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Three Photographs

What do three photographs have to do with each other. These three have no people in them, at least none that you can see. But in each of these photographs I can see multitudes of friends and fellow travelers. I want to rehabilitate that term. It a good phrase in which to capture the idea of someone well-met while you are on the road.

The term, fellow travelers, in its best use is when I apply it to the young and old, and the men and women I met while backpacking in Europe and when driving across America around the time I took these three pictures.

In Europe most of our travel was by train and we would meet and link up with a small group of people, two others, maybe four, and travel with them for a day or two or maybe a week. They were our traveling companions. They might not be going to our ultimate destination, but for the moment – or for the week – we were thrown together in a train car or in a City – and we talked and planned and laughed as the woods and houses and fields flashed by or as we strolled in a city park.

And if they were well-met, they were lively and jovial, and we wanted also to be a “Hail-fellow, Well-met”. You would share your lunch of tomatoes and cheese and bread, and they would add sausage and at the end perhaps a cigarette. You might go drinking together at night, and later stand on a street corner and rather loudly sing some song you just learned. You may sit up the night in a train compartment talking of places you’ve been and places you intend to go. And they would rise and fall with their own ideas, and the next day with a hearty handshake and a slap on the back or maybe a kiss you would part never to see each other again. But later, telling the story of that train ride you remember your adventures, and wonder when you will have a chance to smoke the cigar they had given you.

It was someone with whom to spend some time when you were on a trip abroad, alone. Cigarettes play a role in this picture, but I will say there is no more deadly habit. If you smoke, stop now and never take it up again. Ask me why I had 5 bypasses. I will tell you it was the cigarettes. It was part of my old life. It is not part of my new life. And it does not need to be part of yours.

These three pictures represent the time when I was driving across country as a young man to go to Vietnam. I was not in the jungle, I served off the coast in the Navy. Later I would go and wander across northern and eastern Europe for a Summer. The pictures are before that time when I was driving West across the Untied States. The middle picture shows that, an open road. I probably took that somewhere in Oklahoma when there were hills in the distance and places that I had never been and would only pass through this once. I stopped and went to a small diner and had corned beef on rye, and I wrote about it.

The old “farm” house back home was torn down and rebuilt closer to the River. That’s on the right. Times there are not forgotten. Christmases. Trees with tinsel. Fruit baskets. Summers spent crabbing and rowing on the River. And we would wade out through the now gone fields of ell-grass, and swim.

The picture on the left is Hawaii when my ship passed through. I had time to see Hanauma Bay before it was crowded with other people who wanted to see that bit of paradise. I wonder if the Parrotfish I followed knew this or if its descendants know it now. I swam out on a calm afternoon over the reef and looked down the far side where dwell the Octopus and the needle toothed Shark. And I swam back with the image of the darkness where the light did not penetrate.

So go out. Travel, and rejoice in your adventures with the people that you will meet.

Young Man/Old Man

The tree has stood here for generations. Its wrinkled features speak of Springs and hot Summers and Winter storms and Fall Hurricanes rolling out of the Sea.

Yet here it stands. Right where the mountain man had stopped over 300 years before, and leaning on his staff he paused to look out to the Sea beyond the valley – and he has stayed here – still thinking. His hand clutches the shaft of his staff. You can see his fingertips curling around from the back of the shaft as he rests his temple against his hand. His hair is blown upwards and back as he stares stonily out towards the distant Sea.

The years have washed soil and stones and leaves out of the hills above so that the man’s shoulders and torso and hips and legs are now buried deep below. Yet still he stands and looks outward and wonders. When he decides, will he rise up and tear his roots from deep within the earth and walk these hills again?

These are tales of the deep woods.

The young man pushed out by his tribe,

Walked toward the sound of the Sea.

He crossed mountain peak and fast glacial stream.

He forded broad rivers.

He climbed stones as if they were steps to the top of the ridge.

And from his new vantage point he could see the great Sea before him.

He leaned his head on his staff and he wept, because he had found Ocean, his mother.

What would he say to her when she saw him and rose up? Would she be in a fury? Would she rejoice that he had found his way back to her?

He leaned on his staff, for a year, and another, and another ten and then a hundred and then more.

He stands there still wondering how he will be greeted when he reaches the rolling wave and the murmur of shale rolling in the retreating wave.

What will he say that he has accomplished? Who will he say that he has helped? Has he made his path a better place? Has the world benefited from his life?

He leaps up and leaves his body behind, still, standing, staring.

His spirit goes out and back along his path to correct what he has damaged.

When he sees a tired person sitting next to the road, the wind blows down and refreshes the weary. The rain falls upon the parched . The sun shines on the lonely.

The young man in the wind and rain and sunshine is rebuilding his story.

And he will smile.

One day he will return to this tree and shake loose the binding roots and finish his walk to the Sea and be greeted with joy.

This is one of the trees that I remember. There are many others. These are the trees I see while I am in the woods. They speak to me as the warm spring rains patter down on their budding branches. When the Summer storm whips the limbs and branches, they howl with strength. When the Winter winds bring snow and ice that crackles on the branches when the sun returns and when I cross the snowy field to visit them, they moan and creak like an old gate on rusted hinges.. The trees are always with me, they are everywhere. They are of many ages, and they always welcome me to the deep forest and woods by the lane.

Some have forgotten how to leaf and bud and leaf, but still stand as a home for birds and squirrels and the members of the fourth kingdom, the fungus that returns the tree to the soil. Some have fallen in the wind. Some have fallen to the ax. But they all live on in my memory and in the memory of all who visited them and touched their bark, or played in their shade, or picked up their Fall leaf form the ground. Or watched a bird fly among its branches.

They are our friends. Each has its story. You must listen to hear it being told.

Look out for the Pendulum

NASA photograph of Apollo 16 Astronaut next to Plum Crater on the lunar surface. The “Moon Buggy” is in the background.

I am not making this up – well, mostly not.

On the surface of a distant moon, a lone space traveler steps away from his companions and approaches the edge of a large pit. It appears nearly round with no crater wall. He approaches the edge carefully. Then suddenly the lip slides-out beneath him, and he rolls down the side tumbling towards the apex of the cone shaped pit. All he can call out in his soft Texas drawl is, “reminds me of a doodlebug hole”.

I exaggerate, no astronaut fell into a pit, nor was one paralyzed and devoured by an extraterrestrial Antlion. But a similar discussion took place on 24 April 1972 during the third “extra vehicular activity” (EVA) by the crew of Apollo 16 while exploring the surface of our moon in their “Moon Buggy”.

The discussion of the doodlebug took place 240,000 miles from the closest doodlebug as Astronaut Charles Duke described a part of his childhood in the southern United States to the folks at Mission Control.

When I grew up in rural North Carolina, doodling Antlions, also known as doodlebugs, was part of what we did. We did not have a TV. We played outside and ran to the river and splashed and played in it and ran back. On our way up and down that dusty lane, we might see that dimple in the sandy ground of an Antlion’s nest. We generally called them doodlebugs, and we sought to bring them out of their hiding at the bottom of their conical pit. We would disturb the side of the pit gently with a bit of pine straw to see if we could bring the tiny beast out from his hiding place at the bottom of his trap.

These tiny larvae are ferocious looking with jaws nearly half as long as their body, with sharp fangs for grabbing and devouring their prey.

My attention was recently turned to Antlions by an article in Science News which described a study of the Antlion behavior of “throwing sand” upwards from the bottom of its pit. The Antlion of the southern United States is the larval form of Glenurus spp of the family Myrmeleontidea. This family designation is explained by Barb Ogg on the website of the Nebraska Extension Service at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “The Antlion family, Myrmeleontidae, literally means Antlion family (myrme = ant) + (leon = lion) + (idae = family). Antlions belong to the insect order Neuroptera, most of which are predators.” The designation “spp” means plural or multiple species. A picture of an Antlion is shown below.

The authors of the Antlion paper studied the Antlion behavior of throwing sand. It was determined that this action is useful in maintaining the correct geometry of the trap the Antlion digs as well as aiding the Antlion in capture of its prey.

The Antlions trap or “pit” is dug in sandy soil by the tiny beast by using its broad body as a bulldozer and working the sand in ever decreasing diameter circles as it moves backwards until the pit is dug. The pit is an inverted cone. The Antlion buries itself at the center of its pit and waits for its dinner to walk in.

Antlion behavior has been observed by countless generations of children who live in areas with sandy soil and also by the adults that the children grew into. After digging its pit the Antlion will lie in wait for its dinner. When a small insect like an ant enters the pit, the sand on the slope of the pit will often give way and slide, with the insect, down to where the Antlion may capture it. However, not just any angle for the slope of the pit will suffice. The trap needs to be constructed so the sides are inclined downwards at an unstable angle. This angle is technically discussed as the “angle of repose” of the soil. A slope less than the angle of repose is flatter and stable and will not shift except under significant pressure. However, a slope greater than the angle of repose is unstable. This means that as a tiny insect like an ant tries to crawl out of the pit, the unstable sand will slip and slide towards the bottom of the pit.

When the Antlion notices the vibration of the ant’s footsteps and the vibration of the falling sand, the Antlion will begin to fling the sand from the bottom of the pit up onto the sides of the downward slope. As described in the study, this produces two results. The prey becomes confused due the torrent of sand falling on it and will be more likely to tumble into the center of the pit. Second, the sand being flung by the Antlion by flipping its head like a shovel, removes the sand that has fallen into the pit and throws it onto the sides of the pit to maintain an unstable configuration of the slope. By these actions as the Antlion’s dinner is tumbling downward, the trap is being set for another insect.

According to the article by Barb Ogg, as well as other articles, these tiny insects do not bite humans nor do they damage plants, so they may be left alone.

I have heard that Antlions respond to singing or chanting a ditty such as “Doodlebug, doodlebug, come out and play”. As fun as this might be there is no proof of its efficacy. However the vibrations of our voice may dislodge sand on the unstable sides of the pit causing the Antlion to investigate the event.

The NASA transmission of the EVA (extra vehicular activity) may be found at https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a16/a16a1690707.mp3. At time 0:58 Astronaut Clark refers to the structure on the moon’s surface as a “doodlebug hole”. It starts out rather loud and you may want to turn it down. In the discussion, the depression is referred to as an endogenic crater. An endogenic crater is a pit formed by processes beneath the soil surface like a gas bubble moving outwards and erupting through the upper soil layer, or perhaps like a sinkhole. It is not an impact crater.

The transcription of the .mp3, plus other transmissions not recorded in the transmission, may be found at Return to the LM (nasa.gov) starting at the entry for 169:07:53 and going through 169:08:25. The transcription of the conversation contains more information of what was said than the .mp3 recording. Perhaps it was on a separate channel.

The Science News article may be found at https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/how-voracious-antlions-engineer-deadly-sand-traps. To read the article may require a subscription or permission.

The referenced study of Antlion behavior may be found at Sand throwing in a pit-building Antlion larva from a soil mechanical perspective | bioRxiv .

The article by Barb Ogg on he University of Nebraska-Lincoln may be found at Antlions: Amazingly Adapted Predators | Nebraska Extension: Community Environment | Nebraska (unl.edu) .

A video of an Antlion digging his pit may be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AT0J8cBS-U. Watch carefully. You can see the tiny creature throwing sand onto the sides of its pit.

This article’s Title refers to the tale by Edgar Allan Poe, which is a tale of another conundrum.

Birds Range of the Home

In 2017 I was conducting bird surveys as a volunteer at the Manassas Battlefield National Park. I was helping to catalogue the presence of two species, The Northern Bob White Quail and the Henslow’s Sparrow. The Park Wildlife Management personnel and I were interested in seeking out the birds in selected areas of the Park

I would go out to the Bob White areas in the early morning hours so I could be there in time for sunrise. I usually went out earlier than necessary, and I walked well-known paths to be at the listening point while it was still dark. I would pack-out a folding chair and a thermos of coffee. When I got the listening point, I would sit and watch the stars in their motion across the night sky and see them fade as night turned into Dawn. At Dawn I opened my coffee thermos, and poured a cup, and toasted the new day.

The survey was conducted in the Spring and we would listen for the daybreak calls of the coveys of quail we hope to hear. There were twenty of these sites scattered around the Park. The Park personnel and I divided the sites up so we could cover all of them during scope of the annual survey.

The sky might be clear when I went out in the early morning before dawn, but on the ground it was dark. If I had not had several decades of experience in walking the Park, I might have gotten turned around. I wrote about my experience in an article titled Frosty Morning and published on this site on 15 November 2018.

The Park personnel and I would often talk about the birds of the Park and how we thought that they would be affected by climate change, especially as the average temperatures warmed in the more northern parts of the species’ range.

In order to develop a better understanding of the potential impact of climate change on bird species, I searched for related articles. A good one I found regarding bird species and changes in their range due to climate changes, was based on surveys of numerous species in Finland between 1974 and 2010.

The results are basically that yes, the ranges do change due to changes in climate. The ranges of the various bird species change with an expansion at the northern/top/cold edge. But the southern edge is not moving northward/poleward. Part of this is that a species would have to lose their niche, basically become extinct, in the southern regions in order to say that they are no longer using the southern/warm edge.

I had initially thought of a bird’s range as a box that would move north as the climate warmed. However, that does not appear to be the case. As it turns out the box stretches and gets bigger as the range extends to the North. The range expands northward with the increasing temperature and the birds take advantage of more range.

Climate change may affect a bird species physiologically in that its old range may become too hot or too wet for the bird species to thrive. They have to change or move. But these conditions, even if they do not directly affect the birds, may cause a portion of the bird’s range to become unusable at the level of the current population if a food source dies out due to the change in the overall climate, or if the food source moves out to a more acceptable range, or if the food source becomes unavailable at a time that it is need for the bird’s reproduction and life cycle. An example of this latter was published in Science New in 2006.

The first article I read about the impact of climate change on bird species was a 2006 article in Science News concerning the timing of the arrival of the European Pied Flycatcher in their nesting area. The article pointed out that the birds migrate based on the length of daylight in their wintering area in Africa. But the appearance of the caterpillars, the major food source at their nesting area for feeding their chicks, was based on temperature. With the northern temperatures warming earlier, by the time the birds arrived, the caterpillars had reached the next stage in their life cycle and are no longer available for the birds and their nesting brood. The numbers of the Flycatchers in some of their historic breeding areas had fallen by 90%. The study found “a correlation between declining Flycatcher numbers and the timing of the peak food for their chicks.”

I recently ran across a journal article concerning birds of China and the effect of climate change on their range. The article pointed out that the extension of a bird’s range may meet an obstacle that it cannot pass through. This might be a range of high mountains or an open ocean. The birds at that point have reached the limit of their range. The birds may well have to make a change in their diet or risk being unable to maintain the new range that they have colonized. For the birds to succeed in the new region they must find fruiting plants or insect or other food stuff available in an abundance on which the species colonizing the area can survive. This is especially hard if the new range is populated by a species that already relies on a limited supply of that food. The picture at the top of this article is a version of some of the charts from the article showing potential movement of species.

What about the Quail and Henslow’s Sparrow at Manassas? Will they have to move? So much of a bird’s ability to use a region is predicated on their ability to find suitable habitat. Destruction of habitat will force out a population. However, as the climate grows hotter and more humid over the next several decades these bird’s ranges may expand, but it is different for each species. The southern edge of the Quail’s range is well below us, extending into Mexico. I do not believe we will see a change in the population of Quail due to climate change. However, for Henslow’s Sparrow, here in the Mid-Atlantic region, we are between the breeding (northern) and the non-breeding (southern) range. We may lose our small, but for me dynamic, local population. There may be issues for the Henslow’s Sparrows in the southern reaches of their breeding range where we are located. as it becomes hotter and wetter. Only time will tell.

Article regarding study in Finland, The breeding ranges of Central European and Arctic bird species move poleward. may be found at: http://europepmc.org/article/PMC/3447813

Science News article (only available to subscribers to Science News) on European Pied Flycatcher may be found at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/no-early-birds-migrators-cant-catch-advancing-caterpillars.

Article regarding range shift of Chinese birds under the potential of climate change: (PDF) Shifts in bird ranges and conservation priorities in China under climate change (researchgate.net)

Newport – Learning to Walk

I apologize for being absent for these several weeks. I was in the middle of a big project for Christmas. And yesterday as I finished the writing portion – you can tell that I am late as Christmas has come and gone.– I asked myself, What should I write in my blog?

As I thought on that I realized that recently I have spent a lot of time burrowing through family pictures. It brought back so many places and people and experiences, and in many of them grand hikes and walks. So – light bulb – my question had an obvious answer, Write about what I know. I have often been told that these are words to live by if you are going to do any kind of creative writing.

I decided to go back to the root. I am looking back to some of the earliest walks and hikes that I remember. I remember, as a toddler, scenes from wanderings out of my yard and stumbles along the sidewalk, but I want to think back to when my Father said, Let’s go outside and go for a walk. My brother and I would rush to our rooms and get dressed in weather appropriate items. In Newport, Rhode Island it could be yellow slicker and goulashes for rain, heavy winter coats with fuzzy collars and gloves and scarves and fuzzy hats if it was Winter. But if it was Summer, we would go out in short sleeves and tennis shoes.

Just saying that makes me think of the sun- drenched rocks along that shore of Rhode Island. And in Newport the coast and trails along it are accessible to everyone. But it is not always a public park. It is more often a path on private property. Perhaps originally a wandering sheep trail along the edges of the outer fences. But as the Cliff Walk website states, “the walk is a public right-of-way over private property owned by the waterfront property owners”.

So as on any trail whether it be publicly owned or privately owned, always be courteous and as the saying goes, Leave only foot prints and take only pictures. In the instance of Newport’s Cliff Walk stay on the path. It is not polite, nor is it legal, to wander across another person’s private property.

Today much of the Cliff Walk is paved – but it is dangerous. Do not venture off the path; you may fall to your death.

But “back in the day” in the 1950s, when I was young, the walk was at best semi-paved. And it was along this muddy, and smooth-rock, slippery trail that I learned to “walk-out”. I of course was an accomplished walker, already being 5-years old. But on those trails along the rugged coast of Rhode Island, I learned how to watch where I was stepping. I learned how to set my foot for traction, how to avoid the stone that was covered in sand and pebbles as it sand grains can be as slippery as wet moss. I was taught by being guided, by example, the little skills of walking a wilderness, a semi-wilderness, or a rough trail through a city park. Your feet are your guides. You can tell from your first placement whether you position is firm or if it is a risky-one.

These skills were learned from walking-out with my Mother and Father and Brother. And from them I learned of the joy of a walking stick, which my own children and I often refer to as a “pokey” stick. It gives you balance and support in the hard places. And you can turn over small rocks to look underneath using it as a lever.

The joys of the path will be with you forever. And a sturdy stick and whatever else gives you support and makes you steady is worth holding on to.

So much to learn but so easy to remember. Watch where you put your feet. Make sure you are steady on the trail. And be courteous to the people and the plants and animals who you may meet on your way since it may be their home.

Information on Newport’s Cliff Walk may be found at, www.cliffwalk.com.

Forbidden Planet

I remember the flashing lights on the screen of the darkened movie theater and the actors’ screams that I did not understand.

But yesterday when I happened to see on my television the movie that had so frightened me as a child, it was like seeing an old friend.

I was four years old when I went with my older brother to see The Forbidden Planet, a science-fiction movie that he and all his friends wanted to see. I had probably begged to go along with him, and since it was a rainy day my father decided that he would come as well. The three of us, who more often were found on an Autumn afternoon out hiking along the seashore or playing ball in the yard, were walking into the only movie theatre in town.

When I got scared my father had to walk me out and let me sit in the lobby. He watched the end of the movie through the door to the theatre. I had nightmares after the movie, and I did not like to have the lights turned out in the room I shared with my brother.

I have always remembered going to that movie and my reactions later at home. But I have always cherished the memory. When I pass the theater, which is still in operation in downtown Newport, RI, I think to myself of the time that I went there with my father and my brother, now both gone. And I smile. I smile not because of my childhood fears, but because I was with my father and my brother and they looked out for me. So my adult memories of the movie are happy memories.

But what about the movie itself?

As I watched it the other day, I recalled the scenes of the underground civilization, of “Robbie the Robot”, and the encampment of the space men outside their ship. But I also saw other things that I could not have seen then. I saw the amazing color of the old film, now digitally restored. I saw scenes that I recognized as being repeated in Star Trek and Star Wars. I watched a plot unfold, not of discovery, but of finding terror inside one’s self.

The premise of the movie is that twenty years prior the spaceship Bellerophon had left Earth to explore the fourth planet orbiting the star Altair. Altair is the 12th brightest star in the night sky. It is part of the Constellation Aquilla, the Eagle. The star is also part of an astronomical asterism (pattern of stars) known as the Summer Triangle. The other stars in the triangle are the star Deneb (19th brightest in the night sky) in the constellation Deneb (the Swan), and the star Vega (5th brightest star in the night sky) in the constellation Lyra (the Lyre).

In the plot there had been no signals from the planet for twenty years. The United Planets Cruiser “C57-D” was sent out to Altair to determine if there were any survivors. As it turned out there were two survivors, Dr. Morbius and his daughter, Altaira, played by Walter Pigeon and Anne Francis. The Commander of the C57-D, J.J. Adams, was played by Leslie Neilson.

Millions of year ago the planet had been the home of an advanced race, the Krell. They had developed their science and technologies to the point that the negative thoughts of their subconscious had taken the shape of a beast. The Best ravished their civilization and killed all Krell. All the scientists and crew of the Bellerophon, except Dr. Morbius and his daughter, were also killed by this electrostatic, but invisible, beast.

Dr. Mobius has not yet determined the cause of the beast, which returns as his thoughts turn against the crew of the C57-D and his daughter, who plans to leave with them.

So much of science fiction is about the initial exploration of space, and exploration and exploitation of the planets and civilizations that are discovered. The movie is an exploration of the human mind and how it can become lost in its prejudices and dislikes. His thoughts became a beast that destroys all.

If there is a moral to this story, it is that dwelling on the negative will be destructive. Forgiveness may provide a way out of unbearable troubles. If Morbius had not distrusted the crew of the arriving space cruiser, would the beast have reappeared and destroyed him?

This was a film that forecasts future developments in the science fiction genre. Its premise and its questions are echoed in the Star Wars trilogy, as are its flowing introductory script and some of the visual aspects of the Krell’s home world.

In the night, the beast we hear is often of our own making.

All pictures and images are taken from MGM stills and posters related to the movie, Forbidden Planet.

The IMDb site related to the movie Forbidden Plant may be found at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/ .

ART as a Verb

We had gone to spend a few days in Newport, Rhode Island to see friends and to participate in the crowning event to the Summer, The Newport Art Museum Wet Paint show. It’s a wonderful time to visit a wonderful place. And the added fun is that anyone can enter the art show for a modest entry fee. The entry fee includes being supplied a box lunch.

We heard of the show by chance several years before and had determined that we wanted to come back and enjoy what sounded like a great deal of fun. I must say that I am not much of an artist, but I do enjoy sketching. And I have some colored pencils, so I was ready. My wife is much more the artist than I am, and she came prepared with her paints and brushes.

The week before Wet Paint had been very pleasant summer weather. The day of the show started with rain and clouds. Soon the rain stopped, but the clouds remained. That was fine as I believe that the subdued light enhances the colors of the Earth.

The grounds, gardens, and lawns of several of the grand ocean-front houses were open for the professional, the talented, and the budding artists. The homes encouraged artists to be inspired by their grounds and gardens and to draw the flowers and landscapes found there. No detail was too small to capture the imagination. We could also go out to the wonderful seaside walking areas and “art” there. As a note, I do not believe there is a verb form of the word “art.” It is generally a noun. However, the word can be changed to be an adjective, e.g., artsy.

We had numerous choices of where we could go to sketch and paint. We decided on a home called Rough Point. It had been the home of Doris Duke, the heiress of the Duke tobacco and energy fortune. She used a great deal of her time and energy and wealth to support active philanthropy including art, preservation, horticulture, and support of the troops in World War II. She founded the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) in 1968. The NRF remains active in restoring and preserving historic buildings in Newport. . We were guest of the NRF while we were on Rough Point as it maintains and operates the house and grounds, as well as other homes in Newport.

We arrived ready to do “art”. We had brought our chairs and each of us had a board to use as a lap easel. Before we started to draw – or do “art” – we walked around the large lawn and visited the flower garden in the North front of the vast yard. We also walked back to where the NRF keeps a vegetable garden. The gate to this garden is pictured above. It is nicely maintained with an array of vegetables and flowers. We were offered some of the fruits from the small wood crate resting at the gate. I tried some of the small golden tomatoes, and found them delicious, tasting of sunshine.

We settled in behind the formal flower garden and began our work. My wife’s work with the flowers was very good. I tried to sketch some of the flowers but without success. I got up and walked around some more. During this excursion I looked up at the house and saw its façade, wetted by the earlier rain, had begun to dry off in the wind that blew in from Easton Bay. Enjoying the breeze and the coloration of the stone façade of the house as the dampness was drawn out, I returned to my board and sketched a small detail of the roof line.

At the auction that evening I purchased my own sketch. I liked it, and there was no other bid for it. Now I have it to remind me of a quiet, rainy day off the Atlantic Ocean, and that “art” can be a verb.

The website of the Newport Restoration Foundation may be found at https://www.newportrestoration.org/roughpoint/ .

Information about the 2019 Wet Paint event may be found at, https://newportartmuseum.org/events/wet-paint-2019/ .

Petroglyph Trail

It was 1993. We went out west to see the land and the National Parks. We traveled in the arc of the states of the Four Corners; New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona.

Our first stop was Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. We wanted to see the magnificent remains of the cliff houses built by Native Americans centuries before.

But 700 years after they built the cliff house, they left them. The community was not destroyed by fire or earthquake, but something happened, and the People left. Other People known as the Pueblo Indians came hundreds of years after the original inhabitants had left. The Pueblo Indians called the builders of the cliff houses the Ancient Ones, the Anasazi.

The Anasazi had lived on these mesas for nearly a thousand years, from approximately 600 C.E. (Common Era, after the birth of Christ) to 1300 C.E.). Then, suddenly, they had left their homes, their places of ceremony, their work, their pottery, and they had gone. It is surmised that perhaps the cause was a change in the climate that made the crops fail. Several theories have arisen, but it is generally felt that their descendants are the modern day Pueblo Indians.

When we visited the ruins of the cliff houses, we had a fascinating experience. We were able to tour some of the ancient homes and see their construction. We climbed ladders. We entered rebuilt pit houses. We hiked trails. But it always seemed that we were with a rather sizable group. And we did not see much in the way of wildlife. I would see some Mule Deer when I would go out in the early morning for a walk at sunrise. But other than that and the occasional bird heard up in the trees, it seemed as if we humans were alone on Mesa Verde.

My son, a young outdoorsman, felt the same way. He and I wanted to get on a trail that was not so heavily traveled so we might see what we might see. His interest lay in snakes. Mine did not.

We stopped at the Visitors’ Center and asked the Ranger where we might go for a hike where it was not so crowded. We thought perhaps in the forests along the rim of the mesa. We were told that at that time of day the Petroglyph Trail was usually not crowded.

We made sure we had water with us. And as always, I carried a trail map so we would know where we were. And we set off.

We quickly moved from the trail head into the pine forest that then covered much of the park. It was a well-marked trail. There were some tight spaces and steep climbs up hewn stone steps, but it was very enjoyable. The trail was about 700 feet above the canyon floor.

The trail wandered along the side of the mesa about 100 feet below its top. From our map I could tell that we had covered a good part of the trail and were approaching an area that looked out over the lower portions of the park. Near the end of the mesa, the canyon widened to meet another canyon. We would have a good view out across the canyons.

The trail had been rocky, and as we neared this point I was focused on the trail in front of me. If it hadn’t been for the sign, we might have walked right past the petroglyph panel. The sign said, “Do Not Touch”.

Touch what I thought? But it caused me to stop and look up. The petroglyphs we were looking for were high above the sign, well above the level of my head. The Petroglyphs were inscribed in the sheet of stone that formed the side of the mesa. The Petroglyphs were in good condition.

The height of the inscribed figures above the trail has doubtlessly protected the panel from damage as they are out of the reach of curious hands. The Petroglyphs were plain to see and included animals, hand prints, human shapes, and geometric designs. However, their meaning, implied by the ancient carvers, is lost in time. One circle did catch my eye as the possible cycle of the moon with the new moon hidden from view behind a mesa jutting high into the night sky.

As we walked back, we talked of the possible meaning of the glyphs and why and when they might have been carved. We talked of how some of the mysterious glyphs may have been carved by an ancient man who walked out to the point of the mesa with his son to read the messages left from before his time. Perhaps they carved a message of their own.

Our return trail crossed the top of the mesa. Before we reached the trailhead, we saw a whip-tail lizard dart across the surface of the rocks. Perhaps he was looking a bug for his dinner. He was in a hurry, so he did not become dinner for a watchful hawk.

And on this hike, no snakes.

Information on Mesa Verde National Park including trail maps can be found at https://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm .

UPDate – Sails from Sweden

This article is an update on modern wind-propelled ocean-going ships. This was previously discussed in the article, Cylindrical Sails, posted October 1, 2018.

Naval architects and marine engineers are continually working to make ocean transport of cargo more environmentally sustainable. The vast majority of the world’s cargo whether it is manufactured goods (farm machinery or transistors/semiconductors), raw material (food stuff or metal ore), or consumer products (small appliances or clothes) are transported from point of origin to buyer by ships.

The map above is a screen shot on a summer day in the Northern Hemisphere. The number of ships traveling between ports can be seen crowding the favored shipping lanes. Other areas of the ocean are nearly empty in comparison. These shipping lanes are crowded because they are the most direct routes between ports of call. The most famous route being the Great Circle Route.

I remember as a boy seeing the ship I was traveling on being marked on its daily passage with a magnetic ship on a wall size map of the oceans. When I asked why the ship was moving up towards the North rather than going straight across the ocean, I was told that we were on the shortest route, the Great Circle Route.

This route is the shortest distance across the globe of the Earth. By taking the shortest route the ship takes less time in its crossing, thereby saving expenses and fuel costs.

The graceful arc of a Pacific Great Circle Route is shown as a black arc between Asia and North America (California). The congestion of this route can be easily seen. These routes can be made between any two ports on an ocean. Although they become more flattened near the equator and form an upside-down arc in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the last half of the 20^th century people began to realize the damage to the atmosphere due to the amount of fossil fuel being burned. This included ocean shipping which at the time burned “bunker oil,” a fossil fuel whose use and emission added tons of pollution to the atmosphere and to the sea each year.

Modern vessels use diesel generators and more efficient power plants to generate electricity that is use to drive the propellers that push these ships. The trend has been from direct drive systems for propulsion (a boiler generates steam to turn a geared shaft on which is mounted the propeller), to an indirect-drive (a diesel generator produces electricity which runs an electric motor to turn the shaft on which is mounted the propeller).

All of these systems use fossil fuels for their main power. Over the years the fuel efficiency of the ships and their engines has greatly improved. This was brought about through improved design of the vessels and their power plants. The results have been reduced operating costs as well as reductions in environmental contamination. At the same time the number of ships transporting cargo has greatly increased. The cargo tonnage offloaded in the Port of Los Angeles, California has significantly increased in the recent years. From 2000 to 2019 the general cargo off-loaded in the Port of Los Angeles more than doubled. It rose from approximately 82 million metric tons to more than 190 million metric tons. All of these goods were transferred by ships burning fossil fuel.

In order to reduce the effect of fossil fuel on the world’s atmosphere and oceans, a consortium being led by Wallenius Marine and including the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden and SSPA, a marine consultancy, have designed and tested models of the hull design for a modern sailing ship. These tests have been on the open water and in a testing basin.

The modern sailing vessel they are designing is a wind Propelled Car Carrier (wPCC). Wallenius Marine is leading the design of the wPCC. This type of vessel is used to transport manufactured cars and trucks. It is often referred to as a roll-on roll-off (RORO) vessel.

While the sail mentioned in the previous article was a spinning cylinder, the wPCC sails resemble the rigid sails of modern racing yachts. They are expected the propel the Car Carrier across the oceans and achieve a reduction in emissions is 90%. However it is noted that the vessel is slower than a standard RORO.

The sails have yet to come to a final design. These rigid sails will rise up from within the ship. They can also be lowered when the ship is under the control of tugs while in port.

And although I might think that I cannot wait another moment for my new Volvo to arrive, knowing that its transportation had a significantly reduced carbon foot-print is worth the small delay before I have the keys in my hand.

The initial article I read on this was from TNW (The Next Web) and can be found at https://thenextweb.com/shift/2020/09/10/swedes-boat-powered-by-wind-sailboat-ship-cargo-transatlantic/ .

A fact sheet on the wPCC may be found at https://www.sspa.se/sites/www.sspa.se/files/field_page_files/wpcc_fact_sheet_may_2020_v_1.0.pdf .

The map at the top is a screen shot of a maritime information map found at https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/centery:24.8/zoom:2 . It is noted that there is an agreement associated with the use of material on this web site.

Tonnage statistics for the Port of Los Angeles may be found at https://www.portoflosangeles.org/business/statistics/tonnage-statistics .

Titan Dino Egg

When I first read the news article on the Titanosaur/Sauropod egg and the embryo inside, I was completely fascinated. When I read further about the findings from the study of the egg, I was amazed both at the methods of investigation and in what the authors of the study presented about the embryo.

The egg is believed to have been a Titanosaur, several types of Sauropod which that lived in the area where the egg was discovered in what is now Argentina. A cast/fossil of one of these Sauropods, Maximo the Titanosaur, is now on display in the Field Museum in Chicago. It has taken the place on the main floor of where Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) skeleton ever found use to stand. Sue is now in the second-floor dinosaur exhibit of the Field Museum.

A comparison of the completeness of the two fossils, Maximo and Sue, is interesting. The bones comprising Sue’s fossil (it is named for the discoverer of the fossil; the sex of the dinosaur is unknown) compromise approximately 90% of the mass of a complete T-Rex skeleton. By contrast, the skeleton of Maximo the Titanosaur is made from casts of fossilized bone found at several sites, and of some sculpted bones where no reference bone is available. There were about 130 fossilized bones found, not just from one Titanosaur but from six different individuals.

The initial scientific article in Current Biology on the egg and its investigation, examines several interesting aspects of the dinosaur’s life. The embryo was approximately 80% of its in ovo, inside the egg, development before it was ready to hatch out. The examination of the embryonic fossil indicates that the tiny dinosaur had what is commonly known as an “egg-tooth.” An egg-tooth is used by a young bird as it hatches to break open the shell of the egg in which it is enclosed and protected. The egg tooth later falls off once the young bird is out of its eggshell.

Another finding of the study can be understood by picturing a rabbit. A rabbit’s skull is quite narrow, and its eyes are situated well back on the sides of its skull. The rabbit is preyed on by many other animals including mammals, large birds, and snakes. The position of the rabbit’s eyes gives it the ability to have a field of vision well beyond the field of vision of a human. While our human peripheral vision from the side of our eyes allows us to see approximately to the line of our shoulder, the placement of a rabbit’s eyes allow it a field of vision well past its shoulder. The rabbit’s field of vision reaches beyond 45 degrees past its shoulders on each side. This allows them to see a predator sneaking up on them from the sides and from their rear. This is similar to what is known about the placement of eyes sockets on adult Sauropod skeletons. They also had predators that they had to watch out for.

In the study it was found that the embryo’s eye placement was more forward giving it more of a three-dimensional vision to the front. It’s not that these tiny creatures did not have predators. I imagine the predation of the new hatchlings was very high. But when they first emerged from their egg, their eyes were forward looking. Perhaps this helped them to be better able to learn to stand and walk in a straight line and to see food such as a blade of grass or a seedling tree right in front of them. But as time went on and as their body and their skull expanded, their eyes moved to the side of their skull which created a field of vision more like that of a rabbit.

The growth of the Titanosaurs was amazing. In the art at the beginning of this article, I have tried to capture a size comparison of the adult Titanosaurs to a modern human and to the fossilized egg shown as the round ball next to the human figure.

In this study the fossilized egg was approximately 10 inches in diameter. I postulate that an embryo was likely about twelve inches long when it emerged from its egg. When compared, a modern ostrich egg is more egg-shaped, the dinosaur egg being studied was more spherical. A modern Ostrich egg is approximately 10 inches long and 5 to 7 inches in diameter. The hatchling Ostrich is generally the size of a chicken. It will grow to be upwards of 8 feet tall.

The hatchling Titanosaur by contrast is assumed to be 10 to 12 inches tall at the shoulder. It would have grown to be 20 times that high at the shoulder. It will also grow to be over 120 feet long and weigh 140,000 pounds (70 tons).

The last bit of the story also speaks to the truth of modern science. At one time fossils were stolen in the field from one team of paleontologists by another team representing a different museum or university. Fossils were sometimes destroyed in the field to keep rival museums from retrieving them. Today museums and landowners and discoverers often work together to improve our knowledge of these ancient beasts and the world they lived in. There may be court cases to determine ownership or partial rights of ownership to a fossil. This allows the courts to decide the question of ownership and the fossil can be recovered and displayed and studied and enjoyed. In the case of the fossilized egg and its embryo, the fossil had been removed from Argentina illegally. When this became known to the research team, the fossil was returned to Argentina. The fossil is now housed at the museum, Museo Municipal “Carmen Funes,” in Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina.

Fascinating.

The picture of the herd of titanosaur sauropod Argentinosaurus is by artist Miguel Angel Amorin Fernandez. It is copied from a page in “palenontologyworld_com”, it may be found at https://www.instagram.com/p/B00DxYblpOd/?igshid=dbe23rmt94sf .

The picture of the embryo of the Titanosaur sauropod inside its egg is copied from the article, “Specialized Craniofacial Anatomy of a Titanosaurian Embryo from Argentina”, Martin Kundrat et al, published August 27, 2020 in the journal Current Biology.

The pictured size comparison of the human (at 5 feet 6inches) and the sauropod Argentinosaurus (shoulder height 20 feet) is based on the scale presented in the article “Titanosaur” that may be found at https://www.britannica.com/animal/titanosaur.

The initial news article I read on this fascinating subject was an online article in CNN. It may be found at https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/27/world/sauropod-dinosaur-embryonic-skull-scn-trnd/index.html . The pictured comparison of the size of a titanosaur egg (approximately 8 inches in diameter) is based on the comparison to an Ostrich egg in that article.

The article about Sue the T-Rex may be found on the website of the Field Museum of Chicago at https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/sue-t-rex .

The difference between the complete skeleton of Sue, and the mostly Cast skeleton of Maximo the Titanosaur is discussed in an article on the website of the Field Museum of Chicago may be found at https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/which-dinosaur-bones-are-real .

The website for the museum Museo Municipal “Carmen Funes,” Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina may be found at https://www.interpatagonia.com/cutralco-huincul/carmen-funes-municipal-museum.html .