Cuppa Coffee on the International Space Station

Wing-shaped coffee cup allows sipping hot brew, round cup doesn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk7LcugO3zg



Away from Earth's gravity, fluids become spherical due to surface tension (concentric gravity). This wing -shaped cup allows wicking, like candle wax seeps up a candle wick and like sap is sucked up a tree stem via evapotranspiration capillary action despite gravity.

Bird wings in flight produce the same result, the air flows out to the tips and then separate away (turbulence aka drag). Bird feathers have slight micro-ridges which produce this micro-turbulent boundary layer, fish scales also do; the faster the fish or bird, the smaller the ridges.

Here see how the dimpled surface of a golf ball produces a thin turbulent layer, reducing surface drag and thus allowing it to travel twice as far as a smooth ball:

http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video.php?videoRef=081119_GolfBallScience

The blood capillaries in our bodies follow the same rules in nature. While diving, the mammalian divers reflex engages with apnea, vasoconstricting outlying veins and arteries bringing the blood to the body core, then when backfloating with eupnea vasodilation pulls blood to the extremities allowing the blood to be warmed directly by solar radiation and indirectly by immersion at the warm water surface in the manner of a poikotherm. Chimps don't have this feature, since they are always fully "clothed" with their fur coats and are completely reliant on internal metabolic heating. Cool, eh? ;)

Masjid on the moon: 2012, American Islamarine Society, "FreeDome" constructed of origami-like folded hyper-paper, an insulated laminated hexa-pent spheric structure of super-lightweight impermeable materials, with moon stone/cement/foam matrix basefill, built inset within a lunar crater of proper proportion, with omni-orientable turntable floor, and attached to isotropic vector matrix octet truss space frame lunar base qasalam ramadan hotel. Somewhat similar in principle to the American Antarctic Dome residence and work station, but employing interwoven rings (arcs) and mylar etc. rather than bolted aluminum or plexiglas triangular or hexapent panels.
http://www.ecophotoexplorers.com/images/antarctica/Dome.jpg

BOO!

(working on a grant proposal to Save the Redwoods foundation, my theme: "Can you save the forest for the trees?" a switch from the old saying "Can you see the forest for the trees?") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Redwoods_League

LOLrus found da bucket!

li'l minisaurus walking the woodland streets asking for sweets


Happy Halloween (see zoo animals munching pumpkins here: Hall-Zoo-Ween ) & Dias de Los Muertos ye'all! May the jack-o-lanterns light your path on this hallowed eve, and the costumed li'l goblins, witches, pirates and princesses get lots of snacks with their calls for "Trick or Treat!" (^-^)

Arts Alive Saturday night: Tuxford Gallery, Mexican theme, "the days of the dead", Brenda Gallery, Mongolian photos and paintings (I made a paper yurt!)

"a spring in my step"

Primatology
leaping indri lemurs

springy sifaka lemurs

Top two pics: baby gibbons. Bottom: indri, siamang





Indri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indri
href="http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Indri_indri/">http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Indri_indri/
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=indri+lemur&search_type=&aq=f

There seem to be many parallels between the indri and the siamangs. The abundance of liana vines in island SE Asia for siamangs to swing (brachiate) and the lack of liana vines in Madagascar for the Indris may be why clinging and leaping was adopted among the Indris. Both tend to walk/skip bipedally rather than quadrupedally, and both have enlarged laryngeal air sacs likely indicating past vertical floating in tidal forests.

Inhabits montane and coastal rainforest from sea level to 1800 meters (6). Indris are active during the day and are most at home in the trees, where they feed on leaves, flowers and fruit, but they do occasionally descend to the forest floor to cross small treeless areas or to eat soil (4) (6). On the ground they cannot walk on all fours and so move around on their back legs, standing upright and holding their arms outstretched for balance, skipping in a unique fashion through the forest (6). The indri is one of the most endangered species of lemur on Madagascar, and one of the most threatened primates in the world (4). They live by the coast, where forests have become so fragmented that they are almost too small to sustain viable populations (6).

Except a narrow strip at the eastern coast most of their natural habitat, the rainforest, is destroyed. Indris are amongst the most endangered species.

Even if you are luckily you meet Indris it's more likely to hear their voices instead of seeing them up in the trees. Their voices are said to be amongst the loudest within the animal kingdom. Indris live in family groups and they use their voices to mark their family range.

They give birth to just one young at a time. The young Indri stays in the family for a long time, even if there are younger siblings. Indris are very similar to gibbons concerning these behaviours. Other characteristics of Indris are their large ears, the long hands and the very short tail whereas most other prosimians have long tails. They belong to the few prosimian species which are active during the day; most of the other prosimians are nocturnal animals.

Why is the indri that endangered? Most of the Indri's natural habitat is destroyed by now and the Indri isn't able to adapt to other habitats than the rainforest. The destruction was caused by the growing number of human inhabitants and their need for soil to plant rice which is the common food on the island. Madagascar is a poor country and the methods of planting rice are not very efficient. Conservation societies worked out a masterplan together with the government of Madagascar to use the soil more efficiently, hoping that no more rainforest areas are destroyed in the future.


When elephants weep
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385314280/

Anthropology

Early humans from Africa to Asia: Speed walking or a stroll along the beach?
http://sciencenow. sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/1007/3

Speed walking? Wouldn't they all resemble each other cranially very strongly if
that were the case? There's a lot of cranial differentiation, indicating long term separations between groups geographically.

from 2002
http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12098208

http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/ha/erec.html

Ok one more entry, about what singles typically are looking for in a prospective mate: "This could explain why women are drawn to indicators of resource and future investment, while men are more likely to look for youth and waist-to-hip ratio - signs of reproductive potential and the ability to tolerate the stresses of childbirth". h/t Ed Yong link: the cost of having children

That doesn't sound very romantic, does it? So analytical. Oh well, that's life.

the arc

Arc Anciel ~ Double rainbow (ciel in French is sky or heaven)

Arc Anciel ~ Circumzenithal arc

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1056500/Pictured-Rare-upside-rainbow-spotted-UK.html

gerbang ~ lengkok ~ buih =-= portal ~ entry ~ bubble

Another kind of arc: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/photogalleries/2008-best-science-photos/photo6.html

pening...demam?

pening... demam... pedas? lapar sket.


had a bit of a tension headache earlier, took a few aspirin, now ok.
perhaps a slight fever? (update: better now I guess.)

===================================================================
Stathmin: motherhood, socializing, amygdala
fearless_mice_are_neglectful_mothers_but_social_butterflies

Brain asymmetry in vertebrates = multi-tasking
asymmetrical_brains_help_fish_and_us_to_multitask

h/t Ed Yong

Earthquake in Eureka!!

My kampong going goyang-goyang just now ~ haiyo ~




http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc51207076.html
http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/hefferan/geol320/strikeslip.html

They say 4.6, but I think it was a 5.3, maybe here a bigger jolt due to the soft wet silt ground foundation surrounding the Kuala Walu Wiki (Humboldt Bay), on the Cascadia Subduction Zone of the west coast of America. It was quite a sharp lurch to the brick building, no bricks shaking apart, but I heard the walls moving and the floor jolted. I almost dove under the desk! abes!

Hope nobody gets a big tsunami! InsyaAllah.


_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/^\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_


Salam Merdeka ~ Indonesia ~ Malaysia ~ Singapura ~ United States of America

Pre-pupal pupils' pseudo-pupils

______ wiggle worm ______________ "sleeping, do not disturb" __________ so colorful ! __________

ramarama ~ dan ~ mariposa ~ y ~ papillon ~ et ~ butterfly ~ ramaramadanmariposaypapillonetbutterfly!

Don Garlick's article on 'smart' pre-pupae: pupal-memories

Train a caterpillar (ulat) to avoid bright light, then metamorphic transformation (kepompong), then the moth (kupu) avoids bright light too. Metamorphosis from crawling worm (caterpillar) to encased pupae (cocoon/chrysalis) to flying adult (moth/butterfly), most of the body cells die, liquify, re-solidify and reform inside the cocoon to adult.

http://www.all-creatures.org/pica/glf-caterpillar-spbushst.html
Amazing mimicry, the obvious 'eyes' are not actual eyes, but protruding fake "reflecting" pupillary eyespots, the orange 'mouth' is actually the head. The six true small forelegs tuck beneath the 'jaw' during the pose position, while the large false feet along the abdomen propel not by complex leg musculature but by subcutaneous abdominal rippling, a simple neural activity. Scientific evolutionary evidence for artistic elegant design via natural selection process. Alhamdulillah.

The Great American Soda Pop Controversy

http://popvssoda.com:2998/
Gene expression: Razib's map

In USA, some people call soft drink like Pepsi as 'pop', others as 'soda', others call it Coke (even if it's Pepsi or Root Beer).

This reminded me of coconut in Malaysia, some call it 'nyiur' (probable shared origin of the English word 'nut' and Latin word 'nux'), others call it 'kelapa', some 'kopyor'. It would be neat to see that mapped out like above.

In US, also, the word for the upturned water faucet for drinking is 'water fountain' in some areas, 'bubbler' in others.

basketree

virtual pool (sape takut air, bole mandi disini)

Khalifah, Art & Science Shows in the galleries

Ecology in Islam: Protection of the Web of Life a Duty for Muslims By Dr. Hasan Zillur Rahim, physicist-engineer in Northern California, editor of IQRA, newsletter of the South Bay Islamic Association, in San Jose, CA.

"The earth's resources land, water, air, minerals, forests are available for our use, but these gifts come from God with certain ethical restraints imposed on them. We may use them to meet our needs, but only in a way that does not upset ecological balance and that does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Thus, not knowing about stewardship and accountability, we reduce Qur'anic teachings to narrow definitions of crime and punishment. This is reflected in unenlightened environmental leadership found in some Muslim countries today.

The Fundamental Role of Water

Several verses of the Qur'an deal with the hydrological cycle and the fundamental role water plays in sustaining life on earth. In referring to the fertility of the soil, to the unique properties of fresh and sea water, to the course of rivers and the presence underground of springs and aquifers, and most significantly to the aquatic origin of life, the Qur'an places water at the top of all the natural phenomena on earth. The miracle of water is emphasized in a particular verse where God, addressing those who may doubt the truth of resurrection, first gives the example of the growth of the fetus within the mother's womb, leading to the birth of a human being."

Among all known hominids/hominoids, humans have the flattest swim-fin-like or flipper-like hands and feet (compare H sapiens hand X-ray to Phocid and Sirenia forelimbs vs. Pongo/Pan), all other hominoids have more phallangeal/metatarsal bone curvature.
====================================================================================




Live play performance by the schoolkids, reptile show, bird show, Arts Alive exhibit (3D Fabrications) and Open Studios (all public invited to see artists work). Quite busy, I did some painting, washing up, carried in the snakes (huhu!); Naturalists and schoolteachers will be speaking.

June 7, 6 to 9 p.m. 411 Twelfth Street, Eureka. The Ink People Center for the Arts will host a show of fish prints, masks and interpretive wildlife posters made by students at the Transitional Opportunity Program School (TOPS) and Lincoln Elementary School. The featured artwork is produced through Ink People's O. G. Redwoods Are Alive! program. This monthlong science and art project is implemented with the help of many local and state agencies as well as community nonprofit organizations.

Enjoy the artwork of some very talented local youths at this community event, a part of Eureka’s monthly Arts Alive! program. Meet live reptiles, amphibians, and birds of the redwood forests. Talk with ecologists who study and care for our natural world. Learn how you are part of the web of life.

MORE INFORMATION: For information about ASK ME (Art & Science Kids interested in Media & Education), contact program director Barbara A. Domanchuk at (707) 442-8413 or (707) 768-1738. ASK ME is a DreamMaker program of The Ink People Center for the Arts.

This event is made possible in part by the League's Education Grants Program.

Education

"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."
- Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist and poet

http://www.savetheredwoods.org/education/coastredwood.shtml

Environmental Seminars in the Russian River Area

The public and aspiring docents are invited to the Russian River area of California for seminars on topics ranging from redwood ecology to environmental living. Sonoma Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods.



Russian Gulch State Park

HIGHLIGHTS: Along with majestic redwoods, Russian Gulch State Park is home to 7,630 feet of ocean frontage, a large, collapsed sea cave with churning water.

ACTIVITIES: Swimming, tide pool exploring, skin diving, rock fishing, a 36 foot waterfall, a paved three-mile bicycle trail, and miles of hiking trails through the redwood forest. Call the Visitor Center at (707) 937-5804 for details.

Morons, mucus & microbiota

icosahedral Phage
Science Biology: Bacteria + viral Phage in the gut

http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2008/06/repost_morons_in_microbiology.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage
Note pictures, expecially the hexagonal space packing one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icosahedral_symmetry
http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/lehre/bza/virus/introicos.htm

Humans produce saliva-like mucus along the length of the GI tract, respiratory tract and the reproductive tract. Humans have ten times more bacteria cells than human cells in their bodies, only 10% of your cellular body is genetically really you.

Bacteriophages use 'morons' (novel genes) which cause diarrhea by excreting chemicals, this moves the virus (which had been inside the bacteria) away to new victims via fecal material, eg. E. coli.

"The bacteria only cause diarrhea because of genes encoded by phages!

'Morons' are genes that bacteriophages carry around which are unnecessary for the virus, but helpful for the host bacteria. Like the MORON toxins that encode Type III secretion effectors that make you poop when you're colonized by Salmonella or Cholera or the MORON toxins that make you poop when you eat spinach sprinkled with E. Coli.."

'What is the advantage to an E. Coli or Cholera strain that makes me want to die as opposed to a strain that just hangs out not causing problems? The Backpacker'

"Because you poop and then bacteria can spread to new hosts, fecal to oral :) Poop is the key** Its like how influenza makes you feel like crap, but you cough/sneeze, which spreads the virus to new hosts! people die from this, if they don't have access to adequate medical treatment..."
=================================================================================

So it's the secretion of the bacteriophage that affects the ionic membrane producing diarrhea, while antibiotic treatment kills the bacteria, thereby killing the parasitizing virus. The bacteria itself is not toxic, and will sit in the body until time for virus reproduction, when toxins are released.

Wikipedia:

Bacteriophages can be found in all reservoirs populated by bacterial hosts, such as soil or the intestines of animals. One of the densest natural sources for phages and other viruses is sea water, where up to 9×108 virions per milliliter have been found in microbial mats at the surface[2], and up to 70% of marine bacteria may be infected by phages.[3]

They have been used for over 60 years as an alternative to antibiotics in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.[4] They are seen as a possible therapy against multi drug resistant strains of many bacteria.

your money or your life

Social status & derived financial valuation

http://ecocene.org/blog/?p=40

"This suggests that money and social standing are evaluated similarly, and can substitute for each other. However, it should be of little surprise that the same part of the brain that evaluates status also evaluates money. But money hasn’t been around forever… some part of the brain had to take on the task of handling it. This may explain why money equates so easily to social status; not just because we think of it in similar terms, but that the brain function that developed to measure social status took on the task of evaluating money."

translation: money-trade stemmed from social selection.

"During the game, they were told that fake contestants were doing better or worse than them. Individual's brains apparently react very strongly to the status of other players. So it seems like thinking that you are doing better than someone else has a stronger reaction than a monetary reward, even if it’s a complete stranger."

translation: you don't have to run faster than the lion, as long as you can run faster than the other person, preferably a stranger. Therefore, if a stranger seems to be ahead in the race, fear motivates and invigorates. In an anonymous society (cities), a clique of like-minded individuals forms to maintain a perceived lead against outgroups and non-group individuals, and expresses fitness (activity, glittery stuff to show up others), conformism (ritual, rule) to show allegiance.

Codeword: Gold Show

gold show here today for Arts Alive (every 1st saturday of the month is Arts Alive, lots of open houses at art shops, theatres, coffee shops). Nice art pieces, abstract paintings and sculptures etc. My favorite was outside though, the beautiful sunny day. :) I stopped by Russian Innocence dome to see their creative icons, quite nice.

Golden Sunrise Saturday.










Morning has broken




Nature provide seed
for everyones' need
but not enough feed
for all of your greed

paraphrase: MGandhi

EARTHQUAKE!! [Earth-dance]

EARTHQUAKE!! Moderate earthquake rocks northern California

* A magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook northern California on Tuesday
* The quake hit shortly after 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET)
* There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

(CNN) -- A magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook a rural part of northern California on Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The moderate quake hit shortly after 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET) about 11 miles east-southeast of Willow Creek, which is about 190 miles northwest of Sacramento.
===============

Yup, we got hit by a little quake. I thought it was a 5.1, but it was a 5.2.
Felt like surfing a medium wave. We had a smaller one yesterday, just a hiccup. Willow Creek (home of sasquatch/bigfoot) is a few miles from here.

Now I am repainting the ceiling and gallery walls. Always something to do... scraping, then sweeping, then spackling, then priming, then painting...

update: ok priming the ceiling & window sills all done, and painted all the cube pedestals "old whisper white" color (kind of yellow-pink ivory shade) and spot painted the table and cabinets. Looks lots better than before, definitely. Katy & the ladies are hanging their artworks now for the Gold show. No more quakes for a while hopefully, insyAllah. Shilpa stopped by, namascar. Ok. Had coffee at McD. So what's next? diary entry? nothing. journal? nada. nuther day. nanti tido.

San Diego fire

I lived there for awhile, working for Aziz at Metro Market, every single day for a year, enjoying his wife's fine Arabic cooking for lunch, and helping his son open a new market at the Mexican border. Hopefully the winds will slow and the rains will come there.

http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/images/2007-10-22_2057-2102_HSDO_010403_QKM.jpg

Traix, vehicle of the future?

http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/the-man-the-machine-and-the-critical-power/
http://criticalmass.wikia.com/wiki/Budapest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Path_%28book%29



Electric or air supplementary power? See this air car:
http://paddyk.wordpress.com/2007/11/04/blades-air-and-automobiles/

See the 3rd paragraph at this link, about the electric "killacycle" & video. 0 to 60 mph (88km/h) in 1 second! 175 lbs of lithium ion batteries is much more than Traix would use.
http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/HPB/2007/09/nextfest-success.html


My Solution: Design concept vehicle Traix.

Traix: 1/2 pedal, 1/2 electric bike-car (2 wheeled) in which the harder you pedal, the more juice the battery provides, aerodynamic, links to others on the road via a push-button latch-hook, to form a "train" of say 20 - 100 vehicles on a highway, so everybody cruises aerodynamically with moderate leg power with optimal cardio-vascular aerobic action. At a desired exit, small "bus" of 10 vehicles splits off as a group and goes to neighborhood, then splits apart again into "solo" vehicles, solos park in tight space or carried inside the home. Very good for commutes, not for hauling big heavy stuff (but 2 linked side-by-side could pull a packed tent trailer easily).

Traix fights the poor health problem in the developed world: obesity-diabetes-hardened arteries from lack of aerobic exercise (due in part to oil addicted auto culture reliant on petroleum powered vehicles).

Traix fights the bad pollution problem in the developed and developing world: air pollution and various auto emissions, dirty waters, global warming, oily wars.

Traix avoids the dangers of riding bicycles in auto traffic in cities and highways, by keeping many riders in a unitary mass, in line, rather than all over the road, yet allows easy quick detachment at "bus stops".

Traix recharges via solar panels or home electric plug in, combines a motorcycle battery with a capacitor system for both slow and high speed.

Traix quickly adjusts for optimum aerodynamics as solo, duo or bus/train configuration, and provides both carbonfiber/bamboo shell with protective safety foam surrounding the hull, with umbrella-like top.

Traix really is the sensible option. Blue water, green forests, clean air, good healthy quick non-polluting transport.

Financial investment required for further development. Traix project cannot proceed without funding, contact me via email for more info.

[Traix Design by DDeden Designs]

Forest fire fighting in Nor Calif

http://firefighterblog.blogspot.com/


This reminded me of my summer spent fighting forest fires in Northern California, taking time off my work as a forester (penghutanan) at the Menominee Forestry Center in Wisconsin.