Environment

Frozen Vortex

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Check out this  bizarre  natural phenomenon. Make sure to play the movie.  

Stable vortexes form at the ends of bends in rivers as the water that  accelerates  on the outside of a bend collides with the slower-moving water that  traversed  the inside of the bend. The velocity sheer produces a vortex. Apparently, an ice pan formed in the center of the stable vortex and then slowly grew until it reached the turbulent edge of the vortex. The turbulence at the edge prevented ice from forming leaving a lubricating liquid layer that lets the ice pan rotate in the vortex.  

Neat!

Suburban Wildlife Link Dump

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A few days ago I left my gym after another great workout. It was around 9pm. The parking lot and surrounding area was cold and dark. The usual silence was broken by a sound I hadn’t heard for 30 years, since I visited a family friends’ farm. I heard the distinct sound of coyotes howling. It sounded exactly like this.

I was shocked and not shocked at the same time. I have written rather extensively on the coming issues we have with animals encroaching back into suburbs and cities. On the one hand I was surprised to hear the coyotes so close to me smack dab in the middle of Madison, Wisconsin. They sounded very excited, and I surmised that they were celebrating a kill, be it a domestic dog or perhaps a deer. On the other hand I remembered all I had written about the seemingly increasing populations of wild animals in what used to be a “no mans land” for wild animals – urban centers. After thinking about it a while, it really is no surprise. The zoo does indeed seem to be coming to us.

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Asleep at the Throttle

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Who is in charge of the clattering train?
The axles creak and the couplings strain,
and the pace is hot and the points are near,
and sleep hath deadened the driver’s ear,
and the signals flash through the night in vain,
for death is in charge of the clattering train

In his memoirs, Winston Churchill mentions that he thought of this poem, which he had read as a boy, during the appeasement days of the 1930s. I was reminded of it by this post.

The original poem, which appeared in Punch magazine, is here and is pretty good.

Also, here’s the whole issue of Punch in which the poem originally appeared.

Subdivision Wildlife

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My posts about cougars here and at  LITGM drew a lot of traffic. It seems as though it is a subject of interest to a lot of people (a new cougar link dump soon to come). Gerry’s post here about coyotes also drew some links and clicks. The common thread is the encroachment of wildlife in typical non wildlife domains. I am not talking about “urban sprawl”, or people moving into areas where there is already wildlife established. I am referring to animals encroaching back into populated areas. This photo below was taken on the way to work this morning. Before bashing my photography skills, some background. Just outside of my house is this four lane highway. A deer was running down the median in the center, right next to my car. I changed lanes to the right lane and slowed down, all the while getting my camera out. When the deer randomly decided to cross the road I was ready and was able to slow down and snap this admittedly crappy photo with the one free hand I had (the other on the wheel). You can see the  deer in the left lane here. It was a very large doe. She crossed the street, looked back at me and went into someone else’s yard. Click photo to enlarge.

Car deer accidents cost insurance companies (and, in the end, us) millions upon millions of dollars. This is a very good pdf put out by the Wisconsin DOT that gives a lot of good information about car deer crashes.

What is funny (or not funny) about this is that outside of extending the hunting seasons I don’t see any way that this problem will go down or go away – and I think it is getting worse. I see deer alongside the road (dead and alive)  almost every day that I drive to work. When I was a kid it was a BIG deal to see a deer in the wild.

The deer has very few natural predators around here any more. The only ones I can think of are wolves (only in Northern Wisconsin), and coyotes if they hunt in a pack. We also have the random cougar that comes by on occasion. One other predator of deer is winter. I hate to do this to myself, but I am wishing for a bitterly cold winter to kill off a bunch of the deer. I would rather suffer through a few months of bone chilling cold than risk my safety or the safety of my family due to a car-deer crash.

Cross posted at LITGM.

Eco-Insanity

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You guys have got to read this page on the World Wildlife Fund’s website.

“Join us on a remarkable 25-day journey by private jet. Touch down in some of the most astonishing places on the planet to see the top wildlife, including gorillas, orangutans, rhinos, lemurs and toucans. Explore natural and cultural treasures in remote areas of South America, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and Africa.”

“To reach these remote corners, travel on a specially outfitted private jet that carries 88 passengers. World-class experts including WWF’s director of species conservation will provide a series of lectures en route, and a professional staff will be devoted to making your global adventure seamless and memorable.”

Prices start at around $65K USD per person. Per person!

Andrew Bolt of the Herald Sun, an Australian newspaper, has the skinny.

“Isn’t this the same WWF that tells everyone else to fly less to cut greenhouse gases?”

Yes, Andrew, I think it is!

I spend most of my time struggling to foil those who take advantage of innocent victims. How come these guys have never entered my orbit?

(Hat tip to Travis.)