Winter

Photo credit to bfreethree, eHow Member http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2082150/j0407129-main_Full.jpg

As winter comes to the Northern Hemisphere, the days grow shorter until the winter solstice at the exact moment when the Sun appears to be the furthest south, the day that has the least hours of sunlight. We know that it is really the fact that the Earth is tilted on its axis as it orbits the Sun that makes it appear that the Sun is moving south in the sky. This moment occurs sometime between December 19th and December 23rd; however, we usually consider December 21st to be the "shortest" day and the beginning of Winter.

So here in Utah the temperatures are in the 20s and 30s F and we have a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Winter, right? I would like to share a poem about winter coming to Florida. This poem is also from 1934 and by Lila Neville.

SIGNAL FIRES


In yester-years, so I have heard,
When Indians roamed at will,
They used to light their signal fires
On top of some high hill
To warn their friends from plain to plain,
In tepees far away,
That they must flee or merge to fight
A stronger tribe than they.

Dame Nature, too, lights signal fires!
The maple blazing red
First warns our Northern neighbors of
The time not far ahead,
When "Big Chief Winter," white and fierce,
With warriors "Cold" and "Snow,"
Will charge; and they can but be safe
Down here, where summers grow.

Poinsettias glowing brilliant red
And oranges turning gold,
Green grass and lots of healthful sun
Making the world unfold,
The change in music of the birds
That echoes long, and clear,
Are signal fires in Florida
That winter is drawing near.

--mak

Spanish moss

(Credit for picture to http://tour.airstreamlife.com/weblog/Tampa%20Spanish%20Moss%201.jpg)

Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is one of the defining characteristics of Florida and other parts of the Southern United States, even Argentina where the weather is warm and humid enough. Spanish moss is not related to moss or even lichens, like the beard lichen. It is actually a flowering plant of the Bromeliad family—like pineapple and ornamental bromeliads found in flower beds!

According to legend, “there was once a traveler who came with his Spanish fiancée in the 1700s to start a plantation near the city of Charleston SC. She was a beautiful bride-to-be with long flowing raven hair. As the couple was walking over the plantation sight near the forest, and making plans for their future, they were suddenly attacked by a band of Cherokee who were not happy to share the land of their forefathers with strangers. As a final warning to stay away from the Cherokee nation, they cut off the long dark hair of the bride-to-be and threw it up in an old live oak tree. As the people came back day after day and week after week, they began to notice the hair had shriveled and turned grey and had begun spreading from tree to tree. Over the years the moss spread from South Carolina to Georgia and Florida. To this day, if one stands under a live oak tree, one will see the moss jump from tree to tree…” (http://soggybottomtours.com/Tales.html).

Spanish moss is an epiphyte, meaning that it grows on other plants. It doesn’t obtain its food or water from the other plant, however, only support. The branches of the spreading oaks in Florida provide a wonderful perch from which the Spanish moss can hang and collect water from the humid air. Hanging there blowing in the wind, drenched in sunlight, photosynthesis can provide the food it needs to flourish.

The blooms are small flowers that are wind pollinated. Roots, if present at all, are just for hanging onto the rough bark of the trees in which it lives.

Spanish moss has been used for arts and crafts, bedding for flower gardens, and even for stuffing mattresses and pillows. Many people falsely believe that it harbors chiggers (a really nasty little mite that redefines the term “to itch.”); however, this is only true after the Spanish moss falls to the ground.

Spanish moss gives a somewhat gothic appearance to the south and has been the subject of and the inspiration for many poems and songs (including one by Gordon Lightfoot). My favorite poem is this one from 1934 by Lila Neville entitled

WET MOSS

The dripping, tangled masses
Sway with ease
Among the groping branches
Of the trees.

The wind slides through the filigree
Out of sight
To moan and utter whispers
Through the night.

And so it seems to haunt me, clinging moss and weird,
As ragged and unkempt as Neptune’s hoary beard.

--mak

Cypress "Knees"

(credit for picture to z.about.com)

Deep in the flood plains of rivers in the Southern United States are the Bald Cypress trees. These trees thrive with their feet in the water almost all year long.

The trees that grow in the swamp are typically flared at the base and possess “knees.” The “knees” are projections of the root system that extend both up out of the water and down deep into the muddy soil. It has been thought that these “knees” were pneumatophores (better look this one up!); however, removing them doesn’t seem to change the health of the tree. On the other hand, Cypress trees growing in more upland areas (not swamps)do not have the buttressing (wide base) of the trunk or “knees.”

It could be that removing the upper part of the “knee” really doesn’t make much difference because the lower portion which extends into the mud is still intact and that the “knee” is there only to help anchor the tree.

As a youngster in Central Florida, I used to harvest these, clean and polish them and make various items such as lamps, book ends, and so on.

--mak

Night Sky

Check This Out! Tonight we will be treated to a show of heavenly bodies. Of course, every night there is a show in the sky, but tonight and tomorrow...well, just read what Dr. Phillips says...

by Dr. Tony Phillips (e-mail: james.a.phillips@earthlink.net)

http://science.nasa.gov/

On Nov. 30th a slender 10% crescent Moon leaps up from the horizon to join the show. The delicate crescent hovering just below Venus-Jupiter will have cameras clicking around the world.

Dec. 1st is the best night of all. The now-15% crescent Moon moves in closer to form an isosceles triangle with Venus and Jupiter as opposing vertices. The three brightest objects in the night sky will be gathered so tightly together, you can hide them all behind your thumb held at arm's length.

The celestial triangle will be visible from all parts of the world, even from light-polluted cities. People in New York and Hong Kong will see it just as clearly as astronomers watching from remote mountaintops. Only cloudy weather or a midnight sun (sorry Antarctica!) can spoil the show.

Although you can see the triangle with naked eyes--indeed, you can't miss it—a small telescope will make the evening even more enjoyable. In one quick triangular sweep, you can see the moons and cloud-belts of Jupiter, the gibbous phase of Venus (69% full), and craters and mountains on the Moon. It's a Grand Tour you won't soon forget.

Right: A sky map of the triple conjunction on Dec. 1, 2008.

(NOTE: This map is right side up for you to view, but upside down as to actual.)

Finally, look up from the eyepiece and run your eyes across the Moon. Do you see a ghostly image of the full Moon inside the bright horns of the crescent? That's called "Earthshine" or sometimes "the da Vinci glow" because Leonardo da Vinci was the first person to explain it: Sunlight hits Earth and ricochets to the Moon, casting a sheen of light across the dark lunar terrain.

By itself, a crescent Moon with Earthshine is one of the loveliest sights in the heavens. Add Venus and Jupiter and … well ... it's time to stop reading and go mark your calendar:

These Colors Don't Run...

I love the informed use of the double meaning in a phrase. A picture says a thousand words and the same is true for mental pictures. Each of us conjures up images and meanings and the use of double meanings just seems to get the thought juices flowing.

The other day, I noticed an American flag sticker in the back window of a car—a car that has spent a lot of time in the sun. The words “These Colors Don’t Run” were faded as was the flag itself. As I thought about the use of the word “colors” to represent the flag of our country—and “run” to mean we don’t run, but stand and fight for the freedoms those colors stand for, it occurred to me that while they don’t run, as in run together, they do fade. They fade as does our patriotism, our loyalty, our attention to the details that make up our freedoms.

So soon after our declaring our independence from Great Britain in the 1700’s, we were called on again in the war of 1812 to stand for freedom and it was during this time that Frances Scott Key penned what would become our National Anthem. “…And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” The Star-Spangled Banner, by its very name, lauds the “colors” as standing for freedom and the bravery that it takes to maintain that freedom.

In World Wars I and II we were called on to stand with other countries to defend the World against hate and oppression in Europe. On December 7th, 1941, the sinking of the USS Arizona symbolically called the “colors” to defend freedom from an attack from Eastern Asia.

There have always been and will always be threats against freedom—calls to put the color back in our cheeks and the color back in our flag. We must not let our colors fade. We must remember, we must be on guard, we must be prepared.

These colors don’t run, so let’s not allow the enemies of freedom and human rights lull us into a false sense of security, convince us that all is well, and lure us into giving up our freedoms. Don’t fade in the stretch.

This Veterans Day, and always, remember, support, say thank you to those who have given for your freedoms, my freedoms, and those of all who are yet to come.

--mak

In Celebration of Breathing...

There was a big celebration in Cambridge, MA a few weeks ago. It was interesting, in a strange sort of way, to hear a room full of marine bacteriologists singing songs and laughing. Scientists aren’t usually known as party animals, but this WAS the twentieth anniversary of the discovery of a photosynthetic marine microorganism now known as Prochlorococcus."

It all started when Penny Chisholm, a biologist at MIT, went on a cruise. Like the good scientist she is, she took along casual clothing, sun block, and her flow cytometer, a device for detecting microscopic particles, such as cells, in a stream of liquid. In this case, she found previously unknown cells in the sea water.

These tiny cells (about 1500 of them would fit on the edge of a credit card) turned out to be bacteria that have the capacity to perform photosynthesis (basically to split water molecules into H’s and O’s). Moreover, they may be descendants of the very organisms that produced oxygen for sustaining life on a hostile planet a long, long time ago.

In the laboratory we can use a source of direct current (battery) to energize positive and negative electrodes submerged in water. This process, known as electrolysis, will cause the hydrogen and oxygen molecules that make up water to let go of each other and separate. Oxygen will bubble up around the positive electrode and hydrogen around the negative electrode.

This is rather large and cumbersome; however, on its chlorophyll-filled membranes, the tiny Prochlorococcus uses visible light from the sun to do the same thing. The bacterium then releases the oxygen to the atmosphere and combines the left over hydrogen with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make high-energy food for marine animals. Pretty neat system, huh?

So once Prochlorococcus appeared on Earth, the atmosphere began filling up with oxygen (well at least to 21%). The destructive ultraviolet rays of the sun began to convert some of the oxygen into ozone to form a layer to protect the Earth from the ultraviolet rays--talk about turning the enemy's strength against them! Without the more powerful uv rays, other life forms could appear and live. The excess oxygen was available for fire, rusting, and breathing!

This bacterium is invisible to the naked eye and yet produces approximately 20% of the oxygen each of us inhales. In addition, it pulls enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to provide the basis for the entire marine food web. Small, but plentiful, their numbers extend into the trillion trillions.

Isn't nature wonderful? So there is great cause for celebration. Like most discoveries of this type, it was serendipitous—discovered quite by accident while looking for something else entirely.--mak