Shark Weak

What follows is an open letter expressing my displeasure towards the Discovery Channel for this year's Shark Week programming:

Hello,

I used to be an avid viewer of the content produced by the Discovery channel during your annual week of shark related programming. I enjoyed the combination of entertaining yet educational content produced by your network. As an avid conservationist and supporter of quality scientific programming I am saddened to see that Discovery Channel has fallen to the level of other networks in the Discovery Network and started pumping out mindless programs that are the oceanic equivalent of “Finding Bigfoot” or “Call of the Wildman”. These shameful excuses for educational programming have not only tainted the name of the Discovery Channel, but have also squandered a fantastic opportunity to promote shark and ocean conservation, as well as shark-positive education. Many of the programs put out during this Shark Week appear to be idiotic excuses for actual content that could easily be replaced with a 60 minute loop of the opening scene of Jaws. 

I stress that in a time when wild sharks are facing the looming threat of extinction it is beyond inappropriate for a network that claims to be educating people about sharks and supporting shark conservation to be publishing fear mongering content that only encourages the public to see sharks as mindless toothy death machines. The Discovery channel has the opportunity to put forward a new image for sharks that demonstrates their beauty and diversity as well as shining the light on the environmental crisis they currently face. 

I must also discuss the film “Megalodon: The New Evidence”. This program is part of a disturbing new trend among Discovery Network channels where purely fictional films are portrayed as authentic documentaries discussing evidence of various mythical creatures. These programmes are sold as completely legitimate documentary works save for a few disclaimers that can only be spotted by those with keen eyes. It is repugnant that the Discovery Channel chooses to air these films on their network. They offer no educational value and are simply a way for the network to make some quick cash from viewers who don’t know any better.

This leads me to my final issue, the current generation of Shark Week programming does nothing more than treat Discovery’s audience as mindless idiots that can’t do anything other than be fed simplistic and sensationalistic content in exchange for their viewership. This disturbing trend has been appearing across many television networks where quality educational content is being replaced with watered down reality television. Unfortunately this trend shows no signs of stopping. 

It is critically important that the Discovery channel realizes that there is a social obligation for you to do the right thing and return to producing educational content instead of treating your audience as a horde of drooling idiots and selling them completely false information. The Discovery channel is in a fantastic position to act as an ambassador to sharks  and to encourage the public to support conservation before it is too late. I just hope the Discovery channel realizes this before time runs out. 

Thank you,

Gabriel Levac

As a sidenote, I think it might be time for Discovery to change their name to "FX" or "SciFi" and start broadcasting a 24 hour loop of Sharknado and Sharknado 2. 

Actual Zoology - The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

I'm in my first year of a four year zoology degree, which, I think, makes me fully qualified to discuss matters related to my field with the full authority of someone with a PhD.

Of course, I'm kidding, I would never do something so rash. What I am going to do is discuss some observations on the birds and the, err, squirrels. Unfortunately the bees were busy.

I took some pictures (you may have noticed I have the attitude of a two bit paparazzo when it comes to observing wildlife) of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which, despite its cowardly monicker, went about various feeding behaviours with the gusto of a hyena at an all you can eat buffet. To an amateur Zoologist like myself this is interesting because you can make all sorts of sweeping assumptions about the behaviour of the animal and ecosystem based on a single data point. Luckily I had my camera to violate the bird's privacy and "collect data".

The bird of the hour

There are four species of sapsuckers (genus Sphyrapicus), all of which are native to the Americas. This one is Sphyrapicus varius, which is native to Canada, Alaska, and the Northeastern US. They persist on fruits, berries, insects, and sap. The birds extract the sap from trees by drilling small holes in the bark much in the fashion of woodpeckers. 

Making dinner

This behaviour, as pictured above, leaves patches of delicious (I would know, I've tried it) sap running from the tree. As well as feeding the bird this also attracts insects which also contribute to its diet. Although I wasn't close enough to tell if the insect catching racket was working out for the bird on this particular day, I did notice a few other animals take advantage of the sap. 

Freeloading squirrel

This gray squirrel is enjoying the fruits of the sapsucker's labour and in a startling display of awful table manners, it even chased its host away on one occasion. 

Freeloading woodpecker

Another lazy wannabe sapsucker was this female Downy Woodpecker, which clearly abused familial privileges when it returned to feed at the sapsucker's table on several occasions. Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture evidence of this behaviour because its visits to the tree were extremely quick. 

I also observed Red Squirrels feeding on the patch of sap on several occasions, but I didn't have my camera handy for those moments.

So, not only do Sapsuckers get their own food from trees, they also (unwillingly) feed several other species/varmints at the same time. This demonstrates the fantastic homemaking abilities that I probably discussed at the beginning of this post (I can't even remember what this is about anymore).

Horticultural Braggery - 04/26/2014

Here are some plants.

Nepenthes singalana x clipeata

Notes: I got this plant from Leilani Nepenthes at the 2012 ICPS convention. It took a good while (like, two years? Not too shabby...) to get established in my collection and start producing pitchers that were bigger than the ones on the plant when I bought it. In retrospect, feeding it probably would've yielded faster growth, but who has time for that?

Nepenthes talangensis x veitchii

Notes: This plant appears to have plateaued (the highest form of flattery) in terms of size or growth development or anything related to it being larger than when I got it. This pitcher is a bit bigger than the ones before it though, so that's good. I got the plant from Best Carnivorous Plants back in 2012.

Drosera aliciae "Silvermine RSA"

Notes: I got this plant from another grower a while back. It grows well and I can't complain about anything in particular. Can't get it to flower, but that's the plant's choice and I can't do anything about it. It's a lot shinier and fuller than previous forms of the plant I've grown, modern media leads me to believe this is because of Mabelline branded products. 

Utricularia sandersonii

Notes: I've grown this plant for what seems like forever, or I've grown versions of it for that long, I might have killed it a few times in between. It's one of the easiest Utricularia to grow, and it has neat looking flowers that look a bit like angry rabbits. It also makes fantastic ground cover in the pots where it grows, as well as sprouting annoying little runners all over the place and invading all the other pots of plants surrounding it. They really are the plant equivalent of rabbits. 

Drosera graomogolensis "Itacaramba, Minas Geras, Brazil"

Notes: I got a bunch of these (several hundred, actually. I really like this plant) from Best Carnivorous Plants back in 2012. I still have three or four pots overflowing with the things, which rates highly among my best decisions in plant keeping. This species is as easy as they come, and as glorious as they get. Because I like it so much here are some more pictures of the same plant.

Trichomes on the flowerstalk

Stalked glands, which are the responsible for the whole "bug killing" thing that the PR guys won't let us talk about

That's all for today, hopefully the plants continue growing regardless of my bumbling attempts at care, and I can brag about them more in the future.

Dormitory Microfauna - Part 1

It's a commonly held opinion that bugs are gross.

I tend to disagree with this, I think insects are great and interesting subjects for reading, research, or art.

Unless they're in my house.

I'm okay with encountering pretty much any species of insect in the wilds of a garden or forest, but once I find a bug in my house and look at it through the viewfinder of my camera I can't help wondering if the damned thing is going to crawl into my mouth while I'm sleeping. 

I currently live in the main dormitory of a rather large university, and my room seems to suffer from an odd population of pest insects which run around doing their thing (whatever that is, probably eating stuff or wondering where the hell they are) while I work/blog/procrastinate.

I've actually taken to keeping a small checklist of the insect species that I've observed living in my residence. Included below for your reading pleasure. 

Houseflies - √

Silverfish - √

Yeah, that's t it.

Anyways, these two species, as well as being maligned pests, are also kinda nasty when you look at them up close. Or at least that's what I thought.

I'm going to divide this post into two parts, mostly because I've got a test I need to write tomorrow, but also because I like to brag about how many pageviews my blog receives, and brutally bifurcating my posts usually ends up doubling that number.


So, with the introduction complete, here's part one of "Dormitory Microfauna" or, as alternatively titled, "Gross stuff that lives in my room"

Silverfish

Silverfish, also known as Lepisma saccharina, are a common household insect often associated with moist dark areas, like basements and bathrooms.

They're known as sliverfish because they're silver and look a bit like a fish. As a footnote, it bewilders me that, it boggles my mind that someone studying to receive a biology degree can go from such startling terms as "Oxidative Phosphorylation" to "Silverfish". Biologists are weird. 

Craig the dorm room silverfish

My hypothesis as to the startling appearance of a rather large silverfish in my room around midnight on a Thursday is that it somehow traveled from the washroom across the hall, to my room, which is neither moist nor dark, and as such, is an unsuitable habitat for such a mystical creature.

This silverfish was a sketchy one, he showed up on my ceiling near where my fire alarm is, and ran around up there for a while. I contemplated the possibility of catching him and taking a photo but since he wasn't going anywhere, I instead named him Craig and let him run around for a while.

After about an hour of letting Craig explore my ceiling, I decided to move him to the piece of printer paper I had prepared for him on my desk. It turned out that Craig disagreed with this decision, and decided instead to run around for a bit while I questioned my life choices.

Eventually I caught the thing, took a picture, and promptly let him escape.

So now Craig is somewhere on my floor, disguised by the unpleasant tones of the ugly grey carpet that was presumably installed to disguise my dorm's silverfish problem.

Anyways, the picture turned out alright. My camera revealed some lovely iridescence that wasn't originally visible, as well as a tiny little walrus moustache that looks pretty funny.


I'd like to apologize to anyone who thought they would learn anything from this post, it was meant to be completely comedic in nature, and I'm pretty sure I didn't even get that right. Seriously, read the Wikipedia article, it's both more informative, and funnier.

Messier 5 - Globular Cluster in Serpens

Messier 5 is a Globular Cluster located in Serpens. It was discovered in 1702 by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch. At 165 light years across, and 15 billion years old, M5 is one of the largest, as well as one of the oldest globular clusters associated with the Milky Way. It has an apparent magnitude of +6.65, placing it as one of the brighter globulars in the northern hemisphere.

M5 - Globular Cluster in Serpens

Acquisition Details: 

Camera: Nikon D5100

Lens: 300mm f/5.6

Mount: iOptron SkyTracker mounted on Manfrotto 190XB

Image capture controlled with Aputure External Intervalometer

ISO: 800

Stack of 15 30s exposures, totalling 7'30"

5x Darks

Stacked in DSS and processed in Lightroom

This image isn't perfect, the focus is a fair bit off, but it doesn't look horrible. I mostly posted it because it's my first globular, and I'm happy with how the processing worked out. This is probably one of the first times I've been able to successfully remove the influence of light pollution. Here's hoping I'm able to do the same in the future!

SN2014J in Messier 82

SN 2014J is a type-la supernova that appeared in Messier 82 in mid-January of 2014. The supernova was accidentally discovered by a group of observers at the University of London Observatory, and is the closest supernova of its type observed in the past 42 years. 

This supernova is being heavily imaged by both amateur and professional astrophotographers and astronomers, and is also being observed by many backyard astronomers, as it is visible in many smaller telescopes.

As for myself, heavy cloud cover and cold temperatures have prevented me from imaging the object with my own equipment, but I was lucky enough to order an exposure of M82 on January 13th 2014 from MicroObservatory. The image I received was captured two days before the supernova first appeared, and although it did not feature the supernova, it did inspire me to create my first .gif of the event on the 22nd of January when the astronomy community was first alerted to the presence of the supernova. I ordered another frame from MicroObservatory, but I was not fully satisfied with simply showing the SN disappearing and reappearing in two frames taken days apart.

MicroObservatory features several user controlled telescopes which can be used by the public to image an object of their choice from a list of objects curated by OWN. OWN also maintains a full catalogue of images taken within the past two weeks, including both FITS and .gif files.

In order to get enough material to produce a relatively smooth animation of the progress of the supernova, I sifted through the public requests in order to find daily images of M82 starting from the 14th of January, and collecting images up until March 3rd. I was able to collect 40 frames in total, and only missed a few days where images were unavailable or unusable.

The final image demonstrates the initial rise in brightness (maxing out on the 29th of January) and the following decrease (the supernova is still visible, although it is becoming dimmer).

The resulting image is displayed below:

Processing:

The image is a bit jumpy, and the brightness of both the supernova and the galaxy vary a bit between frames. The majority of these issues were caused by problems with atmospheric clarity and misalignment between telescopes.

First of all, I imported all the FITS frames I had downloaded from MicroObservatory into their custom software MicroObservatory Image, which I used to bring the images to an approximate level of brightness, then to export into individual .gif frames.

Then I imported all 40 frames into GIMP, and ordered them correctly.

I then made sure that the galaxy and background looked approximately the same in all the images (getting all the frames perfect was pretty much impossible), and aligned the images so the galaxy would stay in approximately the same spot (the tracking on the MO telescopes isn't perfect, and there's usually a fairly large difference between frames with several days between them).

Once this was done, I added the date markers to the bottom right of the image, and added the frame with the correct attributions and labelling.

All in all, this project probably took me 4-5 hours in total to complete, but the final result does exactly what I wanted it to, so I say, time well wasted!


Please take the time to check out MicroObservatory if you have an interest in astronomy or astrophotography! It's a fantastic way to get good data and get started in the hobby!

Another shout out to /r/astrophotography, which has proven to be a wonderful resource for a learning astrophotographer like myself! It's populated by helpful people, and a ton of fantastic imagers!

Drosera schizandra flower

Drosera schizandra is a member of the "Three Sisters" group of Australian Drosera native to the rainforests of Queensland.

D. schizandra is also the first of the three sisters to have successfully flowered in my collection. I've grown all three, and although schizandra can be temperamental at times, I find it to be the least prone to sudden die-outs as long as conditions are kept fairly stable. It's also an incredibly beautiful plant once it grows to a certain size, at which point it vaguely resembles a head of carnivorous lettuce.

D. schizandra flower

The plant itself is rather small, with a diameter not exceeding that of a pringles can, although I have heard of plants becoming larger, mine probably remains small due to a lack of feeding. In comparison, the flower is rather large, being slightly smaller than a dime.

Flowerstalk emerging from the plant in early December

For more information on all the three sisters, please visit the ICPS cultivation page.