Make you Fink on Friday

Nature Ramble

Sorry about the last couple of weeks, ran out of steam. In fact, I have been quite out of sorts.

But we’re pretty much back to normal now and should proceed.

This week we travel to Africa, the South African desert actually, and we’re talking about poop.

Dung beetles like to chill on top of balls of poop.

Dung beetles eat feces. Everyone knows this. But here’s something you didn’t know: newly published research reveals that dung beetles can use spheres of rollable poop-meals as portable AC units — and they’re damn effective ones, at that.

The sands of the South African desert can exceed temperatures of 60 degrees Celsius, or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s ridiculously hot. In fact, for a dung beetle like Scarabaeus lamarcki — which transports its meal by rolling it into a ball and pushing it across the scorching desert landscape with its hind legs — it’s too hot, as demonstrated in a study by functional zoologist Jochen Smolka in the latest issue of Current Biology. Using infrared thermography and behavioral experiments, Smolka and his colleagues have shown that dung beetles use their poo-ball as “a mobile thermal refuge” — a portable evaporative unit that cools the beetle slightly as it rolls, and dramatically when it clambers on top of it….

…So what’s the secret to ball-cooling? The big one is evaporation. Dung balls are moist. As that moisture evaporates it keeps the ball very cool — around 32 °C, even when it’s resting atop 60 °C soil. What’s more, note the researchers, “because beetles roll their ball rather than drag it, the ball, preceding the beetle, cools down the sand the beetle is about to step on” by around 1.5 °C.

All told, that means a beetle’s ball of crap helps keep it cool in three ways. First: as a platform, elevated above the scorching desert sand. Second: as a heat sink, drawing heat from the beetle’s forelimbs whenever they start to overheat. And third: as a mobile sand-cooling unit, paving a cooler path for the beetle as it pushes its prize ball of poo from one place to the next.

Source:  io9 There’s more tech stuff and a video clip there.

Change the World Wednesday – 19th Oct

Well, the week has flown by, I didn’t even get to post a Monday Moaning this week. Sorry about that, I do like to start the week off with a moan.

Last weeks CTWW post, almost had me convinced. I had previously been dead set against CFLs in the past, but I do try so hard to be a little greenish in my life, and I decided to cast my reservations to the wind and begin a slow replacement of the incandescent light bulbs, one as a trial, then others as they burn out.

But then I had a comment from a reader that jerked me back to reality and the myriad of reasons why CFLs should be avoided at all costs, you can read about that on Rather Frightening.

Here’s a quick demonstration that shows you that there is something definitely not right with CFLs.

Look at the two reflected spectra on the CD surface. The right is an incandescent light source, the left, a CFL.

Notice how the CFL has three ‘hot spots’ at the extremes of the spectrum. Ultra-violet and infra red. I am not an expert, but here’s the story from q-re-s.com, read it, it explains why the light from CFLs will never equal the light from incandescents.

Looks like we don’t yet have all the answers, and have shown that by flying off half cocked with CFLs. You know what? I can see the writing on the wall. It won’t be too far in the future when CFLs are banned (Germany has already legislated against CFLs in certain applications) and we have to replace with solution of the moment, be it LEDs or OLEDS or Super Dooper Non-carbon emmitting candles. Guess who gets to benefit? If you guessed you, then you are dead wrong… once again the corporations will reap their ill-gotten gains at your expense and gullibility.

Well, that got a bit long-winded…

This week’s Change the World Wednesday:

This week, find one way to lower the environmental impact of your pet.

OR …
If you don’t have a pet, suggest ways that we can protect wild animals.

Will have to wait. It’s 3:30am, and I am going back to bed…

Up again, got coffee.

Meow Meow when she was a kitteh...

At the moment I don’t have a pet. My last two, Meow Meow and da Meow were poisoned here in the praça (park) where I live.

How do you make a pet eco-friendly?

Well, I guess the major problem with pets is poop. Both used my compost heap. I used to put a small square of sand (collected from the street) next to the compost and when it got too soiled, I just turned it into the compost and got more sand. A few years ago when I had Pexote and Pivete, our two dogs, their poop was scooped off the lawn and straight into the compost.

Okay, that deals with what comes out, but what about what goes in?

I don’t buy (or didn’t) dry pet food, nor the canned stuff. I stopped that when I read about how they manufacture it and how the corporations control what advice your vet gives about such products. The vets say it’s good for your pet because the corporations dictate (by way of donations and funding) what the universities teach them to say.

The story I read of one vet who rebelled against pet food after having one of the dogs under his care become an epileptic, losing it’s fur, etc. He changed the dog to a diet of raw bones, yup, just raw bones and within two weeks the epileptic fits had stopped and the dog’s coat had begun to shine. He was working on the basis that that’s what dogs ate before humans started messing with their dietary needs. Since then all the animals he sees, he recommends a change back to raw bones and meat. The owners report that their pets become different animals, more active, healthier growth, lose their bad breath and fat ones lose weight and look like dogs instead of barrels on legs.

If your pet food comes like this, go and talk to your butcher about bones

I just put “processed pet food is bad” into Google hoping I could find the story, but it produced such a plethora of results, there wasn’t a hope of finding that particular one. You do it and have a browse. The first page of results has NOTHING good to say about processed pet food.

Another aspect of pets, fleas and such. When I had the cats, I couldn’t afford fancy flea powders at R$10 (about $7) a throw, I used a little sodium bicarb, rubbed that in and the fleas decided my cats weren’t such a good host.

I never used detergents or soaps or shampoos with my animals, just the garden hose and a good rub both for cats and dogs.

That’s about it, I guess. Not much, but I am interested to see what others have to say.

Good challenge.

 

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Saturday Satire

Featuring our lovable Maxine