Moisture-loving…
Sunday, 10 June 2007
Yesterday, we saw these pewter-blue butterflies, which seem to be attracted to the damp soil.
Musings
Chigger corollary
Saturday, 9 June 2007
One corollary to Mandatory Fun Day is at least one walk around the property. Sometimes a swim, but not this time. Yesterday’s rain, which I found a lovely punctuation to the festivities (no tarps to hide under this year, since the porches are so inviting), has changed everything. And made the lake gorgeous (yes, this is a lake in these parts—pond in the upper Midwest).
A second corollary to MFD is my personal acquisition (against my wishes) of chiggers. This year’s count is four, including one on my forearm—very odd.
MFD
Friday, 8 June 2007
Need I say more than that today was Mandatory Fun Day? Well, I could say that I avoided the margaritas, although they looked frosty and tasty.
Chickpea history
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Yeah, I know these are wasabi peas not chickpeas….
Most people theorizing on the origins of plant domestication—agriculture—get around to improved dietary energy sources and risk reduction sooner or later. In other words, they find 1) the calories with respect to the energy involved in production, especially of grain species were improved with domestication and formalized planting/growing, and 2) the assumed storage potential for grains and seeds means the food source is available for a longer period.
In a recent article, researchers propose that the chickpea has a somewhat different story behind it. Both its wild progenitor and domesticated versions have elevated levels of tryptophan, which increase serotonin in the brain. Increased serotonin means increased satiety, and, possibly, increases in cognitive performance, thus lowering aggression and improving social integration (yeah, I’m collapsing the argument substantially here). The enriched tryptophan diet also increases ovulation rates, and increases demographic potential. The chickpea was, as I understand it, the largest pulse in use at that time (over 10K yrs ago), so had, you might say, the most bang for the buck along these lines.
I take it as a given that long before the Neolithic revolution, our ancestors were very aware of biochemical inputs from dietary sources, so I don’t find this farfetched. Nutritional subtleties had to have been factors in domestication and the adoption of agricultural practices. That and the great fun attached to consuming fermented starchy foods…but that’s another topic….
Lively poppies
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
These brilliant poppies are embedded in what looks like orchard grass; we found them in a Michigan ditch last week (plenty of rain there this year). Here it’s just plain hot and dry; we’re watering our favorite plants with the dishwater. I felt guilty doing a load of wash knowing the graywater was going down the sewer. Well, those in south Georgia, lower down the Chattahoochee need it too, I guess—at least, that’s my understanding of where our treated sewage ends up….
HB, Bro!
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
In honor of my Bro’s b-day today (forty-something), how ’bout some science? Since he’s a scientist, of course (that’s him in front of me)….
Here is an article by Heike Vibrans, “Epianthropochory in Mexican Weed Communities.” The title and abstract sent me to the dictionary (sometimes Wikipedia) multiple times….
Today’s vocabulary:
epianthropochory
humans as dispersers of species, here weeds from fields (I gather)
Bonus points: agrestal
Being sheep?
Monday, 4 June 2007
Today’s fun and games focused (har, har: not quite—didn’t look at Fords!) on test driving and checking out a brand new Prius. To replace the Honda, which we’ve almost internalized as Gone. Never to return. Sadly. Well, prices were higher than quoted, when (slimy) sales-dude finally got to actual numbers (rather than “twenty-four and change”—that one became 28K when tax, tag, title, and some $600 BS charge were added). We’re thinking about waiting until the new models are released in the fall.
Comments?
We’re thinking Green trumps all. Plus we haven’t been able to discover a downside to the Prius—other than it being a Toyota, and Toyota being world’s top seller of vehicles, so buying a Toyota would make us a kind of human sheep….
El colibrí
Sunday, 3 June 2007
Played hooky today and headed for northeast piedmont GA, where the rains came last night (is that why the hummers were so busy?), but had gone by the time we arrived. ATL got nary a drop.
Today’s vocabulary:
levigate
to reduce something to a fine powder or paste
Placid Rudbeckia
Saturday, 2 June 2007
Pet peeve: uncounted vs. uncountable. Yes, it’s permissible to use “uncountable” hyperbolically, but uncountable is overused when the referent is actually quite countable, and merely would take some time to do so—that’s actually a good time for “uncounted.” Consider opposing uncounted with infinite….
Re-modelling
Friday, 1 June 2007
I’m guessing HomelandSecurity is offering contracts for constructing new assumptions for their predictive models, ones that would include international travelers infected with a super-nasty respiratory bug who are white Atlanta lawyers traveling to get married in Greece rather than Asian poultry farmers with muddy boots.