Readers’ wildlife photographs

October 2, 2014 • 5:27 am

Reader Rick Wayne from Madison, Wisconsin sent us a series of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), their family, and their tail (his captions):

A family of redtails has been nesting across the street from Soil Science for a couple of years now. I happened to catch one of the adults (female? they’re so various that I have a hard time telling) at quite short range disassembling a squirrel. Given your affection for the latter, I won’t link the video, I’ll just say that single-framing it with my kids was very instructive about internal squirrel anatomy (“Wait, is that a stomach or a lung?” “Definitely a lung.”)

Of course I filled up my memory card and, while frantically trying to figure out what to delete on it, the hawk decided it had had enough attention, gathered the much-flatter remains in its talons, and majestically flapped away. So I missed the real money shot.

The next day, my 500mm and I happened to catch some action at the nest.
What’s interesting about these guys is that they’re such urban predators; by no means tame, they still mostly ignore the crowds of people and vehicles teeming around their den and just go on being foxes. The fellow in charge of the Allen Centennial Gardens has noted that his lagomorph problem has been sharply reduced this season.
The “donut bokeh” of the mirror lens really stands out in the background of this one.

beakfull

What? Oh, you mean this spine?

posed

NOM NOM NOM!

inverted

Adults on the wing within a few hundred meters of the nest:

dad_and_mom

Here’s what all the squirrel-disassembling was about:

RWK53306

Nobody argues with Mom:

RWK53300

But one must occasionally get a good flap in while she’s gone.

RWK53273

My wife captions this one “I am SO TOTALLY NOT drunk, man!”

scratchin3

After I sent you the May email [photos below sent Sept. 16], I returned to the nest site — heck, it’s right across the street from my office! — for more images as the chicks grew up:

RWK53853

RWK54224 copy

RWK54281 copy

Rick also put up video of the two hawk chicks, titled “In Which Our Hero Mistakes His Sister’s Foot for A Piece of Squirrel.“

Good morning!

October 2, 2014 • 4:46 am

The two greatest female pop voices (not singers) of our time belong to Karen Carpenter and Barbra Streisand. I’ve featured Karen many times (she was a heartthrob), but not such much La Streisand.

Streisand, of course, had a much better oeuvre of songs, but you shouldn’t turn your nose up at Carpenter’s talents on non-schlocky songs, like “Little Girl Blue.” Here’s one of my favorites from Barbra, one that really shows off her ability to belt without sounding dreadful (viz., the musical travesty Lea Michele). It may be due to those t.v. programs featuring competitions between amateur singers (“America’s Got Top Vocal Talents” or the like), but belting seems to be the vocal style du jour. Most singers can’t do it well.

“All I Ask of You,” is, of course, from the 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “The Phantom of the Opera” (music by Weber, lyrics by Charles Hart). Originally recorded by Sarah Brightman and Cliff Richard, it was released by Streisand, in a much superior rendition, in 1988. It’s this one, which misspells her name at the beginning.

Goys try Jewish food for the first time, are not impressed

October 1, 2014 • 2:33 pm

According to Professor Ceiling Cat (who has wide nomming experience), the three best cuisines in the world are, in no particular order, French, Indian, and Chinese (especially of the Szechuan/Hunan variety). And there are few cuisines that I don’t admire in general. Sadly, in the bottom tier of ethnic cuisine rests the food of my own culture: Jewish.  While it has its highlights—an onion bagel with belly lox and a schmear, corned beef and pastrami sandwiches with hot mustard, a half-sour pickle and a can of Dr. Brown’s Cel-ray Tonic, a nice chopped liver sandwich heavy with schmalz, a plate of latkes with sour cream or applesauce (preferably both), and, of course, cheesecake—by and large Jewish food is not inspiring.

And that’s the conclusion these goys reach as they try Jewish food for the first time.  Unfortunately, they’re presented with some of the dregs of Jewish curisine: gefilte fish (I cannot abide this malodorous dish), Manischewitz wine (close to Robitussin cough syrup), and noodle kugel (which can sometimes be ok). No pastrami or corned beef, no brisket, no pickles, no knishes, and no blintzes.  But they scorn two items that at their best can be very good: matzo ball soup (the broth shown here looks suspiciously thin, with nary a chicken chunk or carrot slice to be seen) and chopped liver. At least they like the rugelach, the one tolerable Jewish dessert item besides cheesecake (not counting rice pudding, which is claimed by many cultures).

All in all, these people seem to have leaden palates. Imagine equating chopped liver with Fancy Feast cat food!  They’d probably ask for white bread and mayo on their pastrami sandwich.

Someone should have taken them to Katz’s Deli on Houston Street.

 

1961: Russian doctor in Antarctica removes his own appendix

October 1, 2014 • 12:52 pm

This short piece from the Atlantic was first published in 2011, but it’s been going the rounds, and I found it so amazing that I had to post it.

The story: in 1961, Soviet doctor Leonid Rogozov was spending the winter at a Russian base in Antarctica when he fell ill, diagnosing himself with appendicitis.  He was the only doctor on the base, and evacuation was impossible as it was winter, too dark and cold for planes to land.

There were only two alternatives: operate on himself, or die. He chose the former. The Atlantic has some excerpts from his journal, both before (first paragraph) and after (last two paragraphs) the surgery:

I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A snowstorm whipping through my soul, wailing like a hundred jackals. Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent, but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me … This is it … I have to think through the only possible way out: to operate on myself … It’s almost impossible … but I can’t just fold my arms and give up.

. . . I worked without gloves. It was hard to see. The mirror helps, but it also hinders — after all, it’s showing things backwards. I work mainly by touch. The bleeding is quite heavy, but I take my time — I try to work surely. Opening the peritoneum, I injured the blind gut and had to sew it up. Suddenly it flashed through my mind: there are more injuries here and I didn’t notice them … I grow weaker and weaker, my head starts to spin. Every 4-5 minutes I rest for 20-25 seconds. Finally, here it is, the cursed appendage! With horror I notice the dark stain at its base. That means just a day longer and it would have burst and …

At the worst moment of removing the appendix I flagged: my heart seized up and noticeably slowed; my hands felt like rubber. Well, I thought, it’s going to end badly. And all that was left was removing the appendix … And then I realised that, basically, I was already saved.

Here’s a photo:

Russian surgeon-thumb-600x384-44559

The Atlantic reports that Rogozov survived, and died in St. Petersburg in 2000 at age 66.

I asked a friend who is a doctor if Rogozov could have used any kind of anesthetic (even if they had one), and he replied:

No. He would have had to do that without anesthesia. I wouldn’t have thought it possible. The psychological and physical impact of cutting oneself would be hard enough to manage, but to perform an operation in the right order, while losing blood! I can’t imagine it. Goes to show you what you can do when you feel you have to.

I then asked for clarification because my question was ambiguous: could he have used a local anesthetic? The reply:

Local anesthesia, like lidocaine, could have been used, but I don’t know if it had been introduced by 1961. But even if he did have a local anesthetic like lidocaine available, he would have only been able to use it on the skin and superficial subcutaneous tissues. Once the scalpel went deeper, he would have really felt it.

This reminds me a bit of Jerri Nielson, the American doctor who, in late May of 1999, found a lump in her breast while spending the winter at a base in Antarctica. She performed a biopsy on herself (results inconclusive), but then medical equipment was parachuted in since winter evacuation was impossible.  A better biopsy was done and the scans sent to the U.S., where breast cancer was confirmed. After giving herself hormone treatment and chemotherapy (materials also airdropped in), she was finally evacuated to the States in October. I didn’t know the outcome, but was sad to learn, when looking this up, that the cancer eventually returned, killing her in 2009 at age 57.

 

Iranian psychotherapist hanged for “heresy”

October 1, 2014 • 10:34 am

Let’s see Reza Aslan excuse the many Islamic states that have the death penalty for apostasy (all 20 countries that criminalize it, including the 10 where it’s a capital punishment, are Islamic), as well as criminal penalties for blasphemy (badmouthing faith) or heresy (believing the “wrong thing”). Apparently one of the countries where people can be killed for heresy is Iran, where, according to the Guardian, a young man was just hanged for heresy. The story is almost surreal:

Mohsen Amir-Aslani was arrested nine years ago for his activities which the authorities deemed were heretical. He was engaged in psychotherapy but also led sessions reading and reciting the Qur’an and providing his own interpretations of the Islamic holy book, his family said.

Amir-Aslani was hanged last week for making “innovations in the religion” and “spreading corruption on earth”, but human rights activists said he was a prisoner of conscience who was put to death because of his religious beliefs. He had interpreted Jonah’s story in the Qur’an as a symbolic tale.

The proportion of Muslims who interpret the Qur’an (or parts of it) metaphorically rather than literally is much lower than Christians who take the Bible as largely an allegory. The Qur’an is not supposed to be seen metaphorically; it is the dictated word of Allah. But to kill someone over saying that Jonah was a metaphor is beyond belief.  After all, what “giant fish” can swallow a human? There were also allegations of sexual misconduct, but as far as I can see on any site, none of these have been substantiated. It looks like a straight-up case of having beliefs differing from others of your faith:

According to the source, Iran’s ministry of intelligence was behind Amir-Aslani’s arrest. “He was initially held for making innovations in Islam and providing his own interpretations of the Qur’an but later he was accused of insulting prophet Jonah and also faced accusations of having sex outside marriage,” the source said. “They alleged that he had sexual relationships with a group of the people who participated in his classes.”

Iran’s judiciary has presented little evidence in public relating to the allegations of illicit sexual activities. The judge who presided over his case, Abolghassem Salavati, is known in Iran for leading numerous unfair trials, including many that resulted in execution.

. . . Iranian authorities are sensitive towards those practising Islam in ways not conforming to the official line. In recent years, several members of Iran’s Gonabadi dervishes religious minority have been arrested and are currently serving lengthy prison terms.

Really, how could apologists like Aslan rationalize this as “non-religious”? For heresy has to do precisely with not hewing to an official religious line; you can’t pretend that it’s secular.  And though I don’t know the countries that make heresy a crime, I’m willing to bet that nearly all of them are majority Muslim countries. You can’t claim, as Aslan did (unconvincingly) for female genital mutilation, that heresy is a purely cultural issue.

Amir-Aslani had a wife (I don’t know about kids)—a wife who has lost her husband because he spoke metaphorically about a nomming fish. The more I think about Aslan excusing this kind of stuff, or about those who say “it’s culture, not religion,” the angrier I get.

cb7e6254-5507-4fe1-b02b-d8be8322f10e-460x276
Mohsen Amir-Aslani

 

The Albatross revealed!

October 1, 2014 • 9:04 am

I discovered—from Matthew Cobb!—that the Albatross, under its real name, has now appeared on Amazon. Here it is (note that the publication date of May 19 is provisional):

Screen Shot 2014-10-01 at 7.21.45 AM

You will note that the name “Richard Dawson” is in the blurb on the site; it will be changed to “Richard Dawkins” ASAP.

I like the cover (that was Viking’s doing), and I should note that the bar between the title and my name will be made out of matte gold foil, which is quite classy. You can pre-order it if you want (a bargain at $22.40 in hardcover!), and I’ll divulge more details as they become available.

p.s. Do not mistake this for another book by a Jerry Coyne, though I doubt they’ll be confused!

h/t: Merilee