The Urban Pantheist

New Soylent Screen Up!

2008-05-14T01:10:20Z

Two reviews in a row where I actually liked the movie!

Read my review of The Descent at Blood Blade and Thruster.

3:00 snapshot, #305

2008-05-13T23:53:09Z

I don't normally steal content from the New Yorker, but...

2008-05-13T23:46:08Z

Phew!

3:00 snapshot, #304

2008-05-13T09:54:27Z

the doors are open.
i might escape.

3:00 snapshot, #303

2008-05-12T22:31:09Z

It's like a YELP for cities

2008-05-11T21:06:04Z

I just found an interesting resource for learning what living conditions are like in different cities. http://www.bestplaces.net/ It tells you the basics in cost of living, housing, schools, crime, and so on. But the best thing is the comments, where you can express your opinion of the place.

Here's what I've learned about all the places I want to move: the housing prices have increased a lot in the past five years; it's getting too crowded, especially with illegal immigrants/people from the north, traffic and crime are increasing; too many hispanics; it's expensive to live along the coast; it's boring at night; it's lost its southern charm what with all the yankees moving in.

So I guess I'm learning more about the kind of people who use the site than I am about these cities. Alexis suggested I check what people are saying about Boston, to get some point of reference. Mostly people said that Boston is expensive and the weather sucks, which I go along with; there was some grousing about militant liberalism and bad drivers; but my favorite review is this one:

This place is full of depressed, worn out, and bitter people. It will wear you out and, before you know it, you will be depressed and bitter too. Take a walk around and you will see what I mean. People are untidy and wearing wrinkled clothes, smelly winter coats full of cat hair, long untidy hair and with that charateristic sour face. People have facial hair, nasty moles, crooked teeth, worse so than in one of the slums of London. They also like butter on everything. It is simply unbelievable. It is so expensive that no one has any cash in their pockets which only adds to their misery. Doctors and lawyers live in small old buildings without elevators, central air or parking. It seems like the women don't have money for make-up, manicures, or perfume.

Well, he's right about the buildings that doctors and lawyers live in, and about my untidy and wrinkled clothes. If the women don't wear perfume because they're broke, then good. I don't like perfume.

I checked Brookline, too, and mostly people love it, except that it's insanely expensive, you can't park anywhere, and one person complained that someone scolded them for running their dog off-leash. Alexis makes an impression again!

(if you don't know what I mean by yelp, I mean http://www.yelp.com/, which is handy for restaurant reviews and such.)

3:00 snapshot, #302

2008-05-11T11:20:04Z

She has put a supernatural amount of love into caring for this dog.

Picspam roundup, plus Our Fair City

2008-05-11T11:15:49Z

I need to post these pictures before I load the new batch on to Photobucket or I'll go batty! This little guy was stuck to the zoo hospital one early morning. He was gone later when I remembered he was there.

This was the first oriole I saw this year. Now I'm already ignoring them as I look for other birds.

I'll do a More Urban Species entry on this bird, the brown-headed cowbird, when I feel like my life is more under control. Can't write--must do laundrydisheswalkthedogsmorelaundrygotoworkwalkthedogswalkthedogswalkthedogswalkthedogswalkthedogslaundry

Speaking of which, we walked the dogs along the Cambridge side of the Charles last night. Those lucky MIT kids have the best possible view of Boston.

I played with the zoom on the camera to take some shots of the city. Here you can see the esplanade, Beacon Hill, the State House, and the financial district.

Nice day for sailing.

Here I was trying to get everything from the financial district to the citgo sign, but my pictures of the Fenway came out lousy.
It's probably just as well, since this is so screen-busting as it is.

Warbler Walk

2008-05-10T21:19:45Z

While walking the dogs this morning, the Riverway was a riot of birdsong, especially the unfamiliar buzzing and twittering of migratory warblers. Bird watching while dogwalking is not very effective, so we brought the dogs home, and came back out with our binoculars and cameras.

We've been seeing red-winged blackbirds for a few weeks now, but this was the first day this year that we've seen a female. The hens aren't red-winged or black, but instead look like big sparrows. We also saw female orioles, who are somewhat less gaudy and noisy than their mates.

The spring green of the young leaves makes the river look nice even on a cloudy day.

This is a female common yellowthroat, our first warbler!

And not far away, a male.

We encountered another couple of birders, and I asked them what this one warbler call was that we kept hearing--a very buzzy ascending call, that alarms Jim when we imitate it. They said it was a northern parula. Judging by how much we heard it, there must be dozens of the things out there. But they are a very small bird among very small birds, constantly on the move eating inchworms from the oak flowers.

But we finally found one!

Warblers are hard to spot, because many of them are high up in ancient oaks way over our heads. Seeing them at eye level is lucky.

The high vantage point of this footbridge helps.

Japanese barberry is a plant that becomes obvious in fall and winter, with its many red berries. Its greenish yellow flowers in spring are more inconspicuous.

Down in a low place with lots of shrubbery cover, we can see those species that feed on insects in the leaf litter. We saw an ovenbird, one of the warblers that feeds this way, but I didn't get a good picture of it. Alexis did, though.

We also saw this bird. Any idea what it is? 'cause I'm stumped.

3:00 snapshot, #301

2008-05-10T00:43:20Z

I feel like I'm in a contest with myself to come up with the ugliest snapshot.

3:00 snapshot, #300

2008-05-09T02:45:32Z

Noticing the year 05/08/08

2008-05-09T01:49:47Z

Warm day today, nearly 80 in the Boston area. On our evening dog walk it had cooled down a bit, and the Riverway was thick with birds. We saw a half dozen catbirds, three groups of Canada geese with goslings, and a few unidentifiable warblers. And then on the way back I heard my favorite bird song. It was right by the path, so we stopped for a while until we could see him. He sang for a few times more, and at the moment when Alexis pulled her camera out, he flew off.

3:00 snapshot, #299

2008-05-08T10:00:19Z

While at a stoplight on Blue Hill Ave, on a zoo errand in the zoo van.

3:00 snapshot, #298

2008-05-07T23:07:29Z

The view out my office window is getting better every day!

Noticing the year 05/07/08

2008-05-07T22:17:40Z

After getting to work at 6 this morning, I was rewarded with my first Baltimore oriole sighting this morning (having heard them the past two evenings). Then, about an hour later, over the heads of a crowd of disinterested parties, my first catbird of the year! Alexis rejoices for catbirds with the same passion that she reviles juncos. And then, just a few minutes ago as I sat on the warm grass in the park with Jim and Charlie, we were buzzed by the swallows that live in the nearby stone bridges. Three firsts of the year in two days! Not bad at all.

3:00 snapshot, #297

2008-05-07T00:38:25Z

Noticing the year 05/05/08

2008-05-06T22:30:05Z

I forgot to post this last night. We heard our first oriole of the year! We couldn't see it, but the song was unmistakable. I think the same individuals claim the same territories around us. Orioles seem to each have different songs, and I'm pretty sure I recognized the melody of the one we heard last night. It's a nice feeling, like seeing a friend you haven't seen in months.

Urban Nature plus Robots equals ... what's not to love?

2008-05-06T22:14:25Z

No one who grew up in the Pioneer Valley will be surprised that this is a Hampshire College study. Hey, if you can design your own curriculum, why not robot squirrels?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080503/ap_on_sc/robotic_squirrel

Mechanical squirrels, robot lizards jump into research

By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press WriterSat May 3, 7:26 AM ET

One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby. It was an ordinary spring day at Hampshire College, except that the rodent issuing the warning was powered by amps, not acorns.

Dubbed "Rocky" after the cartoon character, the robo-squirrel is working its way into Hampshire's live-squirrel clique, controlled by researchers several yards away with a laptop computer and binoculars.

Sarah Partan, an assistant professor in animal behavior at Hampshire, hopes that by capturing a close-up view of squirrels in nature, Rocky will help her team decode squirrels' communication techniques, social cues and survival instincts.

Rocky is among many robotic critters worldwide helping researchers observe animals in their natural environments rather than in labs. The research could let scientists better understand how animals work in groups, court, intimidate rivals and warn allies of danger.

In Indiana, for instance, a fake lizard shows off its machismo as researchers assess which actions intimidate and which attract real lizards. Pheromone-soaked cockroach counterfeits in Brussels, meanwhile, exert peer pressure on real roaches to move out of protective darkness. In California, a tiny video camera inside a fake female sage grouse records close-up details as it's wooed — and more — by the breed's unusually promiscuous males.

The research may even help explain similar instinctive behaviors in humans, researchers say.

"Animals and humans are all affected by behaviors, body postures and signals from each other that we may not be aware of," Partan said.

The use of fake critters to infiltrate real groups of animals is so new that few companies build or sell such tools to researchers.

Many of the scientists using animal doppelgangers have modified toy animals or, like Partan and her students, cobbled together their own with fake fur, small motors, circuits and other material. Partan, who created Rocky a few years ago with students when she taught at the University of South Florida, is constantly refining its actions and updating its technology.

Rocky's movement is controlled by basic computer programs, and it has tiny speakers inside that play recordings Partan purchased from an animal-sounds library at Cornell University.

One recent afternoon, she and students Maya Gounard, 20, and Andrew Fulmer, 19, brought Rocky out for field testing and placed him near real squirrels. Mounted on a board, he was shielded by a camouflage hood and a long cord connected him to the researchers' laptop.

After the computer's program flipped the hood open, Rocky went into a sequence of tail-flagging, barking and other motions squirrels recognize as warnings of danger.

The most successful experiments are when the real squirrels respond by "flagging" their own tail, halting their foraging to check for danger, scamper up a tree or take other actions that show they picked up on the signals, Partan said.

"We watch for a trade-off in their behavior," she said, pointing out a squirrel that jerked to its hind legs and froze, its eyes scanning the area as it heard Rocky's barks. "He gave up foraging to focus on being vigilant, so that's something we'd note as a discernible response."

They focus on whether squirrels react more strongly to Rocky's noises or movements or a combination that researchers call multi-modal signals.

Although animal behavior has been studied for years, much remains unknown about instinctive responses.

A particular sound may be the courting equivalent of, "Come over here, you sexy beast." But a tiny change can alter the message entirely, making it something akin to, "You're about to be torn to shreds if you don't get out of my territory."

"Whether it's a bunch of squirrels in a field or humans in a mall, there are general principles of behavior that seem to hold up across species lines," said Greg Demas, director of Indiana University's Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior and an associate professor of biology.

Robot critters also can help researchers discover how far a species can be pushed beyond its survival instincts.

Researchers at the Free University of Brussels, for instance, found that fake roaches doused in familiar pheromones became so accepted among their cockroach compatriots that the real bugs succumbed to the interlopers' peer pressure to move out of dark areas into the light.

In other experiments, a robotic lizard developed by Indiana University researcher Emilia Martins uses energetic push-ups to trigger similar displays of courtship, power and machismo among real lizards.

Depending on the fake lizard's prompting, the real critters react as if they're being taunted, threatened or titillated — all of which gives researchers a chance to study the tiniest movements of their legs, eye flaps and other quirks.

"There's been the old, classic trade-off for years between the ecological relevance you get (researching) in the field, versus those studies in the lab where you can control the environment while knowing they're not going to react as much," Demas said. "Having these models out in the field is taking us to the next steps of the research."

Researchers say the applicability of fake animals in research can depend on the intelligence, size, eyesight and sense of smell in the real species.

"The bigger the animal is and the more complicated it is, the harder it is to have a proper robot that mimics the signals and has the right visual cues," said Cornell ornithology professor Jack Bradbury.

Bradbury's research has ranged from vocal mimicry in wild parrots to the sexual choices of hermaphroditic sea slugs. He hasn't used robots but does use sound cues — emanating from speakers hidden in bushes — to manipulate animals in the wild by "talking" with them or playing noises they recognize.

"Wild parrots are pretty smart, but I've gone on for hours interacting with them that way," he said. "They come up to the bush and look at it and don't see the birds, but they keep communicating with the belief there's another parrot in there somewhere."

He said mechanical animals aren't used "just to be clever."

"The real issue from a scientist's point of view is, 'Can I come up with a robot that will help me answer a question that I couldn't answer otherwise?'"

How walkable is your neighborhood?

2008-05-05T16:09:33Z

This is a pretty cool tool. You just type in an address, and it tells you how "walkable" the area is, in terms of how close different services and stores are. My neighborhood scored an 86, which is pretty good but makes me wonder what neighborhood could possibly get a 100. Maybe if you lived in a shopping mall, or in certain parts of New York.

Also, it's clearly not a perfect program, as it told me that my closest bar was an Orange Julius. I wouldn't have moved here if that was true.

Tell me what your neighborhood's walkability score is!

West Roxbury Quarry

2008-05-05T10:39:09Z

We went hiking in the woods near West Roxbury Quarry yesterday. We found some interesting things.

This is dame's rocket, one of our prettier invasive plants.

The area surrounding the quarry doesn't appear to be public land, but it doesn't appear to be maintained, either. The neighboring streets are all dead ends that have informal paths into the woods nearby. There's no explanation for the ruins in the first picture, or the many cars and other man-made objects we found.

This utility shed seems to be related to the quarry operation. The pipe leads to the other side of a chain link fence. The quarry is fenced off.

Moss has claimed this car.

Alexis found this cell phone in the ashes of a campfire.

Up on high ground, we found a place where the fence had been knocked down.

Don't follow these instructions.

Nice view from up there, despite the mist. We found out about the place because someone on the Boston Birds list said there were ravens there.

this is the view straight down.

We heard and eventually saw the ravens. Not very exciting for most people, but ravens are rare in Massachusetts and this was the first time I'd ever heard of them appearing in Boston. Very cool.

3:00 snapshot, #296

2008-05-05T09:38:36Z

We look at Alexis' slideshow of pictures, upon returning from the West Roxbury Quarry.

3:00 snapshot, #295

2008-05-04T01:18:42Z

Today, among other things, I dusted our fireworks collection.

Brookline Massachusetts in May

2008-05-03T19:35:06Z

Just a few shots to show you what it looks like in my neighborhood these days.

Charlie likes spring because there is a lot of grass to eat.

Parts of the Muddy River are discolored with sediment from street runoff.

Charlie found something in the park.

A mallard nest!

3:00 snapshot, #294

2008-05-03T01:33:13Z

Today was the vet tech student's last day. Thanks for all the hard work, c.!

3:00 snapshot, #293

2008-05-01T01:43:01Z