Faunal Analysis

I'm working on this project through the National Parks Service.
It's a site called Cape Gull. It was originally found by people surveying damage done by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. The site dates back by over 800 years and features a Thule traditon.

There were mammals, fish, and bird bone found at the site. To start with I'm only looking at the bird bone.

Initially I set out to find the element name, meaning what bone each is, i.e. femur, vertebrae, etc.
Now that I've taken that as far as I can, I'm taking the Cape Gull bones and comparing them to samples of known birds in the UAA lab.

From these, you can detect either family, genus, or species of the bird depending on whether the bird being sought after is in the samples.
So far I believe I have found the sternum of a Black-legged Kittiwake, the furculum (wishbone) of a Herring Gull, and the scapula (shoulder blade) of a Double-crested Cormorant, among others.

This seems really interesting although tedious.
However, with time it should become a much easier process.

I think eventually I'll also want to try my hand at fish bone.
I like the water so I figure I should study things that live in it.

thermostat

I think our thermostat may be on the fritz.
My roommate came in asking if it was insanely hot in my room.
I look up at my atomic clock which told me that it's 81.4 degrees in my room.
I went downstairs to bump the thermostat down, figuring someone may have put it up since the last time I checked it.
But.... no.
It was still at 65 where I left it last.

So this may be a decent turn of events for the coming winter.
Although I still like the security of a needed blanket laying over me to capture all my body heat.
When it's 3o degrees outside I don't want to be practically nude to catch some sleep.

If I leave my window open overnight, the cold overpowers the warm.
I'm undecided as to which I'm least annoyed with: cold or heat.
Maybe cold, but it can get too damn cold.
I think I just need to find the best angle at which to keep my window open.
It will block the wind but still let in a sufficient amount of cool air to counteract the retarded thermostat.

One might ask, "Why don't you just alert the housing office?"
Well, let's see. I asked for a window screen the second week I got here, and now well into the 9th week flies are still coming in at their own will.
Although maybe if you let them know that they're losing money on unwanted heat, then they might take the initiative to do something about it.

But for now, I'll just play like I'm in California with my window open and my fan on.

No need to check, he's just taking a dump

Even people in biblical days were known to have troublesome shits:
Judges 3, start on verse 15 and give special attention to 24.

WWJD

Ever been picked on as a kid?
WWJD?
verse 4

necessity

i didn't mention that necessity is the mother of all inventions.
i take that for granted so i didn't bother listing it.
however it should get mentioned.

thoughts

a few thoughts:

new culture can be invented by those who are more adventurous. this is because they experience more and can use their experiences to influence thought.

leisure time can also lead to new cultural inventions. once food/rationing/shelter/basic amenities are taken care of, forms of entertainment surge from boredom.

all social animals alike have a form of "culture" encompassing, but not limited to the things listed above.
this may or may not extend to all animals depending on the ability to interact with the environment and others.

in social species, heirarchies are constructed in this leisure time through "games" that establish dominance among peers.
i.e. wrestling, chasing, etc.

i still struggle with the culture/biology boundary.
where do they meet? where do genes meet environmental influence?

all organisms are inherently (genetically) egocentric. this is the basis for the outcome of enviromental influences.
this is primarily expressed through acquisition of resources and the desire to reproduce.

humans are no better than animals beyond their abilities to rationalize and better manipulate the environment to its purposes.
in rudimentary forms some animals can also succeed in those.

spent for now.
thank you.

neandertal

Buy a shitty reconstruction of a neandertal skull for just under $200!

Why? I don't really know. Maybe to go with your stuffed deer collection.

But does that really look like this actual skull?

The nasal aperature doesn't look deep enough which makes the maxilla look distended.
The mandibular ramus also doesn't seem to align right.
Other than that it might be ok, but there could be some contention on the lack of prognathism in the maxillary foramen area, and it's hard to see if they show a sloping chin.
They do show the characteristic bony prominance around the mandibular foramen, but overall, I still wonder if this is an actual cast or representation of an archaeological find.
Granted there's variance among any skull, but doesn't this even look odd to you?

macaques

From: AR-News

Even though humane population control is possible -- and despite objections
from leading primatologists and the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural
History Society -- the government of Gibraltar has embarked upon the culling
of Barbary macaques.  [For more information, please see the news article
appended further below.]

Please write to the government of Gibraltar's Environmental Agency and
Tourist Board in protest of the killing of Barbary macaques.  Ask that
Gibraltar immediately implement humane sterilization techniques to prevent
the monkeys from overpopulating and being deemed "nuisances".  Ironically,
these "nuisances" are one of the biggest tourist attractions for Gibraltar,
so be sure to let them know that you will not visit Gibraltar as long as
they are killing the monkeys.

I don't understand this. If you're just going to sterlize monkeys, then why not kill them?
That just gets the ultimate job done sooner.
Is it just that you, as tourists, want to enjoy the nut-chopped macaques before their much-more-anticipated, ultimate demise?

Troubles with I's

Epidemology vs. Epidemiology.

Children will imitate their piers and role models...
...Uh. Go, Kentucky!...?

If they see a teacher or sports figure smoking, they will be motivated to smoke. Thus keeping children from not smoking can largely be achieved by presenting to them community models of not smoking. This is called the "Paradigm Shift" theory of smoking prevention.

How is there a paradigm shift if they never introduce the concept of smoking in the first place?
Isn't that just censorship?

I need to stop there. I could go on all night...

media

My life lately has consisted of my existence and interactions between two points that are a 25-minute walk away from each other--my room and my building at school.

Outside of this, I have no view into the world that exists around me other than the occasional viewing of cnn.com which tells me of a few global and federal events. I don't watch TV, I don't listen to the radio, and I don't read newspapers.

Today I had to go to town. I get in my car and I am immediately barraged with one radio commercial after another repeatedly yelling "USE YOUR PFD ON US" in my ear.
I do my business with the NPS downtown and decide to hit up Fred Meyer (FFM) for some groceries.
As immediately as I walk in, I am bombarded with visions of giant pumpkins and exotic gourds.
Halloween. Even though my birthday is quickly approaching, I hadn't really thought about it.

In my 25-minute bubble I've been immune to media and retail telling me what to think and buy.
And I've enjoyed it.
They must hate me. I go for 2 weeks without buying a damn thing.
Lucky for them though, they plan for people like me and run decorations for halloween and the likes WELL in advance.
I remember being confronted with Christmas every year immediately after Halloween.
This year, however, I won't sigh with the anguish of the coming holidays.
This will be the second time in about 5 years where I'll be able to enjoy the holidays as they were meant to be.
Retail has lost its crusty grip on me and all I'll be doing during the next few months is feeding its greed.
Not as well as it would hope, but some traditions you still can't go against and look human.

Not only that, but I'll get to spend almost a month in a care-free environment with Jemma at my side.
What a nice change from all the beards and snow that I'll have grown accustomed to by then.

Maybe my outlook on holidays will come to be much less skewed the longer I stay away from retail.
I'll still be mournful, however, over my bretheren that are still held oppressed by the needs of the people.
You make the world go round 24/7 and all people want you to do is serve them longer.

Media and retail.
I hate you.

Pissed

This is what pisses me off.
Everytime I think I have come to an insightful conclusion about societal interactions, I read something that says that I have just independently come to this conclusion.

For instance, my recent rant has been that people's selfish tendancies rule their lifestyle.
Then I find a reference to a guy named Richard Dawkins who has written a book entitled The Selfish Gene!
Now I'm realizing, after posting months or years ago about the manipulative use of religion, this Barkow guy (seen below) was already on top of it!

Why couldn't someone have introduced this literature to me years ago so I could have diverted my brainpower toward novel, non-prexisting ideas!

quote

For my next paper I'm supposed to chose a paragraph or two and delve into its meaning.
I may or may not choose this passage, so if not, I'd like to post it here.

It's from a guy named Jerome Barkow, who wrote a chapter entitled "The Elastic Between Genes and Culture".

Because children actively engage in cognitive mapping of physical and social reality, they are likely to be especially vulnerable to such manipulation of cultural information in the interests of others. If this reasoning is accurate, then we would expect children to be readily persuaded, for example, to enlist in "holy wars" and "children's crusades" that, in fact, are more in the interests of an older elite than their own.

Not just secular but much of religious ideology, as well, it has been argued, represents manipulative misinformation disseminated by those whose fitness interests are thereby served. Christianity is not the only Nietzchean "slave religion": any belief system that teaches acceptance and forebearance in order to achieve supernatural reward after death may be in effect supporting existing inequalities.

I'm sure you could substitute "war on terror" for "holy war", as in modern times there has been a shift from religiously-based motives to those that are more patriotic-based.
Either way they're still both ideologies founded on manipulation of the masses by inciting the instinctual need to belong to a group.
The unfortunate part in this case, is that the group is run by a self-serving individual who only looks to promote their own best interest at the expense of their "followers".

This is why I can't understand how people can't see the link to religion and political gain.
Political standpoints like Nazism can captivate it's people just as easily as any given religion.
The cleverness of religion however, is that it seems mandated by some unknown force, whereas political agendas are noticably man-made.
OF COURSE there will be more people "believing" in a leader if that leader can assure its people that the rules weren't made up; they were already established and being the leader simply implies upholdin these rules.

Why has their never been an openly-atheist President?
(The religiously affiliated) People won't want to believe in their power.

Selfishness

I wrote an essay on evolution and creationism.
It was to only be 3 pages.
I got a bit overzealous and wrote somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.

Luckily I it was easily divided into background information and the actual essay.
Here is the beginning of the essay:

The most basic awareness of an organism is oneself. Whatever consciousness there may be present in an organism tells it that its purpose is to perpetuate and afford itself with any means necessary for survival. The only thing that matters in life is the organism and potential offspring. Observing nature will not illustrate otherwise: mother bears will become enraged on behalf of her cubs at the first sign of potential predators, hierarchies based on dominance are established to allot the consumption of wolf kills, and some species of ants with enslave other species of ants. Every successful species and individual has realized they must act selfishly to become successful in its particular niche.

However, what if it is possible to see outside this scope of self-perpetuation? The next step beyond this recognition might be realization and understanding of one’s environment and interactions within it. As this comprehension becomes further solidified, one might start to recognize some constants within nature and question others that are not so obvious. Probably the most vexing of all basic questions is the beginnings of life. Humankind has unarguably reached this stage sometime in the distant past. Yet unequipped with the proper tools and knowledge to better understand their origin, they could only invent something feasibly within their grasp—the notion that something created us and everything we see. This is the advent of religion.

Religion by default was then the only useable method to explain the universe and, understandably, religion also carried with it a dual explanation. It not only explains life’s origins, but also cleverly-intertwines ideologies dealing with the purpose of life. Generally with any religion (although the later focus will be based more on Christianity), it is stated that life requires of one to follows a moral guideline which will eventually lead to an afterlife of bliss if one follows the dictated lifestyle correctly.

This ideology builds on the aforementioned perception of the necessity for selfish behavior to succeed in life. People, without resistance, will acceptingly live according to life’s “purpose” which coincidentally follows their original life goal of living well in perpetuation. Whether people believe themselves to be guided by unseen forces or left to fate, the comforting draw of living by religious standards ingeniously makes a selfish lifestyle seem less so because of its authoritative mandate.

Christianity is one of the many religions that purport a sought-after afterlife. During the Dark Ages in Europe, Christianity had a powerful grip on European societies. Without thought, most people blissfully trudged through oppression and poverty in the anticipation of a better postmortem life. However, by the end of this era came curious minds that were again open to studying nature. In the process of studying nature evidence surfaced that went against the long-standing church. Initially astronomers, followed by physicists and geologists started airing questions aimed at Christianity’s immutable doctrine.

Christianity maintained its omniscient stance. Imprisoning or killing opposition it managed to keep a stranglehold on most laypeople through to the industrial revolution. In the meantime, scientific progress continued and accumulated knowledge. . . .

Roadless

On Wednesday I have a review session for the class I TA in.
We just had a test so as I suspected, no one showed.
But! I am still required to be present for 10 mins to see if anyone does decide to show.

To pass time I was checking out a huge map of Alaska on the wall.
Checking out various sites, I realized something.
There's not that many roads.
I've heard there's only 12 main roads in Alaska, and looking at this map further solidified my belief in that statement.
If you black out the general vicinity of areas with road, you're still left with a LOT of Alaska.
Check it out.

Basically the only continuously-driveable areas are from Tok to Fairbanks to Anchorage (with a sidetrip to Homer).
These cities are all in the main southwest portion of Alaska.
There are other roads, but they are not connected to the rest of the nation.
The only exceptions to this interstate triangle is the small area in the tail-portion of southwest with roads to the main ports of Haines and Skagway from Canada, and the road to Prudoe in the far north that wouldn't exist if there wasn't so much damn oil.

Otherwise plane or boat is the only way to see the rest of Alaska.
No wonder its the last frontier. Not everyone has the means to explore it.

religion

just an interesting comment from my teacher today:
when archaeologists can't understand something i.e. idiosyncracies found in a given culture be it a large stone (altar) or animal headress (implication of cult) they label it as religiously affliated.

interesting how it applies to the real world.
people can't explain our existence, so they defer to religion.

MOOSE

This was emailed to all students and faculty today:

TO: UAA Anchorage Campus Community

FROM: University Advancement

SUBJECT: Campus Moose Alert

With snow creeping down neighboring mountainsides and daylight disappearing rapidly, moose will likely begin appearing around campus and are often seen foraging for food around university buildings and walkways. If you see a moose on campus near a path or building, please call UPD at 786-1120, especially if it appears to be acting aggressively or is in close proximity to a building entrance.

Make sure you can recognize the signs of an aggressive moose in order to keep yourself safe! If a moose stops eating and stares at you, or lays its ears back and raises the hair on its hump, beware. Other threatening signs include licking its lips or clicking its teeth, and most importantly, lowering its head and walking toward you.

Should a moose charge you, run and place a strong barrier (like a tree or car) between you and the animal. If you’re knocked to the ground, curl up into a fetal position and protect your head with your arms. Don’t move until the moose is a safe distance from you. Remember, these are wild animals that can weigh more than 1,200 pounds and can run up to 30 miles per hour.

Also, please keep in mind that it is unlawful to harass or feed moose. You can usually watch them from a safe distance, but don’t chase or disturb them in order to get better photographs.

Taking care, using common sense, and being continually aware of your surroundings will go a long way in preventing an incident with a moose. Remain watchful of your surroundings as you walk around campus, especially at dusk and at night since moose are more difficult to see in the dark.

Ironically, today I think I saw the moose in question.

Prof revisited

Ok. So maybe that prof isn't so bad after all. This time around when people didn't have shit to say, they just said they didn't and it moved on from there.
Maybe the prof just wanted to establish a precedent in the beginning and then chill out from there.

Ironically, this time around I was almost offended by the fact that she didn't try to nail me with my paper. She asked about the title and wanted clarification in one aspect, but it was minor and we moved on from there.

So that's cool.

In my other class I have a reading assignment due. I opened the book and sat down to read it.
Then I realized, this feels weird...
ALL the reading I've done from the beginning of school, except for one other book, has been online.
It's seems so strange that it feels weird to read from a book.