Who needs men? Not sharks!

Hawaiian waters are full of hammerhead sharks. One of the guys we play frisbee with even studies their electromagnetic sensing capabilities. And now, researchers have discovered that female hammerheads can reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis.

The last line of the article reads:
“I would be concerned about a lot of other things than whether or not a female shark can get a date for an evening."

It makes me giggle to think about sharks looking for dates.

Attack of the killer jellies!

Eight to ten days after the full moon, box jellyfish descend upon Oahu's beaches, threatening Hanauma Bay and Waikiki tourists with their stinging nematocysts. One species, the sea wasp (Chironex fleckeri), is:

"claimed to be the most venomous marine animal known," according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science. They state that it causes excruciating pain to humans, often followed by death, sometimes within two or three minutes, and that the chance of survival if stung while swimming alone is "virtually zero."

The body of Chironex is the size of a basketball.

Luckily, here in Hawaii, we have the Carybdea alata and Carybdea rastonii species. They're not so big (less than 6") and not so bad (only cause anaphylactic shock in the lucky individuals allergic to their venom) as their relatives in Australia. One of the ladies in my department, Angel Yanagihara studies their venom and goes on regular collection trips in the middle of the special "8th night".



I would also like to comment about the figure the author of the Wikipedia article chose for the box jellyfish. It is a drawing by Ernst Haeckel, my new favorite scientific rebel who apparently made up some data to support his pet hypotheses. A case of artistic license, maybe? Some of his famous "fakes" were included in the embryo drawings, shown here in Romanes's 1892 version where the background has been changed to white from black:



He later admited that 6-8% of the images may have been "falsified" (translated).

Tomorrow, we plan on going to the North shore to snorkel Shark's Cove. The jellyfish are not so prevalent up there, so we should be fine. I am more worried about riding up there on the back of Megan's motorcycle. An hour and a half on a cruiser. I can't wait...

The quaking ground

Friday fun facts!!!, by Caroline

The Big Island has had three earthquakes this week, two at 3.5, and today's at 2.1. No tsunamis have formed, but I have a feeling a bigger earthquake may be coming soon. The Hawaii Electric Company (HECO) has replaced their ill-fated mercury containing switches, with new ones so our electricity should fortunately not magically disappear during the next earthquake. Note to engineers: do not place a movable liquid in a switch when the liquid may move from the shaking of the ground.

And did you know, "The brain is the only organ that hates crime"? I love Achewood.

The end of an era...

The Maui Land & Pineapple company, the last exporter of canned Hawaiian pineapple, is ending its operations on June 30. This marks the end of 100 years of canned pineapple exports from the state of Hawaii. The loss of the cannery is, "is a victim of cheaper overseas producers" like Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador. Moreover, it marks the decidely necessary, but disappointingly bitter shift from Hawaii's agriculutural heritage to one of land developers and tourist dollars. Aloha, canned pineapples!

Don't worry, though, Hawaii still exports fresh pineapples! For now, anyways.

Read more at the Honolulu Adverstiser.

p.s. Did you know pineapples grew on the ground in these crazy agave-like configurations? I always thought they grew on trees until I moved here!

UFOs in Hawaii?!?

A Katysux original....

p.s. I don't really believe this is a UFO. This is actually a picture I found on the internet. In the "Where's Waldo?" tradition, I have hidden the words, "Katy sux" somewhere in the picture. Can you find it, Katy?

Now presenting....

Creatures of the deep....



The science journal, Marine Biotechnology picked my image of a Labiodocera sp. copepod for its cover for next month! Last June, a colleague here at U. of Hawaii, Gabor Macz asked my boss, Petra, if any of the local copepods expressed green fluorescent protein (GFP). Petra, who was in Maine at the time, asked me to take a look. We discovered that the local species, like some of the other Labidocera, likely contain (a previously undescribed!) GFP in the female sex organs.

Here is the caption for the image:

Confocal microscopic image of the Pacific copepod Labidocera muridae with green fluorescent protein-like fluorescence. Colorful fluorescent proteins (FPs) occur in hydrozoan, anthozoan, and copepodan species, and are the source of exciting research opportunities and technological development. Copepodan FPs are among the brightest FPs in general which lends special value to this class of proteins. FPs have been used to address questions relevant to evolutionary and developmental biology and aquaculture. Photograph by Dr. Caroline Wilson, University of Hawaii, 2006. See the article by Mocz, pp. 000-000.

Isn't science fun?

Beer, earthworms, and lots of shrimp...

For the first time since I have lived in Hawaii, I feel like I am home. It happened this weekend when I was down at Kapiolani Park hanging out with a bunch of friends at a pre-Kokua fest party, when I looked up at Diamondhead and realized that it was my backyard. I live here, and I like it here. And I think I get to stay at least one more year, so I better take advantage of all that Hawaii has to offer.

The feeling was accented by a weekend of parties, starting with a Thursday surprise party for my friend, Kim, at the Ice Palace. Kim used to be a semi-pro figure skater, so it was only fitting to take her to the only ice rink in Hawaii for her 30th birthday. Then, on Friday night, the Sally's camped at Bellows beach, easily the most beautiful stretch of beach on the island. Saturday was the Kokua festival (I got to hear Jack Johnson and Eddie Vedder do a duet, but didn't actually see them since I didn't go into the show. One just needs to set up camp behind the Waikiki shell to hear the bands. Incidentally, this is where Kyle and I "watched" Hootie and the Blowfish play last spring.) Finally, Jake is in town, so we went on what is easily the most beautiful hike on Oahu yesterday, the Maunawili falls trail. People go to the falls and jump off; we saw about 4 guys do it; one came out with a bloody lip from the impact. It was pretty sweet.



Tomorrow begins a new experiment and my list of experimental necessities includes beer, earthworms, and different kinds of shrimp. The beer is for the boat driver, and the animals will hopefully be my control group. If all goes well with this experiment, my boss wants to send a paper to Nature. Hah! We shall see, we shall see!!!! Experiments never work that well, do they?

Have you ever had a lab accident?

Sunday, 10:30am.

Twenty minutes into heating a solution....voila, it was done!

There I was, with my lab coat on, closed-toed shoes (which rarely happens in Hawaii), behind the protection of a hood.

Thank goodness.

I took the solution off the hot plate and....

the bottom of the glass bottle remained on the hot plate, the top, still in my hand.

The lanthanum chloride in sodium cacodylate splashed everywhere. The hot plate is ruined.

"Do you know how to tell when you have acute cacodylate exposure?" asks Tina, our lab manager 10 minutes later when I call her.

"No..." (Oh crap, I forgot about the cacodylate, concentrating only on the effects of the rare-earth metal)

"You'll taste garlic".

Taste buds in check, I let out a sigh of a relief.

Boy, was I lucky. Serves me right for working on a Sunday.

Anyone else have any good work-related stories?

Good, good Friday

Aloha! K and I are back on the islands, and the weather this week has been BEAUTIFUL! This morning, we went to our new favorite place to take the dog, Kahala (Waialae) Beach park. Apparently, it is a sought after destination for beach weddings.

Speaking of weddings, we had a great time at both Dacks and Penny's and Lane and Anne's weddings last week. I would show you pictures, but our camera display died. I did manage to take a picture of Nate hanging out with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, at Solar Culture in Tucson:

Jake told us the afternoon before the show that Casiotone was playing that night, along with XiuXiu, two of Kyle's personal favorite Pitchfork-recommended bands. So we rounded up a posse (Julia, Jake, Nate, Elaine, K, and I) and went to what was easily one of the craziest shows I have ever been to. Awesome music, but the hipster kids just don't dance anymore. At least we had 40 oz. Tecates to make the evening go faster...

In DC, we went to the National Gallery, the Native American Museum, and saw beautiful cherry blossoms everywhere. What a great time of year for a wedding! Also, it was the first time I was back on the east coast for spring in probably 8 years. Spring is my favorite time of year, mostly because of Easter. This year, there is a party both on Saturday and Sunday thanks to all the April babies around the isle (I'm one of 8 frisbee players with birthdays between now and the 18th). And of course, my niece turns 1 year old tomorrow, so Happy Birthday, Megan!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Congratulations!

Love is in the air this week! We're off to Tucson this afternoon for Dacks and Penny's wedding on Sunday. Then, on Tuesday, we leave Tucson to travel to Lane and Anne's wedding the following Saturday in Washington, DC. Congratulations also to Anne-Marie and Kevin who are getting married that same Saturday.

Some inspirational quotes for the occasions:

I got gaps; you got gaps; we fill each other's gaps.
Rocky

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how
compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.
Leo Tolstoy

Ultimately the bond of all companionship,
whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.
Oscar Wilde

If you live to be a hundred, I want
To live to be a hundred minus one day,
So I never have to live without you.
Winnie the Pooh

Blazer update

RIP Blazer. Wait, what? It's going to be fixed? For virtually nothing? How could it be?!?

Just got this email from Kyle (the f-bombs have been edited):

God Bless the motherf-ing internet.

We destroyed the car on Thursday.  Burnt the cylinder valve which was my
worst fear.  That is why it was loping.  No pressure.

If we had known this, the next step would be to sell the car at auction for
$300 bucks or so.  Not get it fixed.

The call I just got was from the owner of Artesian who told me this.  And he
also told me that his guy (the guy I spoke to) did not tell him that I had
said the engine was loping.  Otherwise - he would not have wasted the time
and effort on a car worth $3000 at most.

Later when he ran it and saw what was happening, he asked his guy if I had
mentioned the engine and he was forced to admit as much.  So this guy is in
big trouble.

We - on the other hand - are in great shape.  They are going to take the
next week or two and fix this (a $3000 job at minimum) for free and only
charge me the $650 for the radiator and pump work.

I am beside myself with joy.  What a f-ing prince this guy is.

Artesian.  Tell everyone you know.  I told the guy I would flood him with
referrals but he said they already had more customers than they can handle.
They don't advertise and he was confused how I even found about them.

F-ing internet.

k   

What a crazy week!

Whales! Alaskans and Tucsonites! Cleveland State Vikings! Leaky radiators!

It's been a busy week.

Last Saturday, Rob, Jana, Nate, and Elaine all came to town. They rented a beautiful house on the North Shore and we spent Sunday (and Thursday) eating, drinking, and snorkeling with them. The whales were out in abundance as well, and you could look off their front porch at any given moment and see them frolicking along the reefs. Here's Jana checking them out:

We also drank "Mai-tais" and Miller Lites. A drink for each hand!

On Sunday, we took the crew to our favorite snorkeling spot, Sharks Cove. We enjoyed Miller Lites in the sun-warmed "hot tubs" on top of the rocks. Apparently, on Tuesday, Sharks Cove became Sharks Bay, as the famous north shore waves came in and inundated everything, including the roads. North shore pictures are posted here if you want to see the rest of our adventures.


A spring break coaching trip also brought my friend, Dave, to Hawaii this past week. Dave and I played tennis together at Allegheny, and we hadn't seen each other in probably 5 years. He is an assistant coach for Cleveland State now, and the men's and women's teams came to play the local Hawaiian teams (who, by the way, are really, really good). Dave and I had an awesome night in Waikiki on Wednesday, drinking Killian's and messing with cops by jaywalking right in front of them so we could get our picture taken with Duke Kahanmoku statue. Just like old times...

Finally, on K's and my way back from the North Shore on Thursday, our Chevy Blazer's radiator gave out, leading to some sort of miserable spurting of the water pump whenever the accelator was pressed. After a brief respite of steam streaming out of the hood beside the highway (where are the Green Angels when you need them!!!), we sputtered our way to the local Chevron where there just happened to be a willing tow truck driver (how do you say "tow truck" in Pidgeon?). He towed us home for $65 (which turned out to be twice that amount by the time you added "mileage"). But, I was happy to be home to the poor Gaffers who had been home alone all day.

Now, slightly sick from all this running around, I will relax on this St. Patty's day and thank the basketball gods that Ohio State didn't bite it this morning by losing to Xavier. I picked OSU to win it all, and that would have seriously messed up my bracket. Corned beef and cabbage for dinner, and maybe a Guiness or Boddington to remind us of St. Patty's days of yore. Hanging out with old (and new) friends this week really made me appreciate all those good, good times (you know, the ones we will always remember....)

Mahalo, hale aikāne!

The Godfather

Don't make fun of me (especially Brian who I know owns the whole set), but tonight I am watching The Godfather for, what I believe to be, the first time. K was floored when he discovered this the other day, and immediately put it at the top of the Netflix queue. I am excited to see it, especially since K's making me a dinner of insalata caprese and vodka penne, accompanied by a cabernet (French, damn it!)

By the way, I have also never seen Gone with the Wind, all of Casablanca, or Lawrence of Arabia (I fell asleep).

How do I understand any cultural references? I guess, sadly, I don't.

What have I been doing with my time on this earth? Sitting with my thumb up my arse. Oh, and playing outside a lot (I do live in Hawaii, after all!)

Late winter weather

Here in Honolulu, February / March weather means rainbows. You can imagine my surprise, then, when last Sunday my mother asked how much snow I had (oops, wrong daughter!) Trade winds bring the rain and it dumps on Manoa Valley, and since we live on the sunny side of Manoa, we get to peer into the beautifully refracted light almost every day. The Hawaiians, which are sometimes known as the "Rainbow people" have a rich mythology concerning the rainbow. My favorite story:

Lono – Ancient Tiki God of Fertility and Peace
In Hawaiian mythology, Lono is a fertility and music god who descended to Earth on a rainbow to marry Laka. In agricultural and planting traditions, Lono was identified with rain and food plants. He was one of the four gods (with Ku, Kane, and his twin brother Kanaloa) who existed before the world was created. Lono was also the god of peace. In his honor, the great annual festival of the Makahiki was held. During this period (from October through February), all unnecessary work and war was kapu (taboo). This is also the season of taxes, olympic like games and when chiefs regrouped their forces (and organized campaigns ironically).

Damn. I should have read this before February ended. Now I guess I have to do some unnecessary work (manscripts, argh!). At least I got the taxes paid and out of the way!

For more Hawaiian myths and history, check out this website.

Art after dark

Last Friday I went with some friends to the Honolulu Academy of Art's "Art after Dark". Basically, this is the Academy's way of making some extra money and getting people to come to the gallery to enjoy all the beautiful and amazing art. The theme for last week's event was "Bombshell" and it included a live jazz band with swing dancers, a catered bar and grill menu, and of course, all the galleries were open until 9pm. And the bonus: the mingling of all the beautiful, young professionals actually dressed up without a single aloha shirt in sight. Don't get me wrong, I really dig the causal vibe here, but it is nice to see a man in a polo shirt now and again.

The biggest surprise of the evening for me? I had no idea we had such amazing art on Hawaii. A lot of the collection were pieces shipped at the turn of the 20th century to one of the wealthy mission ladies, Anne Rice Cooke. She collected an array of Asian art, as well as some amazing pieces you would see in a French museum. The most interesting tid-bit? This Gaughin, Two Nudes, is the only one of his Tahitian paintings to hang in a gallery in all of Polynesia. And boy, was it beautiful.

Next month the theme is "Let them eat cake" and I am really looking forward to it. I didn't make it to the Impressionist gallery in the Academy, so this will be my first stop next time. I also plan on exploring the Hawaiian gallery a bit more, including this exhibition on Hawaiian drawings. Anyone want to come with?

A tranquil day at Waikiki Beach

I love the old pictures!

Quick Dawk-days update

So K and I went to both Dawkins lectures these past few days. The first, "Queerer than we suppose: the strangeness of science" was the public lecture, given at 7pm Tuesday night. It started 40min late due to projector issues and hundreds of people needing to be accommodated on the outdoor lanai because the ballroom was too tiny. As far as we could tell, pretty much everyone there seemed to be an admirer; K and I were both surprised at the relative lack of protestors, although there were some Humanists holding down their corner in bright yellow shirts.

The talk was genuinely intriguing and basically touched on parts of his new book, The God Delusion as well as older ideas from The Selfish Gene. Loaded with lots of examples from nature, he talked about arms races that drive evolutionary change. I was most impressed with his ability to answer questions from the public. One of Dawkins' least favorite questions was asked after the talk, "What are we going to evolve into next?" Dawkins replies, "Silicon robots, of course!" followed quickly by "Actually, I have no idea."

Yesterday's talk (sorry, I don't recall the title), at 3:30pm, was a mish-mosh of examples which Dawkins used to show that life will always evolve to fill in certain niches, and that there are evolutionary commonalities that will arise in some form or another no matter what. In other words, repeated patterns will always emerge in life that evolves in the same context. For instance, "the" eye has evolved at least 40 times because light waves are useful for living in the world we live in. Had we lived in a different type of world (ie. a dark one) we would most likely not develop eyes. He called our niche the "Middle World", where our scale of distance and time are not tiny nor cosmic, rather in the middle. Our brains, therefore, evolved to perceive these middle functions, and can probably not comprehend either the very small or the very large. Thank goodness I finally have justification for not being able to understand the end of A Brief History of Time. A weight has indeed been lifted from my sorry shoulders.

Of course, a Dawkins talk would not be complete without a hit at the Creationists. When asked what he thought about people who believed the world to be designed, he answered, "They are not properly functioning human beings" and they are "missing the excitement of the universe".

While I agree that the universe is pretty exciting, it is hard to think about a world in which human beings are entirely secular. Not everyone gets to sit around and think all day and be paid for it after all (lucky bastards!). Perhaps I will comment more on this topic another day, but in the meantime, I just want to add that Dawkins himself admits that he is just a middle-minded man who can't possibly comprehend everything either. So we should probably not ask him what he thinks about the South Park episode anymore, because he apparently did not get it. By the way, Kyle's student asked Dawkins before his first lecture what he thought about the South Park episode. He said he wished they would have gotten a better British actor to do his voice, har har har. Then, he grabbed the students pen and whistfully autographed his kitten-decorated Econ folder. "To John, may you evolve into something great".

True story.

Ultimate buggering

What a busy President's Day weekend! K and I played and watched Ultimate frisbee in the 20th annual Kaimana Klassik Tournament. Here is a picture of the Lady Sippin' Sally team:


K was on the men's Sally's team, but I am pretty sure after 3 handles of bourbon, rum, and tequila, they were not quite organized enough to take a picture. What a crew.

Tonight is the Richard Dawkins talk. K told his students they would get extra credit if they could go and then write a paper relating Dawkins' ideas to economics. The students had no idea who Dawkins even was until K mentioned the South Park episode in which Ms. Garrison and Dawkins, er, um, hook up. Dawkins comments on his website:

Finally, I have repeatedly been asked what I think of South Park and of Ted Haggard’s downfall. I won’t say much about either. Schadenfreude is not an appealing emotion so, on Haggard, I’ll say only that if it wasn’t for people of his religious persuasion, people of his sexual persuasion would be free to do what they like without shame and without fear of exposure. I share neither his religious nor his sexual persuasion (that’s an understatement), and I’m buggered if I like being portrayed as a cartoon character buggering a bald transvestite. I wouldn’t have minded so much if only it had been in the service of some serious point, but if there was a serious point in there I couldn’t discern it. And then there’s the matter of the accent they gave me. Now, if only I could be offered a cameo role in The Simpsons, I could show that actor how to do a real British accent.

I can't wait to hear him talk about selfish genes, buggering, and other hot topics. Full report in the morrow, ladies and gents.

Good day!

ProBowl Weekend!

Pro Bowl this weekend, ya heard? Last football "game" of the year, which is fortunate for poor Kristen, and also fortunate for us because it means a big block party down the street tonight. K and I even got invited to a big kegger so we could preparty down in Waikiki before the event. Too fun.

This afternoon, Gaffers and I decided to go check out the festivities down at Kapiolani park. We got to see lots of fun games (kick a field goal, run a 40 and have it timed, watch cheerleaders, etc) and there were even some football greats signing autographs. We got to see Bart Scott! Yeah, I know, Bart Scott! I couldn't believe it. I was easily within 50 yards of him when I was kindly asked to leave due to my and Gaffney's excessive drooling. Apparently, LT and Troy Polamalu were supposed to be there, but Bart Scott, man, that was better by far than seeing those guys. Speaking of awesome guys, Steven Jackson is sponsoring a party down at the W tonight. Maybe I'll get to touch him! Or at least thank him for the 359 fantasy points he scored this year, leading me to a fantasy league championship (Thanks, SJ!)

We aren't actually going to the game (or probably any of the above mentioned parties, except, of course the kegger. Who could miss that!). Kyle predicts the AFC will prevail in the big game. Peyton, after all, received more votes than any other player in the league. Who do you think will win? Cast your votes now! Or don't. It is, after all, just the ProBowl.

Da Bears or Da Colts?

Who cares who wins the Super Bowl, I'm watching this:

Gaffney is even more psyched than I am:


I predict the Colts will win. After all, Manning said he could do the tango.
What a guy.