Tempyra

Hmm… we have been ‘adopted’ by this beast.

It was there when I woke up this morning.

It has taken up residence on our patio and I haven’t the heart to chase it away. What to do??

It has no collar (but definite collar marks in the fur around its neck) or other identifying accessories.

It seems to have decided our patio is a nicer place to be than the rest of the neighbourhood.

It’s only ventured onto the lawn maybe once or twice since it arrived.

It got all protective of its new home and barked at the pizza delivery man too.

It doesn’t like roast potato (suggesting it is not starving) but does like the canned minestrone soup and pink salmon that has been languishing in the pantry (Wes refuses to eat it, suggesting he isn’t starving either).

Its scared of me but quite likes the flatmate, who doesn’t return its affection.

It doesn’t respond very well to, “Sit”, “Come”, “Stay”, or any other commonly used canine command.

It is not owned or recognised by any of the people whose doors I knocked on this afternoon.

Its photo and my phone number are at the local vets and the nearest shopping centre. Hopefully someone will call…

Getting the right amount of sleep (not too much, not too little) has been a problem for me since my early teens. I remember lying awake for hours as a 12 year old even after drinking glasses and glasses of milk. In the morning I never wanted to get out of bed and, because I was home-schooled, often slept in. At university, all-nighters were pretty common because I always left assignments to the last few days.

Now, my sleeping habits are probably even worse. I’ve worked night shift for most of the last year (but I’ve swapped to other shifts, temporarily, 10 to 15 times) so a typical weekday involves me starting work at 10p.m., finishing at 5.30a.m., and sleeping somewhere in between finishing and starting work. On the weekends I try to switch to a more normal pattern – staying awake all Friday to sleep Friday and Saturday nights, staying up all day Sunday and then going to work Sunday night feeling pretty tired.

Sound messed up? It gets worse…

Most people have a regular bedtime – say, weekdays at 9 or 10p.m., depending on what time they start work, and stay up a bit later on the weekend. I can’t make going to bed at a set time work for me – my bedtime flexes according to deliveries, appointments, phone calls, the gym, shopping, meetings, and a million other things. It’s as common for me to get home around 6a.m., shower, have something to eat, go to the gym, come home and fall asleep around 8a.m. as it is for me to finish work at 8a.m., come home, spend a few hours on the internet, go to the gym, go shopping, come home, catch up with the flat mate, and then it’s the middle of the day.

I went to see a doctor about my sleeping problems last year. He rattled on about discipline and forming good habits, like going to bed at 12p.m. every day, weekends included. I tried telling him how it’s not so easy if there are things (errands etc) you just have to do in the daytime because you can’t do them in the morning/evening - he replied (I’m still annoyed about this), “Whatever”, and carried on lecturing me. At that point I started ignoring him and just waited until he wrote me a prescription for sleeping pills.

The normally reliable Internet hasn’t been much help either; sleeping advice is nearly always aimed at people who keep a regular circadian rhythm. Tips like these don’t do much for me:

• Do not nap during the day
• Limit caffeine and alcohol
• Don’t smoke
• Exercise early in the day
• Avoid exercise before bedtime
• Check your iron levels
• Drink a glass of warm milk before bed
• Eat turkey
• Keep a regular schedule
• Avoid bright light before bed

Because:

• I have to sleep during the day. I don’t nap at night if I’m working though
• I don’t drink alcohol during the week if I’m working, only on Friday or Saturday nights so I don’t think that matters. My caffeine intake is usually black tea when I wake up and maybe an energy drink at work if I’m really tired
• I don’t smoke
• I usually exercise in the morning after work
• My iron levels are normal – verified with a blood test
• Warm milk is gross and I’m not very lactose tolerant so I’d probably feel sick
• Turkey? Uh… I’m a vegetarian
• Without a personal assistant or someone to deal with all the people who operate at day time while I want to sleep, this is impossible
• I turn the lights out, shut the doors and blinds but it’s still quite bright when I go to bed. Can’t do anything about that.

I think I’m doomed to having a screwed up body clock until I get a daytime job or become self-employed. Being resigned to it won’t stop me from complaining though!!

I’ve gotten quite a few compliments lately on this apple crumble recipe so I thought I’d post it. The wine is what takes it from being just another apple crumble to an apple crumble that the people I’ve tried it on say is the best they’ve had.

There was never an original recipe for this; I just decided one evening to make apple crumble, threw the ingredients together and sloshed some of the wine I was drinking into the dish with the apples. Hence, it’s something of a challenge to quantify the ingredients. Depending on the size of the apples and the baking dish being used it might be necessary to adjust the amount of each ingredient.

Apple Crumble

4 or 5 Granny Smith apples

½ cup of Monkey Bay Rosé 2006

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons castor sugar

½ cup of muscovado sugar

½ cup of room temperature butter

2 cups of white flour

Preheat the oven to 180degrees Celsius. Peel, core and slice the apples. I tend to leave the apple quite chunky so the apple doesn’t turn into complete mush. Add them to a ceramic baking dish and pour the wine over the top. Make sure there is enough wine to cover the bottom of the dish to a depth of 2-3mms. Sprinkle the lemon zest over the apple.

Mix the dry ingredients together, add the butter and rub the mixture between your fingers until it is crumbly and you can see it taking on the colour of the muscovado sugar. Spread over the top of the apples and bake for 40 - 50 minutes.

I used the Monkey Bay Rosé because it was what I was drinking at the time. I’d definitely recommend this wine as it really is quite yummy but you could use any rosé you like. You could also substitute the castor/muscovado sugar mix that I used for soft brown sugar; I used those because I’m a sugar freak and I like the near-molasses taste of the muscovado.

Hello there, Sasha could not make it to the blog right now, so you’ll have to make do with myself, Wes.  I have been mentioned upon this blog previously, typically as “boyfriend” or perhaps just as commonly, “partner”.  Every now and again I get mentioned by name, but Sasha is reticent to mention it more than absolutely neccessary for fear of summoning my presence, much like some malevolent spirit. :P  Please excuse any and all typos and/or spelling and grammatical errors, they are entirely my own.  I am quite proud of them.  Anyway, on with the blog…

Tabloids rapped over climate coverage

“Analysing 974 articles published between 2000 and 2006 in the Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Daily Mirror, the paper found that accuracy of coverage veered between 67% and 83% over six years.”

No surprises there really.  That said, I am curious as to how they measured such details.  But then, if you read tabloid “news” sources to deserve everything you get.

DDT levels in Antarctic penguin present a complex mystery

“The use of DDT peaked several decades ago at more than 36,000 metric tons per year (t/yr). Today, less than 1000 t of the organochlorine pesticide—banned in most countries since the 1980s—is applied annually for mosquito control and farming, mainly in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite this drop, Adélie penguins in the Antarctic continue to have the same levels of total DDT in their bodies as they did 30 years ago. New research published in ES&T (DOI: 10.1021/es702919n) identifies Antarctic meltwater as the continued source of total DDT, and possibly other pollutants, in the southern continent’s ecosystems.”

An interesting indication of the wide ranging and mostly ignorant effect hamanity has on the wider eco-system.

Women embrace Earth Hour; men find it a turn-off

“A gap also exists between those willing to take simple, inexpensive steps to “make a difference” and those who will spend money to do so. About 89 per cent of people are willing to recycle rubbish in the home, but only 17 per cent would look at the purchase of accredited green power.”

I can say I was completely and totally interested, but can’t for the life of me remember why I did not now.  I know it was a good reason.  :P  Anyway, I/we have purchased “green power” from our electricity supplier.  That is, we would, if they ever choose to charge us for power ever again (long story, and one for some other time).

Tiny bee spotted for the first time in 50 years

“Has Dufourea minuta - it doesn’t have a common name - been able to return to southern England as a result of milder weather helping it to expand its mainland Europe range?”

Finally, some good news. 

In Cairo Slum, the Poor Spark Environmental Change

“Today, the school is colorfully painted with P&G shampoo bottles, and serves as a center where young people can learn about the business and economics of recycling. Students are trained to use Excel spreadsheets, and they learn how to shred plastic in machines, wash and dry it using solar energy, bag it and send it out to be melted down for reuse.”

I could see a benefit to teaching similar skills to kids in first world schools.

How the era of cheap food has gone and why we face a hungry future

“In our television age, the mention of a food crisis brings to mind the bloated bellies of starving children.

We think of droughts, crop failure, conflicts and the tub-thumping of Bono and Bob Geldof.

But now we have a very different sort of food crisis, one that last week for the first time brought food rationing to America when the supermarket giant Wal-Mart – owner of Asda – restricted customers to four bags of rice per visit.”

Remember kids:  It’s not important until it effects America.

Don’t protest: a visual essay social apathy and the culture of protestation

I identify stringly with number seven.  But something tells me that is not a particularly good thing.  Somehow I feel like it is mocking me. 

UK butterflies ‘need good summer’

“Data from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme showed that eight species were at an all-time low as a result of an unsuccessful summer in 2007.”

You know when people come up to you and say: “Well, do you want the good or bad news first?”.  Looks like I got the good news first.

Greyhounds retired to jail

“But the acronym was not a controversial new public-private partnership but the expansion of a scheme in which Victorian prisoners retrain retired racing dogs to become pets — a Prison Pet Partnership.”

Surprise, someone involved with dog racing actually does have a heart.

Well, that’s all from me.  I hope you have enjoy this edition of “Sunday Readings”.  I hope you didn’t mind the cynical tone of my comments, I am actually far worse in real life.  Have a good week!

Wes

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I’ve been busy working on other projects, one of which I’ll be introducing sometime soon (with a bit of luck) and maybe I’ll post pics of the other. In the meantime, here’s a puzzle that had my mind occupied for a little while. It can definitely be worked out - unlike the Five Princes Problem!!

The Blue Eyes Puzzle

I’ve copied and pasted the text from here:

“A group of people with assorted eye colors live on an island. They are all perfect logicians — if a conclusion can be logically deduced, they will do it instantly. No one knows the color of their eyes. Every night at midnight, a ferry stops at the island. Any islanders who have figured out the color of their own eyes then leave the island, and the rest stay. Everyone can see everyone else at all times and keeps a count of the number of people they see with each eye color (excluding themselves), but they cannot otherwise communicate. Everyone on the island knows all the rules in this paragraph.

On this island there are 100 blue-eyed people, 100 brown-eyed people, and the Guru (she happens to have green eyes). So any given blue-eyed person can see 100 people with brown eyes and 99 people with blue eyes (and one with green), but that does not tell him his own eye color; as far as he knows the totals could be 101 brown and 99 blue. Or 100 brown, 99 blue, and he could have red eyes.

The Guru is allowed to speak once (let’s say at noon), on one day in all their endless years on the island. Standing before the islanders, she says the following:

“I can see someone who has blue eyes.”

Who leaves the island, and on what night?

There are no mirrors or reflecting surfaces, nothing dumb. It is not a trick question, and the answer is logical. It doesn’t depend on tricky wording or anyone lying or guessing, and it doesn’t involve people doing something silly like creating a sign language or doing genetics. The Guru is not making eye contact with anyone in particular; she’s simply saying “I count at least one blue-eyed person on this island who isn’t me.”

And lastly, the answer is not “no one leaves.”

I’ve done my best to make the wording as precise and unambiguious as possible (after working through the explanation with many people), but if you’re confused about anything, please let me know. A word of warning: The answer is not simple. This is an exercise in serious logic, not a lateral thinking riddle. There is not a quick-and-easy answer, and really understanding it takes some effort.”

Photos from my (slightly inebriated) wanderings around the garden yesterday evening; 5.30 to 6p.m. seems to be a good time of the day for taking photos. They are linked to the unaltered versions that I uploaded to my Flickr account.

I looked up the name of the flowers above, Bougainvillea, to make sure I was spelling it correctly and discovered something new. I’d always assumed that the plant originates from the island of the same name but actually the genus is named for Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French naval commander who described it in Brazil (and named Bougainville Island for himself during another of his voyages).

I have no idea what the flower above is. The flowering part is about 20cm high and the rest of it appeared to be some kind of lawn weed.

Apparently, manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) doesn’t naturally grow in Queensland… but it seems to be doing just fine in the garden here. Assuming that is what this plant is. I’m beginning to doubt myself.

Another unidentified plant. It’s just occurred to me how little I know about Australian garden plants. I knew what the Bougainvillea and Leptospermum were because I’ve seen them in New Zealand plenty of times. Fruit trees, vegetable plants and herbs are easy because I eat their produce. I can recognise gumtrees (not hard, every second tree is a variety of gum!), grass trees, bottle brushes, some types of palm, some types of conifers (the Araucariaceae family mostly) and European trees, like oak, but very few of the native flowers that people grow in their backyards.

This last photo is probably my favourite one. Again, I don’t know what the name of the plant is. I don’t even know if it’s a native species. Maybe I’ll go to the library this weekend!!

I didn’t have time to finish this off and post yesterday so I’m doing it today.

The Fur Keeps Flying, Part II

Treehugger ask, “If the fur-trimmed recycled-polyester bolero jacket we wrote about in Part I of this entry is very questionably eco, what about a bedspread or throw pillows from pesky possums threatening to overrun New Zealand’s flora and fauna?”

The writer, April Streeter, wonders about how the possums killed to produce fur products are treated and goes on to comment that hunting and trapping may be preferable to the New Zealand Government’s alternative control technique - the pesticide 1080. Without getting into the argument (actually as far as I’m concerned it isn’t much of one at all) over whether 1080 is largely harmless or not, it seems a bit odd that Treehugger says 1080 is banned in the US and Wikipedia says something else.

I just remembered the first experience I had with sodium monofluoroacetate. It was during a field study while I was at university. My class was running up and down the side of a mountain measuring the basal area of trees in Pureora State Forest. All of a sudden green pellets started raining down through the forest canopy as a Department of Conservation contractor began an aerial application of the poison (it was the middle of winter, so the “off-season” for hikers and sightseers). Being an group of environmental science students we figured out what was happening pretty quickly but there were a few tourists on the track who were a bit puzzled.

Accidental art - now you see it, soon you won’t

“The Paris Metro has become a cavern of ephemeral but beautiful underground art, discovered one month and destroyed the next.

Renovations in two-thirds of the underground stations in the French capital have exposed a cornucopia of old, torn advertising posters or paintings. Some appear to date back to the earliest days of the Paris Metro a century ago.”

I hope there are people there photographing all these pieces of paper before they’re gone again. Here is one photo from Flickr.

Image credit: /// steph /// from Flickr

Music Has Its Own Geometry, Researchers Find

“…three music professors — Clifton Callender at Florida State University, Ian Quinn at Yale University and Dmitri Tymoczko at Princeton University — have devised a new way of analyzing and categorizing music that takes advantage of the deep, complex mathematics they see enmeshed in its very fabric.”

While I read this article through a few times I didn’t devote much time to getting straight exactly how geometrical music theory works. I did like this quote from Dmitri Tymoczko though, “the most satisfying aspect of this research is that we can now see that there is a logical structure linking many, many different musical concepts. To some extent, we can represent the history of music as a long process of exploring different symmetries and different geometries.”

Nature’s Sophisticated Forms

Not exactly reading material but I spent part of Sunday looking at Scott Draves’ collection of natural forms (based on those of Ernst Haeckal, the man behind the controversial recapitulation theory incidentally). Pretty symmetry.

Imagine life without frogs… no croakings outside on rainy nights, no tadpoles in the streams and no disgustingly visceral dissections in biology class. I like frogs but I don’t think I’d notice their absence acutely.

Image credit: ucumari from Flickr

What about bats? Imagine being old and having to explain to children why Batman is called Batman, why horror movies and vampire novels feature these strange flying mammals and reminiscing about the fruit bat that used to roost in the palm tree outside the back door. Where I’m from (New Zealand) the native species of bats are extremely rare and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one outside a museum. The Australian bats freak me out slightly simply because I’m not used to black creatures swooping around in the night. They generally seem harmless and even have quite cute little faces so I’ve come to like them.

Think of those “inspirational” posters you see in offices, medical reception areas and business’ training rooms - the ones with salmon navigating boulders, rapids and waterfalls in their quest to return to their birthplace. Imagine standing there, looking at the glossy photo and knowing that there are no more salmon. I think that that would be strange, in a similar way to how many people are going to feel when the next Batman movie is released and they watch Heath Ledger playing the part of The Joker. As if something is missing before its time.

Think there’s little chance of frogs, bats and salmon disappearing anytime soon? Guess you haven’t heard of Colony Collapse Disorder then… CCD is the inexplicable die-off of honeybee hives throughout America that’s been going on for the last year or so. The American apiculture industry is shriveling up and dying, beekeepers in Europe are reporting hive losses and there are suspected cases of CCD in Taiwan. No-one knows why. If CCD continues at its current rate then in two years there may only be enough bees left in the USA to pollinate the country’s almond trees. Forget about avocados, pears, apples, peaches, strawberries and about one third of the things you normally eat, which are dependent on pollination by honeybees.

I know that animal species are going extinct every day. Mostly species I’ve never heard of, never seen, never been to where they’re from. While those extinction events are disheartening it’s not quite the same as watching the decline of animals you encounter regularly, ones that are a part of your life like frogs, salmon, bats and bees are. Weird feeling.

Read more about die-offs here.

My brain is freaking out:

The constructed (i.e. not real) word “ghoti” can be pronounced as “fish“.

“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatically correct sentence.

“James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher” is a valid sentence.

This is also accepted English and scares my brain slightly less (because I’m a user of the double “that“) than the above examples: “Did the editor know that, that that ‘that’ that that ‘that’ followed was redundant?”

Image credit: Zaqarbal from Flickr

Opus no. 40 by Camille Saint-Saëns; there is a recording here. I didn’t know until now that La Danse Macabre (the dance of death) was originally a religious allegory of the universality of death. Saint-Saëns’ composition is based on this poem (by Henri Cazalis) about the French superstition.

Zig, zig, zig, Death in a cadence,
Striking with his heel a tomb,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,
Zig, zig, zig, on his violin.
The winter wind blows and the night is dark;
Moans are heard in the linden trees.
Through the gloom, white skeletons pass,
Running and leaping in their shrouds.
Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking,
The bones of the dancers are heard to crack—
But hist! of a sudden they quit the round,
They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed.

I have both the music and the first line of Cazalis’ poem (Zig, zig, zig, Death in a cadence) stuck in my head now, except to me it seems as though it should go, “Zig, zig, zag“.