Winnicut River Dam Removal

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On my way back from the salt marsh yesterday morning, I swung past the Winnicut River. I’d been hearing about the dam removal project on the radio and wanted to see what things looked like – the answer is: much changed from the last time I was there.

In 2007, the owners of the Winnicut Dam – the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department – decided to remove the dam after an extensive study determined that its removal would be the best option. It is the last remaining barrier on the mainstem of the Winnicut River and its removal effort, which also includes the installation of a fish passage structure upstream, will open more than 39 miles of upstream habitat for migratory fish such as alewives, blueback herring, and American eel. *

I took some photos (below) – there’s also a webcam and a blog if you’d like to see what things looked like before and during the removal.

Old bridge abutments and the highway above.

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Downstream.

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One neat thing about projects like this is all the interesting trash that gets revealed.

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One for the Russophiles

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Via HH’s blog, the Library of Congress’ Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record collection. I’ll let Hollister tell the tale:

…on the eve of the first world war and the Russian Revolution, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii talked Nicholas into backing his plan to capture the Russian Empire on digichrome glass plates. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation.

Well worth searching/browsing for a while; it makes me want to pull out my copy of Arseniev.

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I wonder what the graffiti says? Also, looks like a Turkman ak öý or gara öý  – the Central Asian version of the ger – to me.


“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”

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I don’t think I’ve ever posted pictures of this little cutie from my trash treasure collection. It’s 8k of magnetic core memory from a GE-235 (I think) digital info processing unit – warning – 235 link is to a pdf, but a worthwhile one. If you open the pdf, check the disk drive in the upper right of page two. It’s footprint was roughly the size of a chest freezer and it had big@ss pneumatic hoses that actuated the arms carrying the heads. Also check the printer control panel on page four – I have just the panel itself in the basement, waiting for me to get inspired.

This is why core dumps are (or were) so named – little donuts, one per bit.

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They weren’t exactly mass producing these back in 1966.

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The nameplate:

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And click here for a ‘did he really say it’ regarding the post’s title.

Staffordshire hoard

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…has a Flickrstream (via Making Light) and, of course, a web site. If you’ve been under a rock or out of satellite range for a few weeks, a Saxon hoard was discovered in Staffordshire (Mercia) on July 5 by Terry Herbert (using a metal detector).

Let the crowdsourcing begin. A comment on the picture below:

You say these are stylised arms, are they not actually zoomorphs of Woden’s ravens? It is common to have back biting creatures and these two are clearly birds. The zoomorph of raven to hand could represent Woden reaching into the world of man through his birds.*

Other commenters are skeptical, but any reference to wolfbirds Hugin and Munin is a win in my book.

staffravenarms

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Definite zoomorph on a hilt.

staffhilt

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For those whose thirst for Saxon objects is unslaked, the British Museum has Sutton Hoo info available on line.

One last personal bit. I can’t encounter British archeological artifacts without thinking of the year I spent in Wales as a child. We visited castles, Roman sites – you name it. My folks also got my sister and I a subscription to Treasure magazine. I loved the whole thing, but one of my favorite features was “The Wonderful Story of Britain” – Treasure also introduced me to The Borrowers, but that’s neither here nor there.

trsaxon

Typhoon Nangka

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Ooh, shiny.

This is a timelapse from 7am until 9pm of Typhoon Nangka hitting Hong Kong.
Check out the rain walls at 0:50, 1:10, 1:45, 4:10, lights going up at 4:30. Its interesting how the clouds change direction while the typhoon moves from the south to the north-east (camera looking north).


Aggressive mimicry

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I just ran across an interesting New Scientist article on an Australian katydid that is an acoustic aggressive mimic.

Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry where predators, parasites or parasitoids share similar signals with a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host. *

The Spotted Predatory Katydid, Chlorobalius leucoviridis, imitates a female cicada’s reply to the male’s song.

Marshall_katydid

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By 2008, Marshall and Hill had recorded more than 30 minutes of cicada-katydid duets. The songs varied from very simple with just one sort of cue to the virtuoso, with long introductory passages followed by complex cueing sections. Cues ranged from a simple isolated “tick” to a passage lasting nearly 2 seconds (see diagram). None of this seemed to faze the katydids. They could respond correctly to 22 of the 26 species tested, and for 18 of these, they got it right more than 90 per cent of the time (PloS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004185). *

And once again (flipping the bird in passing to a truly stupid idea) we see the dance of predator and prey driving evolutionary changes:

Marshall and Hill suspect that in the case of Cicadettini cicadas, predation could be one of the forces driving change, as they engage in a sort of musical arms race to outwit spotted katydids. “Some songs are very complex with short phrases that look like cues. Katydids click after them – but female cicadas never do,” says Hill. “These could be false cues to trick the katydid into giving itself away.” As katydids cotton on to the false cues, then the cicadas must lay more traps to keep one step ahead of their predators, speeding the rate of song evolution and perhaps explaining why some songs are so extraordinarily complex. *

For more aggressive mimicry fun, let me recommend, once again, Bruce Sterling’s saga of Photinus vs. Photuris: Luciferase (link is via the Wayback Machine, so formatting may leave something to be desired).

Teckelmania II – The Puppening

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On the way back from an open house the NH Falconers Assoc. put on for National Hunting and Fishing Day, I stopped by to see Lotte. The litter is 16 days old – eyes and ears are open and they are starting to explore a bit. Mom is feeling a bit needy – fine by me – I don’t mind giving her some pats.

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Her call name will (obviously) be Lotte; short for Lotte Feist or Löttë Ümlaüt – as the fancy strikes me.  A side note, revealing either what a dog person I am or how clueless I am (or both): a year or so ago I heard a song on the radio I liked quite a bit (My Moon My Man). When I found out the name of the band/artist (still clueless) – Feist – I thought it was interesting but a little dissonant – the music didn’t match the big attitude I associate with feists. Oops.

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A shot from the open house – a gyr taking advantage of an alternative perch, with a sakeret and a line of peregrines behind her.