Central America is the site of contending crustal plates–notably the Cocos Plate in the Pacific Ocean which is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate right off the western coast of central america at a rate of 72-81 mm/yr.  It’s this area where the Central America Volcanic Arc exists which forms the volcanoes of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.  To the north there is the North America Plate which is moving to the west at about 20 mm per year resultng in further seismic turmoil.  Then to the east the North American plates dives beneath the Caribbean plate as does the South American plate to the south.

     Once the link between North and South America was established there was a great influx of North American fauna into South America and vice versa to  a lesser extent.  The great marsupial fauna of South America died off mostly as did other less successful groups.  Some of the South American biota moved into North America.  Central America remains today one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world.

    Costa Rica and the rest of the isthmus has acted as a filter bridge in this great migratory process that really picked up steam only three million years ago when the connection was complete between North and South America.  The diverse topography of Costa Rica has resulted in refugia where species could still live after dying out in other areas.  This combined with the species from the north and from the south has resulted in a tremendous amount of biotic diversity in this small area.

    It is estimated that in this small country there are 500,000 to 1,000,000 species of plants and animals with most remaining unknown.  Insects by themselves make up about half of this diversity, whereas 850 species of birds can be found–about ten percent of all known species of birds.  North America has about half that number.  Others estimate about 160 species of amphibians, 220 species of reptiles and about 10% of all known butterflies.

   And all this in the second smallest Central American Nation (El Salvador is the smallest).  Only 119 km across at the narrowest point in the south and 280 km wide at its broadest point, it is quite easy to drive across the country in about five hours.  Solely in the tropical latitudes it still exhibits a broad range of distinct climate zones (12). 

The eastern Caribbean side is the wetest whereas the western pacific slopes are the driest.  Most areas have a rainy season, or “green season,”  (May-November) and a dry season (December-April) with the rainfall almost everywhere following a predictable schedule.  Usually the highland ridges are wet with the windward sides being the wettest.

It was 3 am and my bleary eyes found it  hard to see through the beating of my windshield wipers, but the tiny object in my headlights appeared to be something other than a small twig.  As I got out of the car and picked it up, I realized it was a salamander quite different than the typical Rough Skin Newt (Taricha granulosa) that I usually found in this area.

Although I handled it with great care, when I placed it into a container to hold it until the next day, I found that in its exertions to escape, it had lost its tail which was squirming distractedly about.  It also appeared quite motionless, and I wondered whether it was dead or whether it was simply feigning death.  After handling it, I noticed a dried secretion on my hand which I was careful to wash off since such secretions can often be irritating to mucous membranes.

    The next morning I found it to be quite chipper despite its moribund state the night before, and I confirmed that it was the lungless salamander, Ensatina eschscholtzii, which occurs from British Columbia to Baja California, Mexico.  This was the second specimen that I found crossing the same street in two months (April and May, 2012)–both times in a light rain around 3 am.

    These little salamanders have no larval stage and lay their eggs mostly in April and May under logs, and bark, and inside animal burrows, etc. and are usually attended by the female.  The clutch size ranges most commonly from 9-16 with a range of about 3-25 eggs.  The time it takes for the eggs to hatch varies amongst the subspecies, ranging from 113-142 days with a maximum of 177 days (Monterrey salamander).  The time involved was usually inversely proportional to egg size.

    The young reach maturity in three to four years with males reaching sexual maturity at about 48-55 mm snout/vent length while females reach maurity when they are over 60 mm snout/vent length.  One researcher (Stebbins) estimated that the oldest animals he studied was greater 8.5 years old while another researcher estimated ages up to 15 years.

Although quite variable in its coloration, it typically has nasolabial grooves, about 12-13 coastal grooves along its side, a constricted tail which can often snap off to distract predators, and light coloration at the base of its legs.

My 1975 Ford Van that I bought new so long ago.

Recently I said farewell to a dear old friend, my 1975 Ford Van that I bought new back in August, 1975.  I bought it in Eugene, Oregon after getting a teaching job in Baltimore, MD, because I needed something larger than my ’64 VW bug to carry my possessions in.  I drove it to Texas via the Grand Canyon and then to Maryland across the deep south and spent a while in the outskirts of Baltimore, before returning to Texas and then back to Oregon.  After a while in Oregon I drove it back to Texas where I spent a few years before driving it to the Puget Sound area where I drove it almost every day for the next 25 years.  I never spent a night in a hotel during all the traveling, but spent many nights in the bed that I had built in the back of the van.

Over the years I was amazed at the reliability of this old Ford truck despite my lack of upkeep.  If I remembered I would change the oil once a year, but otherwise did little maintenance.  Despite this abuse I drove it as my only source of transportation until 2004 and 350,000 miles later when I bought another car (a Ford Escape which drives like a dream).  I experienced very few problems with the truck and developed a warm affection for it over the years.

AAfter getting the new car I would alternate driving it with the van every few days. After almost a year of this, I found myself driving the new car more and more and the truck less and less.  I would makesure that I would go out and start the truck up occasionally just to keep the battery charged.  Finally I went too long once, and found that the old truck wouldn’t start.  This was back in 2005.  I then let the truck sit beside the house ever since.  Over the years, the old friend gradually began to return to the elements from which it came.  The driver’s side had rusted out, and a little Bewick’s Wren built a nest in the gaping hole.  Thick growths of moss covered the truck and a licorice fern germinated and began to grow from a crack.

The top vent leaked and over the years mold and spider webs covered the interior, although the metal along the inner walls still looked bright and new.  The bed collapsed and the interior paneling sagged and gave way.  The door locks would barely work and the ignition froze up.  It was a prime illustration of the old saying “Use it or Lose It.”

I knew that I would never drive it again, but I kept putting off the inevitable, hating the thought of having it hauled off and out of my life forever.  Finally, my son told me that he knew somebody who would haul it away and pay $280 f.or it.  Here are some of the last views that I had of my old buddy.  I am also enclosing below a photo of my new friend who I hope will be as faithful as the last.  No, it isn’t a Ford!  I am crossing my fingers.

      I keep getting these different types of fish confused.  I was checking out their differences and characteristics and thought that I would summarize what I found here.

Goldfish:  Apparently goldfish were bred in China over a thousand years ago for their colors  from the Prussian Carp (Carassius gibelio gibelio once  

called  Carassius auratus gibelio) originally an Asian species, but now also spread throughout Europe. (Photos from Wikipedia)

Koi (which means carp in Japanese): These colorful fish have been bred from the common carp  (Cyprinus carpio). Photo from Wikipedia

 The common carp was raised as food in Rome as long ago as 2,000 yrs ago and was cultured in China at least by the fifth century.  Apparently mitochondrial DNA studies have shown that the Koi has been bred from both the western eurasian subspecies of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio carpio) and the east asian subspecies (Cyprinus carpio haematopterus).  This multilineage background is still confused. The common carp is widespread throughout Eurasia and the United States.

Other Common Asian Carp Introduced into the United States:

• grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)
• silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix)
• bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis)
• black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus)

Grass, silver, bighead and black carp are  sometimes known as the “Four Domesticated Fish” in China and are the most important freshwater fish species for food and traditional Chinese medicine. Bighead and silver carp are the most important fish, worldwide, in terms of total aquaculture production.

Silver carp or Jumping Carp (they have no stomachs and filter feed almost constantly) are the fish that I have often seen on television jumping high out of the water when frightened by motor boats.  These fish can jump 8 to 10 feet into the air and often cause injuries to boaters. When you consider that Silver carp can grow up to 100 pounds, you can see how dangerous they can be to boaters.  Bighead  carp normally don’t jump when frightened.photo from Wikipedia

Bighead, silver, and grass carp are known to be well-established in the Mississippi River basin (including tributaries) of the United States, where they at times reach extremely high abundances, especially in the case of the bighead and silver carp.

Bighead and silver carp feed by filtering plankton from the water which because of their abundance has led to concern because of possible competition with native species (filter feeders such as the paddlefish, shad, etc.). Of course because of the fact that these fish are filter feeders, they are difficult to catch by normal means.

Silver Carp’s head does not have scales and the body is covered in very small scales.  The eyes are turned forward and appear to be looking down a little.  The mouth is turned up.  The body is somewhat flattened from side to side and usually has olive-green backs and silvery sides sometimes with a bronze to reddish tinge.

Big Headed Carp: Photo from Wikipedia Commons

     I’m now of the opinion that the failure to feed problems talked about before with the Glock 17 generation 2 pistol are a problem with that particular pistol.  I just returned from Texas where I had a chance to shoot a Glock 26 and a Glock 19 (both Gen 4′s) over a period of several weeks and had not a single failure to feed problem–in fact I had no problems whatsoever with the pistols.  Both shot flawlessly (except they didn’t always hit the bullseye!).

   I think now that the problem with the Glock 17 had nothing to do with a limp wrist or any other problem with the grip.  I was greatly impressed with both the 19 and the 26.  For a range pistol the Glock 19 was impeccable, while I think that I would prefer the 26 as the concealed alternative.

     When my father was here last month we went to the local firing range and practiced shooting my Glock 17.  I got the Glock back in 1993, fired it a few times, and then put it away until last month.

     The gun shot fine except that that out of about 40 rounds that were shot the cartridge failed to feed 5 times.  I had two old magazines and two brand new magazines (brand name Glock).  At the time I thought that perhaps it was because the magazine spring had weakened in the older magazines because I had left some cartridges in it for a long time.  I had the impression that the problem occurred with the old mags.

     Later I went back and tried again.  I began with the old magazines and had no problems, but when I used the two new ones I had three FTF problems out of twenty shots fired.   I then thought that perhaps that perhaps it was the new magazines that had the problems last month.  However, upon reloading all four magazines I had continual FTF problems with all four magazines!  I had to continually remove the magazines, clear the jammed cartridge and then start all over.  I’m sorry that I didn’t count the number of times that this happened, but it was well over 50% of forty rounds shot on the second reloading.  Finally it got so bad that I got tired of clearing the jams and  stopped and went home.

    Each time the rounds seem to hang up on the feed ramp.  Also on three occasions the slide failed to stay open after the last round was fired.

         Several possible reasons for these failure-to-feed problems come to mind:

A.  Bad ammunition: However, I used two different kinds: Winchester White Box and S&B. 

B. Weak Magazine Spring:  Maybe in the old mags but not the two brand new ones.

C.  “Weak Wristing:”   Failure to keep the wrist straight and firm might have contributed to the problem.  I shall have to double check this the next time I go to the range.  However, my father had the same problem which makes me think that the cause isn’t because of a failure to keep the wrist straight.

Update: This past Wednesday I returned to the range and fired off the remaining forty rounds of 9 mm that I had left.  I had 4 FTF problems–one on the very first shot.  However, I think that perhaps that my grip has been part of the problem.  I was paying special attention to my grip, trying to make sure that I was not limp wristing it, and it seemed to help.  The incidence of FTF’s certainly didn’t reach the level of the prior shooting time.    There was also one time when the slide didn’t stay locked back on the last shot.  I could see no correlation between the problems and whether or not I was using the old or new magazines.

     I’ve written before about my father’s best friend when he was growing up.  They both lived in the little dusty west Texas town of Truscott, but since their school burned down, they were bused to the nearby town of Crowell.  It was there at the Crowell high school that my father met my mother.

     The options were limited in that small town if you wished to take your girl on a date. Fortunately,  C. J.’s  father had a car and let his son use it, and he would drive my father and mother all about.  I have seen photos of all of them on the bridge over the North Wichita River, laughing and having fun. My father with his football letter jacket and a white scarf about his neck, standing besides my smiling mother, my father and C.J. standing with their arms about each other’s shoulders. There also photos of my dad and C.J. in their football uniforms. Dad played quarterback his senior year and C.J. fulback.  My mother was a cheerleader.

      Both my father and C.J. graduated from High School on a Friday, and on Monday, both left for their military training, my father into the army and eventually the army/airforce, and C.J. into the marines. My father survived the war, whereas C.J. died a hero’s death on the black sands of Iwo Jima (Fifth Marine Division), winning the Navy Cross, and leaving a hole in both of my parent’s lives.  My father is 86 and has lived a long, loving life, whereas C.J. died  (KIA Kelton, C.J. Pfc 5th Tank 5th Feb 22, 1945, Iwo Jima) at the age of 20 and his bones have lain in those dark volcanic sands of Iwo Jima for 65 years.

     And why do I write about C.J. Kelton now?  It is Memorial Day, and when I thought of whom I should hold in my memory for this day, I thought of C.J.  Fortunately, I have had no recent member of my family who has died while serving their country.

      I remember hearing about C.J. when I was about four years old, about how my father’s best friend died in “the war.”  I never thought much about him again until a few years ago when putting together comments by my mother and father, I learned more about him and wanted to know more about this young man who was so well liked by both of my parents.  My mother always talked about how sweet and good he was.  Also I was struck by the contrast between him and my father.  Both were from similar backgrounds and had similar lives, but C.J.’s life and future were cut so cruelly short.  I often wondered what would have happened if he had lived and had come back from that cruel war and had a family.  I have wondered about his mother and father and siblings that he left behind.  What has become of them?  Perhaps I shall never know.  I have searched online for any mention of his death, and today I found this:

*KELTON, C.J.
Citation:
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to C.J. Kelton (870869), Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps (Reserve), for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty while serving with the Fifth Tank Battalion, Division Service Troops, FIFTH Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, on 22 February 1945. With his platoon command tank struck and set afire by hostile shellfire during a perilous advance northward against a fanatic, determined enemy, Private First Class Kelton promptly dismounted from his own vehicle and braved the enemy’s shattering 47-mm. antitank, mortar and small-arms fire in a valiant attempt to rescue the entrapped crew. Boldly pressing forward under the withering barrage, he crossed the 25-yard open area and unhesitatingly entered the blazing tank and then, working tirelessly and with superb courage, personally extricated two of the three wounded men from the tank and carried them back to his own vehicle despite the incessant shellfire. By his daring initiative, outstanding fortitude and grave concern for the safety of others at great risk to his own life, Private First Class Kelton contributed to the saving of three fellow Marines who otherwise might have perished and his self-sacrificing efforts throughout upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Commander in Chief, Pacific Forces: Serial 32446 (July 12, 1945)
Born: at Kanima, Oklahoma
Home Town: Truscott, Texas http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/02_NX/citations/03_wwii-nc/nc_06wwii_usmcH.html

ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRD A male Anna’s Hummingbird showing his bright, irridescent gorget.  This color is not contained in any pigment in the feathers, but is caused by the refraction of the light which is caused by the physical structure of the feathers.

ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRD  A side view of the same Anna’s Hummingbird. The gorget on his chin appears black now as the angle of the light changes and is no longer refracted.

       While leaping along some volcanic rocks on a Pacific beach in Guanacaste province in Costa Rica, I dropped my camera into a tide pool.    It was only underwater for a second before I snatched it out.  I immediately dried it with my bandana, took the lens off and opened the battery compartment, looked inside and saw it was all dry.  Apparently some water got in,  possibly through the control knobs and buttons, because it wouldn’t work.  It appeared that everything turned on fine, but the release switch to take the photograph wouldn’t work.

     After investigating I found that to clean and possibly repair the camera would cost more than I was willing to pay (especially since such cameras could not always be repaired, but you would have to pay to find out), so I decided to get another camera along with a lens which I have had my eye on for a long time.  This lens was the Nikkor 18-200mm lens with vibration reduction which allows the shooter to take photos at lower speeds.  Of course with telephoto lens this vibration reduction (VR) would especially come in handy.  The lack of some sort of telephoto lens on the Costa Rica trip was frustrating since other people were getting great bird shots with their telephotos, whereas I had to be satisfied with my 18-55 mm!  Some people have accused me of dunking my camera into the salt water so I would have the excuse of getting a new camera.  I totally deny this…at least it wasn’t a conscious action.

    Anyway I have found that for the first time, I am able to take half-way decent photos of birds.  I say for the first time although back in the early seventies I had a cheap Spiratone 400mm lens ($34!) which was half the length of my arm and which you had to manually stop down after focusing with the lens wide open.  It didn’t have a vibration reduction mode incorporated in the lens of course, and the photos I took were usually blurry.

   This past Thursday I went down to the local park by the waters of Puget Sound where this little male Anna’s Hummingbird has been hanging about for the past 3 or 4 years and was able to take these shots shown above.  You can check this site for more.  The little male would turn his head back and forth which would cause his brilliant gorget to flash on and off like a neon light as the light angle varied.  This is the same fella whose “chirping” displays I talked about before.

Central America is the site of contending crustal plates–notably the Cocos Plate in the Pacific Ocean which is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate right off the western coast of central america at a rate of 72-81 mm/yr.  It’s this area where the Central   America Volcanic Arc exists which forms the volcanoes of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica (See photo above of Volcan Arenal).  To the north there is the North America Plate which is moving to the west at about 20 mm per year resultng in further seismic turmoil.  Then to the east the North American plates dives beneath the Caribbean plate as does the South American plate to the south.

     South America was part of the great southern land mass, Gonwanaland.  When it drifted away from the rest of the southern continents it remained in relative isolation for over sixty million years.  Once the link between North and South America was established there was a great influx of North American fauna into South America and vice versa to  a lesser extent.  The great marsupial fauna of South America died off mostly as did other less successful groups.  Some of the South American biota moved into North America.  Central America remains today one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world.

    Costa Rica and the rest of the isthmus has acted as a filter bridge in this great migratory process that really picked up steam only three million years ago when the connection was complete between North and South America.  The diverse topography of Costa Rica has resulted in refugia where species could still live after dying out in other areas.  This combined with the species from the north and from the south has resulted in a tremendous amount of biotic diversity in this small area.

    It is estimated that in this small country there are 500,000 to 1,000,000 species of plants and animals with most remaining unknown.  Insects by themselves make up about half of this diversity, whereas 850 species of birds can be found–about ten percent of all known species of birds.  North America has about half that number.  Others estimate about 160 species of amphibians, 220 species of reptiles and about 10% of all known butterflies.

   And all this in the second smallest Central American Nation (El Salvador is the smallest).  Only 119 km across at the narrowest point in the south and 280 km wide at its broadest point, it is quite easy to drive across the country in about five hours.  Solely in the tropical latitudes it still exhibits a broad range of distinct climate zones (12). 

The eastern Caribbean side is the wettest whereas the western pacific slopes are the driest. When I visited the Pacific coast area of Costa Rica (Guanacaste), the hills and countryside was covered with trees devoid of leaves.  It was strange seeing black howler monkeys sitting in leafless trees.  This was in sharp contrast to the rainforest on the Caribbean coast.   Most areas have a rainy season, or “green season,”  (May-November) and a dry season (December-April) with the rainfall almost everywhere following a predictable schedule.  Usually the highland ridges are wet with the windward sides being the wettest.

This is Concepcion, a volcano,  forming part of an island (Ometepe)  in the middle of Lake Nicarauga. It was putting forth steam and smoke just as our plane flew over. There was a heavier cloud of material that you can just see on the other side of the volcano which was proceeding down the NW slope towards the small communities just seen on the margin of the island.  This sort of thing must be common, because right at this time the pilot announced that we were beginning our descent into San Jose, Costa Rica without even mentioning that there was an erupting volcano just below us!   The last eruption is said to have occurred last December with gas and ash rising 150 meters into the air.  Maybe the above photo doesn’t depict an eruption?  Hmm…looks like it goes at least 150 meters into the air.  Addendum:  I just found this site which I quote:

“On 8 March [just when we were passing over!] an ash and gas plume from Concepción rose to 2,100 metres altitude and light ashfall was reported in nearby communities. Low levels of seismic activity and occasional small explosions producing light ashfall were reported during subsequent days. On 12 March Washington VAAC issued a volcanic ash advisory reporting an eruption producing an ash cloud that reached FL100 (10,000 feet / 3,000 metres altitude). According to news reports there were two further explosions on 14 March. No casualties or damage resulted, although civil defence alerts remained in place for communities around the volcano. The Nicaraguan geological service INETER described the volcano on 19 March as ‘practically in a full eruptive phase’, with 34 explosions between 18:00 on 17 March and 11:45 on 18 March. On 19 March it was reported that the Nicaraguan government was sending army and navy units to the area around Concepción to strengthen civil defence preparations and prepare evacuation routes, ‘just in case’. The location of Concepción, on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua, makes floods and tsunamis a potential danger if the volcano were to erupt.

However, shortly afterwards activity at the volcano began to decline, with INETER reporting on 22 March that degassing and seismic activity had fallen to low levels in comparison with the preceding days. On 24 March INETER confirmed a ‘considerable reduction in activity’ but reported continuing ‘anomalous’ levels of seismicity. The current situation is that activity remains low, but the volcano continues to be carefully monitored.”

The northern end of Lake Managua in Nicaragua. Note the line of  steaming volcanoes.  Lake Managua is just to the north of Lake Nicaragua.

     I’ve never been on a tour before.  I’ve always looked down on them for some reason.  However,  I’ll be leaving tomorrow night to meet my father in Houston where we will fly down and tour Costa Rica.  Not like the Panama trip a few years ago when we made up our own itinerary and travel plans, but a conducted tour which provides all the meals, lodging and travel arrangments.  It looks like it will be lots of fun and I am looking forward to it.  I have always had a hankering to go to Costa Rica ever since I turned down a chance to spend a year in that country studying lizards–and getting paid doing it.

    I hope to be reporting on the trip, if not as I go, at least when I get back.

   My father returned home from the hospital today!  He had open heart surgery last Monday (Jan 25) which went very well.  I guess they said that he could have gone home yesterday (Friday), but he said he wasn’t ready to leave yet!  Four days seems like a very short stay after such major surgery, but I guess that is the norm now if the patient is doing well.  He was in ICU until Wednesday.  He is at my sister’s place where he will stay for about the next two weeks as he recovers.  I sincerely thank everybody for their prayers and good wishes.

     Needless to say I am very relieved and overjoyed that he is doing so well.  He has never had any sort of major illness, no surgery, and as a child, I can’t remember him ever being sick.   His experience which seemed to come out of the blue with no warning (good cholesterol levels, blood pressure about 120/70, etc) makes me much more determined to live the sort of lifestyle that precludes such problems–exercise, proper diet, etc.

     Last Thursday (Jan 21)  my father had some chest pain after returning from the store.  It wouldn’t go away,  and soon my father realized that this wasn’t the normal discomfort that he sometimes felt from the acid reflux which he sometimes has.  Then he did something out of character–he asked his next door neighbor to call an ambulance.

    I understand how out of character this was for him, because I am just like my father in many ways.  We both would tend to ignore pain until it became overwhelming, and for him to ask for an ambulance shows that it was something out of the ordinary.   I am still surprised that he did this and didn’t try to drive to the emergency room by himself.  It just goes to show that he was experiencing something out of the ordinary and that he is much smarter than I am.

     The next morning he had an angiogram and instead of a stent which they thought he might need, they found he had two coronary arteries which showed some blockage.  He would need double bypass surgery.  The interesting thing is that they found that his EKG was normal.  A slight elevation of heart enzymes showed that he had a mild heart attack also.

    My father will be 86 in March and has always been extremely healthy.  The doctor, one of the best in the Dallas area, said that he doesn’t consider the patient’s age in considerating this procedure, but their health, and that my father was otherwise in excellent health.

     The operation will take place at 7:15 am CST tomorrow.  I’d appreciate any kind thoughts or prayers sent my father’s way.

     Recently I was going through my chest-of-drawers in a long-delayed effort to clean them out.   As I sorted through some of the clothes I realized that my entire way of thinking about clothes has changed over the years.  I have always kept any clothes that I had until they literally fell apart or were outgrown.  After I reached adulthood, I would go for years without a size change, so I ended up with some very old clothes.

   I found to my chagrin and horror that there were clothes here that I acquired back in another era of my life.   Here was a t-shirt that I bought for a dollar in a street fair on Massachusetts street in Lawrence, Kansas back in 1972!  And here was a t-shirt that I had bought at about the same time that had the “ecology flag” emblazoned on the front.  I remember wearing that shirt on a Mammalogy field trip to Dodge City, Kansas in ’71.  In the back of the drawer I pulled out more relics of bygone times.

        One was a white undershirt with a picture of a duck riding a football and with the inscription “The Ducks Take to the Air” printed on it.  I remember somebody I knew who was leaving the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon in the summer of 1977 and was about to throw the shirt away and offered it to me.  I took it of course.   Here was a peculiar fuzzy sweater that I had received as a gift for Christmas in 1972.  And there in the back corner of the drawer was a t-shirt, stained with the smoke from an apartment fire that I had in ’81 which I remember buying in the summer of 1965!

    I gathered all these past mementos up preparatory to throwing them away or giving them to Good Will.  I put them into a gym bag which my grandparents had given me in 1962.  To this I added an old pillow which I had never liked which I had acquired for green stamps in the fall of 1967.  I sat there looking at the pitiful pile of stuff that I would never use again.  I busied myself with newer clothes that I never wore.  Afterwards I came back to the pile of old stuff.

    I put these all away again, telling myself that perhaps I would throw them out during the next cleaning.  For some reason the longer I possess something, the harder it is to get rid of it.  My New Years resolution is to get rid of new clothes— less than fifteen years old or so.

     It is Christmas Eve, 11:55 pm, and I am alone at work, getting ready to go out into the frosty night.  Once again I think back on past times with my family as I have many times before.  I haven’t posted much lately because I have been working so many long hours, but soon it will be all back to normal.  Merry Christmas to All!

      I was wondering why people were staring at me at the Mississippi visitor’s center last summer after I had pulled off Interstate 10.  I checked my zipper, nope…wiped my nose, nope nothing there, then I realized that I was wearing two pairs of glasses, one low down on my nose and the other right above it. 

       I have always had excellent eyesight, never needing glasses…until a few years back.  More than a few years actually.  Presbyopia is an ailment that inflicts many people as the lens of the eye looses its flexibility and can no longer accomodate close vision.   When this condition got to the point that I could ignore it no longer, I bought two expensive pairs of glasses.  “Over a hundred dollars for the frames?” I almost shouted in disbelief to the clerk.  “I can get a pair of sunglasses for a few dollars that has perfectly good frames!”

     “Oh no!,” she said, horrified, “these glasses are much finer, much lighter and stronger.”  So I ended up spending several hundred dollars for two pairs of glasses.  Years later I realize that…I was absolutely right, and was foolish to have bought such thin frames that snapped the first time any pressure was put upon them, and I never did get used to the bifocals.

     Now I get my glasses at a place that has satisfied my needs in many ways, and I have never had second thoughts about the glasses that I buy there—the Dollar Tree.  I buy glasses for close work for one dollar with a diopter value of about 2.5.  I also found that recently I have problems seeing far away–especially when driving at night, and I found that these one dollar glasses with a diopter of about 1.25 are great for seeing far away.  I even found some sunglasses with a diopter value of 1.25 which are great on sunny days.  These glasses work wonderfully well and are durable.  I have some that I’ve had for years, and I usually never have any problems with them unless I sit on them.

      So that day as I was driving down I-10 I was wearing my “far away glasses” (1.25) and doing perfectly fine until I needed to look down at the speedometer or something else on the dash board like the radio controls, and then I needed my “close up” (2.5) glasses.  Both were hanging about my neck by cords, and I found that by placing the close up glasses low on my nose and my far away glasses up higher on my nose, I could switch back and forth with no problems.  However, I had neglected to pull one off my nose when I went into the visitor’s center.  

        I found that method works very well, but I haven’t quite overcome the attention I get when I do it, so I usually only do it at home.  However, I have left the diopter labels on the lenses in order to tell the glasses apart, and I always get comments such as:  “You still have the label on your glasses.”  “I know,” I reply,  “And I still have the label on this one,” pointing to the other one hanging about my neck.

When I reached the beach on my walk two Sundays ago, I saw a large black body out in the water, then a great fin protruding above the surface.  At first I was confused as to what I was seeing,  then everything clicked into place, and I realized that I was watching a pod of Orca or Killer Whales coursing north through the narrows of Puget Sound.  I immediately began shouting with excitement.  Not only was this the first time that I had ever seen these magnificent creatures, but they are rarely seen this far south in the sound.  They had just passed the park which I was in and were taking their time on their way north, their backs and fins protruding above the water.  I stood there watching them until they disappeared.  Then I realized that I had been the only one shouting, but I felt blessed and full of energy.

The Killer Whale got its name from the fact that it often was observed eating whales, but there are at least three different groups or Orcas which seem to have specialized in either fish and squid eating, and those which eat almost exclusively marine mammals.  I was tremendously excited after seeing the Orcas pass, and while musing on them I was curiously reminded of the end of the universe.

I was reminded of the death of the universe by the fact that Killer Whales occupy the top of their food chain, and thus their numbers and biomass are severely limited by the Second Law of Thermodynamics which basically says that energy tends to go from ordered states to disordered states, and during any transfer of energy some energy is lost to the system (converted to heat).  Thus every time a cow eats its supper (plants) roughly 90% of the energy in the plants is converted to heat and lost to the system (ecosystem in this case).  So consider the following marine food chain scenario:

phytoplankton (100%)—->zooplankton(10%)—->small fish(1%)—->larger fish(.1%)—->seals(.01%)—–>Killer Whales(.001%)

Suppose the phytoplankton by means of photosynthesis captures a certain amount of energy from the sun.  We’ll say this amount of energy is 100%.  This represents what we start out with in this food chain.  The zooplankton (small floating animals) eat the phytoplankton, but about 90% of the available energy is lost, so the zooplankton only ends up with 10% of what we started with.  Then the small fish eat the zooplankton and the same thing happens, 90% is lost and the small fish end up with 1% of the original amount.  And so on…until we end up with the Killer Whales which in this example will end up with only 1/100,000 of what we started with–all due primarily to the Second Law of Thermodynamics!   Not much energy is available to the top predators in food chains.

Or consider this alternate food chain:

phytoplankton (100%)—->zooplankton(10%)—->Great Blue Whales (1%)

The Great Blue Whales by eating much lower on the food chain (zooplankton: krill mostly), theoretically has 1% of the energy with which we started–a thousand times more potential energy than is available for the Killer Whales!  So theoretically the biomass of Great Blue Whales could be as much as the total biomass for the small fish in the first food chain…just concentrated in much bigger bodies, potentially much more biomass than in the Killer whales.  Two strategies exist in this case:  by eating at this level in this food chain, you can be small and extremely numerous or large and much less numerous–the biomass should be about the same.  I think there is a lesson here as the human population density soars above 6 billion people.  Can we continue to eat high on the food chain?

So why did all this make me ponder the end of the universe?  Because if energy continues to go from concentrated sources of energy to less concentrated sources (entropy), then eventually the universe will run down.  All the stars  and other energy systems will have dissipated their energy into heat, there will be no more people, spiders, planets, stars…nothing but a universe in which the energy is evenly distributed–the Heat Death of the Universe.

I was reading the paper today, and when I got to the funny papers (comics), I found an odd thing.  I kept seeing the same references to volunteerism and community service in many of the strips.  Below is a summary of what I found:

1. Garfield: “Today I volunteered to help clean up the city park.”
2. The Born Loser: girl volunteered to rake leaves for the born loser who had hurt his arm.
3. Stone Soup: woman building houses for charity in Thailand.  (I hate this strip and never read it…did this time for the survey).
4. Pickles: The old lady volunteered to read to schoolchildren.
5. Luann: A service “team” started at high school “Woohoo! Volunteers rule!”
6. Baby Blues: Children volunteered for too many projects.  “Ok, I got everything straightened out with your service coach.”
7. Pooch Cafe: Pooch volunteered to visit sick kid in hospital.
8. Dennis the Menace.  Dennis volunteered to wash the Wilson’s windows.  Sign read: “Volunteer to help others.”
9. Blondie:  Dagwood volunteered to help with a senior citizens’ project.
10. The Family Circus:  Kids helping out in the kitchen.  “Hi, Mommy!  Can I volunteer to be some ‘nother help?”
11. Marmuduke: He starts a homeless shelter for dogs in the house.

Eleven out of 22 comic strips dealt with volunteerism–50%!  “Ok,” I thought, “obviously it must be Volunteer Week or something like that.”  But no,  Volunteer Week was April 19-25.  What the heck is going on?  It must be something that has been in the news or perhaps being pushed by somebody…but for the life of me I have no idea what.  I have noticed this happening before–the comics suddenly dealing with a particular subject.

Ok, I just googled some more and may have found what is going on: “18 October: The media blitz has arrived.  As we reported, in June, the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) announced a commitment to incorporate volunteering and service into both news programming and ongoing fictional television series beginning the week of October 19.   EIF has branded this effort as “iParticipate” and opened a Web site at www.iparticipate.org.  There you can learn about the initiative, keep up with a blog about it, and view video clips of celebrities answering the question, “how do you serve?”” http://www.energizeinc.com/news.html

Ok…it’s some sort of media blitz by the Entertainment Industry Foundation.  I guess it even involves the funny papers.  How does this work?  Do the comic strip writers receive their subject du jour from somebody, and they dutifully accomodate their strips to  promulgate the subject?

Why am I not thrilled?   Volunteerism is a good cause isn’t it?  And the media has been influencing us for years to buy products, etc.  Brainwashing for a good cause is good isn’t it?  Why does this leave a bad taste in my mouth?  (making mental note of those strips who participated and those who didn’t)