelt. This leaves only 6 female Amur leopards left. It sounds like she was not one of the four females with litters of cubs.

It is quite depressing to see the extinction of such an impressive animal happen right before our eyes.

There are only 10, 12 or about 200 Amur Leopards left in the wild, depending on who you cite and I assume on what is considered a "pure" Amur Leopard.

Some background on the Amur Leopard.

Photo used under creative commons license: Nick Lawes

Nibbles

Get Steven Spielberg on the phone ... this time it is a destructive, murderous, pinniped.

A rogue elephant seal nicknamed Nibbles has run rampant near the mouth of the Russian River in recent weeks, killing a dozen harbor seals, biting a surfer and jumping out of the water to attack a pit bull terrier on Easter.

One witness said the 2,500-pound male, who often lunges at his victims, is the most aggressive elephant seal he's ever seen.

"This bull does straight-out murder," said Keary Sorenson of Sebastopol, a former surfer who volunteers for government and nonprofit agencies in Sonoma County. "A week ago, I saw him chase down a female harbor seal, use chest blows to crush her, then bare his upper canine teeth and drive them down onto her head and back."
Warning signs have gone up on beaches near Jenner, and officials cautioned the public Monday not to swim or wade in the estuary waters around Goat Rock Beach or approach the big seal should they see him basking in the sun. Kayakers also have grown wary, scouting the estuary from overlooking bluffs before going for a paddle.

Honestly I think this might be scarier than a GWS.

Photo use: creative commons license mikebaird

Reptile Tattoos

Our friends over at LLL Reptile have started a Reptile Tattoo Gallery.

A few of them score a 10 on the unintentional humor scale, while others aren't so bad.

Aussie droughts

Via Brian Beutler ... via Thinkprogress ... via The Independant comes a story form Australia with real world global warming consequences.

Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent's food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought - heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation.
...
The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate-change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation's farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.
...
Mr Howard acknowledged that the measures are drastic. He said the prolonged dry spell was "unprecedentedly dangerous" for farmers, and for the economy as a whole. Releasing a new report on the state of the Murray and Darling, Mr Howard said: "It is a grim situation, and there is no point in pretending to Australia otherwise. We must all hope and pray there is rain."

But prayer may not suffice, and many people are asking why crippling water shortages in the world's driest inhabited continent are only now being addressed with any sense of urgency.

The causes of the current drought, which began in 2002 but has been felt most acutely over the past six months, are complex. But few scientists dispute the part played by climate change, which is making Australia hotter and drier.

Environmentalists point to the increasing frequency and severity of drought-causing El Niño weather patterns, blamed on global warming. They also note Australia's role in poisoning the Earth's atmosphere. Australians are among the world's biggest per-capita energy consumers, and among the top producers of carbon dioxide emissions. Despite that, the country is one of only two industrialised nations - the United States being the other - that have refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto protocol. The governments argue that to do so would harm their economies.

Until a few months ago, Mr Howard and his ministers pooh-poohed the climate-change doomsayers. The Prime Minister refused to meet Al Gore when he visited Australia to promote his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He was lukewarm about the landmark report by the British economist Sir Nicholas Stern, which warned that large swaths of Australia's farming land would become unproductive if global temperatures rose by an average of four degrees.

Faced with criticism from even conservative sections of the media, Mr Howard realised that he had misread the public mood - grave faux pas in an election year. Last month's report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted more frequent and intense bushfires, tropical cyclones, and catastrophic damage to the Great Barrier Reef. The report also said there would be up to 20 per cent more droughts by 2030. And it said the annual flow in the Murray-Darling basin was likely to fall by 10-25 per cent by 2050. The basin, the size of France and Spain combined, provides 85 per cent of the water used nationally for irrigation.

There is a lot to digest in this passage, but I think it is very important to see how quickly a government did an about face when global warming was staring them down. Now it is not to say that this drought will lead to the exodus of Aussies in the near future, but eventually, maybe 10 years, maybe 50, the Australian breadbasket, will longer be. The Australians will be forced to permanitley import large quantities of food. As African nations have shown, this is not a very good working stategy for a nation.

Photo used under creative commons license: bintibee

Global Warming Doubters

Here are links to a bunch of well-cited articles on LiveScience.com that really show how complete the consensus on global warming really is.

113 Nations agree that global warming is "very likely" caused by humans

Top CEOs feel that the Bush administration needs to do more about global climate change.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says there is a 90 percent likelihood that humans are contributing to climate change.

I will do some rereading of Hell and High Water and find other studies and quotes of global warming consensus among both the scientific and political communities. This book also tells how most of our climate modeling has been wrong in the past; wrong because it was too conservative and did not accurately reflect the many positive feedback mechanisms involved in climatology.

There is definitely controversy as to how fast our climate is going to change and how the changes will play out, ie. more droughts or more storms in certain areas of the globe, but there really is no controversy left as to the reality of global warming.

Photos via chicanerii Creative commons licensing

Time to end this thing

Even the most conservative (not in the political sense) polls show 60% of the American public want American Troops to be pulled out of Iraq. It is time to end this quagmire and quit putting our men and women in harms way, fighting a war that does not have a military solution.

And it hits home even harder when you know someone who was killed. I played on a PYSL team with Kawika Deleon, who was killed in Iraq earlier this week.

According to his mother, "'It wasn't patriotism that called him back,' Meyers said. 'It was the job.'"

Kawika left behind a wife and child.

Bearded Dragon Sex

A new study out of Australia says that bearded dragon gender is determined by a combination of genes and temperature. Under normal conditions gender will be determined by genes, much like in humans. However if the eggs reach a temperature above a certain threshold then embryos can actually switch sex in the egg and lean towards being heavily female by the deactivation of one of the sex-determining genes.

It had previously been assumed that an animal's gender could be determined either by genes or by temperature as an embryo develops but not by both.

In the case of the central bearded dragon, it appears that temperature can override genes that trigger male development.

The study is reported in the current issue of the journal Science.

Heat Deactivates Sex Gene

Eggs incubated at higher than normal temperatures of 93.2 to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (34 to 37 degrees Celsius) produced a strong bias toward female hatchlings, which outnumbered males by about 16 to 1.

The researchers linked this gender bias to a sex-determining gene that was deactivated when the lizards' nests became unusually warm.

This process results in female offspring, because the key gene was discovered on the so-called Z sex chromosome, of which male lizards have two and females only one.

Deactivation of the gene therefore turns a male (ZZ) into a female (WZ).

This is a very interesting finding. It really will revolutionize the way biologists look at sex determination, especially in reptiles and maybe even in birds.

Photo used under creative commons license: Schilling 2

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the second time since the new exhibit opened and it is really nice. The otters are of course the main attraction. They are damn cute and quite playful. River otters really do display well. If you just cannot wait to see the otters then head on over to their webcam.

But while you are there make sure you look around at the other new exhibits. Vine snakes, Vietnamese mossy frogs, Vietnamese giant frogs, and some amazing cichlid tanks. The plants alone in some of the tanks are a sight to see. Maybe you will even be lucky enough to see the Archer fish in action.

There is also a Aquarist Journal at the link above although no direct link to the journal. Show our friend Evan some love.

The MBA was nice enough to include us on their "Thank you" plaque pictured above.

Shark update

The tag from the Great White Shark that the Monterey Bay Aquarium released into the wild 3 months ago has popped up and sent out its signal to be picked up. The shark traveled all the way down the North American coast and was off the tip of Baja California when the transmitter popped off.

The electronic tag on our white shark popped free and reported in on Sunday, April 15, off the southern tip of Baja California-90 days and more than 1,100 miles south of the shark's release point in Monterey Bay. The first signals from the tag arrived by satellite after the tag floated to the surface on schedule, in waters southwest of San José del Cabo in Baja California, Mexico.

Details of where the shark traveled, including the water temperatures and depths he favored, will emerge over the next few weeks as researchers at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University—our lead partner in the white shark tagging project—analyze data being transmitted by the tag.

The On TOPP of the World Blog, gives daily updates on the search for the tag and the information it will release. Very cool images and information. A must visit.

UPDATE: Image added. Photo credit RG

George Will is an Idiot

More excuses from the Washington elite concerning Global Climate Change. It is not their problem since they will be dead anyways in 50 years, and what about all those other countries, and Global Warming isn't real anyways so who cares.

And then you have blatantly misleading logic like this paragraph

Speaking of Hummers, perhaps it is environmentally responsible to buy one and squash a Prius with it. The Prius hybrid is, of course, fuel-efficient. There are, however, environmental costs to mining and smelting (in Canada) 1,000 tons a year of zinc for the battery-powered second motor, and the shipping of the zinc 10,000 miles -- trailing a cloud of carbon dioxide -- to Wales for refining and then to China for turning it into the component that is then sent to a battery factory in Japan.

Yes, zinc mining is dirty, so make it cleaner and still have batteries for the hybrids. Plus its been a while that threats of war were made over Canadian zinc, but maybe that is those crazy hokey lovers plan.

Or maybe because of cow farts you shouldn't eat ice cream.

Will purposely makes ridiculous arguments in order to make people think that all changes that could help out planet are ridiculous. Simple dishonest rightwing concept.

Nature designed us as carnivores, but what does nature know about nature? Meat has been designated a menace. Among the 51 exhortations in Time magazine's " Global Warming Survival Guide" (April 9), No. 22 says a BMW is less responsible than a Big Mac for "climate change," that conveniently imprecise name for our peril. This is because the world meat industry produces 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, more than transportation produces. Nitrous oxide in manure (warming effect: 296 times greater than that of carbon) and methane from animal flatulence (23 times greater) mean that "a 16-oz. T-bone is like a Hummer on a plate."

Ben & Jerry's ice cream might be even more sinister: A gallon of it requires electricity-guzzling refrigeration and four gallons of milk produced by cows that simultaneously produce eight gallons of manure and flatulence with eight gallons of methane. The cows do this while consuming lots of grain and hay, which are cultivated by using tractor fuel, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, and transported by fuel-consuming trains and trucks.

Ah the days when scientists used to be respected. A modern dark age we are in. And why exactly is "climate change" a "conveniently imprecise"?

The "D" word

The SF Bay area like much of the state of California may be facing a drought this summer. Counties are already asking folks to voluntarily cut back on their water usage in hopes of avoiding before madatory restrictions of up to 20%.

The SF Chronicle has some suggestions to reduce your water usage.

Shorter showers and less-frequent showers also save water. So does reusing water, buying an on-off garden hose nozzle, running washing machines and dishwashers only when full and turning off the faucet while shaving and toothbrushing. Also good is building a backyard rainwater cistern which, Pogorelskin said, is a fancy name for an old trash barrel.

or another good option

As for the double-occupancy shower, deputy operations chief Pam Jeane of the Sonoma County Water Agency said a drought is no time to be shy. The government fully approves of whatever consenting adults do to reduce consumption.

"Absolutely,'' she said. "Shower with a buddy. Everything helps.''

What can you do to reduce your water consumption for your reptiles and amphibians yet still keep them healthy and happy?

The best way is to reduce evaporation, or trap the evaporation. This can be done simply by placing a sheet of glass or plastic over the screen top of your cage. We also carry glass cages that have a 2/3 glass 1/3 screen lid for a $1 more than the conventional screen top cages. Do you have house plants that need water? If you do water them over one of your reptile cages. That way when water drips through the pot, it will fall right down into your reptile cage and be reused.

Some humidity loving species can be kept happy by keeping only one part of the cage humid. This works great for many tropical snakes. Give them a hide box full of wet water holding moss to climb into. That way you only have to keep the moss box moist and the rest of the cage can remain dry.

If you soak your tortoise and he leaves that special tortoise mess in the bath water, take that water out to your garden and water your plants with it. It even has built in fertilizer.

You can also use succulents as cage decorations. Cactus Jungle has great plants and herp knowledge so they can help you find the perfect drought resistant plants for your vivarium.

Cyclones in Madagascar

So I had heard nothing about his until tonight. Nothing from the main stream media, nothing from the herp world. Madagascar has been hit with one of its worst cyclone seasons in decades. In fact a record 6 cyclones struck the island. Many people have died and been left homeless. We can only imagine what the geckos and chameleons have gone though (Ambanja was hit particularly hard).

major h/t to Chris Mooney on this one.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

We fancy ourselves a literate bunch over here. We do have an EBV Book Club and all. So a sad day when one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century passes away.

We'll let the NY Times do the Obituary

The other new shirt

That is all ... resume your Imus discussions.

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...