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Big Year For Foxtails: Check this out, & you can treat your pet . . . well, more like a pet.

            The western states had a record spring for moisture and the high desert was in full bloom. The wild flowers were beautiful and the desert mountains were green. The down side of this picture is that the weeds are really taking advantage of the ideal conditions, too. One of the weeds in particular is very troublesome to your pets. This weed is the cheatgrass and some of its cousins which produce those things called “foxtails”. These are nothing more than the seed but they can cause all sorts of problems. As the days get warmer and the afternoon winds pick up, the foxtails dry up, turn a beautiful golden brown, and become the stickers that love your socks and pant legs. They also raise havoc with your pets. The characteristic of the foxtail is that it mimics a porcupine quill, and will migrate in only one direction after it attaches to the fur or finds its way into an opening.

            At Sierra Veterinary Hospital in Carson City, we see several pets a week that are limping and licking their feet (foxtails in the paws), shaking their head (foxtails in the ear), gagging or coughing (foxtails in the throat and tonsils), pawing at their eye (foxtail under the eyelid), sneezing (foxtails in the nose), in male dogs foxtails will work into the prepuce (skin around the penis) and in females foxtails will work their way into the vulva. There are cases where foxtails have gotten under the skin and migrated to the lungs, into the heart, and into the spinal cord.

            What can you do to help protect your pet? First rid your own yard of the foxtails. Be particular where you walk your dog. If you spot foxtails, go to a different area, though difficult to do in our environment. When the wind blows, the stickers will settle into your yard and you need to be on constant foxtail patrol and pick up. Make it a habit to check your pet at the end of the day and brush the fur for foxtails (good time to inspect for ticks, too).  It is a good idea to clip the hair between the toes and on the paws, similar to a poodle cut but just the feet, to help keep foxtails out and make it easier to spot stickers before they enter the skin.

            Once a foxtail has penetrated the skin or passed through an opening such as an ear, it needs to be removed. If it cannot be removed with your pet awake, sedation or anesthesia may be necessary to allow for deep probing. Although it seems hard to believe, these can and are life threatening problems if the foxtail gets into the wrong place.

            Cats can get into foxtails, too. But they seem to be better than dogs at grooming and taking care of themselves and the foxtails don’t seem to cling to their hair in the same fashion.

            Dr. Mike Chumrau of Sierra Veterinary Hospital, Carson City, Nevada, graduated from Colorado State University in 1979, and received a Doctorate Degree in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery.   Dr. Chumrau has practiced veterinary medicine in Nevada for 26 years.

There's also lots of good dog (and cat) information at the National Humane Society website at
http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/dog_care/stay_dog_bite_free/index.html

AUTO INDUSTRY NEARS TIPPING POINT ON CLEAN CARS 35% OF CAR BUYERS LIVE IN AREAS REQUIRING CLEAN CARS

Oregon's plans to adopt clean car legislation, brings the percentage of new cars sold in the United States and Canada that must meet the nation's strongest pollution standards to over 35% - taking us all a big step closer to clean-emission cars. "With Oregon, Washington and Canada now signing up for clean cars, we're nearing a tipping point at which automakers will need to make all of their cars clean vehicles," says Dan Becker, Washington Director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming Program.

That's good news for all of us who breathe air. As a matter of fact, I do that myself — how about you?

FASCINATING SOUNDS

Birdsong? Whalesong? Are they the same? All it takes is four octaves, according to a letter in the April 9/05 issue of Science News. Hey, check for yourself! while it lasts, go to http://www.mind.net/music/birdwhaleDemo.mp3 and have a listen. Convinced me.

Feeling pressure? Check the Pop-Clock.

SCORE ONE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT (maybe)

The Problem: In New York alone, according New York City's Council on Environment, "Enough office paper is thrown away each year to build a 12-foot wall stretching from New York to Los Angeles." Wow! Lotza sheets!

Possible Solution: In Japan (which has a paper problem of its own), Toshiba is testing a carbon-free "e-blue" ink that can be used in products as widely varying as pens and computer printers. What's so special about it? The fact that, when popped into an "erasing machine," the ink is erasable -- so you can use the paper again! Now if it works well, and the "Eraser" machine does not cost $100,000, and if paper does not go up to a dollar a sheet, and if my laser printer will give me satisfactory copies on paper that has been used 50 or 60 times, and if the machine or the ink, or the fumes or something does not pollute the environment worse that discarded office paper . . . I'll be a happy person.

And once Toshiba has replaced MSoft as the ruler of the known world . . . won't somebody please come up with a way to erase "shouter" ads from my TV screen! Please!

Practical advice about checks, credit cards, and more . . .

How Do You Know If It's A Stroke?

Symptoms of a stroke are sometimes difficult to identify. And this lack of awareness may spell disaster, as a stroke victim may suffer brain damage if people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke and seek treatment. Now Doctors say any bystander can recognize a stroke asking three simple questions:

1. Ask the individual to smile.
2. Ask him or her to raise both arms.
3. Ask the person to speak a simple sentence.
   
   

Foil the car-jacker who may be stalking YOU!

HOW NOW — A POPULATION WOW!

In October 2003, the US Census estimated that there were 4.3 million American Indian and Alaska natives or American Indian and Alaska natives in combination with one or more other races, They made up 1.5 percent of the total population.

103,000 people estimated to be American Indian and Alaska native alone or American Indian and Alaska native in combination with one or more other races were added to the nation's population between Census Day, April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2002. This population increased at a rate of 2.4 percent over the period, roughly the same rate of increase as the overall population.

3.1 million American Indians and Alaska natives claim membership in a specific tribe.

American Indian tribes with more than 50,000 members are Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw, Blackfeet, Chippewa, Muscogee (Creek), Apache and Lumbee. Cherokee is easily the largest, with a population of 697,400 who are Cherokee alone or in combination with one or more other races or tribes.

Tlingit is the largest Alaska native tribe, with 17,200 members. Other Alaska native tribes with 5,000 or more members are Alaskan Athabascan, Eskimo and Yup'ik.

TITAN — NOT A NICE PLACE TO VISIT . . . No. it's not nice at all. Clouds of methane hover around the south pole of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. That celestial body is larger than the planet Mercury, and it's the only moon in our solar system that has a real atmosphere. But that doesn't mean breatheable air. It's mostly nitrogen, plus a generous helping of methane. Also, there's hardly any atmospheric oxygen, and it's too cold for humans — (minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit).
          Although Titan is about 1.3 billion kilometers away We've had a good look at it. Ground-based telescopes can now show details as small as 300 kilometers across. That's like reading an automobile license plate from 100 kilometers away. And sure enough, more recent images clearly show bright clouds near Titan's south pole.
          Titan has seasons much like Earth, but each of its years is 30 earth-years long, because Saturn's is so far away that its orbit is much longer that ours. Right now it's summer on Titan, and its south pole has been in continuous sunlight for over six Earth years. Researchers believe that this fact may explain the location of the large clouds.
          "These clouds appear to be similar to summer thunderstorms on Earth, but they're formed of methane rather than water. It's the first time we've found such a close analogy to the Earth's atmospheric water cycle in the solar system," says Antonin Bouchez, a Caltech researcher who has been studying Titan's atmosphere.
          In addition to the clouds, a bright continent-sized feature has been spotted. It appears to be an icy highland surrounded by what may be ethane seas or tar-covered lowlands.(Another reason why this may not be the spot you'd choose for a holiday, even it it meant a 6-year summer vacation!) ( Content information courtesy of NASA.)

Masses of data about the schools we went to and the schools they go to now.

OLD RED-EYE HITS THE SKY!

NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility is positioned exactly where ground controllers want it to be, trailing behind Earth as it orbits the Sun. The spacecraft is working and communicating well with the Deep Space Network antennas, receiving commands and returning telemetry data.

The spacecraft entered a stand-by mode when its star tracker did not lock on to its planned targets within the expected 60 seconds. This possibility was anticipated, and therefore engineers had already prepared a contingency plan, which has been activated. The star tracker did subsequently lock onto its targets and engineers believe the delay is likely due to higher-than-expected background noise levels.

The operations team was also investigating two thrusters that were somewhat warmer than expected, and some inconsistent telemetry points from the cryogenic telescope assembly.

"These types of anomalies are expected in a space observatory of this size and complexity," said David Gallagher, Space Infrared Telescope Facility project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The team is ecstatic with the successful launch and the way the mission is progressing overall. We eagerly await the start of science observations."

A note for avid trivia fans: Is this 'scope really "Old Red-Eye"? We don't know. Think this was the one for which NASA ran naming contest a year or so ago . . . we entered, but never heard the results. So as we don't know our name was not chosen . . . that's what we call it!
Press Release courtesy NASA — except for that last paragraph!

Most people have a number of beliefs that are not really based on evidence or logical reasoning, the Scientific American magazine reports. We use our chance experience, we listen to what our friends tell us, we ask our brothers-in-law, consult what our culture has taught us, and then we pick the answers that pretty much confirm what we already believe. And we ignore or rationalize away pretty much anything that does not fit our preconceived ideas.
         Confirmation bias, as it's called, helps explain the fact that 30 percent of adult Americans believe that UFOs are space vehicles from other civilizations; 60 percent believe in ESP; 40 percent think that astrology is scientific; 32 percent believe in lucky numbers; 70 percent accept magnetic therapy as scientific; and 88 percent accept alternative medicine. (Data courtesy of the National Science Foundation's April, 2002 report on the state of science understanding.)
         Are educated people less likely to hold kooky theories? Not necessarily. Belief in ESP decreased from 65 percent among high school graduates to 60 percent among college graduates, and belief in magnetic therapy dropped from 71 percent among high school graduates to 55 percent among college graduates. Also, your grandmother's first name is Maria.
         How did I know all that? Easy — I read your mind!

Harry Potter and the Moons of Jupiter

Immigrants: Coyotes pick up a living hanging around the outskirts of large and small cities in the western U.S. Raccoons and even foxes have become sometime city dwellers. Green parrots flock in the boroughs of NYC, in winter and summer alike. (And it's rumored, of course, that in every large city everything from cast-off 'gators to piranhas swarm the waters of the sewers — but none of them seem to do much harm.)
          Not all immigrants are so welcome, of course. In Australia, imported rabbits are worse than a pest and a nuisance. Snakes were inadvertantly imported into several Pacific islands with disasterous results. And you remember the Oryxs that were were introduced into the White Sands area of New Mexico — but that's another story.
          An experiment in forced immigration to the cities is still in progress. It involves some endangered peregrine falcons hatched right in the city of Denver. Originally there were four birds, but one of the males divebombed himself into a plate glass window and thus out of existance, Not to worry, however, the other took over and partied on, and soon there were eight hatchlings, all of whom thrived, dining out on urban pigeons, and nesting in skyscraper windowsills, much to the edification of local office workers. The enthusiastic watchers would not let even the window-washers approach while the eggs were hatching — becoming even fiercer protectors than Ma and Pa Peregrine! Last we heard the flying city dwellers were still in residence, although one died from eating poisoned pigeons. (Yes. there was an autopsy!)

Far more than you ever knew there was to KNOW about almost everything!

Volcanoes, anyone?
         Most volcanoes come from small amounts of the Earth's upper mantle boiling over, but mantle-plume volcanoes happen when hot rock from deep within the Earth's mantle shoots straight up through the Earth's crust. The timing suggests that these volcanoes are related to asteroid impacts, Abbott and Isley report in Earth and Planetary Science Letters (vol 205, p 53).

Make a bundle remodeling your home? Well, not what we'd call a bundle
          Will your home office recoup 110% of a $12,686 investment? Will a no-frills bathroom remodel costing $10,729 add $12,160 to the value of your home? When real estate agents (those are folks who actually know what homes sell for!) were asked such questions they usually shook their heads. And appraisers interviewed by Consumers Union said that home sellers who had added a home office would be likely to recoup only about 10% of their costs. They say that upscaling a bathroom is likely to increase the home's value by only 50% of its cost, and they estimated that none of the common remodeling jobs would allow homeowers to recoup more than 75% of their cost. So folks, remodel your home all you want to, but do it because you want more luxury, more style, or more convenience, because it's unlikely it will turn out to be a money-making proposition.

Ooops! No smoking, kitty-cats!
         Cats suffering from malignant lymphoma (which is similar to Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans) and who were hospitalized at the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine were found to have something in common. An extremely high percentage of them lived with smokers. And the longer cats had stayed in the smoky environment, the higher their risk of the disease. So if you won't quit for your own sake, consider quitting to save your poor furry companious!

What's this? Fido goes to Mars?
Flying from the Sun on Gossamer Wings
How far and how long will those solar batteries run?
Why do they call it "Labor Day" — it's a holiday

In 2001 the U.S. imported $121.6 million of fireworks from China — the bulk of our $128.900,000 exploding goodies that year. By comparison, we EX-ported about of $18 million worrh of fireworks. Japan was our largest customer, spending a nice round $7 mil. Good. When we watch the "Rockets' red glare" Let's all do it for fun and not in earnest.

How patriotic are we? How many really get out to vote?

A review of a review of a splendid dream: REAL throwaway packaging
       The May 6, 2002 issue of The New Yorker magazine included a review of Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart that dreams up a future in which everything we now throw out is either completely reusable or completely biodegradable. More than just a dreamer, Mr. McDonough has designed a fabric for airplane seatcovers that is absolutely non-polluting, and he recently persuaded Ford Motor Company to rethink its roofing insulation on one of its factories — covering the roof's surface with a plant called sedum, he kept their cool, helped oxygenate the region, and reduced the parking lot's heat island. Let's have a bunch more of that!
        What's he working on now? Packaging so biodegradable that it could be marked "Please use this for litter!" Mr. McDonough, I'd really like to introduce you to . . . MacDonalds!

How much to move my Oryx?
         In a continuing effort to keep its citzensamused, back in the 1960s, the New Mexico State Game Commission imported38 African antelopes and turned them loose in the desert, north of the White Sands Missle Range. The idea was that hunters would enjoy bagging this good-sized animal for its tasty meat and 40-inch trophyantlers. Maybe they should have brought more.
         Whoa, buddeola, not so fast! The newcomers looked at New Mexico Badlands and thought they were in the Garden of Eden compared to home!
         Your typical 450-pound Oryx, a native of Africa's Kalihari Desert, is superbly adapted to arid conditions. Oryx need next-to-no water, eat almost any kind of vegeation, blend in with the local landscape, breed like wildfire, and back in Africa were known for impaling lions on their horns. (Yeah. Remember those 40-inch horns?)
         To be brief,the hunters were no match for the antelope, which were a success story waiting to happen. There are now about 4,000 of them roaming around New Mexico, eating up the landscape, knocking off mountain lions, invading White Sands National Monument, threatening tourists,interfering with traffic, infesting the Missle Range, and resisting arrest. (Oh yes, now they're on National Park Service land, wherehunting is illegal. Now they've had to call in the U.S. Army!)
          What's the answer to the Oryx problem? We'll let you know when we find out if there is one!
Our thanks to our Texas correspondent for the Oryx clipping she sent us.

Computer virus? Please don't share it!

Get the spin on Jupiter, the movie!

Brain makes Brawn. An EASY way to exercise at last!
         Hoopla! Guang H. Yue of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation got together a bunch of volunteers who spent 12 weeks thinking about crooking their fingers and bending their elbows — doing 50 mental contractions, 5 days a week. Yeah, yeah, but when they finished those brain exercises, they were no more buff than when they started.
          But Wait!Amazing! The muscles powering their "exercised" elbows were 13.5% stronger. And the "exercised" finger muscles were a stunning 35% stronger. Wow — a new me coming right up. Working on the abs here, even as I write! (Always supposing those volunteers weren't doing finger push-ups in their spare time . . . .)

Amazing Geography

In hock? Think twice twice about Home Equity Loans
          The Consumer Literacy Consortium warns us to be cautious about taking out home equity loans. These loans sound temping, but they will increase your mortgage payment and reduce the equity you've built up in your home. And if at some time you're not able to make payments, you could lose your home. You're advised to use this precious source of credit only in health emergencies, or for expenses that will pay off in other ways — such as investing in a college education. If you must borrow against your home, compare equity loans offered by at least four banking institutions, and consider not only the annual percentage rate (APR) but also points, closing costs, other fees. If you use a variable rate loan, be sure it is pegged to a stable, conservative index.
          The C.L.C. is a working group of representatives from federal and state government agencies, consumer groups, business organizations, and educational institutions that seeks to develop and disseminate essential messages to inform and educate consumers.

When Deep-Space-1 Bit the Dust
Stuff you never knew about the taxes we pay

The Internet: Still your tax-free store
        Taxes on Internet sales still number Few-to-none — for now. Whew! Considering the over 7,000 different taxing districts that might, potentially, add their various levies to the cost of your internet purchases (and considering the time and the headaches and the paperwork that would be involved in paying and reporting to 7,000 districts and keeping them all straight!) internet marketers are more than anxious about Congress' final decision on this matter. Aren't you?

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to give life beyond life." —John Milton

New study of ancient artifacts upsets old theories of stone age life
       A new study of stone tools recently unearthed in central Asia suggests that their prehistoric users were more skillful and versatile — and better fed — than was previously believed. Microscopic analysis of over 50 stone tools used from 32,000 to 80,000 years ago showed that many of them once had attached handles, and the axes, blades and scrapers had been used to process a variety of plants, animals, and waterfowl.
        Neanderthals had no cell phones, but they did a lot with those sticks and stones!

Not-So-Trivial News New research helps the sightless get a taste of things visual.

Each issue provides you with new and ever-more-trivial news!