Large Fierce Mammal

“Man has a large and highly adaptive brain – nearly as smart as a Crow – along with this pesky opposable thumb – one on each side unless you’ve gone through life being called “Lefty”. We Man critters can imagine and build solutions to problems that Nature didn’t give us the speed, wings, teeth, fur, claws, armor, sense of smell, or eyesight to solve otherwise.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Archaic Revival

Nature is a Lady of many moods. One of them is popularly known as Spring and it is in the spirit of that singular mood that She has once again lain Her invigorating hand upon the northern hemisphere of the Earth.

Everything has either given birth or eagerly awaits its season. For some, it’s fire and forget — lay the egg and move on — and for those of Nature’s creatures called upon to both birth and raise offspring for a spell, a different imperative applies — make them self-sufficient as quickly as the nature of your kind decrees. (more…)

Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, William Frederick Longstaff (click image to enlarge)

At 05:30 hours a century ago this very day, four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force launched an action that in four days accomplished an objective British and French forces had spent years and thousands of lives failing at. By 12 April 1917, the impregnable German stronghold of Vimy Ridge was in Allied hands.

Before you watch the documentary I have for you today, I want you to set the mood and give a listen to Tanglefoot performing their song Vimy at the Vimy Memorial monument in 2007. While the sound quality is excellent, the film was not professionally shot, and so the wind noise and occasional shakiness add, to my mind, just the right air of humanity to the subject matter. Have a listen, and remember. (more…)

“No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels.” ~ Gregory Bateson – Steps to an Ecology of Mind

I am not a psychologist but I do have a serviceable and ever growing garniture of knowledge, both formally and self-acquired, in the field of how Humans and a range of other animals react to two very specific influences:

• stress
• conflict

For purposes of today’s chapter and all that will follow, I will remind you that those two words are among the most dangerously misunderstood and misrepresented in this current era of what passes for Human “thought”. Before you read any further I will not ask, but demand that you resolutely cast aside all you might normally think when you hear or read either. So notwithstanding your personal propensities Goode Reader, I hereby set the bar for all here assembled to absolutely preclude reflexively running with the idea that “stress” and “conflict” are uniquely Human disorders that can be treated, and in some cases even cured, through the right combination of counselling, medication, social engineering, and of course money. Going forward we will stick to the Truth of the matter. The singular Truth everything else lives by, and Humans pretend not to have to. Keep that in the forefront of your mind as you read on, even as you find it necessary now and again to remind yourself of this horrible burden I’ve placed upon you, and how your acceptance of it by reading beyond the period at the end of this sentence binds you for this and every other succeeding chapter of The Goode Fyght.

Organisms in the Wild, in commonality but each in accordance with its Nature, are driven to thrive, and to find, evolve to fit, or create, an environmental niche in which that is possible. They will accomplish that goal to greater or lesser degree in the face of competition from their own and other species, changes in environmental conditions that veer away from acceptable optimums, and in the extreme, catastrophic events and other stressors that suddenly place them in a new and unlivable reality.

On the most basic level and across species, this will usually be expressed as mutations that will randomly exist within a part of the currently successful population, and may be inconsequential when all in the environmental niche is wonderful, but render part of the population more bulletproof in the face of new stressors so that only the bulletproof survive. Succeeding generations create a population veering toward thriving in the new environmental reality, and we can see this at work in such examples as antibiotic resistant bacteria, and historically in Humans with the existence of those of us today descended from ancestors who survived the Black Death.

All organisms existing today are predisposed by evolution to react to both stress and conflict from a foundation built of three platforms: Migrate, Adapt, or Die. Stress may be engendered by conflict every bit as much as conflict may be a reaction to the presence of stress. For clarity in this then, and as I have previously written, with respect to stress:

The way Nature sees it, stress is the motivator for an organism to do something to relieve it. If you’re hungry, find something to eat and eat it. Thirsty? Find water. Too cold? Seek warmth. Too hot? Seek shade or some other method of mitigation. Tired? Find a way to get some rest. Threatened? Flee or fight. Sexually aroused? If you need me to clarify the solution to that, you don’t belong here. The point is that these are real problems shared by all Nature’s creatures, and illustrate one of the reasons why your Dog doesn’t care how much money you make. Stress becomes negative when we embrace living with it in self-imposed perpetuity, permitting our action to be limited or even paralyzed completely by a belief that certain plans of attack will fly in the face of the way things are “supposed to be”, or the way others expect you to conduct your affairs. In truth, it’s not always as simple to define as that, but in far too many cases, it is. The magic lies in knowing when you’re letting yourself fall into the trap.

And as to conflict:

In Nature – including the office I’m sitting in at the moment – the world is abuzz with Conflict, but for the most part with nary a raised voice, harsh word, drawn blade, nor bared fang. Conflict is inevitable when organisms in Nature compete for the same resources, but conflict and fighting are not the same thing. While fighting is an expression of conflict, not all conflict involves fighting, nor even negativity for that matter.

I’ll leave you to meditate on these points until we reconvene to further explore the wasteland wherein lives both Friendship and Fight.

Welcome, weary traveller, to this first chapter of The Goode Fyght.

We live in a “polarized” world. All the talking heads say so.

Any nitwit who’s ever changed the batteries in a remote control knows the dangers inherent in ignoring the rules of polarity, for one does so at peril of being forever cursed to change entertainment modes manually — or worse, damned to the hell where dwell those who throw out the operating instructions with the packaging, and have no idea where or if manual controls even exist upon the chassis of modern machinery.

In the societal realm, where politics and religion routinely hold sway over individual life choices, we have another definition of polarity, albeit one that’s as unforgiving of interchangeability as any met in physics or chemistry. By the rules of that universe, it can no longer be said that anything is a matter of “black and white”, notwithstanding that for every shade in between can always be found an opposing hue. No choice can ever be seen as “binary”. “Triggers” invoking racism, presumption of gender, and every complexion of politics don’t you know.

Where are we going, and what’s up with the handbasket? In a conversation taken outside of any exacerbating framework, say in the corner coffee shop or local pub, where the blood is cool and the mood relaxed, inevitable — even ideal– outcomes tend to range between something like this … (more…)

Those of us who create know that flickering moment when the newborn sun comes to illuminate what the dying candle no longer can. From The Animation Workshop comes Once Upon a Candle (more…)

Today for your edification, I’m offering up a concentrated dose of St. Patrick’s Day goodness gleaned from LFM utterances on St. Patrick’s Days past. Too much goodness to lie forgotten in the archives.

No beard back then, but I do have beer. I believe this was taken the day beer was invented. It was green due to chlorophyll content, and when exposed to sunlight it made more beer! Alas, the recipe has been lost. (click to enbiggen)

It’s been said that God invented whisky so the Irish wouldn’t take over the world. So far it’s worked.

I’ve always appreciated a good toast, tastefully delivered, no matter how ribald the content, but the Irish are an odd people. Their toasts are full of statements like, “May you die in Ireland”, which for most nationalities would be a good reason to stay the hell out of there, but for them reflects on the rough history known by many of their countrymen and women, far away from the Old Sod.

The Irish are like Newfoundlanders in a couple of respects; first, it’s hard to find one you don’t instantly like; and second, all you need is one to complete a party.

So here are a few toasts delivered early enough for you to learn them before you embark on your St. Patrick’s Day revelries. Enjoy, and don’t bloody embarrass me by getting too drunk to get them right!

My all time favourite for many occasions:

May those that love us love us, and those who don’t love us may God turn their hearts, and if He won’t turn their hearts may He at least turn their ankles so we’ll know them by their limping.

I first heard this next one on the “Mead” episode of “The Thirsty Traveller” on the Food Channel. While not Irish in origin, it works in any encounter involving alcohol, and what’s not Irish about that? It’s best delivered all in one breath:

Here’s to the health of your blood, here’s to the blood of your health. If your blood is not healthy, your health must be bloody, so here’s to your bloody good health!

Anyone will appreciate this toast. Raise your glass to the honoured recipient and say, with a cock o’ th’ head:

To your coffin. May it be built from the wood of a hundred year old oak tree that I shall plant tomorrow.

Then there’s this one I call upon solely in raising a glass to my incomparable Mrs. LFM:

I have known many, liked only a few, but truly loved only one; this toast is to you!

And lastly for today, here’s one for last call:

May you all get what you want, and not what you deserve!

It’s all about the booze and the music today. I can’t pour you a dram through the internet, ‘though you all know I would if I could, but at least I can share a little LFM musical preference.

This Dennis Leary classic should need no big fanfare of introduction. Have a listen! (more…)

Today, for your squirming pleasure, I’m revisiting material that first appeared in an article published to the Golden Mountain Dog Solutions blog back in 2008. If you live or travel in suburban, rural, or forested areas (the latter including town or city parks), this might help expunge the misunderstandings surrounding Ticks that even highly accredited “experts” in the field of parasitology seem hell bent on perpetuating.

Ticks are not new news, nor are they vaguely understood supernatural beings, and why what gets put out there for public education, even from “official” sources, veers more toward being lore than fact has always been a mystery to me.

Here in Nova Scotia, the predominant Tick species are the Dog Tick, and the Black Legged or Deer Tick, and both are common in our own personal woods and environs. While any Tick is the repository of many a vile microbe, only the Black Legged Tick is known to carry the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease.

As Spring approaches, the thoughts of those who frequent fields and wooded areas, and particularly of those who travel there with Dogs, invariably go to the dreaded Black Legged Tick. In truth, vigilance and precautions should actually be a 12 month practice. I have personally removed Dog Ticks from my Dogs in February after a day afield that never made it above -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Sources vary in describing the hibernation habits of Black Legged/Deer Ticks. All that I’ve found to match my own observations agree that the larvae like it warm, for the most part hatch in Spring, and ply their trade in Summer before metamorphosing into nymphs, those nymphs that have not  metamorphosed into adults by the time temperatures approach freezing in autumn will hibernate in leaf loam under the forest floor, while adults that have not yet found a host MAY hibernate.

Those of my own experience having always been Dog Ticks, for the sake of metabolic explanation I’m going to assume similarity of related organisms living in identical environments, and consider the Dog Tick and Black Legged/Deer Tick to be identical in this critical area. Invertebrates such as insects and arachnids have evolved a mechanism for preventing their blood from freezing that develops a naturally occurring antifreeze agent when they are exposed to progressively colder temperatures. Note I said “progressively” because a sudden deep freeze of sufficient duration will not permit the process to reach its conclusion before death becomes a certainty for the organism. If you’ve ever gone into an uninsulated attic in the winter time while the ambient temperature is below freezing, you will probably have witnessed this in the form of very slow moving Flies and Spiders — in short, they’re shitfaced with a blood alcohol level far exceeding legal levels to drive, and while partners in the dance of death in warmer times, spend the cold spell together, drunk as lords.

An adult Tick finds its host through a very sedate process called “questing” that involves the animal positioning itself at the tip or edge of a blade of grass or low hanging leaf, and then, with forelegs extended, remaining there in a state of torpor (or at least deep meditation) until called to action. This happens when something comes into contact with the extended forelegs, thereby triggering  an abrupt and reflexive closure intended to snag the fur, feather, or fabric of a passing host. The process revives the Tick which then goes to work.

For a Tick that finds itself questing when a freeze comes in, a balance is necessary to keep it in position without killing it. Too fast and the Tick will die, while too slow and the Tick may be compelled to descend into protective cover before the onset of defensive anti-freeze infusion has rendered it both safe from freezing and too intoxicated to care about going anywhere. For those that find themselves in this blissful state, the activation of the forelegs being reflexive and therefore operable absent conscious control (try keeping your eyes open while sneezing and you’ll experience such an event), any passing critter will find the Tick attached, and its body heat will soon revive the Tick.

Mrs. LFM and I first learned of the Lyme risk in and around the Town of Lunenburg (near which we lived at the time, and 20 kilometers southeast of where we now reside) in 2006 during a routine visit to our vet, Dr. Barry Falkenham at Seaside Animal Hospital. At that time he told us that pretty much any Deer Tick found inside of Lunenburg, and east through Garden Lots, Heckman’s Island, Blue Rocks and the Stonehursts, could be expected to be Lyme positive. This really didn’t surprise us considering the size of the Deer herd that even back then was living within the inhabited zone that made them immune to any sort of hunting activity, limiting mortality to age, illness, and misadventure. (more…)

I’ve written here before of my Esteemed Friend Gary Carbone, late of New Jersey but now a Man of the Catskills, and much entertainment and enlightenment may be had from reviewing that history of commentary here.

Just yesterday I learned that beginning on Sunday, 26 March 2017, Gary will be offering a series of workshops hosted by the East Dragon Karate Academy in Dover, New Jersey, the first few of which will, “… focus on “Ba Fan Shou”, a very old Chinese Kung Fu style that’s is very good for fighting and self-defense ….”.

As Gary describes it,

Ba Fan Shou (Eight Overturning Hands) is a Kung Fu style attributed to General Yue Fei, a national hero of China who lived in the 1100’s. It was said that this system was taught to his troops, for use in close combat fighting. Sometimes referred to as “Yue’s Boxing”, this system is very old and was the forerunner of Chinese Eagle Claw Boxing. As in Eagle Claw, Ba Fan Shou often uses the “overturning hand” to grab while striking or throwing with the other hand.

When I learned this style from my teacher Master Chen Jun Hao in 1999, he told me that few people in China had learned this. For that reason, it has been closely passed on as a treasure of Chinese Boxing, to select disciples.

In all my years of practice, I have only taught it to a few people — less than five.

We plan to learn the entire eight lines of Ba Fan Shou over the course of a few workshops. I hope you will join us for a fun and informative day of training.

These are full-day training sessions, starting at 09:00 EST, and subject to slight adjustment, structured in the following format:

• 09:30-12:00 EST: training
• 12:00-13:30 EST: lunch*
• 14:00-16:30 EST: training

*Students are responsible for their own lunch and refreshments, and Gary advises that Dover has a lot of good, inexpensive food available including Mexican and Colombian varieties.

Attendance will be limited to 20 students for optimum individual instruction, so book early!

Tuition for each seminar will be:

• $50/person in advance (payment must be received 2-days before class day, so no later than Friday, 24 March 2017); OR
• $60 at the door, subject to vacancy (cash only, no personal cheques).

To reserve your seat, or for questions, email Gary Carbone directly at 47theuclid@gmail.com.

Bon courage to all!

LFM photo — click to enlarge.

Inspecting fire alarm systems isn’t the drudgery you’d think. Nay! As I wrote here back on 28 June 2010, the endeavour is fraught with perils and pitfalls, frustrations and farce!

Today, I’d like you to look at this heat detector documented in the course of a recent fire alarm inspection at a local inn. Every room in the place has one, but this one is special. Notice how much attention was paid to making sure the paint was perfectly applied to every one of the raised letters.

Illiteracy? Inattention? A poor work ethic? Civil disobedience? It doesn’t matter because whatever the cause, the outcome is the same for this poor heat detector — FAIL!

Earlier this week, CBC News posted a piece with the title Tory leadership candidate Kellie Leitch wants immigrants to be asked: ‘Are men and women equal?’, and the subtext “‘Outraged’ rival candidate Deepak Obhrai says values test targets Muslims”.

For the sake of non-Canadians, as well as actual Canadians labouring under the kind of illumination equivalent to living ten feet up a Moose’s ass, the long standing Conservative Government of Stephen Harper was soundly trounced in the 2015 election in favour of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. In the normal way of things that normally follow such bloodbaths, the Conservative Part promptly went into fragmentation and is now looking for a new party leader to restore the rattled faithful to their birthright. Kellie Leitch is one aspirant to the position. Deepak Obhrai is another.

To quote the aforementioned CBC article:

In a sponsored email sent to subscribers of the conservative website TheRebel.media, Kellie Leitch promises that if she becomes Conservative leader, and then prime minister, she would require each immigrant to Canada to be screened for Canadian values.

The email includes three examples of questions she wants asked of immigrants:

• Are men and woman equal, and entitled to equal protection under the law?
• Is it ever OK to coerce or use violence against an individual or a group who disagrees with your views?
• Do you recognize that to have a good life in Canada you will need to work hard to provide for yourself and your family, and that you can’t expect to have things you want given to you?

And further:

Not only would her plan require each immigrant to be screened for anti-Canadian values, but everyone seeking to start a new life in Canada would have to undergo a face-to-face interview with an immigration official before being granted entry.

“I believe that every single potential immigrant, without exception, should have a face-to-face interview with a trained immigration officer and asked questions to ascertain whether or not their values are consistent with our way of life,” Leitch says in the email.

The stage thus set, the article concludes:

Leadership candidate Deepak Obhrai issued a statement critical of Leitch’s plans on the same day Leitch sent out her email through TheRebel.media. Obhrai said Leitch’s “Canadian values” test questions risk painting the Conservatives as an “anti-immigrant party.”

“Ms. Leitch’s proposal to screen every immigrant and visitor is nothing but Donald Trump’s executive order, disguised as Canadian values, and crafted to keep Muslims out of Canada,” he said in the statement.

“This is a dangerous environment to create in Canada, and I am outraged by this,” he added.

So, on the one hand we have Ms. Leitch who, notwithstanding her political career, clearly refuses to acknowledge the basic human motivation to lie if it gets the job done; and on the other, Mr. Obhrai, who in the zeal of his self-described outrage, bases his criticism of his opponent’s proposed questions on an argument that Muslims answering them truthfully would naturally fail the examination.

How fucking splendid.