A year from now

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microcosm

“Tree Walkers International is proud to present Microcosm, a celebration of life under glass.  Microcosm is a new kind of event that brings enthusiasts together through the common bond of nurturing life within glass enclosures, from aquaria to vivaria, greenhouses and Wardian cases.

The theme of Microcosm is conservation.  Just as species combine to form healthy, functioning ecosystems, Microcosm seeks to form a coalition of partners who apply their skills in cooperation to safeguard the planet’s biodiversity.

Microcosm is a two-day event that includes field trips, lectures, workshops, and a sale.  All proceeds benefit Tree Walkers International to support amphibian conservation efforts.”

September 3-4, 2010, Lynnwood WA. More info here.

Atlatls and Flint-knapping

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Boy, I wish I could scoot off to this:

September 19: Fourteenth Annual Northeastern Open Atlatl Championship & Chimney Point Knap-In and Festival of Nations
Participate in or watch this annual championship, part of the Festival of Nations with the Crown Point, NY, State Historic Site. The sport of atlatl throwing is based on the ancient hunting technique of using the atlatl or spear thrower. Flint knapping and other Native American life and craft demonstrations. Festival of Nations. Top Ten Vermont Fall Event. Co-sponsored by Vermont Archaeological Society. Vermont Archaeology Month program. Camping available at DAR State Park. 10:30 – 4:30 PM.
Where: Chimney Point State Historic Site, Addison directions
Contact: ChimneyPoint@HistoricVermont.org

September 20: ISAC Atlatl Championship
Second day of atlatl International Standard Accuracy Competition. The Knap-in and Festival of Nations continues. After ISAC, master class/coaching for boys and girls. 10:00 AM.
Where: Chimney Point State Historic Site, Addison directions
Contact: ChimneyPoint@HistoricVermont.org

Info from here.

Take me to the river

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Via Bruce S comes this very nice ubicomp project.

Amphibious Architecture submerges ubiquitous computing into the water—that 90% of the Earth’s inhabitable volume that envelops New York City but remains under-explored and under-engaged. Two networks of floating interactive tubes, installed at sites in the East River and the Bronx River, house a range of sensors below water and an array of lights above water. The sensors monitor water quality, presence of fish, and human interest in the river ecosystem. The lights respond to the sensors and create feedback loops between humans, fish, and their shared environment. An SMS interface allows citizens to text-message the fish, to receive real-time information about the river, and to contribute to a display of collective interest in the environment. *

AMPHIBIOUS_2-web

Fish Sensor from xDesign Project on Vimeo.

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Also – augmented reality seems poised for a big takeoff – at least buzz-wise. I’ve been seeing AR posts everywhere (especially on Bruce S’s blog); like ubicomp, AR makes info in one’s surroundings more accessible. Maybe spoken word:writing::5 senses:augmented reality?

Pelvicachromis

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I’d mentioned in an earlier post that I had a (presumed) pair of Pelvicachromis sacrimontis in my West African streambank tank. Well, I think I was wrong on both counts. I lost one of the fish to aggression; my guess is that I had two males. Off I went to see if I couldn’t do better on gender selection – this time I brought home three fish, both to improve my chances and to diffuse the aggression. I put the resident male into the filter (one of the nice things about the filter set-ups on the tanks – they provide nice spaces to isolate fish in) and, after a short quarantine, popped the three noobs into the tank. Today was the day I reintroduced the original and what fireworks! Two of the new fish went into full fledged courtship mode – clearly female – and the male responded. The dominant female and the male are house hunting while the sub-dominant female is trying to play homewrecker. The fourth fish (possible male) is just trying not to be noticed. The second count I think I was wrong on was species. Though they were sold to me as sacrimontis, the spots on the dorsal and caudal fins make me think pulcher – the good ol’ krib (Dan, you were right). I’m not complaining – they’re very pretty and quite entertaining.

The male.

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Dominant female.

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The females, sparring.

Big weekend

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Action packed! Fun filled! Et cetera!

Saturday, off to S’s for a froggers BBQ. His frog room, known variously as the garagemahal, the frog bunker and the frog pit, is looking great. Got to see some Chrome/Sisa Ameerega bassleri among other lovely frogs.

Not a great picture, but a fantastic vivarium. The contrast between the red bromeliad and the yellow/orange/green/black Tarapota imitators was beautiful.

Saturday night some frog folk visiting from afar stayed at my place. We had a nice late dinner in Portsmouth. Luckily the dogs were on their best behavior Sunday morning and didn’t roust everyone at 5 AM (just me) – we’d had a late night; I had Sunday night to catch up on zzzs, but my guests would still be on their whirlwind tour.

Sunday saw us all down at Black Jungle in central Massachusetts for the New England Carnivorous Plant Society’s summer cookout. I scored some nice Nepenthes cuttings and a short conversation with Stewart McPherson!!! I gushed, he grinned and was gracious.

CP guru and fanboy.

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Gorgeous N. hamata someone brought with them.

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P.S. – Gang of Four’s Return the Gift gets two huge thumbs-up from me. I listened to it (at probably an unhealthy volume) on the drive Sunday. The redo of Entertainment! plus the remix CD – yowza. Think I’ll play a couple tracks again and scare the neighbors.

The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life

(Wo)man Cub

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A pretty little granddaughter appeared last night as if by magic. I can call it magic, since I wasn’t in the birthing room with my laboring daughter. Frances Mae M. (Frankie – though Scout may be used as a nickname, too) weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. and is gorgeous.

Sequential leaves

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One of my favorite group of carnivorous plants is the epiphytic Utricularia – the section Orchidioides. I have three specimens (still looking for the elusive jamesoniana – if you have any, I have a large division of humboldtii to trade). It struck me the other morning what a nice gradation of shape one sees in the leaves of my three:

U. humboldtii – a pretty fan.

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U. reniformis – the fan is wide open!

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U. nelumbifolia – the edges meet.

(In fact, some nelumbifolia leaves resemble reniformis – see this picture from sarracenia.com.)

And nelumbifolia’s eponym, Nelumbo ‘Chawan Basu’.

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All of the carnivores are loving the summer sun. My Brocchinia reducta are yellowing up nicely

and the Sarracenia alata are making lots of fresh new pitchers.

Carnivorous plant links

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Lots of carnivorous plant news!

  • The description of a new species of Nepenthes from the Phillipines hit the news – it’s called N. attenboroughii (after Sir David) . One of the discoverers wrote the Tepui book I mentioned a while back.

attenboroughii

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  • Harvard’s Aaron Ellison and UVM’s Nicholas Gotelli are studying the ecosystems that function within sarracenia pitchers.

“You’ve got four or five trophic levels in a pitcher plant, just like you’ve got four or five trophic levels in a lake,” said Ellison.

Fly larvae are the top-level predator in the pitcher, the analogues of terrestrial tigers or wolves. They’re what ecologists call a “keystone” species, who control the abundance every other species, but require a habitat of sufficient size to support those other creatures.

  • What’s the more important lure – color or sugar? Looks like color is irrelevant – at least in S. purpurea.

The results suggest that nectar production is the crucial factor in determining prey capture success. Real pitcher plants and pseudo-pitchers trapped nearly identical numbers of prey—357 versus 344 insects, respectively—while pseudo-pitchers without nectar caught far less. Both the real plants and pseudo-pitchers with nectar caught mostly ants. That’s good for the plants, as ants provide a much larger quantity of nitrogen than flies on a per-weight basis. The pseudo-pitchers without nectar caught mostly springtails, a different kind of arthropod.

Most significantly, the proportion of visible red area had no impact on prey capture.