16 August 07
Wireless For Frogs And Mice
On Monday I heard a presentation about Quail Ridge Reserve, one of the University of California natural reserves that is administered by UC Davis. Quail Ridge sticks out as a peninsula into Lake Berryessa, about 40 kilometers west of here. Quail Ridge Reserve has gone hi-tech. In a collaboration with the computer science department, the reserve managers have set up towers and repeaters to create a wireless mesh network covering much of the reserve. The technology used is the standard wireless found in many a laptop, but the environment and scale of the network is of a degree to make the project interesting to computer scientists.
Putting a natural reserve on the Internet leads to some neat possibilities. One researcher, who left UC Davis for a position at the University of Michigan, can continue to monitor the calling of frogs he was studying in real time. Webcams have been set up that can be reoriented over the net, looking for foxes, mountain lions, and snakes. And plans are afoot to set up a triangulation network that will enable tracking of critters such as radio-collared mice down to accuracies of less than a meter. The only other such triangulation network is at Barro Colorado Island in Panama, with much less favorable topography.
14 August 07
Shake Your Tail
A study at UC Davis shows that California ground squirrels generate measurable heat when waving their tails around rattlesnakes, which apparently helps deter the snakes from attacking them. (Adults are resistant and even immune to rattlesnake venom; the snakes go after the younger squirrels, which don’t have enough blood to make them safe.)
I have occasion to watch this tail-wagging, though there aren’t really any rattlesnakes on the valley floor, here. The adults chase each other around outside my window at work all day long, tails thrashing, in a kind of come-hither routine that involves lots of running, lots of thrashing, lots of sniffing, and very, very rarely, a copulation. They do seem to use their tails in communication as well….
14 August 07
Leaving Town
The swarm of bees that left the hive in the nectarine tree to camp in the almond tree have moved on. Pica returned home for lunch to find the drive leading out back clouded with thousands of flying bees and the almond tree empty. It all makes me think of colonists in a game of Freeciv moving one square off from the city before heading out into the wilderness in the next turn.
11 August 07
Four Years
Four years ago yesterday, I snapped my achilles tendon. It cheated me out of a really fun tandem ride. We went out last night to celebrate our marriage at the same restaurant we’d gone to on the night before our wedding, surrounded by friends and family (a couple of them a bit whackily dressed).
9 August 07
Secession
There is now a bee swarm in the almond tree, and the hive in the nectarine tree is looking a bit depopulated. We wonder what honey bee affairs of state lead to half the hive heading off to a new tree fifty feet from the old hive. Perhaps a second queen leaving the premises? At any rate this afternoon there were definitely some confused bees flying about — which tree do I fly to now?
8 August 07
756
Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron tonight in the all-time home run record.
I had just finished mopping the floor and turned the washing machine off. They didn’t pitch around him, the Nationals. They went after him, and he got an inside fast ball and hit it far into the graveyard zone.
It was a choked-up moment, when Hank Aaron came on to congratulate Barry and encourage us all to chase our dreams.
Steroids or not, intentional walks or not — it’s an amazing achievement. I’m glad I heard it.
6 August 07
Musicological Podcasts Await
For some reason I was thinking about Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ piano sonata today (Opus 53 in C major), all of which led me to discover that the pianist Andras Schiff in the course of performing the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle in London last year also gave a series of accompanying lectures. Podcasts of the eight-part lecture series are available from the Guardian Unlimited music site.
5 August 07
Slow Food
Fernanda came over today. We had nectarine crisp from the new solar oven and nectarine ice cream she’d made. (It’s nectarine season here in the Central Valley.) Fernanda blogs mostly about food, now, though she’s a veteran Brazilian blogger from back when everyone knew everyone else, from back way beyond when anyone I knew was blogging.
We were talking about the Slow Food Movement — how it has done wonderful work promoting good, locally produced food eaten with friends or family while, gasp, sitting down — but we both wish it weren’t quite so elitist. (The upcoming Yolo Slow Food event costs $65 — out of range of most people, even though it’s a fundraiser..)
2 August 07
Vin Scully Avoids His Fate
The legendary Dodgers broadcaster, Vin Scully, was quite ambivalent about the prospect of calling Barry Bonds’ 755th home run to tie Hank Aaron’s record. No worries though, as Bonds managed only one hit, a single, in the three-game series against the Dodgers. The Giants’ road trip concludes this weekend against the San Diego Padres. Tomorrow’s pitching matchup should be good, the hard-luck Matt Cain for the Giants against Greg Maddux for the Padres.
Meanwhile, I have a new favorite baseball site, The Hardball Times. Insightful daily snippets of news and analysis, nothing too overwhelming.
1 August 07
Laissant Rouler les Bons Temps
Beausoleil played at the UC Davis Quad this evening. The series of free summer concerts continues. Frisbees and hats and lots of lolling on blankets. And then the dancers…