The post Nice How To Lose Weight photos first appeared on Weight Loss Motivation.
]]>Susan, how are we ever gonna lose any weight if we don’t *ride* our bicycles? Walking them doesn’t burn off any calories…
Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was published in a Sep 6, 2010 "Lose Weight Workout blog, with the same title as the caption that I used on this Flickr page. It was also published in an Oct 3, 2010 Out Of Shape-dot-net blog, with the same title as the caption that I used on this Flickr page. And it was published in an Oct 28, 2010 GettingWeightLoss-dot-com blog, with the same title and notes as what I had written on this Flickr page. It was also published in a Dec 25, 2010 blog titled "Weight loss tips counting calories to lose weight."
Moving into 2011, the photo was published in a Feb 15, 2011 blog titled "Are you a health food junkie? How a dangerously obsessive quest for the perfect body has become the new middle-class … " And it was published in an undated (late May 2011) Cool Weight Loss Tips Images blog, with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page. It was also published in a Jun 6, 2011 blog titled Travel: three for the road, with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page. And it was published in a Jun 20, 2011 issue of The Frugal Mom blog, also with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page. It was also published in an Oct 1, 2011 One Planet Earth Juice blog, with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page.
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Because Central Park occupies a massive 843 acres in the (duh!) center of Manhattan, it’s no surprise that there area numerous entrances and exits all around the perimeter of the park. Some of them are quite well known — such as the entrance on the southeast corner, at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street (across the street from the GM Building and the old Plaza Hotel), or the entrance at the western side of the 72nd Street "transverse" that cuts through the park and comes out on Fifth Avenue (well known because the statuesque Dakota apartment building, where John Lennon once lived, is located at Central Park West and 72nd Street).
Based on where they live, and based on their normal work and leisure routines, most New Yorkers tend to favor certain entrances and exits, and may never have used (or even seen) certain other ones. In my case, for example, I’ve always been aware that there’s an entrance at the southwestern corner of the park, right at Columbus Circle. It’s officially known as Merchant’s Gate — and it’s hard to miss, because there’s an enormous monument commemorating the explosion/sinking of the Maine in February 1898, which precipitated the Spanish-American War. But since I don’t live, work, or travel to that particular corner of Manhattan very often, I’ve almost never used that entrance to the park. By "almost never," I mean only once or twice in the 40+ years that I’ve lived in New York City.
I don’t think that this almost-perfect record of non-use of a park entrance has had any negative effect on my life … but it occurred to me, the other day, that I might have missed some interesting photographic opportunities. And since I was getting a little bored by returning to the same old places to photograph the same old scenes in other parts of the city, over and over again, I decided that the southwestern corner of Central Park was worth taking a look at.
As you might imagine, the massive Maine monument dominates the scene — and I felt obliged to photograph it once or twice, just to acknowledge its existence. But after that … well, it turns out that it’s not really all that photogenic, and nobody was paying much attention to it. Aside from the monument, there was an open mini-plaza where people could walk, chat, sit, and relax — presumably on the way into, or the way out of, the park itself. There were a couple of food stands, offering items that looked slightly more nourishing and tasty than the stuff available from the usual hot-dog stands that one finds throughout the park (and almost every street corner). I wasn’t hungry myself, but I noticed that several people bought a snack, or a sandwich, and then found a convenient spot to sit and relax while they munched and nibbled.
So, in the end, the photographic opportunities turned out to be pretty much the same as always: it was the people who were the most interesting — not the statues or the squirrels or the trees or the flowers. There were tourists, and New Yorkers on their lunch break, and students from a local parochial school, and office workers on their lunch break. There was a Statue of Liberty mime, a few retired people, some bicyclists, joggers, and athletes. There were nannies pushing babies in strollers, and mothers carrying babies in snugglies and backpacks, and dog-walkers with their pets. There were crazy-looking people, and beautiful people, and ugly people.
And there were lots, and lots, and lots of guys hustling unwary tourists, offering them rides and tours through the park in their brightly-colored pedicabs. Perhaps because I was wielding a camera, I was mistaken by several of these guys as a tourist; when I responded to their pitch about a park ride by saying, "I live here," they gave me a disgusted look and quickly moved away. Meanwhile, several other vendors had tables with photos and trinkets and bawdy signs that they did their best to sell to anyone who walked by. All of this, as best I could tell, was dutifully recorded by a NYC Police Dept. security camera, which sat high above it all … but nobody seemed to even notice it.
I took some 300+ photos to document all of this, and winnowed it down to 50 "keepers" that will hopefully give you a reasonably good impression of what the scene looked like. Having done so, I hopped in a taxi and headed back uptown. For all I know, it may be another 40 years before I enter this corner of the park again…
Motivational quotes for losing weight
Image by Conny Sandland
Motivational quotes for losing weight: "Saying YES to the skinny jeans by saying NO to the donuts."
Please read: 11 easy tips and good ways to lose weight .
The post Nice How To Lose Weight photos first appeared on Weight Loss Motivation.
]]>The post Nice How To Lose Weight photos first appeared on Weight Loss Motivation.
]]>Norm Rapp Famiy V8-60 1951
Image by clamshack
Paul Weisel
10h ·
In May of 2018 I was headed west for my annual visit with Don Edmunds, but took a few side trips before showing up in Oregon. After stopping at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, IA to deliver a supply of Don Edmunds’ books, I veered north to I-90 and my first visit to Mount Rushmore. An early Friday morning arrival made a stop at the speedway in Sheridan, WY an easy addition to my route. On Saturday I said a final goodbye to Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City and chalked up both their figure 8 course and the infield course used by their 4-cylinder division. As I cruised across Nevada, a Sunday afternoon event at the Winnemucca Regional Raceway was the cherry on top of four new tracks in the western states.
Monday was spent chasing vintage sprint car tires for our low-bar Edmunds sprinter project around the Ukiah, CA area and the slow day allowed me catch my breath for a first ever visit to San Francisco. On Tuesday morning I headed south on CA-101 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. ‘Why in the world would you want to drive into San Francisco?’ you ask. There’s only one reason – Norm Rapp. Norm was 91 years young, a midget racer of note, a multi-time winner indoors at the Oakland Coliseum, a purveyor of race car parts for at least the past 60 plus years, and a recent inductee into the National Midget Hall of Fame. Norm has been instrumental in finding parts for several of our midget restorations, I’ve spoken to him numerous times on the phone, but we’d never met! Upon my arrival at 5 Cordova Street, Norm Rapp Racing’s World Headquarters, Norm jumped into my van and we went for breakfast at the Bayside Cafe, where it appeared Norm was revered as their favorite patron. Great view of the bay and I was able to cruise past the Cow Palace on the way back to Norm Rapp Racing. After an afternoon of spending money with Norm (he even had a used Goodyear pavement sprint car right rear tire), I headed north, hoping to escape the San Francisco traffic mess before things really got sporty at rush hour.
Unfortunately, Norm left us on December 28, 2019 at age 92 and I will be eternally grateful I took the time to visit with him at his place of business and spend some quality time with a true icon of the sport of midget racing. When the phone rang at Norm’s business, a former grocery store on Cordova Street where Norm ran his business since 1961, you never had to wonder if Norm was ‘in’. If the guy on the other end of the phone answered with, ‘Zoom, zoom!’, you were talking to Norm.
We both sold Firestone tires, so we always had something in common and we’d talk once, maybe twice, a year – always phone time well spent. When I needed a Casale rear end for the restoration of Don Edmunds’ personal Kurtis-Kraft, I called Norm. Shockingly, he said he had two! He asked if I was familiar with the term ‘butted’ (indoor racers in particular often shortened the rear axles of their cars – narrow holes, narrow cars) and I replied, ‘Yes, it means I want to hear about rear end #2.’ The second rear was built in October, 1947 and was perfect for a midget built by Kurtis in 1948. Always the kidder, Norm added, ‘I hear you drove race cars back east, so I’d better shim the ring and pinion and put it together for you before we ship it. Edmunds always said, ‘Race drivers have to be smart enough to operate a race car —- and just dumb enough to climb in it.’ So, I took Norm up on his gracious offer and the rear arrived in two pieces. All I had to do was to was put the axle and ring gear into the rear and tighten the side plates. Everything was shimmed to perfection. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to impress my good pal, Ronnie Dunstan, I told him I had just assembled this Casale rear (and I had) and asked if he’d stop by to check the lash and see if everything was OK. Dunstan was impressed when he worked the axle back and forth – the rear was right and tight! If he’s been walking around the last few years thinking I might have some mechanical ability – good! Norm even had a laugh when I told him about it.
A few days ago I read an interview with Norm by Saroyan Humphrey for Rust Magazine and Rust Media and thought it was the perfect insight to Norm Rapp. Photos included from the article are identified and I’d like to find a few more articles and interviews from these folks.
Rust Magazine, Q&A w. Norm ‘Zoom Zoom’ Rapp, 91 year-old racer and businessman remembers driving, wrenching with George Bignotti, and growing up in San Francisco.
TEXT – PHOTOS SAROYAN HUMPHREY
Feature: Norm Rapp has been inactive as a midget driver since 1967, but has owned and managed his racing supply business since he started it from the basement of his house in 1953. Until recently he was still selling vintage midget and sprint car parts, including tires and wheels. Along with parts, Rapp also supplied Northern California speedways with racing fuel for decades.
Norm was born in 1927 in San Francisco and was raised across the street from what would become his current race shop. Rapp’s father, Gene, was also involved in automobiles, mechanics and racing. Several years before Norm was born, Gene raced a big car – a flathead ‘T’ – at San Jose and San Luis Obispo. He found success, winning a main event that summer at the .625-mile San Jose Fairgrounds track, but a crash, where he was knocked unconscious for over a week, ended his career in 1923. Still, it didn’t end his enthusiasm for racing and the automobile, as he continued to attend races in the Bay Area with his infant son, Norm, in tow. In 1936 the elder Rapp also opened a Nash dealership in San Francisco’s Mission District, a place Norm would work as a mechanic a few years later.
After World War II, as midget racing continued to grow in popularity across the United States, Norm began driving a Drake (Harley Davidson-powered) midget in training races in 1948 at the long-gone Bayshore Stadium in South San Francisco. In ’49, Rapp competed in his first full season of professional competition, and by ’51, the driver won his first main event at a quarter-mile dirt track in Marysville, Calif. Norm continued to hone his driving skills and would eventually win 40 main events—on both dirt and pavement—during his driving career. Competing with the BCRA (Bay Cities Racing Association) mostly, Norm also raced at special events across the West Coast and Midwest, often traveling with his father.
In commemoration of his lasting racing career, Norm has been inducted into six halls of fame. From the National Midget Hall of Fame, to Balboa High School in San Francisco, where he shares the honor with George Bignotti, another San Franciscan who graduated from the same school a few years earlier. Besides being neighbors, Bignotti and Rapp became racing comrades, competing in BCRA events early in their careers. Rapp was also part of Bignotti’s Indy team in 1956 and helped build the ’57 Bowes Seal Fast Specials that went on to finish sixth and 22nd with drivers Johnny Boyd and Fred Agabashian.
Laid-back and still a big kid at heart, Rapp spent a few hours talking about his career and his life as a racer/businessman.
You’re one of the few lifetime honorary members of the BCRA. Rapp: Yeah, there’s only about six of us. It’s quite an honor. There’s Johnny Boyd, Fred Agabashian, Boots Archer, Johnny Soares, Sr., and also Floyd Busby. He’s the present scorer. Years ago, his father was the scorer when I first started in 1947.
And you were inducted to the National Midget Hall of Fame. Rapp: Yeah, three years ago. They inducted eight of us altogether that day. It was an enjoyable situation. Bobby Unser was there. It was a great day. It was something that I’ll always remember. That’s my biggest highlight. I’m in there with names like A.J. Foyt, Tony Stewart and all the rest of ’em.
Is being inducted to the halls of fame the best part of getting older? Rapp: Well, yeah; I gotta say, aging is not for sissies.
You were born and grew up here in San Francisco. Rapp: Yeah, in Crocker-Amazon, right next to the Excelsior District, off of Geneva Avenue.
And your dad was a racer? Rapp: Yeah, I’d been going to the races since I was two years old. Before I was born, he was racing. In those days they called them big cars, where now you call ’em sprint cars. He just raced for a couple of years and then he got hurt really bad at San Jose Fairgrounds in 1923. So, when he recuperated from the skull fracture, my mother, who then was his girlfriend, sail, “Well, Gene, you have to make the decision, racing, or me….” So he raced once more after that and then retired from racing, but we went to the races to watch and I always begged him to go in the pits and look at the race cars after the race.
In those days racing was so much more dangerous. Rapp: In 1923 they killed six guys at the track (San Jose) in one season. There’s a story about how my dad was in the hospital and there was a memorial race for a close friend of his and he came out to the track with a bandaged head and was part of the ceremony.
What other local tracks do you remember going to? Rapp: We used to go to San Francisco Motordrome, which was down on Army Street. I was a young kid, before World War II, I went to Alameda (Neptune Speedway). He took me over there a few times. In those days, you had to take a ferry boat to go across the bay. There was no Bay Bridge (laughing). And there was a mile track over there on Hesperian Boulevard (Oakland Speedway) in Hayward. It was well-known in those days, before World War II. And then during the war, somebody lit the grandstand on fire, or something, and the property became valuable.
You raced a soap-box derby car when you were a kid. What do you remember about that? Rapp: When I was 11 and 12 years old. That’s what I called the start of my career. In my day we didn’t have any go-karts, quarter midgets, and things like that. There just the full midget. I raced at Treasure Island (during the World Exposition) in 1940. Chevrolet built this ramp about 75 feet high and you’d tow the car up the ramp. I was fine going down the hill, but when I hit the flat, I didn’t have the weight to carry me and so, I lost the heat race by a couple of inches.
Your dad also had a Nash dealership, right? Rapp: Right, from 1936 to 1946. It was between 18th and 19th on Valencia (Street), 740 Valencia. He had a shop as well as sales for the cars. In 1937, he sold 97 Nashes. That was a real good year for Nash. I had a ’37 Nash. That was my first car!
Did you work in the shop? Rapp: When I was 14 or 15 years old, after the soap-box derbies. I was working for him, yeah. It was a small business and I was doing the parts work, as well as the lubrication. We had a rack there that we’d put car up on.
You joined the Army Air Corps after high school, right? Rapp: Yeah, when I graduated (in 1944) everybody was patriotic, much more than anytime in my life. So everybody enlisted in one form of service or another. I chose the Army Air Corps because I wanted to fly and the Army was a little easier to get into that the Navy. So, I went down to Market Street and signed up. It took 110 points to go to officer training and I got 125. Since I was still 17 years old, they didn’t want to send me to an army specialized training program, so they sent me to Stanford (University) for two terms. After that I went to Biloxi, Miss. To Kessler Field and then to Lowry Field and Buckley Field in Denver, That’s how I spent my 28 months total.
What do you remember about living in San Francisco during that time, after Pearl Harbor? Rapp: Neighborhoods were blacked out and the San Francisco Seals used to play baseball only in day games. Everybody had black curtains on their windows; everything was blacked out. We had wardens also, and every block was checked to make sure the windows were sealed. There are still bulkheads out here close to the hospital (points west toward the Pacific Ocean).
How did you get your start driving midgets? Rapp: After I got out of the Army Air Corps, a friend of my dad’s got me a job at Pan American Airways (as a mechanic) and one of the mechanics there owned a Drake midget. His name was Larry Christensen and he had Lyle Johnson and some other prominent guys driving for him. He won a feature in ’46 or ’47. He lived nearby. We got to be good friends and I went to his shop every night, almost, and helped him work on the Drake and in the pits. (George) Bignotti’s shop was about a half mile away, too.
I bought a Drake midget in ’48 and I had Earl Motter, Dick Strickland, all prominent veteran drivers, drive the car. The way I did it was I let those prominent guys run the car in the program and usually they would have warm-ups and I’d go out and run the first warm-up and they’d run the second warm-up and qualify and race the car. In the middle of the program, they’d have training races and I ran those. I ran 20 training races. In ’49, when I first started driving, I turned 10th fastest at Bayshore Stadium and made the main event. After that, I progressed over the years.
I was really hot for the Drake engine and it was the main event winner at different times with Jerry Piper and Bob Barkhimer. It was a Drake engine like Billy Vukovich, Sr. always ran. It accelerated really good. It could beat the Ford V8-60s and it was a cheaper car.
Where was the Bayshore Stadium? Rapp: There used to be a track right next to the Cow Palace that was built in 1934 by some gamblers from Chicago. People don’t know about it anymore. The story there is that these gamblers came out here and were going to run greyhound races. So they established this track next to the Cow Palace as well as the one down in Belmont and another across the bay. They had four of them and then (the State of) California says, “We don’t want dog racing” for humane reasons. So there was a quarter mile dirt track and along comes December 7th (1941), and the government took over the Cow Palace and all the surrounding area, including the race track, and put all their tanks and trucks and everything else in there. Then after the war, all the vehicles disappeared and left the track. So, in 1946 BCRA came in and ran programs there until 1950, every Friday night. It was called Bayshore Stadium and it had a covered grandstand.
And you expanded your mechanical knowledge at Pan American? Rapp: I worked at Pan American for 10 years altogether, in different shops. I first started out in the wheel and tire shop. Then I was in engine buildup for three years. We’d put the engine on a test stand before they put it in the aircraft. And then I had a chance to go to the parts department, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I spent six years there.
How did you meet George Bignotti? Rapp: George was running the BCRA circuit in 1947, and when I started going to the races with Larry Christensen, I met George. He had a shop at Geneva and Mission and he ran two midgets with Fred Agabashian and Ed Normi driving, running seven days a week (laughs). BCRA was running eight days a week back then (big grin).
Do you remember your first man event victory? Rapp: Yeah, it was at Marysville in 1950. It was a different track than the one that we see now. It was a quarter mile. I started outside front row and Jerry Hill was on the pole. It was a hard, dry track, and there were a lot of prominent drivers there like (Johnny) Boyd, (Johnny) Baldwin and Edgar Elder. Edgar had fast time in a Drake. So, I got a jump on Jerry on the start and I held the lead for 25 laps and won it. Elder had fast time and he was tangling with Boyd and Baldwin and it hit one of ’em and ended up going out through the open pit gate and he just drove right up onto his trailer. He was a great guy.
Was your dad a part of your racing? Rapp: He followed me, but didn’t help me. Then after about a year, he said, “I see you’re serious, and I’m going to see about buying this Kurtis Ford.” Johnny Smith had driven it to sixth place in (BCRA) point stands the year before in 1947. It was a one year-old car, a Kurtis V8-60, with a spare engine and everything else for ,000. So he bought it and I sold the Drake. I ran the Ford for three years and I kept paying him off and I owned the car when we got done. That was #16. It was really a good way for me to get started.
You traveled to the Midwest to race in ’52. You must’ve been feeling confident with your driving and equipment. Rapp: I hadn’t been driving for very long. The story there is, I was kinda depressed because my grandmother, who used to live with us, died. She had taken care of my brother and me when we were young kids, when my mother and father were running the auto shop. It was tough times. And my girlfriend, who later became my wife (Dorothea), decided she didn’t want to see me anymore. So I was kinda depressed. I thought, “Heck with it. I’d just like to go the the Midwest and race.” I went by myself, Bignotti tuned my V8-60 and it was outstanding. I didn’t have a spare engine, just some extra tires and wheels. But the good thing about the Midwest was that it taught me a lot. I really had to get down to the nitty fritty and learn how to race against those guys and I was running different tracks all the time. Day race, night race……
Midget racing was a big deal at that time. Rapp: It was pretty big, but in ’52 back out here, it tapered off a lot. NASCAR came in and Barkhimer was running a lot of (stock car) races at San Jose Speedway and he had a whole bunch of tracks that he was supervising…
Did you like the pavement, or dirt? Rapp: When I first started out, I liked the dirt. You got it sideways, but sometimes I got in trouble, too. But after about 1953, I started learning how to drive better on pavement and be smooth. I got to be quite accomplished. I got second to Parnell Jones at San Jose Speedway in ’64, and I’d win a feature here and there. Then I had a good Offy and we really made it perform. For six nights in a row, I had fast time at three different tracks. Two at San Jose, two at Kearney Bowl in Fresno, and two at Stockton. I think I won one, got four seconds and a third. In those days we’d start 18 (in the main event), so, I was coming from last.
The car was #10 and that’s why #10 is my favorite number now. It set a mark for me. I put #10 on my recently restored Offy. It was red and yellow. The current car is the same paint job, more or less. It’s in my store, ready to run. It’s worth 35 grand. It’s a Jimmy Davies car. He only built six cars; mine and one in Chicago are the only ones that I know of. It’s a historic car. It was just a bunch of parts when I got it, and I put it together gradually over five years. I put a lot of new parts into it, torsion bars and everything else.
You must’ve had some close calls in your driving days. Rapp: I only spent one night in the hospital. I flipped three and a half times at Sacramento (West Capital Raceway) on the half mile in 1955. I hit a rut. I woke up in the ambulance with my dad. I felt that flip for six months, in different ways. In those days, we didn’t have a shoulder harness, we just ran the lap belt and it held me in. In fact, the car was upside down and Walt Faulkner was running fast time in an Offy and he had the high groove and he hit my tail right next to my head in the turn and moved the car a couple feet. It just wasn’t my time to go (laughs)…..a lot of guys got killed at Capital Speedway.
You weren’t spooked? Rapp: No, I was ready to go again. But I remember one guy who crashed at Bayshore Stadium, he hit the light pole outside the track and he never showed up again. In that era, right after World War II, Bay Cities used to lose about two guys a season, plus injuries….Yeah, it was tough, really tough. You had to watch what you were doing.
Tell me about the leather face masks that you developed as a safety device in the 1950s. Rapp: Speedway Motors used to buy 100 at a time. I must’ve sold four or five hundred. When I first started out, guys used to put a bandana around their neck, but that wouldn’t help with the dirt and the rocks. You’d get hit. At first I made my own and developed it from there. There was a lady who was a seamstress at Pan American Airways and she helped.
I made a lot of different models before I produced the one that you see now. For different reasons it had to be improved. I had a company on 9th Street in San Francisco that was a leather company and I had them make ’em for me. They made some dies and they’d punch out the product with the die and sew ’em together per my instructions. It was a beautiful piece. I’ve seen used ones sell for 0 today (laughs).
You worked for Bignotti in ’56 and ’57. What do you remember from that time? Rapp: Oh, it was a real exciting experience. I had been to the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway before it 1949 as a spectator. (In 1957) I was working for the Bowes Seal Fast Specials that Bignotti and Bob Bowes were partners in. I was a mechanic, doing everything. In the first day (of qualifying) Fred (Agabashian) was fourth fastest; (Johnny) Boyd was fifth fastest. They started side by side in the second row. Agabashian might have won the ‘500’, but the fuel tank split. In those days we didn’t have bladders and the tank wore and cracked. Agabashian was a really shrewd, great driver. He never acquired the achievements that he could’ve.
Bignotti was a good friend. I was helping him put the cars together in San Francisco. I was getting parts from Pan American. Pan American was a sponsor, but they didn’t know it (laughs). Bolts and nuts, whatever we needed for the Indy cars. Bowes got the cars from Kurtis (-Kraft) and we modified them. That was a good deal. They were beautiful cars for those days. Frank Kurtis was a great craftsman. Bignotti just worked out of his basement, just about a half mile from me.
George was the greatest wrench out of a toolbox. That’s the way I put it. Nowadays they have all this tech stuff. It’s altogether different. He was the chief mechanic on seven Indy winners with different drivers. Can you imagine? (A.J.) Foyt, (Al) Unser, (Tom) Sneva, (ed. note: also Graham Hill and Gordon Johncock). He made ’em all perform. Nowadays it’s so costly.
After Indy, I had to make a big decision in my life: whether I should stay back there (Midwest) and race. My wife said, “We can stay back here, I can get a job anyplace. Don’t worry about me.” Bignotti was going to run one of the Seal Fast cars over there at Monza in Italy on the high banks, and I could’ve gone over there with him. Or I could come home and continue with my part-time business. I had been making a couple hundred a week, or something like that. Not big monoey, but I decided to come home and I made the right decision. In those days there weren’t many dealers like there are now.
For seven years I worked out of my basement, and about five or seven others in the neighborhood. I was walking back and forth between all the places all day long. So I decided in 1961 that I should get everything in one place. That’s when I acquired the building that I’m in now at 5 Cordova. I leased it for 16 years and bought it for ,000 (in 1977). It’s 3,300 square feet.
It was orifinally a grocery store, right? Rapp: It used to be the independent grocer. The Safeway moved down to Mission Street where they are now with a big parking lot, and the independent moved from my building to the corner. And that’s where they still are today with different owners. It’s Cordova Market.
It was set up so I could back my truck and trailer in there after a race, with a big, wide doorway and everything else. And that’s the way it is today….been there all these years. The house where I was born and raised is right across the street from my store, 329 Rolph. I live up the hill, a half mile, in Southern Hills. My wife and I bought the house there brand new. She died 32 years ago, from cancer. She was a great part of my life, as far as career goes.
Did she go to the races: Rapp: Before we had kids, she went to the races all the time. But I’ll tell you, it was 1966 or 1967; I was driving for Emery Graham with a Chevy II. The kids were young and sometimes she’d stay home. So, I came home and the next morning she asks, “How’d you do last night?” And I said, “I did good in the heat race; I got up to second and in the main I got on my head. (She said) “You got on your head?” I hadn’t been on my head in like 10 years. So she asked, “What happened?” I said, “Well, a guy screwed up ahead of me and I got over him and hit the fence and bent the car up.”
She wanted to know what I was going to do now and I said, “Well, a bunch of guys are working on the car right now to straighten it out so we can run tonight in Sacramento on the half mile, a 100-lapper.” So, we got a fifth in the 100-lapper (laughs). It thrilled me.
It must’ve been difficult to run a business and drive at the same time. Rapp: Yeah, I used to look at J.C. Agajanian. He was an owner and a promoter. It was pretty tough. My dad was helping in the shop, at the house, going to all the races and pumping fuel. My wife was doing the books. She was a really sharp bookkeeper. She could take care of anything.
It seems like the 1960s was your peak as a driver. Rapp: I kept winning races into the ’60s. I retired in ’67. The last main event I won was indoors in ’66 in Oakland. I won about 40 main events altogether. Gary Koster and I won the most indoor (BCRA) races. We each won 12.
Did you miss driving when you retired? Rapp: Not too much, because I was still going to the track with my fuel and tire truck. I was busy. I kept going to the track until the last couple of years. I just retired a couple of years ago.
You were dedicated to your job as a supplier. Rapp: At Calistoga I got a hall of fame and it wasn’t because I had great achievements there. I got third in the main there one night. I got some other fifth, sixth places, stuff like that. The big thing was I had been hauling fuel and tires there for about 45 years (laughs). We’d bring 15 barrels of fuel for a weekend. Louis (Vermeil) said to me way back in ’53, “I’d like you to bring a barrel of fuel with you,” and that’s how it got started. I gradually built it up. I had a 1,000 gallon tank and then a 6,000 gallon tank in South San Francisco. A friend of my dad’s had an oil company there and they had all these tanks, so I bought a tank. You got a better price when you took big quantities. One year I sold nearly 22,000 gallons of fuel.
To what do you attribute your longevity? Rapp: Take care of the body by eating the right kinds of food and don’t eat any junk foods. Stay healthy. When I was running a 50- or 100-lapper, I would exercise every other night before I went to bed. That gave me stamiina.
Racing has been my life. And as the saying goes, “Would you like to live your life over again?” I would. Some people wouldn”t, but I would.
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]]>Sall Mountain Asbestos Company and Reid Murdoch & Company, 1909 – Chesterton, Indiana
Image by Shook Photos
Asbestos Chesterton, Ind.
Date: 1909
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Ernest G. Atkins
Postmark: September 18, 1909, McCool, Indiana
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: This photograph shows the Reid Murdoch & Company #7 (a furniture manufacturing plant and previously a pickle plant) and the Sall Mountain Asbestos Manufacturing Company. The present day location of this image would be north of Morgan Avenue and between Jackson Boulevard and Indiana Avenue near the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Company tracks.
In 1897, a branch of the Warren Featherbone Company of Three Oaks, Michigan, was established at Chesterton; it remained in operation only a few years. In January 1905, the property passed into the hands of the Sall Mountain Asbestos Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of rubber and mica roofing, as well as fire-proofing materials. In 1912, Sall Mountain Asbestos Manufacturing Company had 105 employees. The company ceased operations in Chesterton in 1923.
Between 1990 and 1996, a city park (Jackson Park) was located on this site. The park was permanently closed and play equipment removed when it was discovered that three locations in the park tested positive for asbestos at a depth of six to twelve inches in concentrations as high as 30 percent.
A concrete skate park was installed at the location and opened for use in 2010. A parking lot was also established at the west end of the site to allow better access to the Prairie Duneland Trail.
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The October 11, 1895, issue of the Chesterton Tribune, contains this column concerning this site:
A NEW INDUSTRY FOR PORTER.
The Warren Featherbone Company Buys the Brass Factory.
The Warren Featherbone Company, of Three Oaks, Mich., have purchased the Brass Works and taken possession. The sake was made last week, and Monday morning the company sent a foreman here to prepare the plant for operation. The boilers were put in repair, and the building containing the foundry is being floored and changed into a room suitable for the manufacture for featherbone. E. K. Warren, president, expects to start up with a force of fifty within ten days, the only thing to prevent being the inability to get machinery placed. This concern has a large business, and now work a force of 275 at Three Oaks. It also has a factory in Paris, France. The object of coming to Porter was not, as the president emphatically states, to leave Three Oaks, but to establish another plant. That factory has grown to the capacity of the town to furnish help. The buildings are of frame. The company wisely concluded that two factories separated were better than one in a fire. All the machinery used in the manufacture of featherbone is made by the company, and cannot be bought on the market. A great deal of this will be made at the Porter plant. The great attraction here was the wonderful shipping facilities. The Featherbone Company gets feathers from all over the United States, and now have the largest collection of quills on earth — the product of forty million turkeys. It is the intention to to ship direct to Porter, work up the heavy portion here, and do the finishing at Three Oaks. The concern largely employ women, but also uses a number of men. They expect to be working a force of 100 by spring.
One thing about the concern that deserves attention: Its president came here, paid a fair price in cash for the plant, asked for no bonus, and began business at once. Other towns have tried to induce the company to move, but, as Mr. Warren said, "Unless I had business in a town, I would not go to it for all the money its people were worth. I am not in the manufacturing business for bonus."
Such concerns rarely fail. They come to stay. The brick company is the same. Of all the bonused companies that have come here, not one survived the first cold blast. We want no more of them.
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The following news item concerning the Warren Featherbone Company appeared in the July 24, 1890, issue of The Tribune:
The Warren Featherbone company of Three Oaks, Mich., is looking for a new location. They claim their capacity for securing help in Three Oaks has reached its limit and the proprietors are unable to find a sufficient number of women and girls to keep up with their orders, and want to get into a town where they can get plenty of female help. Chesterton don’t want a girl managed factory. We’re no "she-town" and don’t want to be. Those who ever have been in a Massachusetts "she-town" know what one is. Give us factories that emply [sic] able-bodied men and keep the women folks at home, where they belong.
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The following news item concerning the Henning Pickle Plant appeared in the May 8, 1903, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
THE PICKLE INDUSTRY.
The Pickle Industry. Engaging the Attention of Farmers Here. Factory Will Locate if Sufficient Acreage is Contracted For.
A meeting of farmers was held in the Town Hall last Tuesday night, the result of which may prove of far-reaching effect for this community in the future. Wm. Henning and his two sons were here to meet he farmers and tell them what they knew regarding the growing of cucumbers for factory purposes, and to engage them if possible in that industry. The Hennings are extensive packers of pickles, and desire to start a factory here. Mr. Hennings said that his experience in the raising of cucumbers was that the rows should be planted about three feet, eight inches apart, and planted with a corn planter. The reason for this was that a cucumber was 85 per cent. water and 15 per cent. fiber, and that it was necessary to retain all the moisture possible in the ground, and that when planted in this manner the vines completely covered the ground and the leaves prevented the sun from absorbing the moisture. The crop must be planted between the first and sixth of June, and about the 24th of July picking beings. To get the best results the vines should be picked daily, except during unfavorable weather. During warm, moist nights the cucumber will grow an inch and a half, but when the weather is cool and dry they will not grow so fast. Two persons can pick an acre, and the price paid ranges from 5 cents a bushel to 15 cents. The cucumbers must be brought to the factor the same day they are picked, otherwise they have a tendency to wilt and mould, and decrease in weight. The factor contracts to pay 50 cents a bushel for factory pickles, which are 3 1/2 inches or less in length. If contracts for 200 acres can be made, the Hennings will at once begin the erection of a factory in Chesterton, to cost about ,000, and have it ready for business in time for the coming crop. Letters were read from leading banks of Chicago, one of them signed by Ex-Comptroller of the Treasury Eckells, saying that the Hennings were thoroughly reliable, and would carry out anything they agreed to do. These letters were addressed to Banker Jeffrey, and read by him.
The farmers present were from Waverly, Portage township, Liberty township, Jackson township, and from this neighborhood. They asked questions freely, and showed a keen interest in the matter. The greatest fear expressed was that it would be difficult to obtain pickers, but it was pointed out that the season was during school vacation and after the berry crop was out of the way, and that the pay would attract a large class from the neighboring villages and towns, who could not do factory work. Mr. Henning said that his people furnished the farmers the seed at cost. The present price of seed is ,25 a pound, owing to a shortage in the supply, but that his company was fortunate enough to have bought a large supply at a pound, at which price it would be furnished to his patrons, and that the pay for the same could be made after the crop was grown and money was due the growers. It requires about four pounds of seed to plant an acre with a planter, some of it being wasted, but the saving in labor overcomes the difference in cost between this and hand planting. When the time came to get down to business, James Hamilton said: "I want to see the factory come here, and for one, I will start the ball rolling with a contract for an acre." For nearly an hour Mr. Henning’s son was kept busy writing out contracts, and Mr. Hannings returned to Chicago that same night, so we can only give a few of those we can remember. These are L. G. Furness, James Hamilton, Millard Green, Edward Danielson, Frank Stevens, George Bigelow, Seneca Bigelow, Nels Olson, O. W. Peterson.
The Hennings will make a personal canvas of this territory for the purpose of making contracts during the next few days, and may call another meeting. Unless the required acreage is obtained all contract made will be void, and it is necessary that they must be made within the next ten days, so that those who have made them can get ready for planting or use their ground for other purposes. It will be seen that the Hennings are taking about all of the risk from the fact that if they do come here they furnish the growers with seed to cost about 0 for 200 acres, and if it is a failure they lose that. Besides, they must spend ,000 in buildings, and unless the farmers can make money this year these buildings would be practically a total loss to the company. So they must be sure that the growers will make money and increase the acreage every year. The farmers of this neighborhood have a chance to experiment on the money of the Hennings. That is practically was the proposition amounts to, and all they can lose, at the very worst, is a little time. We hope the contracts can be made, and that the factory will come. Now is the time to get busy. The proposition is up to the farmers.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the March 25, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Chesterton Chips.
A representative of Reid, Murdock & Co., was again here Saturday, making contracts with farmers for pickle growing this summer. Wednesday he had contracts for 125 acres signed. The company wants contracts for two hundred acres signed, after they will come here, erect a pickling works, and make up the product. The contract price is 60 cents a bushel for cucumbers 3½ inches long and under, and 20 cents a bushel for those over that size. Contract blacks have been left at the stores of Johnson Bros., and Wm. Diddie. Those desiring to make contracts can do so by calling on these firms.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the April 8, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Porter Pointers.
Reid & Murdock’s men, F. A. Morris and B. A. Raich were here Tuesday, and stated that the company had decided to locate a pickle factory. The question to decide was that of a suitable location. They have now secured 170 acres of contracts. They was a site on the E. J. & E. some where between Chesterton and Porter. The factory will be 77×154 one story frame, and must be ready in time for the season’s crop.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the May 20, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Chesterton Chips.
The farmers are asking where that pickle factory is to be located. It is getting time now to plant cucumbers, and they want to be sure there will be a factory here to take their product. Who knows anything about this matter. We do not.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the May 27, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Chesterton Chips.
Mr. Norris, representing the Reid, Murdoch Co., of Chicago, was in town Tuesday and informed the Tribune that his company had decided to erect the pickle factory here, to be located on the grounds formerly chosen by the Heinz people two years ago near the Featherbone factory. Bids for the construction of the buildings have been sent in by local contractors, and work will commence as soon as the contract has been let, and the building will be finished in time for this year[s] crops along about the last of August or first of September. The farmers who have contracted for acreage are receiving their seeds this week, and those who have not yet received their share are requested to call at J. A. Johnson & Bro. store, or at J. H. Busse’s store at Porter. The company is also furnishing tobacco dust, for use on the plants as they come through the ground, to destroy bugs.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the June 24, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Porter Pointers.
The material is arriving for the new pickle factory to be built for Reid, Murdock & Co., here. The site on which the plant is to be built is near the Featherbone plant and on the E. J. & E. railroad. The work of erection is now in progress. It is given out that the improvements will cost about ,000.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the June 1, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Porter Pointers.
The new pickle factory is now in course of erection. It is a large structure, and from the way the work is being rushed this week, it will soon be ready for business.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the July 22, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Chesterton Chips.
The new pickle factory is about read for the new crop. It is fitted up in the very latest style, and has a capacity for handling several hundred acres of cucumbers. It is unfortunate that this place could not secure the food product plant of the Reid Murdoch company, which Hammond will get. This industry runs the year around and employs about 500 hands.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the August 26, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Porter Pointers.
The pickle factory is doing fine; nothing unusual to see a string of 25 or 30 wagons in line waiting to deliver pickles and farmers are well pleased with the treatment received from the factory people.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the August 26, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Chesterton Chips.
These are busy days at the pickle factory. Every evening and morning long strings of teams are in line awaiting their turn to unload at the factory, and the growers talk as though they had struck a good thing. In conversations with Charley Holm Monday night, he said that up to that time he had sold worth of pickles from once acre, and that his prospects are now that he would get more money from his acre of pickles that he possible [sic; possibly] could from twenty acres of corn. On the low lands the drouth did no harm, and since the rains the vines on the highlands have picked up wonderfully and are yielding well. If frosts keeps off three weeks more the growers will come out of their adventure with a good profit. At present the factory is taking in about two hundred bushels of pickles a day. The pay is 60 cents for fifty pounds of pickles. It is now quite possible that next year the acreage will be more than doubled.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the August 26, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Porter Pointers.
The second car load of pickles from the Porter plant of Reid, Murdoch & Co., was shipped out last Saturday. The shipment consisted of 83 barrels of ready to use pickles. The vats look as though they had hardly been touched. Next year it is expected that the crop gathered at this station will be three times as large as it was this year. Farmers are getting ready for the coming crop right this time, as they know how now.
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The following news item concerning the Reid, Murdock & Company pickle plant appeared in the August 26, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
A NEW INDUSTRY SECURED.
The Sall Mountain Asbestos Mfg. Co. Buys the Featherbone Property.
Will Enlarge the Plant and Soon to be in Operation.
Immediately upon his return from Massachusetts in September, Mr. Darling, president of the Porter Land Co., got into correspondence with the owners of the Featherbone plant, which resulted in his having the property placed into the hands for disposal. Among the several buyers to whom he showed the property, one especially, the Sall Mountain Asbestos Mfg. Co., proved to be the strongest financially and from every business standpoint. After a thorough examination of the property and surroundings the above named company decided to purchase, although the present buildings do not contain more than one half the capacity they will require, and two large additional buildings are to be constructed by the coming spring. Monday C. K. Warren was here, when all details were decided upon with the principals, and possession is to be given in thirty days. They pay all cash for the property and ask for no concession.
The members of the Sall Mountain Asbestos Mfg. Co. consist of J. W. Bingham, of Milwaukee, president; C. M. Clarke, Chicago, general manager; C. E. Cook, secretary, and —?— Wilson superintendent. Within thirty days the company expects to begin the removal of some portion of their Chicago works, although alterations and enlargements of the buildings may cause further delay. By January 1st, they expect to begin the manufacture of their roofing product in the east building.
On Oct. 29, 1899, Mr. Clark started the present business by the employment of two men, he doing the office work, and the business has steadily grown until at the present time they are employing 83 men at wages ranging from to a day. Mr. Clarke says he will bring 35 skilled men, mostly men with families, from Chicago, at the start, and that the general office force will also be located at their Porter works.
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The following news item appeared in the November 11, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Chesterton Chips.
The new purchasers of the Featherbone plant shipped their first carload of machinery here last week. It will be a short time now before the old familiar whistle of the plant will be calling a lot of skilled men to work. We understand that no girls are employed in the works.
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The following news item appeared in the November 17, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
The Warren Featherbone Deal Consummated.
On Thursday of last week the abstract for the Warren Featherbone property near Porter Junction, Ind., was accepted by the purchasers of that property, the Sall Mountain Asbestos Mfg. Co., of Chicago, the deed was passed and the property was paid for in full. The deed has become of record at Valparaiso and names ,000 cash as the purchase price of the property.
Thus the Warren Featherbone Co. of Porter, Ind, passes into history, and one of the largest and most prosperous manufacturing companies in Chicago takes its place, which immediately insures a new era in the history of Porter’s industrial center.
J. T. Darling, president of the Porter Land Co., is entitled to the highest congratulations from every one interested in the development of Porter county for his untiring efforts in ensuring a manufactory which means so much to the future of our community.
It will be recalled that, nine years ago, Mr. Darling made strenuous efforts to secure the Stromberg Carlson Telephone Co. for the original works known as the American Brass Co., subsequently the Warren Featherbone Co., but at that time he did not have the necessary cooperation to carry out his plans. Since that time it has developed that the Stromberg Carleson Co. has grown into an organization now employing in Chicago, and in their country plant near Syracuse, New York, more than 2,500 hands. All of which Porter should have had and would have had if Mr. Darling had received the cooperation to which he was entitled at that time. Had Westchester secured the Stromberg Carleson Telephone Co. in 1895 we would have had a city of Twelve thousand souls now, with much modern facilities and advantages as only a city can command. Let every citizen of our community put his should to the wheel and help the cause along.
He says however that he has now secured a company which promises equal developments as those which the former company have experienced, and he speaks advisedly when he says that the Sall Mountain Asbestos Mfg. Co. will have their entire property, five acres, covered with manufacturing buildings within five years if they secure the hearty cooperation of Porter county people which means the construction for houses for their employes.
Mr. Clarke, manager of the company, says emphatically that they are not house buildings, that they are manufacturers straight from the shoulder and propose to push the developing interests just as fast as they are able to meet them.
They are removing from Chicago primarily for the reason that they are cramped for space at their present location, and that they move out on account of excessively high rents and with the expectation that they can manufacture their goods much cheaper than they have heretofore been doing.
Their rents and cartage bills for the past year have amounted to about ,000. Quite a little saving in itself, when they get their Porter works into operation.
Before January 1st it is their intention to have one building constructed along the entire north end of their combination of buildings, 147 feet in length by 45 feet in width, for a shipping department lying broadside with their private switch.
They have also completed plans for the construction of another building to the east of the Featherbone storage building, to be used in connection with the last named building for the manufacture of their roofing products. The storage building is to be somewhat remodeled so as to admit of the setting up of two machines which weigh 40 tons each.
Thus the music of the trowel, the saw and the hammer will soon be heard and rapid developments may be confidently expected.
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The following news item appeared in the December 15, 1904, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Porter Pointers.
President Clark and Superintendent Wilson, of the Sal Mountain company, were here last Thursday night, and spent the greater part of the night making plans for the preparation of the buildings for their plant, which will be removed here from Chicago immediately after the holidays. The electric plant was running, and the entire factory was heated and lighted for them. The carpenters are nearly done with their new building, and they will soon be out of the way. A gang of men are now putting in the needed steam fittings, and getting everything ready for the move. The Chicago plant is overwhelmed with orders, and it has been impossible to begin tearing down the machinery until after the holidays, but when the work does begin, it will be rushed. The company is highly pleased over the fact that there will be no trouble in getting help here, and is very anxious to get started so that the men booked can go to work. The community is very fortunate in getting such a good concern here, and appreciates the fact very much.
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The following news item appeared in the January 7, 1905, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
CHESTERTON ITEMS.
The Sall Mountain Asbestos M’nf’g Company is now busily engaged in placing its machinery in the plant formerly occupied by the Warren Featherbone company. They are putting in a twenty ton roofing machine and one receiving tank in the east building. This department will be devoted to the manufacture of Reliance Rubber and Mica Roofing. The west building is being fitted up for the manufacture of asbestos pipe covering, and the numerous other articles made of asbestos materials. The north building, just completed by contractor Ameling, is to be used as the shipping department. Two large tanks and a furnace are being placed in the shed east of the east building, for melting the composition used in the work. Every inch of space in the plant is to be utilized. An air compressor is to be installed this week. Mr. Wilson, the superintendent, is out here this week, directing the work. Mr. Clark, the general manager of the concern, is very anxious to have the plant started up at once, as the rush season is now over, and the change can be made better now than later, but the immense amount of preparatory work to be done renders it impossible to say just when the start will be made, but it will not be later than the middle of February, we have reason to believe.
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The following news item appeared in the February 2, 1905, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
LOCAL NEWS OF THE WEEK
The Sal Mountain Asbestos Mfg. Co, have begun dismantling their Chicago plant, now located on Ontario street and by the first of the coming week several cars loads of machinery will be in transit to their new works, formerly the Warren Featherbone Works. During the past two months Contractor Ameling has been constructing new buildings and remodeling the old ones preparatory for the new industry, and a complete plant is now ready for the Chicago equipment. On Friday last Manager Clark informed Mr. J. T. Carling that they hoped to go through the complete transition by March 1, and at that time, to be manufacturing their full line of products in their new works. Mr. Clark expressed much gratification over the outlook and is in hopes to be able to command sufficient labor, unskilled and skilled, to enable the development of their business as rapidly as their growing trade demands. This is the most favorable opportunity for the installation of a new industry as the temporary surplus of labor caused by the destruction of the brick yards, can be utilized until that plant is rebuilt and new conditions adjust themselves.
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The following classified advertisement appeared in the February 16, 1905, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
MISCELLANEOUS.
NOTICE TO PICKEL [sic] GROWERS — Reid, Murdoch & Co., are now ready to receive pickel [sic] contracts for the ensuing year from farmers and blanks can be found at the store of J. A. JOHNSON & Bro., CHESTERTON; also at the stores of J. H. BUSSE, and C. E. JACOBSON, PORTER. Those intending to contract will please give this matter their immediate attention. REID, MURDOCH & CO, per F. A. Norris.
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The following news item appeared in the March 2, 1905, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
LOCAL NEWS OF THE WEEK
The Chicago works of the Sal Mountain Asbestos company have been closed down, and the work of transferring the plant to this place is being pushed with vigor. A large number of men are now employed in this work, and it will not be long now before the works here will be in operation. The machine for the manufacture of asbestos paper was started March 1.
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The following news item appeared in the March 9, 1905, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
LOCAL NEWS OF THE WEEK
Saturday’s Chicago Chronicle says — The Sall Mountain Asbestos Manufacturing company, 123 Ontario street, has closed its plant and removed its machinery to Porter, Ind., where it has completed the construction of extensive manufacturing building which will be put into operation during the present month. The object of the removal is threefold — first, to enable it to meet the necessary developments of the business; second, immunity from labor troubles, and third, cheaper labor.
Sources:
Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; October 11, 1895; Volume 12, Number 27, Page 1, Column 2. Column titled "News of the Week."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; May 8, 1903; Volume 20, Number 5, Page 4, Column 3. Column titled "The Pickle Industry. Engaging the Attention of Farmers Here. Factory Will Locate if Sufficient Acreage is Contracted For."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; March 25, 1904; Volume 20, Number 51, Page 7, Column 6. Column titled "Chesterton Chips."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; April 8, 1904; Volume 21, Number 2, Page 4, Column 3. Column titled "Porter Pointers."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; May 20, 1904; Volume 21, Number 7, Page 7, Column 4. Column titled "Chesterton Chips."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; May 27, 1904; Volume 21, Number 8, Page 7, Column 4. Column titled "Chesterton Chips."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; June 24, 1904; Volume 21, Number 12, Page 8, Column 5. Column titled "Porter Pointers."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; July 1, 1904; Volume 21, Number 13, Page 10, Column 3. Column titled "Porter Pointers."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; July 22, 1904; Volume 21, Number 16, Page 5, Column 7. Column titled "Chesterton Chips."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; August 26, 1904; Volume 21, Number 21, Page 4, Column 1. Column titled "Porter Pointers."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; August 26, 1904; Volume 21, Number 21, Page 5, Column 4. Column titled "Chesterton Chips."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; October 28, 1904; Volume 21, Number 30, Page 4, Column 2. Column titled "Porter Pointers."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; October 28, 1904; Volume 21, Number 30, Page 9, Column 6. Column titled "A News Industry Secured."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; November 11, 1904; Volume 21, Number 32, Page 7, Column 4. Column titled "Chesterton Chips."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; November 17, 1904; Volume 21, Number 33, Page 1, Columns 5-6. Column titled "The Warren Featherbone Deal Consummated."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; December 15, 1904; Volume 21, Number 37, Page 4, Column 1. Column titled "Porter Pointers."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; January 26, 1905; Volume 21, Number 43, Page 1, Column 7. Column titled "Chesterton Items."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; February 2, 1905; Volume 21, Number 44, Page 5, Column 5. Column titled "Local News of the Week."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; February 16, 1905; Volume 21, Number 46, Page 5, Column 4. Column titled "Classified Advertising. Miscellaneous."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; February 23, 1905; Volume 21, Number 47, Page 5, Column 5. Column titled "Local News of the Week."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; March 2, 1905; Volume 21, Number 48, Page 5, Column 5. Column titled "Local News of the Week."
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; March 9, 1905; Volume 21, Number 49, Page 5, Column 6. Column titled "Local News of the Week."
The Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; July 24, 1890; Volume 7, Number 15, Page 5, Column 2. Column titled "News of the Week."
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]]>How Bad Can It Kill Me?
Image by High Desert Rider
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I’ve been holed up in the house for about three days. Today I opened the bedroom curtains for the first time. It was sunny outside. I think that I know what sent me into this latest deep depression. I’ll tell a little about it later. I’ve been having some face-to-face with a friend who has dealt with this kind of uncontrollable emotional paralysis in her own life. It’s comforting to have someone to talk to that understands from first hand experience.
However, I’m not here to blab on about distress. I’m in the mood for a bit of humour. Let’s see if I can pull it off. It’s time to laugh a bit.
A week or so I was talking to someone about something difficult I had to accomplish and I was trying to make it sound light-hearted. I had intended to say, "How bad can it hurt me?" It came out, somewhat more ominously, "How bad can it kill me?" I took a mental note of that and proceeded to bore my friend with the details of my plan to conquer this horrible thing which was an everyday problem for many people, but made me feel as if I were a passenger on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. When his eyes glassed over I relented. Later, I began to think about my Freudian slip.
I certainly don’t recommend fooling around with fate and getting yourself in such a pickle as the one in which I’m presently fermenting. Nobody is stupid enough to bring such things upon himself. Nevertheless, I must admit that there is an upside. Regardless if it is true or not, there is a certain freedom in feeling that I have nothing to lose. Of course, I know that it is not true, but knowing is not feeling, knowing is not accepting. I have many things going for me. I’m healthy, if putting on a little too much weight. I’m reasonably sane and able to take care of myself day by day, though my bed only occasionally gets made. I have a job which I can still perform well enough for the time being and I’ll improve as I get better. I have a nice house to live in, though I do rattle around in it like a cracked marble. I have friends to annoy. All in all, I’m likely better off than maybe eighty percent of the population of the planet.
I admit that I can’t do a post without images. I’m sure that this stems from the fear that what I’m writing is so abominably rotten that nobody could possibly read it without becoming nauseous. If I throw in a few pictures, it might possibly be seen as a redeeming value. Here is the rather unusual sight of three Solitary Corals (Fungia fugites) cuddled up together:
Let me get back to what is passing for a train of thought tonight. As I was saying, perceiving a current state of life as being unsustainable over the long run and being not so nihilistic as to believe that there is no hope that it might get better is the starting point. So, it’s pretty bad, but it could get better. Now add that what has happened is the worst thing possible that could have happened. Yes, it could have happened in a worse way, but there is nothing on the list that could possibly top it. And the list is exhaustive. Okay, throw into the equation that even if more bad things pop up, they can’t make me much worse than I am now. My money all disappears – hey, money is not security. What good is it doing me now? I lose my job – well, that would be tough, but it would just force me into a change. The list goes on.
Nothing that I can think of really threatens me. This seems to create some kind of weird super-power. Call me Sticks-and-Stones-Can-Break-My-Bones-But-Nothing-Can-Really-Hurt-Me-Man. No, that’s too long a name for a super-hero.
Ah, now I remember what set off my hiding-under-the-covers period – the second coffin-building incident in less than two weeks. I won’t go into the details. It suffices to say that it was another time of grieving:
It does strike me that I look terribly angry in that shot. I was going for "resigned". It came out much differently. By the time I came into the office to discover that it needed to be built, a friend had already been recruited, so at least neither of us had to face the job alone. I am getting rather good at knocking together a coffin. I don’t plan to take it up professionally, but one never knows.
Feeling this freedom of relative invulnerability, however, it not a safe thing. It can make one reckless. I find myself thinking outrageous thoughts about what I might conceivably do. I fantasise. I make astonishingly stupid plans. I catch myself dreaming of selling everything and scuttling off to Bali or Rio and living off my photography and writing. Then I’m brought up short by the realisation that I’ve found no way to live off it yet and the fact that I might starve trying to is not an improvement on the present situation. Not a bit.
No, I’m better off now staying here and doing what I was sent here to do. That’s where my security lies now. In some ways that’s a hard pill to swallow, but that is only because I’m not exactly ecstatic about life at the moment.
This horrible thing, looking for all the world like "The Small Intestine from Outer Space" is a Prickly Sea Cucumber:
It’s not a great picture of one. Possibly you can see the hideous frilly arms that wave around engulfing whatever seems edible. I’ll have to try feeding a banana to one.
Yes, fantasies sustain me these days. I’ve always been an exceptionally good daydreamer. Walter Mitty has nothing on me. I’ve dreamed up several schemes lately, none of which have proved, upon the most cursory consideration, to be remotely feasible. Most of the difficulty lies in where, I might go. Except for Papua New Guinea and the USA, any place I might choose to go would present considerable difficulty. You must have permanent residency to work in almost any country worth living in. That is a high hurdle.
I had a passing fancy for Costa Rica until I began to look at the residency problem. I’m not sure I’ll live long enough to jump through all of the hoops. The same goes for Canada, which I would like to be able to think of as my final "home" when I’m so broken down that I need to crawl into a hole and wait for the end. I’d probably have to do it as an illegal immigrant. Wouldn’t that be an interesting way to end up? I’d have to start a new journal and make it anonymous.
I met a friend at the Madang Lodge and Restaurant last Friday evening for some light conversation. I noticed that the big storyboard on the back wall had been decorated for the Christmas season:
I got this storyboard along with four others about the same size while on a trip to the Sepik River quite a few years ago. They were among the largest I have seen. I don’t know how much they would be worth now – probably quite a bit, as they are very hard to come by now. I have two of them about the same size hanging in my house.
Much of the future is too fuzzy for me to think about with any clarity. I wish I had something like this:
Yeah, a big brain – that’s the ticket. I need a huge Platygyra lamellina.
Then again, I probably spend far too much time pondering the future. When I consider that, I feel silly, but I’ve always been that way. Yeah, a thinker about the future and silly. I admit to both. It’s painfully obvious that the future is the thing over which I have the least control. How delusional it was to believe otherwise. It was all planned out . . .
Look what all that planning got me. Best simply to plan to brush one’s teeth in the morning. If that works out, then begin to plan what to have for lunch. Anything beyond that is getting risky.
Bart Simpson’s Hair – Why I’m Talking to Myself
Image by High Desert Rider
www.messersmith.name/wordpress/2010/11/18/bart-simpsons-h…
Now that I have all of these pictures loaded onto my WordPress page, I am wondering how to write something that makes some kind of sense. In cases such as this my usual ploy is to abandon any hope of writing anything which pleases me and put the job off until tomorrow. However, I have a deadline. It’s 8PM and I want to be ready to drink some kava an hour before I’d like to sleep. It worked the last two nights. I got more sleep than I have for a long time and I felt great in the morning. I’m going to write about kava soon. So, since I can’t put it off, I’ll write nonsense. It probably fits the subject matter better anyway.
As the title implies, the subject is twofold. Here is Bart Simpson’s Hair:
Okay, does that give you some idea of where we are going with this? Fasten your seat belts.
I’m going to the kitchen now to get some cookies . . . okay, I’m back. Hmmmmm . . . delicious. The other subject, which I made you think has something to do with Bart Simpson’s hair but it doesn’t, is Why I’m Talking to Myself.
I never used to do that – talk to myself – at least not much. I’d let slip, "Idiot!" or "You old fool." or something similarly self- deprecating, but I had no serious conversations. Even now, my solo exchanges are usually not directed to me, but since there is nobody else around (I try not to do this when others might be observing.) one might be prone to suspect that my brain is doing a little recursive boogaloo. I don’t know if this is healthy or not, but it is making me feel better.
So, who do I talk to?
Not far from Bart’s hair I found this disgusting, encrusting sponge trying to strangle a branch of black coral:
See, I’m going to do that to you. I’ll go along as if I have something interesting to say and when I sense you nodding off, I’ll throw a bean bag at you. The image above is trying to connect up some wires in my brain between it and Sponge Bob Squarepants. Okay, time for another cookie. Hey, I need some milk.
Mostly I talk to two entities. I probably spend the most time conversing with Eunie. She was always a good listener. I ask her for advice. Then I think about what she would tell me if she were sitting next to me or we were having a walk through the woods. The surprising thing is that what I hear in my head, or rather what I make up from the million memories of how she was, seems very real to me. It can’t be so far off from what she would have said. Quite often it makes me laugh.
Tonight I had a ham sandwich. The ham had been in the freezer for I don’t know how many months. I got it out of the freezer a week or so ago. It didn’t look bad, but I can’t smell it, of course. I’m constantly concerned that I will poison myself. I quit thinking about suicide about a month ago, mainly because I couldn’t stand the thought of the colossal mess it would leave behind for my friends to clean up. So, since that prospect is off the table, I’ve gone back to a less hair-raising and reckless existence. I actually don’t want to die now. Something interesting might happen. I call that progress. I also had ten-day-old steamed broccoli which had nothing obvious growing on it. I don’t know why I feel compelled to tell you what I’m eating – cookies, ham sandwiches, broccoli. I’ve been doing it for some time now.
Here is some whip coral at Magic Passage:
No, I’m not going to explain why it’s called whip coral. I don’t feel pedantic tonight. In fact, I don’t feel much of anything. That’s funny. I haven’t had any kava yet. It has a strange calming effect which my pleasant Dr. Mackerel told me about. I told him no Prozac, so he said to try kava. I’m going to do this without major drugs. As I said, I’ll get to that later. It’ll be a hoot!
Talking to Eunie is fun. I close my eyes and see that surreal half-smile which said, "I’m watching you, you crazy guy." Man, I loved that smile. I carry it on my shoulder.
Often, though – about a hundred times a day, I need to unload on or seek counsel with someone with more clout. Eunie is my gentle advisor. When I need the heavy artillery, I talk to God. I talk out loud, like I do with Eunie.
It’s much more difficult for me to imagine what God is saying back. Obviously, I don’t hear anything. I’m not that far gone. I also have to admit that I don’t know as much about God as I do Eunie. The truth is that you never know what God is up to. I do trust that it’s all going to work out in the end, but man, in the meantime you have to be ready to catch some fast curve balls. I was never any good at baseball. After teams were chosen, I was always the one guy left standing there staring at my toes sticking out of the end of my sneakers.
I do seem to be getting some answers lately. The big questions remain mysteries, but some of the little ones are falling into place. So, I’m calling these productive conversations. There are fewer swords hanging over my head. I’m not afraid to look in my mailbox any more. Part of that is because I can’t imagine what could happen that has not already happened. There’s a certain comfort in knowing that the only things left to lose are things that really don’t matter that much. It’s tremendously liberating. Money – EHHH! There will always be enough. One simply has to adjust one’s expectations. Property – MEH! I don’t have any (Or at least I soon will not – that house is GOING, one way or another!) All of the rest of the stuff that I have accumulated – PFFFT! I can carry everything I need in a back pack and a small camera case. Free! Free at last!
What brought that on? Hey, my kitchen is full of ants. I’m too cheap to buy bug spray any more. That’s off the shopping list. Beside, they don’t eat much – only what I have dropped or slopped. There are a couple of dead ones floating in my milk. At least I hope they are dead. If they are not, they are in for quite a ride.
Does this look like a giant corkscrew to you?
I guess I mostly talk to myself because I am so used to having someone around to talk to and I just can’t stop because she’s not here now. I’ve noticed that I am much more talkative than I used to be when friends are around. I hope that is not a bad trend. I have seen that flick of the eyes to another which says, "When is he going to shut up?" I’m on the lookout for it.
This is the model which was used for The Blob in the original movie starring Steve McQueen:
It’s about a metre wide. They had to scale it up and make it mobile for the movie. Inert blobs aren’t very scary and they get real hungry. This one is quite immobile.
I don’t anticipate finding any other conversation partners for my lonely quiet times when I’m feeling chatty. Who else would there be, Elvis? John Belushi? Jack Kerouac?
No, not them. If I talked to anyone else it would be absent friends, the living kind. There are so many who I would love to spend an evening with in quiet discourse.
Speaking of friends, I’m going to take advantage of you and sneak in a couple of very amusing images sent to me by Alison Raynor of Toogoolawah in Queensland. Here is what she wrote to me:
I’ve been on the road a fair bit in the last couple of days and this 6ft carpet snake (a common constricting python) crossed our path yesterday. We stopped for a look and he stopped to geek my camera… such a pretty snake, you should see the size of their mouths and fangs though……EEEEK! This one would be able to swallow an animal or bird heaps bigger than its own body weight and size:
Okay, Ali. How close are you going to get to this thing?
Okay, I’m impressed.
Today, I spent a fair amount of time getting lawns mowed. No, I didn’t mow the lawns. It’s Gosel’s job to mow the lawns. However somebody has to haul his lawnmower around and get him to the grass which needs cutting. That’s what I did today. Exciting, eh? Here is Gosel mowing a lawn:
I sat in there my blazing hot brand-new Nissan Navarra twin-cab utility truck. I didn’t particularly want to buy a new car, but Eunie wanted one. Her old red truck was getting rusty and she didn’t like that. Anyway, I’m glad now that I have it. It’s like money in the bank, not that money in the bank is any guarantee of security. And, I probably have a car which will serve me for the rest of my life. Hey, my dog Sheba has a good chance of outlasting me. I’m not planting any more trees either. Like many other things which I am discovering, there is a certain comfort here.
I got bored reading Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh, so I had a nice, long conversation with Eunie.
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]]>Pagan Summer (1965) … Why your memory IMPROVES with age (Well, up to a point, anyway) — Lost your thingamajig: Not to worry (13th January 2012) …item 2.. THE MOODY BLUES — In Search of the Lost Chord — 1968.wmv …
Image by marsmet525
Frustratingly, too, we can also find ourselves able to build vivid memory pictures of events that occurred decades ago, but incapable of remembering what we had for breakfast.
This is because the brain creates very different kinds of memories — and in mid-life some of our memory systems can become weaker than others.
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…..item 1)…. Mail Online … www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ … Why your memory IMPROVES with age (Well, up to a point, anyway)
By JOHN NAISH
Last updated at 9:17 AM on 13th January 2012
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2086003/Why-memory-IMP…
Senior moments? Forget them. Now it’s middle-aged muddle we must worry about. Scientists last week declared that our ability to remember everyday things such as names and numbers starts to go at the tender age of 45.
But before you resign yourself to spending the second half of your life as a mental basket-case, there is positive scientific news, too.
For memory is a strange and complex thing, as this guide to the mind makes clear…
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img code photo … Lost your thingamajig: Not to worry…
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—– First the bad news…
Last week’s study of more than 7,000 Whitehall civil servants revealed how our power of recall starts to decline earlier than previously thought. Men and women suffered the same 3.6 per cent loss in memory power between the ages of 45 and 49, revealed the ten-year study published online in the British Medical Journal.
Fears about age-related memory loss are hardly new. Plato wrote that when a man grows old, he ‘can no more learn much than he can run much’. But evidence of problems in mid-life is worrying because these may be the first signs of a condition called Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). This is an accelerated loss of memory power that can, in about half of cases, turn out to be the first early sign of Alzheimer’s. Scientists believe that Alzheimer’s can begin in the brain two or three decades before serious symptoms appear.
More…
Just ONE cannabis joint ‘can cause psychiatric episodes similar to schizophrenia’ as well as damaging memory
Vitamin B and folic acid ‘boosts memory in pensioners’
Nicotine patches ‘can slow mental decline’ and improve the memory of elderly people, study shows
Struggle to get out of your chair? Puffed-out on the stairs? Could you be growing old before your time?
I don’t believe it! We’re NOT a nation of Victor Meldrews… because the older we get the HAPPIER we are, study reveals
Regardless of our Alzheimer’s risk, though, we all seem to suffer some loss of mental capacity from a comparatively young age. Studies show that the processing speed in our brains slows down from our 20s onwards. ‘By mid-life, most of our brains show some fraying around the edges,’ says Barbara Strauch, author of The Secret Life Of The Grown-Up Brain.
‘People’s names are often the first edge to go ragged,’ she adds. ‘But the names are not technically gone. For the most part, it’s a problem of retrieval, not storage.’ This difficulty is not caused by a simple loss of brain cells. Scientists used to think that we lost 30 per cent of our brain cells through ageing. But recent studies show that the loss is much smaller. Instead, advancing years can bring a drop in the levels of chemical messengers in our brain — called neurotransmitters. As a result, memory-power can drop, and we can also find ourselves getting distracted more easily.
Research shows that much of what we learn is not missing; it just gets misplaced. Hence that frustrating sense of ‘it’s in there somewhere,’ when names, facts and figures elude our grasp.
Frustratingly, too, we can also find ourselves able to build vivid memory pictures of events that occurred decades ago, but incapable of remembering what we had for breakfast. This is because the brain creates very different kinds of memories — and in mid-life some of our memory systems can become weaker than others.
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img code photo … Alamy …
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/13/article-2086003-0F7057…
Wisdom of the ancients: Plato wrote that when a man grows old, he ¿can no more learn much than he can run much¿
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—– So how does your memory work?
There are several memory systems at work in the brain. One memory system comes into operation if you try to remember a place name or a phone number. Remembering things that can be expressed in language is called ‘explicit’ memory. Another memory system covers things of which you may not be consciously aware, such as how to ride a bicycle. That is called ‘implicit’ memory.
There is also short-term or ‘working’ memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory would be remembering a phone number for five minutes; long-term involves recalling it in a year’s time.
Such differences in memory types are all too familiar to Joshua Foer, an American writer and international memory champion who has honed his immediate short-term memory so well that he can recall details such as the order of a newly shuffled deck of cards.
But he admits memories that require a little more longevity are more problematic: only a few nights after he won the annual US Memory Championships in 2006, he forgot that he had driven his car into town to eat dinner. He took a train home instead.
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img code photo … Alamy …
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/13/article-2086003-0D2FCD…
An MRI scan of a human head shows the brain: Short term memories are formed in the hippocampus, scientists say, but where long term memories reside remains a mystery
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Short-term and long-term memories are stored in different parts of the brain. A structure in the brain called the hippocampus is key to short-term memory. This area normally grows new brain cells throughout our lives, and is responsible for processing information and retrieving it. It is one of the major areas that are damaged by Alzheimer’s, which is why short-term memory is one of the first casualties of the disease.
Long-term memory involves many disparate parts around the brain, which are called ‘association cortices’. One current theory of memory is that the hippocampus forms short-term memories and then squirrels some of them away for long-term storage in various cupboards — the association cortices. But we don’t yet know how the brain does this.
In fact, scientists remain unsure about many details of how memories are stored and formed. Mystery also surrounds the question of how we can remember events happening in the right sequence. Recent studies have shown, however, that an area of the brain called the medial temporal lobe is crucial to recalling events correctly: people who have suffered damage to this area through strokes have trouble remembering the plots of films or even personal anecdotes in the right order.
—– Senior moment – or something worse?
In normal age-related memory loss, short-term recall is usually most affected. In moderation, this is quite healthy. It is also natural to worry that such mid-life forgetfulness is a harbinger of something more sinister, such as dementia.
The ‘aha!’ test can indicate if you should be concerned. If you forget a word temporarily, but feel that it is on the tip of your tongue, and finally recall it with a sense of ‘Aha! That’s it,’ then your reaction is healthy.
This does not tend to happen with conditions such as Alzheimer’s, where people lose that sense of recognition when a memory is right.
—– It’s not just age that ruins memory
Growing older is not the only reason that our memory power may dwindle. Our ability to remember things can also be afflicted by our lifestyles. One common problem may be stress.
Studies show that quick bursts of stressful excitement can actually benefit our memory — perhaps because our brains evolved to rally their best resources when faced with an immediate threat such as a tiger in the grass. But long-term chronic stress, the sort that can grind into us with the constant demands of busy modern life, can damage our brain’s ability form new memories.
This is because constant high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, can damage the hippocampus. Being soaked in cortisol dramatically reduces the ability of the hippocampus to produce new cells. This is linked to significant problems with concentration and memory, says research by the Stanford University scientist Robert Sapolsky.
Such difficulties can be increased because, ironically, in stressful situations we often depend more on memory for recalling certain things to help guide us through the problem.
—– Does modern life make us forget?
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img code photo … ALEX LENTATI
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/13/article-2086003-01EB2E…
‘Security protection code overload’: The profusion of PINs has many worried that they are losing their memory
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More and more people are anxiously consulting medical experts about ‘problems’ with their memory, in fear that they have early signs of dementia, according to Michael Saling, a neuropsychologist at Melbourne University. But, he says, they are often just suffering from a problem that psychologists have labelled ‘security protection code overload’.
Put simply, the worried patients feel mentally overwhelmed by all the numbers, codes and operating systems that they have to know in order simply to function in a computer-dominated environment.
That can lead to the common experience of ‘PIN-number amnesia’, where you find yourself standing in front of a cash machine, your mind a fearful blank, with an impatient queue forming behind you.
—– The good news…
Stresses and strains aside, modern life has good news for middle-aged brains. Neuroscientists have recently begun to discover how the mid-life brain, rather than giving up, instead reconfigures itself in order to cope.
As researchers at Duke University, North Carolina, and elsewhere have found, people in middle age begin to use two sides of their brains where previously only one might have been employed on a task.
This is called bilateralisation.
Commenting on this research, Barbara Strauch explains that as we age, the two sides of our brains become more intertwined, letting us see bigger patterns and think more broadly. Science may even have witnessed how ‘middle-aged wisdom’ grows in the brain. It used to be thought that the brain steadily lost myelin with age.
Myelin is the white-matter fatty coating of neurons which makes the connections in the brain work well by enabling electrical signals to travel through the brain quickly and efficiently — rather like the insulation on electronic wires.
When myelin withers, we may forget the names of people we’ve just met, or details of how to get to a new address.
New research shows that in mid-life, most of the myelin loss occurs in parts of the brain responsible for learning new things. The parts responsible for long-term memory show no such loss.
That would account for why we have trouble with new memories as we age, but not with our core knowledge. And something else has been found to happen — the level of myelin around people’s brains can continue to grow late into middle age.
Harvard University scientists who have witnessed this say that it may be a physical sign of the growth of ‘middle-aged wisdom’, where accumulated knowledge is being collated and networked more efficiently by the white matter.
—– How to protect your memory
Fortunately, health researchers believe there are ways in which we can significantly help to preserve our memory in later life.
The key is to stave off the sort of physical decline that can lead to mental decline and dementia. Dr Anne Corbett, of the Alzheimer’s Society, says: ‘Preventing dementia is all about everyday healthy living.
‘We have strong evidence for what medical conditions increase your risk. They are high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, high cholesterol and depression. If you have these in mid-life onwards you are at higher risk of developing dementia.’
The human brain is the most complex piece of thinking equipment that has ever evolved. Your body is the life-support system for this very hungry piece of grey matter.
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img code photo … Alamy …
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/13/article-2086003-0D6CDD…
Brain training: Just a little daily exercise, like this Zumba class, could reduce the risk of the decline of your mental abilities, many studies have shown
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While your brain constitutes only about 2 per cent of your body’s mass, it uses more than a fifth of its energy production. Efficient supply and maintenance are vital. If your physical health declines, your brain — and its sophisticated systems of memory — are at serious risk of following suit.
Just taking a little more daily exercise could make a huge difference for millions of people. ‘More than 13 studies show that exercise can reduce risk by up to 45 per cent,’ says Corbett. ‘Evidence shows that the exercise does not have to be strenuous to have this benefit: it can involve active walking for around 30 minutes a day, three times a week.
‘The exercise just has to raise the heartbeat by a little, making you feel slightly breathless.’
‘Exercising’ your brain with expensive computerised ‘brain-training games’ will not provide any real benefit, though, says Dr Corbett. Studies show that you may get better at playing the games themselves, but the benefits go no farther, she explains. It is the same with crosswords and Sudoko. They should be enjoyed for themselves, rather than taken as a substitute for a healthy diet and exercise.
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img code photo … Alamy …
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/13/article-2086003-02F4B0…
Ginko biloba: A study of more than 3,000 adults found that it made no difference at all to memory retension
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And beware any claim about how any single food can boost your memory, says Corbett. Only last year, an important report in the Journal of the American Medical Association punctured the idea that the herbal supplement ginkgo biloba is a brain-saver. The study of more than 3,000 adults found that it made no difference at all.
Adopting broader healthy-eating habits can, however, significantly reduce the risk of dementia. A range of studies indicates that Mediterranean-style diets work best, as they are low in fat and salt and high in oily fish.
Avoiding junk food can have real benefits, too. A study last month in the respected journal Neurology found people with junk diets high in complex ‘trans-fats’ are more likely to experience the kind of brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer’s than those who consume less of the artery-damaging fats.
There is another compelling reason why healthy eating can boost your memory: it helps to keep your weight in trim. People who are obese in middle age are 74 per cent more likely to develop dementia compared with those of normal weight, according to a 27-year study of more than 10,000 men and women in the British Medical Journal.
Laboratory studies conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have found that caffeine strengthens brain connections. Drinking two cups of coffee a day appears to boost electrical activity between neurons in the hippocampus. The scientists say stronger connectivity means better learning and memory.
—– Memory plays tricks on us all
No matter how good our powers of memory, they can all be fooled. Because, whatever our age, memory is a slippery thing that can be grossly misleading.
A survey of 1,500 people last August by the University of Illinois found that most of us think that human memory is as reliable as a video camera that records information precisely. Moreover, around half of us think that our memories never change.
But scientific research shows the opposite is true. Even our most closely held recollections can completely change without us noticing.
Researchers who study how people remember momentous events have discovered that although people will swear faithfully that they remember exactly what they were doing when they first heard news of the event, their memory is wrong in about a third of cases.
John Seamon, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, has studied this phenomenon and says that, oddly, it is possible that the more frequently we recall an event, the less accurately we remember it.
His research suggests that when we use our minds to recall a particular memory, we do not go back to the event itself, but rather to the last time we remembered it. Each recollection adds new flaws and reinforces previous flaws. Eventually, we settle on a version that we subsequently consider to be gospel truth.
‘This is not done on a conscious level,’ Seamon believes. ‘But people are figuring out: “Where was I?
What is the story I’m going to tell about this event?”’
After about a year of doing this, he says, the memory — including the false elements — solidifies and becomes the person’s constant ‘truth’.
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…..item 2)…. youtube video … THE MOODY BLUES — In Search of the Lost Chord — 1968.wmv …
98:43 minutes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Ja4u8_RGQ
Esferadevidro
Published on May 29, 2012
THE MOODY BLUES — In Search of the Lost Chord — 1968(Deluxe Edition 2006)
Disc 1
In Search Of The Lost Chord 00:01
1-1 Departure
1-2 Ride My See-Saw
1-3 Dr. Livingstone, I Presume
1-4 House Of Four Doors (Part 1)
1-5 Legend Of A Mind
1-6 House Of Four Doors (Part 2)
1-7 Voices In The Sky
1-8 The Best Way To Travel
1-9 Visions Of Paradise
1-10 The Actor
1-11 The Word
1-12 Om
Disc 2
Alternate Versions & Out-Takes 42:17
2-1 Departure (Alternate Mix)
2-2 The Best Way To Travel (Additional Vocal Mix)
2-3 Legend Of A Mind (Alternate Mix)
2-4 Visions Of Paradise (Instrumental Version)
2-5 What Am I Doing Here? (Original Version)2-6 The Word (Mellotron Mix)
2-7 Om (Extended Version)
2-8 A Simple Game (Justin Hayward Vocal Mix) – 1968 Studio Recording
2-9 King And Queen – BBC ‘Top Gear’ Sessions
2-10 Doctor Livingstone I Presume
2-11 Voices In The Sky
2-12 Thinking Is The Best Way To Travel
2-13 Ride My See Saw – BBC ‘Afternoon Pop Show’ Session
2-14 Tuesday Afternoon – 1968 Single ‘B’ Side
2-15 A Simple Game
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The reasons you’re not losing weight on low carb
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]]>Sea Otter Family, Mother and Baby
Image by Harold Litwiler, Poppy
Mother and bay otter bonding, Morro Bay California. he sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg (30 and 100 lb), making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among[3] the smallest marine mammals. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter’s primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter is capable of living exclusively in the ocean.
The sea otter inhabits nearshore environments, where it dives to the sea floor to forage. It preys mostly on marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, various mollusks and crustaceans, and some species of fish. Its foraging and eating habits are noteworthy in several respects. Its use of rocks to dislodge prey and to open shells makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools. In most of its range, it is a keystone species, controlling sea urchin populations which would otherwise inflict extensive damage to kelp forest ecosystems.[4] Its diet includes prey species that are also valued by humans as food, leading to conflicts between sea otters and fisheries.
Sea otters, whose numbers were once estimated at 150,000–300,000, were hunted extensively for their fur between 1741 and 1911, and the world population fell to 1,000–2,000 individuals living in a fraction of their historic range.[5] A subsequent international ban on hunting, sea otter conservation efforts, and reintroduction programs into previously populated areas have contributed to numbers rebounding, and the species occupies about two-thirds of its former range. The recovery of the sea otter is considered an important success in marine conservation, although populations in the Aleutian Islands and California have recently declined or have plateaued at depressed levels. For these reasons, the sea otter remains classified as an endangered species.
Evolution
The sea otter is the heaviest (the giant otter is longer, but significantly slimmer) member of the family Mustelidae,[6] a diverse group that includes the 13 otter species and terrestrial animals such as weasels, badgers, and minks. It is unique among the mustelids in not making dens or burrows, in having no functional anal scent glands,[7] and in being able to live its entire life without leaving the water.[8] The only living member of the genus Enhydra, the sea otter is so different from other mustelid species that, as recently as 1982, some scientists believed it was more closely related to the earless seals.[9] Genetic analysis indicates the sea otter and its closest extant relatives, which include the African speckle-throated otter, Eurasian otter, African clawless otter and Asian small-clawed otter, shared an ancestor approximately 5 million years ago.[10]
Fossil evidence indicates the Enhydra lineage became isolated in the North Pacific approximately 2 million years ago, giving rise to the now-extinct Enhydra macrodonta and the modern sea otter, Enhydra lutris.[11] One related species has been described, Enhydra reevei, from the Pleistocene of East Anglia.[12] The modern sea otter evolved initially in northern Hokkaidō and Russia, and then spread east to the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska, and down the North American coast.[13] In comparison to cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds, which entered the water approximately 50, 40, and 20 million years ago, respectively, the sea otter is a relative newcomer to a marine existence.[14] In some respects, though, the sea otter is more fully adapted to water than pinnipeds, which must haul out on land or ice to give birth.[15] The full genome of the northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) was sequenced in 2017 and may allow for examination of the sea otter’s evolutionary divergence from terrestrial mustelids.[16]
Taxonomy
Lutrinae
Pteronura (giant otter)
Lontra (4 species)
Enhydra (sea otter)
Hydrictis
(spotted-necked otter)
Lutra (2 species)
Aonyx
(African clawless)
Amblonyx
(Asian small-clawed)
Lutrogale
(smooth-coated)
Cladogram showing relationships between sea otters and other otters[17][18]
The first scientific description of the sea otter is contained in the field notes of Georg Steller from 1751, and the species was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.[19] Originally named Lutra marina, it underwent numerous name changes before being accepted as Enhydra lutris in 1922.[11] The generic name Enhydra, derives from the Ancient Greek en/εν "in" and hydra/ύδρα "water",[20] meaning "in the water", and the Latin word lutris, meaning "otter".[21] It was formerly sometimes referred to as the "sea beaver".[22]
Subspecies
Three subspecies of the sea otter are recognized with distinct geographical distributions. Enhydra lutris lutris (nominate), the Asian sea otter, ranges across Russia’s Kuril Islands northeast of Japan, and the Commander Islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. In the eastern Pacific Ocean, E. l. kenyoni, the northern sea otter, is found from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to Oregon and E. l. nereis, the southern sea otter, is native to central and southern California.[23] The Asian sea otter is the largest subspecies and has a slightly wider skull and shorter nasal bones than both other subspecies. Northern sea otters possess longer mandibles (lower jaws) while southern sea otters have longer rostrums and smaller teeth.[24][25]
Description
A sea otter’s thick fur makes its body appear plumper on land than in the water.
Skull of a sea otter
The sea otter is one of the smallest marine mammal species, but it is the heaviest mustelid.[8] Male sea otters usually weigh 22 to 45 kg (49 to 99 lb) and are 1.2 to 1.5 m (3 ft 11 in to 4 ft 11 in) in length, though specimens up to 54 kg (119 lb) have been recorded.[26] Females are smaller, weighing 14 to 33 kg (31 to 73 lb) and measuring 1.0 to 1.4 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in) in length.[27] For its size, the male otter’s baculum is very large, massive and bent upwards, measuring 150 mm (5+7⁄8 in) in length and 15 mm (9⁄16 in) at the base.[28]
Unlike most other marine mammals, the sea otter has no blubber and relies on its exceptionally thick fur to keep warm.[29] With up to 150,000 strands of hair per square centimetre (970,000/in2), its fur is the densest of any animal.[30] The fur consists of long, waterproof guard hairs and short underfur; the guard hairs keep the dense underfur layer dry.[27] There is an air compartment between the thick fur and the skin where air is trapped and heated by the body.[31] Cold water is kept completely away from the skin and heat loss is limited.[27] However, a potential disadvantage of this form of insulation is compression of the air layer as the otter dives, thereby reducing the insulating quality of fur at depth when the animal forages.[31] The fur is thick year-round, as it is shed and replaced gradually rather than in a distinct molting season.[32] As the ability of the guard hairs to repel water depends on utmost cleanliness, the sea otter has the ability to reach and groom the fur on any part of its body, taking advantage of its loose skin and an unusually supple skeleton.[33] The coloration of the pelage is usually deep brown with silver-gray speckles, but it can range from yellowish or grayish brown to almost black.[34] In adults, the head, throat, and chest are lighter in color than the rest of the body.[34]
The sea otter displays numerous adaptations to its marine environment. The nostrils and small ears can close.[35] The hind feet, which provide most of its propulsion in swimming, are long, broadly flattened, and fully webbed.[36] The fifth digit on each hind foot is longest, facilitating swimming while on its back, but making walking difficult.[37] The tail is fairly short, thick, slightly flattened, and muscular. The front paws are short with retractable claws, with tough pads on the palms that enable gripping slippery prey.[38] The bones show osteosclerosis, increasing their density to reduce buoyancy.[39]
The sea otter presents an insight into the evolutionary process of the mammalian invasion of the aquatic environment, which has occurred numerous times over the course of mammalian evolution.[40] Having only returned to the sea about 3 million years ago,[41] sea otters represent a snapshot at the earliest point of the transition from fur to blubber. In sea otters, fur is still advantageous, given their small nature and division of lifetime between the aquatic and terrestrial environments.[42] However, as sea otters evolve and adapt to spending more and more of their lifetimes in the sea, the convergent evolution of blubber suggests that the reliance on fur for insulation would be replaced by a dependency on blubber. This is particularly true due to the diving nature of the sea otter; as dives become lengthier and deeper, the air layer’s ability to retain heat or buoyancy decreases,[31] while blubber remains efficient at both of those functions.[42] Blubber can also additionally serve as an energy source for deep dives,[43] which would most likely prove advantageous over fur in the evolutionary future of sea otters.
The sea otter propels itself underwater by moving the rear end of its body, including its tail and hind feet, up and down,[36] and is capable of speeds of up to 9 kilometres per hour (5.6 mph).[6] When underwater, its body is long and streamlined, with the short forelimbs pressed closely against the chest.[44] When at the surface, it usually floats on its back and moves by sculling its feet and tail from side to side.[45] At rest, all four limbs can be folded onto the torso to conserve heat, whereas on particularly hot days, the hind feet may be held underwater for cooling.[46] The sea otter’s body is highly buoyant because of its large lung capacity – about 2.5 times greater than that of similar-sized land mammals[47] – and the air trapped in its fur. The sea otter walks with a clumsy, rolling gait on land, and can run in a bounding motion.[37]
Long, highly sensitive whiskers and front paws help the sea otter find prey by touch when waters are dark or murky.[48] Researchers have noted when they approach in plain view, sea otters react more rapidly when the wind is blowing towards the animals, indicating the sense of smell is more important than sight as a warning sense.[49] Other observations indicate the sea otter’s sense of sight is useful above and below the water, although not as good as that of seals.[50] Its hearing is neither particularly acute nor poor.[51]
An adult’s 32 teeth, particularly the molars, are flattened and rounded for crushing rather than cutting food.[52] Seals and sea otters are the only carnivores with two pairs of lower incisor teeth rather than three;[53] the adult dental formula is
3.1.3.1
2.1.3.2
.[54] The teeth and bones are sometimes stained purple as a result of ingesting sea urchins.[55] The sea otter has a metabolic rate two or three times that of comparatively sized terrestrial mammals. It must eat an estimated 25 to 38% of its own body weight in food each day to burn the calories necessary to counteract the loss of heat due to the cold water environment.[56][57] Its digestive efficiency is estimated at 80 to 85%,[58] and food is digested and passed in as little as three hours.[29] Most of its need for water is met through food, although, in contrast to most other marine mammals, it also drinks seawater. Its relatively large kidneys enable it to derive fresh water from sea water and excrete concentrated urine.[59]
Behavior
Sensitive vibrissae and forepaws enable sea otters to find prey (like this purple sea urchin) using their sense of touch.
The sea otter is diurnal. It has a period of foraging and eating in the morning, starting about an hour before sunrise, then rests or sleeps in mid-day.[60] Foraging resumes for a few hours in the afternoon and subsides before sunset, and a third foraging period may occur around midnight.[60] Females with pups appear to be more inclined to feed at night.[60] Observations of the amount of time a sea otter must spend each day foraging range from 24 to 60%, apparently depending on the availability of food in the area.[61]
Sea otters spend much of their time grooming, which consists of cleaning the fur, untangling knots, removing loose fur, rubbing the fur to squeeze out water and introduce air, and blowing air into the fur. To casual observers, it appears as if the animals are scratching, but they are not known to have lice or other parasites in the fur.[62] When eating, sea otters roll in the water frequently, apparently to wash food scraps from their fur.[63]
A sea otter grooming itself by rubbing its dense coat.
Foraging
See also: Physiology of underwater diving
The sea otter hunts in short dives, often to the sea floor. Although it can hold its breath for up to five minutes,[35] its dives typically last about one minute and not more than four.[27] It is the only marine animal capable of lifting and turning over rocks, which it often does with its front paws when searching for prey.[63] The sea otter may also pluck snails and other organisms from kelp and dig deep into underwater mud for clams.[63] It is the only marine mammal that catches fish with its forepaws rather than with its teeth.[29]
A sea otter in captivity in Japan, 2015
Under each foreleg, the sea otter has a loose pouch of skin that extends across the chest. In this pouch (preferentially the left one), the animal stores collected food to bring to the surface. This pouch also holds a rock, unique to the otter, that is used to break open shellfish and clams.[64] At the surface, the sea otter eats while floating on its back, using its forepaws to tear food apart and bring it to its mouth. It can chew and swallow small mussels with their shells, whereas large mussel shells may be twisted apart.[65] It uses its lower incisor teeth to access the meat in shellfish.[66] To eat large sea urchins, which are mostly covered with spines, the sea otter bites through the underside where the spines are shortest, and licks the soft contents out of the urchin’s shell.[65]
The sea otter’s use of rocks when hunting and feeding makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools.[67] To open hard shells, it may pound its prey with both paws against a rock on its chest. To pry an abalone off its rock, it hammers the abalone shell using a large stone, with observed rates of 45 blows in 15 seconds.[27] Releasing an abalone, which can cling to rock with a force equal to 4,000 times its own body weight, requires multiple dives.[27]
Social structure
Sleeping sea otters holding paws at the Vancouver Aquarium[68] are kept afloat by their naturally high buoyancy.
Southern sea otters playing with one another at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Although each adult and independent juvenile forages alone, sea otters tend to rest together in single-sex groups called rafts. A raft typically contains 10 to 100 animals, with male rafts being larger than female ones.[69] The largest raft ever seen contained over 2000 sea otters. To keep from drifting out to sea when resting and eating, sea otters may wrap themselves in kelp.[70]
A male sea otter is most likely to mate if he maintains a breeding territory in an area that is also favored by females.[71] As autumn is the peak breeding season in most areas, males typically defend their territory only from spring to autumn.[71] During this time, males patrol the boundaries of their territories to exclude other males,[71] although actual fighting is rare.[69] Adult females move freely between male territories, where they outnumber adult males by an average of five to one.[71] Males that do not have territories tend to congregate in large, male-only groups,[71] and swim through female areas when searching for a mate.[72]
The species exhibits a variety of vocal behaviors. The cry of a pup is often compared to that of a gull.[73] Females coo when they are apparently content; males may grunt instead.[74] Distressed or frightened adults may whistle, hiss, or in extreme circumstances, scream.[73] Although sea otters can be playful and sociable, they are not considered to be truly social animals.[75] They spend much time alone, and each adult can meet its own hunting, grooming, and defense needs.[75]
Reproduction and life cycle
While mating the male bites the nose of the female, often bloodying and scarring it.
Sea otters are polygynous: males have multiple female partners, typically those that inhabit their territory. If no territory is established, they seek out females in estrus. When a male sea otter finds a receptive female, the two engage in playful and sometimes aggressive behavior. They bond for the duration of estrus, or 3 days. The male holds the female’s head or nose with his jaws during copulation. Visible scars are often present on females from this behavior.[6][76]
Births occur year-round, with peaks between May and June in northern populations and between January and March in southern populations.[77] Gestation appears to vary from four to twelve months, as the species is capable of delayed implantation followed by four months of pregnancy.[77] In California, sea otters usually breed every year, about twice as often as those in Alaska.[78]
Birth usually takes place in the water and typically produces a single pup weighing 1.4 to 2.3 kilograms (3 lb 1 oz to 5 lb 1 oz).[79] Twins occur in 2% of births; however, usually only one pup survives.[6] At birth, the eyes are open, ten teeth are visible, and the pup has a thick coat of baby fur.[80] Mothers have been observed to lick and fluff a newborn for hours; after grooming, the pup’s fur retains so much air, the pup floats like a cork and cannot dive.[81] The fluffy baby fur is replaced by adult fur after about 13 weeks.[19]
A mother floats with her pup on her chest. Georg Steller wrote, "They embrace their young with an affection that is scarcely credible."[82]
Nursing lasts six to eight months in Californian populations and four to twelve months in Alaska, with the mother beginning to offer bits of prey at one to two months.[83] The milk from a sea otter’s two abdominal nipples is rich in fat and more similar to the milk of other marine mammals than to that of other mustelids.[84] A pup, with guidance from its mother, practices swimming and diving for several weeks before it is able to reach the sea floor. Initially, the objects it retrieves are of little food value, such as brightly colored starfish and pebbles.[64] Juveniles are typically independent at six to eight months, but a mother may be forced to abandon a pup if she cannot find enough food for it;[85] at the other extreme, a pup may be nursed until it is almost adult size.[79] Pup mortality is high, particularly during an individual’s first winter – by one estimate, only 25% of pups survive their first year.[85] Pups born to experienced mothers have the highest survival rates.[86]
Females perform all tasks of feeding and raising offspring, and have occasionally been observed caring for orphaned pups.[87] Much has been written about the level of devotion of sea otter mothers for their pups – a mother gives her infant almost constant attention, cradling it on her chest away from the cold water and attentively grooming its fur.[88] When foraging, she leaves her pup floating on the water, sometimes wrapped in kelp to keep it from floating away;[89] if the pup is not sleeping, it cries loudly until she returns.[90] Mothers have been known to carry their pups for days after the pups’ deaths.[82]
Females become sexually mature at around three or four years of age and males at around five; however, males often do not successfully breed until a few years later.[91] A captive male sired offspring at age 19.[79] In the wild, sea otters live to a maximum age of 23 years,[27] with lifespans ranging from 10 to 15 years for males and 15–20 years for females.[92] Several captive individuals have lived past 20 years, and a female at the Seattle Aquarium named Etika died at the age of 28 years.[93] Sea otters in the wild often develop worn teeth, which may account for their apparently shorter lifespans.[94]
Population and distribution
Sea otters live in coastal waters 15 to 23 metres (49 to 75 ft) deep,[95] and usually stay within a kilometre (2⁄3 mi) of the shore.[96] They are found most often in areas with protection from the most severe ocean winds, such as rocky coastlines, thick kelp forests, and barrier reefs.[97] Although they are most strongly associated with rocky substrates, sea otters can also live in areas where the sea floor consists primarily of mud, sand, or silt.[98] Their northern range is limited by ice, as sea otters can survive amidst drift ice but not land-fast ice.[99] Individuals generally occupy a home range a few kilometres long, and remain there year-round.[100]
The sea otter population is thought to have once been 150,000 to 300,000,[22] stretching in an arc across the North Pacific from northern Japan to the central Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. The fur trade that began in the 1740s reduced the sea otter’s numbers to an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 members in 13 colonies. Hunting records researched by historian Adele Ogden place the westernmost limit of the hunting grounds off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and the easternmost limit off Punta Morro Hermosa about 21+1⁄2 miles (34.6 km) south of Punta Eugenia, Baja California’s westernmost headland in Mexico.[101]
In about two-thirds of its former range, the species is at varying levels of recovery, with high population densities in some areas and threatened populations in others. Sea otters currently have stable populations in parts of the Russian east coast, Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and California, with reports of recolonizations in Mexico and Japan.[102] Population estimates made between 2004 and 2007 give a worldwide total of approximately 107,000 sea otters.[19][103][104][105][106]
Japan
Adele Ogden wrote in The California Sea Otter Trade that western sea otter were hunted "from Yezo northeastward past the Kuril Group and Kamchatka to the Aleutian Chain".[101] "Yezo" refers to the island province of Hokkaido, in northern Japan, where the country’s only confirmed population of western sea otter resides.[1] Sightings have been documented in the waters of Cape Nosappu, Erimo, Hamanaka and Nemuro, among other locations in the region. [107]
Russia
Currently, the most stable and secure part of the western sea otter’s range is along the Russian Far East coastline, in the northwestern Pacific waters off of the country (namely Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island), occasionally being seen in and around the Sea of Okhotsk.[108] Before the 19th century, around 20,000 to 25,000 sea otters lived near the Kuril Islands, with more near Kamchatka and the Commander Islands. After the years of the Great Hunt, the population in these areas, currently part of Russia, was only 750.[103] By 2004, sea otters had repopulated all of their former habitat in these areas, with an estimated total population of about 27,000. Of these, about 19,000 are at the Kurils, 2,000 to 3,500 at Kamchatka and another 5,000 to 5,500 at the Commander Islands.[103] Growth has slowed slightly, suggesting the numbers are reaching carrying capacity.[103]
British Columbia
Along the North American coast south of Alaska, the sea otter’s range is discontinuous. A remnant population survived off Vancouver Island into the 20th century, but it died out despite the 1911 international protection treaty, with the last sea otter taken near Kyuquot in 1929. From 1969 to 1972, 89 sea otters were flown or shipped from Alaska to the west coast of Vancouver Island. This population increased to over 5,600 in 2013 with an estimated annual growth rate of 7.2%, and their range on the island’s west coast extended north to Cape Scott and across the Queen Charlotte Strait to the Broughton Archipelago and south to Clayoquot Sound and Tofino.[109][110] In 1989, a separate colony was discovered in the central British Columbia coast. It is not known if this colony, which numbered about 300 animals in 2004, was founded by transplanted otters or was a remnant population that had gone undetected.[105] By 2013, this population exceeded 1,100 individuals, was increasing at an estimated 12.6% annual rate, and its range included Aristazabal Island, and Milbanke Sound south to Calvert Island.[109] In 2008, Canada determined the status of sea otters to be "special concern".[111][112]
United States
Alaska
Alaska is the central area of the sea otter’s range. In 1973, the population in Alaska was estimated at between 100,000 and 125,000 animals.[113] By 2006, though, the Alaska population had fallen to an estimated 73,000 animals.[104] A massive decline in sea otter populations in the Aleutian Islands accounts for most of the change; the cause of this decline is not known, although orca predation is suspected.[114] The sea otter population in Prince William Sound was also hit hard by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which killed thousands of sea otters in 1989.[63]
Washington
In 1969 and 1970, 59 sea otters were translocated from Amchitka Island to Washington, and released near La Push and Point Grenville. The translocated population is estimated to have declined to between 10 and 43 individuals before increasing, reaching 208 individuals in 1989. As of 2017, the population was estimated at over 2,000 individuals, and their range extends from Point Grenville in the south to Cape Flattery in the north and east to Pillar Point along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.[19]
In Washington, sea otters are found almost exclusively on the outer coasts. They can swim as close as six feet off shore along the Olympic coast. Reported sightings of sea otters in the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound almost always turn out to be North American river otters, which are commonly seen along the seashore. However, biologists have confirmed isolated sightings of sea otters in these areas since the mid-1990s.[19]
Oregon
The last native sea otter in Oregon was probably shot and killed in 1906. In 1970 and 1971, a total of 95 sea otters were transplanted from Amchitka Island, Alaska to the Southern Oregon coast. However, this translocation effort failed and otters soon again disappeared from the state.[115] In 2004, a male sea otter took up residence at Simpson Reef off of Cape Arago for six months. This male is thought to have originated from a colony in Washington, but disappeared after a coastal storm.[116] On 18 February 2009, a male sea otter was spotted in Depoe Bay off the Oregon Coast. It could have traveled to the state from either California or Washington.[117]
California
California’s remote areas of coastline sheltered small colonies of sea otters through the fur trade. The 50 that survived in California, which were rediscovered in 1938, have since reproduced to almost 3,000.
The historic population of California sea otters was estimated at 16,000 before the fur trade decimated the population, leading to their assumed extinction. Today’s population of California sea otters are the descendants of a single colony of about 50 sea otters located near Bixby Creek Bridge in March 1938 by Howard G. Sharpe, owner of the nearby Rainbow Lodge on Bixby Bridge in Big Sur.[118][119][120] Their principal range has gradually expanded and extends from Pigeon Point in San Mateo County to Santa Barbara County.[121]
Sea otters were once numerous in San Francisco Bay.[122][123] Historical records revealed the Russian-American Company snuck Aleuts into San Francisco Bay multiple times, despite the Spanish capturing or shooting them while hunting sea otters in the estuaries of San Jose, San Mateo, San Bruno and around Angel Island.[101] The founder of Fort Ross, Ivan Kuskov, finding otters scarce on his second voyage to Bodega Bay in 1812, sent a party of Aleuts to San Francisco Bay, where they met another Russian party and an American party, and caught 1,160 sea otters in three months.[124] By 1817, sea otters in the area were practically eliminated and the Russians sought permission from the Spanish and the Mexican governments to hunt further and further south of San Francisco.[125] In 1833, fur trappers George Nidever and George Yount canoed "along the Petaluma side of [the] Bay, and then proceeded to the San Joaquin River", returning with sea otter, beaver, and river otter pelts.[126] Remnant sea otter populations may have survived in the bay until 1840, when the Rancho Punta de Quentin was granted to Captain John B. R. Cooper, a sea captain from Boston, by Mexican Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado along with a license to hunt sea otters, reportedly then prevalent at the mouth of Corte Madera Creek.[127]
In the late 1980s, the USFWS relocated about 140 southern sea otters to San Nicolas Island in southern California, in the hope of establishing a reserve population should the mainland be struck by an oil spill. To the surprise of biologists, the majority of the San Nicolas sea otters swam back to the mainland.[128] Another group of twenty swam 74 miles (119 km) north to San Miguel Island, where they were captured and removed.[129] By 2005, only 30 sea otters remained at San Nicolas,[130] although they were slowly increasing as they thrived on the abundant prey around the island.[128] The plan that authorized the translocation program had predicted the carrying capacity would be reached within five to 10 years.[131] The spring 2016 count at San Nicolas Island was 104 sea otters, continuing a 5-year positive trend of over 12% per year.[132] Sea otters were observed twice in Southern California in 2011, once near Laguna Beach and once at Zuniga Point Jetty, near San Diego. These are the first documented sightings of otters this far south in 30 years.[133]
When the USFWS implemented the translocation program, it also attempted, in 1986, to implement "zonal management" of the Californian population. To manage the competition between sea otters and fisheries, it declared an "otter-free zone" stretching from Point Conception to the Mexican border. In this zone, only San Nicolas Island was designated as sea otter habitat, and sea otters found elsewhere in the area were supposed to be captured and relocated. These plans were abandoned after many translocated otters died and also as it proved impractical to capture the hundreds of otters which ignored regulations and swam into the zone.[134] However, after engaging in a period of public commentary in 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to release a formal decision on the issue.[130] Then, in response to lawsuits filed by the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center and the Otter Project, on 19 December 2012 the USFWS declared that the "no otter zone" experiment was a failure, and will protect the otters re-colonizing the coast south of Point Conception as threatened species.[135] Although abalone fisherman blamed the incursions of sea otters for the decline of abalone, commercial abalone fishing in southern California came to an end from overfishing in 1997, years before significant otter moved south of Point Conception. In addition, white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni), a species never overlapping with sea otter, had declined in numbers 99% by 1996, and became the first marine invertebrate to be federally listed as endangered.[136]
Although the southern sea otter’s range has continuously expanded from the remnant population of about 50 individuals in Big Sur since protection in 1911, from 2007 to 2010, the otter population and its range contracted and since 2010 has made little progress.[137][138] As of spring 2010, the northern boundary had moved from about Tunitas Creek to a point 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southeast of Pigeon Point, and the southern boundary has moved along the Gaviota Coast from approximately Coal Oil Point to Gaviota State Park.[139] A toxin called microcystin, produced by a type of cyanobacteria (Microcystis), seems to be concentrated in the shellfish the otters eat, poisoning them. Cyanobacteria are found in stagnant water enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus from septic tank and agricultural fertilizer runoff, and may be flushed into the ocean when streamflows are high in the rainy season.[140][141] A record number of sea otter carcasses were found on California’s coastline in 2010, with increased shark attacks an increasing component of the mortality.[142] Great white sharks do not consume relatively fat-poor sea otters but shark-bitten carcasses have increased from 8% in the 1980s to 15% in the 1990s and to 30% in 2010 and 2011.[143]
For southern sea otters to be considered for removal from threatened species listing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) determined that the population should exceed 3,090 for three consecutive years.[137] In response to recovery efforts, the population climbed steadily from the mid-20th century through the early 2000s, then remained relatively flat from 2005 to 2014 at just under 3,000. There was some contraction from the northern (now Pigeon Point) and southern limits of the sea otter’s range during the end of this period, circumstantially related to an increase in lethal shark bites, raising concerns that the population had reached a plateau.[144] However, the population increased markedly from 2015 to 2016, with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) California sea otter survey 3-year average reaching 3,272 in 2016, the first time it exceeded the threshold for delisting from the Endangered Species Act (ESA).[132] If populations continued to grow and ESA delisting occurred, southern sea otters would still be fully protected by state regulations and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which set higher thresholds for protection, at approximately 8,400 individuals.[145] However, ESA delisting seems unlikely due to a precipitous population decline recorded in the spring 2017 USGS sea otter survey count, from the 2016 high of 3,615 individuals to 2,688, a loss of 25% of the California sea otter population.[146]
Mexico
Historian Adele Ogden described sea otters are particularly abundant in "Lower California", now the Baja California Peninsula, where "seven bays…were main centers". The southernmost limit was Punta Morro Hermoso about 21+1⁄2 miles (34.6 km) south of Punta Eugenia, in turn a headland at the southwestern end of Sebastián Vizcaíno Bay, on the west coast of the Baja Peninsula. Otter were also taken from San Benito Island, Cedros Island, and Isla Natividad in the Bay.[101] By the early 1900s, Baja’s sea otters were extirpated by hunting. In a 1997 survey, small numbers of sea otters, including pups, were reported by local fishermen, but scientists could not confirm these accounts.[147] However, male and female otters have been confirmed by scientists off shores of the Baja Peninsula in a 2014 study, who hypothesize that otter dispersed there beginning in 2005. These sea otters may have dispersed from San Nicolas Island, which is 300 kilometres (190 mi) away, as individuals have been recorded traversing distances of over 800 kilometres (500 mi). Genetic analysis of most of these animals were consistent with California, i.e. United States, otter origins, however one otter had a haplotype not previously reported, and could represent a remnant of the original native Mexican otter population.[148]
Ecology
Diet
High energetic requirements of sea otter metabolism require them to consume at least 20% of their body weight a day.[31] Surface swimming and foraging are major factors in their high energy expenditure due to drag on the surface of the water when swimming and the thermal heat loss from the body during deep dives when foraging.[149][31] Sea otter muscles are specially adapted to generate heat without physical activity.[150]
Sea otters consume over 100 prey species.[151] In most of its range, the sea otter’s diet consists almost exclusively of marine benthic invertebrates, including sea urchins (such as Strongylocentrotus franciscanus and S. purpuratus), fat innkeeper worms, a variety of bivalves such as clams, mussels (such as Mytilus edulis), and scallops (such as Crassadoma gigantea), abalone, limpets (such as Diodora aspera), chitons (such as Katharina tunicata), other mollusks, crustaceans, and snails.[151][152][153] Its prey ranges in size from tiny limpets and crabs to giant octopuses.[151] Where prey such as sea urchins, clams, and abalone are present in a range of sizes, sea otters tend to select larger items over smaller ones of similar type.[151] In California, they have been noted to ignore Pismo clams smaller than 3 inches (76 mm) across.[154]
In a few northern areas, fish are also eaten. In studies performed at Amchitka Island in the 1960s, where the sea otter population was at carrying capacity, 50% of food found in sea otter stomachs was fish.[155] The fish species were usually bottom-dwelling and sedentary or sluggish forms, such as Hemilepidotus hemilepidotus and family Tetraodontidae.[155] However, south of Alaska on the North American coast, fish are a negligible or extremely minor part of the sea otter’s diet.[19][156] Contrary to popular depictions, sea otters rarely eat starfish, and any kelp that is consumed apparently passes through the sea otter’s system undigested.[157]
The individuals within a particular area often differ in their foraging methods and prey types, and tend to follow the same patterns as their mothers.[158] The diet of local populations also changes over time, as sea otters can significantly deplete populations of highly preferred prey such as large sea urchins, and prey availability is also affected by other factors such as fishing by humans.[19] Sea otters can thoroughly remove abalone from an area except for specimens in deep rock crevices,[159] however, they never completely wipe out a prey species from an area.[160] A 2007 Californian study demonstrated, in areas where food was relatively scarce, a wider variety of prey was consumed. Surprisingly, though, the diets of individuals were more specialized in these areas than in areas where food was plentiful.[128]
As a keystone species
Sea otters control herbivore populations, ensuring sufficient coverage of kelp in kelp forests
Sea otters are a classic example of a keystone species; their presence affects the ecosystem more profoundly than their size and numbers would suggest. They keep the population of certain benthic (sea floor) herbivores, particularly sea urchins, in check.[4] Sea urchins graze on the lower stems of kelp, causing the kelp to drift away and die.[161] Loss of the habitat and nutrients provided by kelp forests leads to profound cascade effects on the marine ecosystem. North Pacific areas that do not have sea otters often turn into urchin barrens, with abundant sea urchins and no kelp forest.[6] Kelp forests are extremely productive ecosystems. Kelp forests sequester (absorb and capture) CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Sea otters may help mitigate effects of climate change by their cascading trophic influence[162]
Reintroduction of sea otters to British Columbia has led to a dramatic improvement in the health of coastal ecosystems,[163] and similar changes have been observed as sea otter populations recovered in the Aleutian and Commander Islands and the Big Sur coast of California[164] However, some kelp forest ecosystems in California have also thrived without sea otters, with sea urchin populations apparently controlled by other factors.[164] The role of sea otters in maintaining kelp forests has been observed to be more important in areas of open coast than in more protected bays and estuaries.[164]
Sea otters affect rocky ecosystems that are dominated by mussel beds by removing mussels from rocks. This allows space for competing species and increases species diversity.[164]
Predators
Leading mammalian predators of this species include orcas and sea lions, and bald eagles may grab pups from the surface of the water. Young predators may kill an otter and not eat it.[67] On land, young sea otters may face attack from bears and coyotes. In California, great white sharks are their primary predator.[165] In Katmai National Park, grey wolves have been recorded to hunt and kill sea otters.[166]
Urban runoff transporting cat feces into the ocean brings Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate parasite of felids, which has killed sea otters.[167] Parasitic infections of Sarcocystis neurona are also associated with human activity.[16] According to the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDC, northern sea otters off Washington have been infected with the H1N1 flu virus and "may be a newly identified animal host of influenza viruses".[168]
Relationship with humans
Fur trade
Aleut men in Unalaska in 1896 used waterproof kayak gear and garments to hunt sea otters.
Sea otters have the thickest fur of any mammal, which makes them a common target for many hunters. Archaeological evidence indicates that for thousands of years, indigenous peoples have hunted sea otters for food and fur. Large-scale hunting, part of the Maritime Fur Trade, which would eventually kill approximately one million sea otters, began in the 18th century when hunters and traders began to arrive from all over the world to meet foreign demand for otter pelts, which were one of the world’s most valuable types of fur.[22]
In the early 18th century, Russians began to hunt sea otters in the Kuril Islands[22] and sold them to the Chinese at Kyakhta. Russia was also exploring the far northern Pacific at this time, and sent Vitus Bering to map the Arctic coast and find routes from Siberia to North America. In 1741, on his second North Pacific voyage, Bering was shipwrecked off Bering Island in the Commander Islands, where he and many of his crew died. The surviving crew members, which included naturalist Georg Steller, discovered sea otters on the beaches of the island and spent the winter hunting sea otters and gambling with otter pelts. They returned to Siberia, having killed nearly 1,000 sea otters, and were able to command high prices for the pelts.[169] Thus began what is sometimes called the "Great Hunt", which would continue for another hundred years. The Russians found the sea otter far more valuable than the sable skins that had driven and paid for most of their expansion across Siberia. If the sea otter pelts brought back by Bering’s survivors had been sold at Kyakhta prices they would have paid for one tenth the cost of Bering’s expedition.[170]
Pelt sales (in thousands) in the London fur market – the decline beginning in the 1880s reflects dwindling sea otter populations.[171]
Russian fur-hunting expeditions soon depleted the sea otter populations in the Commander Islands, and by 1745, they began to move on to the Aleutian Islands. The Russians initially traded with the Aleuts inhabitants of these islands for otter pelts, but later enslaved the Aleuts, taking women and children hostage and torturing and killing Aleut men to force them to hunt. Many Aleuts were either murdered by the Russians or died from diseases the hunters had introduced.[172][disputed – discuss] The Aleut population was reduced, by the Russians’ own estimate, from 20,000 to 2,000.[173] By the 1760s, the Russians had reached Alaska. In 1799, Tsar Paul I consolidated the rival fur-hunting companies into the Russian-American Company, granting it an imperial charter and protection, and a monopoly over trade rights and territorial acquisition. Under Aleksander I, the administration of the merchant-controlled company was transferred to the Imperial Navy, largely due to the alarming reports by naval officers of native abuse; in 1818, the indigenous peoples of Alaska were granted civil rights equivalent to a townsman status in the Russian Empire.[174]
Other nations joined in the hunt in the south. Along the coasts of what is now Mexico and California, Spanish explorers bought sea otter pelts from Native Americans and sold them in Asia.[172] In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook reached Vancouver Island and bought sea otter furs from the First Nations people. When Cook’s ship later stopped at a Chinese port, the pelts rapidly sold at high prices, and were soon known as "soft gold". As word spread, people from all over Europe and North America began to arrive in the Pacific Northwest to trade for sea otter furs.[175]
Russian hunting expanded to the south, initiated by American ship captains, who subcontracted Russian supervisors and Aleut hunters[176] in what are now Washington, Oregon, and California. Between 1803 and 1846, 72 American ships were involved in the otter hunt in California, harvesting an estimated 40,000 skins and tails, compared to only 13 ships of the Russian-American Company, which reported 5,696 otter skins taken between 1806 and 1846.[177] In 1812, the Russians founded an agricultural settlement at what is now Fort Ross in northern California, as their southern headquarters.[175] Eventually, sea otter populations became so depleted, commercial hunting was no longer viable. It had stopped in the Aleutian Islands, by 1808, as a conservation measure imposed by the Russian-American Company. Further restrictions were ordered by the company in 1834.[178] When Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, the Alaska population had recovered to over 100,000, but Americans resumed hunting and quickly extirpated the sea otter again.[179] Prices rose as the species became rare. During the 1880s, a pelt brought 5 to 5 in the London market, but by 1903, a pelt could be worth as much as ,125.[79] In 1911, Russia, Japan, Great Britain (for Canada) and the United States signed the Treaty for the Preservation and Protection of Fur Seals, imposing a moratorium on the harvesting of sea otters.[180] So few remained, perhaps only 1,000–2,000 individuals in the wild, that many believed the species would become extinct.[19]
Recovery and conservation
Main article: Sea otter conservation
In the wake of the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, heavy sheens of oil covered large areas of Prince William Sound.
During the 20th century, sea otter numbers rebounded in about two-thirds of their historic range, a recovery considered one of the greatest successes in marine conservation.[181] However, the IUCN still lists the sea otter as an endangered species, and describes the significant threats to sea otters as oil pollution, predation by orcas, poaching, and conflicts with fisheries – sea otters can drown if entangled in fishing gear.[1] The hunting of sea otters is no longer legal except for limited harvests by indigenous peoples in the United States.[182] Poaching was a serious concern in the Russian Far East immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991; however, it has declined significantly with stricter law enforcement and better economic conditions.[108]
The most significant threat to sea otters is oil spills,[67] to which they are particularly vulnerable, since they rely on their fur to keep warm. When their fur is soaked with oil, it loses its ability to retain air, and the animals can quickly die from hypothermia.[67] The liver, kidneys, and lungs of sea otters also become damaged after they inhale oil or ingest it when grooming.[67] The Exxon Valdez oil spill of 24 March 1989 killed thousands of sea otters in Prince William Sound, and as of 2006, the lingering oil in the area continues to affect the population.[183] Describing the public sympathy for sea otters that developed from media coverage of the event, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson wrote:
As a playful, photogenic, innocent bystander, the sea otter epitomized the role of victim … cute and frolicsome sea otters suddenly in distress, oiled, frightened, and dying, in a losing battle with the oil.[19]
The small geographic ranges of the sea otter populations in California, Washington, and British Columbia mean a single major spill could be catastrophic for that state or province.[19][57][63] Prevention of oil spills and preparation to rescue otters if one happens is a major focus for conservation efforts. Increasing the size and range of sea otter populations would also reduce the risk of an oil spill wiping out a population.[19] However, because of the species’ reputation for depleting shellfish resources, advocates for commercial, recreational, and subsistence shellfish harvesting have often opposed allowing the sea otter’s range to increase, and there have even been instances of fishermen and others illegally killing them.[184]
In the Aleutian Islands, a massive and unexpected disappearance of sea otters has occurred in recent decades. In the 1980s, the area was home to an estimated 55,000 to 100,000 sea otters, but the population fell to around 6,000 animals by 2000.[185] The most widely accepted, but still controversial, hypothesis is that killer whales have been eating the otters. The pattern of disappearances is consistent with a rise in predation, but there has been no direct evidence of orcas preying on sea otters to any significant extent.[114]
Another area of concern is California, where recovery began to fluctuate or decline in the late 1990s.[186] Unusually high mortality rates amongst adult and subadult otters, particularly females, have been reported.[106] In 2017 the US Geological Survey found a 3% drop in the sea otter population of the California coast. This number still keeps them on track for removal from the endangered species list, although just barely.[187] Necropsies of dead sea otters indicate diseases, particularly Toxoplasma gondii and acanthocephalan parasite infections, are major causes of sea otter mortality in California.[188] The Toxoplasma gondii parasite, which is often fatal to sea otters, is carried by wild and domestic cats and may be transmitted by domestic cat droppings flushed into the ocean via sewage systems.[188][189] Although disease has clearly contributed to the deaths of many of California’s sea otters, it is not known why the California population is apparently more affected by disease than populations in other areas.[188]
Sea otters off the coast of Washington, within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary
Sea otter habitat is preserved through several protected areas in the United States, Russia and Canada. In marine protected areas, polluting activities such as dumping of waste and oil drilling are typically prohibited.[190] An estimated 1,200 sea otters live within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and more than 500 live within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.[191][192]
Economic impact
Some of the sea otter’s preferred prey species, particularly abalone, clams, and crabs, are also food sources for humans. In some areas, massive declines in shellfish harvests have been blamed on the sea otter, and intense public debate has taken place over how to manage the competition between sea otters and humans for seafood.[193]
The debate is complicated because sea otters have sometimes been held responsible for declines of shellfish stocks that were more likely caused by overfishing, disease, pollution, and seismic activity.[63][194] Shellfish declines have also occurred in many parts of the North American Pacific coast that do not have sea otters, and conservationists sometimes note the existence of large concentrations of shellfish on the coast is a recent development resulting from the fur trade’s near-extirpation of the sea otter.[194] Although many factors affect shellfish stocks, sea otter predation can deplete a fishery to the point where it is no longer commercially viable.[193] Scientists agree that sea otters and abalone fisheries cannot exist in the same area,[193] and the same is likely true for certain other types of shellfish, as well.[185]
Many facets of the interaction between sea otters and the human economy are not as immediately felt. Sea otters have been credited with contributing to the kelp harvesting industry via their well-known role in controlling sea urchin populations; kelp is used in the production of diverse food and pharmaceutical products.[195] Although human divers harvest red sea urchins both for food and to protect the kelp, sea otters hunt more sea urchin species and are more consistently effective in controlling these populations.[196] E. lutris is a controlling predator of the red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) in the Bering Sea, which would otherwise be out of control as it is in its invasive range, the Barents Sea.[197] (Berents otters, Lutra lutra, occupy the same ecological niche and so are believed to help to control them in the Berents but this has not been studied.)[197] The health of the kelp forest ecosystem is significant in nurturing populations of fish, including commercially important fish species.[195] In some areas, sea otters are popular tourist attractions, bringing visitors to local hotels, restaurants, and sea otter-watching expeditions.[195]
Roles in human cultures
Aleut carving of a sea otter hunt
Left: Aleut sea otter amulet in the form of a mother with pup. Above: Aleut carving of a sea otter hunt on a whalebone spear. Both items are on display at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg. Articles depicting sea otters were considered to have magical properties.[198]
For many maritime indigenous cultures throughout the North Pacific, especially the Ainu in the Kuril Islands, the Koryaks and Itelmen of Kamchatka, the Aleut in the Aleutian Islands, the Haida of Haida Gwaii[199] and a host of tribes on the Pacific coast of North America, the sea otter has played an important role as a cultural, as well as material, resource. In these cultures, many of which have strongly animist traditions full of legends and stories in which many aspects of the natural world are associated with spirits, the sea otter was considered particularly kin to humans. The Nuu-chah-nulth, Haida, and other First Nations of coastal British Columbia used the warm and luxurious pelts as chiefs’ regalia. Sea otter pelts were given in potlatches to mark coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings, and funerals.[68] The Aleuts carved sea otter bones for use as ornaments and in games, and used powdered sea otter baculum as a medicine for fever.[200]
Among the Ainu, the otter is portrayed as an occasional messenger between humans and the creator.[201] The sea otter is a recurring figure in Ainu folklore. A major Ainu epic, the Kutune Shirka, tells the tale of wars and struggles over a golden sea otter. Versions of a widespread Aleut legend tell of lovers or despairing women who plunge into the sea and become otters.[202] These links have been associated with the many human-like behavioral features of the sea otter, including apparent playfulness, strong mother-pup bonds and tool use, yielding to ready anthropomorphism.[203] The beginning of commercial exploitation had a great impact on the human, as well as animal, populations. The Ainu and Aleuts have been displaced or their numbers are dwindling, while the coastal tribes of North America, where the otter is in any case greatly depleted, no longer rely as intimately on sea mammals for survival.[204]
Since the mid-1970s, the beauty and charisma of the species have gained wide appreciation, and the sea otter has become an icon of environmental conservation.[186] The round, expressive face and soft, furry body of the sea otter are depicted in a wide variety of souvenirs, postcards, clothing, and stuffed toys.[205]
Aquariums and zoos
Sea otters can do well in captivity, and are featured in over 40 public aquariums and zoos.[206] The Seattle Aquarium became the first institution to raise sea otters from conception to adulthood with the birth of Tichuk in 1979, followed by three more pups in the early 1980s.[207] In 2007, a YouTube video of two sea otters holding paws drew 1.5 million viewers in two weeks, and had over 22 million views as of July 2022.[208] Filmed five years previously at the Vancouver Aquarium, it was YouTube’s most popular animal video at the time, although it has since been surpassed. The lighter-colored otter in the video is Nyac, a survivor of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.[209] Nyac died in September 2008, at the age of 20.[210] Milo, the darker one, died of lymphoma in January 2012.[211]
Current conservation
Sea otters, being a known keystone species, need a humanitarian effort to be protected from endangerment through "unregulated human exploitation".[212] This species has increasingly been impacted by the large oil spills and environmental degradation caused by overfishing and entanglement in fishing gear.[213] Current efforts have been made in legislation: the international Fur Seal Treaty, The Endangered Species Act, IUCN/The World Conservation Union, Convention on international Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Other conservation efforts are done through reintroduction and zoological parks. Wikipedia
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]]>wardrobe 8-23-12
Image by BellaGaia
i have been losing weight (not on purpose) but a lot apparently – nothing fits anymore (except these clothes are from 2009 and i weighed probably 25 pounds more!)
the stress in my life is taking a toll – a big reason i am taking a few of these wardrobe pix – i need a little boost in the morning to help me have some pep in the morning.
www.flickr.com/photos/teeokeefe/3379663456/in/set-7215760…
need to remember how to do that html link thing.
anyway – trying to take a stab at bright color blocking – the heels – too high, had to replace them before i walked out of the house!
skirt – shape fx (which accounts for why it still fits – it’s lycra)
blouse – worthington
shoes – shoe dazzle
belt – chicos (it’s one made from two parts that slip to become smaller or larger, if needed) about the only belt that fits…
so maybe today’s theme is more about versatile sizing than color blocking
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]]>Killer Toast Or What Has Carbs Got To Do With Everything?
Image by Earthworm
Labeled as only 15 grams of carbohydrate, toast is 60% carbs as opposed to 40% when it’s bread which takes longer to digest. Toast spiked my blood sugar to 132 mg/dl which is more than ice cream at 105 mg/dl, but not as much as cooked steel cut oatmeal which tops all my readings at 155 mg/dl. (Normal is 85.) Why is this bad?
Here is the science as I have gleaned from my reading of "Good Calories, Bad Calories". I had to read parts of the book several times to keep from glossing over the technical details, but once I read slowly enough to visualize what each component of the metabolic system did, it became easier to understand.
So to begin, most food breaks down in the blood stream and becomes sugar. Sugar is already sugar so jumps right in there. Carbohydrates, especially refined, cooked carbs also turn to sugar very fast. Too much sugar in the blood registers as high blood sugar. High blood sugars are toxic to the body, wreaking havoc on kidneys and other organs.
The normal body takes care of these spikes from food by releasing insulin from the pancreas, which allows the blood sugars to be absorbed by various parts of the body i.e. muscle tissue, thus taking it out of the blood stream and converting it to fuel for the body. This is how the body regulates itself to survive during periods of no food whether for a few hours, or weeks, or months. Too much insulin and the body becomes insulin resistant; first the muscle tissue refuses to take in the sugars, so it goes to the fat tissue where it is stored indefinitely as fat.
A handful of hormones allows the energy stored as fat to be disassembled into fatty acids that go back into the blood stream where it can be used as fuel by other parts of the body. If there is too much insulin in the body, the hormones aren’t able to facilitate this transference and the fat stays locked down in the adipose tissue. (Note to my fellow organizers: one study showed that rats that had had their ovaries removed and thus were estrogen deprived, ate voraciously and stored food in their cages. Infusing estrogen back into these rats suppressed the food-hoarding. Sounds like something hoarding researchers should look into. See p. 373.)
It is possible to release fat from your body by starving yourself thus engaging one of the survival mechanisms of our bodies; this will make you hungry which is why restricting food (going on a diet) is rarely maintained and can cause psychological disorders such as depression. As food intake drops, thyroid hormone falls and metabolic rate is lowered. The starvation diet is telling the body there isn’t any food out there so stay quiet, hibernate. The longer this goes on, the more efficient the body gets at using fat sparingly.
Once the fuel is used up the body will want to replenish the lost reserves right away, at first. Being hungry serves the purpose of alerting us to find more food. The body can release fat with hard labor, but will do this sparingly, i.e., more slowly than when it made the fat in the first place, in case food supplies are really low. No food is better than a tiny morsel as far as satisfying hunger. No food tells the body to lie low, stay peaceful, maybe even die.
So calorie restriction and exercise is the hardest way to lose weight and may make you irritable on top of it. Which is why it’s so pathologically entertaining to watch all those fat people struggling on "The Biggest Loser". What the show doesn’t dwell on is that the participants are eating a comparatively high fat, low carb diet with no sodas permitted (no sandwiches, no cereals, half a tortilla, carbs mostly in veggies, etc), which would allow them to lose weight anyway. In fact it would probably be easier on them to lose much of the weight before undergoing the heart endangering marathon exercise regime, but of course, not as good TV. And thus that warning at the end about checking with your doctor before attempting this at home.
The easy way to lose weight is to eat fatty foods to satisfy appetite and restrict easily digestible carbs like toast, oatmeal, mashed potatoes, white rice, pasta—especially overcooked pasta and most of all anything with high fructose corn syrup. That stuff has a special feature; it doesn’t affect blood sugar so it gives the appearance of being healthier on the glycemic index, but the kicker is that it goes straight to the liver which converts the fructose directly to fat molecules—triglycerides to be precise. That which your doctor may point to, on your blood work, as heading into cardiac arrest territory.
Most of my peeps know to avoid sodas, but we have not yet learned about the carbohydrates, drives insulin, drives fat equation. At least I had not because I never had to care about weight loss. My problem seems to be more about the insulin resistance not allowing the muscles to build up and the fat tissues becoming insulin resistant before I could lay down any fat; this seems more typical of Type 1 diabetes. Practically speaking my blood sugars were perpetually high and I’m hypoglycemic after eating 3 Ritz crackers, knocked out as though hit by a drug.
But high blood sugars is not just about training the body to become diabetic or obese. It also weighs in on other health issues because everyone can be affected by levels of insulin and possibly become insulin resistant.
Hypertension for one. Here’s another one of those medical establishment myths debunked. No evidence has shown that eating salt results in salt in the blood, or only slightly for a short time. Reducing salt in your diet has only a marginal effect on salt in the body. However a carbohydrate rich diet prompts the kidneys to hold onto salt, rather than excrete it. The body retains water to keep the sodium concentrate constant which causes blood pressure to go up. So if you want to get off those antihypertensive drugs (a diuretic to make you pee both salt and water out) try reducing carb intake.
Heart disease: Once carbs flood the blood stream with glucose, the liver picks up some of it and transforms it into fat. This fat boat, called a triglyceride, floats around the body delivering bits of fat and shrinking as fat is dropped off. The more carbohydrates, the bigger and lighter and longer living the triglyceride boat which then becomes the small, dense artherogenic (plaque making) LDL—the bad cholesterol. If no carbs eaten, then smaller and heavier boat that ends up as large, fluffy benign LDL. Since these LDL twins are seen as one, triglyceride counts are a better indicator of heart disease.
As for Alzheimer patients. A healthy brain clears away amyloid proteins (which are made when a certain larger protein is split), but an insulin-filled brain is occupied with clearing out insulin and cannot also clear out amyloid proteins. It is these proteins that combine with glucose to form plaques called amyloid-plaque accumulation (AGEs) and that accumulation causes vascular damage in the brain.
And cancer. Fat does not cause cancer and being fat does not cause cancer, rather getting fat may be a result of cancer activity. Glucose intolerance seems to play a part in cancer. Cancerous cells are mutations that occur all the time when new cells are made, but they only become tumors once they can grow and they only grow in the presence of insulin. Cancer cells have more receptors for insulin which allows it to feed more readily on blood sugars than other cells which become insulin resistant over a short time. Cancer cells burn perhaps 30x more sugar than normal cells. Thus the "sugar feeds cancer" premise I’ve been hearing about. But no one mentioned carbs turning into sugar so quickly so I didn’t make the connection. Researches did not see the need to take into account that carbs were easily made into sugar because they were biased by the fat-leads-to-cholesterol theory so thought carbs were irrelevant.
(A note about environmental toxins was made in reference to a researcher attributing the causes of disease to external circumstances. He meant eating and lifestyle habits, but the public took it as an affirmation that the "toxic soup" we live in is a danger to us; scientists responded to this misinterpretation saying that there was no actual evidence for toxins causing disease. I believe we are subject to toxic impact as far as endocrine interrupters and birth defects, but that is not about disease.)
And tooth decay. Sugar intake parallels carb intake in baked goods, cereals, crackers, etc. So dental problems parallel these other diseases of civilization.
Longevity. The hypothesis is that he who has the most free radicals (caused by oxidation generated by cells burning fuel), is bogged down by glycation—the binding of sugars to proteins in a haphazard, plastic-in-the-ocean kind of way, attracting toxic sequelae—big word for stuff that causes infection. You can reduce free radicals by half starving yourself and burning less fuel, a strategy my 95 lb, super-active mother seems to have employed. However, reduced blood sugar and thus reduced insulin resistance leads to reduced oxidative stress and decrease in glycation. Researchers are also making a connection between insulin activity and a doubling of life span triggered by a mutation too complex for me to grok, but is about organisms waiting out a bad spell in food supply in order to stay young enough to reproduce when there is food available.
This whole story about the bodies ability to survive is not quite as romantic and action packed as the increasingly popular Paleo diet story about hunters constantly having to run down game (and then gorging on meat). From descriptions recorded by early naturalists, when there was game, it was there in such abundance that it had to be cleared away like so much underbrush by settlers trying to proceed. Running a lot and shooting off your bow and arrow makes good The Hunger Games, but is hard on your joints and may cause carpel tunnel syndrome. Better that the humans be walking together in community, from food source to food source setting traps and when the going gets tough, hunkering down in caves together communing with spirits. Life alternating between mobile mardi gras and Shamanic sheltering in place.
With agriculture came the enslavement of most humans to till the land, thus enabling some humans to develop civilization as we know it in all its material glory. Chronic disease may be the price we pay especially if we stick with conventional wisdom.
Enterprise!
Image by Chris Devers
Posted via email to ☛ HoloChromaCinePhotoRamaScope‽: cdevers.posterous.com/enterprise-0. See the full gallery on Posterous …
• • • • •
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Space Shuttle Enterprise:
Manufacturer:
Rockwell International Corporation
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 57 ft. tall x 122 ft. long x 78 ft. wing span, 150,000 lb.
(1737.36 x 3718.57 x 2377.44cm, 68039.6kg)
Materials:
Aluminum airframe and body with some fiberglass features; payload bay doors are graphite epoxy composite; thermal tiles are simulated (polyurethane foam) except for test samples of actual tiles and thermal blankets.
The first Space Shuttle orbiter, "Enterprise," is a full-scale test vehicle used for flights in the atmosphere and tests on the ground; it is not equipped for spaceflight. Although the airframe and flight control elements are like those of the Shuttles flown in space, this vehicle has no propulsion system and only simulated thermal tiles because these features were not needed for atmospheric and ground tests. "Enterprise" was rolled out at Rockwell International’s assembly facility in Palmdale, California, in 1976. In 1977, it entered service for a nine-month-long approach-and-landing test flight program. Thereafter it was used for vibration tests and fit checks at NASA centers, and it also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. In 1985, NASA transferred "Enterprise" to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• • •
Quoting from Wikipedia | Space Shuttle Enterprise:
The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.
Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made it the second space shuttle to fly after Columbia. However, during the construction of Columbia, details of the final design changed, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an expensive proposition, it was determined to be less costly to build Challenger around a body frame (STA-099) that had been created as a test article. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead.
Service
Construction began on the first orbiter on June 4, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was originally planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A write-in campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek. Although Ford did not mention the campaign, the president—who during World War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26) that served with USS Enterprise (CV-6)—said that he was "partial to the name" and overrode NASA officials.
The design of OV-101 was not the same as that planned for OV-102, the first flight model; the tail was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A large number of subsystems—ranging from main engines to radar equipment—were not installed on this vehicle, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained. Instead of a thermal protection system, its surface was primarily fiberglass.
In mid-1976, the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, allowing engineers to compare data from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models.
On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell’s plant at Palmdale, California. In recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony.
Approach and landing tests (ALT)
Main article: Approach and Landing Tests
On January 31, 1977, it was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to begin operational testing.
While at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was used by NASA for a variety of ground and flight tests intended to validate aspects of the shuttle program. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for "Approach and Landing Test". These tests included a maiden "flight" on February 18, 1977 atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking characteristics of the mated system. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems were carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight.
The mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The purpose of these test flights was to measure the flight characteristics of the mated combination. These tests were followed with three test flights with Enterprise manned to test the shuttle flight control systems.
Enterprise underwent five free flights where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed under astronaut control. These tests verified the flight characteristics of the orbiter design and were carried out under several aerodynamic and weight configurations. On the fifth and final glider flight, pilot-induced oscillation problems were revealed, which had to be addressed before the first orbital launch occurred.
On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise flew on its own for the first time.
Preparation for STS-1
Following the ALT program, Enterprise was ferried among several NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters (known as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A.
Retirement
With the completion of critical testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to allow certain components to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour visiting France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana (during the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition). It was also used to fit-check the never-used shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. Finally, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became property of the Smithsonian Institution.
Post-Challenger
After the Challenger disaster, NASA considered using Enterprise as a replacement. However refitting the shuttle with all of the necessary equipment needed for it to be used in space was considered, but instead it was decided to use spares constructed at the same time as Discovery and Atlantis to build Endeavour.
Post-Columbia
In 2003, after the breakup of Columbia during re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board conducted tests at Southwest Research Institute, which used an air gun to shoot foam blocks of similar size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing leading edge. They removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise’s wing to perform analysis of the material and attached it to the test structure, then shot a foam block at it. While the panel was not broken as a result of the test, the impact was enough to permanently deform a seal. As the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on Columbia was 2.5 times weaker, this suggested that the RCC leading edge would have been shattered. Additional tests on the fiberglass were canceled in order not to risk damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to determine the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC leading edge. On July 7, 2003, a foam impact test created a hole 41 cm by 42.5 cm (16.1 inches by 16.7 inches) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly demonstrated that a foam impact of the type Columbia sustained could seriously breach the protective RCC panels on the wing leading edge.
The board determined that the probable cause of the accident was that the foam impact caused a breach of a reinforced carbon-carbon panel along the leading edge of Columbia’s left wing, allowing hot gases generated during re-entry to enter the wing and cause structural collapse. This caused Columbia to spin out of control, breaking up with the loss of the entire crew.
Museum exhibit
Enterprise was stored at the Smithsonian’s hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport before it was restored and moved to the newly built Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, where it has been the centerpiece of the space collection. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, will be added to the collection once the Shuttle fleet is retired. When that happens, Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, to a newly constructed hangar adjacent to the museum. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the vehicle in early 2010 and determined that it was safe to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft once again.
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]]>The post business travel first appeared on Weight Loss Motivation.
]]>business travel
Image by buckshot.jones
A fresh faced college grad is interviewing for a job. The person conducting the interview mentions that the job requires a fair amount of travel. He explains that the travel requirement is 50- 75%. Our eager candidate thinks, that’s not so bad, a couple weeks per month, expense account, nice hotels and frequent traveler perks…how can I lose? So they take the job all excited about jetting into Chicago, New York or other glamorous places. Within 60 days the job and the travel start to feel like weight. The romance is gone the first time they sit through an eight hour delay in Kansas City International. Then one day, after five or more years on the road, they become resigned to the delays and hassles of business travel. At that point their emotions even out and they have become a true travel professional. They leave all the red- faced & red assed rants to the amateurs. They know travel is hell, no sense getting worked up over it.
Bonnie Fournier
Image by Renegade98
‘She stays alive in all of us’
Victim impact I Family members overcome by emotion as they remember their loved ones
Lori Culbert, Neal Hall and Jeff Lee
Vancouver Sun
Monday, December 10, 2007
Karin Joesbury looked up at the grey sky, tears running from her eyes, overcome by emotion upon hearing that Robert (Willie) Pickton had been convicted of the second-degree murder of her daughter Andrea.
Surrounded by relatives of the other five women Pickton was convicted of killing — and of another 20 he is accused of killing — Joesbury wept as the mournful lyrics of the song Missing played during a candlelight ceremony in front of the New Westminster Courthouse Sunday.
Andrea Joesbury’s grandfather, Jack Cummer, had asked Canadian poet Susan Musgrave to write the lyrics to the song, in memory of his granddaughter and the other missing women. Listening to the song seemed too much for Karin Joesbury to bear.
"I hope that her death doesn’t go in vain, and it will change the way we look at those most vulnerable in our society," said Joesbury, of Victoria, who described her daughter as creative and loving.
"I still have two other children who miss their sister very much …. It’s more the way she died. It’s hard to lose a child or loved one, but the way in which she was taken. I knew something was wrong but I didn’t have the money to come over and get her again [from the Downtown Eastside]. I came and got her three times. I wanted to come back but I couldn’t afford it."
Relatives and friends cried, trembled and held each other for support while listening to the song, which listed the names of 65 missing women, including the six Pickton was convicted Sunday of murdering: Joesbury, Mona Wilson, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin, Sereena Abotsway, and Marnie Frey.
"Never forgotten. You were never, ever forgotten today," Bonnie Fournier, a longtime nurse in the Downtown Eastside, cried out during the candlelight ceremony.
She later said the system failed these women, and there should have been more detox services and other resources to help them get off the street.
"The government has let them down desperately," Fournier said.
Fournier hugged a weeping Tory Boen, the emotional son of missing woman Yvonne Boen, telling him: "I loved your mom."
Cynthia Cardinal and her two sisters have been in the courthouse for the last week. They were hoping for a first-degree conviction in the death of their other sister Georgina Papin but are "satisfied" with a second-degree verdict.
"I feel a lot of weight lifted off our shoulders and we can finally try to get back to our normal lives now. This has been a long and hard ordeal for us," she said, tears welling in her eyes. "We’ve had an emotional roller-coaster ride … Georgina is happy today and I can feel her here. She’s all over the place here and she’s smiling again — she had the most beautiful smile. I love you, Georgina."
She said they are anxious to finally get Georgina’s remains so they can give her a proper burial, and give the family a place to mourn.
Bonnie Fowler, Georgina’s other sister, wept as she talked about the friends of Georgina she has met since coming to New Westminster to wait for the verdict. "I’d like to thank Georgia for sharing all the gifts she’s giving us while we were here …. She stays alive in all of us and nobody can take that away."
Patty Evans held up a medicine pouch, filled with healing stones, made by her mother Elaine and given to many of the relatives of the victims in honour of her sister, Brenda Wolfe.
"I still don’t have my sister, but we have justice on her behalf. She was a beautiful person, she was loved," Evans said.
Ada Wilson said she hoped Pickton could hear her speaking because she had waited a long time to say how she felt about the murder of her sister Mona.
"He’s taken a lot away from me, he’s got no idea. But now to me it doesn’t seem fair because he’s still alive and she’s not," Wilson said. "It’s really hard around Christmas time, because that was the best time for me and her and the family."
Rick Frey, father of Marnie Frey, questioned why police didn’t catch Pickton sooner or respond more quickly to the disappearance of women from the Downtown Eastside.
"This can’t go on. Go to the east end now and it’s still the same thing. It’s appalling … there’s still people suffering," said Frey, who added he would like to see a public inquiry into the case.
Frey said he was worried the jury wouldn’t return a guilty verdict on his daughter, who disappeared in 1997 and for whom police found the least amount of evidence on the farm.
"We’re extremely fortunate we got a guilty verdict out of that," Frey said.
Sereena Abotsway’s half-brother Jay Draayers was in court Sunday to hear the verdict, but declined to speak to the media.
Just minutes before a verdict was announced, relatives of the native victims invited non-native families to a healing ceremony outside the courthouse.
"A lot of us families have been kind of segregated and we all got together and that was it. And then the verdict is coming down. I don’t know, take it as a sign," said Marilyn Kraft, whose daughter is among the 20 women at the centre of Pickton’s second trial.
lculbert@png.canwest.com
This poem, read as victims’ families lit candles outside the courthouse on Sunday, was written by Betty Nordin, who knows some of the families and sex-trade workers.
NOBODY SEES HER
She’s sitting huddled in the corner of the building
Shivering in the cold
Nobody sees her
She’s standing on the street shivering in the rain
Nobody sees her
She’s sitting in the back of a greasy cafe
Hunched over a cup of coffee
Nobody sees her
She’s waiting for a john to pick her up
Nobody sees her
She’s sitting on a filthy floor covered with used
Points, garbage and empty beer bottles
Nobody sees her
She’s lying on the cold hard ground that some
John has dumped her on
Nobody sees her
She’s puking as she slaps and prods her veins so the rig
Can give her that moment of feeling good
Nobody sees her
She’s just a junkie people say;
She’s nothing
Nobody sees her
She’s a missing, forgotten and lost girl
Nobody sees her
But today, everybody sees her
She is found in an unmarked hole in the ground
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=48ff4036-f…
Paleo Bodybuilder – Paleolithic Diet Crossfit Fitness Caveman Primal Inuit Masai Mark Sisson Robb Wolf Freetheanimal Movnat Muscle Protein Info
Image by Paleo-Caveman-Omnivore-LowCarb-Meat-Diet-Info
Paleo Bodybuilder! – See Photo – Effects of the Paleo Diet on muscle mass.
The Paleo Diet is based upon what grok the Caveman did, and ate. Cross Fit applauds the Paleo Diet, which was ranked last by medical experts in USNEWS & WORLD REPORTS. If it wasn’t done by cavemen, then it shouldn’t be done by you.
This is why if you join crossfit, you don’t shower after working out and getting sweaty. Afterall, Cavemen didn’t have showers. Or soap. So in order to preserve the bacteria, you should wear it. Don’t worry, crossfit gyms have something called a "crossfit puke bucket" if either the smell of paleo B.O. or the horrible taste of raw organ meats makes you have to throw up.
Crossfit Fitness palaces have pukebuckets because the paleo diet is hard on the human body, and wrecks cardio and endurance, so even a light-weight workout of burpees often makes crossfitters throw up. Then lie on the floor full of sweat because they are mentally and athletically exhausted. Paleo and Crossfit make your muscle dwindle, because the paleo diet is catabolic. Without enough carbs, your body needs to cannibalize something else. First it’s fat. This is why those on lowcarb atkins paleo ketogenic diets often report losing weight, at first, but then these diets exhaust the fat and begin using protein as fuel. Yes, that means if you go on a Paleo diet, or lowcarb, or atkins, you’re essentially "teaching your body to eat away at your own muscle". By eating high protein, your body now thinks protein is fuel. What else is made of protein? Muscles. So you’ve taught your body to eat it’s own muscles, decreasing their mass. Paleo and lowcarb, deprivation of grains and carbs, is the opposite of what you want for bodybuilding. Picture african tribes, they’re all skinny and sinewy. Like the physique of a marathon runner, not a bodybuilder.
Thus the Paleo Diet and Crossfit have become the laughing-stock of the fitness world, akin to things like "The Shake Weight!" with so many testimonials of people saying how "it works!" and "It worked for me! I lost weight!". Of course if you believe anecdotes and before and afters and chat board commenters, then every infomercial and fitness contraption and diet plan are the "best" right? Because they ALL have pictures of before and after, and people absolutely VOWING up and down that it worked for them. Watch for people touting crossfit and paleo like this. You’ll see it. Meanwhile they’re teaching their bodies to deplete their muscle. It’s catabolic.
And with the estrogenic effects of the compounds now found in steak, including grassfed beef, and even organic meat, men who eat grassfed beef, especially barbequed, begin to grow more effeminate due to the effects of heterocyclic amines only found in meat, such as "PhIP". PhIP which is in grassfed meat and steak has effects like feminine estrogen on males. This is why Crossfit Paleo Diets lack the proper nutrients and come up deficient for bodybuilding and ranked last among diets in terms of human health.
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]]>New Yorkers would never have a car like this one
Image by Ed Yourdon
This photo was taken on 90th Street, between Broadway and West End Avenue.
One can only wonder whether every car and license plate in Arizona looks like this one …
Note: this photo was published in a Jul 21, 2013 WeightLoss Plans blog, with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written here on this Flickr page.
***************
This set of photos is based on a very simple concept: walk every block of Manhattan with a camera, and see what happens. To avoid missing anything, walk both sides of the street.
That’s all there is to it …
Of course, if you wanted to be more ambitious, you could also walk the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. But that’s more than I’m willing to commit to at this point, and I’ll leave the remaining boroughs of New York City to other, more adventurous photographers.
Oh, actually, there’s one more small detail: leave the photos alone for a month — unedited, untouched, and unviewed. By the time I actually focus on the first of these "every-block" photos, I will have taken more than 8,000 images on the nearby streets of the Upper West Side — plus another several thousand in Rome, Coney Island, and the various spots in NYC where I traditionally take photos. So I don’t expect to be emotionally attached to any of the "every-block" photos, and hope that I’ll be able to make an objective selection of the ones worth looking at.
As for the criteria that I’ve used to select the small subset of every-block photos that get uploaded to Flickr: there are three. First, I’ll upload any photo that I think is "great," and where I hope the reaction of my Flickr-friends will be, "I have no idea when or where that photo was taken, but it’s really a terrific picture!"
A second criterion has to do with place, and the third involves time. I’m hoping that I’ll take some photos that clearly say, "This is New York!" to anyone who looks at it. Obviously, certain landscape icons like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty would satisfy that criterion; but I’m hoping that I’ll find other, more unexpected examples. I hope that I’ll be able to take some shots that will make a "local" viewer say, "Well, even if that’s not recognizable to someone from another part of the country, or another part of the world, I know that that’s New York!" And there might be some photos where a "non-local" viewer might say, "I had no idea that there was anyplace in New York City that was so interesting/beautiful/ugly/spectacular."
As for the sense of time: I remember wandering around my neighborhood in 2005, photographing various shops, stores, restaurants, and business establishments — and then casually looking at the photos about five years later, and being stunned by how much had changed. Little by little, store by store, day by day, things change … and when you’ve been around as long as I have, it’s even more amazing to go back and look at the photos you took thirty or forty years ago, and ask yourself, "Was it really like that back then? Seriously, did people really wear bell-bottom jeans?"
So, with the expectation that I’ll be looking at these every-block photos five or ten years from now (and maybe you will be, too), I’m going to be doing my best to capture scenes that convey the sense that they were taken in the year 2013 … or at least sometime in the decade of the 2010’s (I have no idea what we’re calling this decade yet). Or maybe they’ll just say to us, "This is what it was like a dozen years after 9-11".
Movie posters are a trivial example of such a time-specific image; I’ve already taken a bunch, and I don’t know if I’ll ultimately decide that they’re worth uploading. Women’s fashion/styles are another obvious example of a time-specific phenomenon; and even though I’m definitely not a fashion expert, I suspected that I’ll be able to look at some images ten years from now and mutter to myself, "Did we really wear shirts like that? Did women really wear those weird skirts that are short in the front, and long in the back? Did everyone in New York have a tattoo?"
Another example: I’m fascinated by the interactions that people have with their cellphones out on the street. It seems that everyone has one, which certainly wasn’t true a decade ago; and it seems that everyone walks down the street with their eyes and their entire conscious attention riveted on this little box-like gadget, utterly oblivious about anything else that might be going on (among other things, that makes it very easy for me to photograph them without their even noticing, particularly if they’ve also got earphones so they can listen to music or carry on a phone conversation). But I can’t help wondering whether this kind of social behavior will seem bizarre a decade from now … especially if our cellphones have become so miniaturized that they’re incorporated into the glasses we wear, or implanted directly into our eyeballs.
Oh, one last thing: I’ve created a customized Google Map to show the precise details of each day’s photo-walk. I’ll be updating it each day, and the most recent part of my every-block journey will be marked in red, to differentiate it from all of the older segments of the journey, which will be shown in blue. You can see the map, and peek at it each day to see where I’ve been, by clicking on this link
URL link to Ed’s every-block progress through Manhattan
If you have any suggestions about places that I should definitely visit to get some good photos, or if you’d like me to photograph you in your little corner of New York City, please let me know. You can send me a Flickr-mail message, or you can email me directly at ed-at-yourdon-dot-com
Stay tuned as the photo-walk continues, block by block …
How to make milk kefir
Image by Stephen Pearson
Milk kefir ingredients lowcarbalpha.com/how-to-make-milk-kefir/ , grains on a wooden spoon and finished recipe in a glass
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