Taken in the 1970s on an extended camping trip. I need to explain this in more detail. This was a solo camping trip of about a month, That is yours truly in the posh, well equiped out house, I used a tripod and NikonFTN with timed delay. For several years I was taking pictures of outhouses, this is one of the few that survived. It doesn't matter where you are at, as long as it feels like home.
"A House does not a Home make."
--Anonymous--
"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
John Howard Payne US Actor & Dramatist (1791-1852)
"Where thou art, that, is home."
-- Emily Dickinson --
"Home is where the heart is."
--Pliny the Elder--
The three most important factors in buying a home are, location, location, location!
-- Anonymous--
Welcome to PICTURE PERFECT
a weekly photo-blog
rules (not that anyone pays them the slightest bit of attention) for the newbies
Each week a theme will be posted up on Wednesday, and you are invited to put up your best picture
It does not surprise me that our ancestors were doing things earlier and better than we give them credit for. Scientists are starting to listen to those scientific voices crying in the wilderness that a lot of our archeological evidence is under several hundred feet of water, covered by the melting ice and snow of the last ice age. I hope you enjoy the read. --- John
Bones reveal first shoe-wearers
By Olivia Johnson BBC News
Sturdy shoes first came into widespread use between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago, according to a US scientist.
Humans' small toes became weaker during this time, says physical anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, who has studied scores of early human foot bones.
He attributes this anatomical change to the invention of rugged shoes, that reduced our need for strong, flexible toes to grip and balance.
The research is presented in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The development of footwear appears to have affected the four so-called "lesser" toes - excepting the big toe.
Ancient footwear
While early humans living in cold northern climates may have begun covering up their feet to insulate them as early as 500,000 years ago, protective footwear comparable to modern-day shoes is thought to be a much later innovation.
It has been difficult for archaeologists to determine exactly when humans stopped going barefoot, however, because the plant and animal materials used to make prehistoric shoes is highly perishable.
"The oldest shoes in the world are about 9,000 years old, and they're from California," said Professor Trinkaus, of Washington University in St Louis, US.
But by examining the foot bones of early modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) dating from 10,000 to 100,000 years ago, Professor Trinkaus says he has determined the period in which footwear became the norm.
Anatomical evidence
He found Neanderthals and early moderns living in Middle Palaeolithic times (100,000 to 40,000 years ago) had thicker, and therefore stronger, lesser toes than those of Upper Palaeolithic people living 26,000 years ago.
A shoe-less lifestyle promotes stronger little toes, says Professor Trinkaus, because "when you walk barefoot, you grip the ground with your toes as a natural reflex". Because hard-soled shoes improve both grip and balance, regularly shod people develop weaker little toes.
To test the theory that the more delicate toes resulted from shoe use, the Washington University researcher compared the foot bones of early Native Americans, who regularly went barefoot, and contemporary Alaskan Inuits, who sported heavy sealskin boots.
Again, he identified chunkier toes in the population that routinely went without shoes. The research suggests shoe-wearers developed weaker toes simply because of the reduced stresses on them during their lifetime; it was not an evolutionary change.
The comparison proves his hypothesis, he says: "It has been suggested in the past that thicker toes and fingers are related to greater blood supply in colder climates, but it just doesn't hold up."
Cultural "explosion"
The advent of footwear occurred during a period Professor Trinkaus describes as "a well-documented archaeological explosion" which also produced a number of other notable human advances.
Paul Mellars, professor of prehistory and human evolution at the University of Cambridge, UK, agrees there were "dramatic changes" in human behaviour at this time. "From 35,000 years ago onward, you see the first art, the first stone tools, and the first personal decorations and jewellery."
More advanced shoe-making skills could have been a product of this overall increase in technological ingenuity.
"There is a strong hint that people were doing more complicated things with ...skins, with special stone tools for cleaning and awls for piercing.
"In view of all these changes, it wouldn't be at all surprising if we saw better shoes," Professor Mellars explained.
I wonder what ad man or used car salesman came up with the phrase 'Sunny Californina'. It is raining again, which I actually enjoy. The relaxing sound of the rain falling on and dropping off of the Oak Trees, splashing in the puddles under the leaf canopy. It is amazing how the water running down the gutter can sound like a babbling brooke. But then Brooke, in the next room over, is babbling all the time anyway. Hope you enjoy your day:
"This is The Day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24
On this day January 22... The following were born:
(Orginally posted was a list of events for Jan. 22, but it seemed a rather depressing list, this war and that war, this massacre, a plague, an ethic group forced out, etc etc, so changed it to a list of Jan. 22 birthdays!)
1440 Ivan III the Great, Russian czar (1462-1505)/conquered Lithuania 1561 Francis Bacon England, statesman/essayist (Novum Organum) 1571 Robert Bruce Cotton English antiquary, politician 1592 Pierre Gassendi Champtercier Provence, scientist/philosopher 1649 Pascal Collasse composer 1655 Geleyn Evertsen Lieutenant-Admiral (Zealand) 1707 Carl Hockh composer 1709 Joseph Reipel composer 1727 Claude-Benigne Balbastre composer 1729 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Germany, critic/dramatist 1729 Giuseppe Luigi Tibaldi composer 1748 Lewis Edson composer 1753 Peter Fuchs composer 1756 Vincenzo Righini composer 1766 Antoine-Vincent Arnault French writer (Les Vénitiens) 1779 Stefano Pavesi composer 1781 François-Antoine Habeneck composer 1788 Lord [George Gordon Noel] Byron England, romantic poet (Don Juan) 1802 Richard Upjohn US, gothic architect (Trinity Chapel, New York) 1815 Ferdinand Christian Wilhelm Praeger composer 1820 Hermann von Lingg German playwright/poet 1820 Johan Hendrik Koelman portrait painter (Jahresringe) 1824 Josef Leopold Zvonar composer 1826 [Merriwether] Jeff Thompson Partisan (Confederate Army), died in 1876 1842 Charles Henri Marechal composer 1845 Jacob Verdam Dutch philologist 1845 Paul Vidal de la Blanche France, geographer 1848 Samuel Muller Dutch historian/archivist (Middle Ages) 1849 August Strindberg Sweden, dramatist/novelist (Apologia) 1855 Ernst Kullak composer 1858 Betrice Potter Webb England, economist 1858 Frederick Lugard British captain/baron (Congo) 1861 Karel Stecker composer 1865 Friedrich Paschen German physicist 1870 Charles Arnold Tournemire composer 1871 Leon Jessel composer 1874 Wincenty Witoz Galicia, PM of Poland (1920-21, 1923, 1926) 1875 Bonifacius C de Jonge Governor (Dutch East Indies) 1875 D[avid] W Griffith movie producer/director (Birth of a Nation) 1875 Thomas W Ross actor (Without Limit, Kings Row, 17, Mortal Storm) 1877 Hjalmar Schacht president of German Reichsbank/minister of Economics 1878 Constance Collier Windsor England, actress/writer (Kitty, Whirlpool) 1878 Francis Picabia French painter/illustrator 1886 John Joseph Becker composer 1890 Fred M Vinson Kentucky, 13th Chief Justice of US Supreme Court (1946-53) 1891 Franz Alexander Hungarian/US psycho analytical 1891 Moise Kisling Polish/French painter (La Souris Boiteuse) 1892 Marcel Dassault [Bloch], French airplane builder 1893 Conrad Veidt Potsdam Germany, actor (Cabinet of Dr Caligari) 1894 Charles Morgan England, writer (Fountain) 1894 Matt McHugh PA, actor (Taxi, Freaks, Barbary Coast, Innocent Affair) 1897 Josef Stanislav composer 1897 Rosa Ponselle opera diva (Casta Diva, La Forza del Destino) 1898 Ross R Barnett lawyer/(Gov-D-MS) 1898 Alexander Abramsky composer 1898 Ben van Eysselsteijn Dutch writer (Arid Earth) 1898 Gustaf Paulson composer 1898 Hans van Werveke Flemish historian (Diocese Terwaan) 1899 Guido Kisch Czech/German/US historian (Jews in medieval Germany) 1899 Martti Haavio [P Mastapää], Finnish linguist/poet 19-- Dawn Smith Jackson TN, actress (Jolene-Joe Forrester) 19-- Steve Riley rock drummer (LA Guns-It's Over Now) 1900 Franz Salmhofer composer 1901 Hans-Erich Apostel Austrian composer (Sonata Ritmica) 1903 Robin Humphrey Milford composer 1904 George Balanchine composer/choreographer 1906 Robert E[rvin] Howard US, sci-fi author (Conan the Conqueror) 1906 Willa B Brown (Coffey) US black air pioneer (NAAA) 1907 Marie Dressler actress (Anna Christie, Dinner at 8) 1909 Ann Sothern [Harriette Lake], North Dakota, actress (Lady in a Cage, My Mother the Car) 1909 Lev D Landau Russian physicist (Nobel 1962) 1909 [Sithu] U Thant Burma, 3rd UN Secretary-General (1962-72) 1911 Bruno Kreisky Austria, bandleader/chancellor (1970-83) 1911 Roberto Garcia Morillo composer 1913 Verdina Shlonsky composer 1914 Dimitri Dragatakis composer 1914 Suzanne Danco Belgian singer 1915 Tom Burtt cricketer (slow left-armer took 33 wickets for New Zealand) 1916 Henri Dutilleux Angers France, composer 1917 Albert "Pud" Brown clarinetist/saxophonist 1917 Herwig Hensen [Flor Mielants], Flemish poet/playwright 1918 Richard Eastham Opelousas LA, actor (Wonder Woman, Falcon Crest) 1920 William Warfield singer (Show Boat) 1920 George Breakston Paris France, actor/director (Jungle Stampede) 1920 Piet Van Lishout Flemish writer (Eva & I) 1921 Andre Hodeir composer 1921 Andy Ganteaume cricketer (West Indies batsman, 112 in only Test innings 1948) 1922 Howard Moss poet/editor (New Yorker) 1923 Diana Douglas Devonshire Bermuda, actress (The Cowboys) 1923 Friedrich Zehm composer 1923 Leslie Bassett composer 1924 J J Johnson composer/jazz trombonist 1924 Margaret Whiting big band singer 1925 Leslie Silver English paint manufacturer/multi-millionaire 1926 Lord Erskine of Rerrick peer 1926 Tom Blackburn writer 1927 Joe Perry NFL Hall-of-Famer 1927 Lou Creekmur Baseball Hall-of-Famer 1928 Birch Bayh (Senator-D-IN) 1929 Rita Gillespie TV director 1930 Roy Cooper London England, actor (Amistad, Julian Po, Trevor-Beacon Hill) 1931 Rauno Makinen Finland, Greco-Roman featherweight (Olympics-gold-1956) 1931 Sam Cooke Clarksdale MS, gospel & blues singer (You Send Me, Another Saturday Night, Twisting The Night Away) 1931 Galina Zybina USSR, discus thrower (15 world records between 1952-58) 1932 Piper Laurie [Rosetta Jacobs], Detroit MI, actress (Twin Peaks) 1934 Bill Bixby San Francisco CA, actor (Incredible Hulk, My Favorite Martian) 1934 Graham Kerr chef (Galloping Gourmet) 1935 Pierre S Du Pont IV (Governor-DE) 1935 Seymour Cassel Detroit MI, actor (Faces, Plain Clothes, Valentino) 1937 Eden Pastora Gomez Nicaraguan contra leader 1937 Joseph Wambaugh East Pittsburgh PA, police writer (Onion Fields) 1940 Addie "Micki" Harris Passaic NJ, singer (Shirelles-Soldier Boy) 1940 John Hurt England, actor (Elephant Man, Alien, Midnight Express) 1940 Tilo Medek German composer 1943 H James "Jim" Saxton (Representative-R-NJ, 1984- ) 1945 Michael Cristofer actor/writer (Little Drummer Girl) 1945 Oliver rocker 1946 Andrew Rubin New Bedford MA, actor (Hometown, Joe Bash) 1949 James P Pennington rocker (Exile) 1949 Rein P Hummel Dutch MP (PvdA) 1949 Steve Perry Hanford CA, vocalist (Journey-Open Arms, Oh Sherry) 1951 John Oh Carmel, CA, Procrastinator 1952 Teddy Gentry Fort Payne AL, country music star (Alabama-Mountain Music, Take Me Down) 1953 Myung-Whun Chung Seoul South Korea, pianist/conductor 1954 Chris Lemmon Los Angeles CA, actor (Brothers & Sisters, Duet) 1955 Thomas David Jones Baltimore MD, PhD/Astronaut (STS 59, 68, 80, sk 98) 1956 Becky Pearson LPGA golfer 1956 John Wesley Shipp actor (The Flash, Dawson's Creek, Kelly-Guiding Light) 1957 Mike Bossy NHL forward (New York Islanders) 1959 Linda Blair St Louis MO, actress (Exorcist, Chained Heat, Savage St) 1960 Michael Hutchence Australia, rock vocalist/actor (INXS-Need You Tonight, Dogs in Space) 1961 Barb Thomas Whitehead Sibley IA, LPGA golfer (1995 Hawaiian Open) 1962 Robert Mailhouse New Haven CT, actor (Brian-Days of our Life) 1963 Diane Lane New York City NY, actress (Cotton Club, 6 Pack, Big Town) 1963 Jeff Treadway US baseball infielder (Los Angeles Dodgers) 1964 Ann Rowe Auburn Maine, Miss Maine-America (1990) 1964 Maria Ellingsen Reykjavik Iceland, actress (Katrina-Santa Barbara) 1964 Stojko Vrankovic NBA center (Los Angeles Clippers) 1964 Wayne Kirby Williamsburg VA, outfielder (Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Dodgers) 1965 Jazzy Jeff Townes rapper (Parents Just Don't Understand) 1965 Ray Mayhew rocker (Sigue Sigue Sputnik-Love Missile F-111) 1965 Steven Adler Cleveland OH, drummer (Guns & Roses-Sweet Child) 1965 Tim Prukop WLAF linebacker-secondary coach (Amsterdam Admirals) 1966 Carlton Haselrig NFL guard (New York Jets) 1966 Nishantha Ranatunga cricket (brother of Arjuna Sri Lankan ODI allrounder) 1967 Manabu Nakanishi wrestler (NJPW) 1967 Nicholas Gillingham British swimmer (world record 200m freestyle) 1967 Olivia d'Abo London England, actress (Wonder Years, Single Guy) 1968 Andrey Sokolov hockey defenseman (Team Kazakhstan Olympics-1998) 1968 Brian Jones NFL linebacker (New Orleans Saints) 1969 Christina Marie Leardini St Petersburg FL, playmate (April 1991) 1969 Keith Gordon US baseball outfielder (Cincinnati Reds) 1969 Ousmane Bary WLAF cornerback (Barcelona Dragons) 1969 Shelley Sandie Australian basketball guard (Olympics-88, 96) 1969 Vinnie Clark NFL cornerback (Jacksonville Jaguars) 1970 Brian Gaskill actor (David Michaels-Models Inc, Bob-All My Children) 1970 Keith Wagner NFL/WLAF tackle (New York Giants, Redskins, Scot Claymores) 1971 Bucky Brooks wide receiver (Jacksonville Jaguars) 1971 Jennifer Christine Joseph Wendover NV, Miss Nevada-America (1995) 1972 Steve Scifres guard/tackle (Dallas Cowboys) 1972 Toddrick McIntosh NFL defensive end (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) 1973 Deon Minor Paris Texas, 400m runner 1973 George Noga CFL linebacker (Winnipeg Blue Bombers) 1973 Reggie Barlow wide receiver (Jacksonville Jaguars) 1973 Said Larossi soccer player (Emmen/Vitesse) 1973 Vincent Bradford linebacker (San Francisco 49ers) 1974 Pavel Mikhalevitch soccer player (NEC) 1974 Stephanie Rottier St Niklaas Belgium, tennis star (1995 semi Prague) 1975 Lee Maxwell Francis Vertongen Palmerston North New Zealand, cyclist (Olympics-96) 1976 Balthazar Getty actor (Young Guns 2, Lord of the Flies) 1979 Melanie Winiger Miss Switzerland-Universe (1997) 1982 Kevin Sheridan actor (Soul Man) 2179 Hikaru Walter Sulu San Francisco CA, (character on Star Trek)
We think of our freshly washed, waxed and polished car or truck as a spotless beauty. But there are those who look at such a clean surface as nothing more than a unused blank surface, much like an artists' canvas. . .it is all in the way we perceive the things around us.
Camera is a Kodak Z612 EasyShare
Welcome to PICTURE PERFECT
a weekly photo-blog
rules (not that anyone pays them the slightest bit of attention) for the newbies
Each week a theme will be posted up on Wednesday, and you are invited to put up your best picture
I can't help but think of my friend, CrabbyMan when I saw this article. Only because of his name!! Just thought this was very interesting, we flex our muscles too, put our best side forward, make the moves, puts attracting the opposite sex in a whole new light. We might even learn some new moves! --John
Crabs wave the long arm of love
Wednesday, 16 January 2008 Dani Cooper ABC
Male fiddler crabs and their human counterparts have a lot in common when it comes to attracting members of the opposite sex, says an Australian researcher.
Martin How, from the Australian National University (ANU), has shown for the first time that these animals change their body language depending on the distance between them and their true love.
The findings, to be published in Animal Behaviour, are based on a study of the tiny fiddler crab, Uca perplexa, which lives on the mudflats of Bowling Green Bay, near Townsville in North Queensland.
Claw waving in the male fiddler crab replicates human communication, says How, who is with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Vision Science at ANU's Research School of Biological Sciences.
"We know that in everyday life attracting the attention of a distant person involves gestures and vocalisations different from those used when that person is nearby," he says.
During two weeks observing and filming the fiddler crabs, How found the male changed the movements of his large brightly coloured claw as the female crab moved closer.
"Over distance he uses these very flamboyant, very conspicuous claw-waving displays [that say] 'I'm over here come and see me'," How says.
"And then when the female approaches very close he adjusts those displays so they are less broad and flamboyant and more coaxing."
The study is the first to show movement-based signalling in animals changes according to the distance over which they are communicating.
IRRESISTIBLE
This "coaxing" behaviour includes a bit of old-fashioned showing off with the fiddler crab "performing unflexed leg lifts", "raising the body off the ground" and the irresistible "slow claw lift".
How says this is the male crab's way of showing his qualities in the hope of convincing the female to follow him into his burrow to mate.
The PhD student says because the males signal from beside the burrow, the highly conspicuous, long-distance signalling can also indicate to females an escape route from a potential predator.
As part of the study How induced courtship interactions by dragging a tethered female fiddler crab across the mudflat surface to a male burrow.
The response in the focal male was filmed simultaneously from above and crab-eye level.
How says carrying and waving the major claw is energetically costly for the male and courtship signalling cuts into valuable feeding time.
The change in the male's claw movements may also be a way of balancing energy costs with the perceived probability of winning over the female and reproducing.
"It's Alive!!! It's Alive!!!!" -- Dr. Victor Frankenstein
BEATING HEART CREATED IN LABORATORY
Julie Steenhuysen Rueters -- Monday, 14 January 2008
US researchers have created a beating heart in the laboratory and say the discovery may lead to customised organ transplants for people.
The study, which appears in the latest Nature Medicine journal, offers a way to fulfil the promise of using stem cells to grow tailor-made organs for transplant.
"The hope would be we could generate an organ that matched your body," lead researcher Professor Doris Taylor, director of the University of Minnesota Centre for Cardiovascular Repair, says.
Using a process called decellularisation, the researchers grew functioning heart tissue from dead rat and pig hearts.
Decellularisation is the process of killing all the cells in an organ, in this case an animal cadaver heart, and preserving the architecture of the organ such as the chambers, valves and blood vessel structure.
Taylor says she knew decellularisation had been used in making tissue heart valves and blood vessels and decided to try it on whole organs.
"We hung these organs in the lab and we washed out all the cells. When you are done, you have this thing that looks like a ghost tissue," Taylor says.
The research team then repopulated the "ghost tissue" with new heart cells taken from newborn and neonatal rats, fed them a nutrient-rich solution and left them in the laboratory to grow.
Four days later, the hearts started to contract.
CONTRACTIONS
The researchers used a pacemaker to co-ordinate the contractions. They hooked up the hearts to a pump so they were being filled with fluids and added a bit of pressure to simulate blood pressure.
Eight days later, the hearts started to pump.
While there have been advances in generating living heart tissue in the laboratory, this is the first time an entire, three-dimension bio-artificial heart has been brought to life.
"We recognised that nature has created the perfect scaffold and wondered whether there is a way in the lab to give nature the tools and get out of the way," Taylor says.
The researchers chose immature heart cells because they thought these were most likely to work.
"The hope ultimately, although we've got a ways to go, is that we could take a scaffold from a pig or a cadaver and then take stem or progenitor cells from your body and actually grow a self-derived organ," Taylor says.
LIMITATIONS
Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne, says the study is "novel and interesting".
However, Morrison, whose research group last year successfully grew beating heart muscle from adult stem cells inside a rat, says the scientists now need to show this research can be transferred into living animals.
"Another limitation is that in order to add cells back to the heart they needed to inject the structure with 50-75 million cells," he says.
Morrison says at least 100 rat hearts would be needed to make one artificial heart under this process.
"This was also a criticism of our own research, which needed about 10 hearts," he says.
"I think there is a long way to go for all of us in terms of where we go to get the cells that ultimately would make a real human heart.
"We can't just access 100 other hearts as they have done here."
Picture can be clicked on for a larger view. Just a little note, I have never noticed these white stripes in the wings of the local Crows before. They were on one Crow for sure, possibly two, the rest were all black. Anyone have any information?
This site has information of Crow white plumage, very interesting site with bird links
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12
This was a surprise, a picture I took on a lark, holding the camera over the rail and hoping it took what I wanted. A rather calm day on the bay, the calm before the storm, broken clouds overhead, massive storm clouds on the horizon, enough sun peaking through the cloud breaks to make an ever changing palate of picture possibilities, boat and mast reflections on the still Marina waters, Sea Lion images mirrored in the bay as they slept on large mooring buoys, sea birds flying in unison with their upside down water reflections,
The shot above was interesting to the eye, could not look through the view finder as I had to hold the camera over the rail and click. It is of a gangway going from wharf level down to water level walkways in the Marina. Reflections of beauty, thoughtful reflections, mental and physical reflections that flow and intermingle with one another, one being the catalyst for the other. This picture to me shows physically how reflecting on our walks can be. One person is walking down, not neccessarily a bad thing, while in the reflection that same walk down for one, is a walk up for the other. Or perhaps when I thought I was walking down, in the long view I was truly walking up. Life is strange and funny, we all are part of it, and all those ups and downs, lefts and rights, highs and lows, tears of laughter, and of loss, and even those times we have fallen in the water, we are who we are because of it all.
"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. . ."Ecclesiastes 3:1
Welcome to PICTURE PERFECT
a weekly photo-blog
rules (not that anyone pays them the slightest bit of attention) for the newbies
Each week a theme will be posted up on Wednesday, and you are invited to put up your best picture
