Virginia Tiger Moth (Spilosoma virginica), and the "Yellow Bears"

Last summer I posted the photo above and identified the eggs as those of the Black swallowtail, because we had  found them on Queen Anne's Lace, a  favorite food plant for the BST.  I was wrong, and never amended the post.  Time to provide followup.

Several weeks later the early instars (above) were ravenously eating, and it was obvious they were not swallowtail caterpillars.  I had no idea what they were until several more weeks had passed...

These are the classic "yellow bear" caterpillars, similar to and I think related to the even better-known "wooly bear" caterpillars.  They grew rapidly and finally began "pacing" around the container, looking for a place to pupate.

So, I put them in a shoebox which contained mulch and leaf litter, into which they could burrow.  By the end of August a couple had eclosed (one is visible on the inner surface of the box at the top left).  The others stayed in their cocoons, and decided to overwinter and await more pleasant weather before emerging.

The cocoons are difficult to see in the litter - even when you know they are there.  There's one in the mass of organic material above, on top of the big leaf and under the little leaf fragment.

Here's an easier one to see.  I've detached some of the mulch, and you can see a bit of the silk underneath.  Click this pic (and the others) for fullscreen version.

The overwintering moths began emerging at the end of May.  These are the Virginia Tiger Moths, very attractive mostly-white, fuzzy moths.

This one is perched on my finger, raising his wings to show a few of his spots.  I had hoped to move the wings to show the coloration on his abdominal segments, but when I touched him, he flew away...

Addendum: Magickcanoe has a photo of the coloration of the abdomen, and a better image of how the cat's body hairs are incorporated into the cocoon.

Secret information is encoded in this photo via steganography

It looks like an innocent photo of a chicken that might be emailed by anyone to anyone, or posted on a website with some banal commentary.  In fact, this photo has a message encoded it in.  I have heard of such processes before; the Wolfram Blog explains how the effect is achieved:

The idea of steganography is to hide messages within other information so that no one notices your communications. The word itself comes from a Latin-Greek combination meaning “covered writing”, from earlier physical methods that apparently included tattooing a message on a messenger’s head before letting him grow his hair back to hide it. In the case of digital steganography, it is all done in the math...

Amazingly, it is possible to hide another, larger, full-color picture within this image and get it back again with about a dozen lines of Mathematica code.  The key to the whole process is to use the least significant bit in each color channel of each pixel as a place to hide information...

In a sufficiently complex image, the human eye doesn’t see the loss of information. The fact that one color channel on a particular pixel might or might not be darker by 1/256 than before cannot be noticed…

The technique is explained in detail at the link, and is way over my head, but some of you may understand it.

"Because pets have stress too"

I've been unable to ascertain whether this is an advertisement for a real product or not.  "Natureline Calmdog" is said to be formulated with herbs to "calm the nervous system of pets."

The source may be here; I found it via mendel's soup.

Thoracolumbar fascia creates structure through tension

Bruce McFarlane posts a simple explanation here: http://ittcs.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/notes-on-anatomy-and-physiology-function-of-the-thoracolumbar-fascia-part-1/

The inclination in our culture is to look at the body as if it was constructed solely by means of compression. We tend to think of the skeleton as another version of the stone wall with the bones stacked one on top of the other, each relying on the ones below.

Fig 3 Given that we create so many structures using continuous compression, we imagine the body working in the same way: head and neck resting on the thoracic spine, upper body sitting on the pelvis, and the whole body resting on the feet. Myers, page 49

The reality, however, is that elimination of the soft tissues that tie bones together would result in the bones clattering into a pile at our feet.

In creating structure, the human body actually uses both tension and compression in a manner known as tensegrity. This is a term coined by architect Buckminster Fuller in 1929 when he combined the words “tension” and “integrity” to describe structures whose integrity rely on local, discontinuous compression members (for us, our bones) floating in a sea of continuous tension (our muscles and connective tissue). The bones push outward against soft tissues that pull in. Bones resist shortening and soft tissues resist expansion.

Fig 4 A tensegrity model. Straight lines trace out the rabbit's muscles and tendons as they run from their points of origin to their insertions. Myers, page 46

Take a look at Kenneth Snelson’s sculptures at www.kennethsnelson.net to get a better sense of how tensegrity works. Next time, I’ll describe how to build an icosahedron that gives you a wonderful feel for how the human body, along with many other living things, makes use of tensegrity.

The pup tent also illustrates tensegrity. Poles at either end, acting as compression elements, have no contact with one another and yet resist collapse. The guy wires and fabric of the tent are continuous and provide the tension that makes of the tent a coherent whole.

With tensegrity in mind, we can begin to appreciate how the thoracolumbar fascia creates structure through tension. As the fascia is lengthened or separated, its fibers resist further expansion. Tension builds within the fascial sheet, pulling on everything with which it connects – the bones of all four limbs, spine, pelvis and skull. As the guy wires of the tent tighten, scaffolding for the spine is created. Structure provided by soft tissues.

Now, let’s discuss thoracolumbar fascia as a source of power, as engine of the spine.

Remember that fascia is elastic. Once stretched, it wants to shorten or return to its resting length. Spread its fibers and we store elastic or recoil energy which can be used to create a bouncing back force. Simply by letting go of the intention to separate, we permit the body to make use of this stored energy to move back towards its original position.

This bouncing back force, then, is another major function of the thoracolumbar fascia and provides power to the spine.

Practicing one of two moves in the set – Step Up And Punch or Push Needle To Sea Bottom – will give you a body sense of this force. With each, the body bends forward towards the ground with one or both knees in a gently bent position. Note that it is the lumbar spine and hip joints that make the movement possible. These articulations move with what is known as lumbopelvic rhythm: a smooth, more or less simultaneous, 40 degree forward bend (flexion) of the lumbar spine and about 70 degree flexion of the hip (pelvis on femur).

Fig 5 Three ways of bending forward towards the floor. A, The normal strategy that involves near simultaneous 40 degrees of flexion of the lumbar spine and 70 degrees of hip (pelvis on femur) flexion. B, Here, hip flexion is limited by perhaps osteoarthritis or tight hamstrings so that more flexion is needed from the lumbar and lower thoracic spine. C, Reduced mobility of the low back from a tight thoracolumbar fascia or disc disease leads to greater demands for flexion at the hip joints. In B and C, the areas of red shading and the red arrows indicate where mobility has been lost. Neumann, page 353

With bending forward, the lumbar lordosis or forward curve of the low back is reversed and the thoracolumbar fascia is drawn taut.

Fig 6 Bending alters the curves of the back and the thoracolumbar fascia. A, The normal curves seen with an upright stance. B, Backward bending, or extension, increases the lumbar and cervical kyphosis (forward curve), straightens the thoracic kyphosis (backward curve) and shortens the thoracolumbar fascia. C, Forward bending, or flexion, removes the normal lordosis of the low back and neck, exaggerates the thoracic kyphosis and lengthens the thoracolumbar fascia. Neumann, page 313.

The capacity of the thoracolumbar fascia for elastic recoil can then be used to return the body to an upright posture. And because this sheet of fascia lies almost outside the body, it pulls upward on the trunk with the efficiency of a long lever.

Fig 7 Because the thoracolumbar fascia lies just under the skin and some distance from the back, the elastic recoil energy it develops during forward bending can then be used with great efficiency to pull the body back up. Gracovetsky, 2007

Now, forward bending is not the only way we are able to stretch out the thoracolumbar fascia. The descent phase of the don yu is another opportunity for engagement of this fascial spring.

The next image shows the head of the thigh bone (the femur) dropping along the arc of the green arrow as we descend in the don yu. The proximal end of the femur, the part that meets with the pelvis, is free to move while its distal end forms a joint with the knee and is more or less fixed.

The pelvis, attached to the hip, of course falls as well. As they both descend, there is a natural, gentle backward tilting of the pelvis, and the thoracolumbar fascia, melded to the sacrum, and all its extensions are elongated from below.

Fig 8 In the don yu, it is the joints at the hip, knee and ankle that permit the fall of the pelvis and creation of the bouncing back force. Neumann, page 7

Allowing gravity to lower the pelvis stores elastic energy even though little work is performed. Acceding to gravity on the way down generates energy that can be used to overcome gravity on the way up. Perpetual motion. A neat phenomenon involving a hidden force that develops not only with the don yu but also at the front and back ends of the tor yu. Indeed, every time we settle our weight in the set.

So, thoracolumbar fascia, a source of structure and power whenever we bend forward or settle our weight.

MacFarlane blogs for the Taoist Tai Chi Society, here: http://ittcs.wordpress.com

"Meth-a-phors"

Selections from a list of slang, jargon, and nickname words for methamphetamine, compiled by the Utah Attorney General's Office:

Albino Poo
Bikerdope
Blizzard
Booger
Buzzard Dust
Chalk Dust
Devil's Dandruff
Drano
Eraser Dust
Gonzales (cf. "Speedy")
Haiwaiian Salt
High Speed Chicken Feed
Hillbilly Crack
Jasmine
Laundry Detergent
Poop
Redneck Heroin
Smurf Dope
Spun Ducky Woo
The White House

Hundreds more at the link

Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice), with "alba" variant

The fact that these two butterflies are locked in copulo confirms that they are of the same species, even though they display different coloration.  On the right is the typical (and very common) Clouded Sulphur; paired with him is the so-called "alba" color polymorphism seen in females, in which the yellow is replaced by white.  As best I can tell from a quick web search, this reflects homozygosity for a recessive gene, but has no known functional significance.

Killed by a circus clown

A newspaper blurb from 1854. At first I assumed this was reporting the death of a small child. Then I noticed that the deceased was 13 years old.

Original source: California Biographical Collection Burial Records, via Ye Olde News.