I hope somebody within an 8-hour drive of Chicago will adopt that gorgeous kitten, Xena, that reader Su Gould is fostering. Here’s her photo from this morning with the Korean bear. The position of the kitten isn’t too hard to see, but I’ve put it below the fold, both lightened and circled.
First, the original:
Click below to get the reveal:
SPOT THE KITTEN!. . . Which you can’t, as it’s Xena the adoptable kitten on a Korean bear. (In person, she blends right in as she has reddish tones in her fur.) This is also the closest I’ll ever get to spotting any hidden wildlife.
I’ll give the reveal later today.Xena also recently read that there are still people who don’t believe in evolution.this troubles her greatly…
Picture taken July 4
Xena is looking for a lifelong commitment, which she will return. She is content to be to be an indoor cat and protect your castle. And naturally, as a warrior, she insists on keeping all her claws. She loves to play with new toys, she like a challenge and she is also a lap kitty who will nap while you are doing a project at a table, on the computer or watching TV. (She is fond of David Attenborough nature documentaries.)
XENA’S STORY / She was discovered running in my back yard, which is surrounded by yards with dogs. (She was captured, but fought bravely.) I suspect she was rescuing herself from abuse or neglect: she was thin, had a respiratory infection and there was electrical tape stuck to her leg. [JAC: she’s okay now and has gone to the vet.]
XENA has a healthy appetite, and used her letterbox the very first day. She is will be spayed, microchipped and have the necessary shots when she is a bit older. She has medium length fur, black with reddish tones, with ear and paw tufts. She comes with her toys, and cat tree.’
If you wish to contact reader Su, just shoot me an email and I’ll send you her email address (I didn’t want to put it up here). Su adds this:
To the right home, I am willing to travel to within radius of 8 hr drive of Park Forest. (which includes a surprisingly large number of states!)
For the month of July, I am currently serving on the Grand Jury at 26th & California and can really only check email at lunchtime. And I will!
I first heard of Nettie Stevens (1861-1912) when I was studying Mendelian genetics in college. She is well known to those of us who studied that branch of genetics (what I call “real” genetics!), but has been largely forgotten despite her immense contribution to the field. What was it? Nothing less than discovering that sex, at least in the species she was studying, was determined by chromosome constitution. And that turned out to be the case for many, many animal species (and even some plants!).
After years of of training, Stevens settled at Bryn Mawr College, and it was there that, while studying the mealworm Tenebrio molitor, she realized that while the cells of females had near pairs of regular-sized chromosomes, males had, among the regular pairs, one regular-sized chromosome paired with a tiny one. Those proved to be the X and Y, respectively, just as in humans. (In some species, like birds and butterflies, the females have the big and little chromosome, called Z and W respectively, and it is females that are heterogametic. In mammals and most insects, it’s the males who are heterogametic, which is what Stevens found.)
Stevens published her result in 1905, the same year that geneticist and cytologist E.B. Wilson also described the chromosomal basis of sex determination. Today Wilson is largely given the credit for this discovery, but that’s solely because he was more famous than Stevens—and because he was a man, possessor of a Y.
It’s also typical of that era, and of the low status of women in science, that Stevens didn’t gain a regular university research position. It’s ironic that this is almost certainly because she was XX rather than XY! Eventually she was offered such a position, but died of breast cancer before she could accept it. She was only 50 years old.
You can read more about Stevens’s work on sex determination, detailed in a journal article, here.
Here’s today’s Doodle of Stevens, clearly based on the photo below it:
There aren’t many pictures of her, but I like this one:
Well, this ceremony—The Blessing of the Astronauts—took place in Kazakhstan, but it was still posted by NASA. Jebus—it’s the equivalent of Indian scientists going to the temple for blessings before they launch a satellite. And it’s sheer madness: the juxtaposition of a ludicrous medieval theology with a modern science that actually works. Note how the astronauts kiss the cross.
h/t: Bryan L.
This cartoon, by editorial cartoonist Bruce Plante of the Tulsa World, isn’t too far from the truth these days.
RIP: Philando Castile. Crime: Broken taillight, driving while black.
RIP: Alton B. Sterling. Crime: Selling CDs while black.
h/t: Jennifer Z.
Well, my boots, made by Lee Miller of Austin, Texas, arrived yesterday, and they fit very well. They’re a wee bit snug, but that’s normal since the leather has to stretch a bit on my feet. And they’re gorgeous: by far my favorite pair of boots.
For those who want the whole sequence of photos from beginning to end, here are the posts in order (I screwed up the numbering at 4-5, and so added #4a; there are 12 posts in total, including this one).
The ink and dye have dried, and now it’s time to apply additional was and burnish the soles, heels and welt.
Here you see one boot on which the burnishing has been done.
Here Lee is brushing the heels.
It’s time to iron the welt. Lee takes a piece of wax and applies it to the iron.
Then he positions the boot welt on the iron to spread the wax.
Another view of Lee ironing the welt.
He then brushes the welt to spread the wax.
In the meantime, the hand tools are being heated.
The heated hand tools are used to hand burnish areas on the soles and heels.
Here is one boot that has been burnished and ironed. Now it’s time to bottom stain the forepart of the sole.
First, he naumkegs (sands) the area to be bottom stained.
The sanded part of the sole is now ready to be bottom stained.
We apply three coats of bottom stain. And, the boots are then brushed and rubbed down.
Next, the lasts are pulled, and the wooden pegs hand sanded down.
The boot tops are then lightly wet, and wooden blocks called trees are put into the tops. This gives the boot tops shape and helps to allow the foot to get into the boots. The boots sit overnight, and the trees are pulled the next day.
Heel pads are put in, and the boots are conditioned and shined.
Here is Lee with the boots.
Your lasts are put away.
The boots are boxed up and are on their way.
Thanks again to Lee for his craftsmanship and artistry, and to Carrlyn for helping me figure out what I wanted and keeping in touch during the whole process. I hope those of you interested in cowboy boots have learned something about them, and about the labor and craft that go into making a pair of custom boots.
I have long declared cowboy boots to be the Official Footwear of Atheists™ (though I can’t give you a rationale), and, with both me and Steve Pinker wearing them, it won’t be long till they’re de rigeur!
The first four photos today come from reader Stephen Barnard of Idaho. The captions are his:
This Barn Swallow [Hirundo rustica] is raising a brood over my porch and making a mess of the deck.
Hitch [the new border collie puppy] in a goofy pose.
A garter snake photographed by Rick Longworth:
I used to catch Garter Snakes [Thamnophis sirtalis] as a kid living in Ontario. Even though I knew they were not poisonous, once a really big one clamped onto my hand and wouldn’t let go. I could feel dozens of tiny teeth embedded in my hand as I tried to walk home with it. I didn’t want to pull it off for fear of damaging the poor thing.I saw this fellow in the yard (central New York State). It’s about 2 and a half feet long.
Finally, some woodpeckers by reader Laurel Strand:
These were taken over Memorial Day weekend 2016, using my point-and-shoot Nikon. With its 30x optical zoom, it can take some pretty good photos.The first photo (lewis 1) is a Lewis’ woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) outside its nest in a tree at Fort Simcoe State Historical Park about 35 miles from Yakima, Washington. If you look close, you can see an orange-y grub in its beak. I also took a short video showing the bird entering the nest. The second photo shows it peeking out of the nest hole. The third photo was taken of one getting its own lunch from another tree in the park.
The unrelenting heat in Chicago has now combined with humidity coming from sporadic rain, creating a soggy and energy=sapping miasma.. On the other hand, my new boots have arrived! (See below, and a post later today.) It is Thursday, July 7, or 7/7, and it’s World Chocolate Day. Celebrations are supposed to involve consuming chocolate, so send in your photos if you do.
On this day in 1928, the fantastic invention of pre-sliced bread was sold for the first time in Chillicothe, Missouri. In 1954, this was the day on which Elvis Presley’s first recorded song (guess what it is) was first played on the radio—by station WHBQ in Memphis. And in 1985, Boris Becker won Wimbledon at the age of 17, the youngest player ever.
Notables born on this day include Camilio Golgi (1843, later Nobel Laureate), Nettie Stevens (1861, see post later this a.m.), mountaineer Hamish MacInnes (1930), Ringo Starr (1940), and Michelle Kwan (1980). Those who died on this day include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1930), Fats Navarro (1950), and Veronica Lake (1973). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the cherries are coming along nicely, helped along by welcome rains, and I hope that when I visit in about three weeks they will be harvesting them. I am again promised many pies, and Hili is helping pick out the cherries!
A: Are you looking for something?Hili: Yes, I’m looking around to see where the best cherries for Jerry’s pie are.
Ja: Szukasz czegoś?
Hili: Tak, patrzę, gdzie będą najlepsze wiśnie na placek dla Jerry’ego.
This “meme” came from reader Barry, and I don’t know where he got it. I hadn’t seen it before, either, but it’s so true.
Which gets me wondering: if Intelligent Design is agnostic about the nature of the Designer, why are they always defending traditional religion, and attacking people like me who criticize Christianity and Judaism?
For some time I’ve been having an afternoon pick-me-up in the form of matcha, or powdered Japanese green tea. Although when prepared in the ceremonial manner (I don’t do the ceremony proper) it makes only three sips of tea, I find it energizing, stimulating, and, most of all, tasty. (There are said to be numerous health benefits, as the tea is high in antioxidants, but I don’t consider food or drink as medicine.)
You need a few things to make the stuff. Here are four of the five devices I have: a strainer to get the lumps out of the tea, a chashuku, or bamboo tea scoop, a chasen, or whisk (to froth up and mix the tea and hot water), and the matcha itself. I use ceremonial grade, which is about $20 for one of those little cans, and it lasts about twenty days. My pick-me-up thus costs about a buck a throw. The blue-green ceramic thing is the holder onto which you invert the chasen to dry.
The tea. The brighter green the better. It will have some lumps, but that’s what the strainer is for: you simply strain the tea through the sieve into a matcha bowl, which is the fifth object in the process. Real matcha bowls, which can be works of art, can cost hundreds of dollars, but you can use an ordinary bowl. I do have a matcha bowl, but it cost only about $20 (see below).
I love the chasen, which is carved out of a single piece of bamboo. It has an inner layer of prongs and then an outer layer. It’s used, as I said, to froth up the tea, but you can see that in the video below.
Here’s a dose of matcha: about 75 ml of liquid (I use a measuring beaker in a microwave to heat up the water). It provides exactly three decent sips. A good bowl of matcha is properly frothy. This is an early effort by me; the big air bubbles are considered unsightly and should be popped with the chasen before serving.
And here’s how to make it. I recommend this if you like matcha (it’s not like regular tea since you consume the leaves along with the water, and it has a herbaceous flavor that some don’t like—but I love). Ask questions below if you want, or share your own matcha experience. By the way, matcha of lesser grades are used to make those Starbuck’s matcha lattes, as well as to flavor green tea ice cream and other goodies.
The preparation itself begins around 1:20. The water temperature, below boiling but very hot, is important.
