Wondering about the Wonders of Nature

Before I go off wondering, Hermit Jim brought back a lot of memories. Take a moment and reminiscence with Jim.

The wonder of nature never ceases to amaze me. From its variety to its tenacity, from its beauty to its harshness, it always fascinates me.

Did you ever wonder if plants could communicate with other plants and maybe even with all living things. I believe that all living things communicate in some fashion with all other life. Of course, that is how you define life.

Take viruses for an example. They “are not alive on one hand. They don’t have cells, they can’t turn food into energy, and without a host they are just inert packets of chemicals”.

But, “viruses are not exactly dead either. They have genes, they reproduce, and they evolve through natural selection”. They also communicate with each other.

OK, I got off the subject of plants. Science has proven that they do communicate in a fashion. They can do this in a couple of ways; through their root system and through their leaves, flowers, etc.

Botanists have observed that many trees do not grow well near members of their own species. How do they know? By the microbes in the soil. And the opposite is also true. For instance, sagebrush plants fare better when surrounded by their own kind. Science tells us that these plants send out airborne chemicals that “speak” to their relatives.

You know, to think about it, the salad I had yesterday screamed each time I bit down on the lettuce!!

Wondering About Hic-Ups

I seem to get hic-ups more these days. That kind of worries me because I remember my Grandpa getting them and not being able to stop them. He had them for weeks and weeks and was getting worn out from them. The doctors at that time tried everything they knew to stop them along with all the old home remedies anyone could think of and nothing seemed to work. His doctor said that if they didn’t quit within another week or so that they would have to operate and cut some nerve.

Maybe this was just their way of scaring him so the hic-ups would quit. Well, it must have worked, they started to let up and finally quit on their own.

My wife yells at me to “Stop That” when I get them. It usually works when she does that and I either stop immediately or after one more hic. See, fear works (grin).

There are a lot of embarrassing places to get hic-ups. I can think of quite a few, can’t you? Let us hear about some of them.

The worst place to come down with loud hic-ups that I can imagine would be in that deer stand just seconds before that trophy buck is about to step out in the open. You know, the one you have been scouting for since last year and the one that you passed up other nice bucks for and now it is the last day of the season and there he is!!! Perfect, now just one more step and . . . HIC!! He’s gone. . .

A friend of mine sent me a cute link to a video about tagging a momma bear and her cubs up in Canada. It has very entertaining commentary and you may learn something and laugh at the same time. Here is the link, click here.

Well, that is it for today. I actually have a paying job to do, so better get started on it.

Updates-1

Yesterday we were wondering about language and I kind of left you up in the air about the longest word in the “Oxford English Dictionary”. OK, are you ready? Here it is: “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis” Wow, talk about a mouthful! OK, now I suppose you want to know what it means. For you with the inquiring minds it is a “lung disease caused by inhaling volcanic silicon dust”. Now, don’t you feel smarter???

I will add another language item that I didn’t know, but I am sure some of you did: “More than one third of the world’s 6800 spoken languages are endangered. According to UNESC, about 200 tongues now have fewer than 10 surviving speakers.” This makes me wonder who these 10 people talk to, especially if they get mad at each other?

Changing the subject back to my telescope posts, I took it apart and brought it back in the house yesterday. The days (nights) that I had it out were perfect weather-wise and there was no moon. The only problem was the limited patch of sky that I could see.

Before I tore it down, I thought that I would take a couple of pictures comparing my first telescope with the “big” one. This picture shows their side profiles next to each other:

And of course the aperture and mirror size. The secondary mirror in the big scope is as big or bigger than the primary in the little one. It is hard to see the back of the secondary in the big DOB because it is painted black, but look carefully and you can make it out.

OK, another subject. My wife tells me I am forgetting things. Naw, that can’t be. I am fine and it is . . . what was I going to say? Oh yeah, I believe that there is a good side of everything. Take senility for instance. It keeps the old from remembering how good they used to feel. I was thinking that it would be terrible if I could remember how good I used to feel. Guess the way I feel now is normal and I never felt better, right?

Wondering about Language

If you are a follower of my blogs, you know in the past I have wondered about the spelling and pronouncing of words and the English language rules, or lack of, so you may not be surprised that I again have something to say about language.

Actually, I just read in my November 2010 issue of DISCOVER magazine “20 things you didn’t know about language”. DISCOVER always has “20 things you didn’t know about . . .” on the last page of their magazine every month. I do so enjoy it and I usually learn something interesting. Here is a link to all the past articles back through 2006. Enjoy: http://discovermagazine.com/columns/20-things-you-didnt-know

I am going to give you a few samples of the latest 20 things. Did you know that the human voice box sits lower in the throat than it does in other primates, giving us a uniquely large resonating system? That’s why we alone are able to make the wide range of sounds needed for speech.

Unfortunately, the placement of our voice box means we can’t breathe and swallow at the same time, as other animals can. Fortunately, the human voice box doesn’t drop until about 9 months, which allows infants to breathe while nursing.

Modern technology is making everything smaller, even our words. “Bits of eight” shrank to become byte, “modulate/demodulate” became modem, “picture cell” became pixel, and of course “web log” became blog.

This is just a short sample. Maybe you should get the magazine and read the rest of them. They are all interesting, like the longest word recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is. . .

Wandering to Huntsville State Park

Decided to wander up to Huntsville State Park yesterday. We have stayed there in the RV before, but yesterday we just walked and drove around. They have been fixing it up and it looks pretty good.

Well, let’s start from the beginning. This is a typical picture of the park road coming into and out of the State Park:

The Park has 2083.2 acres and a 210 acre lake named Lake Raven from the crow like birds that live there. The next three pictures are of the lake:

And over near the other shore is one of the fishermen spotted on the lake:

Speaking of fishing, here is one of several fishing piers on the lake. This is one of the old original ones:

Except for the lake, the entire park is coved in the rich East Texas forest, consisting of pine and hard woods.

And a turtle, the alligator’s favorite food, trying to stay warm in the sun.

And to prove that we were really there, here is my wife and one of our dogs, Gizzy.

The park has all types of camping areas, from tent camping to full RV hook-up and everything in between. These screened in shelters are one of the “in between” areas:

And of course there are picnic tables everywhere:

Enough roads, trails, and gentle hills to keep you in shape walking or riding a bike.

OK, “The Old Fat Man”, pay attention!! This would be a nice place for you to have too much fun. This sign reminded me of you:

It really is a nice park and this time of year, during the week, it is quite peaceful. Give it a try.

Don't forget, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Wondering how she does it all.

Sometimes I wonder how my wife does it all. Earlier, I posted two blogs showing my wife’s projects where she painted everything she could get her hands on and crocheted up some throw rugs and such. If you forgot here are links to my-wife's projects-part-1 and my-wife’s projects-part-2.

Now you are in for another treat. She heard that The Flying Tortoise was making a quilt, so she said that she wants to see it, and in the mean time she will show him hers. You know, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. . .

This first picture is of a crazy quilt (actually it is a yo yo quilt) she came up with;

And some old unfinished quilts that she found at a flea market:

Turned one end over to see bottom and hand stitching:

My wife also makes hand bags by quilting, like these:

Here is a close up showing the stitching:

And a pattern cut from an old phone book:

And you don’t want to waste even the smallest piece of cloth, so:

Getting tired of quilting? How about a crocheted hand bag:

This one I think is really nice:

And of course, cold weather is coming so you may need a hat:

Enough for today. OK, The Flying Tortoise, let’s see yours….

Pig and Sky Updates

Yep, you probably guessed it, the way my luck goes, didn’t ya? I spent all that time cutting my yard and the resident wild pig (feral hog) decided to give it a manicure. In this first picture, you can see where she is in relationship to my deck where my telescope is now sitting:

This next picture is a closer shot of her trying to make up her mind just what she wants to do next. Eat something or dig some more?

She decided to pose broadside since someone was taking her picture:

“Oh the heck with it” she says as she pretends to be a bull dozer:

Later that evening after dark, she broke down the dogs’ fence. My dogs try to call her in, to my dismay. My wife is afraid that the pig will kill our little dogs, so when she (the pig not my wife) comes around, I got to gather them up and get them in the house. Not an easy chore when they are barking and nipping at the pig’s nose on the other side of a fence that she can easily come through. In fact, my wife worries that the pig will knock down the deck.

Update on the viewing with the telescope. Being old and tired (me, not the scope) I don’t stay up very late, so miss out on some good viewing throughout the night. If I don’t post a blog some morning, I may have stayed up all night.

First, since I told you about Jupiter’s moon movement, let me update Jupiter for you. Last night there were only three of her moons visible, two on one side and one on the other with a big gap between Jupiter and the two moons. I guess one was hiding behind Jupiter, since I didn’t see any new spot on her face. Of course, I didn’t spend any time looking for it.

I found M15, a beautiful globular cluster and then just started scanning the sky overhead. It just amazes me to see how many stars are really up there, all the ones that you can’t see with the naked eye (especially from this area). There is not an empty spot anywhere. While just randomly scanning I came across a beautiful “Diffuse Nebula”. Not sure its name; will have to do some research. But it was fairly good sized and bright enough to see clearly. It was not symmetrical but had a jagged uneven shape. Smother edge on one side and uneven “fingers” on the other.

It was probably close to where M27 is supposed to be, but M27 is a planetary nebula and the one I saw was not. I just love to look into the night sky!