Wednesday, October 5. 2005
A little debate over a dinner led to a little easy research. Can dogs smell when they are on the run? And when they are exhaling? All dog owners know how much dogs rely on scent and hearing over vision. Both their range of color vision, and their acuity, are poor, compared to humans. The link demonstrates examples of dog vision. The sense of smell - the olfactory sense - is a genetically ancient chemoreceptive modality, and the only one which is not modulated by the midbrain - its sensory nerves go direct from the olfactory bulb to the cortex. Smell is a minor function of the nose (see nose physiology), but we couldn't taste much without it - smell is the major component of taste (as you may recall, the mouth, really only the tongue can only detect salt, sour, bitter, sweet - and umami, the last which I do not recall learning about). The dog's nerve "wiring" from the olfactory bulb to the brain is far heavier than that of humans - here: http://www.macalester.edu/~psych/whathap/UBNRP/Smell/nasal.html - click on link from dog to human to compare the olfactory nerves. Plus the dog has 25 times more chemoreceptors. Thus the dog can not only smell things that we cannot, his olfactory acuity is far higher than ours - ie, he can detect and discriminate multiple odors, when we tend to only detect a dominant odor, or a blend. It is said that the dog can sense odors one miion times more sensitively than humans (but of course breeds vary, and older dogs seem to lose sensitivity, just as humans do). Thus when a dog goes outdoors and raises his nose and sniffs the air, he is taking in a great deal of information. When a dog sniffs, he is filling his olfactory area with chemical-laden air, for maximum smelling power. But even when he is not deliberately sniffing, his olfactory powers are strong. But, back to the beginning. Yes, he can smell while running, and even when exhaling. The Bernoullie effect - the same pressure gradient that helps provide lift to airplanes - draws air up in the dog's olfactory region (Click here: Entrez PubMed) to wash over his olfactory receptors, so he doesn't have to stop and take a deep sniff. Makes good sense for running hunters. So, with his powers, why does he have to stick his nose into turds and dead animals and other dogs' butts? Who knows. Shouldn't be necessary. It must be a deep sensual pleasure. (FYI, the RCA-Victor dog "Nipper" was a bull terrier-fox terrier mix, from Bristol, England.)
Posted on June 21, 2005 Junior Wells The Godfather of the Modern Blues, Wells (1934-1998) brought his harp and his voice from the South to Chicago in 1948 where he played with The Muddy Waters Band until he went out on his own. Whatever country flavor he might have had rapidly disappeared in a unique funky urban sound, with unmistakable harp and unpolished voice. Close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a smoky 1950s Chicago dance club, if you can. (I am listening to his sensual Take Your Shoes Off as I write, from his final live recording, Live Around the World.) He is considered to be the heir of my favorite old-time bluesman, Sonny Boy Williamson, and of Little Walter Jacobs, who he replaced in the Muddy Waters Band. Since his association with Muddy Waters, he had been especially associated with the great and seemingly ageless Buddy Guy, with whom he did several recordings including the live Drinkin TNT and Smokin Dynamite. (Now I am on his great Messin with the Kid.) HooDoo Man, with Buddy Guy on guitar, was his first widely-known album, in 1960. He was known to produce handguns from his skin-tight suits and shotguns from his cars, whenever appropriate. A couple of reminiscences here and here. From an old review by Kelton: The terrific thing about Junior Wells is that he's an unqualified bluesman, stylistically a direct descendant of the Chicago greats and personally an eccentric whose unpredictable singing and harp playing distinguish him from everyone else alive. "Comin' Right at Ya" was the title of one his breakthrough albums in the 1960's and it still describes the Wells oeuvre. In short, he takes no prisoners. Recording to legend, Wells shoplifted his first blues harp and got caught. The judge who heard his case was so impressed with Wells' story that he just wanted to make music that he paid for the instrument himself and set Wells free on the condition that, if he ever made a record, he send one to him. Wells did, years later. The album was called "Blues Hit Big Town."
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered. G.K. Chesterton
Tuesday, October 4. 2005
Love and Theft Dylan's best record, I think. Give it a good chance. It's not as easy as the earlier stuff. Takes 2 or 3 hearings.
Posted by Bird Dog on March 9, 2005 Masked and Anonymous (2003) This is no immortal movie, and was panned by the genius critics, but it is a must for Dylan fans. The casting is notable, probably because everyone wanted to meet Bobbie: John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, etc. Goodman does his usual amazing job, but Dylan cannot or will not really act. He is just there, with his strangely charismatic, ageless, Chaplin-like presence and his cryptic comments. The sound track is worth owning, with the best Grateful Dead version of Baby Blue. Dylan's version of Dixie is haunting and beats any previous version hands-down. In fact, it replaces all prior versions. The picture itself is a dark surrealistic ramble through a mythic nation torn by pointless civil war and egomaniacal politicians. Dylan's musings about the state of affairs are quotable and Dylanesque, whether he wrote them or not.
For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison. Theodore Roosevelt
Monday, October 3. 2005
Hitchins, Brilliant Trotskyite, But Lost? Indeed, nothing shows Hitchens’s continuing fidelity to the Bolshevik ideal more than his hatred for religion. He told the Guardian on May 31, 2005, “I can’t stand anyone who believes in God, who invokes the divinity ... I mean, that to me is a horrible, repulsive thing.” But Hitchens is by no means equal in his contempt for religions. He has written favorably of Judaism and described Islam as having been a “civilizing and creative force in many societies.” Hitchens has no such kind words for Christianity, especially as manifested in the Roman Catholic Church. This is hardly surprising: the Roman Catholic Church was Bolshevism’s most consistent and successful adversary, beginning with the 1920 defense of Warsaw from Trotsky’s Red Army, when the future Pius XI, in Norman Davies’s words, “stood on the ramparts of Radzymin and cursed the advancing hordes of Antichrist in person” and the Polish Army—dismissed by Trotsky as being “steeped in priests’ lies”—prevented the Red Army from watering its horses anywhere near Hendon. Read entire.
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. Albert Einstein
Sunday, October 2. 2005
Bad News As I suspected, Tamiflu is losing its effectiveness. I doubt it ever was very effective. My post last week remains the word on the subject, here.
Your editor, Bird Dog, is away this week. It's duck, goose and bird (Ruffed and Sharp-Tailed Grouse) season up in Canada. The 100 year-old private club/camp we go to is on an inlet on the upper edge of Lake Winnipegosis (not a disease) in Manitoba. Tough to get to and definitely out of touch - no cell, no cable, no phone to speak of unless you count a party-line with one outlet, no electric except for a big Cat gasoline generator on a flat-bed trailer, which enables abundant hot water and a sybaritic sauna if dehydration is your thing - it is my misfortune that I prefer Scotch whiskey as medicine for cold-wet. Nice old place, open only 6 weeks/year, then boarded-up and the furniture covered with sheets til next fall. Hey, ACLU - female guests not permitted. Jimmy Doolittle used to stay and hunt there. Not many people up there, and more Indians than Anglos. Craig is bringing Harley this year - an over-sized tough Lab with a chest like a fortress and a fine nose, who will no doubt do all of our brain work and our dirty work very well. I get invited for my Injun eyes, and Craig for his dog. I post the Google earth image below of our inlet (much of the green is marsh - this is duck heaven. Scale is about 10 miles laterally on image). There will not be much new posting this week unless Dylanologist can hold down the fort (a damn shame he can't come this year, nor can Gwynnie's young pup), but I will pre-post some stuff, and some of Maggie's Farm's Greatest Hits. We'll be back next week...God willing and the creek don't rise . Will post some photos when I get back, if I don't drop the camera in the water. Got to hope for ugly weather. What guns am I bringing?, I hear you asking. My Beretta auto 12 ga, and my old Abercrombie and Fitch side-by-side 20 ga for birds.
Saturday, October 1. 2005
Those greedy trial lawyers at it again Is Teflon teflon-coated? Are these guys vultures, or what? RA
Diet and Cancer I forgot to link this piece in the NYT earlier this week, concerning what is known about the relationship of diet to cancer. It's a question about which I am frequently asked by patients. There is very little definite knowledge on the subject, despite what we hear periodically on the news. Take all that with a grain of salt, because generally reporters don't understand this sort of information, and they know nothing about statistics and causality. NYT piece here. Apropos of this subject, my dear oncologist friend Dr. Boyd has just written a book - The Cancer Recovery Plan - on the subject of cancer recovery, inclduing diet, which I commend to you. Check it out here on Amazon. But remember, dear friends - whatever you eat, however you live, you will die, eventually, from one thing or another. Carpe diem.
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