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The Heroic Beavers of Salt Lake City

(IMAGE: The North American beaver, Castor canadensis (Stevehdc, Wikimedia Commons)

 

A Pair of North American Beavers are responsible for preventing an 8000-gallon diesel fuel spill from reaching the reservoir in Willard Bay State Park, which supplies Salt Lake City with water on the 19th of March, 2013. Both animals were soaked with the toxic fuel but recovered in the local Wildlife Rehabilitation Center according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

As of the 27th of March the pair were making good progress. They have been joined by a third beaver who was found sludge covered but is recovering well alongside the original pair, who are suspected to be siblings. They are all suspected to be orphans, as they are yearlings and beavers of this age group frequently live with their parents, but no adult beavers have been sighted at the spill site.

 

Sources

Undoing Extinction. Is it Possible?

Recently, it came to my attention that National Geographic decided to host a Tedx on De-extinction. This is pretty cool. I’ll start getting into the videos, so this is going to turn into series, I’m sure, as I watch and discuss the various videos as they come down.

Sure, the science isn’t yet pointed at Jurassic Park (we need more recently dead animals for revival to be an option. To this day no amount of verifiable dino DNA has been located). Species of more recent times have specimens available on the shelves of museums as we speak, making DNA retrieval possible! DNA from a tasmanian tiger pup has been recovered and tested (using mice) as viable.

This fascinating bit of potential science has a few problems. It starts with the broad “playing god” complaint and goes down to the more practical “these animals went extinct in the wild. Where will we put them and how will we keep them safe?”. Hopefully the Tedx will discuss and explore this in more detail than the article I read from Discovery News.

Internet Bigfooting: March’s Evidence & TruTV’s Opinions…

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THE EVIDENCE

It’s spring. Spring means some new Squatch Photos. I have two images I specifically want to talk about, simply becuase they’re either typical of a spring bigfoot photo, or they’re incredibly unusual. I’m going to start with the typical one.

humboldtbigfootCheck out how blurry that one is. And it gets even worse when you make the picture bigger. This is very typical of a spring Squatch photo. People arn’t used to seeing the area, and things change over the course of the winter. This could be a rotting stump for all we know, the image isn’t clear enough to tell anything save it’s a large, amorphous black shape. And, there is no higher resolution on this image (You can visit Cryptomundo for more on the sighting).

gabigfootcomparisonThe second one escapes the common problem of the “Blobsquatch” effect. It’s a bit dark, and a bit blurry, but it isn’t a quantifiable blobsquatch. You can see some definition. But still, it’s blurry. And it’s impossible to tell anything definitive from it.

The only problem is that it’s so blurry I can’t even rule out photoshop, let alone the creature really being a person in a suit. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If this image was part of a set of images with at least one or two super-clear ones, it would be much more compelling. Instead it’s a lone blurry image and means nothing to science. See the evidence yourself at Cryptomundo.

It really is sad. With all the cameras around, why is the evidence getting worse, not better?

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TruTV Says…

TruTV’s Blogger Norma Lee Jennings seems to think that Bigfoot will be found soon. She gives 5 reasons, and I’d like to talk about them in some detail.

  1. Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot
    I do have to admit that it gets attention for the field and the research. I just wish they spent longer in a single places and actually dug in to do some real science. But the show is focused on entertainment (and I have to admit, I adore Bobo) rather than the science… Too bad it should be the other way around if they want to do anything useful with what they do…
  2. Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization’s Expeditions
    Because screaming in the woods makes wildlife comfortable? Because charging people to come out and help you with science is normal? These expeditions find tracks, and hear the occasional call. They don’t generally experience actual sightings of the animals they claim are all around them. Do better science, don’t do commercial “science”.
  3. Sharon Lee Lomurno’s Kickstarter Campaign
    Because a night here and there is good science? No. It’s not. Good science is a long term study of an area that lets the wildlife get used to you so that your mere presence stops interfering with your research. A random trip across the country will just mean it’s like the Finding Bigfoot people. Expeditions to short to do more than provide an initial survey of an area. Buckle down and do some real research on a specific spot if you’re interested in actually trying, people!
  4. Professor Jeffrey Meldrum’s Blimp
    Meldrum is at least trying to do science to find bigfoot. and if he was going to be found… This would be… a Start. Too bad Bigfoot are purported to live in thickly forested areas in which a blimp’s ability to see would be badly hampered.
  5. Melba Ketchum’s Scientific Study
    There are a few points on Ketchum’s paper (I’ve talked about a few of them here and here), so putting it on a list of reasons things might be found is a bad idea. Ketchum’s paper can’t even provide good provenance on most of the DNA samples, let alone verify a single one to be specifically anything. The fact that Katchum had to buy a journal to publish her paper means her paper didn’t pass actual scientific scrutiny. Ketchum’s paper isn’t evidence. It quotes hoaxes as facts. It’s faulty.

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Internet Bigfooting: Vocals Again

This is slightly old news, but I like to examine vocals because I know the noise of the wild, including noises other people who “know the wild” seem not to know… So first… The clips!

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The first vocalization isn’t anything that I can’t write off as wolf or coyote. Perhaps human. It’s long, bellowing, and to me reads as either wolf or human-imitating-wolf. Given the lack of concrete other evidence, I can’t call it anything but “creature that is known to exist in the area”. I’m sorry, Mr. Sherman. If it’s not a man hoaxing you, it’s a large predator. Your incredible claim (you heard the sound of a bigfoot) isn’t provable because all you have is the noise. You have no other evidence that even indicates the animal to posit was where you are.

The second section on this first video is far more interesting. It’s definitely something I can’t write off immediately. My first instinct, based off the call, is not bigfoot. This call makes me think Birdwatchers, and I believe that ruling out animals that are unusual but present is the first route to take. Mr. Sherman: My recommendation as an Internet Bigfooter is that you have this clip reviewed by a few birding clubs /without priming/ (don’t tell them you think it’s bigfoot) challenging them to identify the source of the sound. If the local bird-obsessed can’t figure out a bird that matches it, then we can talk Bigfoot.

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I would like to thank Mr. Sherman for the time he spends actually presenting his evidence.

Sadly, though, I once again don’t agree with his assessment. It sounds like a juvenile wolf to me. One that’s not great at getting his voice going and has to spend some time “warming up” so to speak. Perhaps joined by one of his elders? This video features a wolf doing long, low wails that lack the ululation that is commonly associated by those who’ve only heard a few howls on TV. He even dips down and plays in the “whoop” range that I hear associated with bigfoot.
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At least these vocals aren’t fox wails…

Sasquatch shouldn’t be anybodies first guesses with these. Call in a wolf expert. Learn about the pack(s) that live where you are. Investigate with experts in proven animals first, so that you can remove everything that’s even questionably another species.

And don’t give me that crap about them hiding their vocals in those of other animals. You want proof, not guesses. Until you bring me video of a Sasquatch vocalizing on camera, you can’t prove they do it. Start looking for PROOF. Not evidence that can’t be verified. It’s worthless.

Diet Fads: Some Research

Of late, Discovery News has been issuing some reports I feel are worth talking about, about a few diet trends that are out there. I’m skipping the fully bunk Blood-type Diet. It makes no sense because humans aren’t all that different on the inside, even when we are on the outside.

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Since Celiac’s Disease got the press it deserved, lots of people have given up gluten. A great many of them not having Celiac’s or any other form of Gluten intolerance! Is this a bad thing? It can be hard to tell, with so many nutritionists and dietitians supporting the benefits but simultaneously leaning against unnecessary dietary restriction.

Most health benefits people gain from going gluten free are rooted in the overabundance of carbohydrates in the american diet and the lack of such carb-rich choices with gluten free versions. This increases the dependence appropriately towards giving fruits and vegetables the bulk of the calories, which is ideal.

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The Paleo diet, or the consumption of food that our human ancestors ate (lean meats, fish, vegetables and fruit and avoiding grains and legumes).

Too bad science isn’t behind it. Humans are evolved for the foods banned by the paleo diets. Grain and dairy consumption gave some of our ancestors an edge by varying food sources. Eliminating a food group isn’t always a great plan. Analyze your needs carefully when considering things like cutting out all grains. Though I can’t think of anyone who would consider cutting back on processed food a bad thing.

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CNN Claims Rapists had lives ruined by conviction

It was incredibly emotional — incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believe their life fell apart.

CNN reporter Poppy Harlow on witnessing the Steubenville verdict

Why is there concern about the rapists lives being ruined? There’s no secret in this world about rape being bad. Since when do criminals “have their lives ruined” by justice being brought against them? They ruined their own lives when they committed the crime.

It’s this person’s opinion that if we have to blame anybody for ruining those kids lives, let’s try either those kids. Or maybe the parents who taught let them go to parties, or taught them that they had a right to take anything they wanted from anybody. We can’t blame the alcohol. It didn’t dive down the kid’s throats without their permission. It’s no secret that alcohol consumption leads to crappy decision making.

Given that the kid’s “apology” consisted mainly of apologizing for sending out pictures, not violating another person’s human dignity, I think Prison is exactly where this self-centered little cuss belongs.

CNN: Get your priorities straight. Start supporting the victim rather than the rapists who’re being convicted in accordance with evidence they created and distributed themselves.

HIV: Is a cure in the air?

I know I shouldn’t have dragged my feet on writing this up, but I was so worried that we’d get a report that the recent cure wasn’t going to be as spectacular as the initial reports indicated. Since nothing’s come out immediately disproving the debunking, it indicates it’s safe to start talking about it.

It’s spectacular! We now have a case in addition to the Berlin Patient.

To me, the biggest application of this would be in 3rd world countries where health care overlooks so many patients. Yes, it’s only an indication and without further studies we can’t be sure… But I hope that it means we can at least protect infants from acquiring HIV from the mother. I really can’t wait to see if these first hours treatments can really aid people.

The only truly sad part of this is that doctors are fairly sure this isn’t an approach that will help adults. Though other research is shedding light on immune responses, and maybe that will lead to a new approach to HIV that might start helping people older at the time of infection.

Critter News Roundup Vol.3: (Bad) Conservation News…

This was almost a special edition, but then I decided that it would be much better labeled a Critter news roundup because the whole thing DOES have a critter theme. It also, however, has a depressing conservation theme.

  • Switzerland’s Only Bear Killed Amid Threat Fears – FEB 25, 2013 08:30 AM ET // BY AFP
    The bear was “culled” in accordance with the management plan for bears in Switzerland (which i’m going to assume is “No bears aloud”). The bear was going to be a potential danger, but what I don’t understand is why death was the option they decided to try when relocation hadn’t even been experimented with. This was an irresponsible management of a rare animal.
  • Africa ‘Hemmorhaging Elephants’ at Record Rate – MAR 4, 2013 05:00 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
    In the past decade 62% of elephants have been killed for Ivory. The article goes over why the African Forest Elephant might be extinct within the next decade. This important umbrella species needs to be protected to protect other species!
  • 100 Million Sharks Killed Each Year – MAR 5, 2013 05:45 AM ET // BY MEGAN GANNON, LIVE SCIENCE
    Research indicates that 1 in 15 sharks is killed each year by fisheries. As economic prosperity in eastern countries grow the demand for these shark body parts grows. As apex predators sharks are slow breeders and continued fishing at this rate could be disastrous.