SAST Wingees

Vocal Signatures help Penguins identify their offspring

Sharon Begley writes a science column in the Wall Street Journal on fridays. It is often the column that I read first on fridays. Given that its a narrow column it tends to be short and it usually packs a fascinatng nugget of knowledge. Two weeks back, she wrote about Emperor Penguins and their problem of identifying their young ones when they return from their food  hunt after a few weeks. Their problem is compounded by the fact that all the young ones look nearly alike even to themselves and all of them are making a huge amount of noise making their own calls to their family. Apparently, they teach their young ones a specific vocal signature before they leave for their food hunt and use that to identify their young ones amidst the noise. Interestingly, on our trip to the Galapagos Islands, we quizzed our guide about how the Sea Lions identify their young ones in their colony when they return from their food hunt. Our guide, Luis Die, remarked that they use vocal signatures to identify their young ones. References:
1. Interesting study report on “how does a fur seal mother recognize the voice of her pup“. It makes for a heavy read. In plain english, fur seals (also related to Sea Lions) use vocal signatures. Notes:
1. Luis Die is one of the best guides I have come across. He possesses encyclopedic knowledge of the Galapagos Islands’ flora, fauna, history, geology, you name it. BTW, Mountain Travel Sobek, that organized our tour is one of the best as well.

Unsung Blogger of the WeeK #3

Terrance Heath is the featured blogger this week.  His  blog The Republic of T has been active since October 2003.  You can see that he is a passionate blogger from the number of interesting posts he generates. He covers politics, gay rights, current events and miscellany with an eye for the interesting ones. I have been following his blog for a few months now and I have learnt a lot from his posts. Here is a  short interview I conducted over email with Terrance: 1. What motivates you to keep blogging?
I guess what motivates me to keep blogging is the responses that I get from readers and from other bloggers. [You can see a recurring pattern here. Those of you that read and enjoy blogs, please take a moment to post comments. – Ed.] I’m more motivated on some days than on others. It depends on what’s happening in the world and in my life as to what I feel  like blogging about. It’s also turned out to be a great way of connecting with people. The response I’ve gotten since starting my blog was unexpected, but it’s been so positive that I find  myself wanting to continue each day. 2. How do you identify the ideas that you post? Is there any secrets you can share?
I read pretty widely. After September 11th, I stopped watching the television news — because I didn’t trust the information I was getting — and turned to international sources online for the stories that were missing from the mainstream news. I guess blogging was the next logical step. Now I get much of my information either online or from books that I come across and decide to read. I keep track of more than 200 blogs and news feeds and sift through the information I find there, sometimes digging a bit further if I have questions. The only secret I have for anyone is to read widely. There’s a lot of information out there, but much of it you have to go looking for. Major media outlets won’t go out of their way to bring it to you, and if you depend on them, there’s tons of information you just won’t get. 3.  What methods do you employ to overcome the “Blogger’s Block”? Hmmm. Usually, if I’m having “bloggers’ block” I dive back into reading and commenting on other blogs, sometimes following links randomly from the various blogrolls I come across. It usually doesn’t take long to find something I write about. Besides, I think it’s normal for anyone who writes to go through periods of “silence” as far as writing goes. I look at it like farming or agriculture. Sometimes ground has to lie fallow for a while before it will yield again. It’s the same with writing, for me, because writing also requires time to read and time to think if I’m going to write anything worthwhile for anyone to read. 

4. What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include only those that are not in any Top 100/500 lists). Unsung?  A Stitch in Time  is a good, well-written blog with a thoughtful libertarian bent, written by a lawyer. I discovered it when I found it among the referring links for my blog, and became a regular reader. I appreciate Negrophile  as a source of news relating to African Americans. Galois  is a well-written blog about same-sex marriage, though it hasn’t been updated much since June.

 5. What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or 2 is
sufficient). If you haven’t read them yet, I highly recommend “A People’s History of the United States of America” by Howard Zinn, and “The Culture of Make Believe” by Derrick Jensen. Both are incredibly eye opening books that will move you to think about the history and the future of our civilization.

Web 2.0 demystified

Many do not agree that Web 2.0 is a legitimate phenomenon. Whether you agree or not, it may be worth understanding the technologies/techniques that are supposedly part of Web 2.0. Expect the next wave of tech spending to target Web 2.0 projects. Check out this well-researched Wikipedia article (Via Jeremy Zawodny).

Sudoku

Ever since I read some Brain Builders, I was on the look out for a good puzzle/game to keep my grey cells fit. Got bored of the usual crossword and bridge games and I ran into ‘sudoku’.

Sudoko is a good book to start and I am already solving the ‘moderate’ ones. Hooked as of now – Check it out. Is a great companion while traveling.

Unsung Blogger of the Week #2

Kris Bordessa is a freelance writer and an avid blogger. I have been following Kris Bordessa’s Blog for a while. Kris’s blog focuses on team activities and challenges. Kris’s style is very fresh and easy to read. Recently I had linked to Kris’s interesting post on Yellow Arrows in NYC.  Check out Kris’s new book Team Challenges: Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication, and Creativity  when it arrives in November 2005.

Here is a short interview with Kris, that I conducted over email:

1. What motivates you to keep blogging?

My blog is a little different than most! As a team leader for a creative problem solving program, I’m always thinking of or tracking down new activities to share with my groups. I know there are so many people out there who work with youth groups or do business training that are in the same position — “Ack!  What’ll I do with them today??” — it just made sense to me to share some of the things I use with my own teams. My favorite part though is seeing the solutions, how each team solves the same problem in an entirely unique manner.

2. How do you identify the ideas that you post? Is there any secrets you can share?

Most of the challenges on my blog are mine, either brand new or from my book, Team Challenges: Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication and Creativity. On occasion, I’ll run across a great idea on the web that I share with my readers, but no, not really any secrets.